Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of The Weekly Zeitgeist.
Uh. These are some of.
Our favorite segments from this week, all edited together into one NonStop infotainment laugh stravaganza.
Uh yeah.
So, without further ado, here is the Weekly Zeitgeist. Well Miles, we are thrilled to be joined in our third seat by an award winning staff writer for Slate whose work focuses on identity and religion, and who has been doing invaluable reporting on what is happening in Israel right now. He's appeared on CNN, n p R, most importantly this show, He's been featured in The New York Post, adwe Awker, the Huffing Post. Please welcome back to the show. Amen, it's my brother.
What's happening? Welcome salam Bro mmmmmmmmmm, I know it's I know, man, I know, we were just talking. I was like, I was like, it's been a minute, and I was like, we got to have you back, and I shit, is so fucking horrible wherever you look. And I know, with the work that you do, having such proximity to what's happening in Gaza and the West Bank and everything, I know, it's very difficult. So like, honestly, I really we really appreciate it coming on because it's not easy.
But I'm really glad you guys aren't afraid to talk about it. I've been listening to the show and you guys have had some of the best critiques, responses and the most fiery rhetoric. So shouts out to you guys for for keeping it up and for inviting me for real.
Oh no, it's just you, yeah man. And and again I think it's also important, like we've had you know, like guest so on to speak about what's been going on. But I think also one thing we've talked about really consistently is how the media is portraying things and how consent is being manufactured for some really grizzly awful things. We want to call it genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes, whatever,
pick one. So I think, yeah, having your insight today is also going to be really invaluable for not just us but everybody listening. So again, man, I know it's thank you. Yeah, I know how difficult it is to talk about this stuff too, but honestly, we just yeah, we were glad to have you, man. We're glad to have I've got it. I've got one.
Check, I've got one in the chamber already, So just let me know. First of all, let me answer your first question. I condemned Hamas. Yeah, okay, okay, uh huh oh good. I'm glad you saw that in the dock. But does he condemn Hamas?
But to condemn them? Okay. Now, it's a.
Weird because it sounds like I'm coming back and like saying that is a response.
But that was the first thing written in the dock.
But do you, sir? However, I'm sorry I haven't said anything yet. However, do you, sir, condemn ham what's new with you?
Crazy?
It's been crazy watching It's been crazy watching the news because, you know, the contrary to what most people say, I think we still are in the golden age of media. There are still there are so many amazing reporters who are doing such amazing work. It's just incredible the kind of work that's coming out right now. However, at the same time, there's some of the worst work. But anyways, what I'm trying to say is that it's people who are working journalism now know the game. They know how
to keep their skepticism. They know how to draw out the story in an interesting way. What I can't understand is how when it comes to just this one thing, whenever it comes to Palestine, everybody forgets all their training.
It's like we're starting from scratch just now. It just drives me nuts seeing so many people make so many mistakes, taking the Israeli militaries narrative as fact and casting doubt and shadow into anything on the like on the other side, regardless of who it's coming from, which to me is like, you guys, see what you're doing, right, but you see it everywhere and it's been driving me nuts.
Yeah.
Yeah, is it a mistake at that? Like is it or is it just kind of their marching orders and what they think they have to do like at this point, you know, But yeah, it's a fucking nightmare out there.
Sarah. What is something from your search history that's revealing about who you are?
I was doing a deep dive on Suzanne Summers today, Okay, yeah, yeah, And I don't know you all are probably too young to remember Three's Company, but it was.
Hey about it. I agree.
I agree with the sentiment.
Jack Tripper was my first first celebrity crush. Oh John Ritter, Yeah, and anyway, Suzanne Summers she recently died. Yeah, I mean she died I think a week ago, or no, a month ago. She died a month ago, October fifteenth. She died anyway, So she wrote twenty five books. Did you know that?
No?
Wow? I mean I think my knowledge of her went from obviously there's an agam do they'll be waiting for you. Like I was old enough to watch Three's Company reruns, and then I was like, oh, and then you became the thigh Master lady. Right, and those are kind of the two like pinnacle or like big standout moments in my elder millennial brain.
Right.
I didn't know she was a prolific author.
She wrote twenty five books. She Leftree's Company and didn't talk to John Ridder for twenty years because she kind of ruined the show because she wanted to be paid as much as he was being paid on the show for like the fourth season or fifth season. And then she had like a follow up sitcom that like called She's the Sheriff that just was rated forty fourth of
the fifty worst shows ever made. But then she came back and she was the mom on Step by Step or one of those like, you know, their Friday whatever shows. And she was married to her husband for fifty five years and he's still alive. He's ten years older and he's still alive. And they had this like really explosive sex life like into like their seventies, Like they were having sex multiple times a day. And I'm like, I just I found out a lot about Suzanne Summers.
That's yeah. I mean she always had a bit of, you know, sex appeal to her, so I guess it doesn't quite strike me as surprising, but yeah, it's good to have like goals to be like you can have sex multiple times a day in your seventies.
Truly to your body break.
Yeah, man, Like were her books like sort of memoirs or was she also like was she getting into like kind of interesting niche stuff.
Her first book was a book of poetry, and the first time she did Late Night was talking about her poetry, her book of poetry, and in the book of poetry is about touch and how important it is to touch people. And she got like Johnny Carson and edwam Manta hug each other because they never She's like, you guys never touch each other, and like they touched each other for like the first time. It was like really funny. And then she wrote a few memoirs and she wrote like
self help books. She had some weird medical theories that were like questionable.
Oh yeah, I'm just reading one right now that she thinks fluoride may have caused Matt shootings, right, or stuff in households. Okay, you know we can't. We can't bath fear reviewed. Yeah.
Yeah, but she did get breast cancer twenty two years ago, and very aggressive breast cancer, and she survived for twenty two years, so you know it worked. Maybe it works for her, you know.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Wow, Suzanne, you know what a legend? What a legend? Were you a family or something?
Oh?
No, go ahead, what were you going to say? Do you want to know what I was? Yeah, you're gonna shame yourself in front of everyone. Go ahead, I'm not shaming myself. I'm telling you a real story is that I knew that she was a prolific writer because in school and like elementary school used to do something called summer's reading, where each summer we would read Suzanne summer books exclusively. Grid So whatever you were going to say, now you can say it.
Wow, are hysterical, and I hope that you will start start a movement across elementary schools. I think summer reading needs to be a thing now.
Summer Yeah, absolutely. You have all these kids talking about like, is there a floor ride in our water? Teacher, we need to talk about this. I read something very interesting.
I'm never gonna brush my teeth again.
Yeah, like, damn you, Summers. I don't even know what. Yeah, I didn't know what I was gonna say. Blake, you completely neuralized me with that, with that amazing top tier joke, Jackie, what's something you think is overrated?
Okay, so this is gonna split the room. And I'm a little nervous to say this out loud, but Killers of the Flower.
Moon, Okay, go ahead. Yeah. I don't know if you guys.
Have you guys seen it yet?
By the way, I have not. No, I've I've been actually wait, i've. When I saw it, I was like, let me start seeing some First Nations indigenous people comment on it, because I can definitely see the Scorsese vibes and people are like, oh my god, this white guy, what did he go there, I'm like, who the fuck's being centered in the one I saw? Whoever the language consultant was on the red carpet started dropping some knowledge,
but not fully you know, fucking shit up. I was like, okay, yeah, yeah, this is this is obviously going to be flawed in some level. Right. Yeah.
So, just like a bit of background, I actually worked for the Osage Nation back in my urban planning days. Like I'm focused more on comedy now, but I worked as an urban planner. I have a master's in that, and I was working out there, and so I got a chance to see this story come to life in the community and got a chance to like really understand that this is still very much an open wound, still very much a very tragic, awful thing that's happened to
the community. And so I knew once they started announcing like, oh, Martin Scorsese's going to do this and Leonardo Kapper.
I was like, oh, how are they?
I was like, let's hope they're handling it with reverence because this is a big one. And so I was already just kind of curious how it was all going to play out. But I will say they did consult left and right with community, and so that's huge, the fact that they were working with the tribe and working with tribal members just to put the story together. But that said, it is about the reign of terror and murder of O Sage people and for their head rights.
A head right essentially is basically it's oil money. And so people were coming in and so I guess there's a lot of rampant violence essentially, and going in and watching three and a half hours of that as a native person not the business for me. I was angry. I was very frustrated. And I will say, Leonardo DiCaprio's character, this is actually the hot take you were talking about on the red carpet with the Osage Consultant. I want to pull his name up in a second, because we
got to give him credit for what he said. But it just so much centered Leonardo DiCaprio's character, and we could see him wrestling with what he was doing, which was part of a murder plot centered on this one very specific family, and I'm like, why are we giving him this multi dimensional approach? Yes, his name's Christopher Cote and that's the Osage consultant, and I just felt like it gave him a lot of texture, and I'm like, what about the Native people in this?
You know?
And I didn't.
I would love to see Molly's character have a little bit more nuance and and I just I wanted something different. But again, I will say, I do think it's important to watch the film because there's a lot of people who never heard about the story, who know nothing about it. And this was the first ever FBI investigation, you know what I mean, So like this exactly. And so I think that the acting is amazing. It's it's amazing acting.
The set, like the set design, like you're in there, they got flies going around, and I'm like in the theater, like you know, like they really put you in it, right, they put you in it. And so I really think that's that's great and lovely and wonderful. But yeah, it was just really hard for me to sit there and watch three and a half hours of violence against state
of people. And so but here's the ultimate thing. So we're putting a spotlight on something that happened a long time ago, lots of people stealing head rights and from tribal peoples.
But like, what do we do next? Like what comes after this?
And I think that's the question that I have, and that's not necessarily a question for the tribe or the question for the film crew, but like Leo made a fat check on this one. Does he contribute some of that back to the community so they can get their head rights and lands back? I mean, like, that's that's what I'm just like, I want to see what happens next.
And I hate to say it, but I don't know if this is gonna, you know, be a catalyst for other bigger questions about lots of people, because this is this is one thing that we know about. This is one investigation, but there was all kind of crazy shit happening out there at that time, with people coming in and stealing lands and stealing head rights directly from tribal
members and in scrupulous ways and violent ways. So anyway, that's where I'm like, I think, as a piece, it's important for people to have watched it, But if your.
Native, like, take your time. You don't need to see it right away.
Schedule a therapy session in advance and after, you know, like you just got to really be there to support yourself because it's a heavy one.
It's so heavy.
Yeah, there are those films that are made for audiences that like, You're like, that's important for them, understand, But if you come from that community, I mean, it's like that's why man, like Twelve Years of Slave and certain movies like that. I'm like, bro, I mean like, if you need to see it, go ahead. Like I don't need. I don't need to be convinced or know even more or a depiction of it. But I get it because everyone, you know, we grapple with our own personal histories in
our own ways. But yeah, if like Leonardo DiCaprio, I and out here on some like land back shit, then what's up? You know what I mean?
Yeah, that was my main concern when starting to see the movie being promoted. You know, the audience reaction of the trailers was immediately, wow, that looks beautiful, Wow, that looks great. And I saw Martin Scorsese, I didn't know much about the film, and then I was like, this seems like this could be very delicate and hard to pull off for a white man in his eighties.
I believe.
And I and the entire time as I was hearing the reaction to the film and how the hype build up, I was like, why isn't there any criticism?
I was like, is it really that good?
Did he really handle it that carefully and with that much depth and standing? And I'm hearing that it's like kind of but not as much as you'd hope. Is that I don't want to put words in your mouth, Jackie?
Is that I mean? I guess, Oh, sorry, go ahead, No, I'm just saying. Or it feels like it's just inherently hard to make a movie like this, yeah and pull it off in the way that you need to, like it's yeah, right, yeah, but so does that?
I guess my I guess my misgiving with is like should was he the best person to do it?
Or?
I guess because my whole, my whole reaction to it when I first saw I was like, really, Martin Scorsese and that that was That was when I guess. I was like the Irishman fine, but this felt that different for me, and I was like, I wasn't as excited as I thought the hype was, and I was questioning, like why I wasn't getting there right?
I mean?
So, so it's actually based on a book called Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grant, who's a non native person who writes about the Osage murders and the birth of the FBI. But so so oh yeah, so this essentially is a film based off of the book. So I think in that way a lot of I didn't read the book, I'll tell you that, But again, I'm not like jumping into reading about these things myself.
But I have quite a few friends who read it and they were like, okay, like it was definitely a little bit more mystery oriented in the book, according to you know, my friend's assessment of reading it. But yeah, they were like, yeah, I think it did sort of a good job of laying out what happened in the book. But at the same time, this, like I said, this is a very heavy topic for this very real community
that's living with this right now. And so I think that's the piece of it where I don't know if I'm just naive, but I was like, look, this is this is Hollywood. We can we have some creative license. Like I thought that the murders might be like not so in your face, Like I felt like maybe, and I felt like maybe there's some creative interpretation of what happened to inject more agency and power into the native perspective, because that's what I would do if I had.
An opportunity to do it right, I'd be.
Like, all right, here's a story, but here's a story I want to tell about this story, you know, And so I think, like I guess I was silly to think maybe it wouldn't be so in your face. And then the opening scene, like a couple of moments into the opening scene, we see our first murder, and I'm like, aha, it was just so real and it was like literally the people were gasping in the audience.
Okay, good, you know, and so you said that, yeah.
Yeah, so but I get it, like I think probably, And I haven't read any of their sort of the film, the directors, and I haven't read any of what they've said in response to any of some of the criticism that's coming out, but I'm sure they're like, we want it to be real, we want it to be in your face because we don't want to hide the horrors of what this was simultaneously.
If that's your goal, then I'm gonna recommend dat if people.
Do not watch.
You know, anyone who's been from a community that has been targeted and oppressed in a very violent, awful way. That's where I'm like, ooh, I I just just be prepared, basically. And Lily Gladstone, who's the amazing actor who plays Molly, she even said because unfortunately, because of SAG and because of the SAG after strike, wasn't even able to promote
or say much about it. And so finally once the strike was lifted and all that, Lily came forward and said, like, please take care of yourselves because this is a heavy one. And I'm like, yeah, that's kind of the vibe we should have gone in with. But unfortunately, because of the strike, no one was able to say much, you know. So and I watched it like I had an advanced screening and so like I saw it with a lot of
people like well before it came out, and so you know. Anyway, So also I think it's a little overrated, and I do think that people who don't know about the story should absolutely watch it. And again, amazing acting. And I do hope that Lily Gladstone gets a knom like she has to, like she fucking killed it, and she people might recognize her from Reservation Dogs. She plays the anti who's in prison, so and I can't remember her name
right now. I'm sorry, but anyway, killer acting, a lot of amazing acting.
It was a good nuanced take. I like that. Yeah, you know, you just split the room because we didn't see it.
I want you guys to watch it, and we got a degree. I want to watch it, please, and let's debrief this.
You need to watch it. Absolutely. I was on the fence. And now the fact that you were like, no, it's it's essential. You're just gonna need to take care of yourself. That that yeah, over the edge.
Yeah, because it's hard I think in general, Yeah, like to see just that kind of untethered violence towards marginalized people, that is that goes unpunished. It's it's hard to watch that over and over and over.
And then it's like and then Native women on top of that, like we already have, like folks are familiar with mm I W murdered Indigenous women, so this is nothing new and it's just really hard to stomach. And you know, and also it's three and a half hours long, so do not drink anything before you go in.
Yeah, or wear a diaper, you know, yeah, you gotta do.
You know, there's no there's no intermission, it's just NonStop.
Yeah, what is something you think is underrated?
I guess I'm respecting other people's opinions. Like if again, at the sake of sounding corny, I'm just like, I think I'm so overwhelmed with the news right now and like watching people that I've known for a long time and realizing that their belief system is rooted in straight up ignorance, you know, like straight up superiority, right, you know, and people aren't just allowed to be and you know that can also the thing I hate about like vague
inspirational anything inspirational quotes is that they can be used by anyone. Sure, that's right, because even if I'm just like, oh, it's respecting people's opinions, people will be like, well, why don't you respect us bioness opinions? Like that is just white supremacy. Can't the fucked here? I do not respect anybody who is into that ship. So yeah, I guess just you know, what what are we doing?
Guys?
That's where I'm asking, That's what's that's my underwrite or over what did you ask me?
What are we doing? I know it feels like the Twilight Zone. Are you all really advocating for ethnic cleansing? So casually yes they are, and you're like, god, damn, I don't know. And that's the thing. I'm really there are people who like, I'm really curious if this you know, right now, there's a lot of focus on like the
hostage like when they when will they free the hostages? Sure, and seeing how that plays out, what happens after that is achieved, like what is going to be the next goalpost after that if it happens, Because I just feel like there's there's clearly, like you see people like there is that Israel Solidarity rally and that was really just a rally to maintain the status quo, you know what I mean, Just like we need to put visual pressure on this administration to not dare call for a ceasefire.
Because even when Van Jones's whack ass was up there, like he tried to say something about piece, like people were starting to chant like no ceasefire and shit, I'm just like, what is where? I know what y'all not saying, but I'm curious what the rhetoric will be once we get past this point in time when and and tens of thousands of people are left dead. It's just h yeah,
it's mind blowing. Like we've been every week. I feel like we're always saying some version of like I can honestly like I don't know where the fuck I'm at, Like.
What what are we doing, y'all?
What are we doing? And the people who are like out there, like you know, blocking the roads to raytheon and ship shall bless y'all, you know what I mean? Like that's yes, this.
Morning, the bay bridge is closed off, and that's should I not say this morning? Does that matter?
Doesn't?
Okay, God bless those people.
Yeah, everybody, all.
Right, let's take a quick break and we'll come back and get into the news.
We'll be right back, and we're back.
We are, And since October seventh, we've been we've been talking about the perplexing way the media has been has been covering this, the discounting to the lives of Palastian people, innocent innocent Palestinian people and children, but just generally just the rules of engagement seem to have changed kind of in the in the mainstream media. But aiman you know, you are seeing seeing this happening, and you know, as
a member of the media, like covering it. I'm just curious to get your perspective on like what what what has been happening? What are you seeing behind the scenes, And then like how is that affecting how we're hearing about or not hearing about what's happening in Israel?
Yeah?
Man, No, this is a media literacy is everything these days, because it's equally important to like create good journalism. Is it just for the audience to know how to read and interpret like good journalism? So what I mean is this right? I'm really really upset by the way that I have like younger so of my like my wife's siblings are like much younger than she is. So I have one that just graduated high school, another one who's in college, and you know, they get all of their
news from social media. They only know what's going on through TikTok and through Instagram. And I feel like a lot of people don't really know how to distinguish between people just posting things opinion news clips of commentators from the actual journalism, which are like first hand accounts people on the ground doing journalism.
And it's like.
Equivocating between being like an activist talking about what's happening and being a journalist and trying to report the facts as they are has been driving me nuts. So there's two things happening when we think about how the media has been like covering this. On the one hand, I'm seeing so much misinformation and disinformation spreading like crazy z
on social media. And because everybody's in their own little social media bubble, what people on either side or you know, and in this case there's a lot more than just two sides. But anybody who's consuming media on social media right now are getting just like this fire hose of information, and some of it's real and some of it's not, and some of it's made up, and some of it's like from ten years ago repackaged to look like it
was just show yesterday, right. And so you have people who are Zionist and sympathetic with you know, the IDF and what they're doing right now to secure Israel who are like sharing these videos of like people in body bags who are wrapped in the white like we've been seeing a lot from Gaza who are getting up to check their phones, you know, because it's like actually a clip from a protest in Lebanon.
You know, or something like that. But that clip is being.
Repackaged and shared as you know, evidence of a mess making up casualties and that the IDEF is pure hearted and pure intention. But on the other end, there was a viral clip that went viral maybe two days ago that supposedly showed like Apache helicopters shooting Israelis who were fleeing from their lives when the MS came in on those paragliders at the at the music festival, which is
also like you know, repackaged. I think it was from like the two or three days afterwards when that clip, when those clips were shot and published by the IDF showing their attack helicopters attacking militants who were trying to either flee or take more ground than in Israel. And so those are two examples.
But they were being.
Passage to say that this was Israel shooting, right.
They were saying.
Yeah, the reason why the casualties numbers were so high is because the Israelis were also shooting everybody. Yeah, but there's also you know, I should also cavey out there. There is like a few kind there's a few eyewitness testimonies of survivors in the Kabbutz who talked about how they were when they were being taken hostage, that Israeli soldiers showed up and just started spring bullets and his
own people. This is that when in his testimony you can read it about it on Harriet's But at the same time, the role that the journalist has to play is to find primary sources and report it out. And the way that so many people at prominent outlets that have a humongous responsibility and outside the responsibility to tell the truth in this particular war where information like this is kind of just going crazy. This flying over our
heads has been catastrophic. A good example is right after the beginning of the war is the Palestinian ambassador for the PA for London, was for England, was being interviewed by the BBC and he just talked about how he lost like seven family members in an Israeli bombardment. And
this guy, you can tell, was being super stoic. He looked like he was just crying because he just found this out and he's on the news ready to talk about what's happening, and the presenter asked him the condemned ha mess like immediately after he shared that he lost seven family members. Yea, And this callousness goes beyond what a reporter ought to do. You know, we should be asking people about what they see, what they feel, trying to get primary sources to tell us something about what's
happening in front of them. Asking somebody who has a wealth of knowledge about being an ambassador for the PA, not ha Mess, which is PA's there. They run the West Bank, Hames Rise, the Gosam. This person is an ambassador for them, so he he's also lost family to the bombardoment. He's in a unique position to talk about what's happening from his perspective.
But this person.
Who was interviewing him, this journalist, was asking about something that he's disconnected to a and was trying to make a moral argument with this person, And that to me felt like, I don't know, I was disappointed. I was like, you know how to do this, Like this is your job. You don't have any problems doing this with any other subject.
Why is it when we come to talking about Palestine and talking to Palestinians, we skip the part where we're supposed to interrogate how they're experiencing the world, and we skip to, well, how do we get that, how do we hold them accountable for what the other side is saying? You don't see that when it comes to those same
people interviewing Israeli ambassadors or Israeli prime ministers. When they talk to their own people, they say, we are going to flatten Palestine, we are going to eradicate Hames and all of its supporters, and they use a lot of this genocidal rhetoric, and they talk about having a second Nekba. Ministers in the current Israeli government talk this way, but when they come on to do these interviews, they ask them, well, where were you on October seventh? How are you affected
by this tragedy? Which are you know? I'm not here to browbeat these people for doing their job, because those are good questions to ask people who are going through this and that suffering is real. But where is that when we're talking to Palestinian sources? Just today, the New York Times put out and their incredible podcast, The Daily not as good as the dailies like Gus, but.
You know, if you have extra time, you can probat artists.
And a lot of people might think they can. First, we can't.
First, thanks, I was gonna say I was gonna make that point, but you know they were. They did this whole episode where they talked to God, to gods and doctors, doctors who are in these hospitals who are operating, and the host asked one of them, well, the IDF is saying that Hamas is doing X y Z in.
These hospitals, like what are you seeing?
Which is like a good question to ask, But the people who are just being constantly asked to take these political arguments that one side is making in it and trying to rationalize them and trying to breathe air into them and give oxygen to them. The guy had a meltdown. Man, he freaked out. He was like, Yo, we are having
to choose which kids die and which kids live. We don't have enough resources to give kids who need amputations any kind of anesthesia, so they are awake and while we're hacking off their body parts, like you know, the trauma. And this guy's voice when he was like, why the hell are you asking me about Hamez right now? Was I think was incredibly emblematic of the what we've done to these people, you know, by flattening them as being
like this response to Hamez. These people are people, man, So I would love to see the media make a better effort at exercising just basic journalism by asking people about what they see and where they're at, versus trying to turn everything into a back and forth.
Or its proa or they're propagandizing them in real time.
You want to talk about like Hames, there's HAMESZ spokespeople who are giving interviews like you can do that piece if you want to talk to them and be like, well, we heard about you know, the fuel being withheld from x y Z. What do you have to say to that?
You know?
But these people who are on the ground, these doctors who have to sleep in operating rooms, who can't leave because the flood of people who need help is is just constant. The people who have brought their own families to hide in these hospitals too. I mean, there are thousands of people in these hospitals and you can just imagine the chaos. By opening this window and talking to these people and just asking them about like Hames just it just drove me nuts, Like you would never see that.
You would never see somebody talking to somebody hiding in their escape room in the Kibbutz, you know when that was happening, and if if the media were able to get them on the phone, you would never imagine them being like, well, what do you think about Natan? Yeah, who's saying the settlements are about.
You know, the risk he's putting y'all at risk? Right, Because I feel like you're saying a lot of them would say, yeah, hell yes he is. Like you know a lot of people feel like Netya, who's policies are not popular, Like he's fucking incredibly far right and fascist, and like if they were willing to ask those fucking questions, I feel like that would also be well.
It just kind of leaves it leaves out this not even elephant in the room. The biggest dimension of this is oppression. Yeah, And to just skirt by them, be like, well you condemn Hamas, right, Like, let's just keep let's
let's let's keep reinforcing. Because I see this so much in the rhetoric of people who are defending what the IDF is doing in the Israeli government, of keeping the focus on Hamas, about being like free these people from Hamas and like that's what it is, and rather than really like widening out the focus here to really understand all the dimensions of it. Because to your point, like when someone is bringing up these facts that would that is, you know, meant to tell a very human story about
Palestinian people. To to then bring it to what about hamas completely just takes the wind out of that take or or what the point someone's trying to make to just make it purely about right? Right? There is that, but what about this other thing that we can agree is bad? Let's talk about the bad thing, because I don't want to keep talking about how innocent people are being brutalized through no fault of their own. And I think that's that's also been really hard to watch too totally.
And what drives me nuts is that these are like allegations, right there's been no proof put forth by the Israeli government, but there's just not enough scrutiny to sort of just say, okay, well, the Israeli government is saying this is that true? Like we we almost I've seen too many media outlets and journalists skipping that step and going straight to okay, well, we need to now ask the other side with this allegation is being made of to defend themselves for it.
When this out there, I mean, we need to see
proof man before before anything else. This this idea about copaganda, right, this idea that it came about after the popular Black Lives Matter uprisings across the country, after George Floyd was killed, where it was obvious that the police when they issue statements, I think a lot of people have suddenly realized that they have they are incentivized to lie, and that you really that first like that first account that they gave was, well, he was on drugs and he was attacking us, and
you know, he was fighting back and all this stuff that after you see the clips, you know it's not even close to being true, and you know, this is I feel like there's overlaps here. And I think part of the lesson that we learned there in journalism and in people who are consuming media is that, you know, the police are incentivized to protect their own skin. I wish I could see more of that when we're looking about Palestine. This idea that Israel has a long track record,
not as Israel government. I gotta be specific, because israelis are as diverse as anyplace else in the world. They Israeli government has a long track record of lying. We saw when they killed the journalist true Uckiley. We saw it when they killed those four boys, those four preteens on the beach with warship. We saw that with There's like so many examples man of like them denying that
they did something when they're doing it. So I would love to see the same amount of scrutiny being like, well, you're making these claims, we need to see proof or we need to hold out to see like what everybody else is saying. Right, Uh, yeah, it feels like we're so eager to take this narrative and put it out.
Is there like a dimension because like we talk about this all the time, like how especially in American media, like there's people can't like grapple with white supremacy or
systemic oppression, and journalists can't. And a lot of people talk about how like what it what it takes to actually get to a certain newsroom and the and like what the culture is of a specific outlet that sort of self filters in a way that you're only going to get people who are kind of know how to like read from the same book when that time comes.
Are you like do you see it as a dimension of just sort of like these ingrained sort of like just the lack of American curiosity about like honestly reporting about imperialism or is it like other you know, because we see also like these like McCarthy I type activities that are happening where people if they deign to speak out about what's happening that they are people are coming for their careers and things like that. How do you see like what like is it bad habits, is it
external factors? Is it a combination of things? Like how do you kind of see like the environment that people are operating in when they just take the word of an IDF command or be like Okay that's what they said. Okay print that without evidence and we'll just run to that.
Yeah.
I mean it breaks my fucking heart.
Man.
I've been trying to to like not cry all day and I'm like fighting it back now because you're what you said about the lack of curiosity. Really it like hit something right on my heart, dude, because that's what
it is. It is, man, It's it's this basic, this basic reflex that's maybe inside me because I have Arab heritage or I don't know what it is, man, but like, I cannot, for the life of me understand why there's not this curiosity where people are just satisfied with it, being like it's a religious war and so they're responding to their religion, and so it makes sense that they want to eliminate just Jewish people, and they use that as a way to just justify making claims like what's
made what's on the on the Congress floor recently, that there is no such thing as a Palestinian.
Civilian, right, right.
It's like when the Israeli government says that we're going to punish the people who are giving out candy or giving candy or like the people they elected hamas, and it's like, where's the curiosity to say, Okay, what are the polls saying? Right, Because if you look for the polls like you would for any other community when you're trying to understand like what this community is experiencing or how they feel, there are polls.
Man.
People go and they do studies about this stuff. Godz has been under seage for like the greater part of the last twenty years. This has been like a you know, the curiosity of academics you know people who are going in and finding out, oh, actually more than seventy percent of the people in Gaza when they were asked if peace was option where they want to live in peace with Israel's their neighbors and seventy five I don't know the exact number, more than seventy percent. We're like, yeah,
we want peace, but you almost don't. You don't even see that number quoted anywhere because there's no curiosity, there's no thought experiment of like, well are these people like us? Where there were responding to many different things, there's this idea that is really prevalent. I think among a lot of writers and journalists that the issue is that there's an ideological conflict, right, that if only each side could
just get along, then this problem would get solved. Right, that there are actual partners for peace on either end of this that are being usurped by these radical ideological groups. This is not the case here, man, This is not the case. What you said about the the imbalance of
power here is everything. Because I think this really cuts through to how so many people who are sympathetic with the Palestinian cause actually feel about this, and it drives me nuts seeing some of these protests being described, the protests that we've seen across the country, across the world. I think London just had the biggest protest ever in its history and it was from Palestine. This being condensed as it being like a pro Hamas rally or an
anti Israel rally. You know, the idea that these people could just be flattened to like this, responding to this one part of this conflict drives me nuts. Yeah, you know, where's the curiosity? You mean, said the reporter. Talk to these people, find out what they're saying. They're filming themselves. They're telling you what they're saying, the same thing with from the River to the sea, Palestine will be free.
The congresswoman Rashida Tlay just got censured by her own colleagues on the Democratic side, who helped the obviously bad faith right wing use that rallying cry to punish her. Now, none of the reporting I've seen makes context of what she was actually saying in the speech where she said that she wants peace for everybody. They just took the right wings word for it that she was calling for genocide. She was calling for genocide, man.
Come on, yeah, exactly saying freedom. Yeah.
And also the speech where did she give it? Where's the curiosity?
Right?
Where did she give the speech? She gave it a Jewish voices for peace rally?
Right?
Come on, Like this is basic journalism one oh one that you will see in every context except for this, And it makes me want to tear my eye out.
Man, it's so nut. I mean, this is what's so difficult to watch too after going through the summer of twenty twenty and understanding how oppression affects people, and like they were doing this, Like this is why, like I'm so cynical about how our media operates, because it's operating
not even to inform people. It's there to just preserve these system of oppression under like, because these questions that are asked like similar to like in twenty twenty, you bear like every now and then you'd hear some reporter as somebody who's at a protest, why they're there, Like
everything was always like and we're here with the police. Start, we're here with you know, Sheriff Villanueva who's telling us about what is happening in Los Angeles and getting this perspective that is meant to just like to your point, flatten this movement into like a very easy to digest, like these people just like want chaos or something, and
it's not that great of a thing. Slowly, I feel like those things changed because I think there are enough people in America to kind of begin to grapple with
that somewhat. But this also just feels so disgusting and uncomfortable to watch because it really pulls out just the inherent Islamophobia that exists in this country too, because I feel like it's so eat a lot of people just want to reflexively just cast people who, like in Palestine is being like, yeah, well, you know, like they voted for Hamas, so that means they're bad and it's that simple.
And that really is so difficult to have to sit through because to your point, this is all happening while innocent people are suffering under that, and there's many people want to say, well, they're voting for they voted for Hamas, well, then what's happening in the West Bank because Hamas is not in power in the West Bank, the PA is you know, and like, and so where is that argument now,
because we're only seeing increased violence there as well. But you know it the again, it's always this lack of humanity that's extended to these people in such a like casual way is really unnerving because, you know, it makes me feel like I'm living in a place where more and more people are like, yeah, some people are just not human to me, and that is really really frightening and horrific and such a difficult thing to grapple with.
Yeah, all right, let's take a quick break and we'll be right.
Back, and we're back SpaceX. Speaking of Elon, they just announced that they may try launching their Starship rocket for a second time this Friday, if they get approval from the FAA. And this comes fresh off the heels of an extremely damning investigation from Reuters. They uncovered quote over six hundred previously undisclosed workplace injuries at SpaceX facilities since twenty fourteen. This is including everything from like cuts, lacerations,
fucking head injuries to amputations. People have been in comas and tragically even death. One employee apparently died recently after sitting on some cargo that was being hauled on a trailer with no straps and the guy said, oh, no straps, I'll just lay on top of this insulation, so we can get it from point A to point be and hopefully my body weight will keep this from blowing off
the fucking truck. Tragically, a gust of wind blew him and the insulation off and he was unfortunately, he was killed, like he was pronounced dead at the scene OSHA. Basically, like I think anyone who just heard what happened found that SpaceX had quote failed to protect the employee from what they say was a clear hazard. But it turns out like that's just kind of just a sample of how bad some people are getting injured there. One man was smacked in the head with it while they were
testing an engine in twenty twenty two. Apparently like they were doing a pressure test of a Raptor V two rocket engine that's a tongue twister and like a piece of the rocket blew off and fractured the skull of employee Francisco Cabata, and it put him in a coma, and reportedly SpaceX has quote ignored the family's attempts to find out why he wasn't protected, And just I know, I said six hundred injuries twenty fourteen, But it's really important to note that that is only a portion of
the total case count because while OSHA requires companies to report injuries annually since twenty sixteen, SpaceX facilities have quote failed to submit reports for most of those years. So this is like when things were just bad enough, and like the punishments are as we say all the time, fines don't deter billionaires, especially when the fines are a few hundred dollars to seven thousand dollars, like the fine
for the guy who lost his life. They only had to pay a seven thousand dollars fine for that, And it's not like, you know, I know, people were like, well, maybe working on rocket ships is like a fucking hazardous gig. Not like when you compare this to the space industry average, they are blowing records out. So in twenty twenty two, the injury rate at their Brownsville facility in Texas was four point eight injuries per or illnesses per one hundred workers.
That's six times higher than the space average industry of zero point eight per one hundred workers. And the reason for this, this is where Elon comes in. Is fucking Elon and his hatred of like regulations, Like he believes that employees should quote be responsible for protecting themselves. How
I'm sorry, how does that work? And also like when he would go to do like safety visits to sites, he would tell people please take he didn't want people wearing safety yellow vests because he dislikes bright colors, and would also be like walking around sometimes with one of his dumbass flame throwers during a fucking safety visit, Like what are you talking about?
This is I think this guy's a genius by the way, I.
Know, I know. It just shows you what like hair plugs and a few billion dollars can do, and suddenly you're the new fucking what Tony Stark or whatever the fuck it is.
He also doesn't like airbags on cars because they're two round.
He said to felt to wrinkle your shirt. Actually, so I don't like, yeah, do away with them.
It's an attic thing.
What were you going to say, Sarah.
Oh, no, I was. I was going to say, I have a my chapter of my book. This is a joke I had about how like when we were at Google, like we had like an ergonomic chair to protect your body while your soul was dying inside.
Because like.
They were so obsessed with ergonomics. They were so obsessed with carpal tunnel syndrome. They didn't want to stay at carpal tunnel. They didn't want our posture to be bad. They had standing nest so we could stand and sit. You know. It was so they were so obsessed with us protecting our bodies and so like, this is wild
to me, the trajectory of tech in general. I feel like, yeah, this is bad for SpaceX and Elon, but I think a lot of industries they really started to care less about worker health in general.
Oh I'm sure. I mean I think yeah, because like Google and places like that. It seems a little insidious too, because like, no, we need you healthy so we can get every motherfucking ounce of life out.
Yeah.
All the perks that were there were so that you would stay, so that you wouldn't leave the building.
Yeah.
It's like when people talk about how they make like wogu beef, and they're like, they fatten them up, they give them massages, they spit beer into their coats and rub it in, so they get to the point that their flesh is worth more than any other meeting out there, right right, right right, It's for the slaughter's for the slaughter. But so apparently he, like Elon Musk, defends this attitude because like in tech, it's always like move fast and
break skulls or I think that's break everything. Oh break everything, yeah, break every bone in your body, he says, because SpaceX is quote on an urgent quest to create a refuge in space from a dying.
Please can you go do it? You go first, like put him there first, and him and Grimes can populate Mars.
Yeah, exactly right. And those other like weird billionaires who are like just like they're like I need my sperm everywhere.
All the billionaires yeah, or the or the guys is like using his kid's blood to keep him young. Like he go there as well.
Yeah it's fun. There's no amount of therapy.
Yeah, we actually need refuge from billionaires. So yeah, please go there because I actually I believe with all the private flights and stuff like the top one percent are going on, I think that would help tremendously, along with other things.
But anyway, I guess I guess they don't have a union. I guess SpaceX and any of Elon's companies none of those workers are unionized.
Yeah, I wonder is there.
I bet not, because I mean I don't think you would.
Ever allow that or yeah right, yeah, I feel like anyone would. Yeah, they're like, I'm so proud to be hostile towards unions. Is usually like the take of these kinds of guys.
Sarah, I thought you were asking if there was a billionaires union where unionized this billionaires so we can have our rights finally acknowledged by society.
Dude, I think that's literally in our future that's going to happen.
It is that feels like it. Oh yeah, it says employees were fired for speaking up about Elon Musk or talking about Okay, so it sounds like yeah, part for the course, perfect worse, perfect corse. But yeah, like also because of this like rush to get us to fucking Mars also meant to like employees have been taking like adderall without prescriptions to like be able to fucking pull
like wild hours and then falling asleep in bathrooms. Also to speed up the work, the company has literally been getting workers to weld rocket parts in a tent on the beach and then like when the beach got too hot, they just hooked the people up to an IV and then sent them right back out there. And also in this like tent welding shop, apparently when the wind was blowing they had to they had to shut the flaps and basically enclose everyone in a tent with like carcinogenic dust.
So it's all very it's all very it's all very elon. So we'll see what happens. This is me Rile.
This is a billion dollar company and they're treating employees like this. This is I mean, I totally expected in the Congo where they're trying to get diamonds out and stuff like that or whatever.
But it's that model. It's it's yeah, there, you are merely automatons meant to help us generate capital.
What is the end game? Okay? What's the endgame? Okay, so we have all of these people addicted to social media that's not working and they're all upset and their jobs are killing them. Like, there's not gonna be anybody left to buy the products that you're making. Okay, there's gonna be no one around. Everybody's gonna be gone. We're all gonna be dead. So what's the end game. You're
gonna You're gonna build robots. To buy your products, Like you're gonna build robots to make your products, and then you're gonna build robots to buy your products, and it's just gonna be all robots. I guess, I guess.
Or it's the other one where they're like, well, you know, AI is going to be doing a lot of the work. So that's why, like, you know, you hear the very like cynical version of like, we need a UBI, we
need a universal basic income. And that's not because they believe that people like we should just move to that and give like we have a basic income to live off of, but because like but then when the fucking robots or ais take their livelihood, they'll still have a little scratch to give back to us in the form of consumerism or something like that. It's all it all works out in a very dark way. Or they're just they build their fucking bunkers in New Zealand and or
like I'll hide. We had a guest on a couple of weeks ago, Douglas Rushkov, who like would talk to the billionaires who like build bunkers, and the way they talk is all like how do I get them to not want like rebel against me, like and take all the food. Can I like put like a like a detonator on their throat or something to keep them in control? And they're like, you actually haven't thought any of this through, Like your're.
So they're scared that their workers are going to rebel, so they're figuring out a way to have their workers.
So in the context of the apocalypse bunker like where they said they've like some billionaires are like, I have a team of like ex paramilitary Like yeah, yeah, the people who protect the people who will inevitably protect and labor for the billllionaires in an apocalypse bunker. They're like, do I like make the code to the food something only I know? So that way, if I die, they
also don't get anything. And it's also like it's I mean, and to your point, Sarah, it's that way of thinking that somehow helps you aggregate the kind of wealth to be a billionaire and also makes you a not human.
So oh my god.
And that's why like Zuckerberg and all these guys are trying to build this like city, this city that no one else can get into, this like commune because they know this shit is going to hit.
The fan, yeah, or that or precisely that, like they know, at the end of the day, it's like this relentless pursuit of wealth and making the lineup go infinitely is only destroying the earth, destroying the fabric of our society. And they're like, I don't know, we're responsible before, but at the same time, let's build a thing to insulate ourselves from it.
Yeah.
The good thing is like.
Every man for himself kind of yeah, mentality.
I mean, the good news is those plans will not work. Like it feels like no matter what you do, because even the people who are like I don't this and I'll build that, bah blah blah blah, it's like, okay, well, what if a part goes out for your your your HVAC, you know what I mean, you have no ac. Do you have someone on staff that can like manufacture the part that you would need to fix it or do you have someone with that capability? And like, I don't know.
And then and then what if that has a knock on effect on your green your growhouse that you say will provide your food, because if that isn't temperature controlled, then what do you do? And then if you don't have the food growing or the water purification system not just for you but for your plants.
And then they start being like, well, this is very helpful. I do plan to be a billionaire, so it's good to know all this stuff going in.
Yeah, yeah, just that's why I just, yeah, just be one of those people that no one wants to, like, well, the first person they think of when the shit goes down, like you know who, you know who I'm going to pay a visit to, right, Yeah, I can't just be on the be on the good side, please, I'll be on.
The good side. Also, maybe just like be a billionaire, but like, don't tell anybody that you're a billionaire. That's probably a better way to do it.
Yeah, secret billionaire.
Yeah.
I like the idea that in this billionaire city there's still like a version of a poor billionaire where oh, you only have one point five billion. It's like you hear Carl has A has an above ground bunker.
Yeah it's in Michigan. Oh my god, you didn't get to New Zealand. Oh, poor guy, poor guy, because that's the other spot everyone's looking at is Michigan because all that's fresh water. But anyway, let's move on to something just to wrap this show up, something a little more pleasant. Andre three stacks, Andre three thousand. He is releasing his fucking debut solo album. True this like just just me doing my thing. This is Andre Benjamin here I am.
The album is called New Blue Sun. And before, like myself, I was like, oh my god, andres.
Yes, yes years right.
Yeah, so this man, this is again. This album is quote entirely made up of instrumental woodwind music. It's just him on the flute, which I'm like, that makes sense. I've seen him like he's always like I've seen I feel like most of the videos I've seen him recently are playing some kind of flute, which so people wouldn't be totally shocked. I apparently I didn't realize that the track she Lives in My Lap, he played flute on that, Like he's playing woodwinds on that. Yeah, And also where's
the catch with James Blake? He played woodwind So I was like, oh, I had no idea. I was not familiar with your game, sir. And there was like there a couple of viral clips of him playing like a flute in the airport. But it's funny because like I think he knows how much his fans like love him as a rapper vocalist, and he's like a little apologetic. Like the first track of the album is this is the literal track of the first album. Quote this track one, I swear I really wanted to make a rap album,
but this is literally the way. This is literally the way the wind blew me this time is the first track. And he said, even on the cover, there's even a label that says warning no bars, just to let you know there will be no You will not hear his voice. You will just hear maybe you'll hear a breath here and there as he's playing. But I'll take you. I love it.
I mean, yeah, I think it's sweet. I think it's yeah, I think it's cute, Like let him let him do his thing. He's not bait and switching anyone, you know. Yeah, let him play with his wood ones.
Yeah, I think. And also at this point too, like it's been so long where I've like I stopped holding my Like I caught them when they had like a reunion tour like in twenty fourteen. I was like I was there for that. I saw that I got my fill. But also it's nice because I feel like so much of that work is like it's perfect. I'm like, yep, don't,
I don't. We don't need to augment this. If you want to, sure, go ahead, Like you know, like I like Big Boys other projects that he does, but with like Andre, Yeah, he's always been so vibe that I'm like, I can't get mad. And I feel like most people feel the same way. Like I know some people, but whatever, I just as.
An artist, it's so brave to do something so completely different. I mean, it really is.
It's very inspiring, and it's also it's also just like the like that just a little bit of consideration for his fans who know him as a rapper vocalist. Or he's like, yeah, like the first track, I swear I really wanted to make a rap album, but this is literally the way with the wind bloop me this time. I'm like, that's fine, and he's really funny.
Yeah, but yeah, I mean I am I don't know what the music. I personally have never listened to an album of just woodwind instruments, yeah, in my life. But maybe this will start a whole new trend. I don't know.
Yeah, I feel like people I want.
To see him and Lizzo do like a little thing.
Oh yeah, a lot of flutes, a lot of flutes going down. Yeah, I think we'll see. I mean, I've seen people say they've heard bits and pieces of it. I'm not sure, like if maybe they're at a listening party or something like that, but it's I don't know. I mean from the people who claim to have hear it, they're like, it's it's pretty cool. It's like trippy, and I'm like.
Oh, I'm gonna get high and listen to it.
Yeah. I couldn't imagine Andre like you come out, he's just playing like hot cross Buns, no backing, drafty motherfucker playing a recorder. Then I might feel like, Bro, you had a lot of time to fucking get that recorder, right.
But I mean, I think this will start a resurgence every recorder interest.
Yeah, recorder, Well, wasn't it Like was recorder not like like a part of the core for a certain point. Did you play recorder? Blake?
Did you that was my primary instrument?
Yeah? No, I'm serious, I'm serious. Did you have no play recorder? No bit?
Yes, I did, Like that was because we had music class, and I think that was the only instrument because we had to buy it ourselves, I remember, but it was, in terms of instruments, the most you know, affordable instrument that you could possibly get. So yeah, I know we played like b A G b ag like that was uh hot cross.
Buns of course, everybody, you fucking that's the first track you learn on this cross Buns. That's right, you know what I mean. But apparently I didn't realize that. Like it's like the reason too, is that it helps like with creative thinking skills like finger dexterity.
I didn't know that.
Yeah, I was like, what the fuck? I was like, my teacher is just a weirdo making us play this shitty plastic flute. But no, there's it turns out there was a reason. There's more than just Mary had a little man. I'll have to look into it, all right.
That's gonna do it for this week's weekly Zeitgeist. Please like and review the show If you like, the show means the world the miles he he needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend, and I will talk to him one day. By nothing