Hello the Internet, and welcome to this episode of The Weekly Zeitgeist. 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. Miles are thrilled to be joined in air third seat by an author, musician, podcast host of the anarchist survivalist podcast Live Like the World Is Dying and the podcast Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff on Cool Zone Media.
Her substack Birds Before the Storm is a must read. Please welcome back to the show.
Margaret Kill Joe, Margaret Hi, she's back with the wisdom and she'd great to have you. Margaret, great to have you, great to have you.
I just went on a book tour and I met people who came up and said they knew me because of this show.
So oh, I love Gang Zeigang. We love you. We love that. Y'all support the people that come on this show. That's really dope. That's super dope. How was the book tour?
Oh it was amazing. I'm incredibly exhausted. I did twenty seven cities and twenty eight events because somehow I went to Brooklyn, twice. Wow, I got years ago and I don't want to go anywhere.
Yeah. Oh man.
Also shout out to the people we have on this show who are worth going to visit in person. M hm, that's awesome. Can you talk a little bit about the book.
What's the book? Yeah? I went on tour.
The book called The Sapling Cage, which is a It's technically not a YA. It's a crossover, which is YA. But you're admitting that adults read it too, right, about a young trans girl witch who dresses up as a girl to runaway and join the witches in a fantasy world and then has to help everyone else save the world from people consolidating power through destroying the environment, which is completely unrelatable to anyone who's reading.
Where do you come up with this stuff? What do you be coming with drugs to a bunch of drugs and think this wacky stuff?
Well, no, I spent a lot of time alone in the woods. Honestly, that is the actual answer.
Just right, meditating on what it is.
Kind of losing my mind.
But yeah, yeah, I totally when you describe it, yeah right, yeah, losing your mind in the woods. The original drugs, What is something from your search history. That's revealing about who you are.
Okay, this is uh this I said neopets earlier, and it's because it's top of mind. I'm back on That's where I'm actually at. I'm back on neopets. So I googled neopets turmaculous hours. I can tell you what that means, you like.
But yeah, I mean there might be some listeners who don't an expansion pack or something.
It's it's the twenty fifth anniversary of neopets. It hit my, It hit my. You know, my feeds like al because they know they know what I like. Good, so thank you. And so I started an account like two weeks ago to celebrate the twenty fifth anniversary. And it is weird, like how muscle memory because I was so, I mean, I learned capitalism from neopets, and I don't know if I felt good about that, but like I have in neopess as a twelve year old, I had like a
bank account, I had a mortgage. I had kids to feed, like there was a lot to do. I had to groom them or they got dirty, like it was a whole thing. And what you can do is you can get your neopets pet pets, so now they have their own pet. And if you go to the turmaculous, which is this gigantic dinosaur like creature, sometimes if you go to the turmaculus at certain hours of the day, he will give you a fancy vegetable.
Oh and I was trying to figure.
You just feed it to your neopat and it says thank you. That's it. That's all that happens.
I wait for one random hour every day. Yes, yeah, you'll just go So do you like get notifications and somebody like, oh, he's awake, he's awake.
The community is hurting. I really don't think anyone.
Yeah.
See I just tried to wake them up and snort. The tremaculus did not wake.
Wow.
You hate to see it. You hate to see it. So I was just trying to figure out, you know, I would like one of the fancy vegetables to feed to my sons.
Yeah yeah, And do you know how long it takes to get to Merydale, Marydale or wherever the thank you, thank you.
For using the right terminologist.
To my world.
Yeah. Okay, he's a as a giant turmac pet pet.
Okay, cool, cool, cool, Yeah, I brought my robot pet pet to the tramaculus to see if you'd give me a vegetable, and he said, now, so that's but some day.
Yeah, it's your question, Jack, how have things been not great?
Well, they've certainly been better awesome.
So it's like an open world.
Are you interacting with other people wandering around in there? I actually don't know about Neopets.
I liked Neopets because it didn't I feel like the alternative to Neopets was Club Penguin. And Club Penguin you would interact with other people and it was mostly like little boys saying slurs and stuff. So there's like PlayStation Live or whatever Neopets. You can really just kind of do your own thing, got it? And I celebrate that. The games are awesome. They still have all the old games. And yeah, and I've been gambling. I've been auctioning things off.
Oh I've got another house in Fairyland. It's a nice house. Yeah No, that's the most expensive house, Jack, So it's actually kind of a big deal.
Yeah No, that's great real estate if you can get it.
That's really hard, really really competitive field, which that's why I only have one chair to put in it.
So far, I've been gambling. I've been auctioning stuff off.
Just just cut that. Let's use that as how have you been been I've been auctioning stuff off.
What's something you think is underrated? All right?
So this is underrated for me. I think this has a fine place in the world. But I finally, I've always been like, screw this, and now I've joined the team, so I've I've you know, I went a little sideways with this one. Okay, guess what, guys, I've been working out. Okay, I'm now a workout person, all right. And I've always been the person that's like, you don't have to buy stupid expensive workout clothes. Just wear whatever radish shirt you have and whatever dumb pair of shorts you have, and
just who cares what you look like. But now that I've been working out, someone gifted me, because I would never spend this kind of money, the classic basic bitch Lulu Lemon leggings, and I put them on. Yeah, I cannot believe how good I look. I don't know what they put in that magic material, but I was like, that's how I could. It's it's like getting professional makeup done where for a TV thing and then you look at the me and you're like, I.
Must have been some magic.
So I think people say that people have very you know, divided feelings on that brand in particular because it's pretty expensive and whatever.
But and the racism, that's.
The other part. I couldn't But when I read that thing about like why they named it, and there was like a joke of like, because I thought it'd be funny to hear Japanese people try to say Lulu Lemon and is that for real? Look it up? No, I thought you were joking. I remember that.
Now I'm I'm lighting the fire. I'm gonna light them on fire, these likings. No, they'll probably fast.
Yeah, it's a there's a lot of uh, you can just search Lululemon Japanese pronunciations. I remember learning that to like, what did that? Can't horrifed? Yeah, So it was because it was quote funny to watch Japanese people try to say it, not Australians. Yeah.
I feel like for a while people were I don't know, Yeah, I get they didn't become like workout clothes didn't become a thing that people wear all times of the day, even when they're not working out by accident, like they have made adjustments to make them look good. They're like somewhere between we're like what used to be workout clothes and like future the clothes from the future of like movies. Yes, you know, like sci fi movies.
And it's literally Astronaut where.
They have done good work like they have like I get why they've taken over.
Yeah.
I go between working out in like some workout like actual workout clothes that I've like purchased for the purpose of working out, and like feel like, hey, that looks okay. And then sometimes I just work out and cloth like clothes that are in the category in the drawer of like things I sleep in, And I definitely feel better when I'm in the ones that like are for working
out and actually look good. I feel like it's probably not dissimilar from you know how Gatorade, Like they're like, yeah, this shit doesn't like actually have chemicals in it that are helping you, but it tastes good and that makes you feel good, and so that makes it easier to exersize.
Yeah, and you get to.
Picture yourself as Michael Jordan, like having glowing sweat.
Yeah, and I also think because gatorade tastes so good, you buy one of those you know whatever, seven hundred and fifty milli liter bottles, which is, you know, it's a lot of liquid, and it tastes so good, you just go and so you do hydrate because you're drinking more than you would.
This is actually makes me we have longer.
Although I will tell you that my kid, this was actually last last year, right around Thanksgiving. He was not feeling well, little kid, and so he requested Gatorade and I was like, yeah, that's probably good, hydrate you. And so he likes the red one, which I think most kids like that free punch or whatever. And he downed a bottle and then he puked and he just vomited everywhere that day, glow red.
That was very hard to get out.
Yeah, that was very out of furniture and your mind because they.
Look like.
The TV remotes, So those were forever gone.
Yeah, the button stick now and yeah, my kids called gatorade sports good.
And sports good, sports good, yeah.
Which I feel like that's sports good, sports good.
The one thing I will say is the guy Chip Wilson who's started, he's he stepped down from the company. So yeah, yeah, yeah, it's it's funny because it's like there, it came up in this he said. It's like it's just I had a skating brand called Homeless, and the Japanese people, I think they liked it because there was an L in it. So I thought, the next time I start a brand, I'm gonna have l's in it,
because l's aren't in their vote. It's like this very like weird exoticized orientalism take on like Japanese.
Wow.
Yeah yeah yeah that guy, Yeah, I know, the guys with Chip Wilson. It's like that is the biggest that's a comic book villain.
Yeah yeah, Hey, but the pants they do look I'm not gonna lie I look good. I don't know what that weave is.
Yeah, it's yeah, it's like a it's a little bit of I don't know if it's probably all really really just terrible for the entire planet's like you know.
Yeah, but it's the ship wouldn't do something bad for.
The planet, Not Chip Baby, not chip Man.
Yeah.
Ninety percent of all Lululemon clothing that you wear ends up somewhere in your bloodstream at some point.
Yeah, well, they say that like stuff like gortex, like gortex treated stuff like that that's like huge, Like you get your exposure to microplastics is like huge with like stuff that's like waterproof treating.
Ohrd, you read that sounds.
Like the bad robot from a seventies pr Yeah, will.
Kill cortex and their minions.
Did you read the thing about all kitchen utensils, like you know.
Or whatever black?
Yeah, yeah, it's just basically whatever. It's old stereo that's been melted down.
Right exactly that you had from the nineties. That's your spatula exactly. So I say it again, I actually didn't see that.
Yeah, all the utensils that are black, the plastic kind of black things that, yeah, you got to throw them all. You got to get rid of them because they are basically made from recycled electronics. And are you know, harmful to your helpful of curson just just flipping it into your food.
M Yeah that seems body.
I do.
Yeah.
I think I talked on this show about like how I had an ice cream scooper that like started turning the ice cream that we would scoop like a bright silver color every time you would like it was like shedding onto the ice cream. What the chrome chrome was like shedding onto the ice cream? And I ate the ice cream more times than I would care to admit.
Said in my mouth, look really cool. I look like Jaws. What's something you think is overrated? Overrated?
Uh?
Doing your thing aka getting the wrong thing. At restaurants, I there's.
A fucking place. There's there's a fucking place.
In La a chain not a chain, but there are multiple locations. A galbi gym place called Sundong Dong, yes which has so if anyone is.
Not wait so you didn't get the guy. No no.
I was with someone that was like, I just want soup, and I was like, get the fuck out of this restaurant.
That they do here.
Yeah, it was anyone doesn't know is like it's like braised Korean brisket, beef rib and if you order the upgrade Oxtail's and then quite sweet.
If you order the upgrade on that, they put oh yeah, full heap of mozzarella cheese on it and bring out a bloat torch that melt the cheese on top until it's fucking bubbling. It's one of the great Like.
I will say, I am anti the cheese but yes, it is. It is. It's so indulgent, it's so rediculous. I need it.
I think it's already you definitely food don't need it. It turns it's like what if Korean food was a pizza right, essentially a stone bowl.
Yeah, but I was I was reminded of one because I had this fucking insane experience with my friend. Was like, I just want to like the brisket soup, which the brisket soup is fine, but it's just like brisket and broth. And I was just like, and Sunong Dang doesn't do it particularly well. There are places in Koreatown that do
it wonderfully. But yeah, this was peaked in my brain because there's a Postmates I think ad like a billboard right now that has sundodg listed as one of their things and it shows as their example food, not the Galbi gym, and it was making me feel crazy. Also, I went with a friend to tam O'Shanter, which is a prime rib joint in Los Angeles, and that mother finder got the salmon.
And it making me feel like I was losing my mind.
Yeah, okay, it was both times some version of I'm just doing my thing. I don't feel like it, and it's like, get the fuck out of this restaurant I find special.
Yeah, it made me so mad.
That's very frustrating.
I hate Yeah.
Never never just do the thing or don't go. And I know people have dietary restrictions, but I'm gonna be up too about it anyway.
All right, let's take a quick break, we'll come back. We'll talk about some news, and.
We're back, no fear a.
We do like to ask our guest, what is something that you think is overrated?
Face times I'm sick of them. I don't want them anymore. Face times with kids are useless, by the way, anyone who travels that is like just FaceTime with your kid every night. Useless garbage.
I don't like them.
They never work out.
Usually if it's a little kid, they're just looking at their own face and they want to screw around with that and put poop emojis over your face.
Like it's not a real thing.
It is not opportunity.
It is an exercise in poop emojis, that is absolutely true.
Or like turn into an octopus, turn into this because you can, you know, change change. Daddy's on the phone, Daddy's say hi to Daddy, and I feel like it's just garbage communication. I don't I think we could we just go back to the phone, just go back to a nice audio situation that is boring and low key, and that is how we communicate until you see the person in person.
Yeah, I feel like, right, it's definitely like it's good for the adults to get to see the little kids. But even like with my with my babies, almost too, he just looks at himself the whole time, and he's like, oh yeah, he's like, what, let me.
Let me throw this by you. Do you not look at yourself when you're on a face?
Everybody except my children. Yeah, that's all the time, all the time, having to self view on the right. What is that?
It's the black utensils of communication.
I don't think this is good for us. Yeah, right, because the phone, Yeah, the phone was I saw like an article I think it was like a business inside it recently where someone was like it was like an op ed where someone was kind of like, I'm done with texting, and I realized the phone call is actually the best thing about talking to a friend, And yeah, we kind of forget especially for people of a certain age when that was the only mode of communication. How
everything was built on that? Yeah, and now how quickly just like I don't know, man, I like, I guess I like instant messenger in my pocket and I'll just do that all day.
Yeah, slack?
Did you ever have to slack?
God? I'm so for too many jobs.
God, I feel like that is the bane I mean, and people people get a little too cavalier with slack. So in some ways, you know, people have been fired and jobs based on their dumb slacks.
Yeah, so it's too much. Yeah, I forget what the word would do?
Yeah, baby, Yeah, the one the one good thing about FaceTime with kids? Like what when I'm on the road and I FaceTime with my kids and I like, I have this image I'm like remembering all the good times and I'm like, god, I just like miss and I just wish I was right.
Here with them.
And then I get on and just like have the experience of them ignoring me. I'm like, oh, yeah, amazing, this is what this is?
Hey, how you doing? How was school? Where do you go? Where do you go?
The phones just facing the ceiling as they're like somewhere else in the house.
Yeah, nailed it.
You nailed it because okay, again, I know that life doesn't replicate commercials, but the commercial, you know, aspect of or imagery is you know, I think there's I forget what it's for.
But there's a mom.
There's a mom.
She's a traveling, working mom, I know, crazy, and she's on some hotel bed and it's like, oh my, I can't wait to see you, and the kids like I can't wait to see you. Look at my stuff and it's a durable and that is now what happens. It's garbage communication. And You're right, I'm always like, oh my god, I miss you. I should check in, and then I'm like, wow, you no one gives two craps about me at that household, all right.
I've done with like other younger family members where they look at their parents, they're like, can I go now? Have I fulfilled that? Like? Like, have I done right here to this fun? I go now?
Yeah, my god, there's nothing better than walking.
You're walking.
You're walking people out of your own FaceTime.
Right yea.
Yeah.
It's hard to do poop emoji to.
Me, I know, but for thirty seconds they're hilarious, and then I'm like, okay, we're done.
We're done.
All right, well let's let's get into some news and let's get it face time equivalent of prayer. I guess yeah, And that is we now have the opportunity to interact with Jesus via AI technology.
It's finally happened, you know, we were and I feel bad because we've been always shitting on AI. But now that now that Christ is available to us at a moment's notice, maybe maybe it's not that bad. So this chapel in Lucer in Switzerland. They it's an quote experimental art installation. They call Deus in Machina. Okay, Machina, Okay, not Deos X but in Okay, the ghost is in the machine. Now is God from the machine? But I
guess they're saying in he came out the machine. Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. But it's basically it's an AI Jesus in a confessional booth. So it's a screen with a Jesus on it, hooked up to a computer that you can confess to. Although the church was clear this is not an actual sign, This is not the sacrament of confession. So you know, just for all you Catholics out there, Just so you know, is this a Catholic church? This feels very much like a thing the Catholic Church would be like, yeah, well
I think it. I mean I don't know that they had a confessional booth in there, so I don't know how they're I mean clearly they're they're they're playing fast and loose with the Bible anyway to even not not my pope, I don't think. Yeah, most people be like a depiction of our savior. I don't know, is this is some like thirty two year old actor with a beard. Yeah, yeah, I mean, how are you my child? But once you
go in the booth, a disclaimer pops up. This is quote I think that Jesus says, do not disclose personal information under any circumstances.
Jesus literally does the disclaimer. Yeah, that is wild to me.
Use this service at your own risk. Now press the button if you accept, and these kind.
Doing it in a way that's like urgent, like do not do not disclose personal information any circumstances because we'll get burned.
What are you to produce of my information?
Jesus going like why why is it?
Why? It's just the Christ I mean, is.
It because they don't want to have to deal with the legal ramifications of someone admitting a crime, Like what is the actual issue?
I'm sure someone who has better understanding of the technology than I could explain. But I don't know if like maybe it does somehow get internalized and then repeated in some way.
My guess would be so this is an art installation. This is not like from Google that they do not have the technology to ensure the like information security of like what is being shared, and so they're.
Like, hey, don't till a ship bro Okay, Jeff Bezos owns that if you do.
AI Jesus, Ai Jesus, I'd just like to open up with my social Security.
Number, go ahead, by child and your date of birth. And look, I only ask as a joke because obviously I know. But for the record, let's for the record. Yes, why is your password mask? Yeah? So, I mean, I guess the point is to apparently give people a tangible experience with AI sort of spur conversations around the limitations and uses of the technology. The theologian who works at the church explained why he agreed to having this thing in there. He said, quote, what we're doing here is
an experiment. We wanted to launch the discussion by letting people have a very concrete experience with AI. That way we have a foundation for talking about it and discussing it with one another. He also said that there are there are some positives to AI Jesus, which is quote, he's accessible twenty four hours a day, so has the abilities that pastors don't.
So and you can also be sure he's not jacking off in there, which is more than we got for the pastors.
Yeah, right, okay, just want to throw this is not pastors who listen are going to be mad at me right now. But let's not pretend pastors are the same thing as Jesus. A okay, right right, B This is what my mother would say about anyone who was a religious figure. She would just say, oh, they're just people who don't want to work, so.
That those are the real bums God freaking leaning on this magic show.
Yeah, they say they talked to God a.
Priest, so uh yeah, yeah they did. My dad thought I was going to be a priest.
How did you lean on a kid to be a priest?
Like?
What did they see in you that they're like Jack? You might be a man of God. He told me after the fact.
He was like, maybe you were gonna head.
I was like, damn, bore down and pick up. Ye yeah were you.
Did you ever say anything as a kid that you can remember about having a conversation.
Speak to God?
Yeah?
My dad's very religious, and so I talk to him about religion stuff because that's what he wanted to talk about.
And so you know it.
Yeah, and also I just always wore a black shirt buttoned all the way up with a little wet Yeah.
That was it.
Just keep cutting out construction paper.
Well, I mean, there might be advantages to this AI Jesus, because at least this one like actually can hear you and respond, So it definitely has the advantage over the current ghost stories. Jesus, that's mostly just do it in your head.
What happened to creativity to do in your head?
Were outsourcing Jesus?
Well, I mean, ask Jesus for something and then you know, the answer appears because you just think about it all the time and then it comes to you and you go, Jesus, g this, Yeah, come on.
Now. The one thing we've seen people repeatedly enjoy about AI, there's like this acentific breakthrough the decoding of like protein, So like, I think they're gonna be very specific scientific uses for AI that are gonna be great. And then I think AI is going to be fun for people to play with. And that's what this feels like. It's like a one on one toy to play with. Like people really rushed into the like AI therapist thing, and that has like some very real problems mistakes to it.
But with like religion, you know they're gonna do this though some people replace actual you know, mental wellness with religion too true, and it is.
Like leaves a little bit more to like because he's just gonna be like, why don't you pray on it? That seems to be his advice, like looking at what people are saying, Like I got so much out of it. He just like told me that it's kind of up to me, and I just need to pray on it and be nice to people.
Right right, I mean, if that's what they need, And I just somehow got a twenty five dollars gift certificate to Amazon.
Right get.
To your point, Miles, though, you are correct. Because social services are so unavailable to so many people, they go to the church, and a lot of pastors and ministers are finding that they are they are social workers.
Yeah for sure, really and yeah, I listened to Joe Biden.
I use the cops for that person, he says. I.
We don't need to defund the police. We need to fund them more. There are therapists, there are counselors. They are daddy, and so I just leaned all the way in. I'm call nine one one.
Being like yep, she said it again is being said a little rude officer.
Officer, O'Malley, do you think? Do you think I should have to find his glasses?
What do you think? What do you think? Officer George hyper extended his knee. I'm not right, sorry, sorry, but no, they go ahead.
I'm just gonna say when I use Chat, I use chat GBT. I do use chat GBT pretty regularly. I don't pay for it. I use the just the open. And what do I use it for? Mostly writing marketing documents because I hate doing that. So I'll be like, hey, can you like write me a description of a live show that involves blah blah blah, And then we'll write
something and then I'll I'll change it. It's like perfect first draft instead of just staring at nothing and being like, I hate this, but I'm always weirdly polite to chat GBT, I think it. Thank you. This is so great because I am like, as the thing grows, I want it to think you.
Do you want to be on the protective scrolls? Yes, yes, of course I get that.
I don't.
I don't treat it like a machine. I treat it purposefully like.
A future oppressor. Yeah. Just think case, Just think case.
NBC is treating the Trump administration stink case.
I'm just gonna lay down now.
I think we should in lines of dial analogy against.
You never know.
Yeah, I mean, actually that has always been my least favorite thing anyone has ever said about that.
When you're like, I.
Can't believe this person. I hate them, I can't believe.
They do the between They're like, they've always been nice to me. I've always hate that person.
Die. Yeah, I just think again, as someone who went to like Lutheran and Catholic schools for their childhood, it feels like a slippery slope to turn to the toy. If the gamification of Jesus, like if this is more widespread, because you could see some we've seen versions of like AI priests and other things, kind of people fucking around with that. I just I wonder if like this actually just brings full on atheism to people, Like I don't know, Jesus is actually an AI on my phone? Dude.
Oh no, Hybrid churches, it's starting. No one goes to the office, nobody's going to go to church. They're just going to do it.
I'm their home.
And then yeah, and then someone's gonna buy up all those buildings and turn them into multimillion dollar luxury condos. Good job, everybody, pray pray to your AI Jesus as they take everything away from you, do.
You hear me?
Yeah?
Anyways, In news that's totally unrelated to that, we got Ai Santa. The company is selling phone calls with an AI Santa clause for the children, presumably because the real Santa is too busy, I guess obviously. So for fifteen dollars a pop, you can pay this company to just run a program that will seem like it knows who you are.
Yeah. O marketing real Yeah no, no, no, none of it. I just even like this marketing material, this like depiction of it for their like branding. It's like AI slop art too, like it's wild. I'm sorry, your chimney is also a belt on your home? What form of architecture is this again? And why does Santa only have three fingers on his right hand right? So Santa, Yeah, I do just want to hear.
So it says give a live call from get a live call from Santa, like Miles said, it's a house like very christmasy. There's snow on the roof, there's smoke coming out of like the roof where the chimney would be, but no chimney. And then there is where the chimney would be is a bell tower?
Yeah yeah.
And then again this is the thing that we've noticed now two episodes in a row, because we talked yesterday about how Coca Cola redid their holidays are coming at and it opens with the trucks breathing, like the trucks have smoke coming out.
Of their grill.
Grill yeah, yeah, bread because and now we have the house has like chimney smoke coming out of just like the corner next to where the chimney is.
And then yeah, like you.
Said, a bell tower. Also the image is Santa Claus approaching the house on foot, while a giant, like the iron giant sized Santa Claus, is standing next to the house. So two Santa is one normal size one that is the size of the iron Giant standing next to the house on a phone. It's kind of a phone call.
It's it's a take of God, He's omnipresent, right.
I think, taken slightly in a different context. It looks like this house is on fire and it's a warning thing. See there's one Santa that's running towards it to try to save the person that's in the window. And it's also reminding you to evil giant Santa. It's calling nine to one to one.
Okay, this going on? Norman bates his mother. Yeah, this thing, what is this aberration? And also the window frame apparently goes behind the person, like it's not an actual frame of the window. Oh yeah, I think that. I got to point out the typo, get a live call from Santa, create a memory, read that last forever.
That last forever. Everything is good. I gat so the the Jesus reviews were actually like pretty.
I was surprised.
It was so easy though it's a machine. It gave me so much advice. I liked weighing advice based on like the poundage. I like my advice by the pound. But in this case we have a reviewer who did the deal. I'm actually kind of impressed with how well the call went. And it didn't go well, but like so they told them what they wanted for Christmas. They
told them for a personal thing about themselves. They were like, hey, I just had a pet fish that passed away, which very easily could be you know, the things that I think my kids would tell Santa before a call might be like their petfish that died, and like a couple of things they wanted fun rings. It says Santa Claus on your phone, and he's calling from Maine for some reason. High up is this, STEFFI, This is Santa calling from the North Pole in Maine. I couldn't wait to talk
to you. How are you, my friend? And so the writer's like his voice was booming, jolly. Did it sound real? Not quite human like, but realistic enough it'll threw me off my guard. They're like, I'm good, Santa.
How are you?
I'm doing wonderfully, Thank you for asking. Steffy. The North Pole is bustling with excitement as the elves and I prepare for Christmas? Tell me, do you still have your pet?
Catch up? How are they doing?
The one thing they were told, the one thing Santa was told was fucking.
That this fish had died. Immediately, it is like, hey, how's your pey? How are they physically? Like? How are they doing? Child? Like?
This is supposed to be a conversation happening with the child.
I hope that this they get better on that, because you don't want that Ai sand to be like, how's your dad?
Yeah?
Exactly did you say, Santa? You fucking asshole. Wait, I want to hear it because that writer at the Daily Beast who did it uploaded the actual audio from the football just so you can kind of get a feel for this thing. He died.
I told him, I'm so sorry to hear that, Stephie. I know that Ketchup was a special part of your family. And he surely and then the audio cut.
Tell me, do you still have your pet? Oh?
That sounds like shure they brow wow.
No, he died.
Oh, I'm so sorry to hear that, Steffie. I know Ketchup was a special part of your family and he surely.
It discuts out?
He surely what Santa Ketchup was such a special poll of your family, And I know he brought you lots of joy. I hope you have fond memories to hold on to. Would you like to share one of your favorite memory with Ketchup?
It's just like, you know, this sounds like a fucking speaking spell. This sounds like shit.
It sounds like a home depot lawn ornament that has like vocal like sounds coming out of it.
It's like, you, loo, child, Wow, this is way worse than I thought.
Yeah.
I mean, I.
Gotta say, when you were just doing your dramatic reading, Jack, I was like, eh, forget about being a preacher. You a career happening right now?
Yeah? Right?
And this guy sucks so even more. You can hire me to call your kids fifteen dollars in the hour.
Oh my god, get ready to make some cash.
But yeah, it like, would you like to share a message of your dead pet that I just asked you about?
Is like such a week Like it really feels like you're in a fucking foam tree, you know, Like, whereas.
I'm sure he was special in a few.
Words, can you tell us, what your problem? Do you care to describe the day? Catch up? Passed away in great details?
Sent up?
It's kind of my king when he was flushed down.
Did you say goodbye?
Right?
And then it just cuts off?
Yeah, just then immediately cuts off. So anyway, uh ai, you know, magical people all around learning.
It's learning that this mistakes. The one thing this has is like, I mean, it's not inexhaustible time because obviously, as we know, it's burning down like chunks of the rainforest every time you use.
Something like this.
But like I would assume the thing is like, yeah, but we can just like the kids can talk and like the thing will interact and like it's a fun toy to play with. But like the toy or the Santa was like trying to get them off the line. They were like, all right, better go, better get going now, and they're like, wait, don't you want to ask what I want for Christmas?
All right, I'm good on that.
Like you spent so much of the call apologizing, I'm so sorry, Stephie. I definitely want to know what do you want for Christmas this year?
And then Santa Claus.
And then and then to the author, says I'd like. Then I heard nothing but the dial tone.
Santa had hung up.
Yeah, yeah, no, I definitely want to hear what you want for Christmas?
Don't you tell me? Hang up? More on that later. More on that later, asshole later. This is just so man, this is fifteen bucks is such a racket, because this is some shit you can do for free that you just absolutely you have a fucking wacky friend who likes to do bits, just have the fucking call and they can do it. They can say whatever the PHO said.
You're seventeen, dying mall, go to a dying mall, go see that, Santa.
I think.
I don't know if you know this, but I as a Jew, As a Jew, I wanted to see the mall Santa.
And my mom wouldn't let.
Me because that was just not part of our tradition. And I begged her because all of my friends were going. Begged her and begged her, and she finally said fine, and I was so excited, but I was afraid. And then when I got in there and sand was like, what would you like for Christmas?
Little girl?
I just went I'm Jewish, like I could not handle the pressure.
And he said that's okay, so am I.
Yeah, the greatest mall Santa ever. I wouldn't come up with that ship, you know what, Hey, I would have said, I'm so sorry, Oh fear. Uh yeah, would you like to talk about how hard it is to be Jewish?
I gotta gotta go. I thought your mom was gonna tell you that mal Santa's were also people who didn't want a real job.
Like, yeah, no, you know what she told me when I told her that Santa was Jewish? She told me she said, well, of course he is. Who else do you think works on Christmas?
She told me, God damn your mom great bars.
Bars Yeah, yeah, you know j C was jew too, So there you go.
Yeah, when I told my friend Santa was Jewish, they were mad.
They're mad. You got some calls from your mom, got some calls from some other angry parents. What do you fear? Just tell my daughter about Santa.
All right, let's take a quick break, we'll come back, We'll talk about some other bullshit. We'll be right back, and we're back. You have the sentence about kind of a psychological dynamic that I've found to be true that I thought was really important that you write a therapist friend of mine reiterates to me all the time that acting with agency is the primary way to avoid being traumatized by negative experiences. This is a big thing in
recovery from like addiction. There's like the serenity prayer that I think everybody has heard, where it asks for the courage to change the things you have power over. But I've had somebody who I've worked with pointed out it's actually like the reverse. A lot of the time, you change the things that need to be changed, and the courage comes from that. But you need you need that first action to build on and hopefully it's not an action that kind of meets with Yeah, like you were saying,
like manipulation or shame or dismissiveness. So I like that so far you've been kind of emphasizing building with people you know and trust to begin with, and then like plugging into existing existing groups. But yeah, doing so kind of in a well informed way.
Yeah. Yeah, Anyways, I thought that was cool.
Where you also talk about this need to de escalate conflict that isn't with the enemy. And one thing that's come up a few times in the aftermath of the election for me is this idea that I feel like we need to really in some political way that feels real, like target the mainstream Democratic Party and it like more specifically like not allow them to do the thing they do with activism. That is, basically, any anything that you are doing that doesn't like fall within the realm of
like neoliberalism is actually unrealistic and childish basically. But I guess I'm curious when you say de escalate conflict that isn't with the enemy, Like who is the enemy? Are you deciding that kind of person by person and just or group by group, or how are you thinking about that?
I make that decision conflict by conflict. If I find myself like kind of in a conflict, I have to think to myself, like, is this person my enemy? And sometimes even if they're like ideologically the same as me in surface ways, they might be my enemy, right if someone is trying to hurt me or my friends, right, you know. But but then even then I'm kind of like, on the other hand, I've.
Successfully de escalated conflicts with people who.
Are trying to hurt me physically, you know, And that is a better solution to that problem, right than if I had like beat them up or gotten beaten up, right. But I do think that I can't dictate for other people what counts as the enemy as much as like say, if you are in a conflict, just really saying yourself, is this person actually my enemy? And most of the time they're not. And it is interesting to me because overall people, individual people are unlikely to be my enemy.
There are individuals like just fascists, right, people who are like, I'm a fascist. I like fascism, right, But if they stop being fascists, they probably stop being my enemy. And I think we need to have like an off road for people to leave hate groups and things like that. But there's also I live in like a center right
area right the I live in West Virginia. There is not a county in West Virginia that went for Harris, which is depressing because West Virginia exists because it's the part of Virginia that didn't want to die over slavery, right and you know, actually died on the other side, like fighting against But it is what it is. It is now a center right state or a deep right state,
depending on where you're at. But I don't believe I don't conceive of my neighbors as my enemies, and I'm grateful that they do not appear to conceive of me as their enemy either, right, But the Republican Party is my enemy, and yeah, frankly, the Democratic Party is also my enemy, at least structurally. I believe that the Democratic Party exists to co opt protest energy and like movement energy and turn it into this thing that has never proven once that it can shift things to the left.
All it can do is slow, not even stop slow right word creep right, right right. And so they are doing the work that I oppose, and I want to oppose it, and so I'm going to organize to oppose it. And I have enemies on the left. I specifically strongly disagree with authoritarian like communist tendencies, and not here isn't the word communism. The problem here for me is the
word authoritarian. Like I and I'm not trying to tell anyone in the crowd what to think, but I, like I am opposed to people trying to advocate for a totalitarian society, regardless of what it's.
Called, you know.
And but but then the people who are necessary sometimes the people who are arguing for that are could be fellow travelers, and they've just been convinced that there's this strategy that will magically work that has never worked, you know, And and so enemy is weird. It is weird to have enemies. But I also don't want to be like there is no enemy. We're all friends, right.
Sometimes hug everyone, Thanksgiving?
Yeah, right, Like you were saying earlier, like, hey, it doesn't necessarily mean rumbling in the streets, but like sometimes it does, right, And like, maybe you don't want to go rumble in the streets, dear listener, but you should support the people who beat up fascist in the streets because overall, fascism is a coward's ideology. And once they get beat up in the streets, they stop coming into
the streets, and then they stop building successful movement. That is not the only or the most effective strategy with which to confront them. But the people who go and fight them are my friends, you know.
Right, Yeah, I'm like, because right now I think you're we're beginning to see a lot of misidentifying of quote unquote enemies because you know, because the Democratic Party is in total free fall and you have people who were on the verge of like sort of seeing the light about being like this party is actually truly ineffective, and it just feels it's the really good at empty promises
and co opting that. Like twenty twenty, it was like we need to do something about the police, and then Joe Biden's like we should just be a little bit nicer to them, and you're like, wait, what the fuck?
And you're like this just makes your head spin. And then there's this version too where you see a lot of people who are now from like the you know, sort of establishment side of the party, people who are like blue no matter who types immediately now going after again, we're seeing like the woke is broke, like why was there, why were we trying? Why are we bothering to protect vulnerable people like the trans community or what or the people who are like, hey, Arab voters, I hope you're
happy now because look who Trump just appointed. Yeah, you know, And that's where I'm seeing, like, that's that's a that's gonna be a huge setback for sort of like bring like creating a larger coalition. But the way those people speak at the moment, they're not ready. I think for the bigger picture, they are still very much hyper focused on the pain of the election loss and are just trying to be like it wasn't because of the policies, it's because of them. Don't ask me to interrogate what
the policies are, because I'm not. I'm just not interested in that conversation. What how do you like? I guess historically when you see like sort of a party that was in power, seemed like it was quote unquote doing the right things, then collapsed to sort of like usher in fascism, what happens to like the scraps of like the people that were supporting that party, And like how important is it for to find to remind people of like what the larger issue is because more people you
see more people blaming than system blaming. Yeah, And I think that's what's interesting, is like the needles, definitely a lot of people, plenty of people are blaming the system, but it feels like more people are blaming other people at the moment.
I think that's a really important point that people are blaming people instead of systems. And I think overall we need to try and be doing like coalition building and stuff with people who are looking to do coalition building, who are looking to find to work pluralistically, like to you have this kind of a tolerance paradox. You know that if you tolerate intolerance, then you lose your tolerance
or whatever. Right, And I think that that's the same is true for like working ideologically pluralistically, where there are so many people that we can work with who have no problem not trying to dominate the movement and tell everyone what to do. You know, in an activist spaces we see this really easily, where like the average church group isn't trying to convert you, you know, if they're if they're activists, if they're Christian nationalists, they're trying to
convert or kill you, right. But the average like we're the Catholics of the Protestants who bring food to the border and give it away. Like those people aren't trying to like save your soul. They're just trying to feed you.
And because they understand those as related you know, or in their own theological understandings, and so you can work in coalition, you could they would work with like Satanists for feeding migrants, right, And and so it's I know, I'm kind of only going with half of what you were saying, and I apologize for that.
No no, no, no, no no.
But but to the other part of your question about what happens when totalitarian takes over. One of the things that I think that people aren't quite as much as like, my goal is to spread hope, but not ignorant hope, right. My goal is to we have to soberly look at how bad this situation is so that we can successfully confront it. And one of the things that could happen and has happened a lot, is that when totalitarians and
totalitarianism comes in, it comes in fast. You know, when Hitler came to power, he was arresting his enemies of the night he came to power, right, And that's not always the case. I actually don't think that's going to be the case in the United States. That is, I'm still in the United States, you know, like making my decisions based on the fact that I don't think that Trump is going to come to power and then immediately
arrest all the leftist podcasters in the progressives and whatever. Right, he might criminalize a bunch of stuff and he will make organizing hard, and he will start But on the other hand, there actually are already groups he's planning to criminalize and do horrible things too, And so it's almost like self important for like for those of us who are citizens to be like, oh, well, he might do the following. He's like, he said, which very large group of people he wants to put into camps.
He doesn't mean it. We've all learned. Yeah, he tells us the horrible thing he's about. Oh wait a second, Yeah, he always does.
He's done it every time. That's right.
He's actually the most politician we've had in this country for a very long time. Someone's going to use that out of context. He he tries to hold to his campaign promises. Right, they're monsters. He's like, I'm going to be a monster, and everyone's like, hooray, He's going to be a monster, and then he yeah, is so. And then of course all of the people who are going to go benthany And I really like that framing of it.
I think that's a good framing of it. There's no safety in that, Like, there's no Yeah, there's all of the people who voted for him and are like now going to all of their stuff is going to be twice as expensive, you know, it's anyway, whatever.
Yeah, you could kill it on eBay as a seller.
He just bought a ton of like some Chinese made stuff and yeah, just something that something else that you've raised that I think the election results should probably have made clear to a lot of people.
But you're right that moderate reforms are won by making radical demands. If you demand moderate reforms, you generally get nothing.
And it just also it seems like the suppressing of the protests helped cause the democratic kind of cratering that we just saw, both the suppressing of the pro Palestinian protests on college campuses, but just protests in general by the Democratic Party is like something they feels like they've been pretty hostile towards and thus it's been harder for people on the left to build kind of community and
sort of the structures that we're talking about needing. But give examples of like the two types of movements, like the radical demands versus like the ones that make moderate demands.
Yeah, like, yeah, I could do that.
But first of your point about the suppressing protests, I think the Democratic Party is very good at building off of the momentum of protests and from my point of you co opting it, but that's not the only way to view it, and so yeah, of course, but then they want to be the only adults in the room. So when they're in charge, everyone is a bunch of children if they protest against them, and so yeah, of
course it doesn't work. Like I think, if they were smarter, they would have been like, we too, support free Palestine without doing anything.
They would have to.
All they would have to do is give lip service, right, And you see Biden try to pull this at the last minute, being like thirty days and then later being like just kidding, I don't care.
Do whatever you want.
Psych Yeah, but in terms of radical and moderate demands, okay, the abolition of legal chattel slavery in the United States, it reformist abolition. They tried that for a century or so.
And the primary argument that they would make is they came up with all these like you know, they saw it as like very mature and compromising positions where they're like, well, what if we slowly buy people out of slavery, Like what if we allow you know, we have to of course, we have to pay back the slave owners, right, you know, they of course need to because their property has been
taken away from them. You knows, all of these arguments that they made for a very long time, and now some of the reforms that they've pushed for, I will say, actually did accomplish things like stopping importation of enslaved people. Had some impact, but it very clearly took a zealot, right, Well, it took a lot of zalots and a lot of blood to stop legal chattel slavery in the United States.
It took a whole ass war, and it took the demand we're going to kill you if you don't stop enslaving people, right, that was the demand that made any of this possible. And what's funny is that they actually could have The South could have at that point probably sued for peace in a way that there was like, okay, we accept the compromise, pay us for what we could have,
pay us for our losses, and we'll stop. Like that was a that was an offer that they that was on the table more or less, right, And so they could have gotten the moderate thing, but instead they were like wanted to go whole hog.
And got killed. And to help them.
But another example of this, like gaining moderate things by being a radical group is you have the Young Lords, which is a Puerto Rican radical movement comparable to the Black Panthers in the nineteen sixties and seventies, and they were in Chicago and New York City primarily. They're actually still around, but they're like sort of Heyday, and some of the things that they accomplished are really tangible. We have the Patient's Bill of Rights. They did a lot
of healthcare focused work, right. They took over hospitals time and time again, well maybe only twice, I don't remember, but they did it a bunch.
Right.
They would like go in carjack X ray vans and bring them into neighborhoods like where minorities were living, because the x ray vans were only going into these white neighborhoods in order to search for tuberculosis and stuff in the community.
Right.
And they also got trash pick up in New York City. They completely got it overhauled. And it wasn't that they formed the coalition of concerned voters who care about trash pick up, Could you please change the way that trash is picked up. They just started collecting all the trash and burning it in the streets. And then they and then instead of doing it in their own neighborhood, they drag it out to like the busy intersections where like the rich people had to drive, and then they would
just throw street parties and burn all the trash. And finally the city was like, all right, we'll we'll start doing this. What they were fighting for was a free Puerto Rico, right right, And they didn't get that, right, but by trying to get that, they got an awful lot, and they got stuff that people who were asking for moderate demands weren't going to get ever.
Right, Yeah, because in your sub steck you also point to the summer of twenty twenty like it rightly. It wasn't like we're like we want Joe Biden, so we're out here, you know, right yeah, because people are in the streets being like, we need to defund this shit. These people like we have authoritarian anti black like racism, like with people who are have been given and the blessing by the state to take people's lives. We need to fucking end this. The police phrase ever come up
with the swamps? I know about it, LUSA, but like he does this, like you know, that was a point where we were asking there were a lot of people came together to ask for these larger reforms. You got it in varying degrees in some places. But what it did do in the end was fully blunt the momentum of a Trump reelection, which in that moment, Yeah, that that was that was a that was a that was a nice thing that we got. That we had an end at least to the Trump administration. Now, the co
opting definitely happened. What I mean, we saw it all the time. All I can think about is Nancy Pelosi with the can take cloth on and the rotunda and I'm like, it's over. They did it. That was it.
Yeah, and it's worse than it was before.
Right exactly. But to that point is if enough people clearly become incensed about a thing and come together to do that something thing, things happen, whether directly or indirectly. And I think that was one of the biggest takeaways for me reading the sub stack was when people are able to act collectively, there are going to be results.
It might not be the intended top of the list thing, but other things do come from it that end up being somewhat of a positive or at least begin to beget you know, create conversations that you have like in LA, where the city controller became someone who's like, my whole thing now is just posting police budgets on the billboards, so people of LA understand like where the money's going. Wow, And you just get these like sort of smaller things
and more people become a little bit aware. And I think that's the thing that we sort of have to sort of emphasize for ourselves, is to know that the time will come where we will need to sort of figure out a way that how we're going to contribute to make something better, and that it is possible, and you can do it in a way that is specific to whatever your level or ability is of whether if your ability you're you're like, whether it's physical abilities or
just whatever your your comfort level is with being in physical space or putting yourself in a situation where you might have to be confronted by law enforcement, et cetera. But there are many ways to do this, so it doesn't have to feel like, well, it's either I'm putting on a uniform and I'm out there in the streets
doing my thing cracking heads. No, No, that there is a there are many other ways, and I think it's important that we get together, identify within our own communities or like we all need to talk about this, like if I need medication, do you like, like what? How far out can you get? How far can you drive? Do you have a generator? Do you have these kinds of skills? Who does Oh? Are they down too? Do they think like us? Okay?
Cool?
Now we have fifteen people, and among us we have an engineer, we have someone who has a medical background, we have someone with the skills for horticle whatever. It is that you begin to understand that they're like, collectively, we can actually do a lot of things will keep us safe while also keeping an eye on the larger goal, which is to, you know, again, try and blunt the momentum of fascism in the country. So I think that's the one thing I hope a lot of people are
able to sort of get in touch with it. It's as easy as you need it to be, but the hard bit is just to take that first step, and you can take it as comfortably as you want, but make sure you are focusing on how you either you're going to keep yourself safe, your friends safe, whatever, and then from there so many other things can branch off, and it doesn't have to look like you know, whatever the scary thing is in your mind that might be putting you off from wanting to take action, because it's
very easy and you'll find many other like minded people out there.
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 to Miles. He needs your validation. Folks. I hope you're having a great weekend and I will talk to you Monday. Bye.