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. We do like to let the listeners, and you're welcome for this listeners. Let the listeners get to know us a little bit better by telling them some stuff we
think is overrated, some stuff we think is underrated. Paul, do you want us to you want to kick us off with oted?
Oh my god, speaking of this weekend? You know it's overrated history. We're not learning from it? Why are we studying?
Ittill? We are?
Are the point if you can do a Nazi salute in the middle of everything and the ADL is like, well he's just in.
Threes are just an awkward gesture done very enthusiastically.
Yeah. So, I'm like everybody's like, we got to learn from the mistakes of history. I'm like, I feel like just current empathy isn't working. So like, how are we try to outsmart history? Sorry, history heads, I'm getting dumber as we speak. Yeah, fuck history, I care cares about where I came from or what happened or why we have the values we care about.
Yeah, I feel that my overrated is uh giving apps five stars? Like every time. It feels like every time I encounter an app, Like I'm using Microsoft Outlook as an email client because it is mandated by my workplace, and they ask if I want to rate them, and out of curiosity, I like check. I was like, what what kind of ratings are is Microsoft Outlook? Kind of
ratings is Instagram getting it's it's five stars? Like across the board, Like this industry that we are now aware is trying to take away our free will is successfully take away our free will and is now openly in league with the Trump administration. They're like on the veranda as he's getting sworn in, Like we're just giving them
default five stars. Like I feel like we need to recalibrate our grading curve when it comes to to the apps that these massive companies are putting out, like start with a baseline of zero, and if they do something that suggests that they're not going to try to rob you a free will or like destroy democracy in order to gain power, they like get up to one one star.
You know, I think there should be multiple like axes on which you can rate it, so you could be like, okay, yeah it's super fascist, but also I'm still addicted to it, so like you know what I mean, don't take it away, but like change it.
You know.
Yeah, yeah, that's what I was trying to figure it, Like, is this just because it's the equivalent of like ask it like a drug dealer being like, hey, could you rate and review drugs before I give you your nextra drug?
That is so funny. They're like, let me cater this algorithm to you in this myth.
Yeah.
Yeah. Exactly. Twenty seven million people have rated Instagram and the average rating is an A. It's four point seven out of five. That's ninety four percent.
What if every standing meeting Mark Zuckerberg walks in and he's like, how are we doing, folks, and they're like, well, the ratings are still at.
Five keep going. Yeah. I mean, I think like it got started out at a real high level. I guess like when people were just like, gee, whiz apps, what can't the tech industry do? And now they're just like still there, Like Microsoft Outlook, a fucking email client that like most people who use it are like, this is really frustrating and like doesn't work that well. Is that four point eight out of five? That's like almost an
A plus? Like what why are we? Why do we grade like we're the hotel management department at like Alabama giving like all the football players just like good grades to like get their eligibility up. It's just Yeah, I don't know if it's goodwill left over from the tech industry from like two thousand and eight, but I feel like we need to just say enough is enough and start like giving these apps zero stars.
They aren't immigrant uber drivers, Okay, we need to really judge them right.
Uh by the way. Uh. Brian the Editor has gone to the Google play Store to check out the reviews for the app Covenant Eyes, which has actually is actually earning a meager four point six, which is like an A minus. Actually coveted eyes. Are you aware of polity of Covenant Eyes? This is the app. So, this is the app that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson uses to keep him himself and his teenage son from jacking off to internet porn. And we covered it when it was first in house.
For internet porn.
Yeah, it's chastity Belt for internet porn, you essentially have spyware installed on your phone that will tell on you the second you look at porn to another like partner, another like accountability partner, and it's uh, it's apparently working for these ten points, like basically eleven thousand people who have reviewed it as getting an as you'd think that there would be more people being like, fuck, this thing just told my dad that I was jacking off like that.
I know they're like, we hope it wouldn't work. I feel like, if you have a problem like that, going to like another app isolation thing isn't the best solution. Like, I feel like, amidst all of these issues that you're having, maybe like connect with people who could help, like human beings, Yeah, who could help you, rather than being like punish me. That might be a kink. What if they're like if getting punished by Covenant eyes, they're like, yeah, I been a bad boy.
I do feel like in the popular consciousness, at least, people who are obsessed with sexual purity also tend to be the people who are like in a dark room on their knees, like whipping their own back, you know. Yeah, so uh, Bran the editor does not work brand. The editor has pulled this quote from the reviews. Uh, this was very helpful in my pursuit of sexual purity. So yeah, okay, virgin job, it's fine to be a virgent. You're fine.
If you're a virgin, it's fine. It's fine. Weird times, I say, we stopped giving the tech industry the benefit of the doubt and start grading them, Uh, taking into account what they're doing to human civilization. Jody, what is something do you think is underrated?
Uh? Well, my underrated it relates to something I've been noodling with lately, and I'm curious.
Relating just electric guitar.
My underrated is drinking.
Uh huh.
So I've been thinking the cold No, it's related a little too. Uh, it's related a little to dry January going on all around. And then you know, the Surgeon General recently issued that the sort of warnings on alcohol and basically said like no drinking is good for you, and or any drinking is bad for you. And then just in general this you know, these kind of stats and just this cultural thing that we all see of
like drinking has diminished considerably, especially among young people. And I've been thinking of the last couple of weeks about that trend. And on the one hand, I like, you know, I've cut back my drinking a fair amount, and I think, like drinking is pretty harmful. But I've also been thinking that maybe that the like decline in drinking might be a symptom of or a symbol of, like the people
called the loneliness epidemic. But like, I really feel like there's a chance that it, like young people aren't not drinking because they're like making healthy choices, but because they're at home on screens alone, and I.
Think that's like, yeah, by themselves.
You know, And so like, I don't know, It's just been this interesting kind of thing I've been trying to puzzle through because there's part of me that's like, yeah, drinking is really harmful, but then this part of me it's like, yeah, we need to go out and like grab a couple of drinks with friends, Like we need more of that. We are very isolated from one another.
So I'm just you know, I would also like there should be more options. I think things being open longer should be more, like should have more options like juice bars and coffee places. Like people were talking about how we need more twenty four hour like coffee places or whatever, like where people can go hang out and just like chat and have things be open. I think, like drinking is sanctioned at night, you know, and so those places
stay open. But I think if we just had more like what is it called, like third third space spaces, yeah, even you know, I think a lot of people do stuff in like parks and things, but they're not always in the best situations or available or whatever. So I agree, Like, I get what you're saying about the loneliness thing. I'm like, we all need. And people were talking about how we don't have enough house parties and then we were like, we don't own houses, Like what are we supposed to do?
Yeah?
Yeah, but yeah, man, nine years ago, I would have agreed with you so hard on this one. But we should drink more, too hard in fact, and now I don't drink anymore. But uh yeah, I agree that. I think I think it's good to have a place something that gets us out. I think I think social isolation is a major problem. Yeah, And it sounds like America's top doctor, the Surgeon General, caught the woke mind virus and needs to be stopped that's exactly what I do. Just want to say, like, this is too bad.
We can't be vaccinated against the Pokemond.
Oh my god. I mean listen, I've got a couple of podcasts I'm gonna recommend for you that I kind of function as a vaccine.
By the way, who is Joe Rogan? And I'm kidding.
I will say, I don't think there could be a more New York take that is anti La than you talked to to La. People are more like yeah, man, if I if I hadn't gotten off at nine years ago and switched over to meditation, I would agree with you.
I suggested juice Bars.
Juice Bars probably did suggest juice Bars.
Another smoothie at Arawa.
That's right, that's right. We didn't do an overrated Do you do you have something you thinks overrated?
Mo?
Overrated email? I think bring back the postal service.
Yeah.
I love sending postcards and letters. Yeah, I would like. And now it's like I'm disappointed my mail is all junk all the time. I would prefer I get real mail, and uh, I don't need email. It's it's also ninety nine percent junk.
Capitalism really just breaks everything, just ruins everything moves.
Yeah, let's just wait, I haven't. Let's just do it a little bit more and see if it works out. Let's just do I.
Was just thinking about like how bad the internet, like just like shopping for something online and like that they're like the first five results if you're shopping for something.
Well, I hate now how they've made it so when you google anything, the AI results come up first.
Yeah. I have an example in today's episode of this.
It's sociating because I don't and then like ever and there's no way to turn it off.
And people don't notice, like people just because it looks like just the regular answers or like an article or something, so people I don't know. And also like.
Creeping the Wikipedia. Yeah, just information and scraping it and getting something partially wrong.
Usually if we could like take today's Internet and show it to ourselves in the year two thousand and eight, we would be like, what happened? What's the I think is this?
I think we'd be like, oh my god, we live in smart house. And I feel like people pay attention to that movie. It was ahead of its time.
It's everything, so you just have to like, I mean, there are tricks for getting around it, but like it is by default just coming out.
I have an idea to rebuild society, which is to go take it back to nineteen ninety nine, the last good year. I think it's it's just y two k rebuild plan.
But like with the progressive social stances we have now.
Yeah, maybe like two thousand and three. I think it's like I want to cap it at digital cameras. Yes, cell phones, but no smartphones.
Right, which seems to be the direction things are headed.
Like I watched this clip of Cameron Diaz talking about how she was on a press tour for Charlie These Angels with Drew Barrymore and Lucy Lou and they land in Japan and everybody's holding up phones and they were like, what are they doing? And they were and the person that they were with was like, they're taking pictures of you.
They can do it on their phones. And they all have like the realization at the same time that they like it's over for them, like they'll never have a moment of peace again or be able to do anything without somebody knowing, like they all discovered camera phones at the same time.
Yeah, But then Cameron Diaz retired. Wisely, she just retired, but she retired for a long time. She did the Jena Marbles. She was like, you know what, I'm good. I made the men love that.
Cameron is actually short for a camera phone, that is.
Yeah.
I still remember I like pitch. I worked for my job after Pool, What the Soho House was like? Working for ABC News, and I pitched a story about like how guys like we're gonna have phones, We're gonna have cam camera is fucking everywhere, Like think about how weird that's going to be. And they're like, yeah, I don't know, man, this doesn't seem like a news story. Get the fuck.
Yeah.
I remember the first time I saw somebody use a digital camera and show me, like, look, you can see what the picture looks like?
Yeah, right, like what can see it immediately?
It does make you feel like we had to walk eight miles through the snow telling people like no, you had to go develop the photos and you didn't know if any of them would turn out even like vaguely good or even just like you could see them, some of them would just be bad.
Yeah, that's so crazy because I was born in twenty fourteen, so like my mom her ultrasound was an iPhone.
Of course you went to the three D sound imaging at the galleria.
Ye, I'm always like, what, let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. And we're back, and Chris, we do like to ask our guests. Also, what's something you think is overrated?
Oh?
I do that, man, I forgot that that was so deep or so sad when I just brought up that, I forgot that was your underrated that Yeah, that sucks dad or whatever. Oh oh good, death overrated. First of all, I'm thirteen years sober today. If anyone wants to reach out to me about sobriety, I'm always open to that. I also used to have a really good time drinking, so I'm not you know, I just can't do it anymore. But I'm not like, if you do drink, you know,
and you're having fun, that rules. I wish I could drink, because now seems like it'd be a really good time to drink. Yeah, if you were good at it, but I'm not. So I've been sober for thirteen years and so I'm very grateful for the support. I'm grateful for the zeitgeist for allowing me to talk about it, even though it's not the most entertaining topic all the time. I'll never forget that. Remember the live one Jack where
we had that one about the year two thousand. Yeah, and you asked me like it was in person, and and and we had the chat in front of us on a big screen, and it was like blazing by all the like hello Jack or whatever, just a converse. Remember they like all this shit going by. Yeah, And I said Jackie's I said. They said, what's overrated? I said, alcohol and some I just saw a comment that just said I paid ten dollars to go to an AA meeting,
which I saw and I said, I'm so sorry. If I was still drinking, I'd be so angry right now. So uh, anyway, but if you are having any trouble, please dm me on Instagram or whatever. I'm happy to talk anytime. Yeah, but overrated, I would say looking at maps, because I will tell you I went to I did a show on the way to Chicago in Kirksville, Missouri, and it was absolutely a blast. But if I had known where Kirksville, Missouri was, I would never have gone. Yeah,
because I don't. I was like Missouri, how far can it be.
Just faced like, I'll stop by that stay on my way to others. State is uh, yeah.
Well here's the problem. Was like, it's not how far Kirksville was, but that I I just on my own decide it was on the way to Chicago.
It's not.
Yeah, So I like, they kept saying, we can't believe you came. We can't believe you came. And I was like, I don't see what the big deal is. It's on the way to Chicago, and they said, no, it's not. When I found that out, but it ended up being because it was eight hours to Kirksville from Nashville. I was thinking of Saint Louis was like the top of the state or something, so that's five hours. So I had no idea it was eight hours. Yeah, but I
don't care. I'm down for an adventure. That's the other thing is like I want to kind of know where I'm going, but I find out when I put it in the machine. You know, So eight hours. But then I didn't check what happens from Kirksville to Chicago. So I said to my friends in Chicago, like I'll be done in Kirksville, Like probably morning of Thursday, so I'll be.
Up you think that's like thirty five forty men or whatever it is Monday.
I was like, I'll be up there in like three and hours hours or whatever. And then I looked at the thing. It's like six hours.
Another six yeah, and that's when it really get to you, the second leg of the trip.
But it was so great. And I don't want to hype Kirksville, but everywhere I go, I want to move there if there's like one nice person there, because especially I'm so fucking mad at Nashville. So I'm like, oh boy, oh boy, this place rules. Maybe I'll move here.
And they're like, well, yeah, you should know.
For they were like, all forty people want to move out, all forty people.
The forty people in this room are the only cool forty people.
We all know each other by name.
Also, if you come, you have to bring a woman. Oh Jesus, they're like, there are no do not come here single.
Yeah, it's like a club. They're like, I.
Mean they're just telling filling me in, like, hey, this isn't near Chicago. I don't want to move here. But I had so much fun because it's a farm town that has a university and and they had a great college radio station that was like playing M and M and shit. It was fun, so fun, you know, it felt like it felt like and I am not opposed to finding small communities, like moving somewhere where you can feel fucking sane, you know. So I don't think that
that is self preservation. There's no shame in like being like Nashville is becoming a you know, a venture capital nightmare. If I'm just trying to figure out, like I could fight that. I ran for office, but I'm not gonna win. I am not gonna win that battle. Nashville wants it to be. The powers that be in Nashville are not this is I'm not gonna nobody's turning this around. So I was just like Kirksville. Maybe not, you know, it's not as close to Chicago as I thought.
But but anyway, maybe maybe you have a nice little apartment there where rent is two hundred and seven.
Yeah, six guys got together and rented a storefront in the old like town square that used to sell like grain and stuff, and they just rent a storefront and have shows in there. They just put up some Christmas lights and they have a coffee maker and it was amazing and they had a great band that played. And it turns out that Truman University in that area is
like a liberal arts college. Like it was a public school, so it was cheap, but it was a liberal arts model, so it was like kind of like a way for people couldn't afford a fancy you know, go to fucking Harvard or I don't.
Know what a liberal art school is, you know what I mean, Like it was like.
An artsy college for at a public price. So that's interesting. And then on top of that, an hour away in Iowa. That's how close I was. I was like, oh, I'm right by, No, it's right near Nashville.
Yeah, Iowa.
So Iowa has a town called Fairfield, Iowa that's the center of transcendental Meditation. It was like built around that. That was an hour away from Kirksville. So I didn't really know. There was like these little like sort of actual outposts in like I mean, there aren't that many, you know, and they're like the outpost is forty people, you know, and they're all here and they're all dudes.
Yeah, But anyway, there are cool towns. So don't great land that aren't like the Big three like cities and that have amazing people in them.
You know, So load up your debit card and don't look at maps. There you go, just just drive, get extra couple of tanks of gas that you didn't know about.
All right, let's uh, let's get into just real quick. I wanted to talk about We're at the one week anniversary of Biden's last minute Equal Rights Amendment statement, his like big flourish as he left office. That feels like it's kind of a good metaphor for his his whole thing, his whole administration. So he declared that the Equal Rights Amendment is now quote, the law of the Land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law, regardless
of their sex. And so a lot of people pointed out that this, like implied in this was that he was then going to order the Archivist of the United States to publish the Equal Rights Amendment. That was like the actual like physical thing that needed to happen, like the follow up to be like, yeah, so this is
what I'm doing. A lot of people have also pointed out, like Trump would have probably found a way to overturn this, and he like couldn't have necessarily gotten away with it, but like making the statement suggested that he had like thought through that and like done some legwork to make these things possible now, and instead, not only had he not done that leg work, not like worked with because his own Department of Justice had previously ruled like that
he couldn't do this, and so when he made the statement, people are like, oh shit, he like worked with the DOJ and like got them to like on board. So didn't do that. So hadn't even like done that work and then didn't do the follow up call with the look, I don't know what the fucking archivist is like, I don't know anything about that, but like presumably the Biden,
the top people in the president's cabinet and staff should know. Yeah, they were like, our position is he said it, so the archivist should just publish it because of that thing he said, just shirking all responsibility for what happens next. So essentially he made this big statement to quote I think it was a Jezebel article. The declaration quote doesn't mean shit, and nothing happened, and it just I don't know.
It seems like he has a futility fetish. Like I remember multiple times during his presidency where he would like say he was doing a thing and then not be able to do the thing and then be like, what the well, you know what am I supposed to do? My hands are tied, and in this case, I don't. I don't know. I remember it. With regards to student
debt forgiveness. I know he did do a lot of student debt forgiveness, but when it came to like predictable pushback from the Supreme Court and Republicans and businesses, and then, you know, the place that it was most obvious was like with Israel, where he spent the year and a half like talking about how poed he was that net and Yahu wouldn't listen to him, Like it's like he thinks he's getting like a's for efforts on all of
these things. And yeah, I think this is how you get to a place where not just the extremely rich think authoritarian authoritarianism is a good idea because it like allows them to be corrupt and continue getting richer. But like, also it seems like a bunch of people think authoritarianism is a good idea because you have just lived through a bunch of presidencies, whereas the world literally burns, the president keeps like throwing his hands up and being like
what am I supposed to do? Or in the case of Obama, like bailing out Wall Street and like making fucking people pay for the bailout with taxes, while after running as like the Hope and Change candidate, like it's.
That I cried when he was elected, I'm so happy, yeah, and then I felt totally ripped off.
Yeah, I mean, it's just it's been bad, bad times for the brand of like the US president getting shit done, and so with like I just I think that's important context for like what we're seeing now where Trump is just like, yeah, I'm going to be a fucking dictator, and you know, a bunch of albeit racist people seem to like be like hell yeah, let's let's let's see where we're going with it.
Well, it also feeds into conspiracy theories because why in the world, if this, if the Democrats were so upset about Trump being an existential threat, why in the world didn't they go all out to pass every executive order, every single possible thing in the last few months. And they didn't. They didn't do fucking anything. They've packed up, and I think the Democrats kind of acted like, well, we tried to teach these dumb ass racists and idiots
what it's like, you know. We tried to show that this is the most pragmatic way to be, is the way we are being. We have to like, you know, like but see you later. You know what we did our part. We can't help if everybody's an idiot, Like, see you guys later, have fun, Like we're just gonna retreat to Martha's vineyard where we already lived, right, I mean, I think it's Pod Save America, which I'm even mad.
I'm so mad at Pod Save America. And I don't even ever watch it or really have never seen it. I've seen just bits of it, and I want to fuck.
I just want to.
I just can't believe. You know, you can't say Pod Save America when you're the ones who fucked America, right, You're the guys who fucking put Obama in office, and as in a way a trick, like as a trick. I mean, I don't know if Obama was used, but they wouldn't allow him to do hope and change if he was really wanting to right. You know, I just feel like a combination. It feels like it was a combination, but it does.
I do know.
Like one of the things that it's annoying about our Democratic leaders and also what we see with the Republican leaders that come into office, whether it is through Congress or the presidency, is the fact that you know, it's
a lot. It feels like it's a lot of talk talk talk, talk talk for your side apparently, and then on the left side, with the leaders that are in office, it's all to talk, no follow through, and they are trying to placate to both sides in a way that doesn't work because you they're never gonna they're never gonna like what you are are doing, like and I know it's more complex and nuanced than that, but what that allows him to do is to just like what Biden
did throughout this whole administration, is I'm gonna do this and then make a hot half ass try at it and then never fucking do it or it doesn't go all the way through. And it's like, Nigga, you've been in office for ninety five fucking years, you know how this game is, like, you know, you know, like this isn't new to you. So and so what that means is like if I do something and I know what the outcome is, but I'm doing it to make the people who are ignorant to the process think that I'm
doing something, I'm being manipulative. Yeah, like and that's what it feels like. That's what Biden did for four years. It was just like mass manipulation to the people who put him in office.
And was that his intention, do you think? Or was that something that he just couldn't help but do because he was too in front.
Yeah, that's what I'm trying to figure out, Like is it is it like a thing where he's letting himself off the hook by being like, look, I just did this thing, and I tried, I tried my best, and like he's I'm gonna go down in history as that tried my best president. Or if he was literally thinking that he could get up there and people were so like not savvy and checked out that they would just be like there he did the thing.
You know, Because here's the thing with Obama and I'm not excusing Obama. Look, I love you, I'm a black man. We had a black president I'm from Chicago. We had a Chicago president. That will always mean something to me, Like, it will always mean something to me, and anybody who says it shouldn't consuck the deepest levels.
Of my dick.
But like, and there's say and there's some deep levels. But and that's not me excusing all the bullshit that he did. Like I'm two things could be true. So like, he also was severely disappointing. But but the one thing about Obama in relation to Biden is that Obama, a lot of people forget, had just hit the political scene four to six years before he was elected president, which
is a very short time in politics. Now. The reason I'm bringing that up is when you talk about a Biden and you talk about somebody who's been in politics since eighteen forty two, like you would think that he knows how this works, and you would think that he's entrenched in a way where he's above the games and the manipulation of the politics around him, as opposed to
an Obama. Like Chris you brought this up, was he used in a way, And like, I do think there's some elements of that because he was brand new in politics. He wasn't a career politician at that point. Now he learned it really fucking quick, but he wasn't like a career politician like Biden was. And so Biden when somebody like Obama runs on the hope and change and then like the rug is pulled out from underneath you, like there is of maybe that's who you were and also
you got played by the people around you. When somebody like Biden runs on hope and change and this nigga's been in office for seven decades and then you pulled a rockmount under us, then you are the problem with my friend, Like you should know. You know this game. You you're supposed to have all these relationships like people who were born and you were a senator and now are working with you.
Like he like, come on, bro, Like the reason he talks like that, like says malarkey and ship like that and calls people jack is because like when he started, that was the equivalent of like riz and like you know cool gen zealing go Like that was that was cool stuff that people were like, man, this guy's pretty edgy. He's corn pop story never right, Yeah, that was him just like reverting to like straighten he first came.
In sounded out of like it was out of a literate little abner.
They're like this new generation of politicians like Joe Biden grew up, you know, with their fancy, new fangled habits of like hitting a hoop down the street with a stick, Like he's you know, he says things like malarkey. His his smack is so I forgot about who never forget?
Who knows if I'm not mistaken, Like if he's not the longest, he's in the top ten of people who have been in politics the longest, Like he was the youngest senator when he was elected and the oldest dirt when he left politics finally a week ago so or six seven days ago, and so like it was just so distant it was. It's more upsetting because you know,
we put him in office. Nobody expected him to like be hope and change, but we put him in office off the things that he said he would do, and then he went in knowing how the game works and just played the fucking game and expects us to be like, well he tried, man, fuck you.
Well, that's that's the part I wonder. I was like, you know, I was okay with the idea of like, oh, I can understand his presidency in the sense that like he's trying to show that the dignified, incremental way as opposed to like, I'm not some guy like Trump who's like just gonna go crazy. So that's like the choice, like I'm showing you how the system works in a way where we just do things the way they're supposed
to be. But what I don't, which is what makes me think of like conspiratorially, is I don't understand the last few months since he lost the election why he didn't do anything. That's the part where I'm like, I do not get it, Like if.
He was doing in his uh you know, resentment about being replaced on the ticket, his theory is he would have won the election and we got sucked, and which is insane. Yeah, yeah, yeah, totally.
So I just don't I don't know how to I don't know how to think about him.
You know.
It feels like he didn't do anything because he didn't want to do anything.
That's that's my that's my suspission because even if he didn't want to do it, the people around him. Yeah, I mean, well, the obvious example is Israel Palestine. I mean, like, you know, they didn't want to do anything, and everyone knows that now and you can't undo that. So that's where the Democrats have nothing, no brand anymore. They don't have any trust, you know, and I mean, no one
trusted the Republicans. But that's why people like the Republicans because they're just like, oh, well, they're the real thing.
At least they say madness of course, and they and they, even in an underhanded way, at the very least, you know, seemingly care about their base, to the point where Trump was like, I'm gonna do all this shit, and then this motherfucker is like doing it like in a way that he's like I don't care if I push it through.
I don't care.
Like if you if you're a senator who was not on my agenda, like go like jump in the river and like as bullshit. But like I know, like a lot of Democrats be like wish our side could be like that. Yeah, but there's an element where I wish our side could be like that sometimes because like you know, instead of making all these promises and these half ass attempts, Yeah, we want you to do shit. We want you to like push it through. It'd be like this is for the better of the fucking people.
Did you see the mayor of Chicago's statement about the other day about about like how he's not gonna let ice come in here and all this sort of stuff, Like yeah, and the way he spoke, that's like I was like, that's the kind of talk we needed on the campaign. Like he was just like fuck these people, like fuck these people. I mean, he was just saying
friggin and stuff. But I mean, like that's I mean, that's why I feel like, you know, I feel like the Democrats, you know, I'm I don't feel like they're They're not, like they didn't want they were more comfortable with fascism than than changing one fucking thing about their their own corruption there.
Yeah, Like so the reason that Trump had a campaign in the first place in twenty fifteen, like how it was brought together is because like there was you know, Steve Bannon and like other really wealthy donors had this idea, like had this data that said Americans wanted an outsider candidate, which is like exactly what we're talking about, This idea that like somebody could come in and just like fucking force things to get done, and both sides wanted it,
and like Bernie Sanders got a lot of support and like almost beat Hillary Clinton, the most establishment candidate, like on the Democratic side, and Trump on the Republican side did beat the you know, all of the establishment candidates. And now like that this is like this is the result of that, like the Democrats kept doubling down on
establishment and going back to the establishment stuff. But like the reason that Trump is popular and that Sanders had like that upswell of the port is because people recognize that something is broken and fucked about the system, and the Democrats are a institution that is like specifically designed
to not recognize that. And so it just feel it feels like we're going to as long as I don't know what the way is out of this, because it feels like the Democrats are going to find a way to like double back down on whatever the establishment oh the answer, I mean, yeah, because that's all they are, that they are the establishment. So here's the thing too.
I know we got to move on, but like to another topic or take a break soon. But here's another thing too. When at you know, twenty sixty to side in twenty twenty, the talk in the media at least or amongst people, was what is the Republican Party now? After Trump, you know, got booted out and by got elected, they're broken.
Who's the leader?
Who's this, Who's that? Who's this? Like nobody he knew the direction of the Republican Party and all these things. And that was the talking in the media on so
online and everything like that. And what they were quietly doing in those two to three years until it was like time to start launching campaigns easy and Trump came back and rolled a wave to victory, was they were quietly assembling, like the tech industry and like going on social media and like actually like using the tool that they hated in the previous four years to their advantage and doing a lot of things to like shore up the fact that no matter what was going to happen,
Trump was going to get elected. And like the leadership and the vision and the structure of the Republican Party came together quick as fuck. Yeah, because it was crazy.
Yeah.
Right now we are saying the same thing about Democrats. What's the direction, who's the leader, where are we going, What's going to happen? This, that and the other. The hope is that maybe behind the scenes something that's happening. Unfortunately, the faith that I have in that is almost zero, And like that's the problem, Like you got your asses handed to you and it was partly mostly your fault. What are you doing now?
You got too?
Like jay Z when he retired and like he had his first song and like when he was coming back and at the end of the song he was like, y'all got two months to get y'all shit together, good luck. Like that's how he ended his first song after his retirement and O three, Like I want like the Democrats to be in that mindset, like y'all got two years to get y'all shit together, good luck, Like we're we're we're building, we're getting shit ready, And I just don't
think that's happening. And that shit pisses me off more than anything else.
Yeah, I think it. Yeah, I don't know how it can. Like I'm at the point where I'm just like, I don't know how how an an organism that is like specifically designed as a like anti change, self sustaining power machine is gonna is going to create change, and I don't know, not do something that would undermine its own ability to sustain itself. It's uh, I don't know, pretty
bleak on the democratic side. Let's take a quick break and we'll come back and talk about tech guy and his son's boner contest will be like, oh no, and we're back and just staying on the most powerful person in the world giving openly giving a Nazi salute for if you'll indulge us for another few minutes here. For
some reason, this seems important. So maybe one of the most eyebrow raising defenses of his salute came from the Anti Defamation League, who tweeted that it was merely a quote awkward gesture and we should all cut him some slack during this quote delicate moment, which I think seemed to shock a lot of people that the ADL was defending a literal Nazi salute there, you know, seemed to
be I don't know. Their reputation is pretty significantly out of line with what their actual work has been forever, but especially in the recent years. We've mentioned before that it was founded to defend Israel, not really fight bigotry, and the fact that they run a program that sends US cops to train in Israel should probably tell you something that's something that we've covered before. A delegation of top American law enforcement officers is in Israel. This is
from an Intercept article. Is in Israel for the ADL's National counter Terrorism Seminar, which includes training on topics such as leadership in a time of terror and balancing the fight against crime and terrorism. So yeah, the current executive director recently compared the Kafia to the swastika, has repeatedly aligned the organization with the Trump administration, and refused to
call out the Trump administration's claytant hate speech. I will say one group that is calling it a Nazi salutor does seem to be like, hmm, that looked like that's what we thought it was, right, are actual Nazis? Christopher Pohlehouse, the leader of the notorious neo Nazi group Blood Tribe, posted the clip of his salute on telegram with a lightning bold emoji and the caption, I don't care if this was a mistake. I'm going to enjoy the tears over it. So that seems like he might be like, oh,
I don't know, did he mean to Who knows. Another neo Nazi leader, Christopher Hood, who founded the New England Race Separatist Movement nc NSC one thirty one, one of the less popular CBS crime dramas, also posted the clip to telegram with the emoji exclamation point, question mark and smiley face. There's yeah, there's a bunch of like. One of them shared the clip with the caption incredible things are happening already lmaoh.
And okay he's race separatists. No one wants to hang out with you anyways. Okay, nobody is trying to mingle with you at a fucking happy hour, right, so don't worry about it.
Yeah. The another self described deth no nationalists and anti semi shared the clip and a post writing, Okay, maybe woke really is dead, guys am I right, we got one.
We got one.
No, there's anti woke and then there's there's that. But wait with the ADL, is it coherent to their politics to not called this out or is it bootlicking? Is it sucking up to power and wealth?
I think it's both.
Yeah.
I think it's.
They're going wherever Israel is propped up. And so I think like given the relationship between Trump and the Yahoo and like what Trump has said or intends to do. I think that aligns with their their goals, and then I also think, yeah, everybody is falling in line right now.
Yeah, it seems to be kind of in line with they if they are not really against defamation as much as you know, involved in a political cause. They are like a lot, you know, like TikTok and other you know, organizations that are all just trying to you know, Donald Trump is a fairly simple instrument to operate, where you just like say, do you agree with him and flatter him and do you know, just display loyalty.
He's like a I are a couple mil into the bank account, but.
Yeah, exactly buy a bunch of his meme coins so that he becomes even richer.
I don't know if this means anything, but I checked the Fox News website and the only mention of Musk's salute on that site was a write up of AOC pushing back on the ADL and saying, you know, like, what are we doing here? Folks? This was clearly we all know what this was, like, how can you possibly
call for understanding in this moment? Which to me, you know, I don't know, it's interesting to me that that's the one thing that got attention, and I think it shows like, huh, maybe like actually taking a stand gets people's attention, and like the language of the right has been that for the last eight ten years, and AOC knows how to play that game. And I don't know, maybe I'm overreading it, but the only mention on Fox News was in this moment where someone actually like clapped back.
Yeah.
Do you think though, that they're, well, I'm not sure, I don't know the language of the article you're talking about. Do you think that they're like put her out there as chum so that people get distracted because she's so incendiary to the right a.
Little bit though, I I yeah, I mean sure, yeah, I think AOC is going to get attention no matter what. But like that's the game we're playing here, right, Yeah. I don't think AOC cares if she's all over Fox News and people are talking about her.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, like sometimes I just feel like they use people that like that are almost like trigger words to the right just to distract from the actual what like her putting her as a shield in front of musk kind of like look at her and saying this stuff about the adl rather than her points are valid.
No, it's certainly like a third order story, right, if I'm covering the actual thing, it's like refracted through this now spat yea, but yeah, you know.
Yeah, just a couple more quotes from people weighing in here. The Proud By Ohio chapter posted to a clip of the MUK video to telegram with the text, Hail Trump. They just got.
Worse Nazi quotes. You're having your Google doct right now.
He gotten his email.
Yeah, I'm just scrolling through my inbox here.
So I fucking hate that there's like Proud Boys chapter Ohio. First of all, Ohio isn't real and we all know that. And second of all, Ohio that's a Twitter thing. Everybody jokes about Ohio not being real. But second of all, like why do they I hate that they're so organized. I hate that they have such structure. They have like a secretary taking notes on how many times they say like slurs?
Right? All right, should we talk about primates peeing in groups? Would that? Would that be a good palate cleanser?
This one's for the girlies.
Yes, yes. Since time immemorial, men have been wondering this question. Why do they keep like getting up and trying to get away from us to talk.
Shit about you dude, to see if we need protection.
Everything cool here, everything cool.
That guy wasn't weird, was.
All right. So scientists at Kyoto University recently discovered that peeing is seemingly contagious amongst chimpanzees. They watched six hundred hours of footage of captive chimps at the Kumamoto Sanctuary, which captured more than one thousand, three hundred and twenty eight urination events.
If I have a slurpee.
That's right, Do slurpees make you pay?
I don't know, okay, I just trying to think of some big drink, big drink, big old slurpee, big drink. They found that when one chip decided to pee, others would often follow suit, which is not unlike humans. Our decision to urinate is influenced by social contexts that lead us to urinate simultaneously with others.
This is usually something that we talk about with the context of sneezing, like that we ya yawning is the one.
Yes, that'd be crazy sneezing sneezing.
I'm like, oh, good, idea, I know in the context of yawning, that like yawns are contagious, and even though they feel like a thing that our body is forcing us to do, it was like, no, it's it's our brain. We're just we're silly. We will just do whatever everybody else is doing. But yeah, like with going to the bathroom, it does feel so like if you're at the end of a long road trip and like suddenly you get to your front door and you're like, wow, I really
had to pee that whole time. But like somehow your brain you're like super ego, like all of your you know, conscious consciousness, scaffolding has like kept that reality suppressed from you. So I'm not shocked that we're learning that this is like highly contagious and socially defined. But it's just.
Like that's like when toddlers are in an emergency situation, they fall asleep, Like it's an evolutionary thing for them to like fall asleep just to be quiet, to help their families or whatever.
Toddler never learned that one No, you're.
Like trying to recreate emergencies just to get a break. You're like, oh, no, a robber.
My toddler now six year old, but he uh, was evolutionarily designed to create new emergencies. Yeah, when an emergency, that's fair.
My daughter, when she was like three four would develop this thing where she would talk about if she needs to pee, and I was like, like, we really can't, like right now, you know, that would be very inconvenient. She'll go, she goes, Okay, I'll just do the trick. And I'm like and for a while, I was like, great, Okay, you're doing the trick. And then after a while I was like, wait a minute, what's the trick. She's just like,
I just decide I don't need to pee anymore. I was like, my god, I mean, the mind over matter is incredible, but yeah, she's just she just developed her own trick where she just doesn't need to go to the bathroom, which made me a question, which made me question whether she ever really needed to go to the bathroom. And then I think that gets to this sort of yeah, sociological element to this, which is she she likes the trip to the bathroom or you know whatever.
Jody believe little women, Okay, they say they have a trick to just not have to do anymore.
This one trick that doctors don't want you to pack, make it so you never have to go to the bathroom.
Just do it. It's the Nike logo.
I do like to sometimes, you know, take a little stroll to the bathroom, even if I don't have to go too bad. I like to see what the bathroom of a given restaurant is the legs. Yeah, lighting, but they have one of those weird sinks that like doesn't really have a basin. You know, have you ever seen those? Those are starting to be a thing like the Kim Kardashi and Kanye Did you ever see the pictures of the inside of their kitchen where it's like a faucet on a countertop, like a little line.
And the water runs off into it. Yeah, I will say, like going to the bathroom, I was like kind of joking earlier, but it also is like a really great
place to check in with women. I've made so many friendships in bathrooms that have been like lasting, honestly, some of the first when I wasn't in stand up I went to sketch Fest with my boyfriend at the time who was doing improv, and I met so many stand ups, so many female stand ups, and we were just like lounging in this nice ass bathroom, and we were bonding, and I kept in touch with them and like asked
them stand up advice and everything like later on. But it really, like I think it really is for women, like a great check in and a place of like comfort and like support for each other. It's beautiful.
Wait, take us, take us inside this back because Jack will do that, but I won't. I won't go. I won't just go Pars again to check it out. Yeah.
Yeah, Jack's always going into this's restaurant.
I'm always going to check in with women at the restaurant.
Yeah.
Does the does the chit chat and the bonding happens you're walking in? Came you as you're peeing? Is there are It depends?
Often there are lines, which you know that's an issue. Yeah, which we should have more stalls. We should figure it out whatever non binary bathrooms.
But not in this America.
Yeah, but we sometimes will make we'll chit chat in the line, and then sometimes sometimes it happens in the stall, like if you run out of toilet paper, if you need a tampon, if like some you know, sometimes you're there with friends and then somebody else hears and makes a joke or something or like at this think it's just it's just a beautiful place for for camaraderie, you know, it's it's I just love it. I'm like, men need
more of this. That's the put all the men who are in the loneliness epidemic in a bathroom together in a nice bathroom.
Yeah, peeing alone. That's the next book.
Yeah, don't you guys all just piana trough?
Isn't that that used to the back when men were meant? No, Yeah, that I've been to like the really old sporting event venues like Fenway Park and the Kentucky Derby, like in field are the places I've been where everybody's just standing around a single trough, peeing into it and just yeah, mostly pretty drunk, so everyone's cool with it.
Yeah.
Can we go back to the study for a second, because it's one line you read where the scientists at Kyoto University watched six hundred hours of footage of captive chimps and captured quote more than one three hundred and twenty eight urination events. Yeah, pallab is a former scientist. Is good use of their time.
Yeah, I used to watch like rats touch things. I used to have to go through hours of recordings of rats like touching different objects in a circular maze or whatever. So like you do have to like sit there and like time it and record it and whatever. But especially I'm assuming with chimps, there's so many like I hate behavioral studies. I hate them so much because it feels like so imprecise, because it could be they could be
influenced by so many things. Like there was a study that came out that you found out that like male male researchers affected the behavior of mice differently than female researchers. So it's like people who are involved in the same experiment and we're doing it in the same way could still influence the behavior of these animals.
So that's always yeah, yeah, we're going to find out that the male influence was just like picking the mice up and like moving them around like the yeah, just like them.
Yeah, trying to teach them how to like dap. But but yeah, it's so it's like super informative because that's what you can't do to watch behaviors of animals. You just have to watch like a bunch of footage and record it. And as it's strict of a measurement as you can.
But this kind of like the sort of thing when we just we always bring up like when AI is used in a way that is like, guys, not this like that. We don't need a worse CO commercial. That's just a smoothie made of every previous CO commercial. This would be like all through the six hundred hours to find the urination events. That's great that that is as I don't want a lot.
Of person Yeah, there is a lot of that of like trying to automate some of these like image processing or video video processing things like that's something that like I even like worked on at the in one of my rotations or whatever on my PhD. But it's still sometimes there's qualitative things too that they want to observe and it depends like is that the tech.
Is chimp peeing or not. I mean that's a difficult AI task.
You have to you have to and like the duration and yeah, wait.
Isn't this actually a storyline in that show Silicon Valley where they design an app to see penis is imporn and then or for hot dogs and then it actually is able to identify penis is important?
I know for something like that.
It's a great storyline. That show continues to be the most pressure show there is, but it's literally I loved that.
I was in the bay when that was happening, and tech people were like, that is us you have.
I'm like, oh no, I shouldn't be 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 de Miles. He he needs your validation, folks. I hope you're having a great weekend and I will talk to him Monday. Byem