Episode 5: Satirical Double Standards with The Babylon Bee’s Seth Dillon

for the laughs. This is The Truth with Lisa Booth. Welcome back to the Truth with Lisa Booth. I've got a really special show for you guys this week that won't just make you think, but also will hopefully make you laugh. That's because my next guest is Seth Dylan, the CEO of The Babylon B. If you use social media, you are probably familiar with The Babylon B. It's a conservative satirical website that has been described as the rights version of the Onion, and it is absolutely hilarious. I'm

such a fan. I'm constantly retweeting their work. It's just so funny. So Dylan actually acquired the b from the site's creator, Adam Ford, in two thousand eighteen. The Babylon Be has been a massive success and attracts millions of

years each month with its wit and humor. Behind every joke is powerful insight into our culture or politics and the absurdity of the people who are in charge, and it makes people laugh with headlines like this Mexico installs stairs to keep Biden out that was after the fall that he had, or this powerful protesters spell out love with burning homes and businesses and you guys can't see it, but there's an image of love written out in flames.

Or after a CNN reporter took aim at the Babylon B, it ran a headline that said, CNN attacks Babylon B. The Internet is only big enough for one fake news site, so you get the idea. Their content is clever, it's funny, but it also serves as commentary on what's actually going

on in our country. But despite explicitly saying that it writes satire and does not actually report the news, the Babel and B has somehow become a target of big tech and the political left, Twitter, Facebook and mainstream media outlets like the New York Times have absurdly accused the b of trafficking and misinformation. Remember that this is a site that on Twitter it actually describes itself as the fake news you can trust. They call themselves a satirical website.

They make that explicitly clear, so they're not trying to deceive anyone. And also, can I just repeat that it's the New York Times accusing them of misinformation? That's pretty ironic. But besides all that, big tech has taken aim at the Babel on b and the left wing fat checker snopes dot com actually fact checked the Bees headline that read this CNN purchases industrial size washing machine to spin news before publication. They really did this, and unlike the

be snoops, was not joking. I mean, do you all actually think that the Onion gets targeted like this? Of course they don't, because they're not conservative. We're going to get into all of this with Seth Dylan, the Babel and Bees CEO, and hopefully laugh a little sad. Thanks so much for taking the time to join us today. Thank you for having Lisa so tell us a little bit so that for the folks at home, if they're not familiar with the Babel on Bee, just tell us

a little bit about it. So we're a satire set. I mean, if you if you look at how we're characterized and how you know, the media covers us, Um, that varies quite a bit, but generally we're described as like a conservative version of the Onion. So most people know what the Onion is and can make that connection. But um, you know, we write news satire, We cover the stories of the day, and we do it for you know, a right of center conservative and also Christian perspective.

So we're just bringing a different worldview to the approach of how we're doing the satire. But basically, we just you know, take whatever bad ideas are out there and mock and ridicule the hell out of them, which there's kind of an abundance these days, there is. There, truly is. Yeah, And that's why that's kind of why when people ask me, like, what's you know, why is satire so important today in this day and age, and like, well, precisely for that reason.

Satire ridicules bad ideas well. I mean, it's a target rich environment. I mean you've got like I remember over the summer you had CNN telling us that the riots were mostly peaceful and they're with the Kiroon said mostly people peaceful and their fires burning in the background. It's like, I mean, you you can't even you can't make that stuff up. If we had, you know, that would have been a really funny joke just to do is like a skit or something like that, But it's hard to

be I mean, we try to exaggerate it. We did an animation skit like that where the where the reporters actually like getting stabbed by rioters and like having bricks thrown at I mean, he's still insis thing it as peaceful um. But it's hard to It's hard to exaggerate reality when it's already a parody of itself. Yeah, exactly, which is a sad statement and reflection of where we are today in society. But you know here we are. So so when did you become CEO? So it was

started before and then you acquired it? What what sort of drew you to UM the babel and be and why did you choose to purchase it? I wish I could take credit for starting it. I mean it's just I was a fan UM. Early on, people were sharing the articles with me all the time, and they were going viral, and it was really funny, and it was like quality comedy. It wasn't cheesy. It was like biting and snarky and ironic and full of mockery. And I

loved it. I've always loved satirical humor, but I've never really seen much of it from my political perspective, so it was really refreshing to see not only that, but also, you know, the inside church jokes. I grew up as a pastor's kids, so I have kind of you know, the inside church knowledge, and those jokes all made sense to me. They didn't go over my head. So um, I would really attracted to it for those reasons. I

thought it was really good quality stuff. But it was like a small time, little blog running on WordPress that clearly was like not a big time operation. It was just getting off the ground but was but was really being shared widely. So I mean I got involved just because I originally reached out just to see if they wanted an investor, you know, to kind of go to the next level, if they wanted some some extra cash. Um and Adam, who was running it, wanted to sell

the site. He didn't want to keep running it because he was afraid of what might happen with big tech censorship, and he didn't like the the spotlight that he was under. He was getting a lot of attention he wasn't comfortable with. So um, he wanted to kind of step out of that role. UM. And I saw it just as a great opportunity to get involved because I couldn't pass it up. So I really didn't have the intention of running it.

I really had the intention just of investing in it, but when I had the opportunity to buy it, I couldn't pass it up. Well, And so take us through the editorial process, because we as we've already discussed, it's a it's a target rich environment right now, So kind

of take us through what that process looks like. Uh well, I mean, so we wake up every day, we look at what's going on in the news, and we have our slack channel where all of our writers are and we're just kind of chatting with each other and we just throw out ideas, like the joke always starts with the headline. It's always the headline. Um. You know, most of the people I wish they would read the articles and click through and then click on all of the

ads because that's how I get rich. Um. But they but most people just read the headlines and that's all you really need to get the joke because we we we pump, we pump it in there, we include it in the headline. So all of them back and forth between the writers is just pitching and iterating on headlines to try to narrow down something that's that's worded just right, that we know is going to connect with our audience. So, um,

that's really what it is. Now. The liberal media will tell you that we wake up every day thinking of how many people can we deceive today with our malicious misinformation? Right, Um, but really we're just going for laughs, and we are, you know, trying to speak truth to culture in some ways, but it's but it's just a process of taking what's going on in the headlines and exaggerating it and and again ridiculing the bad ideas, mocking the hypocrisy and the

double standards. Um that you see out there. And it is a very rich environment. But um, you know a lot of people you say it's a target rich environment. That is true, Um, but there is an extent to which is actually more challenging to do satire in this kind of environment than it isn't any other, just because, like I said, you know, parody, uh is everywhere in reality, and so it's very difficult to exaggerate that which is

already so crazy and absurd. So we find it actually challenging day to day to come up with stuff that's even more crazy than what's actually out there in the real headlines. But see to that point. I mean, look, we had Senna and recently tell us that you can't

tell baby sex at birth. We have the Energy secretary recently telling us that we don't use past definitions of infrastructure because of their course trying to redefine the world word because Biden's transportation proposal is only like six percent actually infrastructure. You've got Marry and web Stir trying to change the definition of sexual preference to stick it to Amy Coney Barrett. But ironically, these are the people who are trying to be the arbiters of the truth. Yeah,

it is ironic, isn't it. Um, They're they're they're changing the definitions of words every like ten seconds. Um, you know that everything is two plus two can equal five if you want it. To history is racist. Math is racist. Yeah, So, um, you do have this weird situation where they are trying to be the arbiters of truth and so we actually have to It's funny, you know. I sometimes I sometimes describe satire as true lies, um, because we are. We're

actually telling the truth by exposing their lies. But we're doing it using fiction. So it's a little a little complicated what we do. But but but it is fun. You're your Twitter bio says fake news you can try, which is just for folks at home. Here are some of the headlines. I mean, it's it's genuinely hilarious. So they have one that says, Mexico installs Stais to keep Joe Biden out. Uh. And then so this other one that says Apple releases feminist series who refuses to listen?

So it's it's it's hilarious. I mean, do you have, you know, going through all the different headlines since you came on board, do you have a favorite that stands out? Um? You know, it's funny. I get asked that question a lot, and I do have one that really stands out. I wanted I thought I thought it was an original question, but I guess I get um uh. You know, I had one headline when I first got involved. I was pitching so many headlines over and over and over again.

I was pitching headlines, and like the guys were probably cringing, like, well, oh no, this this guy, he doesn't want to run the business. He wants to be a writer, you know. But I just in the process of getting to know the b and its voice and everything, I was really trying to like get in that mindset where I was able to do what they do. And I must have pitched a hundred and fifty headlines before even like one

of them got published. But one of them did get published, and it was um uh, something like uh, Democrats draft legislation that would make it a hate crime to eat at Chick fil a. In it was right at the time when like Chick fil A was in the news, you know, for some reason, they were attacking them for something. Um And it was something that happened in New York, I think. And that that article got snoped, got fact checked because a viral a lot of people believed that

it was true, and so Snopes fact checked it. And I was wearing that like a badge of honor, and like my first headline got published and it was already snoked. So, um, that was kind of cool. That one stands out in my memory. Um, we've had a lot that went like crazy viral or just meant this like it were like this perfect nexus between like the Christian culture stuff and

like what's going on in the news. Um. We did one about how Joel Osteen was handing out copies of your Best Life Now to people in like the flooded uh area of Houston while he was driving around in his yacht, and and it was just critical commentary on like his prosperity theology that like you can live your best life now. You know when it's like that gospel doesn't preach everywhere. Look at look around you and Houston

everyone's dealing with this flood from Hurricane Harvey. So know that those kinds of things they can sometimes go really viral and have a really big impact. And those those ones make an impression. I mean, it's not like you're just taking on democrats or liberals. I mean, you take on conservatives. You you know, you took on Trump during his administration, So I mean it's you're not just targeting the left you sort of target and make fun of,

you know, just any sort of absurdity that you see. Yeah, and that's a lot. I think it's healthy to um, hold your yourself up to the mirror, you know, put put yourself in the crosshairs a little bit, and do some self deprecating stuff. I think it's really healthy for people to be able to laugh at themselves. We have this weird issue going on today where everybody is so offended by everything, and everybody takes themselves so seriously. No one wants to laugh. You know, if anyone, God forbid,

you're the target of a stereotype. Oh, you know, that's world ending for you. Come on, you know it's stereotypes can be funny sometimes and and sometimes they apply to us. Um, So you know, I just think people need to lighten up. I think levity is really healthy, and self deprecating humor, especially kind of keeps keeps ourselves in check a little bit. So we poke it ourselves all the time. And that's one of the reasons to be was so refreshing to me and I wanted to get involved, is because I

saw that self deprecating humor and thought it was really healthy. Yeah, it's hilarious. But why do you think that can't or doesn't seem to be able to exist as well in today's society. Uh. I think people a bit, especially young people, have been trained to find things offensive, you know, like we have we score points when we're offended for whatever reason.

You know, you see all this virtue signaling that happens, And a lot of the virtue signaling comes from this like sanctimonious place of oh, look at me, I'm better than you. I I think this is offensive and you don't there for I'm a better person than you. Like, people have been trained to kind of think in those terms. And I think that's just like, first of all, it makes you terrible person, it makes you obnoxious, um, and

it's just immoral. So I don't know, plus full so you add all that up and uh, and it's not a good idea to to train kids and young people to think that way. But but I think that is the reason that it's so hard. You know, like Jerry Seinfeld won't even do comedy shows on college campuses anymore

because college kids are offended by everything. So, you know, it's a really sad commentary on on where we're at And I think that's what people don't understand sometimes is if they don't stand behind its sad hire like the Babylon b it's not just the babble and be. That kind of impact ripples down to all sorts of comedy, ripples down to all sorts of speech. I mean, it's a much broader issue. Yet, Uh, you know a lot of people on the left don't seem to realize that,

or maybe they do, I don't know. I mean I think they've maybe some of them realize it, but they think that they're safe because their speech won't be effective, because their speech is acceptable. Maybe, um, but maybe what they're not seeming to realize is that the standards are shifting, like every ten minutes, and whatever was acceptable that they were saying yesterday is no longer acceptable. Um. So once maybe they start to realize that, they'll realize that they've

created a app for themselves. Well, and so you you guys have been the target. You know, as we've discussed before, you've been a big target of Big TEP. I mean they've suspended or demonetized you guys as well, which certainly puts your business at risk. What's it actually like to be on the receiving end of those kinds of efforts. Um, what's it like in what sense? I mean, in one sense,

I think it's encouraging. Um. You know, if you've got people, if you've got people attacking you from the left, then you've made the right enemies, right. UM. I think that I think that it's it's a good thing to be on the receiving end of some of that, just because it means that you're having an impact. That's one way of gauging your success in the culture battle. I think um as as difficult as it can be to deal with,

to deal with like smears and negative criticism and whatever. Um, if you're not generating that, God forbid, they were praising us. Imagine if The New York Times was praising us or CNN was praising us, Um, I'd be I'd be second guessing myself real quickly. So I welcome their criticism. But you know, what's what's challenging is just in this era that we're in where big tech has so much control

and the media has so much control. You know, these are quote reliable sources that are out there smearing us, mischaracterizing us, um, calling us UM, you know, fake new fake satire, whatever that means, um and and spreading misinformation. You know, we're we're really in a situation where we're in an uphill battle where we're struggling to have uh, we're struggling for the right to be on these platforms and to defend ourselves against these attacks that are really baseless.

But the whole system is rigged against us because you know, if the media can get this lie to stick that we're a misinformation site, a far right misinformation site, then you know, the social networks won't want anything to do with us. They're not gonna want us on their platforms. So, UM, it's a constant battle. So that that's that's difficult, but you know someone's got to be on the front lines fighting it, so might as well be us, Right. Do you know if The Onion has east any of that

kind of censorship? Um, If if there's anything that's ever happened like them getting dinged on Facebook or something like that, I'm not aware of it. Um. I know for a fact that the way the media treats them, you know, the media never mischaracterizes them. Snopes will always when they fact check them, say the Onion is a funny satire site. You should laugh. In fact, they're the best and greatest satire site. Like it's always it's always understood that they're

doing satire and comedy. It's never suggested that they have ill motives. So they're not in a situation where they would ever. I mean, look the New York Times piece that was just done done on us, that that called that said that we trafficked and misinformation. This is a

couple of weeks ago, a few weeks ago. Um that piece was originally it was really about a left wing cartoonist who was sometimes misunderstood he did satire that was sometimes taken down off of Facebook because it was misunderstood as being real. Well, when we weren't cited as like a conservative example of that is that also happens to us. You know, instead of saying, oh, we are a conservative satire site that sometimes has their content taken down because

people think it's real, it was. It was treated much differently. You know, they treated us as a far right misinformation site that somehow gets away with misleading people on these platforms. Um and Facebook needs to figure out what to do about that. And that's just that just goes to show you how, you know, how disingenuous and unfair they are, and how they treat the two different sides. You know,

a left wing satirist is just a misunderstood satirist. A right wing satirist is a disinformation a deceptive deceiver, I'm sorry, a deceptive source of miss disinformation. Um. It's a mouthful to get out. UM. So you know, it's it's unfair the way that they do it, but UM, you know, obviously that's just the climate that we're dealing with. I mean, is it coordinated because it seems like, you know, you've got The New York Times attacking you, and O CNN

has gone after you. Guys, you've got big tech targeting you. I mean, is it is there sort of like a sense that there's sort of this coordination involved in some of it. I don't know that like talking behind the scenes, but someone has definitely figured out that that's the way to get to to shut us up and shut us down. UM. You know, I think three years ago when Facebook really started getting serious about um, misinformation spreading and and thriving

on their platform. Um, that's when this really started happening with originally with Snopes and so I think that they just see an opportunity. They're like, look, these guys like they do fake news, they're trying to be satire. We could if we mischaracterize them as actual fake news, then we can shut them up. Um. I think it's just an obvious I think it's kind of brilliant actually as a tactic to to try to make that stick to us. But it's just based on nothing, and so they can't

and they're frustrated. Do you feel like, do you think it's maybe because some of the headlines are a little too on the nose for them, like it brings a little discomfort, as you mentioned, to kind of put the mirror up and to take a look you. Yeah, I think it's that they don't like the targets, right, the targets were aiming at. Um. What they'll say is that

we are too close to the truth. We were we were on this thin line between truth and in you know, satire, and and we're way too close to the truth and it's way too believable. But what they're what they're not what they're not taking on board there, and this is an important point that people need to realize, is that satire just like when you hear that saying like there's a grain of truth in every joke. Satire exaggerates the

truth to make its point. And if there's no truth in the joke that you're making, then the joke won't land, it won't be funny, it'll just come out of nowhere and make no sense. So it's got to be rooted in the truth. And if it's believable but not true but believable, then that's an indictment of whoever we're satirizing.

It's not an indictment of satire. That just means that whoever it is that we're making fun of, like deserves to be made fun of that way they've done something um so egregious, are so hypocritical or whatever that the satirical piece we we were really resonated with people because they thought it could possibly be true about that person. Well,

you know, that's an indictment of that person. So to to turn around and say that satires the problem when people believe that kind of stuff, I mean, that's silly. And and again if you look at the double standard is glaring when you look at how they treat the onion. The onion is believed all the time, UM, even by heads of state. UM. And there's websites devoted to tracking when people have taken Onion story seriously, but they never

consider that a problem. I mean, I remember, I think it was two thousand and twelve, I believe it was Congressman John Fleming tweeted out an Onion article about some massive abortion plex that Planned Parenthood was creating, and it talked about how there was like a three story nightclub and a lazy river, and you're like, and I'm pro life, right, but it's like, you know, and so it's like it's absurd, but like you know, there's an element kerdle of truth

in there with you know, Planned Parenthood sort of taking things to that length. But you know, he he thought it was real and tweeted it out. To your point, but if you have you ever heard from has anyone from the Onion reached out in solidarity with you, because you would think that of doing something in a similar vein that they would feel protective over speech and supportive, you would think. So there aren't many on the left to have that mentality. I would say maybe Bill Maher

is one of them. Um, he really cares about speech and protecting the right of people to say things that are offensive even if you don't like them. Uh, nobody from the Onion has reached out to us to communicate anything like that. Now they should. And some of these some of the fact checking and stuff is so dumb.

So like snopes dot Com fact checked one of your headlines that said CNN purchases industrial sized washing machine to spend news before publication, which as absolutely hilarious but clearly a joke. Uh you know, so, so why even fact check something like that? I mean, you would have to read this and being moron to think that is true.

I mean, obviously they're fake news and it's hilarious to poke fun at them, But do you think that they actually you know, CNN purchased an industrial sized washing machine machine to spend new is before publication. Just defies logic and reason. Yet they still fact checked it. So why that's remarkable, isn't it. I Mean, it's like, on the face of it, that story is so silly, you know, some of them When I when I made it comment a moment ago about how our satire rides on the

back of the truth and it exaggerates it. That is um that is one of the examples of how satire can sometimes just be silly and absurd um and is not really believable. So it's kind of funny that that was one of the ones that got fact checked and actually got us like threatened with demonetization and d platforming on Facebook because Facebook was using Snopes as one of

their fact checkers at the time when that happened. Um. But what Snopes will tell you if you ask Snopes, you know that the founder of Snopes will say that they fact check things based on reports, like things that come in. There's a threshold they have and if there's a certain number of reports, like if there's a huge volume of people who are misunderstanding something are asking is

this real, then they fact check it. Um I I I call bs on that because the story like that, I don't think there's one person who thought that was actually true. There can't even be one. So I have no idea why they fact checked that one. It's just silly that they picked that one. But there's other examples of silly ones, like did you see that UH USA Today fact checked US USA Today, by the way, funded

by Facebook. Um. Their fact checking department is funded by Facebook fact checked us and and rated the claim the satirical claim that Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death had been overturned by the Ninth Circuit Court. They rated that false and they cited fifteen sources in their lengthy refutation of that joke, which is just the most absurd joke. Ever, how do you overturn somebody's death like that? That doesn't even make sense? Yeah, who who are these people that? When? I mean like

also embarrassing for them. I mean like if if if us today reached out to me as a as an expert to go on the record talking about how that's fake, I mean, when I would be like, this is the dumbest thing ever, Like, I have more interesting things to do with my day, and I'm not an idiot, So like, why does anyone even take the time to do that? Like, it's it's embarrassing. It's well, for one thing, it creates

a paper trail of us having been fact checked. I mean, this is one of the things they can look at in sight, and this is one of the things they do site is these guys keep missing these they keep misleading people, They keep getting people to believe things that aren't true. Look at how many times they've had to be fact checked, So it almost doesn't even matter which stories they're fact checking as long as they're fact checking us and reading our stuff false. Um, but if you

go and read that one, you should do it. I mean it's it's they're straight faced saying we've checked the Ninth Circuit Courts website and it says nothing about overturning Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death. It's like, why would it? That is absurd, that's ridiculous. You could have just gone to our website and seeing that we're the most popular satire site on the internet, and said this was satire and called it a day, which yeah, I mean, it's like,

how does anyone ever believe that's real? But you know they don't, and you're right, that's the point is there. You know they're essentially trying to take you down. Do you ever worry that you know they they do that

they will take us down? Uh? I don't know. I mean, I so someone has asked me this before, like Tucker Carlson asked me if it worries me, and my answer to him was, uh no, because we get so much support and there's so much pushback, and it usually bites them in the ass, Like they end up regretting how they came after us because they get so much negative press out of it, and we get so much positive coverage and we end up getting more subscribers or whatever.

You know, Like we kind of thrive off of the controversy to some extent, but that will only last up to a point. You know. I've started to get with what has happened with the New York Times. You know, I say this very emphatically, like we can't let these lies stick. The minute a reliable source and I use that very loosely when I'm describing New York Times, but they're considered a reliable source for better or worse, the moment they published something and it's allowed to stand that

says we traffic and misinformation. Well, then we are seriously threatened with possibility that Facebook will look to that as a reason to take us off the platform, um, regardless of what our history is. You know, if New York Times said it the reliable source, So there is a

very real threat of that potentially happening. Uh. And how we fight back against that and what the end outcome will be, I'm not sure, but it's a it's real it's a realistic possibility, you know, because it's you know, we're sort of at this interesting place where the left has so much power in America. I remember, you know, because the alternative always for conservatives was oh, just build your own platform, and then you have Parlor that did that,

and then they got d platform. Yet we see an articles that a lot of the planning that took pace for January six happen on places like Facebook, but nothing happened to them, no recourse taken against Facebook. So I mean, what's the path forward for conservatives and all this? As you know, we we sort of have this wage, this uphill battle against the almighty left. It might be above my pay grade to that question, but I do have an opinion, um that I'll take an opinion, okay, for

whatever it's worth, an opinion from fake news. You can trust, um that conservatives need to you know, for for for better or worse, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, whatever. These main platforms the primary social networks that everybody and you're, all of your family members and all of your friends are on. They are the public square that is in the century, that is where um uh, meaningful discussions and discourse take place, and where all sides are represented and where everyone should

be able to have a say. Um. Now, the laws haven't caught up with that yet, you know, they're they the courts haven't dealt with some of these questions, these hard questions yet UM. Section to thirty comes into the conversation. But you have this effort, I think, for conservatives to set up their own platforms and remove themselves from the public square and say, if we're not welcome here, we're

gonna go. We're gonna take our conversation somewhere else. Imagine an actual public square where you know, you get shouted down, or you're or you're relegated to a corner somewhere, and you have to whisper amongst yourselves because you're not welcome to talk in the actual public square. That's not an acceptable solution, I don't think. And that's what you end up with with some of these With these alternative platforms, you're really just talking amongst yourselves and you're not involved

in the actual discourse that's happening in the real public square. UM. So it's really more akin to like a very large Trump supporting Facebook group rather than an actual alternative to Facebook, um, something like that. So I don't think that's the answer. I think we have to assert our right to be on these platforms. This is where speech happens is it

is the public square. We have a right to be there, and these platforms shouldn't be exercising viewpoint discrimination to knock us off of them, and the and the government, the big tech companies are in fact acting as an arm of the government to do that. The government wants that happening, at least, you know, the Democrats and government want that happening, and the big the big tech companies are doing their

bidding um. And it would be unconstitutional if the government did it, but the private companies that align with the leftists are able to do it and incite these you know, um exemptions that allow them to do it. And it's just absurd how the these these loopholes are being used against us. So I think we have to fight back

against that. And I don't know what the answer is for how we do that, um, But I'm open to suggestions and I'll get involved in shutting down of speech and censorship seems to live so healthily on the left. Why is that because Um, when you don't have really good arguments, you have to shut up the people who are saying things you don't like that you can't refute. I mean, ultimately, that's what it seems to come down to, kind of this childish I don't want to hear what

you have to say. You know, they don't want to be they don't want to be convicted, they don't want to be challenged, they don't want to be debated with. UM. They want to engage in ad hominem argumentation where they slander you, attack you personally. Uh. And they want to keep you from responding or saying anything back that would be you know, meaningful, or make them look bad or might refute their position. Um. It's it's. It is a very immature attitude towards discourse and UH and and policy

and everything. But you know, it's it's. It's certainly effective when you control all of these platforms on which people actually speak, UM, you can actually you can actually get your way that way. UM. But it seems to just come from a place of immaturity. In my view, it makes me sad that people can't find the humor in things.

I mean, I've I've gone to you know, the comedy seller in New York City when I used to live there, and all the jokes were anti Trump, right, And I sit there as a Trump supporter, and I laughed because it's funny, because I can find humor even if the attacks and even if the you know, the jokes are aimed at me, I can still find humor in it because I'm not a monster, and I have a sense of humor, and it's still funny. But I don't understand why it seems, you know, on the other side they

can't do that. But you know, the thing, isn't it because I grew up, you know, as a Christian. You know, I'm watching shows like The Simpsons or Family Guy or South Park, and you know, like Jesus and his followers in the Christian Church are just ruthlessly made fun of in mainstream culture and television and movies and and sometimes, you know, sometimes the jokes are funny, sometimes they're deserved. Um. And you know, we've learned to laugh at ourselves because

we're the butt of these jokes just all over the place. Um. It's very uncomfortable for them though, when it comes back at them, and maybe they just need to get used to it. Yeah, I'm constantly making fun of myself because that's also a target rich environment. So you know, it's like whatever, I don't really care. It's you know, I mean, it's it's like the real stuff that ends up hurting you. If like your mom's like I'm disappointed by what you said on TV and they're like, oh corrupt, you know.

But like, for instance, one of the Mina or you know, not Mina's, but this lady tweeted me one time and I thought it was hilarious and I was saying that Hillary Clinton didn't have a message. This was like back in sixteen, and this woman was her messages that you should get or you should get paid the same as

a man for the shitty job that you do. And I laughed because I was like, Okay, that's actually really funny, like touche, you know, like that that's funny or you know, or I had simply tweet me one time and she was like, is that is that your arm? Or is your ombre hair trashy? Or is it my TV? And

I was like, it's your TV, you know. I mean, it's obviously it's not there, but you know, it's funny, right, like it's it's a humor should be uniting thing versus you know, dividing thing, and should be some sort of shared activity among all of us and being able to

laugh together. Right, if you look back at humor, like the great comedians of the prior decades, you know, going back into the seventies, eighties, and nineties, you know, like they made fun of everybody, including themselves, but pretty pretty ruthlessly stereotyped people and and and you know it was you were able to make jokes of things that like women typically do, or you're able to make jokes of

things about uh, that even certain minorities do. Like you're able to all these jokes you know, like we're we're, we're. You know, they were edgy, but they were they were still people still considered them funny, and you were able to make them without without considering you necessarily a misogynist or a racist for making them. You're just trying to be funny. Um. And people were willing to laugh at themselves. You know, that was that was possible very recently, and

it's no longer possible now. Um. And so you know, I don't consider that progress by any stretch of the imagination. I don't either, and we should all be able to laugh. Particularly mean, a lot of people have had, you know, a lot of hardships over the past few ones, durring COVID, a loss of life, loss of income, and uh, you know the people. The humor and laughing is good for the soul and good for the country. And making a joke at someone else's expense doesn't mean that you hate them,

you know. Um, it's not necessarily said in a mean spirit in some In some cases, it's just said because it's a funny observation. Um, you know, you can make I saw a video the other day of a woman trying to parallel park and it was going kind of viral. I don't know if you saw this one, but it took her forever to parallel park, and there was another

woman who it was probably me. It was like her hit the parking job done and then immediately got in her car and left, and her car was one of the cars that was making it difficult for the parallel parking job to happen. So the whole thing was just kind of this mess. But you know it, it's funny, Like you can't even like you can't make fun of a woman's ability to like park a car in a in a parallel spot without being accused of hating women,

which is just silly. It's so silly, Like, come on, um, these these types of jokes are so harmless, um, and and to act like they're super harmful is I think in fact harmful. It's also just exhaust staying. I mean, I don't understand how people could live each I mean just waking up and you know what am I outraged about today? I mean it's just exhausting, right, What little thing that doesn't even apply to me personally? Can I

be bothered by? Today? I mean, what an unhealthy mentality to have to be is if we don't have enough unhealthy things. You know, we're addicted to scrolling our feeds, our phones and and responding to notifications all the time, and now we're also addicted to just being offended by every little thing that doesn't even apply to us. I mean, it's just so psychologically and emotionally draining. Well, seth leave us on something positive. What what should people know about

the beer? Or just you know, leave us with something good here. Well, I will say that if you want to stay on top of like what is going on in the news, but from more of like a fun and funny perspective. We have a news site now called Not the b which is like all the news that should be satire but somehow isn't because it's so absurd. Um. That is a fun and funny place to kind of consume the news because we mocked silly stuff, just like we do on The Babylon Be. But we're actually reporting

real stories rather than doing satire. So um, and that's growing like crazy, So I would check that out totally, So everyone check that out. I also think that the media when they attack you guys, ultimately end up discrediting themselves and eroding trust in you know, there are publications as well. But again to the listeners, I am a huge, huge fan, you know, big endorser of the Babylon Be. You guys are absolutely hilarious. I retweet your stuff constantly.

It always makes me laugh and we need laughs these days. So keep up the good fight. You guys are killing it. Thank you so much, appreciate you. Thanks Seth, take care. I want to thank Seth Dylan of The Babylon Be once again for such a great interview and if you enjoy today's show, please leave us a review and rate

us five stars on Apple Podcasts. You can also find me on Twitter and Instagram at at least some Rebooth also just want to give a special thanks to our team producer John Cassio, researcher Margaret Smith, and executive producers Debbie Myers and speaker New Gingrich, who are all part of the sixty Network