Nothing Good to Offer

in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. Jonathan and I, as you all have known if you've been listening to okay F for the last two years, in the pandemic, I have been talking every single week, and every single week we get on and we try and work through ideas and solutions and you know, try and have some levity on issues that are just becoming so heavy to carry. In the conversation this week, however, Jonathan and I have

nothing good to offer. I say that upfront. I almost feel like I want to apologize because I'm exhausted, and I know that you all are too. What we are living through is not normal. It's not normal. It's not normal to be living with this level of fear and anxiety and frustration and the anger and disappointment and grief on a daily basis. I had the great honor earlier in the week to host the Miss Foundation for Women's Gala. The Future is feminist and it was the first gala

since the pandemic. And if you don't know about the Missfoundation for Women, they are the largest philanthropic women led organization in the country, founded one of the most famous founding mothers being Glorious And I've been on the board of the Miss Foundation for several years. And when I opened up my speech, you know, I had a really difficult task, which is people have come together to gather for the first time, many people, this is their first

major event, and they're taking a risk. Right as we are seeing COVID numbers back on the rise, as you've seen now that the White House has begun once again doing their COVID briefings that they had stopped doing for the last six weeks, and I've once again started. And so this comes on the heels after the leak draft of the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and open up a whole other bag of cases that were never meant to be understood by way of the founding fathers.

And so I guess everything now into justice. Alito and his Federalist Society buddies that everything is on the table. Everything that America has gained in terms of rights for marginalized communities and communities that weren't even seen as human, like the black community. Everything is on the fucking table. And so at the gala, I had a difficult task to both bring in a sense of optimism and hopefulness, which you all know I'm not great at, and then

also tell people the truth. And here's the thing that I said. I you know, I recounted a tweet that I read earlier in the week, you know, by a journalist who said, you know, good morning, Twitter, what fresh hell do you have for me today? That's literally how I feel every morning. Nothing has gotten better. And so I find myself some days where I am crying in the middle of the day and I'm like, what is

going on? Because the stress that we are all carrying and expected still to fucking work, to fucking live right, we are not safe anywhere. You heard in my conversation with doctor Basilsmichael when he said, inside of this black skin, this black body, for the first time in my entire life, I do not feel safe in this country. And that says a lot, knowing what this country has done historically

and in present day two black people. But I have to echo what he said, for the first time in my life as a black queer woman, child of immigrants that lives inside of this black female body, I do not feel safe. That begins to wear on you emotionally and physically. What did I say to you all the time on this show that if we don't find ways, healthy ways of creating ease, then what we set ourselves up for is disease, right, disease? And I feel right

now so sick because I'm tired. I'm tired of having the same conversations with really brilliant people who aren't the ones that are actually in charge of getting shit done. No, that still falls in the hands of the Chuck Schumers and the Nancy Pelosi's and the Joe Bidens of the world that are eighty something year old, fucking white people who have no idea what it is like to exist in the reality that the rest of us are living in because they have been, as I said earlier in

the week, institutionalized. These are people that have been a part of the upper echelons of society and our politics for their entire lives. They don't know what it's like to go to the fucking grocery store. They don't know what it's like to have a car not pick you up because you are a person of color. They don't know what it's going to be like to have to

figure out your patchwork of reproductive care. So they can sit around and pray about it and wag their fingers and think that they're actually doing something when they're not

doing dick. And then when you realize, when you realize that the people that are actually responsible for ensuring your safety and well being in this country are so completely and totally fucking out of touch with the fascism that is so steadily on the rise and have no strategy, no policies in which to combat it, except for Hakim Jefferies to tweet earlier in the week that, oh, the House is going to pass an anti white extremism bill. Great, And my retweet was, and what is it going to

do in the fucking Senate? Not a goddamn thing. So do not tweet to me and tweet out to the world about what the House is doing if it's not lock and step with the Senate, because what you are doing is just moving the chairs around on the fucking Titanic. That's what I feel like. The House is doing. I don't care how many bills Nancy Pelosi wants to say that the House puts out. It doesn't mean anything. Action

means something. The President of the United States going a buffalo to go mourn with a community that was tragically hit by white domestic terrorism is not action. They can go to their church for that. They're moss for that, they're synagogues for that. They don't need the President of

the United States to come for that. They need the President of the United States to get up on his bully pulpit and tell the fucking world that the Republican Party is a white extremist, fucking cult and is dangerous and if we do not hold on to power, we are going the way of Hungry, going the way of Brazil, going the way of these countries that have had right wing fascist leaders who believe in democracy, but the people's votes no longer matter, and somehow the people that are

most marginalized just happen to disappear around the country, never to be heard from again. You think that that type of shit can't happen in the United States of America, you're not paying attention. And also you don't know anything about history. It is so troubling to exist inside of this weird bubble right now, where you have some people that care so much and are absolutely paralyzed by fear.

Then you have those that are in power that don't care enough and are not really grasping the urgency of the moment that we're living in. They're talking about elections, like this last election cycle isn't literally the last election cycle. You see all of these right wing people that won, particularly the Republican gubernatorial candidate in Pennsylvania, who was at the insurrection, who believes in the big lie, and who already said that Pennsylvania is a battleground state and he's

going to ensure it to be Republican. Well, how can you ensure it to be Republican unless you were throwing out people's fucking votes. But you see, he didn't want to call foul on the results of the mid term election, the results of the primary. Just now he's waiting in. Oh, no, that election seemed to have been all good and fine

because he fucking won. But do you see Democrats using these people's own words, Oh, you don't believe in elections, and the elections are clearly corrupt, But only corrupt when you lose got it. I'm just tired. I'm just tired. That's it. I'm just I'm tired. And so you will hear in the conversation that I have today with Jonathan. You know that he even says that the end you know, will be better, you know, next week, because we literally

just don't have it in us. And you know, there are days, and I apologize, there are days when I have the energy and the fight to go all day, and then there are days like today when I am struggling to make it through the recording of this show without bursting into tears because I do not have solutions, and that is what is killing me, that I don't

have solutions to offer you all. All I have to say is that some days are harder than others, and on those days we give ourselves and each other the grace that we need to be able to re energize, recharge and head back out. And so today I'm asking for you all as I did not do Woke Wednesday yesterday, because I'm just out of steam. I'm out of steam this week, and so I just asked for your grace and understanding. We will get through this. I will get

through this. We will get through this together. Coming up next, my conversation with our friend doctor Jonathan Metzel. The Damage Report with John Idarola is one of the most popular shows on the TYT network that serves as your daily breakdown of the genuine threats and challenges facing our country and world. These days, we're confronted with an overwhelming sea

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your podcasts. Folks, you know that when it is Wednesday, we have the good fortune of being joined by our friend in house, doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel, author of the book Dying of Whiteness. Jonathan, this is the start to another crazy in America where we're all living on edge.

And why are we living on edge? Because we have a political party that is morphed into a fascist, white supremacist breeding ground and is so entwined and invested in death that people can't go to the grocery store, can't walk down the street, can't go to a movie theater, can't shop, can't live right in this supposed land of the Three. I watched yesterday as a CNN reporter who is on the ground in Buffalo black Man, I can't remember his name at this time, and he's a reporter,

so he's supposed to be neutral. He started crying because he said, I don't know how we are supposed to live like this. How many more times I'm gonna have to sit with families? How many more times the Democrats are going to say it's about guns, Republicans are going to say it's about mental health. And he said, and you know what, nothing is going to happen. Where do we go, Jonathan, Like, what do you make of this

frightening place that we are in. It's a terrifying moment, just to be honest, I mean, it's funny, but I had a very similar reaction myself, both because of just the violence of daily life. I mean, the fact that there's so much fear about just living right. I mean when people can't go to the supermarket, or can't go to church, or can't whatever without looking over their shoulder.

And the version of the reality is for people who I mean, I know a lot of people on the very very pro gun side of this, and their answer is always, well, people should carry a gun, and therefore they would have the right to protect themselves. But like, I don't know I don't think, what's the world going to look like if everybody can carry again, like when when you go jogging, or when you go to the supermarket,

or every time you go to worship. It's just a it's a it's a very depressing world to think that we're on guard for violence all the time. And and so, but and so I guess, I guess when I have to think constructively, I mean, let me just talk about Groundhog Day for a second. I went back to interview questions because I've been doing interviews pretty much night and day since since the shooting, and and and I try to give every interview my best shot, right, like, here's

where we can go. But I look back at the interviews I did after Sandy Hook and after El Paso, just for the heck of it, and I'm getting asked like the exact same questions I was getting asked ten years ago. Um Like, it's the sense of like repetition as things keep getting worse is so deep, it's so profound. And so I guess the most important point I think people should take away from what's happening right now is

that the reason nothing's happening is because of elections. Which lead to people put in power who then seek judges who then don't do anything except for make this happen. And so the answer at this moment, I mean, maybe that won't be an option going forward, but it really is.

If you're in Pennsylvania, you should be spending even eight hours waiting in line to vote, if you are in wherever, wherever's voting right now, because so much of this issue of violence and particularly about gun policy is set by judges. And the reason we're in this hole, I mean there's a lot of reasons, right you know, we Merrick Garland blocking and RBG dying two weeks too soon and all these kind of factors, but ultimately it's a question of

the judiciary. And so if we want things to change, we actually have to win elections and see judges and overturn some of this stuff. And to me, that's like, honestly the only answer. And so I don't I don't know, I don't know where we go from here except to say, like, this thing is such a literalizing of everything we've been going through. I mean, we started with Sandy Hook in this space and said how can we when I mean

just there's no mystery. Right now, we have one hundred eighty page manifesto laying out for us what the stakes are and so but you know, here's the thing to me too, about the conversations that are being had, because once again, you know, I understand news, right, I do news, and I see these reporters, you know, putting together these segments that are talking about gun violence as a whole, that are talking about how many shootings took place, you know,

over last weekend. And I'm saying to myself, to me, that's not the conversation, and that's just me as a black person that is now becoming increasingly fearful of my movements right, increasingly concerned about if I'm in New York, I'm taking the subway, people are being pushed off of

subway platforms and beaten and stabbed and robbed. Right. This is not the same thing as a white terrorist driving two hundred miles doing reconnaissance on a black neighborhood for a day and a half before opening fire and shooting an eighty six year old black woman in the fucking head. Like there is a difference between what happened in Buffalo at Tops Grocery and what happens on a regular basis

in this gun happy culture that we live in. And so why do you think that there is a consistent melding that happens because barring one hundred and eighty page manifesto, which pretty much reads like any segment on Fox News, any like any of the candidates, Republican candidates that are

running for office, they say the same goddamn thing. So if the Republican Party wants to come out and talk about mental health, then what they are saying is that they are all unfucking well right, because this is not fringe the ideas that were in this manifesto. It's birthrates, it's replacement theory, it's you know, women belong in this place, Black people are replacing us. It is all of these

things that is a steady diet of this party. And so why do you think, then, when everything is laid out very clear that this the danger here is white extremism and it's unabated rise in this country, and then coupling that with toxic masculinity and our gun culture, why aren't we having that conversation? You know, the issue with it?

I agree completely. I mean, anti black hate crimes are rising we've seen rise of even justifiable quote unquote, I mean, let's think about the cal Rittenhouse trial for example, and things like that. Like the idea of basically the idea of this kind of militancy is it's I mean, in this case, obviously it's mass murder, but yeah, I don't know, it's it's really Danielle, where do we go from the conversation right what happens next? What are your alternatives right now?

And so? Does this mean that we all need to run out and buy guns that would be great for

the gun manufacturers. Does it mean that we should try to take back over the judiciaries, that mean we should stop showing up and participating, Like I guess the question for me is like when it's so gratuitous, I mean, it's so it's so gratuitous, it's so obvious, it's so clear, and right wing media is working overtime to turn this into a white victim narrative, neighbor narrative, which Tucker Carlson is now doing, saying they're coming for our guns and

you can't express yourself and all this kind of stuff, you know, so you can express so his idea of expressing yourself is through murder. You want to he wanted Peyton to be able to express himself through through murder like that. And again, like I say that flippantly because I'm so fucking tired of mainstream media not saying the truth right Like I'm I said this yesterday, I say it all the time. Tucker Carlson and Fox News are

a threat to national security. If you don't get that, then you are not paying attention to what these violent people are writing, are saying, are posting in chat rooms, are creating manifestos around like they're getting this from one from one place. I guess the important thing to know is that it's a great time to be them right in other words, like even with stuff like this, like

they're seizing power at every level possible. I mean, and so in a way, I don't know, there's just imagine the other side has no shame about this, you know. That's kind of I think about it like it's it's in a way, it's a it's a model of power, and so what's our response to a model of power? We talked about this a couple of months ago. Um, and uh, I don't know, it's it's just like it's literally a takeover, an invasion, and so what what's what's

the response at this at this moment? And so I don't know, it's you can hear the purtation in my voice right now, um, because I still want to believe that we can overturn this in through legal, peaceful means in terms of elections and things like that. But it's just when when there's not a coming together um or something like this where it's so obvious, it's kind of like, what what do you do next? And so yeah, it's

a it's a hard moment. It's a hard moment. But you know, my problem too is that we can we continue to have hard moments. I don't know when the last time we had when we had an easy moment was right like okay, So it's like it's been one hard moment after one hard moment, one shooting after one shooting, one police killing after one police killing. Um. You know, they have the audacity on the right to refer to anybody that believes in LGBTQ equality as a groomer or

a pedophile. And I said yesterday, why do we not talk about the Republican Party as groomors for white supremacs. They are literally creating fertile ground for the birth of Kyle rittenhouses and Peyton gendrons and all a Dylan roofs like, they are creating the fertile ground for that. So how do we not say you are grooming white supremas, You are grooming violent domestic terrorists right like? And again it's

Democrats that also have us here? Am I wrong? Because it isn't just saying to the people you need to vote, because we do vote, we vote at historic levels. But Democrats betray us every single time? Am i? Am? I? Am I wrong? Here? Is it just Republicans that have been blocking our ability to live free and safe? No? No, no, you're not wrong. I mean them. Yeah, I don't know. Tell me what to do and I'll do it, and

you tell me where we go from here? Like, what's the answer for where where do we go from here? I mean? The honest thing for me is that I don't see a lawful voting path to get this country back on track. I do not that only a lawful voting path requires two political parties to adhere to the same set of rules and laws. That's how functional societies work.

When you have one of the two political parties that no longer adhere to the constitution, that no longer adhere to the rule of law, or appointing judges so that they can drastically reshape and reimagine what law, what is lawful in this country, which is the subjugation of marginalized communities and forcing them to live in a state of apartheid. Jim Crow, you fascist regime. I don't see an easy, viable, lawful path here. And I say that, and let me

tell you something. I have yet to be wrong. And I'm not patting myself on the back because I wish that America would prove me wrong. I wish that I would be wrong about the fact that after Newtown, I said that if you're not going to do anything for a classroom of first graders that were mowed down with an assault, ifel and you can't come up with legislation,

then then no one else matters. Because if a group of white children in an affluent, fucking area get gunned down in their classroom while coloring, and you do nothing as government officials, then no one else matters. So I you know, where do we go? Where do we go from here? I'm worried. I'm really really worried and fearful because I do believe that people are going to begin

to arm up. Those of us who did not believe in guns, who did not want those you know, automations of death and violence in our homes, are going to feel like we have no choice. Yeah, I mean in that space, there are I mean, not in any way to get away from this story. I mean, after we talk. As I was saying before, I have seventeen more interviews about the shooting. It's it's just on feedback loop in a certain kind of way, trying to get the word out in a particular way today and tomorrow and Friday.

But I would also say that there are a couple of big stories that I think people should be following in relation to this that are not in any way moving away from the story of Buffalo, which I think we need to hold on to. But as we've talked about here, the Supreme Court is risking overturning New York's gun laws. That ruling is going to come down pretty soon here, I think. And so there's a Supreme Court ruling that is going to lead to many more guns

coming to a place like New York. And so the Supreme Court decision is going to just enable this to happen more, I think. And so partially there's the Supreme Court ruling that's going to overturn the modern gun control movement, I think. And then something big also happened yesterday. I don't know if you saw this, but the New York New York redivided the congressional maps across New York State

to make all the districts much more competitive. In other words, while red states or jeremandering and getting squeezing out as many House seats as they possibly can, the New York State is basically making like Kim Jeffreies, for example, his seat is not going to be safe anymore. And some of the big leaders and stuff like that. And so I don't know, the whole system just feels tilted against Democrats and against any of these issues right now. And

so I agree with you. I don't know voting is the issue, but I don't I don't know what else happens. I mean, it's a it's a bad time. It's a really bad time. It's a really bad time. And I just, you know, I guess that I have reached a new level that I didn't even think that I could have, of frustration, of disgust, and frankly, again, I'm not surprised

at Republicans. We've all known who these people are. We have known they have told us, you know, how they are moving, what they believe in, what their vision is, and they are actualizing it one election, one local election at a time. And again Democrats are looking around like, oh my god, we're gonna lose Row, having had no plan for the thing that your political opponents have been using as a battering ram for fifty years. Right Like, So again I can't just look at Republicans because I

don't expect them to be better than they are. I don't expect them to come to the table and give a shit about the people of this country who are not white insists and headero and Christian. I do not believe that they could give a damn right. So it's like, if you know that, then what is the opposition doing? And also, you know, as we've been talking about, and we'll be back on our a game next week. I mean,

I feel like we're both so desponded right now. M But but I feel like, what's our theory of power, right. I mean, we're marching, we're protesting, But what's our theory of power? I don't know. I feel like that so much goes back to that, like what is our? What is our? Like the Republicans suck, but they have a theory of power. That's how they got here, or it's a fifty year plan, like I don't know. Protest is not a theory of power. It's a theory of protests.

And so I don't know. There's anger about this, there's anger about abortion, there's anger about these things. But what's the strategy of using that anger to take power in a zero sum political system? And I honestly don't know the answer to that. That's kind of what my frustration is, what's what's the bigger strategy? I don't And I think you know, it's funny because you and I talked about it months ago, Like what's the strategy beyond just voicing dissent?

And don't I don't know what it is. I honestly don't know what it is, but that you know, we will leave it here today. But that's where I'd like to pick up next week is thinking about what is the theory of power? Right? Because marching, protesting, wagging fingers, it is not it right. That is that that is momentary. And as I will argue till the end of time, arming democrats is not a theory of power either. That's playing right into the other side's theory of power. Right,

Arming democrats is not going to lead to equality. It's you know, it's going to lead to the other side than getting more and better guns. And so I just don't think that that is a viable strategy either. That plays right into some of their bad stuff. And I have a lot of data to show that. So, Jonathan, all I can say is be well, yeah, hang in there, stay safe, hang in there, good luck with all of your reviews and trying to do the Lord's work of

spreading some type of truth alarm, wake up call. I don't know, but this country needs something and I don't know what that something is. Yeah, as always, we appreciate you. Okay, take care. It's no secret that the news is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's the Bituation Room podcast, hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Erntini for a lighter

take on the heavy staff. Each week, the Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts, and activists to break down the issues in a way that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket. Get the Bituation Room on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on YouTube and Twitch. That is it for me today here, friends on Woke f as always, Power to the people and to all the people power, get woke and stay woke as fuck. Appreciate you, true