Ride to the Bottom

of being honored by my former high school. And I was so taken aback when I got an email asking if I would be interested in coming in prior to being entered into my former high school's Hall of Honors, which is for non athletes who the Hall of Famous for athletes, and the Hall of Honor is for people who have achieved I guess, made accomplishments, made waves in their chosen field. And I was so taken aback one because when I was going to school, I was one

of a handful of black students. At the time, I was not out. I wouldn't come out for probably several years when I would graduate from college. And to think that I graduated with a graduating class of eleven hundred and three, I was one of like twenty black kids and kids of color in my graduating class. And while I had an amazing high school experience, I say all that not to then tell a sob story about my

high school experience. Thankfully, I had really amazing teachers. I did have incidents of race that I have written about racism, that I have written about being called the N word in my eleventh grade honors English class and subsequently cursing that young man out and him being shunned for the rest of the year, you know, good times. But aside from that, I had a remarkable experience. And why was that.

It was largely due to the amazing teachers in my school who never made me feel other who encourage my pursuits and engaged me in you know, debates and questions about our society and culture and racism. And I never felt like I was marginalized in any type of way. And that's what good teachers and a good school is

supposed to do. And I say this as I'm reflecting on the experience of being honored by my high school and thinking about what Ron de Santis and Greg Abbott are doing to young people in their states, to young black and brown people, to young queer people to young people who live at the intersections, and how they are creating a climate and an experience that is devastating to their development, that is going to be devastating to their psyche, to their sense of self, and to their ability to

want to contribute to this society, to want to show up in their full selves and be able to make their stamp and make a difference, because right now they are living in states where they are being stomped out. Right where legislation at the end of the week that Ron DeSantis passed last week that would allow trans children to be taken from their loving homes, do we understand and the history of stripping people from marginalized communities of

their families, of their children. I mean, this is something that America was born on, from the indigenous tribes of this nation to the enslaved black people that were forced to come here, right, So, it is nothing new. It has always been a tool of the oppressor to break apart families, right because families are supposed to be our foundation and the place that we draw our strength from.

So in order to weaken the queer community, in order to disempower and to erase us, their desire is to strip families that are accepting of their children, that are

loving of their children, of their parental rights. Can you think about anything more heinous to do in the twenty first century after centuries of what we have seen and what we have learned from the abusive practices, And frankly, you know, the Trump administration did that right with undocumented people trying to find safe haven in the United States. It is always, always been a tool of the oppressor.

And I bring that up to say that our children, whether or not you birth children, adopt children, foster children, teach children, care for them in any type of way, are our collective responsibility, right, They are our collective responsibility. If we want to see a society that is accepting, that is safe, that is progressive, right, where laws are created that are about adding people to the table, not separating them, then we have to invest in our young people.

We have to give them safe space and safe harbor to grow their voices right so that they can lift them for progress. And so when you see these heinous acts that are happening across the country, I implore you, I implore you to find your local p flag organizations, parents and friends of lesbians and gays to go to Glisten's website. Right to go to Family Equality, an organization that I have worked with over the last two years

that is about empowering queer families. Please consider donations, consider volunteering, Consider calling the offices of these heinous legislators to tell them what they are doing to our society. It is important that we all in this moment lift our voices to protect all kids. Coming up next, my conversation with our good goodness friend, our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. Folks. I am as always very excited when we get to

chat with our in house doctor, doctor Jonathan Metzel. But more importantly, he's an award winner, because doctor Jonathan Metzel was awarded the Carlson Award from wild Cornell Medicine Department of Psychiatry in recognition of his important contributions to the history of psychiatry. So thank you award winner for making the time for us a little for us little people over at wok app.

also nice just to well first be recognized. I mean, there's some incredible people who won this award, but also to be able to kind of speak to somebody's memory, it's such a nice way to keep traditional alive. So thank you.

on their network, to continue the president. Chris Lickt just came out again because their ratings were not through the roof for Donald Trump, and you know, and they have faced a ton, a ton of backlash, so he's on the defensive saying that we need to show both sides of every issue. And Medie Hassan, who has a show on MSNBC and has been on this show and others, tweeted and said, really, we need to show the both

sides of every issue. So climate deniers and election deniers and racism and injustice in this country, so everyone deserves both sides. And he said when, so, when does it end? And I wanted to get your thoughts on how media is just mainstreaming white supremacy, mainstreaming hatred in a way that I don't think it's ever done on this level. Because of the amount of technology, streaming, social media platforms and all of these things that allow you to access so many people so quickly.

right now. Forgetting just the ethics for one second, which of course it's all about ethics, but companies are driven by revenue and click and views, which leads to advertisers. And in our world, we live in algorithms where conflict drives revenue, right, And so I guess that's the question is like where does that leave us? So I guess I'm not surprised that CNN has taking this turn, right.

We knew it when when he was hired. That basically they're an entertainment company, and the entertainment company they need viewers, right, just like Twitter needs followers and et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. They're just they're trying to make money. They're not people any more than bud Light is a person. And so you know, it really is true.

the other side. That's just the world. That's what entertainment. That's how entertainment is mon sized. I wish we had different algorithms. I truly wish we had different algorithms. But I guess for me, the question is what do we do as liberals, Like what's our response? Because I don't know. I was again. I mean, I think what CNA did was horrible. They legitimized and platformed, and they're gonna, I'm sure,

do it again. But the question is, like, you see all these people now boycotting CNN and a lot of people are boycotting Twitter obviously, And that's the question I want to ask you, Danielle, is boycotting the right response? Right now? Is boycotting the right response? Or are we deplatforming ourselves? I mean, that's really, honestly what I've run through my mind all the time. Because they're not enough people on liberal Twitter to sway elections that they are

not enough liberals to make a difference. If we stop watching CNN, we're just going to hand it over and make it another Fox News, and Fox News is whatever. So I just I'm worried about the response of boycotting. It works sometimes, but if that's always our response, I just feel like we're lessening our voice as opposed to I don't know is everybody's choice, but what if every liberal person got a blue check and blasted on Twitter

and fought back on it. I just feel like we've given over Twitter to these people.

You can look at the Montgomery bus boycott, and you can look at, you know, the airing out of Alec, the company that the organization, I'll say that created all of the anti homophobic, anti black legislation that we've seen, and people being able to be informed about what companies they are shopping with, what companies they are spending their money with, and who is taking their money by day and then voting against their rights at night.

the Trump era in a very major way. They are you know, just recently what they gave Caitlyn Collins, the woman who interviewed Donald Trump the plum spot at nine PM, come to find out, which I did not know until recently. Caitlyn Collins got her start at The Daily Caller and was the entertainment reporter and has has espoused anti Semitism, has espoused racial bias, has espoused and written about all

of these things. And now by virtue of the idea that CNN is still this mainstream, middle of the bar place is able to you know, whitewash herself right and her and so now it makes sense as to why Donald Trump chose her in the first place as somebody to sit down with. And so my feeling is, you do not have to continue to give eyes, eyeballs and Nielsen ratings to a network that is no longer a

trusted entity and form of journalism. And I think that if CNN is out there deciding that they are no longer interested in expanding their base of people who want real news and instead want to chase Fox News, then why would we continue as viewers to reward them? Right Like, I think that at some at some point in time, the people of this country, with their dollars and their voice, need to say that we're not going to be along. We're not going along on this ride with you right

to the bottom. And I think in the same way for Twitter, I still have not left Twitter because I do still believe that Twitter is a space for you to get information quickly, is a space for you to be able to share your thoughts, and so until it absolutely come busts wholeheartedly, I'll be I'll be like you, and I'll be one of the people that continue to hang on because all of the other social media platforms that have bubbled up don't are still in beta version

right and don't have the same a reach right and power that a Twitter does at this time. And so I but I don't like to answer the larger question. I don't think that we are deplatforming ourselves. I think that people are showing the power that they have. And if CNN wants to continue in business and not you know,

troll behind a Newsmax. In their ratings, which they did two days after they had Donald Trump on, they came in at three hundred and thirty five thousand viewers behind Newsmax, CNN was that if you want to continue with the far so pretending to be mainstream news when you're leaning right wing, then you're going to see those numbers.

amazing people are going over to MSNBC. I guess my concern, And I'll also say, like, I was called out, I think fairly by one of our listeners on this show because I think I made a bad joke about mated on, and I apologize. I'm sure it was I wasn't trying to be offensive, and I have total respect for people who were on mastered On. I'm on the waiting list for Blue Sky. I tried masked it on and I just couldn't, honestly. I just couldn't figure it out, honestly.

But I guess for me, my concern is that the lead up to I mean, think about how important social media was to Biden's election in twenty twenty, like, because I was part of the influencer group, one of the influencer groups that was doing all the stuff with you know, we had we had Mark Ruffalo and all these people working with us. We had a massive footpath, a massive turnout, and we spoke to ambivalent voters, progressives who weren't sure that they were going to vote for vote for Biden.

All these people, like social media was incredible, incredible, and it really helped, especially, you know, when we could target swing states, And my concern is just that's being undermined in such powerful ways right now. Like I think there's a very concerted effort by the Elon Musks of the world and other people to make sure that liberals don't have that kind of sway leading into the twenty twenty

four election. And my concern is just that the Mastodons of the world and the blue skies of the world, it just becomes like a place to protest. It doesn't have a reach, it doesn't have enough reach, and so right now Twitter is the place with reach. And I'm just totally torn because of course I don't want to

give my money to Elon Musk. And it also does concern me that like all these right wingers have this blue check which means that their tweets are boosted, can tweet longer tweets and put up videos, and everybody like me on my side is just sending these short tweets that don't go and go away where except to my friends and so and so. I just I don't know what to do.

get the information and they're going to continue to do so. Right, the amount of people that use TikTok, for instance, as a way to get their news as opposed to actually watching the news or going on Twitter, because many people left Twitter even before because it became a swamp, right, And this is yeah, and this is what happens with

these social media platforms. Like people left Facebook why because Facebook became a site for older people, but it was NonStop ads, right, So you were no longer even seeing the people are being able to engage with family and friends in the way that you were. You're just engaging

with corporate sponsors, right. And so I think that with every every few years, and not even every few years, every every couple of you know, short years, there is going to be another explosion of social media platforms that try and refine what it is that is going wrong on these other places, and that's how people will move.

I think that it is about figuring out how to get your message out in a multitude of ways, giving all the opportunities that people like you and I with varied platforms have the ability to do.

the way to do that. But I mean, the important thing about something like Twitter is that you're not just speaking to your friends or your bubble, right, it actually potentially has reached well beyond people who agree with you, right, you can agree, you can engage people who disagree with you, and so I think that really that's kind of the that's kind of what's important when you're trying to think about social media and elections. For example, Like right now,

I feel fine. I just again my worry is just like what's going to be the platform there is Probably the joke is slightly on us for like calling out Elon Musk when he wasn't going to buy Twitter, like probably we should have just let him slick away. But but but but but I think that what's the infrastructure going to be for that kind of mobilization. And maybe it is social media, maybe it's not social media, but but I just think I just think there's a there's

a question of reach right now. That is, like, obviously there's a lot of data right now that the demographics are changing of Twitter. Twitter is a very powerful tool for Republicans right now. Twitter as a massive increase in people in Republicans who feel like it meets their needs. So Twitter is going to be very effective tool, even more than it was in twenty twenty for Republicans, just given everything that's happening. And so what's the counter to that?

And I don't I don't know the answer. I mean, I'll say that's what I'm asking. I again, wasn't trying to poke fund at Macedon. I know everybody's people are trying that, But I just think, you know, we have an infrastructure issue that we need to address.

have chat GPT right where that is. That is also on one hand, oh how exciting look at this new technology that makes things easier, and oh, oh my god, how devastating to humanity this technology that makes everything easier. It makes it easier to spread lies, makes it easier to doctor videos, makes it easier to do a whole lot of things, uh that are going to be dangerous

right moving on in the future. And so I think that people need to make decisions that align with their with their values, and if boycotting CNN, for instance, and putting your eyeballs towards a PVS or an MSNBC, or you know, going on and deciding, you know what, I'm

just gonna read. I'm just gonna go like, you know, right, I'm just gonna read articles instead of you know, listening to the same stories regurgitated or actually I'm going to join you know, my local organizers and you know, and connect with the real people so that I'm not afraid of my neighbor down the street. I think that those are actually important things that we need to be doing. We shouldn't be looking at one place that none of us own right to be the life saver of democracy,

because that ain't it right. And I think that that's what we have seen over the last several years.

of swing states. It was, of course about Obama and Romney was not a great candidate, etc. But the Democrats had like outthought everybody. Trump in twenty sixteen had some kind of technological stuff. I think about kind of secret Russian spy.

do think. That's just what I think. Like, even I'm still active on Twitter, you're still active on Twitter, and the people who are reading our tweets are not the same people who used to be reading our tweets, and so kind I'm just thinking, like, what what's what does that mean? What does that mean going forward?