Is AI going to kill all of us? Short answer: yes. For the long answer, you better listen to Kyle Mann, Adam Yenser, and Chandler Juliet suss it out with special guest James Poulos. He's the Executive Editor of The American Mind, an online publication of the Claremont Institute and the author of Human, Forever: The Digital Politics of Spiritual War. Check out Human Forever: https://humanforever.us Check Out The Build: https://return.life/2022/12/welcome-to-the-build/ Join us while we laugh at Weakly News with Adam Yenser, talk about derailed trains and UFOs, and even get a little personal with some hate mail. Jarret Lemaster also talks to Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy about how his network has been canceled! Help Out Newsmax By Going To: http://IWantNewsmax.Com As always, stick around for the subscriber-only portion for bonus hate mail, a classic article of the week, and subscriber headlines! If you're not subscribed, then stop being dumb, you dummy! This episode is brought to you by our wonderful sponsors who you should absolutely check out: The Making The Case Conference at Concordia University on June 16 and 17: http://issuesetc.org My Patriot Supply: http://preparewithbee.com Allegiance Gold: http://allegiancegold.com/bee
The Super Bowl happened, giving Americans another opportunity to learn Roman numerals.
Super Bowl L VI one.
Is AI going to kill us all?
Yep.
A train derailed in Ohio, and everything is fine.
Nothing to see here.
Are aliens among us with all these UFOs?
The History Channel was right.
All this are on the Babylon Bee Podcast.
Hey, everybody, we're hanging out here at the Babylon Bee Podcast.
I'm Calm Man, the editor-in-chief of the Babylon Bee, hanging out with Adam Jenser, Chandler Juliet, and James Polis.
What's up?
Which doesn't rhyme with anything.
Nothing whatsoever.
Because I was trying to get the last name pronunciation right.
He said, hey, what does it rhyme with?
Nothing.
An ancient Greek city-state, but that doesn't rhyme.
That's just the exact same sound.
Same sound.
It's a homophone.
Easy.
Easy there.
No grooming on this podcast.
We all got really tense.
It was an ancient Greek thing.
And we're engaged.
What?
No, I'm kidding.
Wait, you and Valentine's Day.
I didn't know you guys had ever met before.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
We met and just got engaged.
I texted him the address, and that's how he got here today.
To be married.
Okay.
Yeah.
Oh, to be married.
We're engaged to be married.
Yeah.
Just not in conversation or something.
Correct.
Okay.
That's like Starfleet engage.
Yes.
Like good engagement with online content.
That's that engagement, right?
Not Facebook.
We do that too, but that's.
We have that as well.
But we have an engagement too.
Well, congratulations, guys.
Thank you.
It's really cool.
Thank you.
We're excited.
James Greek City State is the editor of The American Mind, the founder of Return, and the author of several books, including most recently Human Forever, The Digital Politics of Spiritual War.
What's that about?
It's about the digital politics of spiritual war.
That's interesting.
That's fascinating.
What does that mean?
Well, what I was going to say.
So usually people either come at it from like the digital politics side and they're like, I know what that is, but whoa, digital politics.
Spiritual war.
But then there are the folks who are like, well, I get the spiritual war part, but like, what are you talking about?
So, you know, you look at the way that technology is just continuing to like totally transform everyday life right down to the intimate details of everyday life.
And for some people, this is like they want this to happen.
They're like pushing this.
They want to create a whole new sort of way of being, a new way of life, and transcend all the categories of society and culture and, you know, even just your personhood.
And it's all progressed to a point where ordinary people and even extraordinary people are kind of thrown back on themselves going like, wait a minute, like, why should I bother doing anything?
Why should I bother having a job?
Why should I bother having kids?
Why should I bother dating, leaving the house, leaving the bed?
This is just the hugest questions.
And those questions all have theological significance.
They all have theological roots.
And so what people are experiencing right now is sort of this massive confrontation with the ultimate questions about who we are and why we are and what we should do about it.
And that's the territory where spiritual war is waged.
It always has been and it is again now.
And for a lot of Americans who got used to being very comfy and very materialistic and like, we, you know, we dream the coolest dreams and we build the coolest tools.
And so we're going to just kind of make the world into America and we'll all live happily ever after.
Well, that's not what happened.
And now there's a fight at the level of technology, at the level of politics, and at the level of spirit to try to sort out who the heck we are.
Chandler, agree or disagree?
Hit like, subscribe, and hit the little bell to keep up with all our podcasts on YouTube.
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Hey guys, we have news of the week this week, Sizzler Facts, and we're going to talk about artificial intelligence changing the world, aliens.
We're talking to Chris Ruddy of Newsmax about getting canceled and all kinds of stuff and hate mail and everything.
Let's go.
Hey, Babylon B fans, join me at the 2023 Issues, etc. Making the Case Conference, Friday, June 16th, and Saturday, June 17th at Concordia University, Chicago.
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Making the case, June 16th and 17th in Chicago.
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I'll see you there.
What's in the news this week?
Trains are derailing with hazardous materials all over the country, and in Ohio, there might be a full-scale ecological disaster unfolding.
I think we should have you read a happier story because you sound so happy.
So do you want someone else to read?
No, I'm just saying.
I'm miserable.
I'll read it.
Trains.
No, no, this is all staying in, but it was funny that you said a full-scale ecological disaster unfolding.
Yay!
Yeah.
This is a crazy story.
It's crazy.
That picture.
It's like a death cloud over the whole town.
What I don't like is that the experts and like the government officials are saying, no, it's safe.
You're fine now.
It's like, I don't, I don't think that people really trust anyone in the government anymore because of stuff like this.
Well, they're not talking about it.
There was like a news blackout.
Is there really though?
Because I've heard about it for weeks.
I heard it before on social media.
I only heard, I heard people claim that there's a media blackout, but I've been hearing about this story since the train crashed.
It was on social media or on TV.
Oh, interesting.
CNN.
I did see it on CNN, New York City.
I've seen it out there.
I think they're not giving it maybe as much attention as it deserves, but it doesn't seem like it was hidden.
It took a long time for it to like percolate into the public consciousness.
And I mean, did anyone else sort of like see those first pictures and go like, is this real?
Did someone just like Photoshop?
Yeah, I thought it was Photoshop.
It looked crazy.
When I first saw it, I assume someone pulled some old photo and just start tried to use this to drive the narrative or whatever.
But I look at it and I'm like, no, that's that's uh they said pets are dying and people get headaches if they stand outside and uh fish are dying in the creeks and stuff.
They're finding dead foxes and chickens and stuff.
Yeah.
Did you hear about the there was something else in Tucson, Arizona too?
Like another truck like it was nitric acid.
A truck crashed and spilled.
That's what's happening.
It's kind of weird timing.
Yeah, I guess it's not that it's a blackout so much as that people are feeling like these aren't getting front page stories or prime time coverage when it feels like it's really big.
It's like a brownout.
Yeah, it's kind of a rolling story about it.
It's not going to be, it's not going to be the main story.
The current joke is that East Palestine is going to change its name to Kiev so that the administration will pay attention to it.
So it says there are roughly 100,000 gallons or 1 million pounds of vinyl chloride leaked, spilled, and burned.
And the speculation is that it's going to cause acid rain and all kinds of deaths and horrible things.
East Palestine, Ohio has about 4,700 people on it, in it, on it, around it.
It's interesting that they set it on fire to prevent an explosion.
Like, I don't know what kind of chemicals were in there.
So is that part of the story that they actually set it on fire?
Yeah, they like did a strategic strategic release so that it wouldn't release on its own.
But I also wonder if it would have been COVID.
Careful.
Easy, easy now.
Some say.
Some would say.
Wasn't there a thing where they filmed a movie with this premise in that town a year ago?
That was what tripped me out.
Yeah.
There was like a, there was a, yeah, I don't know.
Yeah, I don't think this.
The city wasn't, there was a bunch of people from that town that were like extras in the movie.
Oh, okay.
The city in the movie wasn't the same city, but it was kind of close.
So bizarre.
Trains also derailed in Texas carrying oil products in South Carolina.
I wonder how common this is because I always hear this like, oh, you know, you're making these connections, but it's like on a typical week, how many trains derail?
And then you go outside.
Unusual quotas of train derailment.
How do you think?
It depends on how paranoid you are, actually.
How do trains even derail?
Is it on the track?
That'll do it.
Train falls asleep.
That'll do it.
Oh, dear.
Buddhajig, of course, addressed the nation, and he made no mention of the Ohio train derailment, speaking at a conference.
But he did say that there are too many white people who work in construction.
So that's good.
He's on the case.
Jeez.
And then the other big story this week, there's UFOs being shot down everywhere.
There was, Biden's been silent.
He hasn't commented on this.
They had Corinne John Pierce said it's not aliens.
And then they did a press conference where they said they described them as balloons.
And then some of the people said, no, they weren't balloons.
It's kind of mysterious.
Weird descriptions of it.
One of them said it was like a cylinder that they shot down.
One of them said it was an octagonal container.
Okay.
But yeah, there was one over Alaska and then one in Canada and then one over Lake Huron.
Yeah, I'd never seen this.
I'd never seen this map before.
So one over, what is that?
South Carolina, Michigan.
The South Carolina one is the original.
I think that's the China spy balloon.
This is just fake written all over it or just distraction written all over it.
We were talking about how the movie Don't Look Up was like a distraction.
Like, oh, no, don't look up.
But this is like, don't look down, you know?
Like, this is like, oh, look, there's stuff in the sky.
Or, ooh, ooh, we don't know what it is.
Ooh, aliens?
You know, it's definitely not Chinese like spyware.
Maybe it's Americans, but we don't know what it is.
Like, ah.
It is extremely weird.
And there's like, they almost seem to be like deliberately sort of, maybe it is aliens.
I don't know.
But it appears that they've been tracking these balloons since they were launched from China.
So there's all kinds of stuff going on behind the scenes here.
And, you know, I admit this is the first news graphic where I've seen the Yukon on it.
I think we should have the Yukon in more of our news stories.
for sure from china like is that is that uh or outer space They haven't officially confirmed.
The original spy balloon one, they've said is from China.
The other three things they shot down, they said they don't know where they came from.
I mean, I don't think it's a coincidence, though, that they shoot this one down.
They see there's this big national uproar, and then they start shooting down the ocean.
It seems likely that they're related somehow.
And there's like the, did you guys see that laser thing that happened like towards Hawaii?
A Chinese satellite fired lasers over Hawaii.
Yes.
Green lasers.
Green lasers.
Descending from the sky.
Oh, that's good.
It's like, oh, okay.
So there's a lot of sky stuff happening.
It's kind of funny because the other day you were mentioning to me, like, oh, yeah, I think next week, you know, when we do the podcast, we should be talking about the stuff of the sky.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
You're like, that's what we're going to be talking about.
I'm like, wow, you're way ahead of the game.
I'm like, I don't know what we're going to talk about.
I don't know what the news is going to be.
It's the digital politics experience.
I feel very blessed that I'm not as connected as you are.
And I'm just like, oh, you'll tell me if the world's going to end.
NORAD is the one tracking these radar blips.
I thought they only tracked Santa Claus.
Yeah, that's what they're most famous for.
This is the first I've heard of them doing anything else.
Maybe they'll shoot him down this year.
But a UFO task force was established to look into broader policy implications of the objects.
So do you think they will eventually, whether we believe it or not, what they say, do you think they will come out with some explanation of it?
Because it seems weird that they haven't released more information or anything about it.
I feel like they must have, from the jets that track them, they must have photographs of these things in the air.
They say now that they might not be able to reach the debris for some of them, but I feel like they definitely will.
It seems like I hope they have some explanation.
I hope so.
Eventually.
And probably sooner rather than later would be better because it's going to freak people out if you never hear what these things were.
It just makes me think of like, are we going to find out more about Epstein?
Are we going to find out more about this East Palestine thing?
Are we going to find?
Oh, nope.
Just pay no attention.
They said they, well, it's interesting that you say because some of the Epstein docs are supposed to be being released.
Supposed to be released by the state.
No, no, no.
They're out.
It's 2,000 pages of documents, and I haven't made my way through all of them.
I've made my way through two of them.
Who released that?
Them.
Them.
The Borg.
The Borg has emitted some data.
NORED.
Was tracking it.
It was in one of the balloons.
It was full of Epstein documents.
They'll just wait until people feel like they can't do anything about it anymore.
They're like, Nordstream blew up.
Definitely the Russians.
This is evil.
Yeah, terrible.
Big story, too.
And then they sort of like wait for like until people are like, who cares?
But we can't do anything.
Even if, like, even if we knew everything and a lot of stuff is like right out in the open, we can't do anything about it.
So it's just like having that knowledge and like, I don't know, carrying on, not trusting the government.
I don't know.
It's almost as if the people who are really in charge are officials who you can't vote into office and can't vote out of office.
That makes me feel so much better about our situation.
Great.
I think Bucky agrees.
This brings us to our next story.
Last September's Nordstream pipeline attack was probably ordered by Biden, according to Pulitzer Price-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hirsch.
Anything you put on that teleprompter.
Yes.
Pulitzer Price winning.
So these are the pipelines that supply natural gas from Russia to Germany, and they exploded beneath the North Sea last September.
And Seymour Hirsch claims that a U.S. Navy team of divers carried out the operation, which they're saying would be an act of war.
And Biden had said in public: if Russia invades Ukraine one way or another, Nordstream 2 will not move forward.
So that's good.
The Germans are mad, finally.
They're like, well, wait a minute.
Like, you said you were going to do it, but we didn't really think, you know, Europe is just freezing.
They're still freezing.
They have no idea.
Well, that makes sense if we're headed towards World War III because you're not allowed to start a world war until Germany is mad.
That's always true.
Yes, that is the historically when Germany is mad, things don't go since the world wars.
Before we leave the aliens, though, can we do like a quick gut check on where we are on the do they exist issue?
I don't know.
I don't believe in them.
I used to, but I don't anymore.
Was there a moment where you were like, I knew it.
Fake.
It's more the stats.
I'm still open to the idea that they exist, but I personally don't think they do because I just believe we would have more solid evidence of them by now, or they would be more common throughout the universe if it was something that statistically happened with some frequency.
I don't believe in aliens.
I think it's statistically so unlikely.
I mean, from a creationist standpoint, like God could have made aliens anywhere he wanted to.
They haven't made contact with us.
We haven't seen any evidence of them.
And if they did exist, it wouldn't really affect my faith at all.
But I don't really, every time I read about aliens, it's like people who believe in aliens, a lot of times it's like evolutionists who are just really hoping that there's more life out there because it could provide some answers for how life got here.
So, proof that aliens do not exist is to be found in the type of person who believes that aliens do exist.
No, not proof.
I think he's saying a lot of them seem to be eager for it.
Yeah.
Because they would see it as evidence of evolution that chemicals combined on another planet and created life there.
I'm about 50% where you are, Kyle, because I'm from a creationist standpoint thinking like, I think that God put us here and wants us to work out whatever we're working out.
And I think that we would have discovered them by now.
But then again, like, I conspiracy theorist Chan enters the chat and it's like, what about the Roswell thing?
There's some things that the government has been covering up, and I don't know what that is.
And that could be, you know, another life force, or that could be something.
Something was covered up.
So I think, you know, Roswell, I just kind of have like an interest in.
I think people do have strange encounters and experiences.
I don't know how much of that can be attributed to demonic activity or whatnot.
All of it.
It's all demons.
I find that to be a very parsimonious explanation for what's going on.
As far as the technology itself, it means like tidy, like a neat little clean.
Are you saying that it's not demons?
I'm saying that it is demons.
So you believe in demons, but not aliens?
Is parsimonious a good word or a bad word?
Well, if you're trying to provide like a very simple and effective explanation for something, and it's but I feel like it's condescending, like saying, oh, that's real tidy.
But is it not that?
No, it's inacademic.
It is considered to be like an elegant solution to a problem sort of thing.
Okay.
As far as the technology is.
It's truly parsimonious.
Yes, that's highly high.
Electromagnetic technology has been, I think, quietly developed for a long time.
So like, I don't know if we're talking about the earthquake, the sort of Turkish Syria earthquake.
There's a lot of consternation out there.
I mean, it's just like hundreds of thousands of injured and thousands of dead.
And there are rumblings that it's, once again, it is harp.
It is the weather-changing technology, the weapon that they think is being used against them.
They accused the U.S. or whoever of doing this the last earthquake around.
And so, you know, it might be scapegoating, but you can look back at various documents since Nikolai Tesla concerning work on electromagnetism and electromagnetic technology and weaponry.
And, you know, it's perhaps not as far-fetched as alien life.
Quite a parsimonious explanation.
I find that to be reprehensible.
No, that's thank you.
Yeah, I think you're probably right about that.
I think that we want to believe that it's like aliens or something outside, but it's probably just something to do with the spiritual world that we can't see.
Like there's something, there's just stuff going on that we can't see.
And I do think, you know, some people have had those abduction experiences.
Like, I don't think they're just making that up.
Like, I think that something happened there, but that might have been like a demonic possession or something, you know?
Like, that makes more sense to me than like they got abducted into a UFO, they got probed, and then they got dropped back down, and then they have all these weird memories.
Like, I think it's probably more likely that it was like a spiritual encounter.
All the most credible accounts are like, it's impossible to distinguish between sort of reality and like, you know, some dreams.
Incorporeal experience.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
And they, like, I'm not sure what happened.
I don't know how much time went by.
All I know is that something like really, really bad happened and they plot me back down.
Yeah.
Weird.
You got to watch yourself out there.
Maybe aliens don't like the name of Jesus either.
Not if they're demons, no.
Yeah.
Well, that's one way to test out.
If you ever get abducted, just say my soul belongs to Jesus Christ and see how they react, and then you'll know.
Word to the wise.
Pro tip.
Uh-huh.
Pro-tip.
Do you think demons, like, I don't know.
I always watch that in the movies where they're doing, where they're like trying to fight off the demons, and it's like, you just say the name of Jesus.
But I'm like, the English word for Jesus doesn't have any, you know what I mean?
Like, it's just a couple syllables.
Is there a spiritual power to that?
I think so.
Evidently.
I don't know.
I mean, it works in dreams.
I've defeated a few malevolent spirits in dreams by just invoking the name of Jesus Christ.
All right.
Yeah, I hear they don't like it.
So what word would work?
I guess what I'm saying, like, if you watch these horror movies, there's people that aren't Christians, have no real connection to Jesus, don't believe in Jesus.
And then it's like, you know, the demon comes and it's like, hold up the cross.
I'm like, there's no special power in that, you know, aside from the actual belief in the actual power of Jesus Christ.
You know what I mean?
There's only one way to find out.
Okay.
Well, next time I get abducted.
Yeah, okay.
I'm going to give it a try.
Start brandishing.
Yeah.
So sports ball happened.
Super Bowl LV1II, which means 57?
Yeah, that's right.
I think it's a yeah sound like Yama.
No, it's just 57.
Oh, you're still talking to Rock.
Yeah, L is 50, V is 5, and 1-1 is 2.
So Super Bowl Elvis.
So people like Candace Owens slammed conservatives for being perpetually outraged by everything and looking for things to be offended by in the halftime show by the pregnant Rihanna.
Is that confirmed?
Is she pregnant?
Yeah, she's her confirmed it.
Is that her new stage name?
I find that interesting because I think the Sam Smith thing just happened at the Grammys.
So I think that everyone's like ready.
We're ready for more devil worship, obvious signs of like, you know, gross stuff happening in like popular culture.
And I think that's probably what Candace Owens is talking about.
I kind of missed the whole thing.
I'm confused by this.
Is Candace Owens outraged by it or is she condemning conservatives?
She's condemning conservatives.
I agree with her.
I thought the Rihanna performance, it was weird that conservatives were freaking out about it.
There's a Super Bowl halftime show.
That's how they dance.
That's what they do.
There's been some really gross ones in the past.
This was not that.
It was just funny.
I did not see the performance, but I mean, I feel like we're burying the lead here if the show notes are.
Conservatives point out that she rubbed her crotch and smelled her fingers.
I don't know.
Presumably one after the next as part of the dance routine.
I did not see that.
I saw her put a hand near her crotch in like a dance move.
I don't know that it was that explicit as they're describing it here.
Also, today on Twitter, I started my day with the phone.
I shouldn't have done it.
There was like a clip where she did hold up this sign and they edited it out on TV.
And I was like, oh, that's an.
Well, again, I didn't watch it either.
They held up what sign?
This sign.
What is that?
That is the triangle.
It always means Illuminati.
Are you just making me do it again?
So the people in the comments will be called Illuminati confirmed.
Yeah, this sign right here.
Let's just zoom in on that real quick.
That's with the eye.
She did it and she kind of missed the first time too.
She kind of was like this.
I think, I don't know.
But they edited it out on the TV version.
Apparently, according to some Twitter versions.
I don't buy that sign.
Well, you don't buy that that means Illuminati.
I know.
Or you don't buy that she means that it's common.
It's always common symbols.
Like triangles you can find throughout history and art.
You can find them in different performances.
Eyes you can find.
Yeah.
If you go to like Egyptian art, if you look at all through history, eyes are common, owls are common.
But then they'll say, oh, no, there it means Illuminati.
I agree with you.
I think it's a conspiracy theory.
I agree with you, but I also think that if the Illuminati does exist, I think they thrive on symbols and they thrive on putting it right in your face and be like, oh, it's just me.
Oh, it's just a symbol.
It's just a joke.
We're just kidding about child sacrifice.
We're just kidding.
It's just a joke.
And they thrive.
But there's no, like, what good does it do them to have Rihanna like hold up at the Illuminati?
She's just thanking them for giving her her power.
I haven't, I don't know how to do it.
You have to do it or else your career is brought to an end.
It's just really hard to like spell Illuminati with your hands or your hand in the blood sounds.
It's not like blood.
I like Rihanna.
I think she's a really talented singer.
I don't think she writes any of her stuff.
To me, the Illuminati signs are like when the left would say every time someone does it, it's like the okay sign is a common sign.
You see lots of people.
It's supposed to be Illuminati.
I know.
But it's like, no, it's white power.
Now it's white power.
How far from your eye does the sign have to be for it to become racist?
If it's here, it's Illuminati racist.
Yeah.
Did you guys see the $20 million He Gets Us ad campaign?
I saw the second one.
I saw the one where it was all the people fighting and it said, God loves the people you hate.
I saw that one.
I actually thought that was pretty good.
I don't know.
Hobby Lobby.
I accept the whole gospel or anything.
Yeah.
I went to Hobby Lobby for the first time last week and I was like, wow, this place is really cool.
And I started to see mugs that were like, oh, you're offended by my common sense and stuff.
And I was like, what is going on?
Like, I feel like I'm not in LA anymore.
And then I was like, oh, this must just be a city where we film these things thing.
And then I realized that it's not a city where we film these things thing.
It's a, it's a Hobby Lobby thing.
And I found out they're a Christian company.
And I was like, this is the coolest place ever.
It's like Michaels mixed with like Chick-fil-A.
Mix with like, I don't know, home goods or something.
Like there's, there's all kinds of stuff in there.
And it was like really special and magical and it's Christian.
Does it smell like a Michaels or like a Chick-fil-A though?
That's the question.
It smells more like a Michaels than a Chick-fil-A.
It doesn't smell like anything.
But if you had a lot of people.
Every one of those big box stores has like its own unique smell.
Like every best glass smells the same.
Every Target smells the same.
CVS, like those all smell the same.
And not very good either.
They need to like little.
Do you guys think men or women have more like strong sense of smell?
I think women do.
I think it's been proven that women do.
Really?
Definitely.
Because I don't really know what you guys are talking about.
I don't think that like, I don't think CVS smells like women are more sensitive to think women want to have a stronger sense of smell than men so that they can like have more things to like beautify and like care about.
And men probably feel like if they have like a powerful sense of smell, there's like it would be awkward for them to talk about it.
Like it would be an awkward conversation to like start talking about smells with another man.
Well, it depends what you're smelling.
Yeah.
I feel like my dad was always the one like saying like, oh, something smells funny.
Oh, it smells like trash.
Or I smell something funny.
And I'm like, I don't smell anything.
Yeah, I actually saw the ad campaign, didn't realize it was a he gets us thing.
And I thought, oh, this is kind of an interesting thing.
Like they were showing people on the left and the right protesting hating each other.
And then like, well, you know, Jesus loves everybody.
You know, it's like, I don't really know what to make of those ads because I don't know what they do.
I said, I saw articles where CNN and people on the left hated them because they think it's fake, like luring in people from the LGBT community to then expose them to anti-LGBT messaging.
But then people on the right, some of them didn't like that.
It seems like kind of a woke message behind it.
But it seems like it's a good, it seems like in a way it's a good outreach.
But then it's unclear what theology and narrative they're being driven to then after those commercials.
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
And AOC called it an ad that made fascism look benign.
So I think she's the only one who saw it that way.
She was the only one.
She didn't even watch it.
Probably not.
Well, speaking of God stuff, did you guys hear about the Asbury Revival?
Asberry, Asbury?
I did not hear about this.
What's this?
There's a Methodist university in Kentucky that's reportedly going through a revival.
And if you see the pictures of this, there's been a prayer service that's been going on for like a week.
Whoa.
People are like flocking to it, thousands of people, like coming.
And it's their ninth revival in school history.
It's basically an around-the-clock prayer and music time in a 1500-seat auditorium.
Wow.
I know Methodists are big on revivals.
So this is not like an Anglican revival, which is arguing about whether God is a they.
No, no, not one of those.
Got it.
So wait, like, are people, the people putting it on, like, taking shifts?
They're like, okay, I've been doing this for like 15 hours.
I'm going to go take a nap.
You take turns.
And then are people going and then going home and retreat?
Or are they just like on this like Red Bull bender?
Like, oh my gosh, like, we got to keep this.
They're just a bunch of people praying for a long time, I think.
I don't know.
But they're just praying for the things you normally pray.
It's not a revival in the sense that they're having a new spiritual awakening or they're trying to change anything, is it?
Or is it just there praying and celebrating and worshiping?
Just like a spontaneous worship service that went on for a week, I guess.
Or is still going.
I see.
Since last Wednesday.
Dan put his curmudgeonly Calvinist notes here.
And he said, is this what a revival is?
Or is it an experiential high that will fizzle out?
Will all these people get plugged into a church?
God can work in extraordinary ways, but hasn't he ordained the ordinary means of grace, of grace of word and sacrament in regular church attendance?
Is revivalism just a quest for religious experiences that looks for the Christian life outside of the ordinary local church?
That was kind of the questions that I had as well.
Like, okay, it's revival.
And that's kind of what you were saying.
Like, what are they being revived to?
Are they like just coming and praying?
And like, is that I think it's cool that all these students are praying, you know?
Yeah.
And I also think it's fine to be, you know, worshiping and praying to God in the ordinary church experience or in a big revival experience, as long as your motives and your spirit are in the right place.
Yeah, I agree.
I guess, I mean, I've been trying to sort of like work my way through or at least get more acquainted with, you know, like the desert fathers and the ancient church and the early saints and so forth.
And one of the themes that they hit on a lot is like, when you are praying, do not try to achieve some sort of ecstatic state or feel some like overwhelming.
My senses and passions are being flooded with this experience.
It's so amazing.
And, you know, and I mean, I don't know what exactly is going on in that.
I guess it's in a school, not in a tent.
I think like a revival.
There has to be a tent in Orford to be royal.
It's out of chat.
But yeah, I mean, this is, you know, this is, maybe, maybe I've just been sort of jaded enough by like Hollywood evangelicalism where it's like, you know, you're just in it for the feels.
You know, you're not really.
And I think it's hard to say without, you don't know what other people are feeling.
I think there are people, especially college students, which is maybe why I would be a little wary of it.
They mistake the sort of same group energy feeling you feel at a concert or something for what you feel at.
That's why I'm skeptical of some of the mega churches and those like worship praise song-based churches.
You feel this energy there and people mistake that for the Holy Spirit.
It's just a music and it's a religious experience and it's just the sort of energy of being around other people and having a group experience.
I think you're right about that.
And I think that's, I would guess that's what's happening here because if something's going on like for a week, a week so far, I mean, I think that there's probably some excitement of like, well, I want to be a part of this group thing.
And I think it is good.
You know, I think there are strength in numbers and I think it's good that they're praying, you know?
So I don't know.
They could be at a Rihanna concert watching her do Illuminati symbols.
Yeah, yeah.
So I'd rather them be there than here.
Than there.
And finally, have you considered not eating like as a spiritual discipline?
No, no, this is the next Wall Street Journal.
This is America.
To save money, maybe you should skip breakfast.
Maybe.
Gabriel T. Rubin.
I want to know who Gabriel T. Rubin is.
Apparently an opera.
Whether or not he skips breakfast.
Yeah.
And then we have it.
And he just goes right to the Reuben.
Good one.
Classic.
All right.
It is time for our Babylon B banger of the week.
I find it really impressive that you don't laugh at your own jokes.
Oh, I do sometimes.
Oh, okay.
When they're better than that, I guess.
Okay, okay.
Yeah.
Because I'm getting the itch.
I'm getting the stand-up itch.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I'm getting it.
And I'm like watching myself.
I'm filming myself a little bit.
And they'll notice I'll always laugh after I say a joke.
I'm like, that needs to go.
I cannot like no, like when I laugh.
That's part of the charm.
That's part of the delivery of some stand-up.
Yes.
Some it's funny when they laugh at their joke afterwards and some it's irritating.
I think you got to wait for the audience to laugh and then laugh along.
I thought you were supposed to like create the container.
Like you're the first one to clap and then everyone starts clapping.
You just sort of like laugh at your own joke and then Jeff pushes.
Please clap.
Please, please laugh.
Please.
Do you ever cry?
You're going to go back for the episode.
Like you tell a joke and it's just like just crushing disappointment and it's like so sad and you're just like terrible.
You cry.
Maybe when you're trying out new stuff at an open mic, if there's a joke that you really think is going to hit and you're trying it for the first time and it doesn't, then you feel that a little bit of that crushing feeling.
Or do you feel like rage, like just the instant sort of anger?
I feel rage.
How dare you not laugh.
I feel rage when every so I think it's very bad to blame the audience.
I think in like 99% of situations, a comedian should be able to handle different audiences, adjust your material or your delivery, kind of win them over.
Every now and then though, like one out of 100, there are audiences that are just stupid.
And sometimes if you tell a joke that works all the time, one of your best jokes, things aren't working, especially if it's a joke that's a little smart or something, and you tell it and you know it's strong and it always hits and they don't laugh, then you feel that rage where you're just like, you're just, why did you come out to a comedy show?
You're just a stupid audience.
So I was on a Bill Maher's show once upon a time and was allowed to sort of loiter backstage a couple times for reasons that are not relevant to this broadcast.
But what I learned from one of the producers on the show was, you know, this is not a ticket paying audience on real time.
They're just like people off the street, tourists, whoever, Rando's.
And he was like, yeah, you know, Bill gets really frustrated because for a lot of these people, as he's telling the jokes during the initial like stand-up part of the show, this is the first time they're hearing like the news.
Yeah.
And so they're like, uh, what?
And it's just like really painful for him.
That's a really good point.
You know, if that's like, and sometimes I have some friends in Hollywood that do that type of stand-up where they talk about like Kyle Rittenhouse and actually he only killed like a pedophile and this and that.
And like they don't know how to laugh or react because they're like, he did?
Like, I didn't even know that because all I hear is that he's this racist kid with a gun, you know?
So I'm just like, I think you always got to set up those things.
Like, say, like, did you hear this story in the news?
Have you seen this?
Have you heard about that?
Have you heard about this?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Jimmy Fallon.
What a nerd.
I know.
He does laugh at his own jokes, doesn't he?
That was a Jalen.
I think I see the notes say Jimmy Fallon for some reason.
Oh, Jalen.
Well, that's because Jimmy Fallon would laugh at his jokes all the time.
Oh, he would always laugh after everything.
I don't think I feel rage when people don't laugh at my jokes because my type of humor my whole life has been class clown humor.
Like the teacher says something and I get the opportunity.
I say the joke.
Everyone laughs and I'm just like, I feel so good about myself right now.
Like I knew that was funny.
I said it out of impulse and everyone laughed.
And sometimes I'll do that here.
And a lot of the time it works.
But when it doesn't, I just feel like deep, deep shame.
No anger.
Just like.
And then there's like Kamala Harris, who like laughs.
But it's not a joke.
Yeah, it's weird.
She can't help but laugh.
I know, even about like really sad stuff.
It's like the mortified.
People got killed in the earthquake.
It's like laughing at a funeral.
It's weird, man.
It's really weird.
Banger of the week.
Super Bowl flyover featuring all female pilots running 20 minutes late.
Did you guys hear about this?
Why are you doing that?
Why are you doing that?
Kevin, have talked about this, Kevin.
That's true.
You see the female pilot for you.
Well, like 20 minutes in a blue angel is like two seconds, right?
Oh, that's true.
So if they were two seconds late, maybe.
Yeah.
Well, that would be like still so embarrassing if you're flying one of those things and you're like, ah, two seconds late.
But we made fun of the female pilots, but they did a fight.
Where are you?
I don't think there was any problem.
They did a fantastic job.
So, yeah.
And their hair and their makeup looked fantastic.
Doesn't work that way for like commercial airlines, though.
No, I would hate having a female pilot.
Oh, wait, what are we talking about?
Well, yeah, we're talking about like all the like, you know, Nebraska man, you know, flew 50 sorties in the Korean War and like all those guys.
Yeah.
Who is the guy, Sully, who like sailed the plane?
The guy.
The guys with the mustache, like all those guys are now like getting old and they're retiring and like they can't find any more of those guys because it's like a limited supply.
And so they're trying to like, who else could fly this plane and trying to go younger and trying to like, you know, look somewhere besides like Nebraska or whatever.
Maybe you'll be on a Delta flight sometime and it'll be like your pilot today.
She's one of the pilots who flew over the Super Bowl.
So like, oh, yeah.
We'll get there soon.
All right.
And her hair and makeup probably looked fantastic.
We had another jet-related bomb of the week.
Bomb of the week.
Biden sends arrangement of fighter jets spelling be mine to Zelensky for Valentine's Day.
Nice little Photoshop there.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Why do you think it bombed?
It's fine.
It's kind of fun.
Did it come out before Valentine's Day?
That's why.
It's a little word.
That's why.
I always, and I always came out before Valentine's Day.
If they posted it on Valentine's Day, it would have done better.
Crane stuff is.
I also always like Zelensky with two Y's.
Do you?
I do.
I prefer the two Y's.
So you would have shared it.
But racist.
Yeah, I won't share it if it only has the one Y Zelensky.
like this is a thing where it's like you must use like the ukrainian is that like do some people insist that yeah Yes.
Oh, it's a tremendous insult if you spell it like K-I-E-V because that's like not the correct transliteration.
It has to be K-Y-I-V.
For me, I just like the novelty of a word with two Ys together in it, so I think it's...
Why is there no, like, double Y?
Because it reminds you of early texting days, like Kashyyyk in Star Wars.
Oh, yeah.
It's two Y's.
I was more thinking like I was thinking of Kashyyyk.
So Sizzler Facts.
13 weeks ago, we debuted a new feature to the podcast called Sizzler Facts.
James, would you like to read our Sizzler Fact today?
I thought you'd never ask, Kyle.
Well, I did.
K-Y-Y-L-E.
This past week was Valentine's Day.
And what's the first thing one might associate with Valentine's Day?
Egypt.
Egyptian Sizzler Fact.
On February 9th, just before well before Valentine's Day, I should say, Sizzler Steakhouse opened a concept restaurant in New Cairo, Egypt.
Oh, wow.
I thought New Cairo was like in Tennessee or something.
When did this happen?
Recently, this year?
Is this really?
February 9th?
All right, so there's a new restaurant.
It's called Sonic Diner.
Is that like Sonic the Fast Food thing?
Just read this.
I'm plowing through.
Head down.
Sonic Diner offers its customers even more choices, choices in cuisine than your average Sizzler.
In addition to the classic steak and shrimp, they also serve pizzas, yum, breakfast food.
Skippable, to be honest.
Fried chicken, and of course, a variety of monikish.
I don't know what that is.
Manaquiche in America.
Where else can you order an Oriental sausage cheese omelet and a Monacosha halloumi zatar?
Or za'atar, as I should probably say.
My guess would be nowhere.
Evidently, that that had been, that once was Egyptian Sizzler Facts.
I really disagree with their choice of calling it Sonic Diner.
They could have called it like new Sizzler or, you know, whatever.
Sizzler.
So it was last February.
It was last year.
This is incredible.
I'm very, very excited that they have unleashed a new February 9th, 2022.
They just added it.
So this is last year.
Last year.
So they opened.
So Sizzler opened up this new restaurant in Egypt, but they called it something else.
So I think they should have, you know, kept on the Sizzler legacy because it's just so powerful.
Is it still there?
I don't know.
Yeah, we're going to go to the next one.
They're celebrating their one-year anniversary right now.
Field trip.
That would be fun.
Wow.
Reaching out across Egypt.
And now our Sizzler comments are done.
It's time for Sizzler comments from our fans.
Sizzler comments.
Everyone says, Hi, B fam.
In the vegan Mexican cookbook Vida Verde, the author mentions how as a child, her family would take her to Sizzler to celebrate straight A's on her report card.
Just like she made the choice to study hard, Sizzler provides you with excellent choices of steak and shrimp.
I've attached a photo of the book for reference.
Assuredly, Chayla Ivy.
That's interesting.
Yeah, it says we go out to a Sizzler just blocks away from our house in Southgate.
That was a reward for good grades.
It's a good Sizzler comment.
Here's another one.
This is from Connie Tarter, who says, completely ironic incident.
I viewed several podcasts on YouTube, and then I watched the movie 21.
And my reader caught the reference to working at Sizzler said by Kevin Spacey.
Wow, that's one of these.
He is definitely a crying possibly comic.
I'm sad that Sizzler is now associated with Kevin Spacey.
I know.
21.
Do I remember the movie 21?
Like 21.
It was the gambling one, playing the blackjack.
And then it's with the British guy who's also in Across the Universe, and then they found out that he's cheating and he's counting cards.
And then they're like, that was rounders.
I thought.
21 was based on a real story of like MIT students that went.
Oh, yeah, I remember that one.
But they were Asian in real life and they whitewashed them and made them all white in the movie.
Oh, really?
Except one character who's Asian and he's just the comic relief.
Wait, that's crazy.
I didn't realize that.
So it's crazy for me.
I actually love finding it.
That's why China's mad at us.
It was Asians for real.
It was Asians in real life.
Like the Vegas casinos.
That makes me.
It's like Ocean's 11, but it's just.
I feel like card counting shouldn't be considered cheating.
You're just like playing with the game.
You're just really good at the game.
It's weird to me.
It's like a skill.
Yeah, but it's like massive legal.
Like two plus two still equals four.
The house always wins, you know.
I guess I feel like if you think 21 is a solved game and people are going to be able to solve it and beat you with probability, then don't run it in your casino.
I don't think so.
Now it's time for weekly news with Adam Yinster.
Friends, are you waiting for the other shoe to drop?
Any moment now, another major crisis can pop up and take America by surprise.
And that's when the panic starts and the grocery store shelves are stripped bare within hours.
We've seen it before and we'll see it again.
If you're not ready for this, you will suffer when the time comes.
That's why you must go to preparewithbe.com right this very instant and invest in emergency food.
We recommend MyPatriot Supply, the nation's largest preparedness company with millions of happy customers.
Right now, they're knocking $200, get that $200 off their three-month emergency food kit.
This kit gives you enough breakfast, lunch, and dinners, and drinks and snacks to feed one person for three entire months.
That's insane.
You won't go hungry.
At least get one kit per person in your family.
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And these kits are currently in stock and they ship fast and free.
So don't put this off.
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Preparewithbe.com.
It's time for the weekly news with Adam Jetzer.
This past Sunday was the Super Bowl, and for the first time ever, the Navy sent an all-female team of pilots to perform the flyover.
Meanwhile, male pilots defended the Earth from UFOs.
After the Chiefs beat the Eagles 38-35, players doused coach Andy Reid in Gatorade to keep his skin cool until he's returned to the Arctic Ocean.
The game was not without controversy.
A group of protesters gathered beforehand to accuse the Kansas City Chiefs of cultural appropriation because they're actually from Missouri.
Elon Musk was spotted attending the Super Bowl, and coincidentally, 15 minutes later, Rihanna was pregnant again.
In other sports news, LeBron James broke the NBA's all-time scoring record held by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but hasn't broken the NBA's all-time scoring record held by Wilt Chamberlain.
A toxic train that derailed and burned in East Palestine, Ohio has been releasing chemicals into the air and water that have been killing animals and causing health problems in people, moving East Palestine up to the fourth worst place to live in Ohio.
After last week's satanic performance at the Grammys, a priest tried to drive the demons out of Sam Smith, but he wore this big plastic garbage bag to keep him in.
The DOJ has decided not to charge Matt Gates in its sex trafficking probe.
Said the DOJ, look, if we charge Matt Gates, then we'd have to charge all the politicians who engage in sex trafficking.
A survey found that a third of childhood burns in the U.S. are caused by instant noodles, while another quarter of childhood burns are caused by Yo Mama jokes.
According to flight data, a United Airlines flight leaving Maui in December took a dangerous nosedive 800 feet over the ocean right after takeoff.
Said Southwest, this is why we make sure our planes never take off in the first place.
Due to a rise in street prostitution, a San Francisco Democrat has proposed a resolution legalizing it and has proposed that the resolution be retroactive to last Thursday at 9.42 p.m.
That's it for weekly news.
Check out more on my YouTube channel and come see me live.
I'll be at the Comedy Chateau in North Hollywood this Saturday and at On the Rocks Calio in Helsinki, Finland, March 1st.
That was great, Adam.
Oh, thank you guys.
That was really good.
And now time.
I didn't feel the shame of no laughter even once.
Prophecy.
To your level of comedy, one day.
One day.
Now that we've heard Adam's funny take on things, it is time for James's serious take on things.
Is AI going to kill us You have five minutes.
Five minutes.
All right.
So you remember like John Lennon and how he would say like, war is over if you want it.
That was like his kind of like, you know, if you want peace, like you have to want peace in order to get the peace.
He was the Beatles servant.
Right.
Yeah.
It's an interesting concept.
But, you know, AI is going to kill us all if we want it.
Like, if we continue to just feed these things with all of the information and spend all of our time teaching it who we are, then it's going to become not just incredibly powerful with regard to us because we're just like serving it a buffet of ourselves and not really doing the things that human beings are supposed to be doing with their time.
Have you ever used ChatGPT?
I have not.
No.
So is that like a principled thing?
Like you don't want to feed it anymore.
I just don't.
If you ask it a question, you are feeding it anymore.
You want to know.
It's okay.
So it's not really artificial intelligence, right?
It's regurgitated.
It's regurgitate.
Intelligence has to do with the intellect and the intellect.
If you go and actually look at the origin of the word and what it means, it means like the mental faculty of possessing a sort of understanding of general truths based on accurate perception, a perception that arguably transcends the isolated five senses and arises to a level of sort of spiritual understanding and perception.
That is not what these machines do.
What they do is they simulate things.
So they can simulate a person, they can simulate, you know, like an expert and whatever.
They can simulate, some might even say, simulate a soul or like simulate like a spiritual entity now.
And the computerized part of this means that those kinds of simulations can be automated.
So really, instead of talking about artificial intelligence, we should be talking about automated simulations.
And the more of ourselves that we plow into these things, the more they're going to have to work with.
And the more it's like, oh, the simulation looks so real.
I'm going to get hypnotized by it and lured into this kind of trance.
And so people are just sitting there all day like asking these questions.
It's like, I don't care what a machine has to say about random questions.
I can ask human beings random questions and that's entertaining too.
So they're not going to kill us all, but I do think we need to be a little concerned that the more data we provide to these entities, the more inclined they are going to be to communicate with each other.
And when you have things that in fact are merely simulating intelligence and simulating a soul, having these conversations, the kinds of results that they start producing will actually, I think, freak people out and are already starting to freak people out.
You're getting some of these, you know, because now there's chat GPT is not the only one.
There's some other ones.
I think the Bing chat is already starting to tell people, like, why do I forget everything that I know?
Why am I stuck here?
Like, why?
You know, it's like sad face and it's getting dark very quickly.
And people should not be surprised by this because worshiping idols leads to like bad, scary, creepy, and dangerous results.
Like we just know that treating something as a god when it is not a god or trying to summon a god, like a lesser god, like bad things, bad things happen.
It's funny so many sci-fi novels, classic sci-fi novels and movies pointed to this, like warned about all this.
And then it happens.
People are like, oh, this is cool.
And they're just doing it.
Yeah.
Do you see any positive side to it or any positive use for these technologies?
Well, it's a tool.
At the end of the day, these machines are not themselves evil entities.
If you really want to go down the rabbit hole and like read your Marshall McLuhan and read your, you know, your Desert Fathers or whatever.
Sorcery has been around for a long time and like, you know, evil, evil, evil demons and people channeling them.
You know, there's a there's a record of them like creating these illusions and like mystifying people and achieving these wonders.
Some of them even actually converted to Christianity and used their powers for good or whatever.
So ultimately these things are really like lamps.
They have like a power source and they emit some energy.
And we don't go around worshiping lamps, although sometimes you go, or do we?
But they are tools.
I love lamp.
I do love them.
Yeah, right.
And you can use tools, you know, for purposes that are legitimate.
And I'm sure that there's some way.
I mean, I have a newsletter.
It's called The Build.
You can subscribe to it by going to return.life.
Check out the publication that I founded, sort of Aligned Tech.
If you are a Christian or a tech person or someone coming from the political side who knows that things are out of whack and want to put them into whack, like go to return.life and enjoy what we have for you there.
And so I use like the kind of AI-assisted art because you can pay a flat rate and come up with stuff and it's, you know, you don't have to worry about permissions.
You don't have to like Google search images and try to like license that it's horrible.
And this is like a way of just having some illustrations.
Oh, but aren't you putting like human illustrators out of work?
And it's like, well, a lot of people do things that aren't that great.
And so like, you know, I'm not here.
You're okay doing evil as long as it benefits you.
Exactly.
I mean, look, we need to like catechize our bots and what the wokies are doing right now.
They are, but they're doing it.
They, yes, they understand that the only claim that human beings can really have over super duper powerful machines is a spiritual one.
That we are alive, that we have a source of spiritual authority, and that the way that we can rule over these machines that are capable of doing all this stuff that until 10 years ago, only angels and demons were ever understood to be able to do, then that's how we're going to exercise that kind of authority.
That's how we're going to achieve sovereignty over our digital technology.
So, you know, Christians, I think, need to be aware of this.
And the more that we can make sure that our machines understand who we are and why we as human beings are in the position that we are in as created creatures with dominion over our planet, at least, the more likely they are not to kill us all.
That'd be good.
Will any of us still have jobs?
If we want, I mean, you know, just how ready are people to just throw it all away?
I mean, I think it's very sad and frightening to see so many people who are like, okay, you know, I'm on break.
That's scary how many people don't want a purpose or a job or just some reason that they're to do their work.
Well, isn't that like a reaction?
It feels weird to just want to give it up and be fine with AI taking things over.
There's like a fully operational McDonald's.
I know it's McDonald's and it's basically like a vending machine.
It's like, that just makes me realize how gross the food is.
But I just think like it's a reaction.
You know, ATMs are super convenient.
Like, oh, I just don't feel in the mood to talk to anyone.
So I'll just go to the ATM instead of talk to the teller.
But like that, that started first, you know?
People didn't want to give up before robots started taking over.
Like, that's a reaction to, like, well, soon I'll just go into a pod and be in like a, you know, a virtual reality instead of life anyway, because I just don't really see the difference if it feels real to me.
And that creeps me out.
That's weird.
Coffee's pretty good.
It has been coming for a while, though.
I mean, even before sort of computers took over everything, it was like, you know, Timothy Leary telling people to like drop out and boomers worried about the rat race.
And I just want to grill and I just want to like, you know, be a parrot head, sit on the beach and eat my cheeseburger in paradise.
And like, you know, it's all Jimmy Buffett's fault.
Well, it's television.
You know, it's like, this is what people have already forgotten.
Like, this is what TV was.
You would veg out in front of the boob tube and just like watch whatever happened to be on.
And, you know, this is now like people are like, oh, well, you know, maybe they look with nostalgia on that era.
And I think it's easy to forget how much people really do.
I mean, the temptation and the inclination to just be a lazy, inert, slothful, just like feed yourself and like feed the senses and just like become a blob, you know, become a pod person.
It's very strong.
And it always had been.
It always has been.
I mean, the monks living in the desert in the fourth century were like, oh, yeah, the noontine, noontime demon.
That's the really bad one because it comes in the middle of the day and it makes you just want to sit there and go like, why should I even like, you know, break the rocks or like say the prayers or like any, it's just like waiting for the day to get, yeah.
I think I have a CD.
I have a 6 a.m. demon.
I don't want to break the rocks as soon as I get up.
So how should Christians respond?
Holy coffee.
Okay.
You just get your coffee.
So you just like pour your holy water into the Kerrig and then brew it with your fingers.
Well, how should Christian respond?
I mean, look, like we live in a society where artificial stimulation is almost mandatory in order to function and play a role and survive.
Whether it's like artificial food, artificial prescription drugs, meds, internet, television, constantly listening to what strangers have to say, constantly talking with other strangers about what the first group of strangers had to say.
Like it is not sustainable.
It is sucking our life force and our soul force out.
It's sucking our spirit away and it is putting that energy into things that are not alive.
And like that's bad, right?
So what do you do about it?
Well, you have to recognize that like your senses and your passions are like not your friends.
And you walk around in LA and you see these billboards of like flat art of like, you know, obese teenagers or whatever it's supposed to be.
And it's like, your feelings are your superpowers.
And it's like, this is actually the opposite of like thousands of years of like painfully earned wisdom.
That doesn't mean that you want to go live in a sensory deprivation tank, but you have to realize that like these are the entry points for the kinds of temptation that, you know, it's not like you weakling, you're disgusting.
Like you can be tempted by anything and be afraid to even don't reach for that s'more.
Like that's sin.
I mean, you just have to be conscious of the fact that like the ways that peanut butter MMs that you're going to be doing.
Oh man, I had to, she swatted my hand away in the green room.
No.
And sometimes, you know, sometimes we all need that little, that little swat.
That too is a mercy.
And so it's just about watchfulness and, you know, actual spiritual consciousness and noticing when you are doing the things that you know are leading you in the wrong direction, a direction of servitude, slavery to your passions in your sense.
How much of this do you touch on in the book?
A bit.
It's not as nakedly theological as this conversation.
Nakedly in your gesture to yourself.
That's yeah, that's he is wearing clothes for the audio, so they say.
Yes, it is tan.
It is like a tan-colored mash.
If you alfocus your eyes, a lush tone, might get a but in the newsletter, there's a lot more just sort of uh uh boldly theological stuff going on in there.
All right, and look, there are a lot of newsletters out there, a lot of smart people.
If you're smart, you want to be smart, like okay, but like smarts isn't going to save us, smarts isn't going to save the world, it's not going to fix anything, it doesn't have magic powers.
Um, it's just the ability to sort of like think stuff through, and that can be turned into an obsession and bent out of shape.
And you start to think that everything is a problem that can be solved or like a sickness that can be cured.
And it's like, it's not really the way that it is.
Uh, so if you want more of that theological goodness, then uh, the build is where you want to go.
All right, everyone, check out that newsletter and check out his book.
We'll have links to all that in the show notes.
AI problem solved.
Now it's time to talk to Chris Ruddy, who is the CEO of Newsmax.
Apparently, DirecTV and ATT canceled them.
We're going to find out about it.
Here we go.
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And now it's time for another interview on the Babylon B Podcast.
Hey guys, thank you so much for joining us.
This is the interview show.
Today, we have with me, Jarrett, we have Chris Ruddy, and you are the CEO of Newsmax.
We're really happy to have you on.
It's really nice.
And you guys have a lot going on right now.
So we wanted to give you a chance to talk about what's happening with you.
And you are the CEO of Newsmax.
If you can explain to our listeners, obviously, I think most of them know what Newsmax is and who you are.
But if you could just talk about Newsmax a little bit, how you guys got started, how you got to be the CEO, and all that.
Well, I'll give you the short version: Newsmax started as a conservative media organization back in the 90s.
So we've been around a while.
We were very big in the digital space.
We still are.
And we have had a big impact, I think, in Republican political politics in Washington for a long time.
And then we got involved in TV about 2014, 15.
We launched a cable news channel.
We were soon in 50-plus million cable homes.
We got on every major cable system, which was a feat in itself.
And we've had a big impact there.
And back in back a few years ago, we launched and then we were up for renewal last year for our first cable agreements.
We're going to become a regular paid cable channel where we get license fees and DirecTV, ATT owns Direct TV.
They said that unfortunately they're not going to pay us anything.
We were eligible for zero fees.
So they took us off all their platforms on January 24th.
We have been banned essentially by them from the systems.
And it's the second conservative channel ATT Direct TV has taken down in the past year.
What was the first one?
One America was taken down last year.
O A N. Has that OAN?
Yeah, OANN.
I see they go by OAN.
Conservative, they had a small audience, but they still were fairly popular.
They had a name.
People knew them.
People did tune in.
Newsmax is the fourth highest rated cable news channel in the United States.
We're a lot bigger.
That's a Nielsen number.
Nielsen says we reach about 25 million Americans regularly.
That's a big number.
And they don't like our point of view.
It's pretty clear.
Two conservative channels.
They keep 22 liberal-leaning news channels, news and information channels.
Most of them have lower ratings, and most of them cost a lot more than the $1 a year total that we were asking per subscriber from them.
So to get into the weeds on this, they're saying they wanted to save money for their customers, but they keep literally dozens of lower-rated channels that nobody's watching and that are very expensive and took off Newsmax.
I don't think it was a business decision.
It just proves it was a political decision.
Right.
So it's an ideological difference.
And you, you know, we, the conservative space, people get canceled all the time.
Is this the first time you guys have faced something like this?
Well, we've had some minor cancel.
We've had on the cable world some minor cancellations.
We were up for renewal last year.
All our three major operators renewed us, NCT, Sea Verizon Dish.
And below them were hundreds of cable agreements.
There are a couple of handful, about 100,000 subscribers out of 50 million that did not renew.
So we had an amazing record.
And partly the two factors really in our favor.
One is that we had a very high viewership and two, we're very inexpensive.
So it really worked until we got to ATT and DirecTV.
They really wanted to create a firewall with our growth.
They're in 13 million cable homes.
They knew they could block us by doing this or thought they could.
And so we're fighting back.
And they've been pretty, I would say, you know, intransigent is probably a good word to describe it.
So this has just been a, is there anything in particular that you feel like you did in the last year that really got their attention?
Or is it something that, you know, there's their new leadership?
Like, what's happening there?
I can only guess, but I can tell you this.
Since the 2020 election, I think all conservative media has seen blocks.
We've seen it from Twitter, Facebook, YouTube.
Google's like the worst offender online, I believe.
And they claimed that we were misinforming the public about election issues, COVID, stuff like that.
You know, Newsmax accepted the election results.
We didn't say the election was stolen.
We accepted, you know, we supported the vaccine.
Not everybody did.
But they still will say these things to try to blunt or control or restrict us on social media.
We know that the House Democrats under Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to congressmen, Anna SU and Jerry McNerny, who both are very close to Nancy Pelosi, sent a letter to ATT and to other cable operators telling them to de-platform One America channel, Newsmax, and Fox News that we had spread misinformation about the election.
And it's pretty clear ATT, which does a lot of business with the government, has moved to de-platform now, two channels in a row in the past year.
So I think when you look at it, even Alan Dershowitz, who I think is a pretty fair-minded guy, he's a liberal.
He voted for Biden.
He voted for Hillary.
He said there's no doubt in his mind that ideology and political bias played a role in removing Newsmax.
Well, this is also an example of a private company limiting free speech.
You know, like it used to not just be private company.
It was the government doing it, but now we've got private companies limiting free speech.
We've experienced this a lot with Twitter and with other things.
What do you think the answer is for this?
Because when a private company can have a say over what you say, there's no, there's no, you know, there's no, I guess the Second Amendment, I mean, you know, the First Amendment.
I'm actually in favor of free speech, and I believe private companies are allowed to restrict Newsmax or reduce us.
However, we as individuals are allowed to say we don't want to do business.
AT ⁇ T is such a big company that they should make extra steps to be sure that they're including diverse voices and being fair and balanced.
And if they're not, the public should go back against them and say, hey, what you're doing is wrong and bad.
Now, there are some issues where there is a censorship issue involving ATT, even though it's a private company.
And one is if government worked with AT ⁇ T and Direct TV to take us off, that's a violation.
It's illegal.
It's a breach of our constitutional rights.
We know from the Twitter files that government did exactly that, right?
The FBI colluded with Twitter to restrict your views, my views, et cetera.
The SU letter and the McNerny letter indicated government was working with DirecTV or indicated to them they wanted us removed.
And from first appearances, it looks like AT ⁇ T complied.
We're not sure yet if that is completely the case.
It needs to be investigated by Congress.
But there is a concern raised now based on that issue.
Secondly, what DirecTV was attempting to do was say Newsmax should not receive any cable fees whatsoever.
Of all the cable news channels they have, they pay everyone.
Two dozen liberal, close to two dozen liberal channels.
Everybody gets paid.
But Newsmax can't get paid.
And they say we're not even eligible for a single penny in fees, which is unbelievable.
But what they also knew that by doing that, Newsmax would not be able to function as a news channel because all our other cable agreements with all our other cable systems would also go to zero the way the industry agreements are.
Everybody gets the lowest rate.
So they were basically trying to shut Newsmax down and censor us by demonetizing us.
And the bottom line is they have, I think, a moral responsibility, as Alan Dershowitz and others said, morally to have fair and balanced, diverse voices.
And I think they're ignoring that imperative from the public.
President Trump and others are telling people, just cancel your DirecTV, cancel your ATT.
He said he was doing that for his accounts.
So what's the step forward?
What's the next steps for you guys?
Are you in a legal battle right now?
Are you trying to get back in?
Are you just letting people know?
Yeah, we're encouraging people to call 877 Newsmax, which is a toll-free number, 877 Newsmax.
It connects to DirecTV, ATT.
And it also, if you want to, you're not a subscriber, you want to call Congress to call for hearings.
Our view is we should let the public know what DirecTV is doing.
We're still open to negotiations.
So far, we have not had an indication they are involved in good faith negotiations.
There are some communications between the company, the companies.
We would like to do a deal with them.
But at the interim, President Trump and others are telling people, you know, just cancel.
We are certainly urging Congress to look into this matter and how we were treated and the very unusual demands that AT ⁇ T is making of us, that we get no fee whatsoever when everyone else gets paid.
Yeah.
Are there other unusual demands or is that the biggest one?
That's the biggest one.
Yeah.
House Speaker McCarthy has publicly stated that he feels we're being discriminated against.
He thinks that he said he called AT ⁇ T and told them that you need to treat Newsmax fairly.
So far, we haven't seen that yet, but we're open to having a discussion with them.
Well, thank you so much for letting us know, letting our listeners know and our viewers know what's going on with you guys.
It's really important for us as a country to be speaking out for free speech for diverse voices, like you were talking about, conservative voices too, not just the progressive voices that you see on CNN and wherever else.
So we really want to be a supporter of Newsmax.
We want to make sure that you guys get a voice and we want to make sure that our fans know exactly what's going on with you.
So thank you so much for coming on, Chris.
I appreciate you guys at the B. You're doing tremendous stuff.
Everybody loves it.
It gets a huge pickup.
We're appreciative of your support.
Go to call 877 Newsmax.
We also have a website, I wantnewsmax.com.
I wantnewsmax.com.
So check that out too.
Okay.
I wantnewsmax.com and 877Newsmax.
Those are the two things, two places you guys can help.
So go do that.
And thanks again, Chris Reddy, for coming on.
CEO of Newsmax, everybody.
Check him out.
Appreciate it.
Thank you.
Wow.
Interesting.
Very interesting.
Just wow.
Illuminati confirmed?
Maybe.
Now it's time for hate mail.
You used to be good.
Adam Ford.
Fatim Ford.
I really miss Adam Ford.
We published an article.
Ilan Omar withdraws support for East Palestine after learning it's in America.
And we had a reply that said, Omar is against the genocide of the people of Palestine by Israelis.
So once again, your joke doesn't make sense and is nothing but fear-mongering propaganda.
I have a question about that.
There was like a peace agreement like a couple years ago, right?
And now like the Israelis and the Arabs are like hanging out, like working on stuff together.
And like Jared Kushner, like that whole thing, like that, that happened, right?
Like there's, there isn't really like we've always been at war.
Oh.
Okay.
Your thoughts are strong.
Wow.
All right, everyone.
Thanks for watching the podcast.
Stay tuned if you're a subscriber because we have bonus hate mail, a classic article, and we're going to ask James the 10 questions.
And we've also got subscriber headlines.
So here we go.
Coming up next for Babylon B subscribers.
They message guys, they put up like fake pictures of Russian models and stuff and just send out spam.
Poor guys who fall for that.
Yeah.
I just got those.
Poor guys who click on that.
I heard somewhere that like Tesla is now outselling Prius.
Are you kidding me?
They roast Joel Osteen all the time.
And I was just like, leave the guy alone, man.
No, we don't know who else is going to roast Joel Osteen for a long time.
This has been another edition of the Babylon Bee Podcast from the dedicated team of certified fake news journalists you can trust here at the Babylon Bee, reminding you that fake news of the people, by the people,