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Feb. 3, 2021 - The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters

01:32:04

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #60

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	Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
	Welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Eaters for Wednesday, the 3rd of February 2021.
	I'm joined by Callum, and today we're going to be talking about how Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez demonstrably lied about what happened at the Capitol riots, how the European Union has turned into the evil empire and is crushing Ireland, And how the social media wars in Silicon Valley are playing out internationally, incidentally.
	But before we start, I'd like to let you know that you can get much more content and written content and news updates for various things that are happening on Lotuses.com.
	And of course, if you'd like to support our podcasts, you can become a member there and get access to all of the premium content we do, including the book club, the Marcus Aurelius book, the Meditations by Marcus Aurelius book club that myself and Hugo will be doing.
	We'll actually not be out this week, it'll be next week because we've Just honestly not had enough time.
	But we will, after this podcast today, myself and Callum will be recording a premium podcast that we've had in the works for quite some time about where would Christopher Hitchens fall in the modern culture wars.
	And we think we can make a fairly persuasive case that he wouldn't be on the side of the Democrats at this point.
	But anyway, let's get into it.
	So, AOC lied about what happened in the Capitol riots.
	Demonstrably, provably, obviously lied.
	Now, we covered what she'd said on her Instagram livestream yesterday, and the response was exactly as you could have predicted.
	Massive amounts of upswell of political capital have come out of this, as all of the, I guess we'll just call them left-wing newspapers and outlets, the sort of usual partisan types, all fell into line behind her charge, as it were.
	And have all started writing articles saying, oh, look at this.
	What she said is true.
	This has all happened.
	She's the victim here.
	The Republicans are evil.
	Therefore, essentially, they need to be extirpated.
	But this is really a total work of fiction.
	And interestingly...
	The Washington Post published this article which essentially says, yeah, look at this wonderful story that she has told us.
	Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez shared her personal story and revealed our collective trauma.
	In her testimonial Monday, Cortez sat in front of a plain grey wall wearing a plain grey sweater.
	Her hair was loose.
	She kept raking it back with her fingers.
	Her face was well lit, but she wasn't wearing her usual red lipstick.
	Her phone kept falling over as she told the story.
	Am I reading a romance novel or something?
	I mean, what is this?
	In many ways, the setting was stark and sterile, but she filled all that emptiness with her clear-eyed recollections of fear and dismay.
	She might have been using 21st century technology, but her storytelling style is one that goes back generations.
	This was our shared oral history, a full reenactment.
	So, I'm about to be fed a line of BS, aren't I? That's what she's saying.
	Yes, that's exactly it.
	This is a big drama.
	This is a fiction that is being played out.
	As she and a lone staff member who had come for the day ran through the halls seeking shelter, she described the scene like a zombie movie or something.
	The monsters, she said, had grown fat on the lie of the stolen election.
	They'd grown brazen and entitled and violent on falsehoods.
	The mob had been fed disinformation by those willing to endanger the lives of others if it will score them political points, Ocasio-Cortez had said.
	Well, the irony of that is just staggering, isn't it?
	I mean, a woman who has incited and got people killed with her disinformation for political points is now accusing others of doing the same thing.
	So we'll move on from the wonderful novelization that the Washington Post gave us to The Hill, where they report that Representative Katie Porter, a Democrat of California, opened up about sheltering Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez during the riot at the Capitol last month, revealing that the New York lawmaker told her, I get to be a mum and I hope I don't die today.
	And I won't go over the things that they said.
	We covered it yesterday.
	But it was, frankly, again, obvious fiction.
	The California lawmaker also noted that she and Cortez discussed their choice of shoes, etc., etc.
	She says that what had happened is that Cortez was waiting in her office for six hours during the riot and that no law enforcement or other officials came to check if they were safe.
	Capitol Police never accounted for every member's safety, so we heard voices in the hallway.
	We didn't know who they were, whether those police were officers or whether they were intruders, so we just stayed dark.
	I hoped they would just run on by.
	So she added that the Capitol Police did not also provide instructions for lawmakers to go in shelter as they first evacuated buildings on Capitol Hill.
	But so we've got a pretty clear picture of what happened there.
	Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, as she says in her live stream, she went from her office over to Porter's office, Katie Porter's office, and then stayed there for six hours.
	Cut and dried.
	We know exactly what happened.
	That's very, very clear timeline.
	Very firm locations were given.
	And so we can just look up where these locations are.
	Because it turns out that if you go to the government websites, you obviously have the addresses of their offices just as public, in the same way that all representatives have all of these things public.
	And so if we just look up this address on Google Maps, We can see that it's there.
	And if we zoom out just a little bit, please, John, if we can zoom out on that.
	We can see that just above is the United States Capitol, about, I don't know, like 700 feet away, something like that.
	So it's a completely separate building in a separate area across the street that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was.
	And in fact, we know exactly where AOC's office is, again, from the same map, because it's marked on Google...
	The Office of Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
	So she went across the street at some point, it seems, which, again, is not next to the Capitol, not at the scene of the action or anything like that.
	And so when she said that she was being threatened by protesters and they were hunting her, no, they weren't.
	They absolutely weren't.
	They were not storming her offices.
	They were storming the U.S. Capitol.
	This is a lie.
	It is just a provable lie.
	It doesn't even take very much to demonstrate that that's a lie.
	Anyone with a computer can do it.
	Not even a computer.
	Anyone with a phone.
	Anyone who just walks around this area will be able to see that this is a lie.
	She's not telling the truth, which I assume is the reason for the novelization of events.
	Because it's just not factually accurate.
	So going back to The Hill, they say that Ocasio-Cortez recounted her experience during the Capitol riot while live on Instagram Monday night.
	She said that she was in her office earlier in the day before sheltering in Porter's office when she heard banging on the doors.
	She told viewers that she hid in the bathroom and heard a man yelling, where is she?
	I thought I was going to die.
	You have a lot of thoughts.
	I think you're in a situation like that, and one of those thoughts is, I just really felt that if this is the plan for me, then people will be able to take from here.
	But the thing is, as the Hill report, the man was identified as a Capitol Hill police officer.
	So we were joking yesterday, imagine if it was security shouting, where is she?
	It was.
	In her paranoid fever dreams, she had imagined that it was MAGA hat wearing death squads that were breaking into her office, which isn't even on Capitol Hill, in the Capitol building, and nothing happened.
	She was not attacked, and it was the police who were looking for her.
	And in the dramatic retelling of the movie that was clearly playing in her head, as Vox.com reports, I mean, in fact, Vox's reporting on this is actually even worse than The Hills.
	Completely uncritical.
	Let's not even question what happened.
	Not even just completely uncritical, openly factually inaccurate, right?
	So they're describing what she's talking about in her live stream, saying, you know, she ran over to an aide who told her to run and hide.
	She takes shelter behind her bathroom door just before the pro-Trump attackers break into office and make it clear they were coming for her.
	I just hear these yells of, where is she?
	Where is she?
	There were no pro-Trump attackers.
	There were none.
	It was the security.
	It was the police officers.
	But they are reporting it as pro-Trump attackers breaking into her office.
	With this level of lying and disinformation, what can be done?
	And so, it's just nonsense.
	It's just absolutely nonsense.
	And this is where she goes on to then go, well, you know, I was sexually assaulted.
	Which, again, Vox says, well, she's never disclosed that before.
	Hmm.
	Apparently she never went to the police.
	Never went to the police, has never told anyone before, never disclosed this.
	So suddenly she's a survivor of sexual assault.
	Considering it's in the same monologue, which is now provably a lie, I'm going to just assume that she's also lying about that.
	Yeah, I've got no reason to believe her.
	Sorry.
	The way that she described the police officer, though, again, indicates the kind of state of mind that she and her colleagues and staffers have.
	It's really weird.
	I don't understand why she would try to essentially paint the police officer to be a Nazi, but that's kind of what she's done here.
	So, as Vox continued to report, A Capitol Police officer was in the office to secure it, but she said something about the officer seemed off to her.
	He had no partner and hadn't identified himself.
	He yelled at her and didn't give them a specific location to take shelter.
	He was looking at me with a tremendous amount of anger and hostility.
	Things weren't adding up.
	I don't know if he was there to help us or hurt us.
	Eh?
	Like, some terrorist had come in dressed as a police officer?
	Yeah, get a MAGA terrorist to come in dressed as a police officer.
	And didn't decide to do anything and instead shouted at you.
	Yeah, and you sat in Porter's office for six hours.
	Which is nowhere near where any of the people are.
	Yeah, which is nowhere near the action.
	So, I mean, it just sounds insanely paranoid and like some kind of fever dream or an expression of her guilty mind where she's like seeing enemies under every uniform, I guess.
	Like, you know, people who think that I could be rumbled any second kind of thing?
	Yeah.
	And then they start to think that everyone's already rumbled them.
	Exactly.
	Exactly.
	They view their own crimes in other people's heads.
	And all of this is coming out of your mind, Ms.
	Cortez.
	No one else is thinking this.
	It's you thinking this.
	And you, using your massive social media platform and position as an elected official...
	To spread lies.
	Open lies.
	But why would she do it?
	Well, of course, the reason that she's done it is to attack Republicans.
	This lie is not just being used as leverage by her against Republicans, obviously.
	It's being used everywhere.
	And I mean everywhere.
	This narrative has now become set in stone in the left-wing ecosphere, misinformation ecosphere, where now AOC was attacked by MAGA protesters and she was rushed to safety in Porter's office where she barely survived the attack.
	It's like...
	That's not true.
	It's just not true.
	Anyway, this is being used against the Republicans themselves.
	You can get this Facebook link.
	This is Women's March on Washington Facebook page.
	Now, the Women's March page.
	This has got, I don't know, 900,000 followers, so it's not exactly something small or inconsequential, but it's just an example of the major sort of social media institutions of the Democrats that are doing this.
	And they say, you know, so long as Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and Marjorie Taylor Greene, and everyone who fueled the attack at the Capitol remains in office, our democracy is in danger.
	Last night, AOC told the harrowing story of her experience on January 6th.
	It was a stark reminder why it's so important to hold everyone involved accountable.
	Well, we are doing our best, but your lies are not helping this?
	Congress must expel every single member of the sedition caucus right now.
	So they're trying to call this group the sedition caucus.
	That's unity.
	That's coming together.
	That's lowering the temperature.
	That doesn't even make sense.
	They're not trying to secede.
	They just criticize the procedures in which their election was run under.
	Yes.
	And Hawley's framing of it, I think, was the best framing, frankly, where it was, I'm here representing my constituents who keep writing to me saying, we think something dodgy happened at the election, so I have a responsibility to bring their concerns to you, whether I agree with them or not.
	Perfectly fair, perfectly reasonable, nothing seditious about it.
	But as we've gone through this, I mean, like we said about Trump saying, you know, be peaceful, and then that was completely forgotten.
	The facts of the matter literally don't matter.
	I mean, the fact that they're saying here Alexandra's story of what happened.
	Yeah, just a complete story.
	Like she was in a completely different building.
	And then when she got scared by a man who was a police officer because...
	She was being protected by the police.
	Yep, and then she walked over to another building which is nowhere near the capital.
	Also under police protection.
	Yep, and then sat there.
	Worrying about whether she was going to die and whether she could run and hide and whose shoes she could steal in order to get away quicker.
	That doesn't even make sense.
	That really makes the shoes into comparison there.
	Whereas you're not even in the capital thinking, I've got to run.
	It's I've got to...
	You've got armed guards around you.
	This is nonsense.
	It's all a big lie.
	But this is of course being ginned up by every element of the Democratic Party it seems.
	I mean, I receive, I'm signed up to a bunch of left and right wing mailing lists and stuff like this, and I received this email.
	It's from Our Revolution.
	Our Revolution, they say, Calm down.
	No one is that based, okay?
	But obviously, this is...
	I mean, it's hilarious, over-the-top nonsense.
	Obvious propaganda.
	I don't know what you said, but even if you are someone who has no interest either way, or even is a moderate Democrat, anyone reading that will know that that's just propaganda.
	There is no way the description there is fair.
	Yeah, fair is definitely not what I would describe it as.
	This is what the GOP has become.
	A party of racist conspiracy theorists more loyal to white supremacy than American democracy.
	That's why our revolution is calling for Marjorie Taylor Greene's immediate resignation, barring that she must be expelled from Congress.
	Also, donate to our crowdfunder.
	Much convinced.
	Like, that's a convincing way of writing, isn't it?
	Yeah.
	No, that's a way of ginning up your support.
	Well, how is this different to Alex Jones?
	It's not.
	It's not.
	When he says, you know, Biden wants to destroy America, you know, a bunch of American-hating, paedophile-worshipping, so on and so forth.
	Yeah, yeah.
	So same kind of writing.
	Yeah.
	And, of course, if you click Donate, then you go to their page to donate.
	And if you scroll down a little bit, John, you can see that Our Revolution is actually a grassroots funding organisation under the rubric of ActBlue.
	And what is ActBlue?
	Well, if we go to their Wikipedia page, we can see that ActBlue is a Democratic Party organ that raises money for Democratic candidates.
	They don't have a particular candidate they endorse, they actually raise for all candidates.
	In 2016 and 2020, Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden used ActBlue during their primary and general election campaigns, and Bernie Sanders used it in 2016 and 2020 as well.
	So this extremist rhetoric is being used to raise money for Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Hillary Clinton.
	Is that sane?
	Is that good?
	Is that healthy for democracy?
	Is that something to which the Democrats will ever be held to account?
	Are any of these lies ever going to be addressed by anyone?
	No.
	Absolutely not.
	Just march on.
	I mean, we saw this throughout the BLM protests, I can't remember which organizations, but a bunch of them were attached to ActBlue as well.
	And people were figuring out, well, you're giving your money to Black Lives Matter, and instead, you know, you were just giving it straight to the Democratic Party.
	Exactly.
	So a lot of these donations made by billionaire companies...
	Just party donations.
	But it's this kind of rhetoric that is genuinely going to be the destruction of the Republic.
	I mean, it is insane, hyper-partisan, and being used to radicalize the base in order to extract wealth from them.
	So you're going to have this radical and an absolutely radical view of the Republican Party, not as another, just, you know, fellow Americans, but as traitors, conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, all of these other just smears, white supremacists, all of these other just smears, frankly.
	And yeah, so that's where American politics is at the moment.
	And it's pretty bad.
	I think things are not going to go better.
	I mean, just the opening line from AOC, I can't think...
	Like, the...
	I can't imagine just making up a story like that and then bare face telling it to your supporters.
	I mean, we pointed out the other day in that livestream how much she's smiling and how it looks weird, and there's a reason for that, I guess.
	She knew she was lying.
	She was making up BS. But she also knew that the institutions would interlock and protect the lie.
	She'd be fine.
	She'd be fine.
	She'd be not just fine, she'd be praised.
	She'd be venerated, she'll never be challenged on it.
	I say right wing, but no dissenting question will ever be asked of her.
	You said that you were attacked by MAGA supporters in your office, but there was no record of MAGA supporters going near your office, and it seemed to have been a policeman, and you described that policeman as a scary white man.
	Why are you doing this?
	You know, that'll never, that'll never be...
	I mean, it's Jussie Smollett levels of just making stuff up.
	Yes.
	I mean, why not just throw in, oh, and they brought a noose and, you know, everything else he did?
	Well, yeah, she may as well have been wearing the MAGA cam.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, exactly.
	It's Jussie Smollett levels of open propaganda, and it's just like, right, okay, that is just mainstream American politics, where once I can just lie like that, and it's, nothing happens.
	No, no one's going to take into account.
	It sucks.
	Okay, let's go on to what's going on in Ireland.
	Yeah, so I want to talk about, well, it's not specifically Ireland, but Ireland has been thrown under the bus here.
	Ireland.
	Yeah, I don't know, I just don't say it like that.
	That's alright.
	I've seen some people in the comments wondering why I say it like that.
	Yeah, I don't know why you say it like that, but go on.
	Last name, I guess.
	Yeah.
	So there's been a lot of hoo-ha about the...
	The IQ needs to be answered.
	There's a lot of hoo-ha about the vaccines with the EU and the UK, and I was scrolling through to a little look at tweets, and I found this one just to set the socks.
	I think it's great.
	So it was the European Union began their mass vaccination campaign, and the way the European Union's doing it is that it will be distributed throughout the 27 member states, and all in accordance with equity and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
	And a lot of Ramonas were complaining, oh, how...
	How did we pull out of the EU? We could have had this.
	We could have been part of the program, and now we're going to be on the sidelines.
	And this is one actor talking about it, saying, because of the dreadful Brexit disaster, we won't be included.
	Thank you, old white people.
	It's like, okay.
	Okay, not bitter at all by the looks of it.
	Who's Marina Sirtis?
	Some actor.
	I don't even care.
	I think I know who she is.
	Is that Deanna Troi from Star Trek?
	I don't know.
	Can we click on her, John?
	Yeah, I think it is.
	Alright.
	Oh god, she's gone woke.
	Okay.
	Yeah.
	Well, maybe, but okay.
	Yeah, sorry.
	Okay, so the EU is not going to give us any vaccines because of Brexit.
	Yeah.
	Whatever shall we do?
	I wanted to respond with just like, that's a couple months ago.
	What's the results?
	If you can get the next one.
	My response is like, thank you, old white people.
	Seems to have gone pretty well.
	There's a map for people who are listening of vaccine distribution throughout Europe, and you can see, like, Russia, all of the EU, Ireland included, all in the red.
	You know, not very vaccinated.
	UK, much high in the vaccinations.
	Thank you, base Brexit boomers.
	Yeah, and some of the data on this is good, so if you can get the vaccines up.
	So if you can scroll down.
	because of the population, Israel, UAE.
	But the major countries that are doing well out of this seems to be the UK and the United States, you know, big populations.
	Because like Israel, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, I mean, that's probably about the population of London, right?
	I don't know off the top of my head.
	They're pretty small states.
	But Germany, France and the EU are massively lagging behind, like not doing well.
	And that was represented in the previous graph as well, the fact that they are getting absolutely destroyed in this.
	So we're up to what, 25% of the population that's been vaccinated?
	I don't remember off the top of my head.
	Is it a percentage scale on the...
	I think we're 14, but that's a couple of days behind.
	Oh, right, okay, yeah.
	Sorry.
	Right, okay.
	But I also found the EU is trying to spin this as something that's good.
	So their own European accounts that are tweeting about health and whatnot, just to get the next one up, is them trying to promote that things have been going well.
	Yeah, just scroll down a little bit.
	Just see this tweet.
	So they're rolling out, like, this tool to see how vaccines have been distributed.
	You can see Ireland at 11%.
	Oh, goody, look how good we're doing.
	Like, everything's going well.
	And they've, like, greyed out the other countries because, of course, they're just interested in the EU. So if you get the map up, the full map, the updated one, like, you can see how they've specifically greyed out the UK because they can't show that the UK is doing better.
	No, the map, the next link.
	Whatever.
	Okay, but the point is they're trying to cover up the fact that we're doing way better in the vaccination.
	Yeah, and you remember there was an argument before about Jacob Rees-Mogg saying that the reason we've been able to do this is because of Brexit.
	So if you can get his tweet up, just him saying that we've been able to approve things faster.
	I don't know the ifs and buts about the approval process.
	I'm not going to argue.
	I saw a bunch of stupid argue about it.
	But I can just look at the results.
	We can just look at the results.
	I mean, it's probably a completely fair statement, though, because, I mean, at the end of the day, smaller states can pivot much quicker than giant international conglomerations.
	There have to be agreements over, you know, 20-odd countries.
	Well, if you need consensus between 27 different countries before you can act, then, yeah, that's going to make things a lot slower, or you can act individually.
	Trying to choose a takeout with 20 people, good luck.
	Yeah.
	I mean, the coronavirus really did expose the flaws in the European Union.
	The fact that each country immediately took its own policy on the coronavirus and the EU just had no particular overarching instruction.
	It was really interesting to watch, in fact.
	Embarrassing.
	Yeah.
	And this is the latest edition of it, which is that they decided that they start having a row with the UK about vaccines.
	So you can get the next one.
	This is the BBC reporting that...
	There was a big row going on between AstraZeneca, the EU and the UK. And the row was about the fact that the EU's rollout had been terrible.
	And they were moaning about this.
	So the reason is because the UK, three months before the EU, made a contract and said, we want this number of vaccines.
	Three months later, after the EU had all come to their consensus, signed a contract with AstraZeneca to say, we want this number of vaccines.
	And the reason for the time delay from the EU's perspective was, oh, we're concerned about safety.
	We're not sure about the UK's vaccines.
	It's like, okay.
	What's wrong with our vaccines?
	Our vaccines are good enough.
	Oh, you conspiracy theorists.
	What's wrong with them?
	What are they going to do?
	Make you...
	I'm like, I probably can't make a joke.
	No, I don't think we can say anything like that.
	So we'll leave it there.
	But they were concerned about safety.
	I'm sure.
	Conspiracy theorists.
	There's nothing wrong with vaccines.
	But the UK ones are going to be worse than the European ones.
	Okay, whatever.
	Let's just put a pin in that for a second because we'll come back to it in a bit.
	And their response to being late, because that's their fault, was to close down the whole system.
	Yeah.
	What?
	This is a Sky News video.
	If you can scroll down just for the title so you can show people.
	It's the EU introduced controls on the export of COVID-19 vaccines from Ireland to Northern Ireland.
	So they were saying that if you want to take a vaccine to Ireland and take it over the border, I'm not going to let you do that anymore because we think you're smuggling it to help the UK. Which...
	Which I'm not sure if they're entirely wrong, but it is obviously the breakdown of the deal, which is that you cannot have a border between Ireland and Northern Ireland.
	Well, yeah.
	Now, this was something that obviously was the Irish question when it came to Brexit.
	And my position on it was simply, well, look, I don't see why we have to put up a border.
	If they want to put up a border, then that's their choice, obviously.
	But then that's on them, and here we are.
	So that was the Brexiteer argument of like, we're not going to put one up.
	Go for it.
	See how popular you are.
	And they did.
	The European Commission decided on their own, like literally just them in Brussels deciding it.
	They didn't even call up Dublin at all to check with them.
	We're just going to put up a regulatory border that you can't do vaccine distribution over the border anymore.
	Which, of course, everyone hated.
	And I mean everyone.
	Apparently every party in Ireland and Northern Ireland condemned this.
	Which is like, what on earth is wrong with you?
	We told you that you get this kind of treatment.
	We told you.
	And I love the fact that there's like Europhiles in Ireland who are just like, well, at least we're not being ruled by England.
	It's like, yeah, I guess you're not.
	You're ruled by Brussels.
	Yeah, exactly.
	It's not any better, though, is it?
	Anyway, so the Guardian were reporting on this and they were trying to do a defense for the EU, which is just cringe.
	They had to mention the facts, and the facts, no matter how you spend them, look terrible.
	So they mention here that the Tory MPs were calling for an overhaul of the entire trade deal with respect to Northern Ireland in response that, you know, okay, if you're just going to neg on this part of the deal, why would you not neg on the rest of the part of the deal, you know?
	Yeah, yeah.
	And the WHO, the World Health Organization, also condemned this.
	And then the pharmaceutical industry also condemned this.
	So the EU was kind of sat there with no friends, like all of the international groups had also abandoned them.
	It was like, oh, we look pretty bad, don't we?
	We just put up a border for no reason.
	You know, obviously risking...
	Well, just in case they're smuggling vaccines into Britain.
	What?
	We've got our own vaccines.
	We're doing fine.
	But it's their fault.
	That's the thing.
	It's like, okay, even if they were, this is your fault.
	You signed the contract late.
	Like, you could have gotten this sooner, but no, they're just whining about it.
	So the Guardian writes some statements from EU officials trying to defend their position, and I think it's really, really sad.
	So they're saying in response...
	We have also got suspicious that certain vaccines are leaving Europe instead of coming to us, so we have put in place this mechanism to check that.
	So they want to check if you're taking ones that are meant for them over the border.
	It's like the Berlin Wall all over again, isn't it?
	It's weird, isn't it?
	Yeah, but it's just like, you know, you can't go into the free zone.
	But it's just vaccines, but of course, if it's just vaccines, why would they not keep going like they do on everything?
	At the moment, but it's just like, you know, don't be tempted to run to freedom across this border.
	In fact, we're going to put up a hard border and maybe we'll have guards on there.
	I don't know, we're going to check everything that you're taking through.
	It's only vaccines, but it's the point of, if it's that, they will do anything else.
	Exactly.
	So he continues, we have serious issues with a company that has signed a contract with us saying that they will put our disposal vaccines from two factories from the UK and then has not delivered a single dose from those factories.
	So they've produced them and they're saying, well, actually, the UK got it first, so we're going to give it to them.
	And he was salty about it.
	Well, yeah, it looked like Boris had sort of snaked them, to be honest.
	He seems to have done that job well.
	Excellent.
	And he continues saying it was...
	The eternal angler strikes back.
	The factory in question was saying that they were clearly saying, supported by the British government, that those factories would not be delivering the vaccines to the EU until the UK had got its 100 million doses that it was supposed to get.
	This is a serious issue for us.
	Yeah, you should have signed a deal sooner.
	There's no one else to blame here.
	This is just your problem.
	And he goes on to say that AstraZeneca has said in response that he had a contractual obligation to the UK to fulfil its order that it made three months earlier of 100 million vaccines.
	It's that rules-based international order that the European Union was so insistent on enforcing.
	So if it has to distribute vaccines from one factory in the EU to the UK to try and fulfil that order, well, that's how contracts work.
	I know you're not used to this, but they made a contract, they want to keep to the contract, so they will be used in future, and the EU's just sulking in the corner like, nah, but we're more important, screw you.
	Yeah, I heard rumours that they were going to just simply impound it and intercept it, like other countries had done, in fact, earlier.
	Well, that's what they were threatening.
	They were like, we will take serious action, we're going to set up a border in Northern Ireland.
	And of course, everyone was just kind of fobbing them off, because it's like, come on, you're not that stupid.
	And apparently they were, because they did do it.
	And they had to backtrack on it, just being like, actually, no, no, we didn't mean to.
	And the response from this, I've got two, just to try and get the Irish response, because we're not in tune with Irish politics, so don't at us if we're using the wrong people or something.
	But the Defence and Foreign Minister for Ireland...
	Do at us to correct us.
	Made a statement in response to this, saying that the protocol is not something to be tampered with, the protocol between Norwood and Ireland.
	It is essential, a hard-won compromise, protecting peace and trade.
	So condemning the EU. The Irish are just like, what on earth are you doing?
	And they're right to.
	Because the EU just came in and were just like, we're going to put a regulatory border up where we said we wouldn't.
	And, you know, I'd feel miffed if I were then.
	No, the mask has slipped.
	You're learning the lesson, and in fact the mask has slipped, which is exactly what the DUP said in response.
	The next one...
	Based DUP? Yeah, so this is the leader of the DUP saying the EU's mask slipped over a vaccine export route, which, absolutely true.
	Correct statement.
	I don't know what to make of the DUP. You know, don't at me.
	Well, they're very conservative, as I'm aware.
	But that doesn't matter.
	The point is, this is an accurate observation.
	And the...
	The sort of spirit of the question was, do you think you're going to get fair treatment from the European Union?
	That was always the sort of spirit of the argument that I would have with people who are like Irish Europhiles.
	And they would always go back and, well, England's evil.
	England's done bad things.
	Oh, yeah, sure.
	I agree.
	Yeah, yeah.
	What's I got to do with the EU? Exactly.
	I'm not defending England's record in Ireland or anything like that.
	What I'm saying is that don't expect better treatment from the Germans and the French, because you ain't getting it.
	Yeah, I mean, that's a great way of putting it, which is like, oh, we don't trust the English on their historical record, but we do trust the Germans on their historical record.
	Not sure about that one, buddy.
	What's really amusing about it is, okay, but if you look at it chronologically, like our bad record in Ireland is about 300 years ago, 200 years ago now.
	The Germans is still within living memory.
	Still ongoing.
	Anyway.
	But it wasn't just the kind of people who you would expect to be condemning this.
	Even Tony Blair had to come out and say this was bad.
	Oh no!
	Like Tony Blair.
	Tony!
	The knife in the back!
	So yeah, he did an interview with Sky News.
	We can't play it because of copyright, but he brands the EU foolish for what they did.
	It's a really weird interview to watch because he's just squirming.
	Well, he's clearly out of his comfort zone, isn't he?
	Normally he's the biggest Europhile you can find.
	Yeah, so he was chatting about something else and then they brought up the vaccine thing.
	And you can see he's really struggling how to spin this positive.
	And I'd recommend anyone to go out and watch it because it's just golden to seem like...
	Yeah, they are the bad guys.
	I was like, great.
	Thanks, Tony.
	Thanks for that.
	We told you.
	And one of the points I made earlier about the fact that they were concerned about UK vaccines being unsafe.
	Yeah.
	Okay.
	Okay.
	You want to take that point?
	Okay.
	Well, what are they up to now?
	Because they're not going to get these vaccines.
	They've lost this battle where they tried to fight the UK and instead have had to back down.
	So they're looking at the Russians.
	Yeah.
	I'm sure the Russian vaccine would be brilliant.
	This is Breitbart reporting.
	I think it's Kurt.
	I've met Kurt writing on this, so I trust his reporting on this.
	I also checked on the primary source.
	It's fine.
	Yeah, they are going to have to start importing the Russian vaccine because they can't get the vaccines they need to fill the order as fast as they want to.
	Amazing.
	Yeah, right, that's it.
	The British vaccine, bad.
	Russian vaccine, good!
	Yeah, this is great, guys.
	I don't know the data.
	I don't even need to, though, because the point is, like, you spent the last few months scummying the Russian vaccine as something degenerate that we're not going to import into the EU, and then you tried to bully the UK to get, you know, ours, and then we're like, eh.
	All right, Russia, please.
	Please save us.
	I don't need to know anything about the vaccines.
	I can just look at the relative regulations of the different countries.
	Britain, basically the same regulations as Europe.
	Russian regulations, how are they looking?
	Different.
	A bit different.
	That's what people like.
	Yeah, a bit different, yeah.
	You know, just anyway.
	Yeah, so the statement here, her talking about it, she said that every vaccine is welcome in the European Union.
	I assume she said this very, like, very inclusive.
	I love every vaccine, it's great.
	And this was in response to Sputnik V's good data.
	She's crunching her teeth.
	LAUGHTER But the weirdest part is, even with her saying that we're going to start importing Russian vaccines because we're so screwed, is that she mentions that by the end of March, there will be 10 million Germans vaccinated, 12%, by the end of March.
	But we're already past that, aren't we?
	We're already at 14.
	How is it that German efficiency has failed?
	Man, they've really messed up.
	Like, I don't see anyone defending this.
	Like, even James O'Brien was like, ah, yeah, this is them being bad guys, and also they've completely failed, and we've done good here.
	He must have been angry.
	He must have been angry about that.
	Goddammit, Britain's done something good.
	Like Femi was sort of like grinding the teeth.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Like it's great.
	I absolutely love it.
	Brexit was such a good idea.
	But the point I wanted to mention was they're not actually wrong.
	That's the thing.
	Like, but so we are taking vaccines that were made in factories in the EU and they are coming to the UK before they're being distributed to EU nationals.
	Get wrecked.
	But the point is, obviously, this is not happening because we are evil or something like this.
	It's because we followed the rules.
	That's why this is happening.
	It's because we didn't have this stupid waiting period and just went, right, yeah, okay, we'll buy that.
	And then three months later, the Germans come.
	Here's a contract.
	You sign it.
	I sign it.
	It's under EU law that we now have to fulfill this contract.
	I'm sorry.
	This was the rule-based international order you wanted.
	And the factory owner and the firms are just stood there like, well...
	It's illegal for us to break this contract, actually, under the laws you've set in.
	Like, you want me to break the law for you, who will then fine me for breaking the law?
	Exactly.
	Why would I do that?
	Like, are you stupid?
	So the next one is Guido Forks reporting.
	They're having a nice little time.
	Oh, yeah.
	The French vaccines will be delivered to the UK first.
	It's just an article listing about how they're saying, yes, we will fulfill our order to the UK before we prioritize the European order.
	Well, we told you.
	We told you you should have reformed the European Union if you'd just changed so Brexit didn't have to happen.
	None of this would have been necessary.
	Just saying.
	Yeah.
	But it's great for us, at least, because we can point to Ireland and say, really?
	Do you want more of this?
	Is this ideal?
	Are you getting the message now?
	These guys do not care about you.
	They didn't consult Dublin at all to talk about setting up a border.
	They will just do it of their own will.
	They don't care what you have to say.
	But at least we're not speaking English.
	Oh no, wait, we are.
	Damn it!
	There's a great response to this.
	This has all sort of gone down, and it's not got enough attention, so that's why I wanted to cover it.
	But there was one response in some newspaper.
	People sent in my view on it, and they published the funniest ones.
	The funniest one is the one if you can get it up.
	The EU is absolutely welcome to gain access to UK vaccines.
	It just needs to apply for membership of the UK, ensure that its contribution to the UK Treasury is high, and accept supremacy of UK law.
	Oh, bravo.
	That is just...
	I mean, that should be the official UK response to the European Union.
	We are perfectly happy for you guys to come and join us in glorious England, but you have to apply and you must have...
	The British courts must be higher than your courts.
	We can't compromise on any of these things either, I'm afraid.
	Sorry.
	It's just the four pillars you see of the British.
	Also, we will set up an unelected commission which will rule over all of your countries.
	Okay, thanks.
	Like, you guys get no to say in this.
	Oh god, that is such a fun story.
	That's a feel-good story, as far as I'm concerned.
	I want to get some good news.
	It's like, EU take their mask off, utterly tyrannical, not even pretending anymore, and even all the EU defenders in the UK had to crunch their teeth and say, yeah, actually, they look like the bad guys here.
	They really screwed it up.
	The lockdowns were worth it.
	They got to embarrass the EU. Yeah, based.
	One of the things I've noticed is, you know, critics of ours will say, oh, well, they don't talk about Brexit anymore.
	Because it's done.
	Yeah, it's done.
	I mean, Boris actually did a fairly decent job of it, as far as I'm concerned, which is the one thing I'm prepared to credit him with.
	We don't talk about the Second World War anymore.
	Or the currency exchange of, like, 1990 or whatever.
	I mean, we can dwell on our historic victories, if you like.
	I mean, we've got a lot of them to go back to.
	In fact, where do you want to begin, Germany?
	But there's the thing, like, you know, I don't particularly want to have to dwell on bricks.
	I'm glad that it's done, and it seems to have been done fairly well, and it seems to all be actually working out in our favour, as intended.
	It's also one of these weird things, like people are complaining, oh, this short-term thing has messed something up.
	Like, the Scottish were given a bunch of money to sort out fisheries, and then their fisheries minister...
	Sorry, you can just stop it.
	The Scottish were given a bunch of money.
	Okay, yeah.
	Their fisheries minister didn't actually do the work, and a bunch of Scottish fisheries lost a load of money.
	That's right.
	She was off doing some diversity and inclusion training for schools or something like that.
	Yeah, it's pathetic.
	Instead of doing her job.
	Something woke, yeah, instead of doing her job.
	So a bunch of fish rotted and a lot of money was wasted.
	And I saw all of the Scottish newspapers going, oh, this is Brexit, this is Brexit.
	Brexit has done this.
	No, it didn't.
	Okay, whatever.
	I could still count that as a short-term loss, like the incompetence of politicians to implement Brexit.
	You could kind of blame Brexit, I guess.
	It's a weird way of blaming it.
	You've got the money, you've got the regulations, you know what you're supposed to do, but you just didn't.
	But I like how the long-term effects are already starting to pay off, like the fact of things like this, where the long-term part is that we will get our sovereignty back, and that is more important.
	Well, this is an example of what you can do with sovereignty.
	In times like this, you need your sovereignty.
	You do not need an EU commission deciding, we're going to have a debate for three months about whether or not these are safe and what we're going to do and blah, blah, blah, blah, and then utterly fail and then panic and mess everything up as soon as they realize they're there.
	I was going to swear.
	But no, this is a fantastic example of why sovereignty is a good thing.
	And this wouldn't have been possible, would it, if we were part of the EU? It seems Jacob Rees-Mogg was right.
	If he's not right about it being approved fast enough, well, I don't care.
	Look at the results.
	Who's winning?
	Yes.
	It's not the EU. And it's also not Silicon Valley, either.
	Silicon Valley is not winning, despite the fact that it looks like they might be winning.
	They're not tired of winning, huh?
	I think they are tired of winning, in fact.
	I mean, if the last decade is the success story of Silicon Valley, then they are definitely tired of winning.
	And it's not going to be good for us, by the way.
	Not going to be good news for people watching on YouTube or Facebook, either.
	So you should probably go to LotusEast.com and watch the podcast live on the website every day at 1pm UK time, because there's been a titanic struggle.
	Have you seen films like Clash of the Titans and stuff like that, where the heroes are running past this giant monster battle that's going on?
	There's one in Lord of the Rings as well, where the stone giants are fighting and stuff like that.
	It's a lot like that, right?
	Because Apple and Facebook are basically taking chunks out of each other.
	Now, last week, we covered how Facebook was going after Apple.
	Well, Apple have struck back at Facebook.
	Tim Cook, on Thursday, essentially linked Facebook's business model to real-world violence and reducing public trust in vaccines.
	And these are quite powerful narrative attacks, because obviously these are, you know...
	You know, these are the way in which other social media, like, you know, the alternative social media platforms are being deplatformed.
	That's how they legitimize it.
	Oh, you're causing violence, you're spreading vaccine conspiracy theories and all this.
	And so Tim Cook's like, Mark...
	You.
	It worked on Parler.
	Exactly.
	You're next.
	Let's try it on Facebook.
	Exactly.
	But yeah, I mean, and he was pretty damn, like, just the condemnation of it is pretty harsh.
	He says, if a business is built on misleading users, on data exploitation, on choices that are no choices at all, it does not deserve our praise.
	It deserves reform.
	It's like, really, a business built on misleading users.
	That's his description of Facebook.
	I mean, he didn't name Facebook expressly, but you know that that's who he's talking about, right?
	And it's like, wow, that's a hell of a statement, really.
	At the moment of rampant disinformation and conspiracy theories juiced by algorithms, we can no longer turn a blind eye to the theory of technology that says all engagement is good and the longer the better, which is, incidentally, exactly the theory that Facebook is built on.
	Everything about Facebook's algorithms.
	And I can't remember the name of the co-founder of Facebook, but a few years ago he came out and did an interview where he was like, look, we knew that this was basically an addictive thing that we'd created.
	And yeah, we did it anyway because time on the site, time in clicking links, there was more money for us.
	And so Tim Cook actually kind of has them over a bit of a barrel here because Facebook's basically admitted, yeah, that's what we do.
	We addict you to your smartphone.
	And...
	We haven't figured how to make money otherwise.
	Yeah, basically.
	It's long past time to stop pretending that this approach doesn't cover the cost of polarization, a loss of trust, of violence.
	A social dilemma cannot be allowed to cause a social catastrophe.
	Not good.
	Thank you.
	This obviously comes in the wake of Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, who had defended Facebook from allegations that they had been the place where the Capitol riots...
	In fact, the interesting thing as well is in this article by CNBC, they do describe it as a riot on Capitol Hill, not an insurrection, which is interesting.
	But the data demonstrates that all of this was organized on Facebook.
	None of this appears to have been organized on Parler, at least if any of it was, it's a very small amount.
	Not just Facebook, obviously.
	We saw the posts.
	It was on Twitter, it was on Instagram, it was on Facebook.
	It was the mainstream sites it was done on.
	Yes.
	But Facebook mostly, because Facebook has the groups function, because Facebook's trying to move into a more, and in that defense, this is a good idea, a more sort of privacy-oriented thing, because Mark Zuckerberg's given talks, talking about this, like, we actually don't want it to be just like a public message board for the world.
	Like Twitter is, because that's not really what Facebook users use Facebook for.
	And so like when, you know, something goes viral on Facebook where some just normal person has posted something and it goes viral, that ruins their life.
	And that, you know, that's unfair.
	That's not really what was meant to be happening, right?
	It's meant to be for you and your friends.
	Exactly.
	It's meant to be for you and your friends.
	And so I do actually, I am sympathetic to the thought that Mark Zuckerberg is putting forward there.
	But Apple are being quite aggressive against Facebook, in fact.
	And now all of this is quite subtle stuff, but the implications are quite huge.
	So, as India Times reports, Apple are essentially going after Facebook's ability to track user data for their targeted ads on Apple's systems, on iPhone.
	And this is a big deal, because Facebook's money, as Mark Zuckerberg testified in Congress, Facebook makes money from adverts.
	And Facebook have very, very high-tech algorithms to do this.
	Now, you may well have noticed that if you one day speak about something that you've never spoken about before, say you're just sat there going, oh, I'd really love a giant beanbag to sit on in the corner of my room.
	Just came to me out of the blue today.
	I've never even thought about a giant beanbag before, but I think it'd be really comfortable.
	You pick up your phone and, oh my god, adverts for giant beanbags!
	What a coincidence!
	More adverts for things like giant beanbags.
	You know how the Facebook algorithm works because you've probably engaged with it yourself and you've seen it where it's like, God, it's actually listening to me all the time and gathering all of this data to sell me targeted products.
	Now, I mean, it's kind of Orwellian, but it's also kind of mundane, right?
	It's like they just want to sell me stuff that they think I like.
	There is a utility to that, which is its defense.
	But again, I personally don't want them listening to everything that I say, even if it's not with nefarious intent.
	But so Apple, for some reason, and I don't actually know why Apple are so obsessed with user privacy and user data privacy, because again, Facebook, when it came to like, oh, the Capitol riots, well, that was organized on Facebook.
	Facebook just handed all this information over to the FBI. Apple took it to court and won.
	So Apple didn't hand over the encryption so the FBI could get hold of whatever data they wanted.
	I don't know why Tim Cook is so strong on this point, but okay, well done.
	I've got no love of Apple.
	I've never bought an Apple product in my life because I don't like them as a company.
	But on this, can't argue.
	Anyway, as first reported by the Associated Press...
	Apple has announced at the end of last year that it was going to begin a new slew of privacy controls that would prevent apps from tracking its users.
	And so they're expected to roll this out in September this year.
	Sorry, last year, but it got delayed for multiple reasons.
	One of them was an outcry from Facebook saying how this would harm app developers.
	And so Apple announced they'd release it early this year.
	And...
	The reason that Apple held on rolling out the features was to give time for Facebook and other app developers to adjust to this feature.
	And experts have predicted the majority of users are going to refrain from giving their consent to be tracked by apps.
	So basically, Facebook is going to lose its leading market edge in marketing.
	Because this is why Facebook is such an appealing thing for people who want to sell products.
	I mean, when you're advertising, and I've experienced this myself by just doing promotion on Facebook and trying to promote your Facebook pages, whatever it is you're doing.
	When you're just promoting blindly, you're going to be getting impressions in front of tens of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of eyes.
	But Many of those, by default, are just going to be not interested in the thing that you're presenting to them.
	Then you've got a smaller section that will be interested but won't click, and then you've got a smaller section that will be interested and click.
	Then you'll have a smaller section that will be interested, click, and buy the product, right?
	And so Facebook's great marketing strategy, and it is a great strategy, it's amazing, to be honest, is to make sure that instead, by having these targeted adverts, you're cutting out the chunk of people who just are not interested in what it is you put in front of them, right?
	And so you've saved money in advertising.
	So it's a very, very effective capitalist system, right?
	Very good.
	And so you can see why Facebook would be so upset by what's going on here, because this is what's keeping their operation profitable.
	So they say, last month we saw Facebook squirming after it attacked Apple's privacy control in the form of full-page ads in major newspapers in the US, which they did, claiming that several free digital services will be hobbled if they can't compile personal information to customise ads.
	That's how bad this is.
	They took out adverts, I think it was in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
	You know, full-page adverts saying, look, you can't do this to us because this is going to cripple our business model.
	And Apple, so well...
	That's not my problem.
	Long live the king.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Exactly.
	Apple and Zuckerberg also stated how Apple's motives and changes are less to prevent the tracking of user data and more to use its own platform to interfere with rivals to its own messaging app.
	Apple may say they're doing this to help people, but the moves clearly track their competitive interests.
	Wow.
	I can't believe it.
	I wonder if Parler could say something similar.
	I wonder if Gab could say something similar.
	All of these other platforms have been deplatformed by people like Apple Zuckerberg.
	I wonder if they could all say something similar.
	How did you feel when they were being taken off?
	Oh no, it was Parler that was doing all the bad stuff.
	Good that they're gone.
	Ah, the revolution eats its own, doesn't it?
	The noose gets tighter and suddenly it's around your neck.
	Facebook's not the only major player that's going to suffer losses here, of course.
	Google also relies on this kind of personal data, but Google itself is probably big enough to be able to essentially create its own workarounds.
	Facebook probably is as well, but obviously the fact that Zuckerberg is coming out and complaining about this implies that this is something they find kind of scary.
	So moving on, that's interesting, and I think it is something we should be aware of, but I don't exactly know what the consequences are going to be.
	I mean, who knows what the consequences of anything is going to be at this point.
	We seem to be out in uncharted territory in basically every walk of life at this point.
	But we go to the Biden regime.
	Which supports social media censorship, as reported by ReclaimTheNet.org, which is a site I actually really like.
	Jen Psaki was asked whether Biden supports big tech banning former President Trump from their platforms, and she replied, I think it's a decision made by Twitter.
	We certainly spoke to, and he's spoken to the need for social media platforms to continue to take steps to reduce hate speech.
	They can't really do anything but what they're signalling.
	We won't stop you.
	Exactly.
	Permissiveness.
	The social acceptance of deplatforming, the government's acceptance of deplatforming, it's not going to be a problem.
	They're not going to care.
	And the New York Times has promoted the idea of a reality czar.
	So they decided that, well, actually, what the Biden administration could do is create a new position.
	Several experts I spoke to recommended that the Biden administration put together a cross-agency task force to tackle disinformation and domestic extremism, which would be led by something like a reality czar.
	It sounds a little dystopian, I'll grant, but let's hear them out.
	Do we have to?
	Do we have to hear out the dystopian proposition?
	Jesus Christ.
	It sounds dystopian, but it could be good.
	Yeah, exactly.
	But it might work in our favor.
	It's like when, you know, those movies where the king or the tyrannical emperor or something has a town crier who comes out.
	And they just start ringing the bell trying to tell you propaganda.
	And the whole townspeople are listening to him going, yes, it's dystopian, but it'll be good for you.
	Exactly.
	Like, are we meant to sit here and go, right, nah, kill him.
	Like, I don't know what else response you're going to get to that.
	This guy's obviously speaking nonsense.
	Yeah, yeah.
	But the point is, the point is the Biden administration wants to be able to dictate to social media, although this guy and these experts, unnamed experts, they are named actually, But experts, the New York Times is spoken to and promoting, want literally a single point of address that will dictate to social media, which means dictating to everyone who uses social media, what reality is.
	Sounding a little dystopian is severely understating the case, in my opinion.
	But anyway, right now these experts said the federal government's response to disinformation and domestic extremism is haphazard and spread across multiple agencies.
	There's a lot of unnecessary overlap.
	Well, I mean, to be honest with you, and I don't know why I have to say this, but it's actually not the government's job to be the font of truth.
	And I don't know who would think it would be.
	It's ridiculous.
	Or a radical opinion.
	How unliberal of you.
	Yeah, I know.
	Exactly, right?
	The government isn't the arbiter of truth.
	I mean, I'm the kind of lunatic who opposes fascist Germany and the Soviet Union.
	That's why.
	And I just don't think we should follow their methods, which is exactly what the New York Times is proposing.
	But yeah, so various researchers, Rene Diresta from Stanford's Internet Observatory, gave two examples, blah, blah, blah.
	Don't know if we need to go into that, actually.
	But basically, they've got loads of proposals, but who cares, right?
	Because the point is, it's tyrannical.
	It's totalitarian.
	And as Sebastian Kalata, Poland's Deputy Minister for Justice, pointed out, it is not democratic, it is Bolshevik.
	Which is exactly correct.
	And man, do I like this guy.
	I like the way he has framed all of this.
	So I'm going to read out a few quotes from him.
	Because man, Poland is leading the charge against internet censorship, presumably with feathered wings on their backs that create a harrowing noise for the enemy, right?
	And honestly, it's great.
	So...
	He told Breitbart that Poland has real concerns about cancel culture and is legislating against it.
	The pressure from the far left has developed from soft political correctness into a much harsher phase, that of cancel culture.
	It is very worrying and is more reminiscent of Bolshevik standards than democratic ones.
	Perfectly spoken.
	I mean, that's basically summarizing everything we've been saying for the last, like, five years.
	You know, that is fantastic.
	And I hope, if they're watching, good job.
	Cancel Culture aims to make people afraid to express their opinions.
	The signals from the left are clear.
	If you do not agree with us and you criticize us, the system we have created will not only get you fired, but will also limit your access to certain services and products.
	Kaleita said that the neo-Marxists, calling the shots within the cultural institutions like the mainstream media and Silicon Valley, were using the methods which are much closer to those of Soviet Russia than social democracy.
	He cited the case of now cancelled but until recently the most successful author on Earth, J.K. Rowling, as an example of the power of cancelled cultures, noting simply, slowly but surely the revolution devours its own children.
	I like this guy.
	Yeah, very much harmonizing with our wavelength.
	I'm really enjoying it.
	And, of course, Poland's prospective parliament-appointed free speech board could demand social media networks reinstate the accounts of wronged polls and levy fines of up to $14 million per offense in cases where they refuse to comply.
	Ultimately, he explained, freedom of speech needs to be defended from censorship.
	Brilliant.
	Can't endorse it more firmly.
	That is fantastic.
	And so we get to the reason that basically we're all going to have to find new platforms.
	Because, I mean, don't get me wrong, all of this pressure, all of these things that are going on are legitimate, right?
	Apple being concerned about data privacy.
	That's a legitimate concern.
	I'm being concerned about that Facebook actually did have a role in radicalization.
	It does, both right and left, and not just right and left, for hobbies and things like this, man.
	I tell you what, hobby groups on Facebook are actually intense.
	I'm in a bunch of them, and people take them very seriously, because all they do all day, and I'm getting into that sort of...
	I'm in a bunch of 40k hobby groups, and man, I'm really, really, really jonesing to buy some miniatures to Because I keep seeing it all day, every day.
	And it's really appealing.
	And it's the same with anything, right?
	Just the constant flow of the same information makes you radical in that direction.
	Which is why we always say, look, listen to people on left and right as much as you might hate them.
	I just wanted to say I really like this solution.
	Because there's endless conversations in the anglosphere.
	What can we do?
	Section 230 or what can you do with our private companies and so forth.
	And it's very...
	Find them.
	Not good.
	But here's the solution.
	The polls have come up with it, which is just, you know, take down what is illegal.
	If you have something illegal on there, take it down.
	We're fine with that.
	But if you start taking down stuff that is not illegal, we will come after you.
	And that's what's wrong with that.
	Because you can say, oh, well, they're a private platform.
	They want to do this or whatever.
	Well, but if they want to say we have the Section 230 rights and all the rest of it, blah, blah, blah, blah, then just find them when they break it.
	That'll be the condition.
	This account hasn't put anything illegal up.
	They haven't posted any gore or anything like this or whatever.
	So this is what we call censorship.
	We are going to fine you for that.
	Yeah.
	Good.
	Easy peasy.
	Freedom of speech needs to be defended from censorship.
	Perfect.
	That is the way to do it.
	It is.
	But, of course, the social media companies are going to react to this.
	The first one is the depoliticization of Facebook.
	Now, this sounds good, but then you think, well, hang on a second.
	Politics is a part of being a person.
	And if people are using Facebook for their own personal uses, then talking politics is going to come into that, especially when you have...
	Like, events like Brexit or the coronavirus lockdowns and things like this.
	Things that genuinely affect every aspect of every person's life.
	Also, how far do you take that?
	Like, if I just make a comment that's vaguely political?
	You know, and then what is political?
	Personal is political.
	Exactly.
	I mean, does this mean that literally political Facebook groups are just going to be shut down?
	Am I going to get my page shut down because I talk about politics?
	You know, I mean, I don't know.
	Do I have to start talking about miniatures and use code?
	I mean, I could.
	But basically, Zuckerberg has said numerous times that he doesn't want Facebook to actually be a political platform.
	He says one of the top pieces...
	This was in a fourth quarter earnings call that is actually a Publix document.
	But he said...
	So the end of last year, or the beginning of this year, I think it was...
	He said that although political groups and discussions will still continue on the platform, one of the top pieces of feedback that we are hearing from our community right now is that people don't want politics and fighting to take over the experience on our services.
	And man, if you ever engage in anything on Facebook, it's really difficult to get away from politics.
	It's really insufferable.
	I'm seeing the normies giving me their political takes.
	I'm like, just shut up.
	Just shut up.
	Oh, but lockdowns are good.
	They're saving lives.
	Shut up.
	You can't prove that lockdowns hurt people.
	Just shut up.
	You just don't know what you're talking about.
	My favourite one was the one I told you about.
	I was arguing with someone about whether or not Ethiopians found Japan by the end of it.
	It's just like, what am I dealing with?
	Like, this person genuinely was pushing back.
	Well, I don't know.
	History is very strange.
	It is very strange.
	And I know more about it than you do.
	I think a child knows more about it.
	Did the Ethiopians found Japan?
	Nah.
	Yeah.
	But that's the point, right?
	Facebook has become a highly politicised platform.
	And yeah, so in a blog post published on the 11th of January, it said it was not recommending civic groups for people to join.
	We have a clear policy against recommending civic or political groups on our platforms and are investigating why they've been recommended in the first place.
	So the general trend, I think, in Silicon Valley, because ultimately, of all of the content, and this is something that Susan Majewski has said many times, and she said it very clearly, of all of the content that's on Silicon Valley platforms, the 2.6 billion Facebook users, the billion Apple users, How many views a month does YouTube get?
	Something like 2 billion.
	YouTube gets 2 point something billion.
	Facebook's a little bit smaller and then Twitter's like 3 billion.
	Exactly.
	Massive numbers.
	The overwhelming percentage of that content, if you divide it into political and non-political content, political content is a few percent of actually what's happening there.
	Just for YouTube's sake, to put that in perspective, I think I did a chart on this active internet users.
	It's about a third of all active internet users use YouTube.
	It's a third of the planet.
	Yeah, and it's roughly the same for Facebook and probably similar to that.
	Yeah, slightly smaller, but we're talking the same scale.
	Of that third of the planet of all videos and unique users on YouTube, only a very small percentage of that third is actually political.
	Exactly.
	And they're well aware of this.
	Like I said, Susan Majiski has said this, like, well, that's only a small percentage.
	And so from the position of Silicon Valley, I can totally see them going, well, why don't we just essentially cash out of politics?
	Because is it worth the risk?
	Is it worth the hassle?
	Like, these people get us in so much trouble.
	We have to endlessly have to cut ads.
	You remember Ad Pops?
	Yeah, yeah.
	The apocalypse has happened multiple times now.
	You know, Dorsey, Zuckerberg, and Sundar Pichai have been dragged in front of Congress, dragged to the EU, and they've had wars with the EU. I mean, Google's pulled out of certain EU countries because of the essential war between Silicon Valley and the EU, because the EU want money from Silicon Valley.
	And Silicon Valley are actually like, well, actually, we don't owe you this.
	And they didn't, actually, incidentally.
	But yeah, so I can understand from the perspective of the Silicon Valley companies going, well, look, we actually just don't need this.
	We can just become normie tube and normie book.
	And, you know, you can talk about knitting needles and sewing circles.
	You can make your pointless vlogs where you just do nothing.
	Exactly.
	You can vlog about Bigfoot or whatever it is you talk about, you know.
	Well, not even that.
	That would be banned for conspiracy theories, wouldn't it?
	Good point.
	Okay, you can talk about, you know, lions on the Serengeti or something all day in the size of blue whales.
	It'll be exciting documentaries and nonsense that you do.
	And no one will be able to talk about politics because it's just not worth their time.
	And I think that this kind of ethos might be behind the recent collapse in YouTube views.
	So Jeremy from the YouTube channel The Quartering put up this video yesterday talking about his metrics.
	And it wasn't just him.
	He had consulted with a bunch of other, in my opinion, well-respected content creators on YouTube.
	People like Sticks, Hex, and Hammer.
	And various others.
	And I went and checked all their metrics.
	And he's absolutely right.
	And in fact, I checked our metrics in comparison.
	And it seems that on Sunday, last Sunday, YouTube have changed their algorithm because our views have just been going up and up and up.
	And thank you everyone for watching, by the way.
	We've been very, very successful.
	And then on Sunday, cratered.
	And everyone else is on Sunday, cratered.
	And Jeremy literally got like 50% of the views he would normally get on that day.
	And honestly, we only got about, well, I mean, we broke 100,000, but now we're reaching the point where we break 200,000 views a day.
	And so for us to only get 100,000 views on that day is very strange.
	And if you look at the individual amount of views on each video, normally we're getting between 20,000 and 30,000 for the clips.
	And 70,000 to 80,000 for the main podcast.
	And now we're down to like between 50,000 and 60,000 for the main podcast and like 10,000 to 20,000 for the clips.
	So it's a very noticeable decline.
	And the way that I know that this isn't just, you know, our beloved audience abandoning us, is if we go to the alternative platforms like BitChute, we can see on BitChute where we've got nearly 15,000 subscribers.
	Also, subscribe to the lotuses on BitChute.
	We get usually between 2,000 and 3,000 views per clip.
	And lo and behold, we're getting 2,000 and 3,000 views per clip.
	So the audience's interest on other platforms has not changed.
	It's just on YouTube, for some reason, everyone's noticing this cratering.
	And so I would suspect this is something to do with YouTube going, look, let's just...
	Derank, political content, and they do have a way.
	Well, they've admitted it.
	Yeah, they have admitted it.
	Susan Wojcicki said in an interview in the New York Times that she does this.
	Yeah, but this is a specific recent change that has happened.
	So it's not just the overall ethos of deranking and promoting different kinds of political content.
	It seems to me that it's alternative content creators that have just directly targeted.
	They've said this before as well.
	They actively promote mainstream content.
	It's why when you look up a subject, you will get CNN, MSNBC, Sky News, and you won't get anyone else talking about it.
	Yeah.
	And so essentially what I'm saying is to other YouTube content creators, don't feel discouraged, even though the platform that you were invited to operate on by the people who own it hates you and they're actively trying to destroy the reach and growth of your channels.
	Don't get discouraged.
	It's not you.
	It's definitely them is what we can take away from this.
	And I think just to top this off, Joey Sprague, I think I'm pronouncing that right, He's a very, very entertaining German man who makes wonderful videos about homemade weapons and things like this, as you can see in the suggestive videos.
	The medieval supercharger, 170 pound longbow.
	As you can see, this is exactly my kind of content.
	This is exactly the kind of content I enjoy.
	But he's got into trouble with YouTube on many occasions.
	And because, you know, he's making like, you know, homemade weapons out of like wood and stuff.
	And he's firing them at the barn door and stuff.
	It's great fun.
	Really wholesome content.
	But YouTube are like, ooh, scary.
	It's like, no, it's not scary.
	It's fun.
	And he's obviously a really nice sort of gentle giant kind of guy as well.
	But he created a Facebook group in 2019 called the YouTubers Union that a bunch of us joined, basically.
	A bunch of YouTubers joined.
	Because YouTube had been, well, censoring us.
	And YouTube decided not to take them seriously, because they were like, well, actually, we're not going to engage with you.
	We're not going to bother with you.
	And Sprague had got in contact with a German union, which, as I understand it now, I don't know anything about German unions, but I was informed reliably, I believe, that the unions in Germany are very powerful, very influential.
	And he got the attention of the largest one, and they said, yeah, we'll support you.
	We'll support you in what you're doing, because obviously we're essentially the workers for YouTube.
	And YouTube refused to engage with them because they were like, well, you're not an official group.
	You're just a Facebook page.
	We don't care.
	Go away.
	You can't make us do anything.
	And so now they've incorporated into an actual official company called FairTube, which I recommend that people go and check out and support.
	And so they've registered and now they're actually going to be able to take legal action as and when necessary.
	I don't know what options are going to be on the table, obviously, because, again, we're in uncharted waters.
	I don't know what's going to be possible.
	But this doesn't happen to a company that's not censoring its audience.
	Yes, exactly.
	This doesn't happen if there isn't a problem.
	There is a problem.
	And it's obvious that YouTube have been targeting their independent content creators for a long time.
	Again, this is one of the reasons that we created LotusEasy.com.
	So you can, if you want, you can come and subscribe to us and support us and make sure that, A, we've always got the podcast live on the website every day so you can watch it even if YouTube decide that they don't want you watching it.
	You can, of course, subscribe to us on Rumble, BitChute, Odyssey, Library, I think that's probably going to be the end result of all of this.
	Hopefully it's Bitshoot.
	Hopefully it's Bitshoot.
	To be honest, I like Bitshoot.
	They deserve it.
	They've hauled out a lot of things.
	I like their technical model they use as well.
	So it's dispersed storage on other people's computers and stuff like that.
	I don't know why I like it.
	I just find it cute.
	It just strikes me as a nice way of utilising the technology.
	But they've been incredibly firm on the principles of free speech and the policy of literally just following the law.
	So if what you're doing is not legal, we're not touching it.
	If it is illegal, they have to take it down.
	Of course, if it's illegal, they have to take it down.
	So no one can begrudge anyone for that.
	But if it's not legal, that's it.
	And good for them.
	And honestly, BitChute is, again, it was a lot like Parler was before Parler got deplatformed.
	Because, like, there are a bunch of people who were on YouTube who I was subscribed to and I really enjoyed all their videos, like MouthyBuddy and various other people like that, who have been just deplatformed, gone, one day you've gone, that's it, forever.
	And you go back on BitChute and actually, oh look, it's all of these people I used to enjoy, that I can now enjoy again.
	It's ten videos you haven't seen.
	Exactly.
	And when it comes to content creators like Mouthly Buddha, where they put a huge amount of effort into each video, it's a real pleasure.
	It's just, oh, brilliant.
	Normally, I'd have to wait a month between these videos.
	So yeah, I had a bunch of them there.
	So yeah, definitely make your plans now, folks.
	Because it's easy in the kind of stream of content to forget the things that you used to like and the things that you enjoyed and appreciated because of the constant demand for attention that the algorithm makes on you.
	And that's, I mean, ultimately why presumably we subscribe to these channels so we'll be reminded and things like this.
	But, yeah, right.
	I've just got to mention what's going on in the chat.
	I've been watching it this whole time, guys.
	It's amazing.
	In response to AOC's story that, you know, she'll just make something up, the chat is coming up with other stories for her.
	Oh, brilliant.
	It's like, AOC wrote the Koran, AOC founded Stonehenge, AOC cured AIDS, AOC created Mickey Mouse, AOC makes the world go around.
	It's just on and on and on.
	This entire time we've been talking about it, I love it.
	My favourite story was when AOC stormed over the Alps and into Italy and ended up nearly besieging Rome.
	It was a bloody good tale.
	I've never seen a woman on the back of an elephant before.
	Working title for AOC's oral tradition epic.
	Eowulf, Aeodice, the epic of Communesche, the capital aid.
	It does in fact remind me of Odysseus and the Cyclopses, which makes Porter a sheep to aid her escape.
	Oof.
	But that's fantastic, says Edward of Woodstock.
	Again, if you want to leave a comment for us without having to send us a Super Chat on YouTube, you can become a member on Lotuses.com, where only the members are allowed to comment on the site, but everyone can read the comments on the site.
	This is a really nice way of making sure that it's not people who are just there to spam, to mess up the site, and it means we don't have to do that much moderation either.
	So basically, as long as you're not posting things that are illegal, or, you know, disgusting in some way, because we want a certain level of decorum on the site, thank you, but we, I mean...
	Yeah, this is actually a publisher.
	It's a website.
	Exactly, yeah, it's actually a website, and it means that you don't have to pay YouTube any money, and you can just send us a fiver instead, and you can comment as much as you like.
	But Baron von Merkhausen says, it's terrifying to see how many people believe the stories of Alexandria Azula-Cortez.
	Yeah, there is a bit of an Azula vibe about her, actually, isn't there?
	Now that you mention it, Azula's a bit more intelligent, obviously, but she's definitely got the ethos right.
	MEP Flyerboy says, if we recapture our hijacked society, we should add Yuri Bezmenov to the curriculum.
	His talks were shockingly prophetic.
	Yes, they were.
	Disturbingly so, in fact.
	And his solution to essentially return to a patriotic education, I mean, genuinely prophetic.
	He's right.
	Do it now.
	Start now.
	Do it now.
	And Donald Trump's like, right, we're going to have to go back to a patriotic education.
	Well, there we go.
	He was right.
	Yeah.
	As usual.
	And then Joe Biden shouted that.
	And then Joe Biden was like, no, this is racism.
	Bring back critical race theory, which isn't racism.
	Jesus Christ.
	E Saunders has sent the sea shanty of the Lotus Eaters.
	You're welcome.
	I don't think we'll listen to that now because we're going to record the Christopher Hitchens podcast after this one.
	Put the link in the Discord.
	Yeah, if you put the link in the Discord, we'll listen to it and see if we can feature a clip of it or something.
	Talking to our staff there, not you, E Z Saunders.
	Shadow Rodney says, Here AMC Hedges got to buy today.
	Rocket incoming.
	Also, Callum, your Orcs Orcs is amazing.
	Days play a Orcs song in the background.
	Orcs stronk.
	It might be copyrighted.
	I don't know.
	I think the orc song might be, yeah.
	But I love orc posting.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I love orc posting because it's just like the unthinking self-confidence about it.
	You know, it's like, I don't even care about your opinion.
	Orcs, orcs, orcs.
	I also love how the orcs, like, when they lose, they're just like, eh, try again.
	Orcs, orcs, orcs, yeah.
	Coffee Time General says, Ireland's incompetence makes you the kind of tired that sleeping won't fix.
	Laugh at UKQ for response while making nurses pay for their parking.
	Yeah, I mean, this is something that goes...
	There's a big debate over this for some reason.
	Oh, nurses shouldn't have to pay for their parking.
	They don't.
	Everything that nurses earn, you pay for.
	So shut up.
	Everything that a nurse has, you've paid for.
	Stop talking about nurses paying for parking.
	You're paying for the parking.
	You're already paying for the parking.
	I suppose the argument is like, why put the extra step then?
	Because you pay for the parking area.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Yeah, just do it.
	Just do it.
	Just pay nurses like 100 grand a year as well.
	Come on, let's just do it.
	No, no, let's do it.
	I want them to get to the very final end point of the...
	If the philosophical train they're on, nurses are heroes and they deserve everything automatically for free forever.
	No, there are two arguments there.
	That's one argument.
	The other argument here is like, well, the hospital owns the car park anyway, so why waste their time in the morning having to pay for things?
	Yeah, yeah, obviously.
	And that's not even an unpersuasive argument.
	But it's just like, I'm just sick of the idea that nurses are earning independent money in the market or something.
	No, they're not.
	They're paid for by the taxpayer.
	So you already pay for it.
	Shut up.
	Anyway...
	Sorry, I don't know why this particular issue got under my skin.
	It's just it really got under my skin because of the framing of it, right?
	It's very dishonest framing.
	It's like, oh no, those nurses earned that hard-earned money.
	It's like...
	Yeah, so does everyone.
	Yeah.
	Why shouldn't they pay?
	Oh, because they're nurses.
	Oh, well, then, you know, I'm already paying for that.
	So, you know, why are we even having this conversation?
	But anyway, coffee time general again.
	Ireland.
	Nationalism is an antiquated far-right concept.
	We're Euros.
	Also Ireland.
	Let's celebrate the 1916 rebellion.
	and no plebs allowed at the parade.
	HenryCost24, more Norwegian money for the British heroes.
	Oh, thank you so much.
	I don't think we're heroes, but we're doing our best.
	Stigma of the Rose.
	Oh, well, when I was really fat...
	I've worked so hard!
	I've been so disciplined!
	Turns out all the women who loved you were into chubby guys.
	Ah, goddammit.
	The Civic Nationalist says, Hey Crowbag Carl, I've come up with new test for ideas.
	Just replace the subject of the phrase with Jews and if it sounds off, then it's a bad idea.
	And that's actually not a new idea.
	That's quite an old idea, really.
	There's actually a Google plugin that will do that for you as well.
	Yeah, yeah.
	It replaces white men with Jews.
	Yeah, for some reason it's entirely unpersuasive as well.
	For some reason nobody cares that essentially they're following the same line of logic that led to the Holocaust.
	It's weird, isn't it?
	I guess they're fucking Nazis.
	Well, I don't actually know much about Dutch politics except it's very fractured.
	So you get lots of different parties and they form coalitions every time.
	We saw you had, like, what is it?
	Forum for Democracy were in power?
	Yeah.
	And then you've got Guild Builders.
	They're like the only two anyone knows.
	Yeah.
	But, you know, let's hope you get the based and red-pilled ones.
	Waffles Plus says, from your former British colony, don't politicians get removed when they do this since PTSD means they may not be fit for duty?
	God save the Queen.
	Well, I mean, yes, but she clearly doesn't have PTSD. I think she clearly wasn't attacked, and I'm very doubtful about her Yeah, exactly.
	Yeah, you think this was professional?
	No.
	And I was really trying to do it to encourage my son to get a haircut as well so I could do his hair.
	Is he too long?
	Yeah, yeah.
	Well, no, it's not that.
	I can do it.
	You know, I can shave his head.
	Not I can give him a haircut.
	I can shave his head.
	Well, that's what I was trying to do because, I mean, A, his hair is really long now and he does need a haircut because of the lockdown.
	But also, it really annoys my wife.
	Origami Pig says, some Broadstairs money for our Swindon heroes, thank you.
	Please sort your mic out.
	Yeah, it was your mic yesterday.
	No, no, this early today we had a problem.
	Oh, did we?
	Right, okay.
	Yeah, because we tried to tune in a bit.
	Right, okay.
	Well, hello, Ruth, and I hope you have a good day at work.
	Alex Holt says, Dude, feel free.
	If you're going to send us some money, we're more than happy to shill your Twitch channel or whatever it is, you know?
	Just as long as you're not Coca-Cola.
	Yeah.
	And if you are Coca-Cola, we expect it to be a really big super chat.
	Matei Charita says, Swindon supremacist obtains the privilege of a haircut while us peasants have to make do with a pair of scissors in a bowl.
	Do you think I wasn't...
	Oh, I mean, I had an electric razor because I actually have one to trim my beard.
	And I was just like, fine.
	Maybe it was the same one.
	Yeah.
	Well, it works.
	It works, I guess.
	It's all hair.
	Yeah, it is hair.
	Yeah, but yeah, so yeah, I mean, I actually was a peasant with a hair, with a scissor in the bottle.
	My wife was actually like, it really does look like a bulker.
	So I got her to go around and kind of like lightly try and smooth it in.
	It probably looks terrible.
	I don't care.
	But no.
	How's your hair doing?
	How's your lockdown?
	I'm not Nancy Pelosi, right?
	I wouldn't even know where to go.
	Who would I bribe?
	I've never given a bribe before.
	Can I bribe you to cut my hair, please?
	Wertiop says, left versus right dialectic is over.
	That's true.
	Next, the people united versus the elite.
	Next, pagans versus Jews and Christians.
	Next, antichrist versus God.
	Blessed are the peacemakers, Jesus is the only way.
	Well, I mean, I'm not religious, but I do agree with you about the people versus the elite.
	And this is what I was talking about in all the narratives harmonizing.
	It is just basically the people versus the elite.
	And that's why the social media leftists are the people that you need to point out and say, hello, class traitors.
	You sided with Joe Biden.
	You endorsed Joe Biden.
	You are a class traitor.
	You are an elitist.
	Morgan Lamoureux says, brought me some game stonks today.
	It's not about the money.
	Yep, we're not financial advisors in any way, shape or form.
	And in fact, if we were to give you any financial advice, it'd be, look, that's probably you burning that money.
	But as you said, it's not about the money.
	Student of History says, she is someone with no emergency experience who found herself in the deep end of the pool.
	From my personal experience on my local FD, she had her adrenaline pushing her and no knowledge and panicked and now is blaming those with the knowledge.
	Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong.
	I think that, again, this is why I keep bringing back the idea of AOC having a guilty mind.
	I think that she is there to do some serious damage to what she believes to be her political enemies, not just opposition, not, you know, peers.
	And she's trying to hurt them.
	And she knows that this is her using force.
	She knows that this is illegitimate.
	This is not civil.
	And the fact that it's become so heated and she's raised the temperature herself, she's been at the forefront of raising the political temperature.
	She was worried that the pot had boiled over.
	And actually, they've got enough of her shenanigans.
	And they were just going to burst into the office and take her away and do something terrible.
	And so, yeah, it may well be that she became kind of delusional, to be honest, that she had these like, you know, flash.
	Oh, my God.
	You know, the plan has failed.
	The Nazis have arrived.
	Oh, my God.
	Even this police officer who says to protect me is a Nazi.
	It's like, you sound paranoid and delusional.
	Or, I just could call you a liar, which I think is more accurate.
	But, you know, charitably, she could be a lunatic.
	Libertum Arbitratum says, I believe many countries have taken political inspiration from ancient history.
	I'm wondering if the communists have taken anything from classical history.
	What have fascists taken apart from insignia and parades?
	I don't think the communists took much from classical history, to be honest.
	Thank you.
	Thank you.
	I think they kind of condemn it all, frankly.
	The Gay Rascal says, Carl got a haircut.
	I look like a chrysanthemum.
	Yeah, I don't like having longer hair.
	I like having my hair short.
	Anyway, Ian B says, Carl had an episode playing on telly last week.
	Wife noted your weight loss from the last time she saw the channel and said, he's hot now.
	Oh, thank you.
	Don't know how I feel, so $10 to your chocolate fund, lad.
	Well, the joke's on you there, Ian, because I have sugar-free chocolate.
	Deplorable Pirate Captain says, I want someone from CNBC to explain Belle Delphine's OnlyFans 1 million a month with oodles of free spicy pics on the internet.
	What was that in reference to again?
	What do you mean?
	The OnlyFans.
	Like Belle Delphine has OnlyFans and gets OnlyFans.
	Yeah, but how does that tie to what we said today?
	I don't think it does.
	I think it ties to what we said yesterday, like the CNN NBC guys being like, how can they earn money like this?
	This is market manipulation, blah, blah, blah.
	Okay, well, they do over here a million dollars.
	Yeah, I mean, don't worry, of all of the thoughts on the internet, Belle Delphine is the least insufferable.
	You know it's true.
	Yeah, she's the least insufferable.
	There was a comment going around where someone had asked her, how does she feel about communism?
	And she's basically like, I'd kill myself.
	What does that mean?
	If we lived under communism, I wouldn't have tits this big.
	Yeah, yeah.
	But yeah, no, so she's playing the capitalist game very, very effectively.
	There's something about the way that she operates I find very amusing.
	It's like the Wall Street Bets guys, how they all call each other retards.
	Like, she is kind of in on the joke that this is ridiculous, and that's why she sells bathwater or will make videos like, oh, Belle Delphine gets a load in the face and she's done with a water bottle.
	Yeah, exactly.
	She's very trollish.
	She's making fun of the things that she's doing.
	She's part of the joke.
	Exactly.
	She seems to have a genuinely good sense of humour, and she's making loads of money doing it, and it's like...
	Good for her.
	I can't find a reason to...
	Yeah.
	You know, I can't really find it.
	Other than the overarching thottery is bad argument, which is true, but I mean, it's ubiquitous.
	So, I mean, you can hardly point to any one particular thought and say you're the problem.
	Then it's just like, okay, well, of all the thoughts, she's definitely the least insufferable.
	Yeah.
	George says, this will be my last Super Chat.
	I'll be signing up for Silver after the stream.
	Viva Love Revolution.
	Greetings from Newfoundland.
	Video questions soon.
	Dude, look forward to it.
	You know, again, you don't have to send the Super Chats here.
	You can just sign up to the website, leave comments on the live stream page, and we'll read them out at the end of the stream.
	Cool Frog says, I think you're overlooking the fact that in D.C. there are underground trains for politicians.
	Many had ways of escaping the Great Boog.
	Yeah, they do.
	They do, but nothing about her statements implies she was in the Capitol building at all.
	She said she was in her office.
	Yeah, she said expressly that she was in her office when all of this started kicking off.
	So I agree with you.
	Obviously they do have underground escape routes and things like this, but there's no indication at all from her that she used any of it.
	So it just seems that she's just lying.
	The Revenge Society says, I read a story about a kid who stole a plane, crashed it and survived.
	Why don't we make the whole plane out of that kid?
	What?
	What am I reading?
	Okay.
	I don't understand either, but that's...
	Yeah.
	I mean, I can think of many practical reasons, I suppose.
	Why don't we kill the kid and turn him into a plane?
	Yeah, I mean, he's going to be too small for a start.
	And then don't even want to think about, like, wind resistance.
	I'm sure there's a reference to something we said.
	I can't get it, man.
	Sorry.
	Yeah, no, I'm sure it is.
	Anyway, White Hot Peppers.
	Hey dude, Private Peppers reporting in.
	Thank you for your service.
	I will do a more detailed video comment later when I have more time, but everyone I've asked about how they feel about being here thinks it's ridiculous.
	Seriously, thank you for doing this on-the-ground reporting from the occupying forces of the U.S. Capitol.
	She's part of the National Guard, and she's currently in the Capitol guarding it from...
	AOC's Phantom MAGA terrorists.
	The police.
	Yeah, the police and the guards themselves, presumably.
	And nobody, as she says, nobody thinks this is anything other than ridiculous.
	That's good.
	MuteStream says, Swedish money for our British heroes.
	Yesterday I started my own massage therapy business.
	Apparently it's more safe than being a singer.
	Wish me luck.
	What's that in reference to?
	The thing is MuteStream.
	You could be making a joke or not.
	We don't know.
	Why am I not getting any of these references today?
	Shadow Rodney says, Cortez sounds like Azula's last phase without Azula's strong phase.
	Yeah, that's interesting, isn't it?
	That's interesting, finding enemies around every corner and suddenly it's even the police who are guarding her.
	Oh, he looked at me scary and he was shouting.
	It's like, well, maybe he was panicking.
	I don't know.
	Yanalis Malak says, AOC lies about her experience while being away from the action.
	Leftist, she was closer to the action than you were.
	Screeching intensifies.
	Well, I don't know.
	I mean, you know, if you're not near the action, then what difference does that make?
	Wolfgang Deo.
	We choose to go to the moon.
	Not because it's easy, because it's hard.
	Apollo 11.
	What we saw.
	Where are we going?
	GME. Where are we going, GME? Up 20%.
	Up 20%.
	Excellent.
	Excellent.
	This is not financial advice.
	This is not financial advice.
	And full disclosure, I do own one game stonk.
	So, you know.
	Again, it's not about the money.
	Lucas Pina, bro, AOC has been pimping the deaths of Capitol Police officers for two weeks.
	Yeah, that's true.
	That's a good way of putting it.
	That's true.
	Yeah, that's a great way of putting it.
	And then she throws them under the bus in an instant.
	Biden's America.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Oh, five people died at the Capitol.
	It's like, okay, well, one of them was a police officer who you hate and are scared of and thinks a white supremacist probably and want to defund.
	And the second person was a Republican activist you would have called a conspiracy theorist white supremacist who you hated.
	Who was shot by a police officer.
	And the other three died of medical complications that were unrelated to the violence.
	Like, obviously sad that anyone died.
	Of course.
	But you clearly don't care about them.
	Yeah, exactly.
	And you're trying to fake cry over it.
	It's embarrassing.
	Desperately embarrassing.
	But I love the way they put that.
	Pimping the deaths of them.
	That's a great way of describing it.
	And notice that we don't sit there making a big moral deal out of this either.
	We're not like, oh no, people died or anything like that.
	Because I didn't know these people.
	I'm not going to be personally affected.
	In an abstract way, obviously, anyone being killed in these things is bad.
	Like, take the guy who was killed by the Antifa shooter in Portland.
	Like, I've never made a video crying about it or something like that.
	No, no, no.
	I just reported that this happened.
	Okay, then you have to say that Antifa does commit terrorism.
	Yeah.
	That's it.
	That's all you can say about it.
	It's not good, but it's not outside of the sphere of American politics at the moment.
	And the left brought this into it.
	Thanks very much.
	Parasite says, That's an interesting topic, by the way.
	Hmm.
	Well, I mean, I guess really you want to just look for...
	I would probably go for an early 20th century English philosopher.
	Someone who will have a fair critique on individualism versus collectivism and the nature of the way it's expressed in politics and in Lord of the Flies.
	I do have a particular book in mind, but I actually can't remember who the author was offhand.
	So I can't recommend it.
	What's the title?
	I can't remember because I lost the cover to it.
	I'm very aggressive when I read books.
	I don't tend to take care of the book itself.
	And because I'd carried this one book around, essentially the cover had fallen off.
	And I can't even remember what it was called now.
	But I'll see if I can remember it and try to remember for tomorrow or something.
	Whitehall Peppers again.
	Also, the POTUS was supposed to come visit us last night, but I guess he was too busy to come and see the people protecting him in 11 degrees Fahrenheit snow and wind.
	Probably would have been blown away into dust, lovely.
	Well, that's the thing.
	I mean, I hope you're not in the basement.
	You're not sleeping on the cold concrete floor, right?
	The virtue signaling of the leftists.
	Surely they gave you something to sleep on.
	Remember, if the person saying it is a pro-Democrat, they are totally telling the truth and you can trust them and should ignore blatant inconsistencies.
	Who am I kidding?
	They're all lying traitors.
	JJHW, all Democrat statements should start with once upon a time.
	That's a great way of putting it.
	Charlie the Beagle, don't worry guys, if there's a vote on leaving the EU, they'll hold another and if they don't like it, the result they've done before the Lisbon Treaty.
	Yes, they have.
	Literally did it to Ireland, as you say.
	They've done it like seven times.
	There's a Wikipedia article where it's just listing the times where the EU has made someone repeat a vote that they didn't like the end of.
	But yeah, referring to Ireland, of course.
	Pirate Skeleton is a Puerto Rican who grew up and lived on the island.
	I disavow AOC and any other mainlander who calls themselves Puerto Rican for political clout.
	Don't worry, we don't think that AOC's, again, probably fictional stories are any reflection of the people who accidentally get sort of encompassed in them.
	Do you want to recall for a minute?
	Where were you?
	Ridiculous.
	Hello, Forrest Gump.
	That seems a reference to your hair.
	Oh, what?
	Good to see you pivoted from your failed shrimp business into podcasting.
	Love the posh accent.
	Life is like a box of chocolates.
	It's not keto-friendly.
	But the worst part is, I mean, if my failing shrimp business was bad enough, we're going to have a failing podcasting business at the rate Silicon Valley's going.
	Meme magic is wag!
	Energy for the real world.
	Yes.
	Thank you, Charlie.
	No, but that's true.
	That's true.
	The power of belief.
	Cop checked on AOC, then chills with other Dems.
	Yeah, she did nothing.
	There was no story there.
	Six hours in a safe office with a person who was telling her she was going to die?
	It would seem that the Irish have miscalculated.
	Not the first time since they've underestimated the English.
	Brussels can suck it.
	Yes, they can.
	Involuntarily laughing or smiling while telling a lie is a very well-known psychological concept known as duper's delight.
	Josh!
	Is this true?
	Is that true?
	Dupers Delight.
	Smiling when you're telling a lie.
	Sometimes.
	Apparently it can be unlearned, but it might be a thing.
	But it looks like AOC didn't.
	It's your unconscious mind giving you a dopamine hit for doing such a good job at lying.
	We'll get Josh to look into this.
	He's actually qualified to speak on that.
	Yeah, that's why we're asking Josh, in case anyone's wondering.
	Will Brussels get Irish car repairmen?
	I hear their skills are the bomb.
	Yeah, I wonder.
	Don't go to Brussels tomorrow.
	I disavow Irish activism, Irish national activism.
	All Irish activism is bombs.
	I disavow.
	$16.90.
	I can't read.
	Right, we're going to have to...
	In fact...
	Oh, God, I didn't realise we'd gone on so long.
	Right, sorry.
	I don't think we'll be able to get to them, but we'll try and read the ones, because there have been a couple of them, like $50 or something.
	So we'll try and get those, and then we'll have to go.
	Sorry, folks.
	But if you want this Christopher Hitchens podcast, we've got to do it.
	So, Seacat Dexter for $69.69.
	Nice.
	It says, Silicon Valley of today reminds me of robber barons of the 19th century.
	That's only because they're almost exactly the same in every respect.
	And it might be with us doing a premium podcast talking about this at some point.
	But where were the other ones that you wanted us to do, John?
	So, Sigma of the Rose says, I was talking about her hair.
	I don't know what that's in reference to.
	Talking about the hair.
	Well, the previous one.
	But for $50, dude, thanks very much.
	And were there any other particularly...
	Right, okay.
	Yeah, we've got to go because we've got to crack on.
	But right, thank you everyone for joining.
	Thank you so much for your generous donation.
	Sorry we didn't get to the...
	The Irish Leprechaun Isis.
	Leprechaun Isis.
	Disavow, okay?
	Anyway, thank you all so much for joining us.
	And we'll be back at the same time tomorrow.
	If for some reason YouTube isn't showing you our podcast and you would like to catch us, you can go to Logistics.com and of course you can become a premium member there to be able to comment for free.
	Well...
	Prepaid Super Chats, but infinite number of pre-paid Super Chats.
	And of course you get access to all the premium content, loads of book club stuff, loads of premium podcasts and various other articles and things from well-respected public figures.

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