Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool

All Episodes

Previous Next

June 14, 2021 - The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters

01:27:08

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #153

Large

Audio Only |

Scroll

Time	Text
	Music Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Eaters for the 14th of June 2021.
	I'm joined by Carl, and today we're going to be going over the booing for England, the G7 and the fact that it's a big club and you're not in it, nor anyone else except them, and also the Woke Lord of the Rings, which...
	Oh, well, Woke Lord of the Rings Conference.
	Oh, so the age of man really is over now, I guess.
	It actually is!
	The age of the orc has begun!
	Weird are the progressives to define themselves as that, but...
	Okay.
	Anyway, first things I wanted to mention, so some of the premium content we have on noticeers.com, so the epochs is up, this is the fall of Athens, is this the ending of your trilogy?
	Yeah, so we've done a bit of a trilogy on the second half of the Peloponnesian War, because it's really exciting, and, like, you know, popular culture hasn't recognised just how awesome this period of time is, and, uh...
	Yeah, Athens gets absolutely waxed in the Sicilian expedition, deservedly so, honestly, and then they come back after getting trounced all over the place for a glorious, glorious campaign under Alcibiades, and then...
	Yeah.
	so I think you enjoyed doing it yeah the other thing we have here the next piece of premium podcast content is uh the contemplations which has now gone premium now that's uh Josh and Hugo they did how to best clarify political positions and they did our what was it the six axis we all did in the office nine axis to see how we'd all come out um Mostly libertarian, liberal.
	I mean, big shock.
	Yeah, wow.
	What a surprise.
	Yeah, but anyway, go and give that a watch.
	We all have a thing for limited government here.
	Yeah.
	Please no oppress, you know.
	So one of the things I was talking about...
	My mum came and visited me the other day.
	And we were talking about the office.
	And I was pointing out the other office we could have gone to.
	And she said, well, why didn't you?
	And I was like, well, because we were walking around.
	And the person in charge was just too happy and trying to give us too much good stuff, if that makes sense.
	And she was like, oh, there's teams here and you can network with other people and all this stuff.
	And the guy in this office was just like, plugs, air conditioning, you want it?
	Like, yep, there we go.
	Absolutely we do.
	Leave us alone.
	That's the motto.
	Anyway, I just wanted to say the...
	The lights are a little bit off, so sorry, I can see people in the chat talking about it, of the colour, but I'm not checking it right now.
	Anyway, so first thing, booing for England.
	Tell me about this.
	Yeah, so this has been something we've covered previously because there have been...
	I don't know how to describe it.
	I guess there is a culture war happening within English football and it revolves around Black Lives Matter because Black Lives Matter is a foreign injection into the culture of England and our football culture.
	Now, I just want to be clear...
	I'm not a football fan.
	I'm not someone who follows the culture.
	But this is dramatically obvious from an outsider's perspective.
	And this leading up, all of the England team, Gareth Southgate, have been like, no, no, no, we're all united on this.
	We're all going to take the knee for Black Lives Matter.
	It's like, do you know anything about Black Lives Matter?
	And they're like, yeah, it's just about racial injustice.
	Is it?
	Is it?
	Is that all it's about?
	Is it?
	It's literally all it is.
	I mean, it's literally like saying, you know, the Nazi salute is just about German greatness.
	And it's like, no, it's not.
	It's really not.
	But so let's just begin with people complaining.
	This is a chap called Nels Abbey on The Independent saying, booing those who take the knee is racist.
	It's really as simple as that.
	Yeah, you wish.
	You wish it was as simple as that.
	If this was about racism, that would make your life way easier.
	Because then it would be the end of the argument, wouldn't it?
	I mean, I love the way he begins this.
	Modern racism has many battle cries.
	Yeah, it says Black Lives Matter.
	The brutal and unprintable language of the explicit white supremacist.
	Where?
	Who are you talking about?
	What are you going on about?
	The racist police officer that screams stop resisting as they brutalise compliant, petrified ethnic minority in their custody.
	This weird fan fiction for racism.
	Like, again, name the person you're talking about.
	What are you talking about?
	The corporate boss working to uphold the unwritten colour bar by claiming their company only hires on merit and doesn't do box ticking.
	That's the race of them.
	Yeah, that sounds really kind of racist to me.
	Let's carry on.
	The coded shrieks of woke political correctness and virtue signalling from the media and political class.
	But they're not coded.
	I mean, they're explicitly telling you they don't like wokeness, political correctness or virtue signalling because it's kind of commie, isn't it?
	Anyway, yes, the booze and the football stands are the players' need, and a symbolic gesture of anti-racism.
	But the thing is, they're not saying that.
	The people complaining are literally saying, look, this is pro-communism, because Black Lives Matter appears to be a Marxist organization, from the founders saying that they're Marxists.
	And then when being criticized that they've bought, like, you know, here's a bunch of million-dollar houses I've bought with this, you know, Black Lives Matter money, and it's like, aren't you a communist?
	They're like, yeah, and it reinforces my communism to buy these houses.
	And it's like, okay.
	I mean, literally, the one consistent in each of the above is people make excuses for them.
	The excuse being offered for those booing the players who take the knee are that, of course, they're not racist.
	Taking the knee is supporting Black Lives Matter, and Black Lives Matter is a Marxist organisation intent on destroying our way of life.
	That's true.
	That's a correct assessment from the founders of Black Lives Matter.
	So, the racists are right?
	I don't know, I don't know.
	But, I mean, I think the fair reading of this is that they're not racists.
	They're actually political activists who are concerned about the infusion of communism into their favourite sport, which is fair.
	Yeah, I mean, he's literally defining, as in that opening statement, of the employee who hires on merit, not race, as a racist.
	Which has some deep implications for...
	His race realism, I suppose we'll call it.
	But the fact that he's then accusing players here of being racist for booing is like, no, if they're of the liberal position, you'd still call them racist, so I can't trust your accusation.
	No, of course not.
	It's obvious nonsense.
	But I love this next paragraph, right?
	Excusing racism, no matter how obtuse it may make one sound, is a critical part of racism.
	Why?
	Excusing racism is a critical part of racism.
	Really?
	Okay.
	So the Nazis were like, look, we're not racist, we just hate the Jews.
	No, no, no, listen, we've got good reasons, okay?
	It's not about race.
	I don't think racists do excuse their own racism.
	I think they embrace it.
	The clan's never like, no, no, don't worry, we're not racist.
	It's just black people or something like that.
	Like, no, they are openly racist.
	That is their position.
	Yes.
	I mean, it's not usually considered to be a critical part of racism to denounce racism.
	Imagine if some racist guy joins the Klan and the Klan are going to find out and be like, hang on, and then kick him out.
	You hate black people!
	So, from dreptomania to George Floyd died of a drug overdose, not the police knee on his neck for nine minutes.
	Hmm...
	Yeah, but that's not a racial claim.
	That's a claim of biology.
	It's a medical claim.
	Yeah.
	From the medical report.
	The toxicology report of George Floyd.
	And the level of fentanyl in the system.
	Anyway, from that to the Tony Sewell-led British government report on racism, history is riddled with those who excuse racism.
	Because they do it because there is power, platform, and profit to be found in excusing racism.
	There was no excusing racism in Tony's report.
	In fact, it was just showing that the British Isles are not a racist place in the institutions that exist here.
	But that really undermines the communists' allegation of racism here.
	I mean, the best point, as you mentioned before, being that your comparison was Black Caribbean and West Africans as groups, and the West Africans were performing far better than Black Caribbeans.
	How could that be because of racism?
	How is it that the West Africans are like racism?
	Just sidestep that.
	It's like, no, you're exactly the same genetic stock.
	You have exactly the same skin tone.
	How is it that racism doesn't affect both of these groups equally?
	But anyway, he says, there's never been an anti-racism movement as far as it pertains to black people that has proven popular with the majority of society on a sustained basis.
	How did we end up ending slavery?
	Because it wasn't an anti-racist movement.
	Oh, right.
	It was just an anti-slavery movement.
	Right.
	Sorry.
	You got us.
	And the backlash to all these anti-racist movements is always dismissed as not racist.
	Because there are other reasons, obviously.
	Attempting to educate the booers and their apologists about the difference between Black Lives Matter organizations and Black Lives Matter as a slogan, a principle, and a stone-cold fact is a waste of my time.
	For I do not believe I would be attempting to enlighten naive or ill-educated people.
	I would be attempting to convince racists, and I'm confident I would have more success in convincing my kitchen table.
	Sounds like racists are some kind of intermention.
	Not really worthy of this guy's consideration, or, you know, time.
	Perhaps we should just put them in a camp or something.
	I mean, I don't know where he's going with this.
	But anyway, let's move on to Boris Johnson's view of booing.
	Disappointing, to be honest.
	Yeah.
	Boris says he disproves of England fans booing the national team for taking a knee in protest against racism.
	God damn it, Boris.
	The Prime Minister said he backed England players and could see no reason to boo them, though he did suggest the team's chosen method of protest was ineffective.
	I don't know if you saw Keir Starmer endorse this.
	Nonsense.
	It's just like, well, what if they were doing the Nazis?
	I see no reason to boo them.
	They're just playing football, actually.
	No example.
	It's just a political slogan that they're taking part in.
	Like you say, if they were doing...
	Conservative Party leader cannot denounce England players endorsing socialism.
	Not just socialism.
	There are many types of socialism.
	This is openly Marxist.
	The movement founded by Marxists that has been championed by Marxists that are being defended by Marxists.
	And Boris Johnson is just like, I don't see a problem here.
	But the conservative here can't figure out that there's something wrong with Marxism.
	I know.
	But obviously this is something he probably doesn't even want to be dragged into.
	I support England's players, he says.
	When it comes to gestures and symbols, I'm more on the side of practical action to combat racism and make life better for everyone in this country.
	And when asked whether he condemns those who boo, he says, I disprove of people booing the England team.
	I see no reason to do that.
	Yeah, this is just a massive dodge by Boris.
	This is him going, you know what, that's someone else's problem and I'm going to go over here.
	Don't beat the national team.
	That's not the point.
	But he could have carried on doing what he was doing and Priti Patel have done, which is just ignore it.
	Which is to say, I don't disavow them.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Just say, well, look, it's a complex question.
	I don't want to come down on either side.
	So, yeah.
	I've got a country to run.
	Exactly.
	Give me something important.
	But the thing is, this is important.
	That's why we're talking about it.
	But it's a way of sidestepping it politically that they could have done, which they were doing and now have abandoned.
	Yes.
	Boris should have just...
	I mean, to be honest with you, you should have come out against the Communists.
	But, of course, when this was asked about by Gareth Southgate, he basically said, please don't boo.
	Please, please, please don't boo us.
	And it's like, well, they're going to.
	In a report by Sky here, they've got an interview with an anti-racism group called Kick It Out.
	Now, just to be clear, there is definitely a contingent of football fans that is racist, right?
	And this is what this Kick It Out movement has been about.
	Well, that's the thing.
	Like, football has had a long history of different groups, organizations, like respect, popular, whatever the hell else, you know, all these different things they've done to get racism out of football.
	Yeah.
	And then this is the thing that sparked so much controversy, taking the knee, because it's not about that in the slightest.
	Exactly.
	And that's the thing.
	No one's booing for this kick-out group, right?
	Because this is a group that is not, as I'm aware, communist, run by communists, founded by communists, for the purpose of enriching communists.
	This appears to be an actual group against racism, and so no one cares about them.
	No one's like, oh, they've got to stop doing what they do.
	But when you go Black Lives Matter, it's an imported communist movement.
	It's obvious.
	But anyway, Gareth Southgate said, the England captain said, it's time for the country to unite, full stop.
	And in his statement, he said, as the team has reiterated many times, they will collectively take the knee ahead of their fixtures during the tournament.
	They are doing this as a mechanism of peacefully protesting against discrimination, injustice, and inequality.
	What, by mimicking Derek Chauvin?
	Bad optics.
	This is personally important to the players and the values the team collectively represents.
	This gesture of unity and fighting against inequality can be traced back as far as the 18th century.
	Well, yeah, communism is that old.
	I mean, he's not wrong.
	There is a pre-Marxist communism that begins in the 18th century.
	He's not wrong.
	I'm surprised he's done his research to be honest.
	It's just the language here, like, it's time for the country to unite around Marxism.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, nah.
	I don't think so, Gareth.
	But he says, it is not new, and English football has made it very clear that it does not view this as being aligned to a political organisation or ideology.
	But you are.
	You're literally saying Black Lives Matter.
	That's a political organisation that is becoming an ideology.
	Like, that is just you being willfully ignorant.
	Yeah, there's you deliberately avoiding and trying to pretend that...
	I mean, it's so weird.
	It's like, literally, if you were all giving the Hitler salute, you'd be like, yeah, no, we're just doing it to raise awareness.
	It's not tied to Nazism.
	There's just no way anyone's going to believe that.
	It's just, it's unreal, isn't it?
	But anyway, he says, you know, please respect their wishes and remember they should all be united to fight and tackle discrimination together.
	Then why do something so divisive?
	I mean, Kieran Baker...
	Could you imagine the Greek team turning up and being like, no, it's just a Greek thing, and then doing the salute?
	Mad, isn't it?
	It's just part of the history.
	Yeah.
	Nah.
	Just the Austrians doing it.
	England fan Kieran Baker told Scaniers that he thought that about 30% of the fans have chosen to boo.
	The fans that boo the taking of the knee because, in their opinion, Black Lives Matter is an extreme political organisation.
	Which is true.
	I mean, look at the demands of Black Lives Matter.
	We want to liquidate the police.
	We want to abolish private property and upend the family.
	Oh yeah, this isn't extreme.
	This is just perfectly normal, moderate, political activism.
	This is insane.
	But even if it was slight political activism, again, political organization, therefore not allowed.
	Agree.
	You're not allowed to endorse the Tories, for example.
	Like, they're not radicals by any stretch of the imagination.
	Still not allowed to do it.
	Yeah.
	So, Tony Burnett, the chief executive of the anti-racism group Kick It Out, told Sky News, I think the people who are now choosing to boo are basically saying to the England players and England staff, we don't believe your motives, and I think there's a sinister edge to that.
	And it's like, hmm...
	I guess there's also the message that they might think that you're idiots and being the useful fools of communists, because we'll get to the thrilled nature of the communists for you doing this.
	And I think that if you're doing something that's expressly political, that the communists are cheering on, there's a question there, isn't there?
	Like, why?
	Why are the communists cheering you on?
	If a bunch of Nazis were cheering you on, you might be like, hmm...
	Might need to question that.
	Bunch of Islamists cheering you on.
	ISIS are like, yay England!
	Just saying, you know.
	Anyway, this is not a political gesture.
	It's a sporting gesture.
	Wrong.
	Just wrong.
	Absolute outright lie.
	It is an openly expressly political gesture and it can be nothing else.
	It's born from politics, a certain kind of politics, and it is designed to express that politics.
	You know it.
	Don't lie to us.
	You know that that's the case.
	Everyone knows that that's the case.
	There's no point lying about this.
	It's such a ridiculous veil that you're trying to put over to cover your modesty.
	It's transparent.
	But anyway, the people who decide to boo aren't patriots anymore because they're booing the national team on something they should be supporting.
	It's weird.
	If they'd all come out with hammer and sickle, like swastikas on the chest, like, you can't boo the England team, you're not a patriot.
	It's like, neither are Black Lives Matter.
	Like, neither are you guys when you take the knee.
	Like, you're not the England team anymore.
	You're the taking-the-knee team.
	That's all you are.
	You are the anti-patriots.
	And we'll get onto their view in a minute, right?
	But, of course, you know, most of the fans there don't really want to talk about politics.
	They want to talk about football and watch football, which makes sense.
	But anyway, you can see, like, you can see exactly what I mean by the communist response to this.
	This is Navarra Media's.
	Gareth Southgate's open letter proves he's a legend.
	The Communists are literally calling you a legend.
	Like, what do you do with that?
	Like, this is just mad.
	Like, if Novara Media are like, wow, Gareth Southgate's statement was so great.
	It really resonates with the proletariat.
	You're like, okay, hang on.
	Hang on.
	There's something...
	Honestly, it's ridiculous.
	But anyway, so yes.
	After all of this, please don't boo, please don't boo, please don't boo, they took a knee.
	On Sunday's Euro 2020 opener against Croatia, and everyone booed.
	Well, I'd say everyone.
	About a third of the stadium apparently booed.
	And then there was a big cheer, because obviously people were all just like, look, we're here to play football.
	Watch football.
	We don't really want you booing the England team, even if they're making public embarrassments of themselves.
	And so yeah, the FA released a statement urging supporters not to boo, and a bunch of people booed.
	But yeah, so basically they came along and just said, as the team has reiterated many times, they'll collectively take the knee and we're just going to protest discrimination, injustice and inequality.
	We'll keep protesting you being Marxist.
	Yes.
	Simplice.
	But this is interesting.
	So this happened before, after the first booing, but this is Gareth Southgate's view.
	And I thought this was worth discussing, right?
	So this is from The Guardian.
	He complained about the section of fans who booed when England's players took the knee because he felt like criticism of the black players, which I think is a deeply disingenuous way of framing it.
	Criticism of the black players.
	Yes.
	There are black players who don't like taking the knee.
	Right, okay, hang on.
	So, next game, take all the black players, put them on the bench, have all white players just take the knee, see what happens then.
	They'll still boo.
	Yeah.
	It's got nothing to do with them in black.
	Yeah, absolutely nothing.
	But he says, yeah, I heard it's not something on behalf of our black players I wanted here, because it feels like a criticism of them.
	I think we've got a situation where some people seem to think it's a political stand they don't agree with, and that's not the reason the players are doing it.
	Okay, but you can be like, yeah, well, some people think that our Zieg Heilig is endorsement of the Nazi party, but that's not the reason the players are doing it.
	It's like, okay, well, you can say that if you want, but it is publicly a sign of affiliation to a Marxist movement.
	So if you're going to be like, yeah, we're just going to keep taking the knee, even though you're calling us a bunch of communists, and you're booing us, our own team is booing us when we're playing an international game, it's like, yeah, but it's nothing to do with communism.
	Then why do it?
	Why not do something else?
	Create a new way of showing your support for your black players.
	And the thing is...
	Well, you already have them, don't you?
	Well, I was going to say, if you do, you know, what is it, the hand-on-over-the-chest sort of thing, where you're giving the Pledge of Allegiance or something like this, do something like that, you know?
	Do something like that, where it's something that's not been co-opted by a communist movement or a Nazi movement, and try doing that.
	And I bet everyone cheers for it, because I bet no one's like, it's because they're black, it's because they're communist.
	Like I mentioned, there's been plenty of these.
	You have them.
	You don't want to use those, because they're not Marxist.
	That's why you don't want to use them.
	Seems that way.
	But anyway, let's just quickly go on.
	Remember that the Black Lives Matter founder described herself as a trained Marxist, and she's come out and defended her being a Marxist who owns now like four different million dollar houses.
	Definitely trained.
	Trained well.
	Very well trained.
	And then you've got Double Down News, for example.
	Again, just the communists.
	Like Novara Media, Double Down News are a small communist organization, as you can see on their sort of economics category.
	John McDonnell, an admitted Marxist.
	They've got an article called The Crisis of Capitalism by Yaz Varoufakis.
	An admitted Marxist.
	You've got Capitalism is the Planet's Cancer by George Monbiot.
	An admitted Marxist.
	All are talking against capitalism.
	All by people who are avowed Marxists.
	And Double Damn News posted this to their Instagram.
	England never won an opening Euros game in their life, then they embraced Marxism.
	Funny that.
	The communists think that you're embracing Marxism.
	Because you are.
	Exactly, because you are.
	And everyone and their mother knows it.
	A movement, a racial movement, based around communism, started by communists, embraced by the communists.
	The communists are going, oh, look at how great Gareth Southgate is doing.
	And then they're like, yeah, so you embraced Marxism and now you've won a game.
	It's like, okay.
	I mean, why do you pretend that this has nothing to do with communism?
	It so obviously is.
	And you posted a great tweet about this, actually, didn't you?
	We can go to the next tweet.
	Oh yeah, just Keir Stormer.
	So he did some posts being like, fans don't boo their own team, I'm proud to stand with the England players, with a picture of, of course, the guys taking the knee.
	He just redid it with what happened in 38, which is exactly this.
	The England team giving the Nazi salute.
	Yeah, they're just here to stand for peace and unity.
	Yeah, they're just here for sportsmanship or something like that.
	It's nothing to do with Nazi.
	German integrity or something like that.
	Yeah.
	Nothing to do with Nazism, it's just doing the Nazi salute.
	Hmm.
	Bullshit.
	Yeah.
	I shouldn't swear.
	You shouldn't swear.
	I'm so sick of it.
	And the thing is, if the communists weren't all just giving us all the ammunition to show that, look, all the communists are thrilled with everything that you're doing, and they think that you were embracing Marxism, and you're like, well, it's nothing to do with communism.
	Keep coping, I guess.
	Cope harder.
	We know that it is.
	It's got the next one here.
	So, G7. So, the G7 is, again, something you don't usually give a toss about, because it's usually everyone gets together and is like, good job, yeah, good job, yeah.
	We're really good at what we do, and you do nothing.
	But this one has been really cringe, so I thought we'd demonstrate some of the cringe, as we did last time, except it got worse because now it's really hypocritical for a very bad reason.
	So the first thing here is just the Conservatives, with their lovely logo there, posting a picture of all the leaders.
	Standing far apart from each other because, don't you know, COVID. Social distancing.
	Yeah, just have to do this.
	Very important that all the leaders, you know, social distancing.
	Keep up appearances.
	And then there's the next one from Boris Johnson showing him elbowing leaders as they turn up and then distancing from them.
	Because don't you know, there's a virus about.
	There's a pandemic on.
	You don't want people getting sick.
	They're outside, they don't need to wear masks, so, you know, they're all lying by the rules.
	Yeah, no, if we go to the next image, this is just something he posted on his Twitter account.
	Just pictures of them.
	You can go to the second image here.
	So they go out to watch the red arrows fly by, and you can see them at a barbecue.
	No social distancing, no masks, all having a drink, touching each other.
	Can we go to the next one, John?
	Patting each other's backs, standing all next to each other.
	I mean, look at that, that's not social distancing, is it?
	Nope.
	Are we not worried about the virus anymore?
	Nope.
	Okay.
	Never were.
	Embarrassing, isn't it?
	I mean, I'm sorry, I know the defenders of this will be saying, well, you know, come on, these are the world leaders, they've all been vaccinated or some nonsense.
	That doesn't stop you from getting it or transmitting it, as we've been told a million times.
	All the staff around there had to wear masks.
	I don't know if you saw that, like, all the staff in some of the quiches were wearing masks.
	More than half the country's vaccinated at this point.
	Yep.
	You can't do this.
	Yeah.
	I can't do this.
	We can't organise this legally.
	This is illegal if we were to organise this, with the same number of people having a barbecue.
	Doesn't matter if you're a world leader, though.
	Could have been a Zoom call.
	Didn't have to be.
	But they don't care.
	And if you go to the next one here, of course, there's more images of this.
	And this is where, you know, Viva Lafraie is saying, it's a big club and you ain't in it.
	George Carlin.
	Great quote.
	And you can see the Queen there with Joe Biden, very close, having drinks.
	Trudeau in the background.
	Trudeau.
	I mean, you remember the Queen when she was there burying Philip on her own with a mask on.
	No one to come for her while she's crying about her husband's death.
	All theatre.
	I mean, if we didn't already.
	If you didn't need more evidence of that, it's just embarrassing to see.
	They don't look like they're worried about catching anything, do they?
	No.
	They've evaluated the risk to them and realized that it's not high.
	So have taken reasonable measures, which is just...
	Zero precautions, it is.
	Because that's proportional to the risk.
	And you and I can't do that.
	Just them.
	Wonderful.
	So if we go to the next one here, there's one thing I want to mention, which is the Aussie Prime Minister.
	Just chugging.
	Which I just love.
	Everyone else got a glass out and pulled their drinks.
	He was just like, nah.
	Absolutely love that.
	But the reason this is all important, of course, is because the UK is about to extend its lockdown.
	So you remember January...
	Two weeks to flatten the curve, mate.
	In January, Reuters said the UK extends council powers until July 17th.
	Yeah, they're going to use them.
	They're going to use them.
	So if we go to the next one, this is just the BBC reporting an hour ago that, yeah, yeah, this is going to be it.
	So COVID lockdown easing in England to be delayed by four weeks.
	So says the BBC one hour ago.
	So the Prime Minister is going to give a talk later today...
	After that barbecue, telling everyone we're not going to get rid of the rules.
	We're in fact going to keep them.
	Make sure you social distance, folks.
	Four weeks to fight on the curve, folks.
	Just four weeks.
	Just four more weeks.
	The NHS is in danger.
	Yeah.
	Social distancing.
	Two metres apart.
	Hands, face, space.
	Hands, face, space.
	But Biden, you've got a cocktail.
	It's embarrassing.
	It's utterly embarrassing to see.
	Anyway, so in here they say, Most current coronavirus rules will remain in place for another four weeks after the planned 21st of June unlocking, government sources have told the BBC. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is due to confirm the delay later at a news conference.
	Stage 4 of the government's roadmap out of lockdown would see all legal limits and social contact removed, which will now not be implemented.
	She's not going to do it.
	Because don't you know, there's a virus out.
	So there is an argument for this, which I'm going to give, to give it a fair hearing, which is that there are rising infections in the UK. So if you go down to the first graph here, you can see it's starting to go back up, and then there's the projected of what would happen, and then the argument being that if we do not have this lockdown, well, you know, continue to stop people from being free, then we would have a rise in cases, which doesn't matter.
	I mean, as we've seen from the German study, it didn't affect Germany in the slightest, so it doesn't affect us.
	But whatever.
	So they say rising infections in the UK are being driven by the Delta variant, first identified in India.
	Not how that works.
	I think the BBC is sort of in the middle here.
	We renamed the Indian variant the Delta variant because we didn't want to be racist.
	And yet the BBC are just like, well, we look stupid just saying Delta, so we'll say both.
	It's not very informative, is it?
	No, it's just a useless term.
	Just say the Indian variant.
	Which accounts for now 90% of infections.
	It is believed to be about 60% more infectious than the Alpha variant, which was first found in Kent, and was previously dominant in the UK, and twice as likely to result in infected people being hospitalised.
	What's the name of the Chinese variant?
	Zero?
	Like, zero, zero?
	I mean, that's what you do if you're a programmer, but...
	Well, yeah, I guess, but...
	Alpha plus plus?
	I don't know.
	But they act as if the Alpha variant implies that it was originating from Kent.
	Yeah.
	But anyway.
	So the argument here being, if you get four more weeks, they can roll out 10 million more vaccines, which would mean you get about 50% of the population more who would be vaccinated, and therefore this is stopping it from overflowing.
	I don't buy it.
	I just don't buy it in the slightest.
	Well, there were eight deaths within 28 days of a positive test yesterday.
	Yeah, but I mean, if they're arguing, well, look at the predictions, it could be going up, and I'm like, sure, it could go up, I don't care.
	I don't care.
	Well, the NHS. But the point is, apparently now 80% of the population have antibodies for coronavirus, and something like 55% of the population are vaccinated, with 40% double vaccinated, something like this.
	Yeah.
	If we go to the next link, we have exactly that number for this, which is 43.4% in the UK have double vaccinated.
	Right, okay, there we go.
	It's like, as you say, 50% have had the first one at least.
	Yeah.
	And, you know, more than now.
	And so, literally eight people died yesterday with a positive coronavirus test.
	Not from the coronavirus, but within 28 days of a positive test.
	So it's like, okay, well how much better do we need it to get?
	It's 43.9 now.
	I must have updated it since I clicked on it, but okay.
	But you can see as well, just globally, like, world-leading in this.
	I mean, better than the US on a number of people who are vaccinated.
	In which case, we trust the vaccine, don't we?
	Boys?
	So what's the problem?
	Not an anti-vaxxer, are you?
	Boris?
	But never mind.
	The cases are going up, therefore we've got to shut down.
	But the whole thing was about not having the NHS overwhelmed and everyone dead.
	But if 43% are vaccinated, and again, the people who are over 60, people who are in their 50s, I think we're down to handing them out to 12-year-olds probably at this point in the UK. Well, they were saying that they want to roll them out to children, so why?
	Children don't die of the coronavirus.
	So all the people who are likely to die, vaccinated.
	Yeah, double vaccinated.
	Like, double plus good.
	Don't worry.
	Even the people who are not very likely to die, double vaccinated.
	Yeah, I think it's embarrassing.
	And the next thing here being Ian Duncan-Smith, former leader of the Conservatives and MP. Was he formerly?
	I think he was former leader of the Conservatives, if I'm correctly remembering.
	But he's pointing out what is blisteringly obvious, which is that they measured the balance of risk to themselves.
	Why can't we have the same freedom?
	There's no argument about this.
	This is unbelievably bad.
	I know it's just an optics thing, maybe, but with the fact that he's about to reintroduce that, no, we're going to stop any people getting their freedom back.
	Also, it's probably going to get worse.
	I mean, as the cases go back up, they'll bring in more lockdown measures.
	It's not going to get better.
	Well, I mean, he's exactly right, though.
	The G7 leaders, they had a risk assessment of their own, decided that it was an acceptable risk, and then went for it.
	You're not allowed to do the same.
	Pleb.
	Anyway, but also the Theresa May speech.
	So, I'm quite glad about how many views this has got now, like 1.7 million.
	Wow.
	Because it's resonating with people.
	People are realising, yeah, this is nonsense.
	And it's weird to see the occasional backbench MP getting it here.
	So we'll play the speech again, just the cut-down version.
	We will not eradicate COVID-19 from the UK. There will not be a time when we can say that there will never be another case of COVID-19 in this country.
	Secondly, variants will keep on coming.
	There will be new variants every year.
	If the Government's position is that we cannot open up travel until there are no new variants elsewhere in the world, then we will never be able to travel abroad ever again.
	And the third fact that the government needs to state much more clearly is that sadly people will die from COVID here in the UK in the future, as 10,000 to 20,000 people do every year from flu.
	It's incomprehensible, I think, that one of the most heavily vaccinated countries in the world is one that is most reluctant to give its citizens the freedoms those vaccinations should support.
	At least I like the way that she's framed that.
	Yeah, the government has taken away your freedoms and doesn't want to give them back.
	That doesn't make any sense.
	And it doesn't make any sense.
	Like, they will have them forever if their current standard is that, well, as foreign variant exists, therefore, no freedom for anyone.
	Yeah.
	Anyway, but if we go to the next link there, you can see also there's some other nonsense going on.
	So Biden's been an absolute embarrassment, and I don't like harking on about this, because, I mean, everyone knows at this point, but I remember so many people being like, oh, Trump, he's so arrogant abroad, and it makes us look, you know, embarrassing.
	This is worse.
	This is much worse.
	I think you Americans would rather much have an arrogant dick wandering around being like, I'm team number one, you know, pushing the Icelandic prime minister out of the way.
	Because he is.
	It's America.
	Like, you guys are the biggest economy, the biggest military.
	Oh no, you've got to stand behind Iceland.
	Yeah, no, Iceland's more...
	No.
	This guy...
	No shade, Iceland.
	Just teasing.
	Oh, come on, they know.
	Yeah, well, exactly.
	Come on, you know, what are we going to do?
	Pretend?
	What are we going to do?
	Win a Cod War against them?
	God damn it.
	Yes, the one thing I hate.
	Haven't we lost, like, three Cod Wars against Iceland?
	Yeah, it's because we didn't want to use enough force as well.
	Could have been enough.
	I would like to assume that Britain could defeat Iceland.
	Yeah.
	We did in World War II, actually.
	We landed troopers and just took them over.
	Anyway, so this is Biden here, and it's embarrassing, so if we can play the clip here, this is him forgetting that Boris has already introduced South Africa.
	...and the President of the Moon, in just a minute.
	And the President of South Africa, as I said about it.
	I did, I certainly did.
	But you get a mention twice.
	Let me tell you, we're delighted, I'm glad to say we're joined by Prime Minister Modi, being the editor of the Rural Office.
	Biden just looks lost.
	That ain't embarrassing.
	I introduced all the people, and he's like, yeah, and he's doing it with his fists.
	They're like, yes, the South African leader, as I said.
	Biden, you goddamn senile old man.
	But also these scumbag Yankee journalists, sorry, handlers there, coming out and being like, no, no, no, that's enough.
	We leave now.
	Like, kicking everyone out.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Because they're not used to that, are they?
	They're not used to people just staying and taking pictures of him being an absolute fool.
	But it's not the only moment.
	The other moment that was of particular note was him confusing Syria with Libya multiple times in a speech, which...
	Yeah.
	Yeah, not good.
	And then he gave an answer to a question from some journo.
	I mean, again, I'm not a fan of journalists, but this guy asked a reasonable question, which was about sanctions.
	It's like, well, the US wants Europeans to apply sanctions to Russia, but this harms our economy.
	They get the confidence there.
	And his answer is unbelievable.
	Let's play the third clip.
	When you're having these conversations with European allies who are very concerned about these sanctions, how do you justify that?
	And what are your plans?
	120 days.
	Give me a break.
	Need time.
	Seemed like a reasonable question, actually.
	Like, it was a completely fair question.
	Like, you know, Europeans have to suffer their economy if you put these sanctions in place.
	And, you know, willing to do that because they're playing horrible countries, Russia.
	But, uh, and then his response is just 120 days.
	Give me a break.
	And he just walks off.
	No, you're the President of the United States.
	Nobody gave Trump a break.
	Why do you deserve a break?
	It's just the nonchalantness of the whole thing as well.
	I don't give a...
	He doesn't have to, does he?
	I guess.
	So the next thing here is Biden wasn't the only one doing cringe.
	Boris did some cringe as well.
	So let's play the next clip of him talking about building back better in a gender-neutral way.
	But also that we're building back better together.
	And building back greener.
	And building back fairer.
	And building back more equal.
	And how shall I... In a more gender-neutral and perhaps a more feminine way.
	How about that?
	Apart from anything else.
	He's just throwing stuff out there.
	How do you have a gender-neutral, feminine way, Boris?
	Goddammit.
	I think he realised in the middle...
	Oh, God, what have I said?
	I've wandered into unknown territory and I didn't mean to come here.
	So then he just blurts out, no, in a feminine way, and he's like...
	Embarrassing.
	Embarrassing.
	I don't know what on earth he's doing with his life at this point.
	Oh, God.
	I mean, I know people wanted to excuse when he said, what is it, there's nothing wrong with being woke, and I'm sorry, I'm going to hold into it, because he keeps blurting out stupid stuff like this.
	I wonder if it's his girlfriend's, you know, the same.
	Maybe.
	Woke.
	Woke Ono situation.
	Wife, no, yeah.
	Yeah.
	Secret marriage.
	But, you know, the woke-up owner with Prince Harry destroying his soul and turning him into an embarrassment.
	I wonder if a similar thing's happening.
	What happened to the Boris of, you know, letterboxes and things like this?
	Yeah, base Boris, what happened?
	I don't know.
	I guess we'll find out.
	It's like Theresa May, weirdly.
	Like, I wonder if he comes back to being a backbencher after this, if he will come base like Theresa May, calling for the end of lockdowns.
	Maybe.
	We can only dream.
	But why are they no good when they're in the sea?
	Anyway, so the only good things out of this came from the Queen, because the Queen is cool.
	I like the Queen.
	So, this is her going to some, you know, when they were taking the pictures for the social distancing, and the fact that she doesn't really have any power in this situation, I think, absolves her of a lot of the nonsense.
	And you can see, like, she joins in, and then in the middle, she just says, are you meant to look like you're supposed to be having fun?
	And then Boris is like, yes, definitely.
	Because we're all having fun.
	And then it's like, nah, nah, no one's having fun here.
	Like, this is embarrassing.
	This is embarrassing.
	Well, they were probably having fun at the barbecue, and they didn't have to social distance.
	Yeah.
	But the next thing, of course, her cutting a cake.
	So she was meant to cut some cake.
	And she pulled a sword and decided to do it with the sword.
	And some aide was like, there is a knife.
	And she's like, of course I know.
	Of course I know there's a bloody knife.
	Don't care.
	Give me the saber.
	Like, she messed it up as well.
	She turns it upside down.
	She's 95 years old and probably hasn't wielded a saber in a few decades.
	She's knighting you.
	She's going to cut off an arm.
	I just love how the aid...
	We don't have the clip, but she says in the background, there is a knife, and the queen just responds, I know there is.
	I don't care.
	Anyway.
	Well, there we go.
	So the political machinations out of it seem to have been largely nothing burgers, but the next thing here is the final thing, which is just the...
	Can I... I can't help but notice that the ladies have got the sword upside down and they're trying to cut the cake with it.
	Yeah, the queen turned upside down.
	But so does Camilla.
	Yeah.
	I don't know.
	And Kate stood right there.
	Kate, come on.
	You know how to operate a sword, surely?
	Hopefully.
	Sharp bit down.
	So this is interesting for us, especially in Britain, because Macron tried to pull a funny situation.
	So the headline here from the Telegraph, Boris Johnson infuriated after Emmanuel Macron suggested Northern Ireland was not part of the UK. Hmm.
	I think the Europeans have something in mind, don't they?
	That's how I feel about Calais in France, though.
	Yeah.
	It's part of Africa.
	The Prime Minister attempted to explain his frustrations with the Northern Ireland Protocol by asking Mr Macron what he would do if sausages from Toulouse could not be moved to Paris.
	The French President was said to have retorted by arguing that the comparison did not work because Paris and Toulouse were part of the same country, incorrectly suggesting that Northern Ireland is not part of the UK. So, in response, some leaders, as Boris said, some leaders need to get into their heads that the UK is a single country.
	He also got a nice quip back later on when the French delegation brought wine, and it was like really old wine, to be like, haha, look, fancy.
	And Boris tried it and was like, yeah, I mean, it's as old as the last time you guys won a war, so...
	So, yeah, but I am kind of worried about Northern Ireland, like what's going on there.
	I feel like the Europeans are going to try and sort of shift it off.
	What's interesting about Macron's statement there is it's very much a blood and soil statement.
	Like, you know, they're Irish and they're part of a different physical continent with a different bloodline.
	I mean, this is the IRA's position.
	This is the IRA's position, yeah.
	Presumably it would also be the Nazi position.
	I love that.
	They're left wing.
	Why?
	Because they're Nazis.
	Interesting.
	Yes, they are.
	We'll have a book club on Neither Left Nor Right, Ziv Sternhell's Analysis of French Fascism, the French origins of fascism, incidentally, coming fairly soon, because I've finished reading and I'm just making notes on it now.
	And yeah, basically, you can't have fascism without leftist ideology.
	Yeah.
	It doesn't make sense.
	No, it just doesn't exist.
	I mean, I will be off.
	I've seen some people have been mentioning Tick's video on this.
	I don't know if you know Tick, T-I-K. You've told me about him.
	Yeah, yeah.
	He did like a four-hour video in which he just goes through all the arguments.
	And it's not for everyone because it's like four hours long.
	But the individual arguments, there just is no ground on it.
	I'm sorry.
	The Nazis were socialists by literally every point.
	Yeah, and the fascism comes from France, and they view themselves as socialists.
	They're all socialist activists, they're syndicalists, and they're just like, okay, this didn't work.
	Let's try something new to arrive at socialism.
	I'll go into it in the book club.
	But for now, let's talk about the Woke Lord of the Rings seminar that's taking place from the Tolkien Society.
	The Summer Society seminar is going to be about diversity.
	So they tell us that it's going to be a short academic conference, both of researcher-led and non-academic presentations, on the specific theme pertaining to Tolkien's scholarship.
	While interested in the topic of diversity has steadily grown within Tolkien research, you see how this is going, right?
	It used to be about Tolkien, now it's about diversity.
	Hang on, what do you mean Tolkien research?
	There are people who study Tolkien's books.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	The fiction.
	Yeah.
	And try and find what?
	Social justice?
	Okay.
	These guys do.
	The whole concept of having a conference and not just being about, hey, isn't it a football?
	Look, if you get a degree in English literature, you've got to do something.
	And this is what they do, right?
	And of course, you could do an internally consistent analysis of Tolkien's works, where you are talking about the world as it is, as it's presented, or you could start bringing in spurious ideological garbage, which is what they're doing here.
	While the interest in the topic of diversity has certainly grown within Tolkien research, it is now receiving more critical attention than ever before.
	So the SJWs are coming for Tolkien.
	Yeah.
	Which is amazing, because Tolkien, if you think about it, if anything's going to be described as reactionary, it's got to be Tolkien.
	I mean, it's not pro-diversity, is it?
	It's like we must keep the orcs out of Gondor.
	Well, I mean, they are savages.
	I agree.
	But then we're going to start...
	They're about to murder the entire race of men for the orcs.
	That's true.
	So...
	Now, let me explain to you why the Orcs did nothing wrong.
	From the social justice...
	Well, this is basically where they're going with it, right?
	So, yeah, spurred by recent interpretations of Tolkien's creations and the cast list of an upcoming Amazon show, The Lord of the Rings, it is crucial we discuss the theme of diversity in relation to Tolkien.
	Oh, God, are they not going to pull out extra credits, are they, and claim the Orcs are black people?
	Did you not see the extra credits video on this?
	I did, and they're not going to say that, they're just going to assume it.
	Oh, God.
	Representation is now more important than ever, and Tolkien's efforts to represent or ignore particular characteristics requires further examination.
	Why, though?
	Why does it require that?
	Requires by who?
	And the answer is critical race theorists, obviously.
	Additionally, how a character's identity shapes and influences its place within Tolkien's secondary world still requires greater attention.
	Hmm, does it?
	The seminar aims to explore the possible applications of diversity within Tolkien's works, his adaptations, and his readership.
	Do you want to hear about the program?
	Sure.
	Go on.
	You know you do.
	You know you do, right?
	So Cordelia Longston is going to do a seminar called Gondorian Transition, A Brief Introduction to Transgender Realities in Lord of the Rings.
	It's going to be good!
	You can watch this on Zoom for free when this is out, and I will be watching wrapped.
	I can't wait.
	I'll put it on your calendar just to make sure.
	Yeah, feel free.
	The next one, Claire Moore, The Problem of Pain, portraying physical disability in the fantasy of J.R.R. Tolkien.
	So we've got disability rights activists.
	We've got transgender activists.
	Why?
	Because.
	The Elizabeth King.
	The burnt hand teaches most about fire.
	Applying traumatic stress and ecological frameworks to narratives of displacement and resettlement across cultures in Tolkien's Middle Earth.
	Sounds like a ripping yarn, doesn't it?
	Can't wait to get that one going.
	Sarah Brown.
	The Invisible Other.
	Tolkien's Dwarf Women and the Feminine Lack.
	Is there something wrong with dwarf women having beards?
	Is there something wrong with that?
	Are you saying that there's an essential feminine characteristic that lacks a beard?
	That seems transphobic.
	I'd like to see how those two conversations are going to go down between them and the trainees.
	I'm very much looking forward to it.
	Sultana Raza projecting Indian myths, culture, and history onto Tolkien's worlds.
	Yes.
	Why?
	Because you'd have to.
	Because Tolkien is drawing from English mythology, and so Sultana Raza, an Indian lady who is an immigrant to Britain, is like, yeah, so I'm going to project my culture onto your mythology.
	I mean, it sounds like cultural appropriation when you do it, and if we were to do it the other way, I'm sure that's what you'd scream, but okay.
	But Nicholas Burns, the Lozoth, indigeneity, identity, and anti-racism.
	God, that sounds gripping.
	What's that got to do with any part of the Lord of the Rings?
	Well, I guess we'll find out.
	Kristin Larson, the problematic perimeters of Elrond Half-Ellen and Ronald English-Catholic.
	What?
	I have no idea!
	I don't even know.
	Elrond is apparently Half-Ellen, so, you know, he's going to have to inquire about his racial identities, I suppose.
	But anyway, so the next one, I love this, I love this.
	Christopher Vaccaro, pardoning Sauron, the queer in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.
	I had no idea that Sauron was queer.
	Why would you want to put, like, the big bad guy as the only queer in the story?
	No, no, no, that's Sauron.
	Sauron?
	Sauron is the white wizard who fights with Gandalf.
	So he's the second worst guy in the movies.
	The second worst guy in the movies, that's right.
	Okay.
	Yeah.
	He's the guy who chops down the Entz Forest for fuel for his giant industrial war machine, for the orcs and goblins.
	So they can put a big fight for a black up, that's why.
	Yeah, the white hand of the Urk High or something.
	And, yeah, you know, pardoning him.
	He needs to be pardoned for creating an army of mutant elves to try and wipe out nature.
	But he's pardoned because he's queer.
	Right.
	I mean, there's no indication from my knowledge that he's queer.
	His sexuality just doesn't come up as far as I remember, but like, I mean, you know, I'm not an academic on it.
	Sonali Chandukar, The Desire of the Ring, an Indian academic's adventures in her quest for the perilous realm.
	Sounds self-indulgent, doesn't it?
	Robin Reed, Queer Atheists, Agnostics and Animists, oh my.
	Are we really talking about Lord of the Rings here?
	It seems to be talking about yourself, Robin.
	Joel Meriner, Hidden Visions, iconography of alterity in Soviet bloc illustrations for Lord of the Rings.
	I looked into this guy.
	He seems to just be a fetishist for the USSR, like you.
	Okay, I'm not a fetishist for the USSR. I just find it interesting.
	I'm not promoting it.
	I just sit there all day listening to Soviet music on my headphones.
	I'm not going to conferences and being like, hey guys, Lord of the Rings, that was about the Soviet bloc.
	Only because you're not getting invites.
	Eric Reindeers.
	Questions of caste or caste in The Lord of the Rings.
	There's multiple Chinese translations.
	Why not?
	Dawn Wool's Thummer.
	Stars List Strange.
	An analysis of fan fiction and representation within the Tolkien fan community.
	I bet they're too white.
	Any money in the Tolkien fan community is just too white.
	Yeah.
	Not enough diversity.
	Dana Peterson.
	Something mighty queer.
	Destabilizing cis-hetero amatonormativity in the works of Tolkien.
	Destabilizing the works of Tolkien.
	I don't even know what amatonormativity is meant to mean, but whatever it is, she's trying to destabilize the works of Tolkien.
	You see where this is going?
	This is all about chipping away at your favorite thing, and we're going to completely deconstruct it.
	And we're going to reconstruct it with none of the original parts.
	With none of the original parts.
	And of course, Martha Sellis Mendoza, Translation as a Means of Representation and Diversity in Tolkien's Scholarship and Fandom.
	So that looks fantastic.
	Woke Tolkien seminars.
	And I will be rapt tuning into all of these, because they're being broadcast on YouTube, of course.
	So I'll be very much enjoying this.
	And I just figured we'd just take a look at the profiles of some of the people involved.
	So this is Dr.
	Sarah Brown, who describes herself as a proud Tolkien nerd, faculty chair for the Language and Literature Master's Program at Signum U. All my views my own.
	I assure you, she, her.
	Of course.
	The next tweet, I thought this was interesting.
	I mean, this is just her saying, yep, I'm coming to this.
	And notice how she's got a Welsh flag, a European flag...
	And BLM in her profile.
	To be honest, I feel like the pronouns are the most standout-y thing.
	Like, that's enough.
	Someone uses pronouns in their bio, just disregard.
	Disregard.
	Absolutely.
	The next one is Dr.
	Chris Vaccaro.
	Senior lecturer, has been teaching English at UVM since 1999.
	One of his introductory courses include British Literature Survey, Introduction to Old English, Beowulf, this is all sounding quite good so far, Queers of Colour, Women of the Middle Ages, Tolkien's Middle Earth, Tolkien's The Hobbit, Queering the Middle Ages, The History of the English Language and Written Expression.
	Very interesting.
	Soltana?
	You know, it sounds like someone from the 50s, as teleporters of the modern age, when they say queers of colour.
	Well, you know, some redneck is like...
	Queering the Middle Ages.
	Damn queers of colour around here.
	Like, that sounds like their language.
	It does not sound...
	Yeah, I know, but they're reclaiming it, you see.
	Okay.
	I guess, can we reclaim the N-word then?
	Is that going to happen?
	Uh, nope.
	No.
	Anyway.
	We can do it with queer, can't we?
	Yeah.
	Sultana Raza, she just described herself as of Indian origin, with a master in English literature.
	Nicholas Burns has apparently faculty of NYU, with a forthcoming book on The same people who are anti-internationalist and believe America should go it alone are those who, when they travel, post hundreds of self-aggrandizing pictures on social media.
	Yes, that's right.
	If you don't want to be ruled by a foreign power, yet you go on holiday.
	Interesting.
	Yeah, it's big, big think time, Nicholas.
	That's a good point, though, you know?
	I do go on holiday.
	I suppose I should give up all sovereignty.
	Yeah, I do.
	I want our borders to exist, and I still go on holiday.
	Interesting.
	It's such a...
	The next one is Christine Larson.
	She's an astronomy professor who's giving a talk there.
	And this is an amazing account because it's literally her just being pathologically anti-Trump and she hasn't tweeted in over a year.
	So, I mean, if you scroll it, it's just her going, ah.
	I mean, look at this.
	Happy birthday.
	She retweeted this in June 2020.
	Happy birthday, Donald Trump.
	May you never forget what a real president looks like.
	Hashtag Trump wears adult diapers.
	Thank you, Professor.
	Thank you for your deep insights on the Twitter.
	It's embarrassing.
	And then just as soon as Trump was banned, I assume he logged off?
	Yeah, logged off.
	Never gone back on there.
	Just gone on there to do my part to go, Trump wears nappies.
	Like an academic.
	It's just embarrassing.
	But anyway, the next one's Robin Reid.
	Specializations include creative writing, new media, critical theory.
	What a shock.
	Fantastic literatures, especially Tolkien.
	Her stylistics publication includes articles on Lord of the Rings, both novel and film.
	Her peer-reviewed articles have appeared in Extrapolation Style and Tolkien Studies.
	She's serving as the co-editor of Special, Race, Ethnicity and Fandom Edition of an online peer-reviewed fan studies.
	Transformative Works and Culture.
	She's a do-nothing.
	She's a critical theorist.
	Exactly the kind of person I was expecting.
	Produces nothing of value, destroys anything of value.
	Well, they are here to, what was the exact terminology before I misquote it?
	Destabilize the works of Tolkien.
	Yeah.
	In their own description.
	They're literally just the academic version of the kid who kicks out of sandcastles and does nothing else.
	Yeah.
	They are literally here to deconstruct Tolkien.
	Which is a shame, because I like Tolkien.
	But I mean, I wouldn't call myself a Tolkien scholar or anything.
	I've never read The Silmarillion.
	Sorry, nerds, you know?
	But anyway, the next one is Dana Peterson-Deeprose, who's the stylistic editor and content database manager for Narrative Muse, born in Montreal, Canada.
	An MA in English Literature from McGill University, where they research focused on the literature of the sublime and the grotesque.
	They spend most of their time maniacally reading fiction of all genres, writing short stories, talking loudly about social justice issues, and going on picnics.
	Dookie.
	Looks fascinating, doesn't it?
	I can't wait to watch this.
	This is going to be gold.
	Absolute gold.
	This is going to be like, what was it, the DSA? You know, they had all their thing, live streams, and you have the, my point of personal privilege, point of personal privilege, it's going to be that.
	For Lord of the Rings.
	For like three days or whatever it was.
	Why Saruman was actually the good guy.
	And he was right to create a race of mutant elves to chop down the things.
	Oh yeah, I miss Joel Meriner's one, a literary dislocation in Central and Eastern European illustrations for The Lord of the Rings.
	So he's fascinated by Soviet interpretations of The Lord of the Rings.
	He spelt Tolkien there with Cyrillic for some reason.
	Seems to be a simp for the USSR. Why don't you look at me?
	I don't really simp for the USSR. Well, we've got different interpretations of that.
	Whoa, whoa, whoa.
	The DPRK is not the USSR. Yeah, but you...
	There's so much difference.
	I can't believe I would confuse the two.
	But yeah, so this woke Tolkien Lord of the Rings conference looks great, in my opinion.
	I can't wait to watch it.
	And you can find it on the Tolkien Society's website, where they have links to their YouTube channel where they're going to be live-streaming it.
	It should be good.
	But we're a bit early, so I'm going to just go through the video comments.
	All right, sure.
	That obviously caster talking about BLM asking if the caller has thought about what the words mean.
	Does this mean that the caster is ready to talk about what National Socialists are?
	Sorry, John, is the stream down?
	Is the stream down?
	Yeah, it's down on my one.
	It's down on Callum's.
	Like the chat's all F. Oh no.
	Okay, well, sorry.
	Technical problems.
	Can we watch that clip again?
	Because I kind of missed it because Callum was going on about things dying.
	That LBC caster talking about BLM asking if the caller has thought about what the words mean.
	Does this mean that the caster is ready to talk about what National Socialists are?
	Nope.
	Who's the caster?
	Not sure.
	But no one wants to have that conversation.
	Hm.
	Hi guys.
	I'm just wondering if there's any plans to make any videos that are really easily consumable for normies, basically, because there's a lot of people I speak to who don't really have any interest in politics and they don't understand leftist ideology and how they're subverted.
	That's basically in the institutions, the media.
	And it'd be really nice to have some really quick videos that just go over the main points and explain stuff really easily.
	Thanks.
	I can do something like that for the loadseaters.com channel.
	I mean, it's what we're trying to produce at the moment with the short clips.
	Well, the short videos where you're addressing a specific point.
	I'll be honest, they're not entry-level stuff.
	No, but what do you define as entry-level stuff?
	Well, stuff that you'd sense somebody doesn't know anything about politics, right?
	But then it's just kind of like primary things, like Theresa May giving a speech in Parliament about a thing, or BLM guys beating people up in the street.
	I mean, that's what I define as entry-level stuff.
	Yeah.
	I mean, we probably should think about doing some stuff that goes over the sort of basic concepts in a clear way.
	So we'll think about it.
	We'll think about it.
	Thank you.
	Greetings.
	I'm Noah's Grace.
	I'm going to leave you in my office.
	And so my question for today is, how do you think that a relationship should be with a parent and child after they reach adulthood?
	Because I've been told I have a strange relationship with my parents because we're more like adult friends rather than parent-child relationship.
	Hmm.
	That's an interesting question.
	How do you feel about it?
	I don't feel like I have enough life experience to talk about it, but...
	You know, it's interesting.
	The relationship is still parent-child, but you have the freedom to do with your money and whatnot as you please.
	So, here's an interesting story, right?
	So, like, a few years ago, my dad started calling me mate, and I actually upbraided him for this.
	I'm like, I'm not your mate, I'm your son.
	And the thing is, back then, I didn't even know why I was doing it, but I was just annoyed with the fact that he called me, no, no, I'm your son.
	You know, this is a particular station in life, you know.
	This is not like something, you know, mate is someone, is a position that, like, anyone could...
	and you'll call me son and you know that's that's something important and I at the time I didn't realize why it was important but now I've got a much better understanding of it and now he doesn't call me mate anymore it's good because we're not mates you know and I think it's important that that's understood okay but I mean I'm not criticizing other people for doing it or anything like that but I just I just think there's something There's a kind of parental authority that never really goes away and probably shouldn't go away.
	I still ask my dad for advice if I need advice on things.
	I think that's a station in life that should be respected, being the parent.
	Trying to equalise that with your own children, I think is improper.
	Let's go to the next one.
	Here's an idea for the tier rewards, though it might be technically very difficult to do.
	A time limited share of the premium content, say like five articles or videos a month for the silver and ten for the gold, where when you want to share with a friend of yours one of the premium contents, they can get a link that will expire.
	Well, I mean, I'm not against the idea, but from a technical point of view, I don't know how that works.
	So, I mean, I guess we can speak to the developer and see if that's possible.
	Yeah.
	Let's go to the next one.
	So my camera's working again, did anyone miss me?
	Yeah, by no means do I not think that murder is actually wrong or is a moral good, but if you're honest and you admit to a crime you've committed, and yeah, you can lie not just out of maliciousness but out of cowardlessness as well, but if you admit, okay, I committed crime X and therefore I deserve to be punished for committing crime X, Well, there implies it's possible for you to be redeemed, that you admit a moral fault, that you did a crime.
	Well, yeah, we have to have redemption.
	Like, people can be redeemed.
	It's not that they'll ever make up for the crime they've done.
	I mean, if you murder someone's son, for example.
	But if you serve your 30 years or whatever it is, and you come out, there's a reason you are part of society again.
	Yeah.
	We don't just kill you on the spot.
	Well, yeah, I mean, otherwise you are basically saying you may as well just have killed them.
	So...
	I love the idea of murder being a moral good.
	I imagine that's like the orc's philosophy.
	It's like, yeah, he murdered them.
	Good.
	Well, I mean, that is, but yeah.
	Fair point.
	Let's go to the next one.
	Hey guys, thanks so much for the encouragement on that last video comment.
	Really, really appreciate it.
	Now here's the rest of the video that I was going to ask the other day.
	Now, I would like to plug another book.
	This one links to a comment I made the other day in which I said that the current state of Islam is the end result of feminism.
	Go and check this book out.
	Probably add it to your book club reading list, House of Islam by Ed Hussein, because I came to this conclusion after reading this book, and I really think too much gynocentrism does lead to a lot of problems for women.
	So go and check that out.
	Cheers.
	I haven't read that book, but I think that's a fair point.
	I mean, like, if I was a woman, I wouldn't want every man being obsessed with my femininity and womanhood all day, every day.
	I'd find it very cloistering.
	And I imagine if every woman was patrolling you about how manly you were every day, you'd be like, just leave me alone, you know?
	But, you know, if it was random women on the street or something, you'd be like, look, leave me alone.
	You know, I'm just going about my life.
	And so, I mean, you know, I can see the point that I think he's making there.
	probably a good book.
	I recognize the author, Ed Hussein.
	He's the same guy who wrote Among the Mosques the book we covered the other day.
	Yeah, yeah.
	So, yeah, I mean, definitely traveled and educated guy as well.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Good Monday.
	Though Friday was a really nice podcast, I have to admit that a thing that didn't get under my skin wasn't Good Oil's little quip.
	That was actually pretty funny and appreciated.
	What did get under my skin was that you and Callum didn't see that I was supposed to be the baker doll.
	So, just to prove that it actually was me...
	And also, just for sake of diversity, I used to buy an eggs.
	Have a nice Monday.
	How progressive.
	What the hell?
	Yeah, I'm surprised we missed that, actually, looking back on it.
	I feel kind of silly.
	Yeah.
	It just didn't click on my head until.
	No, no.
	The chat said it.
	Yeah.
	So, let's give the next one.
	Hello, guys.
	So what Callum said is correct.
	We do have a representative, and that is the Resident Commissioner of Washington.
	And that person gets to complain, but not vote.
	And in a sense, it's similar to how our citizenship works.
	As Pericans, we have an automatic American citizenship, but we don't get to vote in the elections of the United States.
	Now, the other unique thing about us is that we get all the benefits that the states get, but we have pretty much more freedom of governing ourselves than most states have.
	Is the trade-off worth it or not?
	Yeah, that's the question, isn't it?
	I hear so many complaints from people talking about Puerto Rico that it's so corrupt and whatnot.
	I think she mentioned it previously as well.
	So, I don't know.
	I'd have to visit, I guess.
	Yeah, I don't know.
	Come on, guys.
	He's a red-headed Scandinavian chef who likes bread and loves cogs.
	Do I really have to spell it out for you?
	Apparently you do.
	Oh.
	And just for clarity, he's a pastry chef.
	It wasn't a bread.
	it was a penis of chocolate I can't believe we missed this it's so good there isn't a chef from the Muppets Swedish not the Weijan so they might have a fight about what's the difference well come on I mean one of them is more cucked so I suppose marginally it's all proportionate I don't know if you caught Styx's video yesterday but he made some good points about the Biden-Harris administration and their dynamic.
	And there is some bad blood between the Clintons and the Bidens.
	And Harris is obviously the Clinton lackey.
	And Jill Biden potentially being annoyed that her husband is now a laughing stock sitting duck for a psychopath waiting to snag power.
	And Joe doesn't like her either because she was smacking him around in the primaries.
	And now he's dealing with this uppity wench who was horrible at her job.
	What's your guys take on that one?
	I think that's very interesting.
	And I would like to know more about the internal power dynamics of the current sort of power elite that are controlling the United States.
	But honestly, they're kind of impenetrable.
	I haven't noticed anything.
	Have you noticed anything?
	I don't know.
	The only thing I wanted to say was I saw some rumors that apparently some of the world leaders were saying they expected Biden to be gone in 12 months.
	Yeah, didn't Trudeau?
	reportedly some staffer heard Trudeau say it.
	But there's no evidence other than just someone might have said it.
	But I mean, I was thinking if they do actually get rid of him and retire him in 12 months and you've got Kamala, I mean, she's not much better.
	Like, she's also a bit of a mess.
	Not much better.
	She seems awful.
	Oh, yeah.
	I mean, ideologically, she's...
	she's worse but i mean in the sense of being above for example about the border which is like i haven't been to the uu it's just like what's wrong with you like why can't you just talk properly like at least when trump insults you you've no been insulted yeah well there's a deep emptiness behind everything they seem to be doing uh With Trump, he wasn't very articulate, but at least he believed in what he was doing.
	We're here to make America great, and so get rid of the Mexicans.
	Okay, fine, I don't agree with you, I do agree with you, whatever.
	At least I know where you stand and I know what you're for.
	There's genuine conviction there with Trump, but there's obviously no genuine conviction with Kamala Harris or Joe Biden, unless Joe Biden's genuine conviction is, actually, I hate the United States and it needs to go.
	But yeah, what are you going to do?
	Hi guys, I'm not going to be able to post Mormon Jihad videos on here due to the 30 second requirement, so I'll let you know whenever I post one to my YouTube channel.
	Link in the description below at 9 o'clock standard time.
	Callum, I left you a couple of playlists on my channel for you to look at, as well as you're confusing pride with joy.
	Pride is when you feel good about yourself because you are better than someone, or because you are worse than someone, and joy is you feel good about yourself because you have done something good.
	Okay, yeah, fair.
	I assume that's in reference to the conversation we had about if a man does good things and then feels good about it.
	Is that moral or is that immoral because Iran would say he's doing it for himself?
	That's quite a good distinction though, pride and joy.
	I like that.
	It's a very good distinction.
	Thanks for that.
	Mormon subversion is proceeding as planned.
	I'm surprised by the amount of Mormons that are online.
	I don't know why.
	I expected them to be a much smaller thing, because they're just kind of a thing in the States, and then, you know, in a few states.
	No, I mean, they don't seem to be very objectionable to me.
	No, they're not like the Islamists.
	No.
	Or like Catholics.
	Sorry, Catholics.
	Like, you've got to understand, that's how I roll here.
	Alright, so, Carbohydrate Crusader says, I'm normally not too fussed about England playing, always underperformed and generally speaking, not too pleasing on the eye to watch.
	However, I'm loving the base British public BTFOing the knee.
	Absolutely amazing entertainment.
	England!
	Yeah, well, I mean, I just love Gareth Salgate's like, please don't boo, please don't boo, please don't boo, and everyone's like, Boo!
	Joseph says, I love my local area.
	You could tell when the football was on because you'd hear the booing from the pubs and the houses.
	That's interesting.
	I live in London, so only about half those booing were actually white, which I find hilarious.
	It's good.
	I mean, hating Marxism is a very...
	Well, it is.
	...multiracial movement.
	Yeah, yeah, exactly.
	It's a way to unite the races, is to present them with communism.
	Everyone's like, no.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Just get out.
	Yin Alice says, I'm not really a fan of sports, let alone football.
	However, I do delve into politics a bit, and when I see anything political seep its way in sports...
	Excuse me.
	I just can't help but say that it doesn't belong there, and I guess I'm not alone in this thought process.
	Well, I'm exactly the same.
	I've got no interest in...
	I like watching sports.
	I like playing sports, but I don't watch.
	But yeah, obviously we're talking about this because it's political.
	And that's our wheelhouse.
	Donata says, racists do excuse their racism.
	They call it anti-racism, equality, etc.
	Well, yeah, some racists.
	Israel says, I want some of those players to start lunging while giving the Nazi salute.
	Imagine the cumulative Twitter meltdown would be glorious.
	What if they were all giving the knee and then gave the Nazi salute?
	That would be funny.
	I mean, they're doing the Labour thing, remember?
	Yeah, they do, yeah, yeah.
	The kid who did that and then tried to do the LLM fist.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Wait, wait, wait.
	We don't do the Nazi salute anymore.
	Anymore.
	Yeah.
	Henry says, claiming Black Lives Matter, etc., are only interested in what the slogan says.
	It's like saying the Democratic People's Republic of Korea is aptly named.
	Meaning it achieves nothing at all, and all it does is say, look how sanctimonious I am.
	Looking at the online racism directed towards black Premier League players, I'd be intrigued to know how much of it comes from the UK and how much of it comes from some other parts of the world where the Premier League is popular.
	Good question.
	I'm surprised no social scientists have done any studies on that.
	Lee says, The kneeling makes no sense from a symbolic standpoint as a show against racism.
	It's a show of submission.
	Maybe it at least makes some sense from a leftist perspective if all the white players kneeled and all the black players stood with their fists in the air.
	But as it is, that'd be a bit on the nose though, wouldn't it?
	Kiss their shoes, eh?
	Yeah.
	That's right!
	God.
	God.
	You've seen that clip, haven't you?
	Yeah, of course.
	But as it is now, they have been coerced into kneeling to show they're submissive to a Marxist movement, and they're rationalizing it as a non-political gesture for their own sanity.
	Yeah, this thing, Gareth Sandgate, Southgate, whatever his name is, him saying, well, this is non-political, shut up.
	Just shut up.
	Don't lie to my face.
	Everyone knows you're lying.
	Oh, this is not political.
	It's nothing but political.
	It's in support of a communist movement from a bunch of communists who are walking away with millions of dollars.
	Like, it's such a grift.
	I don't know why you're like, okay, this is the hill we're going to die on.
	The communist grift.
	All the communists are cheering us.
	This is where we stand.
	We're England.
	Matthew Wilson says, you were required to support England's subversion to Marxist BLM, but not cheer for them in a pub or fly your flag on your car by penalty of law.
	Yeah, what was that about the flying the England flag on cars?
	I didn't see any news about that.
	Oh, there was something about it, but I thought you were going to cover it because you were doing that segment, so I didn't look it up.
	You're doing an English segment.
	Oh, look at that.
	I've just revealed myself to not be paying attention to my own podcast.
	I did see something about people getting in trouble for flying the England flag from their car, but I can't remember what it is now, so that would be annoying.
	That's annoying.
	I can't remember that.
	But anyway, John Wheatley says, the fans' position is basically kick politics out of football, which is fair, whereas the official Kick It Out campaign is just like the Guardian football column, an ideological subversion organisation that doesn't give a toss about the game.
	Well, I've actually never looked into Kick It Out as a campaign.
	I assumed that it was just...
	We don't like racism.
	Please stop yelling racist thing from the stands.
	Which is fair.
	I mean, all these things end up getting indoctrinated with a handful of communists.
	So I'm willing to imagine that a few have.
	But the point is fundamentally that, you know, the FA and all the rest of them have all these campaigns for god knows how many years now about getting rid of racism.
	It's like, yeah, those aren't good enough.
	Let's do take the knee and endorse BLM. Why?
	Why are those not good enough and this one is?
	Are you saying we should get rid of these old ones now because none of them work?
	That's a great question.
	If the old ones were so ineffective.
	In fact, why did you have to import a new Americanized version if you already had your own sort of stand up to racism in football organization?
	Why do you need the American version?
	Why do it?
	Like the Scotland team said, we're not going to take the lead.
	Why are they allowed to not take the knee and you have to take the knee?
	You remember the Hungarian team.
	They just, when all the Irish took the knee, they just point out that we have the badge.
	We don't need to do this.
	They'll all respect badge they have there.
	Right, okay.
	I didn't even notice that.
	I don't follow football.
	Aaron says, hey, the new split screen format is looking great.
	Well, I'm glad it's working great.
	So we upgraded the equipment so we could have both of us on the screen at the same time.
	Because this requires extra equipment.
	But I'm glad it's all working and doing well.
	I would just like to see someone on the pitch unironically give a Nazbol salute, and when questioned, say, it's not a Nazi salute, I'm just taking a stand against anti-white racism.
	Which is basically what the England team in the 30s could have said, isn't it?
	I mean, God, I hate it.
	Yeah, one thing we should have added, but I only saw after we put it all together, that Priti Patel was asked by GB News, actually, what she thought of all this, and she said, as Luke says, the fans have a right to boo the players taking the knee.
	Based.
	Boris can't come out and say that for some reason, but pretty at least he can.
	Yeah, I mean, if you're going to be like, we have the right to protest, well, we have the right to protest back.
	It's that simple.
	Simple as.
	Right.
	Heathcliff says on the G7 exclusive party, so they're extending current restrictions.
	Current COVID death chances are one in a million.
	The same likelihood of being struck by lightning, according to BBC. Everyone over 30 has been offered the vaccine.
	The death rate for below 30s is between 0 and 0.1%.
	And of the 65 COVID deaths last week, given the number of positive tests, you can expect at least 8 to 20 of those to be totally unrelated to COVID, car crashes, etc.
	Even my normie friends are starting to question what the F is going on here.
	That's because the narrative is so obviously untenable.
	Again, you just look at the government's own COVID data-like dashboard, and like yesterday, eight people died within 28 days of a positive test.
	Then why would we care about anything?
	More people probably died falling down the stairs.
	Aaron says...
	This is how socially distant the G7 were for photo ops and how they just got rid of that stuff as soon as they thought the cameras were off.
	P.S. The video player is working much better.
	Keep up the good work.
	I'm glad to hear that.
	The G7 summit was the largest display of Davos/Globo homo charades I've ever seen, says Tyler.
	Yes.
	Kyle says, "I normally end up catching loose women on ITV because my mum leaves it on in the kitchen as I get lunch.
	Today, they referred to Boris as a libertarian at heart while discussing him delaying Freedom Day.
	Well, I mean, that is kind of true, but like, you know, that's the impression.
	I hate normie TV. Well, same here, but that's the impression I get of them too.
	But it's like, Boris is a libertarian.
	That's why he's delaying the lockdown opening.
	It's like...
	Israel again says, Why are you not listening to the government?
	Last year has proven the libertarians write about everything.
	Well, some things.
	But basically, yes.
	Student of history says, I also want there to be some chanting.
	Memento mori, you are not a god.
	Memento mori, we will all die.
	Memento mori, honour the dead.
	Also based off Aussies living the stereotype.
	Love them.
	Well, I don't even disagree, man.
	But anyway, Justin says, does anyone in the UK actually think the Tories will ever give these powers without being forced to?
	No.
	If nothing changes, these four weeks will become four months, four years, and the quality of our opposition doesn't look likely to change when it comes to an election.
	Yeah, what's amazing is that in spite of all of this, the Conservatives are coming on to 50% popularity now.
	Hmm.
	They're not doing anything.
	But it's just because of labour.
	Like, I saw Keir Starmerhut denounce this barbecue and be like, oh, it's bad optics.
	But he couldn't disavow the whole thing and say, well, we should have the same rights as citizens as the elite have.
	Yes, something that would have actually impacted on the conversation.
	But it should be...
	I mean, it won't be with the Labour Party as the opposition.
	They have to die first.
	But it should be the thing in the next election.
	If this is going to carry on going for four years, which looks like it probably is going to be, because it's been three weeks to flatten the curve, folks, then that should be the thing on the table.
	Should we get rid of all the government's powers regarding COVID? That'll be the vote.
	Yeah, and we should.
	LongTalksOnLeach says, I suppose the BBC would defend them and be like, well, we've got to present this to the entire country, and anything more complex might not work for Labour voters, so...
	Will the Impaler says, It's like Boris has watched a load of Novara media stuff, but it's gone completely over his head, but he decided he'd better get in all the key words into his next speech.
	Yeah, when he's like, you know, gender neutral, feminine.
	Just shut up, Boris.
	Just for the love of God.
	It's so insufferable as well.
	It's like, look, no one thinks that you believe in that stuff.
	No one thinks that you're thinking about this in your private life.
	Anyway, Lord Ariel Tolkien says, The article about the Woke Tolkien Society made me go and email them my professional and personal disgust.
	Good.
	Ignacio says, On Lord of the Rings, Arch is right.
	Gatekeeping is an essential duty of the fans.
	You can never stop gatekeeping, and if you do, you face the consequences that we are doing now.
	Yeah, I mean, what I find amazing about it is that Lord of the Rings has got to be the most reactionary property, like, to go for.
	Like, queering Sauron.
	Do you want to associate Sauron with gays?
	They are forced to pick Mordor and the orcs and everything, aren't they?
	Because they can't pick the Shires and all that because that represents England.
	So it's like, well, we'll go for the exact opposite then.
	The dark army of the Dark Lord that's going to ravage and pillage and rape across Middle-earth.
	It's like, well...
	That represents me!
	Yeah, exactly!
	How is it that you're like, I'm sympathetic to that?
	You know, it's...
	But yeah, but the thing is as well, right, so Lord of the Rings, and one of the things that we covered in this sort of Thick Concepts podcast is that Lord of the Rings is infused with moral judgments, right?
	The moral judgments are intrinsic to Lord of the Rings, so you can't try and level out these moral judgments to make both sides equal, because it's implicit in all of the premises that Sauron is the villain, the orcs are the villains, the The alliance of men and elves and dwarves are the good guys, and this is where the moral good lies.
	You can't have a reading of Lord of the Rings that rejects that premise, otherwise you're not reading Lord of the Rings or you're just doing fan fiction for the villains.
	It's built into the narrative of the story because it's based on the heroic narrative of Beowulf.
	And various other sort of old English poems.
	And so you can't separate the two out.
	There's no sort of thinning this.
	But that's why they're all like, oh, Saruman, is he really the good guy?
	No.
	He created an evil army of orcs to burn down all the forests and kill all the hobbits.
	That's what I want to do.
	Yeah, exactly.
	No, he's not the good guy.
	He's not misunderstood.
	And I don't even think he's gay, so sorry.
	Isn't that revealing, though?
	You're not the good guy.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Exactly.
	We side with the villains.
	that's what they're saying Elvis says Tolkien in his Lord of the Rings series if I remember correctly refers to an individual skin colour twice Aragon and Gladriel I believe this means any skin colour assumed belongs to the reader's individual biases I can't believe this rubbish is infecting my much cherished Tolkien hobby I've already cancelled my subscription to the Tolkien Society do it Thank you.
	If you're constantly trying to change a work that's already loved, then you don't deserve to be working on it.
	And the question is why?
	Why are you constantly deconstructing, or whatever it was, Tolkien's work?
	Why do you want to do that?
	Tolkien spent presumably a lot of time and a lot of work building them up.
	And you're like, yeah, we're going to take those apart.
	And now you should be siding with Sauron.
	Justin says, Saruman is queer to them.
	He's not even human.
	He, Gandalf, Sauron, the Balrog are all of the same race.
	Basically angels.
	Yeah, like, aren't all the angels...
	Sorry, the wizards are meant to be angels, so...
	Yeah.
	Gay angels.
	Like, none of them are meant to have any sexuality or having, you know, sex, so...
	Let's talk about queer.
	Anon says, Yeah, but that's the thing, isn't it?
	Because the essential nature of Lord of the Rings is...
	Something you can't separate from the moral judgment of either side.
	That's what I'm saying with the thick concepts.
	So you can't present Sauron and Saruman and all these forces of the Easterlings and all that.
	You can't present them as morally neutral and therefore build a positive moral platform on them.
	They're defined as being evil.
	and like you were saying, if you're going to be like well I'm taking up that position then you're defining yourself as being evil.
	Being pro-orc is being anti-human, basically Henry says I wonder if the Tolkien, everyone is secretly queer crowd are only doing this so their self-insert fanfic character isn't out of place probably.
	I blame J.K. Rowling for encouraging these self-absorbed nutbags Also the Silmarillion is dense and hard to get through but a lot of the stories contained within are awesome battles between armies of orcs barogs, dragons and the elves and men and dwarves There's even one where the elf king basically shouts 1v1 me bro at the Dark Lord Melkor and has a fight with him That does sound awesome.
	I look forward to it being completely bastardized by the woke left.
	Long Talks on Leach says, Fun fact, Tolkien's Middle Earth was a meta-commentary on what he thought was a lack of mythology in Britain.
	So technically, Middle Earth is a Britain, Europe in a past age whose stories and history are old enough to have been lost to time.
	A fictional account of Britain before the modern age of men doesn't need diversity outside of the groups who have become the different nationalities of the UK. And it also means the Orcs were literally not humans and are therefore not black people.
	Yes, but I mean...
	You can't expect the wokest to understand that subhumans aren't actually an analogy for black people.
	Most other people, they're normal.
	We would say the race of man includes the men.
	Black people are included in the race of men.
	Hot take from the Lotus Eaters.
	The wokest are like, no they're not, they're orcs.
	Progressivism, that's where it leads you.
	Yes.
	Duffy B says, The wokeists are not content to assault reality.
	Now they're after classic fiction.
	They've been after classic fiction for years.
	It's just the problem with Lord of the Rings is deeply reactionary and essentialist.
	What next?
	They're now officially announcing the Mini True.
	Yes.
	Luke Robbins says, Getting this requested early.
	It's my birthday today, so can we please get an Orcs, Orcs, Orcs?
	Orcs, Orcs, Orcs, Orcs!
	Oh, I don't want to bang stuff.
	Is that your new coasters?
	Yes.
	No, not a fan of them.
	Oh, too bad.
	Clang.
	Carbohydrate Crusader.
	I also had some good news over the weekend.
	Took the knee in honour of BLM to ask my missus to marry me and she said yes.
	I'm a very lucky fella.
	Can I get an orchestra of congrats?
	Two?
	It won't clang, then.
	Fine.
	Orcs, orcs, orcs, orcs, orcs!
	Maybe I should bang the table, but...
	I like banging the table.
	Dianike says, aspiring novelist here, any recommendation on a history of Hannibal's invasion?
	I've got some historical fancy ideas I want to do right.
	I'm going to do something on this.
	I imagine you would.
	Yeah, I mean, there's huge amounts of literature that's been written about Hannibal, and it was not Diogenes.
	I don't know why.
	God, why can't I? How embarrassing.
	It's not Theodorus.
	God damn it.
	It's right there in the front of my mind, and the second we go off the air, I'm going to remember exactly the historian.
	Stupid Greek name?
	No, no.
	Well, he was Greek, yeah.
	It's always a stupid Greek name.
	He was Greek.
	Oh my God, this is...
	How embarrassing.
	How embarrassing.
	See what I mean, though?
	It's gone.
	I can't even remember.
	I'm really annoyed about that, actually.
	God, that is embarrassing.
	Right, we're not going to move until I figure this out.
	There are loads of great descriptions.
	I personally enjoyed Harold Lamb.
	He did a great book on Hannibal that's very, very readable.
	Very readable.
	And there are some great audiobooks of it, performances of it.
	And...
	Damn it.
	Why am I getting stuck on the name Diogenes?
	It's not Diogenes.
	The chat.
	Chat.
	You must be...
	You guys know.
	Chat's offline.
	Oh, goddammit.
	The one time.
	Okay, fine.
	Ignatius says, Hi guys, last Thursday I asked for advice or tips about starting to live together with my girlfriend after seven years.
	Though I'm happy the answer Josh and Callan gave me, the opinion of the daddest pope is sure to be insightful.
	The reason we haven't been able to move together is because we started dating young and we've had to manage my girlfriend's inheritance and the debts that came with it to be able to move out and we couldn't even rent.
	Right, he wants advice on how to live with his girlfriend.
	But I'll just be chill.
	There's something irritating her, or something irritating you.
	I mean, you talk about it, but then what more do you want?
	So one thing I think that I would point out is the small things become important.
	So they intensify.
	If I leave dishes on the side, this really winds my wife up.
	So I just have to go that extra mile and put them straight in the dishwasher.
	And it's just a tiny thing, but every day it comes back and there's a slight disequilibrium in the kitchen and it just annoys her.
	It just really winds her up.
	And so out of consideration, I... Leave them there.
	I spit on them.
	I use extra dishes.
	No, no, obviously.
	But it's small things like that that really matter because these are the things in your daily life that just wind you up.
	And she'll undoubtedly do small things that wind you up and tell her, you know, say, look, I just really appreciate it from this little thing.
	You wouldn't do that.
	And she'll do the same to you.
	And if you can maintain those small things, then all the big things will fall into place.
	So that's the important thing.
	Terry says, hey guys, just want to say keep up the great work.
	I'm absolutely loving it.
	Just a quick question.
	What's your ideal breakfast?
	Full English.
	What else?
	Oh, good.
	I thought you were going to say something Russian.
	Honestly, I thought you were going to say something like onion soup or whatever.
	My opinion of Russian food is not particularly high, to be honest.
	What do they eat in Russia?
	I don't know.
	I don't know.
	I remember going there, and they gave me some version of full English, because I wanted it when I was in some cafe.
	And it was just hash browns, sausages, and then salad.
	And I was like, why would you put salad with breakfast?
	What's wrong with you?
	I'm actually becoming quite fond of omelettes recently.
	Because they're quite calorie dense, obviously, and they keep me full for literally the entire day.
	So I don't have to bother with lunch and stuff like that.
	You know, bacon, mushroom, cheese.
	Good stuff.
	And then you're full for like 12 hours.
	It's great.
	I tried a black pudding sandwich the other day for dinner.
	Very bad.
	I don't like the texture of black pudding.
	Really?
	Yeah, it's weird.
	You've got to cover it in sauce.
	Well, I haven't covered them in sauces, but I guess maybe I should.
	Sorry, I'm just refreshing my document so I can hopefully get some more comments.
	I'm looking forward to this Woke Lord of the Rings thing.
	Genuinely, I like...
	I have actually put it in your calendar.
	Okay, because I'm legit excited for it.
	Do we not have any more comments?
	Oh, right, okay.
	Well, that probably...
	So we'll kill.
	Right, okay.
	I'm going to have to prepare...
	We've got an interview afterwards with Will Nolan, so we end four minutes early.
	That's fine.
	Okay, well, yeah.
	Yeah, when this is back up, sorry about the issues, folks, but we will be back tomorrow at one o'clock.

▲