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Aug. 20, 2021 - The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters

01:31:07

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #202

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	Hello and welcome to the podcast of the Lotus Ears for the 20th of August 2021.
	I'm joined by Peter, and today we're going to be discussing the only fans banning of thoughts, which is something they don't want their own audience, which is, um, feels good.
	Also the betrayal of the Gurkhas, and also the Taliban have nothing to do with Islam.
	So says Western leftists who want nothing to do with this because it makes Islam look bad, which apparently makes leftism look bad.
	Interesting how that happens.
	Anyway, so let's get into some of the stuff on the website first.
	The first thing to mention is, of course, live events we have coming up.
	So on...
	I'm forgetting the dates.
	24th and 25th of September.
	Count Dankula and Cole apparently merging into one.
	Beards cross-dressing, though.
	But anyway, we have...
	Special guests, secret guests, nothing up for those.
	The one on the 24th is in South London, 25th Central London.
	The locations will be sent to people who buy tickets before the event is taking place, of course, because that's how these things have to be worked out, which kind of sucks, but that's how it is.
	So apparently also the Saturday tickets, 40% of them are already gone.
	So if you want to come, please do make sure you vote before we run out.
	Anyway, there's that.
	Also, if we go to the premium section, I just wanted to mention the book club.
	So the book club, the Miles Great Famine.
	We filmed it.
	We've edited it.
	We're trying to schedule about when it's going to go up.
	Either it will go up today or it will go up on Monday.
	So that will be when it's available.
	But go and check that out.
	Otherwise, we have all the other premium content that we have, of course, that's endless at this point.
	Particularly like the Roger Scruton's Where We Are book club that called it.
	Kind of sad that Scruton's gone.
	I never knew much about him, and then afterwards, after learning about him from his death, it's like, oh, this would be useful if he was alive.
	Exactly the same.
	I read about it and thought, wow, I wish I got to know the guy beforehand.
	So yeah.
	Anyway, let's get heroic.
	No, there's no Keemstar intro.
	So OnlyFans has decided to ban Thoughts, which is kind of their customer base, I would have thought, at this point, as in all of their content creators, but apparently not.
	So the first story here is that transracial activist and former NAACP leader Rachel Dolezal, remember the black lady, who's not black, but she identifies as black.
	And if you can identify as a woman, why can't you identify as black?
	Mm-hmm.
	Why is transracialism not valid?
	Anyway, so she decided to launch her own OnlyFans and promised footpicks because everyone on this platform is a degenerate boy.
	So in here they say Donazole has spoken out in the past about how hate and discrimination from both sides of the political spectrum have left her unable to find gainful employment.
	So she's going to become a thot.
	Why not, I guess?
	I don't buy it, personally.
	The idea that she can't find gainful employment because the right and the left are bullying her.
	I think maybe she probably could find the job elsewhere, but just, nah, wants to do the OnlyFans route.
	So in response to this, I'm presuming this is why OnlyFans did it.
	So we go to the next one.
	You can see Shu.
	Thank God, just in time.
	So the day Rachel Dole was always like, yeah, I'm on OnlyFans, come and pay.
	OnlyFans gets banned.
	Sorry, no, OnlyFans bans their thoughts.
	No more pornography on the site.
	Cosmic justice.
	Is she going to be the first transracial person on OnlyFans?
	She's also being discriminated against, isn't she?
	Yeah, yeah.
	You know, she joins the platform and they're like, no transracials.
	Get lost.
	Don't want your custom.
	Yeah.
	So OnlyFans has decided to ban all the thoughts from October 1st.
	So you can see from October 1st, this will be what they'll be up to, presumably.
	Got a bit of wage cucking.
	There's some good memes out of this.
	I thought we'd just enjoy them.
	We'll go to the next one as well.
	It's just the scariest things to an OnlyFans contract to creators.
	A job application at night.
	No, we're not going to make that joke.
	Let's go to the next one as well.
	So the story in here is more complex than it originally seems.
	So I thought they were just banning them because, I mean, who wants thoughts around?
	Maybe they were just sick of them or something.
	Goes deeper.
	So the subscription site OnlyFans, known for its adult content, has announced it will block sexually explicit photos and videos from October 1st.
	People will still be able to post nude content on the site.
	So what are they banning?
	I'm confused.
	Yeah.
	But it will need to be consistent with OnlyFans policies.
	So you can still be a thought as long as OnlyFans okays it.
	As long as the guys who actually run it like your OnlyFans, I guess.
	Like, as long as the devs have subscribed to you, you're kosher, everyone else, get out.
	Don't want to see your stuff no more.
	So, nude but no porn.
	Yes.
	Okay.
	So the announcement comes after BBC News had approached the company for a response to leaked documents concerning accounts which posted illegal content.
	So that's interesting.
	The BBC here trying to take credit for shutting down the thoughts.
	Thank you for your service, I suppose.
	So they also said, they mentioned to OnlyFans, and OnlyFans said that they had to make the change, and it had come from pressure from their banking partners.
	So the bank had called them up and be like, hey, we're going to cut you off and no longer bank with you if you don't get rid of thoughts.
	But they've been happy up to this point.
	Yes.
	Taking the money.
	And all of a sudden they're just like, yeah, we don't want to be involved anymore.
	But it also raises the question, which one is it?
	Is it the BBC that shut down the thoughts or is it the bank?
	Which...
	I'm actually quite worried about.
	I mean, there's, of course, the humor in all of this of the thoughts no longer being able to sell pictures of themselves and therefore not really doing much else with their lives.
	But the idea that a bank should be able to shut you down because they don't politically agree with you, I mean, where have we seen this before?
	I mean, Donald Trump's most recent big example, obviously.
	I mean, his bank getting closed down because he said, protest peacefully and patriotically.
	Yeah, which was against their terms and conditions.
	Don't advocate peace.
	Just advocate war.
	So Thursday's announcement comes after BBC News approached the company for its response to leaked documents concerning its handling of accounts posting illegal content, the BBC says later on.
	The documents described as a complaints manual show that illegal content itself is removed.
	OnlyFans lets moderators give creators multiple warnings before closing their accounts, however.
	So we're not talking about breaches of policy.
	So it's not like you broke Twitter's terms of service by saying, okay, dude, as Zuby did.
	No, this is illegal content, the kind of content you cannot have on the internet at all, according to UK law.
	So, for example, moderates specialized in child protective services and experts say that OnlyFans has some tolerance for accounts posting such illegal content.
	So the illegal content being essentially underage girls joining up and then taking pictures of themselves and then selling it and then a bunch of creepy pedos signing up for it.
	So...
	In response to the BBC's investigation, OnlyFans said the documents are not manuals or official guidance.
	It does not tolerate violations of its terms of service, and its systems and age verifications go far beyond all relevant global safety standards and regulations.
	Not sure who I believe there.
	No, we do all we can, and yet the BBC is able to say, no, we're still finding loads of stuff that's just underage girls selling pictures of themselves on your platform.
	Because that's the other aspect, is that...
	There are so many women making so much money from OnlyFans.
	Like, I know you don't know much about OnlyFans, but some of the examples are like women making like $12,000 a month just from pictures of themselves.
	And you can think, if you're a young girl and then you see that kind of revenue stream.
	I read somewhere a couple of billion a year, turn over five billion or something since it started.
	It's made five bill since it was set up.
	So, good God.
	And that's their share out of the money from people signing up to it.
	That's the amount of money that went into OnlyFans.
	OnlyFans themselves, I believe, take 20%.
	So they took 20% out of five bills themselves.
	So one billion.
	And the rest of it goes to the Thoughts, who are posting pictures themselves.
	And the banks are unhappy at this one billion?
	Yeah, I don't know.
	That's why they work.
	We'll trade in blood diamonds, but pictures of Thoughts, good God, no.
	So the site, founded in 2016 by an Essex businessman, Tim Scotley.
	I love that.
	Founded in Essex, of course it is.
	The home of the Thoughts.
	Has come under fire in the past after a BBC News investigation found Under-18s had used fake identification to set up the accounts on the site.
	In June, BBC News found that Under-18s sold explicit videos on the site despite it being illegal for people to share indecent images of children in the UK and everywhere in the West.
	So, even if it's an American signing on, of course, that's still illegal for them to do that.
	But OnlyFans apparently were deleting the content but then just let the 16-year-old or whoever just carry on.
	Because...
	reasons?
	Maybe Turkey and Afghanistan.
	Maybe OnlyFans ascended to Afghanistan, yeah.
	So if we go to the next one, the story here actually does go a little bit further than the underage girls who just want to make some cash.
	But at the end of that, it had about only 15 taken off.
	So the BBC pointed out, who knows how many they pointed out.
	They haven't said that we pointed out a thousand, we've only removed 15.
	Maybe they could only find 15, they removed 15.
	But it doesn't sound like a huge issue if they've only found 15.
	God, I just thought in my mind as well, there's probably going to be a crossover here between the grooming gangs.
	I bet they're exploiting this for revenue as well.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I'm sure.
	Yeah.
	So the BBC investigation into the illegal conduct includes someone who said that he found illegal and extreme content in videos including bestiality involving dogs and also the use of spy cams, guns, knives and drugs.
	I don't know who's making their threatening videos over OnlyFans, but bestiality and whatnot, yeah, I can believe that that's on there and isn't being removed.
	So Christoph, a second person who is a moderating content for the site, say some creators offer competitions to meet up and have sex with fans as a way of increasing tip payments.
	This is true.
	I've seen posts about this.
	So they're like, some thought I'll be making ridiculous stacks of cash, right?
	But then she'll also be like, yeah, competition now.
	Whoever gives me the most money gets to have sex with me.
	And then, well, stacks and stacks of cash just appear out of nowhere.
	And ultimately, of course, it is actually the simps' fault.
	The men giving over this money.
	Instead of just getting a girlfriend or wife or just keeping your money to yourself.
	Or just going on Pornhub.
	I don't know why you're paying money.
	Instead of I mean, you Google boob and you get a million results.
	But no, you've got to pay for this instead.
	It's the transracial, that's why.
	I don't find much transracial porn elsewhere.
	Thank you very much, Lotus Eaters.
	I've got to go specially to OnlyFans for that.
	Anyway, so one of the documents we obtained detailing moderation guidelines in 2020 state that adverts for sex are an issue for the site.
	It says that, quote, most popular places for escort promo on the site are in the creator's usernames, bios, content descriptions, and tips menus.
	Menus.
	There's a menu you can pick.
	Hmm, okay.
	Didn't know that.
	Which advertise customized videos.
	The document says examples of this promotion include references to PPM, paper meet, cash meet, book meet, IRL meet, escort, and others.
	So essentially a bunch of prostitutes have also been using it to meet their clients.
	Which...
	We have a weird situation here in the UK. I believe prostitution is legal, but you can't advertise the prostitution because we're very British about it.
	It's just like, do it over there.
	Do it quietly.
	Yeah, just don't want to know about it.
	So, the prostitution itself isn't the crime, but them making the account to advertise the prostitution is the crime.
	So...
	But then it'd be quite easy if they're using different terminology, you just search for that and remove any site that has that on.
	Unless they just don't want to.
	Which should be quite easy.
	Yes.
	So despite this, the BBC was able to find more than 30 active accounts using these keywords in the BIOS. Profiles and posts in one day.
	One creator profile described them as, quote, escort sex partner.
	A different account asks, anyone want to book me for a weekend?
	Only two of the accounts we found were removed ten days later.
	So I don't know if they're talking about 30 being including of children, bestiality and whatnot.
	Maybe they're just talking about prostitutes who are using this as a means.
	But we don't know the extent of what's taking place on OnlyFans, I suppose.
	But 30 out of 120,000...
	Yeah, it's not that much.
	It's quite small.
	But you expect authority to be removed, and they've only removed two.
	Yeah, after they're made aware.
	Because it's illegal.
	That's the thing.
	It's not PewDiePie saying mean words or something.
	I mean, remember, I think Voice of Wales are the worst ones with this.
	The BBC lobbied YouTube to get Voice of Wales banned from YouTube successfully, which is utterly corrupt.
	But they didn't commit any crime.
	They didn't do anything wrong, even, for the looks of it.
	But these guys, it is against the law.
	So, there is some confusion over the band, of course, with the fact that you can be nude but not sexy.
	So, if we go to the next one here, some people have been posting their chats with OnlyFans support, because this thought here is upset that she's about to lose her job.
	So, OnlyFans said, We do not plan to move away from adult content, and would have informed you up front first if that had ever happened.
	And yet, people have emails from OnlyFans saying the exact opposite.
	So we go to the next one.
	This is some guy who got an email from OnlyFans as well.
	And it says in here, Effective 1st of October 2021, OnlyFans will prohibit the posting of any content containing sexually explicit conduct in order to ensure the long-term sustainability of the platform.
	Creators will continue to be allowed to post content containing nudity as long as it is consistent with our acceptable use policy.
	So I don't know.
	I mean, maybe they mean...
	So the first email that they had there where they said adult content is allowed.
	Maybe it's like adult content that's nude, as in like art or something like this.
	Just adult feet.
	Very professionally done.
	But I'm thinking maybe more.
	So OnlyFans, when it was set up, I believe was meant to be for artists and photographers and stuff like that.
	Okay, so it's changed from what it was originally set up as.
	Yeah, and then all the thoughts turned up and took it over.
	So I wonder if they're actually trying to return to their roots, you know, back to tradition of here's some like naked woman and this is art.
	And that's what they want instead of the women who are having fun, let's say.
	But then they'll lose a lot of the money.
	I don't know what percentage of users actually are for this or just for photography.
	The company later defends themselves on this basis.
	So if we go to the next one, they're defending and saying this definitely won't make us bankrupt.
	But what does anyone know OnlyFans for except thottery?
	Who knows about it?
	Whatever.
	So earlier this year, OnlyFans chief executive Tim Stolke told The Independent that while the site's early users had been associated with pornographic content, it was now growing beyond that.
	Into ultra-pornographic content.
	So he says, We found that creators from the adult industry really embraced the platform early on, but the content on the platform has really evolved.
	The fastest-growing kinds of content at the time were fitness, music, and more recently, fashion, he said, pointing out to the success of musical artists such as DJ Khaled.
	I didn't read that wrong.
	Let me go to the next one.
	DJ Khaled has an OnlyFans?
	Sorry, who's Fat Joe?
	I don't know.
	Is his life partner?
	Is that the polite way of putting it?
	Those beards are impressive.
	Yeah.
	123,000 fans.
	Wow.
	Subscribe to DJ Khaled.
	It's free, as you can see there.
	So, I think we have to thank Alar that he's probably not posting nudes.
	Instead, he's keeping a PC. But if you have an OnlyFans account, I guess subscribe to DJ Khaled, because God knows what that is.
	And Fat Joe.
	Don't forget about Fat Joe!
	But the company owner being like, yeah, no, I'm not interested in the pornography anymore.
	But he's also being forced to do this by the banks.
	So, sounds like Cope to me.
	Sounds like he knows he's about to lose a lot of money.
	Oh well, because he wants to keep the company going.
	That's all.
	Whatever.
	So there's that.
	There's also some mad hoes who have got some weird defences in defence of their very, very high status jobs.
	And this is Lab Bible having a few of them.
	So they say here sex workers are...
	Oh, if we scroll back up to the deadline.
	Sex workers are devastated over OnlyFans' plan to ban sexually explicit videos.
	You could just go on Pornhub or become a cam girl or any other sex work out there.
	Because remember, all of that is also real work.
	And that's free.
	It's not as profitable.
	They say in here, some of the hoes complaining, OnlyFans banning sex workers creates a space for another digital company.
	I hope another company will learn from the mistakes of Tumblr and OnlyFans and develop a safe and secure space for sex workers.
	I don't think there is a safe and secure space for sex workers full stop.
	No.
	I mean, as much as I'm not a, you know, let's say social conservative with regards to porn, like there are a lot of people who want to ban porn, you know, make it so you have to get a wanking license from the corner shop when you pay the five quid and then he gives you a code.
	But you've got to give him his ID first, of course, as well.
	Do you remember Theresa May actually proposed that?
	Yeah, yeah.
	I remember.
	It was a real thing Britain was going to do.
	So the idea that there is a safe space for it, I don't think, no.
	Not really.
	I mean, even Pornhub ran into this problem.
	Remember, I don't know if you know, they had to delete pretty much all of their content on Pornhub and all that was left was the verified accounts because people were just uploading child stuff or rape or any other kind of stuff you'd expect disgusting people to do.
	And they weren't checking it.
	They weren't doing a good enough job and got in a big problem there and then had to just destroy everything because they were like, right, that's one solution.
	Delete half the stuff on the site.
	So the idea that can be a safe space for adult content, I'm not sure.
	But if there is going to be a replacement to OnlyFans, like a company that's going to step in, I'd be really surprised if the guys who run Pornhub haven't set one up.
	I mean, there's a lot of profit on the table there for them.
	It's not like it's a problem for them morally, so go for it, I guess.
	Good money.
	I don't know if you can invest in Pornhub, but it's an idea.
	So there's someone else who says sexual censorship and suppression won't keep people safe, and they never have.
	Forcing sex workers off OnlyFans will only mean that they find another riskier way of paying their bills.
	You could just get a job, pay your bills that way, instead of also working in sex.
	I mean, it's not like if you're a woman, you're tied to the sex industry.
	There's nothing else you can do with your life.
	We've had women's liberation.
	You can go work somewhere else now.
	Don't worry.
	But the idea also that it's sexual suppression or sexual censorship?
	I don't know.
	I mean, do you really think the banks are, like, tradcons?
	You know, traditional conservatives?
	They're like, we're not dealing with you.
	This isn't very moral.
	It's not very virtuous of you.
	OnlyFans.
	It's crazy because this individual is saying that the only way some women can make money is by doing this.
	They can't actually choose from the other millions and millions of jobs available.
	This is it.
	So that's whores of yore there.
	Verify checkmark.
	The only thing women are good for is sex.
	So says whores of yore.
	How is that verified?
	The official whores of yore.
	Oh, boy.
	There's another one here, which, of course, there's the attempts at intersectional complaining, as if this is going to save them from it.
	So, only fans banning sexually explicit content is throwing sex workers that made your platform successful to the curb.
	Exploitation of, primarily, women and minority-driven content for public funding are under the guise of purity.
	This sucks.
	Sex work is real work.
	Yeah, progressive attacks are not going to work here.
	Don't you know that most of the thoughts are minorities, and therefore this is a racist policy you're instituting?
	Yeah, not going to work.
	If you go to her account, she has she, her in the bio, so we can just disregard her opinion.
	Disregard, yes, please.
	Move on, move on.
	But also the idea that there's exploitation.
	Exploitation of who?
	The women willfully signed up.
	It was their choice.
	They made tons of money out of it.
	Sure, they may have ruined their dating prospects for the rest of their lives, but that's not my problem.
	But also, now it's exploitation when they're banned.
	So presumably, the moment they were banned, it became exploitation of them.
	Whatever.
	Socialist thinking.
	Doesn't make any sense.
	So they say on here as well that there are more than 2 million creators on OnlyFans who have collectively raked in more than 5 billion US dollars since the site was launched.
	I mean, that's the level of profit we're looking at here.
	Yeah.
	I mean, as a fellow capitalist, I have to respect the profit, but not sure about how it was made.
	Respect the profit, sorry.
	I can't respect the whores, so what are you going to do?
	But yeah, I think a lot of people are just kind of glad that this highly effective means of making profit for people, though, is dying.
	Because I remember watching a JREG video about this.
	JREG's a YouTuber who likes to be very ironic about everything.
	But he did a video where he was just completely non-ironic about OnlyFans.
	It was like, well, I feel like people hate it in large part because the fact that a woman can just sign up and make loads of money and that's it.
	That's what she is now.
	She's just essentially an internet whore.
	That's not good for society.
	It's not good for her.
	It's not good for the people paying the money.
	We can all be truthful about that.
	It's not really good for the people involved.
	Do I want to ban it?
	No, as a liberal, but at the same time, eh, it's not good for anyone long term.
	So, not exactly going to be missed.
	I'm sure Pornhub or someone will step in and make their own version, because it's technology, you can't really keep it down.
	But anyway, that's OnlyFans, banning the thoughts.
	OnlyFans on Thought Patrol.
	So, moving on to something completely different, onto the Gurkhas.
	Okay.
	This is about the Gurkha's betrayal.
	And this is something I knew very little about and only came to my attention through this petition and also the demonstration outside Parliament demanding equality in regarding pensions.
	So this is the e-petition that has been launched and has just passed 100,000.
	I think I only come on to talk about e-petitions, but anyway...
	Next one.
	For people who don't know who the Gurkhas are, because there's quite a lot of foreigners who watch this as well, the Gurkhas are the fighters from Nepal.
	I think we made them a protectorate under the Empire, and we made them a protectorate because they beat us, I think, in a war.
	And then they're just really, really good fighters, and therefore they get their own little divisions, and we've kept two of them with us.
	I don't know if they're divisions or brigades or whatever, but...
	And they fought for Britain for 200 years or whatever.
	Yeah, and they are the most highly respected group in the British Army, probably.
	I mean, even like the Grenadier Guards or whatever, you know, even our own troops, we obviously respect, but then the Gurkhas are on another level.
	Exactly.
	Crazy good fighters.
	So this petition was, and we'll go into a little bit about why this has had to be done, and we'll touch on kind of who the Gurkhas are and their history, because you're right, non-British viewers may have no idea, but you don't mess with the Gurkha.
	So this petition just passed 100,000.
	We demand that the Gurkhas receive equal pensions.
	We are demanding that the government treats Gurkhas fairly and pays them the same pension as other British veterans of the same rank and service.
	Many Gurkhas joined the Queen's Gurkha army, believing their pension would sustain them and their families.
	But sadly, this has not been the case.
	This will now be debated in Parliament because it's just gone over the 100,000.
	As you said, the Gurkhas are from Nepal.
	Just two quotes from the Gurkhas.
	One of their mottos is, That should be one of the British Army, but it's one of the Gurkhas, the Nepalese Gurkha soldiers' mottos.
	Can you imagine what the Gurkhas make of the situation in Kabul?
	Better to die.
	Well, we'll go into why they are the ones that should be there sorting it out, because they would sort it out much quicker than 20 years.
	Another quote is from the former Chief of Staff of the Indian Army, Field Marshal Sam Minakshaw.
	He says, if a man says he is not afraid of dying, he is either lying or he is a Gurkha.
	That's lovely.
	So just no fear.
	But just to let our viewers know a bit who the Gurkhas are.
	So the next one is from the British Gurkha Welfare Society.
	This is one of a number of groups in the UK. This is the largest welfare organisation run by Gurkhas for Gurkhas in the UK and Nepal.
	It was founded in 2004 and is catered for the needs of many ex-servicemen and their families returning to the UK. And their remit is to seek equality of treatment for the Gurkhas.
	And since they were founded, they've led a determined campaign for the Gurkha veterans who retired before 1997, this is the whole issue, to receive pensions equal to the British and Commonwealth soldiers they fought alongside.
	And this has gone back more than 30 years to get equality.
	And I think you probably remember Joanna Lumley.
	She was in the news a number of years ago and she had got equality.
	So Gurkhas were allowed to get British citizenship.
	So any Gurkha that retired before 1997 and had served for at least four years in the army, they then received the right of settlement in the UK because up to then they hadn't.
	So that was probably the first time.
	That might have been back 2009, actually.
	I think it was the first time that inequality was shown to the British public, who probably have no idea about the Gurkhas.
	A little bit about the history, so since 1815, so just a little bit of a history lesson before we get on to the stories of how fantastic the Gurkhas are, and it touches on Afghanistan.
	So, since 1815, Gurkhas have fought in every war involving Britain, yet they are still fighting for equal rights.
	For the first quarter of the 19th century, Gurkhas from Nepal had served under the British, first in the armies of the East India Company and then the British Indian Army.
	Their terms and conditions of service for the Gurkhas were solely a matter for the British Indian authorities, without any reference to the British government in London, which was why this inequality came around.
	And then in 1947, when India became independent from the UK, it was decided between the two governments to split the Gurkha Regiments between Britain and India, the British armies and Indian armies.
	So six Gurkha units became part of the new Indian army, while four were the British army.
	Now, just to show how they've fought, here we have, again from the British Gurkha Welfare Society, First World War.
	After the outbreak of the First World War, the whole of the Nepalese army was placed at the disposal of the British Crown.
	So over 16,000 Nepalese troops were subsequently deployed in operations on the northwest frontier and garrison battalions in India.
	Then in the Second World War, there were no fewer than 40 Gurkha battalions in British service, as well as parachute, garrison and training units.
	In all, this total sum was 112,000 men who fought side by side with British and Commonwealth troops.
	Then we go into Borneo, and then we scroll down...
	So between 1967 and 1972, as a result of changing defence commitments and the reorganisation of the armed forces, the strength of the brigade of Gurkhas was reduced from 14,000 to 8,000.
	And then in 1974, the battalion based in England was deployed to Cyprus to reinforce the army there whenever, I think, Turkey attacked.
	And then it goes on to many different issues involving the Falklands.
	You know, everything we've ever done.
	Everything.
	Yep.
	They've been with us through everything.
	And then earlier on in Kosovo, East Timor, all over in Afghanistan.
	So they've been with us.
	And in the two world wars, this is the...
	It's a frightening statistic, it's a huge statistic, and shows the failure of our government to actually treat those who have fought for our safety, our independence, our freedom.
	So in the two World Wars, the Gurkha Brigade suffered 43,000 casualties, and yet they can't even give them a fair pension.
	They've fought side by side, they've given their lives, and yet they don't get.
	So if you look at 100, 1200, so that is around 1 in 4, 1 in 5, I think, actually give their lives to defend Britain and the British Empire, the Commonwealth.
	If only we had more Gurkhas in the British Army.
	There's also the cultural aspects of this.
	The Gurkhas love Britain.
	They're very much patriotic in a sense of being like, yeah, that's cool, that's the right way to do it.
	They're not Pakistan.
	They actually are our greatest allies in the region.
	And they're not actually, it's a strange situation because my understanding is, and I'm happy for someone to correct me because this is not something I understood before this issue came up, but Nepal is not British.
	It's not a British overseas territory, I don't think.
	No, because they were only a protector.
	Exactly.
	But you've got these strong links, even though there is not that official covering or link with Britain, and yet they will give their lives for fighting for our freedoms.
	Now, let's go on to some of the stories that have happened, and this shows you what the Gurkhas are like.
	The first one is about the Gurkha who beheaded Taliban soldier in Afghanistan.
	This is 2011.
	The two stories are 2011.
	This is amazing.
	So, a Gurkha soldier who beheaded a Taliban gunman and carried his head back to base in a bag has been cleared to resume his duties.
	I love this image they've got there as well.
	But the private from the 1st Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifles was involved in a fierce firefight with insurgents in the Babaji area of central Helmand province when the incident took place in July 2011.
	The Nepalese soldier, who's in his early 20s, apparently made the decision to remove the head in a misunderstanding over the need for DNA evidence of the kill.
	So he scrolled on.
	So the guys in charge are like, you need to bring DNA evidence that you've killed these guys.
	Right, I'll bring the head.
	So his unit has been told that they were seeking a high-value target, a Taliban commander, and that they must prove they had killed the right man.
	The Gurkhas had intended to remove the Taliban leader's body from the battlefield for identification purposes.
	So scroll down.
	However, army sources revealed at the time that he had told investigators he had unsheathed his kukri, the symbolic weapon of the Gurkhas, after running out of ammunition, and he took his head off, put it in a bag, and brought it back.
	What other proof do you need?
	Yeah, I mean, it works.
	Is this the guy you're looking for?
	Don't worry, I've got him.
	The rest of him, don't need to see him.
	I can imagine the other non-Nepalese, the British soldiers, thinking, how do we do identification?
	Maybe we take his fingerprints or something, or take a tooth out, whack, off with the head.
	I mean, that works, though.
	I mean, it's the ancient method as well.
	You want to prove that you've killed Pompey, you bring Pompey's head out.
	It's like, well, there you are.
	And you hold it up to all the other ones attacking you and they run.
	Perfect.
	But this is on the side here is the Kukri, the regiment's pride symbol of valor.
	And this is actually quite interesting.
	Yeah, they're cool knives.
	The iconic Kukri knife used, apologies if that's not a correct pronunciation, used by the Gurkhas can be a weapon or a tool.
	It is the traditional utility knife of the Nepalese people, but it is mainly used as a symbolic weapon for Gurkha regiments all over the world.
	This is the weird thing.
	The Gugra signifies courage and valour on the battlefield and is sometimes worn by bridegrooms during their wedding ceremony.
	What?
	The heavy blade infects deep wounds cutting the muscle, a bone in the stroke.
	It can also be used in stealth operations to slash an enemy's throat, killing him silently.
	Why do you bring that to your wedding ceremony?
	Hang on, does the bride get it or does the groom get it?
	I'm not sure.
	It could be for the mother-in-law.
	Buy bridegrooms?
	Do both of them have one?
	I don't know.
	This is how we seal our relationship, by buying their love.
	Don't worry, you could kill anyone who comes in the house with it.
	So, yeah, part of the culture and also part of as they go into battle.
	The second story Great story.
	Gurkha Hiro defeats 30 Taliban fighters.
	We'll not play it because the accent is quite strong, but if we scroll down, I'll just read.
	That's quite short.
	A lone Gurkha fought off an attack by 30 Taliban fanatics with just a chunk of metal and a sandbag after running out of ammunition.
	Sergeant Das Pridpun, 31, facing a surprise attack at an Afghan checkpoint, used superhuman strength to hoist a 50-pound machine gun off its mount to blast the enemy.
	When they kept coming, he launched 17 grenades and picked up an SA-80 assault rifle only for it to jam.
	Then he threw the machine gun's metal tripod at his attackers before fending them off with a sandbag while yelling ineptly, I will kill you.
	With nothing left to hand, the exhausted hero finally managed to fire off a claymore mine and the blast sent the enemy scattering.
	Yesterday, for his courage, he received the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross, a special ceremony.
	This is what you want on your troops.
	Yeah, these guys are absolute mad lads.
	I mean, there are endless stories like this as well.
	It's not just a one-off.
	There's a great one from the Falklands I remember hearing where these guys went down and they took some Gurkhas with them.
	The Gurkhas just ran over and just butchered the Argentinians.
	And he's just like, no, no, stop, stop, stop.
	We're going to kill them all like this.
	And they just kept going and just killed them all.
	They're like, well, it's done.
	He can't shoot us anymore, can he?
	And we look at what's happening in Afghanistan now, and all you need is a couple of units of Gurkhas.
	Yeah.
	And they'll take off their heads.
	Here you go.
	I mean, this is the thing.
	You've got the Afghan National Army.
	It was 300,000 strong.
	You put in 1,000 Gurkhas, they'll deal with the same amount of Taliban.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I was thinking, actually, you could use heads as a way to get in with those 20,000 people they're going to take in.
	How many heads have you got?
	The more heads, the higher up the queue you go.
	How many Taliban have you killed?
	And we want you to prove it.
	How are you going to prove it?
	The Gurkha way.
	You've only got five.
	You need six to get in.
	So, moving on to the current issue, and currently Gurkhas receive a pension of £2,150 per year, with the many that relocate to the UK being reliant on pension tax credits and state benefits.
	And this is what's been happening over the summer.
	This is a story they've been demonstrating outside, demanding equality in their pensions.
	And here we have the Gurkhas protesting for pension equality opposite Downing Street, have gazebo dismantled by the Metropolitan Police.
	So you've got, I think there are three Gherkas, one of them who's on day four of his hunger strike, tells Kay Burley, Sky News, the incident happened on Tuesday morning and officers told him it was against the bylaws, but he says he will remain in position, adding we wanted to carry on, we don't want to give up.
	You have the police, British police, going and harassing these Gurkhas who just want equality.
	Equal treatment.
	Yeah.
	It shows how awful our police can sometimes be in overstep.
	Oh, I mean, a gazebo?
	Are you really that worried about a gazebo?
	Yeah.
	Well, I mean, it is a Gurkha in there.
	I would be worried.
	That's true.
	Don't go there.
	So the next story is the Gurkha group ends Downing Street hunger strike after talks agreed.
	This has just happened in the last day.
	And we'll compare this and then another article.
	So Gurkha have been told they will now have a meeting with an MP. So a hunger strike outside Downey Street against Gurkha's unequal pensions has ended after the government agreed to further talks.
	A group have refused food for 13 days has a call for parity with other British Army veterans.
	Ministry of Defence officials will meet the Napoleon ambassador and the group next month.
	So it's wonderful.
	I don't know how it's got to this stage that you have to see those who have fought for your country starve themselves close to death until you actually respond.
	But that's what it took.
	Incredibly bad optics.
	Yep.
	The worst possible situation.
	The idea that you wouldn't talk to people and be like, yeah, fair enough.
	I mean, you mentioned the 20,000 refugees we're going to take from Afghanistan.
	God knows how we're going to screen them.
	And then you look at the Gurkhas and you're like, I take 20,000 of them like that.
	I mean, just great people.
	Absolutely fantastic.
	Now, Ant, it's interesting how the BBC covered the story lamely, pathetically, and quite late in the day.
	They weren't there at the beginning.
	And here we have one from the South China Morning Post.
	This is weird.
	This is Chinese media.
	Well, the headline was just what struck me, the comparison to the BBC. The BBC was Gurkha Group ends Darning Street hunger strike.
	The South China Morning Post has Gurkhas fought and died for Britain.
	They should not have to beg for their pensions.
	So if we bring that up and go up to the top, they just show the headline.
	I don't think it's coming up.
	Okay.
	So if we scroll down, and here we have, after Britain's Minister of Offence failed to address their long-term grievances, again, it doesn't talk about any failures in the BBC, then please sort to victim.
	The BBC did cover that.
	Gurkhas have been fighting for equality for the past 30 years.
	Despite being renowned for their bravery and impeccable solidarity, the Gurkhas have been mistreated and taken for granted by both British and Nepalese governments.
	Again, you don't get any of this information from the BBC. Despite not being a member of the Allied forces, Nepal sent more than 200,000 Gurkhas to World War I, fighting throughout Europe.
	You don't get any of this information in the BBC. It's just an interesting comparison.
	Why do you have to go to Chinese media to actually get the truth on the Gurkhas?
	And then scrolling down on that...
	Yeah, so I've mentioned that.
	Since 1815 they've been fighting.
	And then further down, the main problem arises from the treaty signed by Britain.
	We talked about that and it gave unfair treatment to the Gurkhas.
	So that is the situation.
	Hopefully they're going to get it.
	Yeah.
	I mean, they're having the talks.
	I can't imagine the Conservatives are going to turn around and be like, no.
	I mean, what an awful thing to do.
	Yeah.
	But further on, I'll say, so instead of integrating the Gurkhas into the British army, so instead of putting them together and making it fairly, a separate system was created to manage Gurkhas' pay and pensions.
	This system remains subject to the Indian pay code even years after the Gurkhas left India.
	Sure, the fault for Britain, it should be under UK law, British law, British employment.
	Yeah.
	As a result, the Gurkhas never received the same payer pension as their peers in the British Army.
	The main motive, again the BBC would never mention this, the main motive was to pay the Gurkhas as little as possible and the British have succeeded until now.
	After World War I and World War II, many Gurkhas returned home injured, crippled and mentally broken with meagre pocket money and were left to fend for themselves.
	The Gurkhas also faced major rundowns in 1967 to 1994 and most were sent home without adequate pay or pensions.
	Many took jobs in risky places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and other Gulf nations to earn a living.
	And again, we give them 2,000 quid a year as a pension.
	You can't live in 2,000 quid a year.
	That's what, 200 pounds a month, 180 quid a month.
	It's pathetic how we reward them and thank them for their service.
	They are absolutely nuts.
	I mean, you mentioned some stories there.
	I was going to tell you one.
	I told you one earlier, which is I was walking around in Canterbury, and I walked in some shop, and the shop by the way turned out to be a Gurkha.
	And he started telling me all about it, and he gave me this one story that I just thought was really funny about the mindset, the work mindset as well.
	Like, he was in Afghanistan with his mates, and there are two different PBs across this mountainous region.
	And they're calling each other, just like, right, you okay?
	Everything fine?
	Yeah, yeah, we're doing all right here.
	No shots, no Taliban.
	A bit thirsty, but other than that, you know, what can you do?
	Ha ha.
	And he hangs up.
	And then like an hour later, the mate from the other PB just like walks down.
	He's like walking down like...
	He's got this massive thing of Coke cans on his head.
	And he just drops it.
	And he's like, well, you said you were thirsty.
	You do what's needed to be done.
	I heard my lad was thirsty, so I got him some Coke.
	Such good guys.
	But reading this thing, it's time for the UK government really to come to their senses and Gurkhas have sacrificed so much for this country and they still have to beg for equality.
	I just wanted to leave our viewers with a couple of facts about the Gurkhas, the final one, which is the Gurkha Welfare Trust.
	If we scroll down, we can find 10 facts about the Gurkhas, 10 quick facts.
	Here we have the Gurkhas have served with loyalty and distinction for over 200 years.
	Their bicentenary year was 2015.
	British officials in the 19th century declared the Gurkhas a martial race, a term describing people thought to be naturally war-like and aggressive in battle.
	Actually, the Brits defied them, the martial and non-martial, those who were fit for battle and would fight with bravery and those who were kind of sedentary and wouldn't really.
	And these are the ones who will fight to the end.
	What's interesting there for Americans, I know race historically has always been used to be white-black.
	You can even get speeches of Churchill talking about the British race.
	It means ethnic group, essentially, in modern parlance.
	But the idea that the Gurkhas aren't a martial ethnic group, they certainly are, because they're out-competing everyone else in that regard.
	Point three, rifleman Kilbert Tapa, Victoria Cross, the first Nepali recipient of the Victoria Cross, had never even been under fire until the battle where he won it.
	First time, performed with flying colours.
	Wow!
	Like, recruit.
	Number four, Gurkhas are famed for carrying the knife, the cookery, the national weapon.
	The legend goes that whenever a Gurkha draws his cookery in anger, he must also draw blood, which is why the head came off.
	I love the idea that his knife popped out.
	Gotta use it!
	Oops!
	There was a miscommunication about DNA, I swear.
	Number five, the Gurkha selection process has been described as one of the toughest in the world.
	It culminates in the grueling Doku race, which involves carrying 25 kilos of sand while running a steep 4.2 kilometre course.
	And then six, measuring less than five foot, hero Gurkha rifleman, lynchman Gurung would have failed today's army selection criteria.
	I'm sure it would kick most of their ass.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Number seven.
	Soldiers in today's Brigade of Gurkhas each donate one day's pay every year in part to support their forebears, the older veterans in Nepal.
	That's quite a good idea.
	And to give one day's pay as British Army to help those who are veterans.
	Number eight, during the World Wars, stealthy Gurkha soldiers would sneak up in dugouts in the dead of night and feel unsuspecting inhabitants' boots to find if they were friend or foe, because Axis and Allies had different ways of tying their laces.
	Don't need even to see, they just touched the laces, enemy!
	Number 9.
	In 2015, a devastating earthquake struck Nepal, destroying the homes of many ex-Gurkhas, and the Queen's Gurkha engineers deployed to help with rebuilding efforts in an exercise known as Op Maramat.
	And number 10.
	Captain Rembehir Nimby.
	Is the last surviving Gorkovici holder, having earned his medal in Borneo in 1965.
	His citation claims his actions that day reached a zenith of determined, premeditated valour, which must count amongst the most notable on record.
	So those are the Gurkhas.
	The e-petition is there to sign.
	It's just gone over $100,000.
	We should have a debate soon in Parliament and I think the British government will be forced to accept that they need equality parity with soldiers from the British Army and they will get a fair pension treatment.
	That was our lovely thing.
	I love talking about the Gokas because they're absolutely amazing.
	I love that we should do a segment of just stories as well.
	Stories.
	So something else that I think is quite funny and I think we'll enjoy is the Taliban have nothing to do with Islam.
	So says Western Muslims.
	Because, of course, can't have this sort of thing.
	Of course, it's a very specific kind of Western Muslim.
	It's not Muslims living in the West, but instead, Westernized Muslims is an intersectional Muslim type.
	So, this is the story from The Independent, the author here.
	As a Muslim feminist, I know what Sharia really means and what the Taliban...
	And it's not what the Taliban thinks.
	Yeah, I bet you really know what Sharia means.
	So she says in here, Sharia is one of those words that's triggering for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
	But it's important to consider what this set of laws actually entails.
	At a press conference on Tuesday in Kabul, a Taliban spokesman promised that women in the new Islamic Emirate...
	She put Islamic Emirate in quotes as if it's not...
	Damn all the players of the Independent.
	Anyway, so they said that the women would not be discriminated against because they'd be living under Sharia.
	So they would be discriminated against, but not technically under Sharia because Sharia is just the law.
	So presumably the Taliban spokesman also making the speech was the spokesman for women.
	I mean, very literal as well, I imagine.
	Literally.
	The spokesman for women because the woman in government is not there.
	So...
	But it's interesting Sharia because although Sharia is open to interpretation, it's written down as defined as a mixture of the Quran, of the Sunnah, which are the ways of Muhammad, what he did, and the Hadith, which are his sayings.
	And those three of them, along with scholars, they all come together and you get the law.
	So it's written down.
	You can't just come, I'm a feminist, I'm going to define Sharia law as I want it.
	You can't.
	Oh, she's gonna try.
	So, the last word is triggering for Muslim women worldwide, but particularly in Afghanistan, where the liberties that they've enjoyed over the past two decades will likely be revoked by the extremist groups' rigid and restrictive readings of Sharia.
	But it doesn't have to be this way.
	Right, so the word Sharia directly into English translates as canon, because as you say, it's the summation of Islamic canon, and the ways you should live your life, and it's the religious laws, that's why it gets translated also as Islamic law, because that is what it is.
	Because it is instructed by Allah himself.
	And therefore, unchangeable.
	Because it's the word of God.
	Anyway.
	But this woman and Stella Creasy think differently.
	Nah, this bin's got bigger ideas.
	So, Sharia is one of those elusive terms that many think connotes some sort of Islamic law set in stone.
	Yeah, yeah, most people, most Muslims think that as well, and most Muslim countries, or the jurisprudence schools and all the rest of it.
	However, most Muslims cannot confidently describe or define it.
	So what?
	I mean, Islamic law would work.
	That's a confident definition of it.
	So, I remember first hearing the word as an American teen during the aftermath of 9-11 attacks, when images of burqa-clad women and armed terrorists dominated the mainstream media, inciting support for the eventual invasion of Afghanistan.
	I couldn't reconcile these images with the Islam I was raised with.
	Probably because you're living in America.
	I would have thought that would have been a hint.
	I don't live in Afghanistan.
	Funny that.
	And was so oblivious that what Sharia actually entailed.
	Questions about my faith and its compatibility with feminism led me to pursue my master's degree in Islamic law at the University of SOAS in London.
	Well, that shows where she's gone wrong.
	She went to Suez.
	She was so liberal.
	You know, feminism and Islamism don't go together.
	She couldn't accept that reality.
	Instead, it was like, yeah, but what if I academicize it?
	What if I make it super academic?
	I'd like to say, this is Islamic feminism.
	So, almost a decade later, I'm still unlearning the patriarchal views on women's roles and rights in Islam.
	Because you're getting further and further away from the book, let's say.
	So, I also find, I love that her argument is essentially, I went to a Western university to learn about Islam and how Islam is actually progressive.
	Unlike every other Muslim state, they all have it wrong.
	Unlike me, who's got this big-brained version of Islam.
	But, okay.
	Okay.
	So upon studying fitka, or Islamic jurisprudence, I learnt that sharia, which means path, in fact refers to human interpretation of divine sources.
	It is not in itself divine or immutable, but rather so continuously open to revision, according to numerous religious scholars.
	So she's going to rewrite the Quran.
	Wow.
	Open to revision.
	Open to revision.
	Wow.
	We're just going to rewrite the Islamic text.
	See where that gets you.
	Go to a Muslim country and try that, because in London you're safe to spout such obvious nonsense, but go somewhere else and it's not going to end well, is it?
	So, it is also not mutually exclusive with women's rights.
	How could it be, when Islam is a faith that granted women unprecedented rights historically, such as consent before marriage, the ability to divorce, financial independence, and property inheritance?
	The amount of property inheritance she doesn't mention because of course...
	It doesn't fit her narrative.
	So consent, I mean, an ability to divorce.
	A man divorces a woman in his land by saying, I divorce you three times and she's divorced.
	She doesn't get any ability or choice or she can't refuse it.
	She's divorced.
	She can get a text message, I divorce you three times, that's it.
	I love the idea that she's like, well, Islam was progressive in the Middle Ages, therefore it's progressive now.
	It's like, that doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
	The world just needs to move on from the progress.
	So historically, however, many ruling regimes and religious groups in the Muslim world have manipulated Sharia to serve an extremist patriarchal agenda.
	Yes, the Muslims of the world in the Muslim countries, run by Muslim scholars.
	They're the ones who have totally just misread the Muslim texts.
	Right.
	In Iran, versions of Sharia implemented after the 1979 Islamic Revolution lowered the marriageable age of girls from 18 to 13.
	Barred them from many universities and enforced hijabs.
	Shortly afterwards in Pakistan, the nation's new Sharia-inspired penal code required victims of rape to present four male witnesses or risk being convicted of adultery themselves.
	Why four?
	It's very specific, isn't it?
	It is.
	They just chose four.
	I mean, like she's saying, they're not reading anything from the text.
	They're just making this up.
	They couldn't have possibly found somewhere in the text where it says you need four witnesses, and then that's how they do the Sharia law.
	Sharia.
	Sharia.
	That's how it is, but also on the marriage.
	I mean, talking about reducing the age from 18 to 13, well, in Islamic history, it's six, so...
	Six for marriage, nine for consent.
	Yeah.
	So what she can...
	13's quite good.
	Very progressive.
	It is.
	She's quite right.
	They're moving with the times.
	Added six years to it or whatever.
	Jesus Christ.
	But just, again, she's like, yeah, well, all the Muslim countries are wrong.
	Not me.
	Everyone's wrong but me.
	Also, I love...
	What was it there?
	You know, John made this argument when he was on the other day that if you make a poll of what is it, you have the percentage of Muslim population along one axis and human rights on another axis.
	You know, how's it going to look?
	And then, well, if all the Muslim population and countries of the world don't represent Islam, I don't know what is.
	She is literally saying all of the Muslim countries and populations of the world don't represent Islam.
	Only my progressive version of it.
	She says, such rulings are in complete contradiction with the egalitarian version that the Prophet Muhammad first set in notion.
	I mean, the man raped children for a living, so...
	Supposedly.
	Allegedly.
	Factually.
	Many believe that when he introduced regulations to the first Muslim community in the 7th century Arabia, they were, for that particular socio-historical context, neither normative nor forever binding...
	And that the reforms enhancing the positions of women during the time of Revelation were intended to continue on a course of progressive improvement.
	I said, you what?
	She's saying that God's word, when revealed when Muhammad was about, was not meant to be taken as the be-all and end-all.
	That was just for the time.
	And then, from here on out, we're meant to progress with it and just ignore God's word.
	This is the Quran which is in a golden tablet in paradise that can never be changed or altered.
	Suddenly, she's tweaking it.
	She's like, I love it.
	But in the 10th century, Orthodox Islamic jurisprudence became fossilized, with future fundamentalist Muslims perceiving centuries-old Sharia to be forever authoritative.
	It's the word of God, woman.
	The little lady knows better than God as to what God wants people to live as.
	I can't get over it.
	Sharia is clearly a very complex and misconstrued term with various meanings for various Muslims.
	It all comes down to how you view the sources of Islamic law.
	Yeah, I suppose her version is just don't.
	Yeah, ignore it.
	So she says you can view them as eternally binding commandments or as rulings for a specific point in time from which we can extract guidelines and principles.
	Much of Muslim resistance to reform stems from the misconception that Sharia is inherently sacred.
	It is a religion.
	I don't know what else you want the Word of God to be except sacred.
	But okay.
	But Sharia can evolve with Islamic societies to address the needs of today, claims LA headquarters Muslims for Progressive Values.
	There we have it.
	There we have it.
	Muslims for Progressive Values.
	So if you try progressing all the things, just denounce the Word of God and instead just be like, yeah, we'll just make it up as we go.
	But really, in the end, you just come up with all these different religions.
	This is Islam according to Muslims for progressive values, Islam according to Taliban, Islam.
	And you've got different...
	You've just created a new religion.
	Yes.
	But I also love the idea that this is essentially the Democrats of Islam.
	And these are the pathetic people.
	They were trot out in front of the mainstream to tell you that Taliban have nothing to do with Islam.
	My version of Islam has nothing to do with this.
	What is it?
	Well, it's got nothing to do with the word of God or Mohammed or the way he left his life or anything he wrote.
	But it's totally Islam, I swear.
	Good God.
	Reading Ed Hussein's book and he talks about going to mosques and them running sex clinics for LGBT people.
	What has that got to do with the Quran?
	Nothing!
	What did he have to say about the people of Lot?
	She's literally the Democrats who will turn around to the Constitution and say, you know what you should do with the Constitution?
	burn it all and just ignore everything the founding fathers wrote because that was for 1776.
	She's doing the same thing.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Except for the word of God and not some liberal philosophers.
	So I thought we'd compare that version of Islam to what the Taliban have been up to.
	Because they've been posting Wojak memes.
	I'm not kidding.
	So they're still on Twitter, which is the best thing ever, and I really hope they get their cunts back on Facebook and YouTube because god god it'll be funny.
	And you can see here, this is a member of the Taliban posting a Wojak meme.
	The Wojak is complaining: "Your culture is racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-semitic, and a threat to our liberal democratic society." You literally treat women like property.
	And then Chad Yes from the Taliban.
	With his three wives behind him, we finished making dinner, Habibi.
	I can't get over there.
	They're literally like the Eastern 4chan.
	That's what the jihadists were the whole time.
	They're just the people who like making...
	Well, they don't just like making memes, do they?
	They're actually enacting the memes, let's say.
	Oh, boy.
	So these guys are also the champions of women's rights, as you can see by that meme.
	That's why we've been made champions of women's rights at the UN. That's a crazy story.
	Let's go to the next link.
	Should we get this?
	The Taliban is poised to inherit the United Nations role overseeing the Women's Rights Commission.
	The guys who post stuff like that, yeah, they're taking over women's rights at the UN. The next one's been confirmed.
	So this is actually going to happen.
	Taliban-run Afghanistan has just won election to the UN's highest women's rights body.
	The UN voted in to do it.
	They did, because they got voted in last year.
	China didn't get in, but Afghanistan did get in, because they represent women's rights.
	I just...
	The Taliban are going to send someone to this.
	They're going to go sit at the conference with the big chair, the chairman's chair, and then some women turn up around them and they're just like, what are these whores doing here?
	That's going to be the room to talk about women's rights.
	You need to leave your rocket launcher outside.
	So they've also been doing some other stuff.
	So if we go to the next one, apparently they're implementing Sharia by banning drugs, including all the opium, because they don't want to be involved with this.
	Until they just display it as a cat again and get all the money.
	Let's move on from this.
	So let's go to the West to see all the best updates on all of this is, because this story just never seems to end and I can't take my eyes off it because it's like a train wreck.
	Particularly Biden.
	So Biden gave an interview, finally.
	Took some questions in a prearranged interview.
	And he said that no one told him to keep the troops there.
	So let's play this first clip.
	But your top military advisors warned against withdrawing on this timeline.
	They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops.
	No, they didn't.
	It was split.
	That wasn't true.
	That wasn't true.
	They didn't tell you that they wanted troops to stay?
	No, not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a time frame all troops.
	They didn't argue against that.
	So no one told your military advisors to not tell you, no, we should just keep 2,500 troops.
	It's been a stable situation for the last several years.
	We can do that.
	We can continue to do that.
	No, no one said that to me that I can recall.
	Look, George, the reason why it's been stable for a year is because the last president said we're leaving.
	And here's the deal I want to make with you, Taliban.
	We're agreeing to leave if you agree not to attack us between now and the time we leave on May the 1st.
	I mean, I love that.
	He's actually giving Trump the credit that he's due of being the one who ended the war, not Biden.
	And the cock-up in all of this being Biden changing the date and, well, therefore messing up the deal that they had to get up by May.
	So I love how he just says that.
	Like, the only reason it was secure as well is because of Trump's deal.
	Otherwise, it would have still been an S show, in his words.
	Which Biden then broke by changing the date to September 11th for the trial.
	So, again, I mean, just digging his own grave.
	But also, it sounds like a pretty good argument about why staying with significant numbers would be a bad plan.
	Because, of course, well, we didn't really have...
	The troops there weren't keeping the stability for Gordon-Biden.
	It was the deal itself.
	But then, at the very beginning, were you told, were you not advised?
	No.
	And then he asked again, well, as far as I can recall, he can't recall anything, so he's just forgotten.
	I find it suspicious that the brass wouldn't be telling him to keep troops there, because it's something that's all been saying for ages, except sensible ones.
	But of course, he also wants to blame Trump for making the U.S. leave, but at the same time take the credit for the U.S. leaving, and then avoid all responsibility for the changing of the date.
	So it's a weird situation for him to be in, because he's the one that caused the chaos, not Trump.
	Let's play his second clip, where he has nothing to stand on.
	All of a sudden, I have a May 1 deadline.
	I have a May 1 deadline.
	I got one of two choices.
	Do I say we're staying?
	And do you think we would not have to put a hell of a lot more troops?
	We had tens of thousands of troops there before.
	Tens of thousands.
	Do you think we would have just said no problem?
	Don't worry about it.
	We're not gonna attack anybody.
	We're okay.
	In the meantime, the Taliban was taking territory all throughout the country in the north and down in the south in the Pashtun area.
	So would you have withdrawn troops like this even if President Trump had not made that deal with the Taliban?
	I would have tried to figure out how to withdraw those troops, yes.
	Because look, George, there is no good time To leave Afghanistan.
	15 years ago would have been a problem.
	15 years from now.
	The basic choice is, am I going to send your sons and your daughters to war in Afghanistan?
	In Afghanistan in perpetuity?
	I mean, good point, but you can see him there struggling, where he's like, yeah, this whole thing is Trump's fault because of the May 1 deadline.
	Yeah, but if there wasn't a May 1 deadline, Biden, what have you done?
	I'd still pulled out.
	Okay, then.
	Okay, we've all agreed that pulling out was the right thing to do, and Trump's got the glory for that, because he's the one who organized it, not you.
	And therefore, the only thing you've got is the responsibility for the extraction, and you cocked that up by changing the date to September 11th, for no other reason than political capitalism.
	But he also says, yes, I would have pulled trips out, but there's no good time to pull them out, which means if there's no good time, you have to leave them there.
	You can't.
	But also the idea that he then, well, why did you push it back?
	Yeah, yeah.
	If you're admitting that the forever war is a parable idea, well, then why did you push it back?
	Why didn't you leave in May?
	Because I want the victory of, oh, on September 11th we left.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Useless man.
	And I want to get home this point about the Forever Wars being pointless, because we've known this for a long time.
	And I mentioned before this documentary, this is what winning looks like.
	People should really go and give it a watch if you haven't already.
	So this was released in 2013, and in here, we're not going to play the clip, but the guy who did the documentary says that it's all about now, in 2013, getting out and saving face.
	All the fighting that has been done has been done to introduce a corrupt, feared, and hated government that in some areas makes the Taliban look like the good guys.
	That was in 2013.
	And if we go back even further, if we go to the next one, you've got 2008.
	I love in this clip as well, I didn't get the timestamp here, but the guys are just smoking hash and heroin.
	Sorry, they're smoking hash and getting high on opium as well, which...
	Yeah, the Afghan National Army has always been useless.
	They're also wasting all of their ammunition and the British guys, they're just like, what the hell is wrong with them?
	It's like herding cattle or something.
	But utterly, utterly useless situation that has been useless for ages and not going to improve.
	Since 2008, it's been in the current state that it is in since yesterday, you know, before it all collapsed.
	And this is under 20 years of training them up.
	Yeah, it was a complete waste.
	If we had stayed there for another 10 years, it would be in the exact same situation it was in 2008, which is where it was a week ago.
	It's absolutely pointless to remain.
	Anyway, so we go to the next one.
	The Taliban are making a big victory out of the fact that they've managed to get 2,000 armored vehicles and 40 aircraft, apparently.
	Apparently they've got loads and loads more of drones and all the rest of it as well, which...
	Yeah, yeah.
	So what are you going to do about it?
	Well, the Biden administration is deciding whether or not to bomb it.
	So we go to the next one.
	You can see Biden administration considering launching airstrikes and equipment left behind by US troops in Afghanistan, which you would have thought you would have done already, rather than...
	The weird thing is actually looking at them when the C-17 took off and the people clinging on and falling off that maybe never seen a plane before.
	How are they going to fly these 40 planes?
	They've got it right.
	Press this button, off you go.
	It's just no one has any idea what they're doing.
	Right, Microsoft Flight Team, you've done it for a week, come on, you can fly now.
	Yeah, but President Trump made a statement on this, which is much better, which is just like, this guy's a moron.
	I gave you the plan and you effed it up.
	So he says in here, first you bring out all the American citizens, then you bring out all the equipment, then you bomb the bases to smithereens, and then you bring out the military!
	You don't do it in reverse order like Biden and our woke generals did.
	No chaos, no death, they wouldn't even know we left.
	I love Trump's statements.
	I miss Trump.
	Yeah, it's so direct to the point.
	None of this BS. It's just like, no, this was the plan.
	You effed it up.
	Your fault.
	You know, this is how you should have solved it.
	Great guy.
	So if we go to the next one on this, the Biden administration also has a big oopsie, which is that they discontinued an agency designed to help Americans abroad two months before this, which...
	So the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau, or CCR, was created during the Trump presidency by former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in October 2020.
	Likely because in May they would have to evacuate, so he set this up presumably for that.
	It was meant to provide aviation logistics and medical support capabilities to the department's operational bureaus, thereby enhancing the Secretary's ability to protect American citizens overseas in connection with overseas evacuations in the aftermath of natural or man-made disasters.
	In June, Biden's administration scrapped the federal agency tasked with assisting Americans abroad during emergencies.
	Just two short months later, 15,000 Americans would find themselves stranded in Afghanistan.
	So Trump had set up a department to oversee something like this.
	Specifically this.
	I mean, he set it up in October 2020 so the evacuation in May 2021 could take place in case there are any problems.
	And Biden just got rid of it because he was totally going to leave on September 11th.
	Yeah.
	So if we go to the next one here, I just wanted to demonstrate this.
	I thought this was an interesting tweet.
	On the left, the rape gang debate in Parliament.
	On the right, the debate about rescuing Afghans and bringing them to the UK. Yeah.
	Disappointing, isn't it?
	Just something to keep in mind.
	I'm sure we'll never have to have another debate on rape gangs after we import 20,000 Afghanis.
	Let's go to the next one as well.
	So the parliament made some speeches attacking Biden on the basis that he pulled out at all.
	I don't know why some conservative ministers, MPs, think that we should stay forever, as if there's some solution.
	Glenn Greenwald had some stuff to say on this.
	He said, if the honourable members of the UK Parliament and other NATO allies are so enraged about the US pull-up from Afghanistan, what is stopping them from sending their own militaries to fight the Taliban and fix Afghanistan?
	Well, our government's kind of slaughtered our militaries, that's why.
	We don't have anything to send.
	Yeah, that's the cold reality of the situation.
	We can't.
	So, for people who are also thinking we should just go back in ourselves, like Theresa May did, why?
	For one.
	Why bother?
	But also, even if we could, apparently we can't.
	But the Russians have tried to fix Afghanistan.
	All the West have tried to fix Afghanistan.
	It can't be fixed.
	No, everyone there is barbaric.
	Yes.
	Anyway, so if we go to the next one there, I just want to put this as well.
	The Home Office have been making propaganda about how good they are for importing Afghanis.
	They've taken an image here of the plane, which is American for some reason, and used that as an image for the Home Office.
	But yeah, there's that.
	And there's also GB News who did a poll about this.
	So we go to the next one.
	GB News.
	Would you welcome a refugee from Afghanistan to live in your home?
	Let us know your reasons.
	91.6% said no.
	No, I won't.
	Can't imagine why.
	No idea.
	If 8% give their addresses, then we can link them up to a refugee.
	But the thing in my mind is, on a completely unrelated note, I wonder what screening would do to get rid of the nonces.
	Because remember, we've covered this.
	Noncery is endemic to Afghanistan.
	It is so accepted that the entire community accepts it.
	Would you have them in your home with your children?
	I'm not so sure.
	I'd want them screened first to make sure they're not the nonce.
	What, by showing them a picture of a goat, a child?
	You can actually do MRAs to do it.
	Yeah?
	Yeah.
	Some research team did this a while back.
	You show them pictures of, what was it, men, women, and then pictures of children.
	And for normal people, they not react sexually to pictures of children, but pedos do.
	So actually, we could set up an MRA at the airport.
	Sounds like a good idea.
	There's one way to do it.
	Anyway, let's end that there.
	Let's move on to the video comments.
	Good morning from Ontario.
	Today we'll be talking about the man himself, Maxime Bernier.
	Originally from the Conservatives, as a cabinet minister under the creepy robot, Mad Max left the Tories in 2018 to start his own political party, after describing his former party as too intellectually and morally corrupt to be reformed.
	Skipping forward, on June 11th, 2020, Mad Max was arrested by the Mounties for protesting COVID restrictions in Manitoba, the People's Party of Canada.
	The based decision...
	I'm liking the memes.
	I did give a quick read of the section you had rest today, the whole thing, on freedom of speech and hate speech in Canada.
	And the PPC have nothing crazy in there.
	In fact, a lot of things sensible, which is just get rid of the hate speech laws.
	Because they're nuts.
	Also C16, which I forgot they actually passed, didn't they?
	Yeah, they passed us?
	Yeah.
	I think Jordan Peterson was so hard trying to stop.
	It just ended up happening.
	Yeah, let's go for the next one.
	Hey, Lotus Eaters, Tony D and Little Joan here with another legend of the pines, the White Horse Pike.
	The White Horse Pike is the oldest road in South Jersey and runs from Woodline all the way to Atlantic City.
	It is called the White Horse Pike, named after the White Stag of Chemung, which used to warn travelers, One night, the Quaker Bridge was out over the Batstow River in the 1700s, and a horse and buggy was rushing towards it, and the White Stag appeared, saving the travelers.
	I feel like we're going to be able to give tours of New Jersey by the end of all of these stories about the pines.
	But thanks.
	It's also nice to see Joan again, and you.
	Hey guys, I invite you to read my book.
	It's free here.
	I try to present, you know, complex ideas, however not simplify it too much so that you can't get anything out of it.
	The main objective is to get us to space.
	I don't care if you are a handmaiden or an engineer.
	The basic premise of the book is to provide a structure for a liberal education to either use while you're going to university or avoid the university system to begin with.
	It's only 144 pages and it's a lot better than trying to hang on to the underside of a C-130 as it's rolling off the tarmac.
	I think I'll leave that one there.
	Let's go to the next one.
	You guys kind of asked about how the political system works in Canada.
	It's more or less the same as what you see in the UK. It's heavily based off the British system.
	This is definitely something for our American friends to take a look at.
	First thing there is just like the main voter information gives you a list of All the different locations that you can vote.
	These are the things that you are required to bring in order to vote.
	You need to have your voter ID card or a photo ID or you need two of the appropriate documents that are listed there.
	If you don't have any ID, you cannot vote.
	Do brown people still vote in Canada, or is everyone just barred if they're brown?
	As the Democrats tell us, if you've got brown, you just can't get an ID, ever.
	It's physically impossible.
	I'm assuming you go to pay for it or buy it or whatever, and a force field comes up.
	Even in the US states where it's free, it's still impossible to guess.
	Yeah.
	I love that.
	We had the debate in Parliament here about we're going to do voter ID. The Conservatives are trying to push it through.
	And the pilot scheme, which was running it, they gave free IDs to everyone who asked for it.
	It was just the election ID. There you go.
	And you can use it for the election.
	And the Labour Party was still standing up in Parliament and being like, well, brown people can't get these.
	And it's like, literally all you have to do is walk to the library and just ask for it.
	Yeah, well, brown people still can't do that.
	Jesus Christ, what is wrong with you?
	Like, not even the official IDs.
	We've made them free.
	All you have to do is just walk to the council or library or wherever the hell it is and just get your piece of paper.
	And they're like, yeah, brown people still can't do that.
	So they're saying someone who's not white is unable to walk, or unable to put their hand out, or unable to...
	Unable to do anything.
	Physically disabled is the Labour Party's position.
	Which, ironically as well, we covered a story a while back.
	After COVID, the Welsh government was giving out grants for people to set up businesses.
	And they gave priority to women, brown-skinned people, and disableds.
	As if these were all the same category.
	It's like...
	It's the Labour Party and government in Wales and their opinions.
	Let's go to the next one.
	Afternoon, gents.
	Just a quick one to congratulate Phoebe on their ursuit pursuits.
	And, yeah, Callum, that was actually...
	I'd flown in from Singapore for my 40th birthday and I managed to catch a live event.
	Yeah, it was a good night.
	Yeah, it was good.
	It was good to have you there.
	I hope to see you again.
	Ah, we're out.
	Okay, so then we're going to the written comments.
	So, let's go to OnlyThoughts.
	That's a good name.
	I might rename the segment there.
	Anyway.
	Alexander P says, Leftists literally yesterday.
	Online corporations can ban whoever they like, even if it's against Section 230 to editorialize.
	It's their private platform, so they can do whatever they like and still receive legal protections.
	Build your own Twitter.
	Leftists today.
	How dare online corporations ban whoever they like?
	It's not like we could build our own OnlyFans.
	I mean, that's the thing.
	Turn around to the thoughts and be like, yeah, build your own OnlyFans then.
	Call up Pornhub.
	I'm sure many of you have got their numbers.
	Let's be serious for a minute.
	I wonder what Belle Delphine's response to this is.
	I haven't actually seen her.
	You don't know who Belle Delphine is, do you?
	Yeah.
	We'll keep it that way.
	Probably for the best.
	Hammurabi says, I wonder if one could find some small success on OnlyFans by posting spicy memes.
	Probably.
	I mean, if they're doing free accounts now, is it essentially just Instagram with some paid Instagram versions?
	I guess I look forward to Hammurabi's OnlyFans.
	Omar.
	So, OnlyFans was just the Thoughts mental gymnasium that allowed them to avoid the reality of being a cam whore and stifle money from the simps without having to actually put out.
	The cost of being a whore might not be immediately apparent or even visible, but their value in the sexual marketplace has an expiration date.
	It certainly does.
	Yeah.
	Don't let the wall hit you on the way out.
	Totally true.
	I mean, we covered this.
	There was a lady from OnlyFans who had been doing it for a while, and she was complaining that she couldn't find a man to date because none of the men wanted someone who had spent their life on OnlyFans.
	Yeah.
	I've seen a few that were great as well, where people got on Tinder and they'd match with someone, right?
	They'd be like, oh, what do you do?
	Oh, I work in construction.
	Oh, what about you?
	Oh, I make OnlyFans and that pays my money.
	They're like, oh, what's your OnlyFans?
	And they'd send it.
	They're like, right, don't need to do the date now.
	It's like, what?
	You're such a pig!
	And it's like, well, why would I pay 50 bucks for a meal when I could just pay $5 for access?
	Yeah.
	Hmm.
	Yeah.
	Let's move on to the Gurkhas.
	So, Nikolai says, the Gurkhas sound like the Death Corps of Krieg.
	Yeah, they certainly do.
	You're not going to get the 40k references, are you?
	The Death Corps of Krieg are these, um, they're a race of, they're a planet of humans in 40k, and they live in, like, the worst conditions imaginable.
	Hmm.
	And it was because of some war, and as a result, they feel guilty, and they think it's like a blessing to fight for the Emperor, and to die for the Emperor.
	So they go into battle, and if they get put alongside other regiments of humans, they demoralize the other humans, because they have massive disregard for their own life.
	They'll just charge at the enemy with bayonets, even though there's bullets flying everywhere, and stuff like that.
	I was thinking as well of the Gurkha and Murkha memes there.
	Gurkha Murk.
	Gorkha Murk.
	Anyway.
	Henry Ashman says, given the situation in Afghanistan around the interpreters and how it's been used as an excuse to allow anyone who wants to come to Britain to come, the treatment of Gurkhas is sickening.
	I'm not overly big on US-style thank you for your service, but with this service, absolute guarantee citizenship in this regard.
	I mean, he's got the heads to show it.
	One head equals one citizenship.
	Yep.
	That's true.
	You know what?
	That's actually a good rule.
	Like, if we take foreign fighters with us abroad to go fight the next war, I don't know, maybe it's Syria or something.
	You know, one Asadi head equals one like.
	Therefore, you get one member of your family gets to come see the UK. Instead of marks on your shoulders, heads.
	I mean, again, it's very Warhammer.
	There's the orcs in Warhammer, for example.
	They collect heads of the enemy, and there's one guy called Gorgaz who has a big stick, and he just puts heads of different commanders he's killed on top.
	It's a Gorka!
	Literally, Gork and Mork will also collect heads.
	I mean, it's all falling into place.
	Of course I want these people in the UK. So a student of history says, best description of Gurkha soldiers, quote...
	I'm not stuck in here with you.
	You're stuck in here with me.
	Except it's the entire planet.
	You're stuck with them.
	Anywhere on Earth.
	Sam Fletcher says, Only the Gurkhas dealt with the problem by using the cookery and taking trophies.
	There's something very primal about taking trophies, and part of me wants to disavow it, but the other part of me wants to commend its use.
	The Gurkhas are fantastic.
	You're just torn, aren't you, between commanding and...
	I'm not torn.
	It sounds great.
	Look, what's the problem?
	He's dead.
	He's Taliban.
	Who gives a toss?
	It's like, well...
	Or you're making sure he's dead.
	Yeah, I mean, technically...
	He may not be dead.
	He's going above and beyond in his job.
	Don't want them crawling away, do we, when we turn our backs?
	Alexander says, Can we do a swap?
	Afghans for Gurkhas.
	I would definitely welcome a Gurkha into my home.
	Yeah, as long as you're British and he's on your side.
	Leave your knife outside, please.
	Comes into your home, sees your bookshelf, sees the Quran, and he's like...
	In the middle of the night, feels your shoelaces.
	Are you a jury?
	JJHW. In the Vietnam War, they used to collect ears to confirm kills.
	Oh, I didn't know that.
	Interesting.
	There's a story about the CIA agent Tony Poe, a.k.a.
	Anthony Pestofoni, the real version of Colonel Kurtz, who sent a string of ears to a HQ, and the secretary opened the package, and she ended up being hospitalized in a mental hospital.
	What, because the guy just sent her a package of ears?
	It's not what you're expecting, is you open the post?
	You didn't go to a mental hospital like that, surely.
	No.
	Just some ears.
	What if it was a whole head?
	It was, I guess.
	I mean, if it's Sodom bin Laden's head.
	Surely you'd be quite happy.
	Oh, we got him.
	Good.
	Alright.
	Next piece of post.
	Open it up.
	See what you're getting.
	I didn't know they got ears in Vietnam.
	Remember, that's in Fallout New Vegas as well.
	When you kill the Legion, you take their ears.
	So, Miles Mitchell says, having personally served alongside Gurkhas, even as late as last year, whatever mad lad stories that are out there about these guys are absolutely true.
	They have no fear whatsoever and totally deserve equal pensions and the right to live here after the end of their service.
	Can't disagree with that.
	Sorry, I'm going to have to take a drink.
	Oh, boy.
	I just think it in my head like wife swap, except it's Gurkhas, but it's like husband swap.
	Imagine the fear that we felt in the house.
	Duffy B says, A solution to the pension problem for the Gurkhas.
	Replace the Met and every other police force with 10 to 50 Gurkhas in every district.
	Taking the existing police budget and pay them back.
	Yeah, that would probably work, but a lot of criminals would also probably go missing.
	Like, they're not going to get arrested and processed, they're just going to end up dead.
	If you had Gurkhas patrolling the streets of London, you'd have a drop in crime immediately.
	Perfect.
	You certainly would.
	Wow.
	You'd have a drop in the population of criminals, too.
	Yes!
	I think the Thames might start flowing with bodies again.
	Leave your shoes and head to the door, please, before you come in.
	Yeah, it does work.
	It's also, John says, prison system strain lowered.
	You know what, this is looking more and more like a good idea.
	Um...
	Who is that?
	Duffy.
	Maybe you should apply for being the Home Secretary.
	Anyway.
	Callum says, something I want to mention on the Gurkhas, and it's from my dad on this Gurkha pensions.
	One of the big problems with giving the Gurkhas an equal pension to a British soldier is that they get paid the same amount and go back to Nepal.
	It would destabilise the economy because of the money values between Britain and Nepal.
	The same we had with Indian troops as well...
	Sorry.
	Same we have with Indian troops as well when we were in charge.
	Can't say much beyond that, as I don't know enough.
	But if Gurkhas want to serve and come back home after their service, they should be paid the same amount.
	Yeah, I can agree with that.
	I mean, the protests here were of people in the UK, as far as I'm aware.
	I believe your widow gets pension as well if you get killed, but I don't know how that works with them working in the pool and whatnot.
	I absolutely agree.
	I think everyone agrees that if they're living in the UK, serve the UK, they should get the same as a British soldier, which is the same.
	We definitely want them on our side.
	We don't want them defecting someone else because of poor pension treatment, that's for sure.
	And it's not that many.
	I think I read there are 11,000 Nepalese Gurkhas settled in the UK, something like that.
	So these aren't huge numbers or huge figures.
	Hmm.
	No.
	Anyway, so it's gone to leftists no better than God.
	Chet says, the small amount of good news for you, the Afghanistan girls' robotics team were initially reported as missing when the Taliban took Kabul and have now been known to evacuate it to Qatar.
	And then there's a link.
	And then, yeah, 10 girls on Afghan's robotics team sent to Qatar.
	So they'll be doing robotics in Qatar now.
	Alrighty.
	Do you see the posters of them?
	No!
	The government in Afghanistan made a huge deal about the women's...
	What was it?
	Not orchestra.
	Women's choir, they'd say.
	And the women's robotics team.
	They had, like, posters of them.
	Like, propaganda posters of them, like, looking to the future and stuff like this.
	Because it's like the marvel of the regime.
	Because there's that little progress, I must admit, that this probably does look like the golden star.
	Wow.
	Yeah.
	Clayton Ross says, Did you guys hear about the Reddit witches who are trying to hex the Taliban?
	Yeah, I did.
	Best of luck to them.
	Apparently they are struggling to overcome the divine wrath of Allah.
	Joke all you want, but at least they think they're trying to help, which is better than some folks can say.
	Yeah, I guess the Reddit witch is a...
	Thank you for your service.
	I don't know.
	John's got the link here.
	Be careful when bewitching the Taliban, PSA. Oh, God.
	Allah's going to come back and get you or something.
	Mass hexing against the Taliban.
	Where are the gypsies of the world?
	They need to unify about this as well.
	Let's look at the voodoos.
	If you guys believe in voodoo in on this.
	Making little models of Taliban guys.
	Anyway.
	Matthew Hammond says, How do these people avoid the connection between Islam and the Taliban?
	Yet at the same time, blame all Trump supporters for January 6th and blame illegal gun owners for illegal activity with a firearm.
	I suppose it's because the Taliban are helping destroy the West, and Trump and legal gun owners are holding up the West, and therefore they just turn themselves off.
	You know, pure double-think.
	Sam Fletcher says, Most Muslims, these people, always thinking themselves the majority, the centre of the road, the moral arbiters of our time.
	The lack of self-awareness is very cringeworthy.
	Certainly is.
	I mean, the idea that, as John says, the...
	Muslim countries of the world and the Muslim populations of the world don't represent Islam.
	It's quite the claim.
	Don't think it's going to convince everyone.
	Not going to convince anyone, except maybe progressives.
	People point at Saudi Arabia and they say it's not proper Muslim.
	Well, it's got the two holiest sites in Islam.
	How is it not Islamic?
	It's not our type of Islam.
	It's Christian.
	The whole time.
	This is Christian extremism.
	With a bit of Judaism thrown in.
	You know what?
	I can see leftists doing that.
	They're being like, well, Saudi Arabia, it's not Islamic.
	How do you figure that out?
	Wow, the Jews did this.
	You know how they are.
	Anyway, student of history, imagine having the ghoul to stand there with a straight face and say God was wrong.
	Let me know how that works, dummy.
	I mean, yeah, as an atheist or a Christian, this is really funny, but as a Muslim, you must just look at her and be like...
	What is wrong with you?
	I claim to be a Muslim, but God, he doesn't know anything.
	Alexander P says, Real Sharia has never been tried.
	Certainly hasn't.
	I suppose it's been tried and Taliban controlled Afghanistan, as we know.
	Edward Woodstock says, Oh, I learned about XYZ from Islam.
	Does Islam not understand how schisms happen?
	Christianity has schismed since its inception over little intricacies.
	Whether or not these people believe in the version of Islam the Taliban follow, it's still a version of Islam.
	It would be like saying, oh, Catholicism has nothing to do with Christianity, when a Catholic would say the exact same about Puritans and Anglicans and like in the days of the Reformation.
	They are all Christian, just different kinds, just like all these people are all Muslim.
	One cannot go around saying they're not Muslims because you say they aren't.
	They objectively are.
	Yeah, I think probably that's how we should look at this, the progressive schism within Islam, that we've got these Western progressive Muslims who are like, no, our version of Islam is the new version.
	The more progressives we have, the safer the world is, I guess, because if Islam does reform, it goes back to its original, which is violent.
	To be honest, if intersectionality, the woke left, mixed with Islam to make a new ideology, I can't think of anything I'd be more scared of.
	They're just going to oppress everyone.
	So, general comments.
	Tom says, Count Dankula beat you to the Lord Miles interview.
	How could you let that happen?
	I've spoken to Miles.
	I've got his number.
	I messaged him.
	He enjoyed our segments on him, so that's good.
	Count did it over Skype or whatever.
	I quite like to get Miles in the studio, and I imagine he's got some quarantining to do, because I imagine Afghanistan's on a list for that.
	And also, I'm sure he's got some things to sort out in his own life.
	Maybe go and visit his girlfriend.
	Hi, honey, I'm home.
	I'm not dead.
	So, yeah, yeah.
	Dan Taylor says, you should do a Reading Club video on the Dune series.
	Think of it as a cautionary tale.
	I don't know anything about the Dune series, so...
	Okay.
	Not going to mention that.
	John's giving me some notes.
	Awkward Motion says, the New South Wales premiere has declared a curfew in Sydney because COVID only comes out at night.
	We had this as well, you remember?
	When we were closing the pubs early?
	Yep, by 10 o'clock it would come out.
	Or also, Covid was high because when you were sitting down you didn't need a mask, but if you were standing you did, so Covid only is from there up.
	Yeah, short people.
	Yep.
	Also, masks are now required outdoors for the whole state.
	Outdoors.
	I mean, this is the funny thing about people getting banned from YouTube for medical misinformation about mask use.
	It's like, look, no one can agree.
	No government agrees on when it is right and wrong to use a mask, so the idea that some random YouTubers are meant to get this and be consistent with whatever Silicon Valley's version of Islam is.
	She's making noises about, quote, living with the virus.
	I don't think it's because she's very libertarian, but the federal government is threatening to cut off money to states that lock down after agreed-upon vaccination thresholds have been met.
	Well, I suppose at least she's saying something.
	I mean, there's a spark of things there, but quite frankly...
	Whoever's in Australian government sounds like they need to be voted out.
	I don't know who they are.
	I don't know how base they are, but they seem to have bungled it.
	David Fisher, maybe the voter ID thing is what keeps Hollywood stars from ever actually moving to Canada.
	They'd have to carry their ID. Therefore, that's racism.
	John Wade says, collecting ears comes from the Belgian Congo.
	Ah, no.
	You know about the Belgian Congo?
	It's a horrible story.
	Most European colonies, particularly the British ones, people like to criticize.
	They have nothing on the horrors of the Belgian Congo, which is that the king decided that the entire Congo belonged to him personally, not the country.
	So that made some problems.
	And then he sent his guys out and they wanted to extract as much rubber as possible.
	So they'd go to the tribes there and whatnot and make contact and then establish and be like, no, you work for us.
	You've got to get some rubber.
	Here's your quota.
	And if you don't reach the quota, we'll cut off your hands.
	And that'll be the quota.
	So you chop off one hand and then if they failed, I presume you chopped off another.
	And then I don't know how they're collecting any more rubber after that.
	So it seemed like a stupid system.
	But what happened is that tribes would then start raiding each other for hands instead of collecting rubber.
	So they'd go to another tribe, cut off all their hands, and then when the Belgians would come and be like, hey, you asked this rubber demand, oh, we don't have any, but here's the hands, and yeah, horrible situation.
	I knew that's why I didn't like Belgium.
	There was a reason.
	Of all the other reasons.
	The hands.
	You know what's messed up as well?
	I think it's AstraZeneca, or is it?
	No, it's Pfizer.
	Their vaccine.
	Part of the reason the vaccines have been done so fast is because of the hands.
	Which is a weird link.
	So the tropical diseases in the Congo were particularly bad.
	So the king who owned it set up an institute to go out there and treat these diseases, which meant loads of vaccines of natives.
	So they would be able to go and collect rubber and you have to chop off less hands.
	Which led to the Belgian industry of vaccines being really advanced.
	And when Johnson& Johnson, the company in America, set it up, they called the guys in Belgium to be like, hey, can you do this for us?
	And they're the ones buying it.
	Wow.
	What a connection.
	Anyway, on that, it's probably about time to end the show.
	Not much of a positive bombshell, but if you don't know about it, it is an interesting period in history.
	It's horrifying.
	So go and look up more of the Belgian Congo after this.
	Or go to legacies.com for some less depressing content.
	If you want more from us, what day is it today?
	Is it Friday?
	Oh, it is Friday.
	Okay.
	For more from us, go to Lizzy's.com.
	All the premium content.
	The book club will be up either today or on Monday.
	Over the weekend, we have contemplations on being told not today, so it will be Monday.
	It will be Monday.
	Oh, it will be today.
	Right.
	Okay.
	Book club will be today.
	Mel's Great Famine.
	Do enjoy that.
	Very good argument for why socialism is terrible.
	But other than that, go and check out the stuff.
	We have contemplations and epochs going up over the weekend.
	Colin will be back on Monday as well, and we have some segments of some good stuff I did with Josh going up for our little clips as well on the weekend.
	But otherwise, thank you, and goodbye.

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