This episode was originally released March 22, 2023 for patrons. Support the show and get two bonus episodes a week by signing up at http://patreon.com/miniondeathcult This week we grapple with one of Tony's problematic faves: Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her love of child labor Also: Kaepernick is back in the news after sharing a piece of his new autobiography detailing a racially insensitive comment made to him by his adopted white mother. We talk about the relationship between white parents and children of color and address the right wing's overtly racist backlash to the story. Finally: a bowling rock super-spreader supergroup forms made up of band members who defiantly refused to be vaccinated. We listen to their jaunty tunes and watch a maddening interview with Tim Pool. Music: Rival Schools - The Switch Victory Over The Sun - Alveromancy
The liberals are destroying California and conservative humor gone awry... Conservative humor gone awry is going to fascistphonia today.
So stay tuned.
We're going to take a few pictures of the desert and how their policies are actually messing it up.
It's not beautiful when you go across that border.
- I think you guys will show you exactly what it does.
We'll show you exactly what it looks like when the, the, the, the, the, the desert.
Oh, there, a bar in the post.
Stay tuned. - Dang, this is just a very, very Tony episode, huh?
Yes, it is.
I'm Alexander Edward.
And I'm Tony Boswell.
We are Minion Death Cult.
The world is ending.
Laws making it a little too hard for children to work in the mines are responsible.
We're documenting it.
What's up, everybody?
It's your Patreon episode for the week.
Thank you so much for supporting the show.
We're here to do that thing that you love to hear, which is this show.
You know it.
You know it.
And the good stuff, that paywall stuff.
A real raw, rugged NBC.
Well, let's not get too rugged here, Tony.
I don't know what you have in mind for our next topic when we're discussing, of course, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
I don't know if we need to get too blue on this topic, let's just say, for you personally.
Yeah, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the new governor of Arkansas, really making a name for herself with an insane raft of awful bills.
Biggest one of the headlines is, yeah, making it easier for 14 year olds to go work without their parents permission.
OK, this is a classic case of read the article.
Don't just look at the picture.
I was all excited that we're going to talk about my little boo, but turns out she's being a demon again, trying to get children to work.
Like, that's so wild.
14 is.
Are you also going to lower the driver's license?
No, I'm sure they have a wonderful public transit system in Arkansas that they can use.
Don't need a car there.
It's a very walkable state.
Walkable 15-minute cities.
Definitely.
This is from the Washington Examiner.
Just a wonderful publication filled with wholesome truths being told every day.
If you want to interrupt intergenerational poverty, you should help more high school children get jobs.
That's just what Arkansas has done with the Youth Hiring Act.
It looks so much like Youth Hitler Act.
Like, if you just glance at it.
Signed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
And then this is an opinion piece.
Opinion.
High schoolers working is key to upward mobility.
Arkansas is making that easier.
Yeah, nothing says it boating well for a state like even the children have to work.
They're making it seem as if, oh, no, we're making jobs like for high schoolers.
We're doing like a work in school program where, you know, like through the school, we're going to help them out and like treat them a trade.
And we're going to we're going to pay them for learning their trade.
That's not what's happening.
That's not what's happening here.
They're just like, oh, cool.
Now you can hire like you can hire kids because you can definitely pay a 14 year old less than you pay an 18 year old.
I mean, yeah, this is obviously a way to undercut labor, undercut current labor costs, which we'll get to in this article, but the opinion piece is by Timothy P. Carney, senior columnist at Washington Examiner.
If you could turn the dial on one piece of socioeconomic data in order to help children climb out of poverty, what would it be?
Would you improve the student-to-teacher ratio in public schools?
Yes.
Would you build more community colleges?
Maybe.
Would you increase healthcare spending?
No.
You can spend less money on healthcare for better results, actually, if you take the profit out of it entirely.
None of those would hurt, but none would help nearly as much as finding more jobs for 16 year olds.
That's a consistent finding of researchers into upward mobility.
And then he links to an article, a study.
When economist Raj Chetty studied dozens of local factors that correlated with upward mobility, teenage labor force participation proved more powerful than almost any other factor, including or even high school dropout rates or violent crime rates.
So I don't know.
I haven't seen the reviews of this study.
I don't know if it has been peer-reviewed or whatever.
It's Harvard people, so it's very funny for them to be like, hey, Harvard people said that kids should work.
Yeah, come on.
You find me a more notable school that you know is a better school that has schooling because Harvard.
Uh, but on the face of it, I guess, yeah, it's kind of true.
If, if the kids have a job in the house, that's more money coming.
That's another source of income.
And it's like, sure.
Yeah.
I guess if there's another earner in the house and you know, you're doubling the amount of earning in the house, that's a, that's a way to, you know, uh, you know, get better than where you're currently at.
But I don't know if that's a recipe for overall success, Well, they also have to compare two dropout rates because they know that a 14-year-old who is working is probably going to try to go to school for another, like, you know, six months, but then it's probably going to drop out to work more.
Maybe.
I mean, because they have to.
Well, we both, I'm assuming you did.
I had a job as a 15-year-old.
Yeah.
Yeah.
15 and a half was the thing.
Yeah.
So we're, all right, we're from a previous generation.
Where you had to get a job as a high school student if you wanted to just become a man in general, I think.
I mean, I never forget the day that I decided, you know, I had to clock in and put on that green apron, you know, and go work it.
I call them the mines.
It was a Starbucks drive-thru, but I call it the coal mines.
Well, Starbucks, Tony, that doesn't count.
It's not a real job.
You should have worked a real job.
It used to be.
No, never.
When I started, I had to actually like press, I had to pull the lever and froth with no, with no, it didn't turn off automatically.
Wow.
When I froth it, I had to do it all myself.
I had to put my hand on the hot cup, on the hot pitcher myself.
My hand on it.
Can you imagine a millennial trying to use that same machine now?
No way.
No way.
Because I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, you know who doesn't care about your pronouns?
That machine.
Burn anyone's hand.
Yeah, your pronouns are third slash degree.
Yeah, no, Starbucks, that's not a real job.
You should have gotten a real job like me at Pizza Hut.
True, yeah.
We both blew smoke into the walk-in refrigerator.
It worked every time.
Okay.
If you want to interrupt intergenerational poverty, you should help more high school children get jobs.
You know what?
I think I will.
Totally.
That's just what Arkansas has done with the Youth Hiring Act signed by Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
The bill is simple.
It repeals a 1914 law.
It's a law dating back to 1914 that bars the employment of 14 and 15 year olds without a special, quote, employment certificate, which requires a special application by would-be employers.
We've got to look into this law.
Will black 14 year olds be able to get jobs under this repealed law?
I think they're going to have to actually.
Oh.
Now the payment structure is going to be a little different.
But I think they have to, yeah.
Many states require such a work certificate and this regulatory burden leads many employers simply to refuse to hire 14 and 15 year olds.
We want to hire children, it's just too gosh darn much paperwork.
Yeah.
Get out of here.
So that's what they're saying, too.
You can do it today.
You can hire a 14-year-old today.
It's just a lot more paperwork.
Yeah, the parents have to sign off on it, essentially.
That's all it is.
Arkansas has plenty of other child labor laws that remain in place, yeah, for now, including bans on labor by anyone under 14, maximum hours laws, and bans on dangerous jobs.
Yeah, how many of those are being violated regularly?
I'd like to know that.
All the time.
All the time.
And so this new law simply puts 14-year-olds on the same footing as 16-year-olds.
Wow, that doesn't sound good.
31 of Arkansas's 75 counties, including the three most populous counties, has an unemployment rate of 3.0 or below.
That means that the new law will increase the number of teenagers in the labor force, which is good if you trust the economic data.
So, let me repeat that.
31 of Arkansas' 75 counties has an unemployment rate of 3% or below.
That's like more than what economists call full employment.
Economists, I believe, call full employment around 5% unemployment.
So, employment is so high right now, And they want to introduce teenagers into the equation.
Hmm.
I wonder why.
That's wild.
Not only that, okay, what's the poverty level in Arkansas?
Right?
Mm-hmm.
I mean, I know it's not great.
Again, what's like, yeah, I'll do some stuff too.
Poverty level is 17%.
While Arkansas does have a high poverty rate, it is not out of line with many of our neighboring states.
Arkansas's poverty rate of 17.2, the 7th highest in the nation, is better than Louisiana's or Mississippi's.
So you have unemployment at 3% and poverty is still seventh highest in the nation.
What makes you think that not having a job is the key, or getting a job rather, is the key out of poverty?
Because it seems like almost everybody is working in Arkansas and the poverty rate is still high.
It's, it's, it's only going to actually lower wages.
That's all this is going to do.
It's going to put more people, it's going to put more people on unemployment, which is what they want.
Adults are going to lose the jobs to the 14 year olds who, yeah, you're, they're going to, they're going to pay less than, and now that we're going to see some, some, it's going to be bad shift.
I don't know who this benefits besides, you know, besides the employers.
Yeah, that's exactly who it benefits.
I mean, you know, you need to like, So short term too. - If kids have to get a job to help their family out or whatever, I totally understand.
That's not like 100% evil.
It shouldn't be a thing that has to happen, right?
It shouldn't, it shouldn't even be close to that, that stage.
But I understand if, you know, I had to work because I, I wanted to buy a car and I wanted stuff, you know, for, for myself that my parents were going to buy me.
Uh, but otherwise we were, we were doing fine as a family, you know?
But I understand if like kids got to get a job or, you know, chip in around the house or whatever, that's totally fine.
But like, Don't pretend that it's a solution for them, for the workers in general, because it's clinging to the life raft.
The problem, there still is a problem with like a kid having to go get a job to pay the bills.
Like that's why I had to get a job.
I just had to help pay the bills.
It was fine.
It was cool.
I'm happy.
I didn't, you know, I wasn't too upset about it or whatever.
But a whole lot of capitalism went into making it's where my family was in a position to where they needed me to help them.
Like, so there's still a problem getting there.
The problem is definitely not that kids aren't working.
That's not the problem.
Work is not setting the current population of workers free.
It's not going to set kids free either.
In fact, it's going to do, I would imagine, the opposite of that.
It's just all these kids, you know, that are out here, they're out here trapping and if they could just get real jobs, they would stop trapping and then, you know, they would get off the streets.
I only have one response to this that I thought was just great, which is from Byron Reed, who says, High schoolers are not children.
Perhaps that perception among policymakers and educators is the root of the problem.
Wait, is that a Devo hat?
It's Devo hat on a Dilbert face.
You suck, Byron.
You're supposed to be cooler than that.
Really?
Oh, the comment sucks.
Yeah, the comment sucks, yeah.
Yeah, well, Devo hat on a Dilbert face sucks ass too, so I don't know.
I'm not even giving him any credit.
That's true, that's true.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, like, you're supposed to, that's, you're supposed to, uh, I don't know.
This is, they're not adults either.
Like, come on, man.
Like, they shouldn't be burdened with this.
They're literally children.
They're legally children, Byron.
Exactly, yeah.
Let me see your fucking computer, dude.
Yep.
Yep, that part.
Perhaps educators thinking of minors as children is the problem.
Yeah.
He literally just wants them to be able to kill students for being disrespectful.
Yeah.
They should be able to engage in hand-to-hand combat immediately.
They're not children.
They can consent.
They can consent to a battle to the death with the teacher.
yeah okay moving on our next topic here Oh, yeah.
Man, they're never going to stop talking about this guy.
We're talking about Colin Kaepernick here.
Colin Kaepernick back in the news for the usual reasons, for being an ungrateful black former QB.
Again, see our episode on The Last Boy Scout.
Very funny to look back 30 years, whatever, and see this trope in full effect.
Reading from Breitbart, ungrateful child.
Colin Kaepernick blasted after accusing adoptive white parents of quote, perpetuating racism.
Yeah.
I mean, there is an argument to be made at any time that, like, you know, non-black parents adopt a black kid is a weird perpetuation of racism.
It's a thing that happened.
It's a lot deeper than that.
Yeah.
So.
It's funny that this is the only time you do hear about Colin Kaepernick now, though.
Unfortunately, it's only the Breitbart's talking about Colin Kaepernick.
It's only the right we can talk about Colin Kaepernick.
I mean, two years ago, Kendrick Lamar and Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg did the fucking Super Bowl halftime show.
The same people who were like, we're going to make a song for you.
But yeah, like I'm happy that Breitbart is still talking about him.
Breitbart and Daily Wire here.
I'm going to read from the Daily Wire article.
MMA fighter, Special Forces vet Tim Kennedy hammers Colin Kaepernick for accusing white adoptive parents of racism.
Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who's made a career post-football by bemoaning what he sees as systemic racism in America, accused his adoptive white parents of racism, prompting MMA fighter and Special Forces vet Tim Kennedy to fire a withering response.
It's really not that great.
Interviewed on CBS mornings regarding his new autobiographical graphic novel, Change the Game, Kaepernick stated, Growing up, I was, I think, still am a pretty introverted person.
I know my parents loved me, but there were still very problematic things that I went through.
I think it was important to show that, no, this can happen in your own home, and how we move forward collectively while addressing the racism that is being perpetuated.
In the graphic novel, Kaepernick writes that he wanted cornrows like his idol, Alan Iverson of the Philadelphia 76ers, prompting his white adoptive mother to ask, Quote, he's getting what roles?
Uh, Ugh.
And then, quote, oh, your hair's not professional, Kaepernick told Adriana Diaz of CBS Mornings, quote, oh, you look like a little thug.
Quote, your mom said that to you, Diaz asked, shocked.
Yeah.
And those become spaces where it's like, okay, how do I navigate this situation now?
Kaepernick replied, but it also has informed why I have my hair long today.
Yeah.
I mean, it's funny.
Cause like, I mean, that was a conversation amongst like the, and it still is a conversation even amongst the black community.
But, um, even when you're a white parent to a black child, you still have lanes you're supposed to stay in.
And the one lane they tell you really not to veer out of the one that's really easy to kind of mind yours is the hair.
Like, what are you doing?
What are you doing?
I mean, I'm, I'm reading this and I'm like, yeah, that's like a racist thing to say.
You said he had, you said he, he was a little thug and it's like, this, this is like an old opinion of mine and maybe it's, you know, feel free to push back on it, Tony.
Um, but like, this is what I mean when I say that like white people have got to stop thinking that being racist is the end of the world.
Yes.
Because everybody makes mistakes including your own parents and he still has good things to say about his parents and he still loves them and appreciates them but he's like yeah they said this mindless racist shit to me too like every like every white people every white person who doesn't know better essentially which is I guess an easy way of letting people off the hook but like Um, a more ignorant white person would say.
And it's like, yeah, telling your little kid that they're like a thug.
It's like, maybe you didn't mean it like that or whatever, but it's like, how else is it fucking sound, man?
Yeah.
I mean, you didn't realize that it does sound different coming out of your mouth than does, like, Bill Cosby's mouth, who you heard it from, because Bill Cosby was the one saying things like that.
Well, it's still racist when Bill Cosby says it.
No, absolutely.
You know what I'm saying?
But it still is, like, different.
It's, like, even more different, you know?
Yeah.
And like you said, it's not the end of the world.
And I think that's what people do need to realize.
It's like a lot of the racism that people experience and people put, you know, especially experience, but a lot of the racism that people like partake in and are party to.
It is because like.
Man, it was set up like it was set up that way.
You have you didn't even realize you were doing it.
It's like I talk about soft racism is my favorite thing.
They're not being malicious.
They have no idea they're doing it.
But yeah, when you like.
When you do a silly cover of Boys in the Hood, it is a form of racism.
It's not the end of the world, but that is what it is.
And you gotta learn from it.
You gotta take some notes.
My sweet white mom has done a ton of that, and she's come so far.
And yeah, it's not the end of the world.
It's what you do with that, and how you respond to that, and how you grow from that.
Yeah, that's all he says, right?
That's like a blurb from the book that he gives in the interview.
The Tim Kennedy, the fucking smackdown from veteran and MMA fighter Tim Kennedy is, I bleached my hair when I was in high school and my dad told me I looked like an idiot.
He told me that nobody would hire me.
He told me that colleges would laugh At me during interviews.
I guess he was just perpetuating racism and didn't want the best for me.
Again, you have no idea what racism is.
It's like the dumbest possible response.
Oh, my dad wouldn't let me get blonde hair.
I guess he's racist too, huh?
What?
Yeah.
What are you fucking talking?
Against white people?
Against punk rock?
You know, racist against punk rock?
Thought about that?
Um.
Hey, don't call me white.
You know?
Straight up.
But also, okay, so my dad told me I look like an idiot.
Okay, so that's his opinion.
Then he also says nobody would hire me.
Colleges would laugh at me during interviews.
You gotta have pretty bad grades, I think, to get laughed at for blonde hair.
What are you talking about?
Um, but yeah, so many good responses like this.
Um, and, and let's, let's get into them here.
Uncle Louie B on Instagram and the Breitbart responses.
I saw him say, uh, dot, dot, dot, ha, ha, ha, ha.
My son wants to get a mullet.
I said, no.
Does that mean I am racist towards white people?
No, it means you're classist.
Uncle Louie B actually.
It does.
It does.
Classist.
And that can be against any race.
No, and also you're just paying attention because you do realize that, um, all these like, all these like different tax bracket has gone ahead and taken on the mullet as like a cultural signifier.
And they're not really about it.
They're not really about it.
Does that mean I'm racist toward white people?
He wanted to get a Mohawk and I said, no.
Does that mean I am racist towards Native Americans?
Hey, at least he knows, at least he knows the roots.
No, maybe you appreciate Native Americans and that's why you were like, no, that's actually cultural appropriation for you to have a Mohawk.
That would be so like, that's, yeah, Uncle Louie's a little woke over here.
I like it.
Was he upset?
Yes.
Not once did my son accuse me of being racist.
Dot, dot, dot.
He understood I am his parent.
Dot, dot, dot.
Lot of Mohawks.
The Mohawk came up a lot in people's responses to this.
Genie Avid Editor says, my high school boyfriend's parents didn't want him to have a spiked mohawk either.
It's like, that's not a traditional, that's, that's like, that's not a white, you know, it's not a white thing.
It's, it's, it's a fucking hairstyle from a different culture.
They are completely forgetting, they're completely not acknowledging the part where, are you a different race from your child who you've adopted that you're talking to in this situation?
Is that what's... because I don't think that's...
You know, well, because first of all, like for the last commenter, if him being white, if their son asked for a mullet, and I'm presuming the son will be black in this situation, hypothetically, it's no longer called a mullet.
It's now called a shag.
So he's right to say no, because that's a whole different haircut entirely.
Yeah, that's fair.
But yeah, I like this.
Oh, my boyfriend's parents thought that a mohawk looked like a weird criminal.
Are they racist?
It's like, I don't know, maybe.
I don't know.
What else were they doing?
Were they like full punk or was it just a mohawk as part of a... Hey, listen, my kid wanted Goku spikes, but I told him, does that mean I don't like people from Dragon Ball Z?
I don't know, they do have like a being type, right?
There's humans and then there's like an alien guy too, I think.
Yeah.
But the alien guy has a turban on, I think, so you gotta watch out for that too.
True, true, true.
Irish Dolan says, I don't think they are racist.
So the parents, Colin Kaepernick's parents, I don't think they are racist dot dot dot.
They are just like the rest of America that dislike you.
So like, they just knew he was bad from a little boy.
They were like, you little fucker.
You don't get any hairstyle you want.
Like, you were just treated like shit your whole life because, you know, like I would because I don't like you.
And they were so bad to you that you ended up in the NFL at one point.
Yeah.
Well, the parents, I mean, they have the, they have like, you know, the closest percept, you know, whatever they, they're, they're nearest and dearest to this guy.
If they don't like him, there's probably a good reason.
Yeah.
And I like that you're admitting, you're admitting that what they did was like an own, they like insulted him, but it's not because he's black.
It's because they don't like him.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It has nothing to do with you.
You're coincidentally black.
Just don't, I just don't like you.
Jacques Strap, this is in I think the Breitbart comment section, says, now you understand why there were laws against racial intermarriage.
No, no, don't understand that.
Because your kids might be brats to you one day.
Oh, that's true.
That's true.
Yeah, they might they might want cornrows.
Well, and also, who is he looking up to?
If he would have got those cornrows, he would have never practiced again in his life.
What do you mean?
Why?
That's Allen Iverson.
In the interview, he's like, we're talking about practice?
Four-time All-Star?
We're talking about practice?
All-League?
We're talking about practice?
Yeah, well that's what you aspire to, you know.
Now you understand why there were laws against racial intermarriage because a kid might take offense at something insensitive his parents said.
Oh, and by the way, this creep has to be one of the biggest ingrates of all time, just like Obama.
I love this like, I'm not racist, his parents definitely aren't racist, and that's why there should be laws against racial intermarriage.
And also, the second most hated guy I hate, Obama.
That makes me feel like ingrate is a term that is used against mulattos now.
I feel like this is a racial slur that should have been thrown at me a long time ago.
Wow.
Wow.
Shockstrap.
The ungrateful athlete is a huge trope, right?
The ungrateful black athlete.
Yeah.
Huge trope, uh, because it's somebody who's, who's black, who's, who got every, everything handed to them, right?
Because they make a million dollars in, in, you know, playing a game, playing a children's game.
Yeah.
Um, so they're ungrateful for that opportunity that they have.
If they ever say anything negative or at, you know, act human at all, um, Well, a mixed race person, if they ever talk about racism or any sort of structural systemic issue or whatever, well, they're also being ungrateful because they lucked into the jackpot.
They're half white.
It's so true.
People tell me all the time, listen, if racism was so real, then why did your mom have sex with your dad?
Have you thought about that?
Yeah, every day.
You think about that every day, huh?
Way too much.
Way too much.
And then, not only that, but this biracial athlete was adopted by white parents.
So he's like triply ungrateful to these people.
He's like a triple down for these guys.
He's a triple threat.
Look what everything white people have done for you.
You're basically, he's basically like, you know, he's basically three quarters white now.
Yeah.
Once you add in the, the what million dollar contract, maybe he got, I don't know what he was ever paid.
EFC says race had nothing to do with the corn row hairdo or Kaepernick's hair.
Now for that matter, put that hair on a guy from Madrid and he'd still look ridiculous.
So like, okay, let me finish this comment real quick.
In fact, Kaepernick's comments illustrate perfectly why his charge of racism is so fundamentally false.
The hairdo has nothing to do with skin color and everything to do with culture.
He doesn't understand the difference.
Typical claims of racism.
And it's like, if we go back to the photo that they're talking about, it's just him with natural hair.
Yeah.
And it's like, Oh yeah.
So you put that hair on any other guy and he'd also look fucking stupid.
It's like, yeah, that's, that's what, that's what we're talking.
We're talking about you being racist against people's hair, man.
I don't know.
Like, yeah, a guy from Madrid doesn't, you know, maybe has that hair and like, there probably is some sort of like, you know, cultural bias against frizzy hair in, in Spain, in Spain as well.
It's like, have you ever seen, um, uh, the, the, the Japanese dude to get the perms to have froze?
I think so.
Like that looks pretty wild.
Like that does look pretty.
So there's he's making a bit of an argument.
Yeah.
A pro like this on anybody else does look a little interesting.
But it looks fine on Colin Kaepernick and other black people.
Well, it's just like their hair, man.
I don't like.
Yeah, exactly.
What do you want to do about it?
Yeah, you're you're like giving away too much when you focus on black people's hair.
Yeah, and that's also like why, why you're, cause you're, you're trying to say it's like not race related and stuff like that.
But if that was the case and like, why is it that when, you know, white people get cornrows or, um, or like braided in an extension, why do they, why does the hair fall out when it happened?
What, you know, that's just science.
That's just science.
If I ever did cornrows, my hair wouldn't fall out because I'm, I'm built different, but I would, I would never do it.
So.
True.
Well, I mean, maybe that's what we'll do when we hang out.
Maybe we'll be each other's hair.
Hell yeah, dude.
Oh my God.
Looking like fucking Edward Norton.
When he has his cornrows.
What movie is that in?
Is that the 12th Hour?
I think so.
He looks awesome.
No, it's Stone.
It's Stone.
Did you ever see this movie?
No, I've only seen the picture.
Yeah.
I think it was pretty good.
I think this movie was good.
I think it's kind of like, it's like a precursor to Dirtbag, the like mid 2010s Dirtbag cinema of like Spring Breakers, Beach Bum, Uncut Gems.
Like I think, I think this is, this is, it predates that.
It's on the same wavelength.
I'll go I'll go on the record and say I'm actually okay with white cornrows between like pretty much any time before 1999.
1999 is going to be my hard cut off because then it became kind of funny before it was a genuine like it was a genuine you're probably a pretty hard bodied person.
I mean, probably live a certain lifestyle.
And if I saw you with cornrows, you're probably living a, I probably wasn't going to impress you.
But then in like 1999, you would have done it in a music video to be funny.
Yeah.
You would have, you would have done it for the gram.
Yeah.
That's what I, that's what I would look like.
I want to say, but.
I think so.
So great.
You look, you would look great.
Mia Yokovitch is in this?
That's funny.
I forgot about that.
In 2010, this is though.
Okay.
Mr. Z said, after getting his hair braided, Kaepernick's mother warned that his hair looked not professional and a little thug.
This only suggests that you can take the thug out of the hood, but not the hood out of the thug.
So, it's insane for everybody in here to have the simultaneous, oh, there couldn't possibly ever be racism against a black person.
How absurd.
Right next to every other comment that's like, he was a thug, they knew he was bad since he was born because of the way he looked.
Is there any note of him being born?
Was he born in the hood of hood people?
They're going off of just the fact that he's black.
I don't know too much about his history.
I know he's obviously biracial.
He had a white mother.
The dad wasn't in the picture.
I believe the parents of the mother supported her through pregnancy, but then recommended that she give Calling up for adoption because she was so young she was like 19 or something like that so it doesn't you know I'm sure there's more information out there but it doesn't really what I read didn't say anything about like it being a dire situation that he came from.
No.
Yeah, but that is the thing that was unfortunate.
What happened is people convolute like being hood or and or being poor with being black like that.
People, white people all the time will say like, oh, no, I can say the N word because I grew up in the hood because I grew up broke and it's like.
So so because you're broke, you're like also like that, you're synonymous with being black, it's so it's so fucking like.
It sucks.
It sucks so bad.
That's crazy.
I haven't heard this before, I don't think.
You're saying that people, they don't say, oh, because I came from a black neighborhood, I can say it.
They just say, because I was poor.
I was in the same economic bracket.
They'll say, oh, I had food stamps.
I had food stamps.
Or I went to a black school.
I can, you know, I'm from, you know, I went to like a, or I went to like a black school, but it's like, then you would also probably say black neighborhood or like, but it's either way- - Also, it seems to me like the pass is on an individual basis.
You gotta earn each pass you ever get, if you're that white person.
I don't think it can apply.
If somebody else lets you say it at one point, that doesn't mean you have it now.
And it's not just white people, it's like logic who's who's mixed, looks very white passing gets made for all the time for that.
He's like, no, I'm black.
My brother sold my dad crack.
It's like, what?
What do you mean?
But that is not.
That now it's like, because I've done like a similar version of that.
It's like, no, no, I know I'm black.
I had a very black experience in the sense of like, you know, I, you know, saw my dad get beat up by the cops.
But see how that's different, though?
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's a little bit different, though, because one of them actually is.
You know, is that but it's just funny, he's like, yeah, my that's the real thing.
He's the logic says, please stop calling me white.
My brother sold my dad crack.
That's crazy, yeah.
I hadn't heard that one.
Yeah, it's so wild.
James Gross, I loved this response.
Got a couple of these.
James says, it's funny because, period.
One of his many reasons his parents were racist, period.
They said he would look like a thug, period.
And it would be, let me see right here.
I feel like it would be different if they were like, hey, if you have this hairstyle, people are going to perceive you a different way.
There you go.
That's the kind of conversation that totally makes sense to have with your kid.
But just outright, like, insulting them, calling them a gangbanger because they want a black hairstyle.
It's not good.
Not a good thing.
Yeah.
They should have been like, hey, you want Allen Iverson's hair.
Do you see the unfair treatment he receives because of the way he looks and carries himself?
I just want you to be prepared for that.
Yeah.
That's an easy, reasonable conversation.
But not just like, no, thank you.
You're going to look like a thug.
Like your little kid ass is gonna wear your thug.
I remember when I was a punk emo kid, period.
I wanted to bleach my hair, grow my hair out, and spike it like horns with Elmer's glue, laughing, crying face.
Well, if you were an emo kid, you weren't trying to just bleach your hair.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
You wanted that shit black, baby.
My parents said kind of the same thing, just not thug.
Probably was more like iddoit.
Tony's dying over here.
- Of choking and laughing. - My parents said kind of the same thing.
Just not thug.
Probably was more like iddoit.
So idiot.
But iddoit.
Yeah, the same thing happened to me except it was a different word with a totally different connotation.
Oh my god, dude!
Alright, get it out.
I muted myself, you can... you know.
Oh, I can still hear it.
You can hear it.
You shouldn't be able to.
Now I can't hear you.
Now you're muted.
I like... I laughed in just like the worst possible way.
And I felt it come out of my nose and I wasn't doing it on purpose.
That's the word.
It's cool when you can do it on purpose.
Make it come out of your nose.
Alright, I'm gonna take a piss.
That works out nicely.
All good?
I think.
Okay.
James, my parents said kind of the same thing, just a totally different word.
How do you know they were right?
Did you do it and people made fun of you?
Were you treated the way your parents said?
Right, dot, dot.
You're a terrible human being for dragging your parents down like that, dot, dot.
Sorry, bruh. - How do you know they were right?
Did you do it and people made fun of you?
Like were you treated the way your parents said?
How do you know they were right? - Your parents were wrong to say that to you.
Your parents were wrong to call you an idiot and not let you dye your hair whatever you wanted to do it as.
Yeah, absolutely.
I got really lucky.
My parents always backed that stuff super hard.
I did get to get my hair bleached.
And I got kicked out of summer school for having my hair dyed.
Yeah.
Crazy.
I mean, and it's, and it's like, that's the day, right?
Well, that's the difference between being like, okay, this is going to affect your, how people perceive you.
And that sucks.
That's something you have to think about versus this is going to affect how people perceive you because you look like a thug and that's how we perceive you when you do this hairstyle or color this, your hair this way or whatever.
Yeah, you should just be able to do your hair however you want, man.
And it's funny to be like, it's funny to see these guys identifying with their parents, these reactionary people finally identifying with their parents, because it looks like painful.
Like Aaron Lewis of Stained has that song where he's like, God damn, I think I'm turning into my old man.
When Stain famously, like, was a band built on hating his dad.
How big of an asshole his dad was.
And he was like, oh, I get it.
It was the world that was wrong.
Not my dad.
Yeah.
But that's also why he has to be a piece of shit dad now, so that their kid can go on to make a great project like Stain.
Totally, yeah.
The mama dog.
The mama dog.
It says, I had a guido mullet and my brother a shaved head.
Parents told me I looked like an idiot.
They love that word, idiot.
And that my brother looked like a skinhead.
We grew it back.
Not racist.
Just parents trying to guide us.
And that's funny because I feel like white people with shaved heads, if you went up and said, oh, you look like a skinhead, they would not enjoy that.
They would call that racist as a matter of fact.
Oh, for sure.
Oh, no doubt.
But it's funny.
I like the idea that the parents were like, hey, you look like a skinhead.
And he was like, no, I'm not, I'm not racist.
Like, don't, I don't want to, I don't want to be affiliated with that is what they're saying here.
Yeah, you know, it's like, but that's you didn't care about that, really.
That's not why you grew your hair out.
It's just you probably didn't look good.
Well, your parents told you to, so you so you did.
You had to or whatever, you know.
But yeah, I love that.
Like, yeah, try try telling a white person that they look like a skinhead just because they have a shaved head and see what their first response is.
It'd be cool if they were just like, yeah, I'm a shark.
That's yeah, that's that's the correct answer.
Yeah.
Yeah, Susan says, I'm thinking of all the white boys I knew in the 80s with long hair and their white parents that were constantly screaming at them to get it cut.
Yeah, they sucked!
They're the bad, dorky, square parents.
You're not, like, winning any arguments with this.
Again, they still don't know what racism is.
They have no idea what racism is.
That's a huge problem in this conversation.
Even if your parents are like, you look like a stupid honky cracker, it's still not racist.
However, this specific example is sexist.
It's because of sexism that it's because of anti woman sexism, misogyny that men were getting criticized for having long hair.
Even the men are catching this shit.
That's how, that's how bad it is.
And it's like, yeah, the reason you can't have long hair is because that's what a woman has.
Yeah.
You're just catching strays.
And that's not, that's not good.
That's an obviously not a, and that's why all, even you boomers, even the boomers out there grew their fucking hair out.
Yeah.
It's like a sign of rebellion, you know?
Yeah.
Real stupid.
And they don't understand, like, they just don't understand hair.
You know what I mean?
Like, hair is a very charged thing in race.
And to have the position to think it is, like, negligible or not important is a place of privilege.
Yeah, to not have to worry about it.
You've never been told You've never been told like, oh, your natural hair is a problem, which is something that they face every single day.
I mean, there's high school, there's high schoolers today in America who are getting expelled, expelled or kicked out for having cornrows, for having extensions, for even having a natural hair, a hairstyle that's happening today.
Luckily, it's being pushed against pretty well, but it's happening.
I've always thought all that shit was so stupid.
Dress code, hair code, grooming code.
I've always been against all of that, but it's especially insidious.
It's not just stupid, it's racist.
It's insidious against specific groups of people.
And what's worse, it's like it's not just racist.
It's like it's like a there's a class element embedded into it, too, because a lot of the times natural haircuts are happening and you're seeing that being presented in a way that isn't quote presentable is because of access.
Yeah.
So you're literally giving the access only to the people who can afford.
A very expensive salon to visit.
Yeah, and it gets reinforced in the media, you know, what, what that, you know, in movies or television or whatever.
Or through the fucking Daily Wire, who explicitly chooses to put specific photos in front of people, or Breitbart, put photos in front of people.
Okay, last thing I wanted to talk about on this last thing I wanted to talk about on this episode.
This was sent to me by a number of people.
This is a new Bowling Rock super group.
This is Dickie Barrett, the singer of Mighty Mighty Boss Tones, who are good, by the way, who I do like.
Also members of the Offspring and Street Dogs.
The band is called The Defiant.
I'm reading here from dyingscene.com.
I'm assuming it's about Ska, maybe.
Yeah, maybe.
Screeching Bottle Rocket, I think, is the author.
Oh, so definitely.
Yeah.
Screeching Weasel, are they Ska?
I don't know, actually.
I have no idea what they sound like.
I don't think I've ever heard a Screeching Weasel song.
I think they're like skate punk.
I think that's kind of like...
Skate rock is the worst genre.
No, there's good skate punk.
I'm not talking about skate.
Skate rock and skate punk are, but specific skate rock, like specific.
There's a bunch of like retired skateboarders who have bands now.
Oh no.
And they like sing about skateboarding.
Yeah, but like Motherspeed was a skate punk band.
Yeah.
Skate punk, in my mind, what skate punk means, it just means it's real fast.
It's real fast.
Or they literally say skate into the future.
Yeah, exactly.
Okay, Mighty Mighty Boston singer Dickie Barrett has... Enough about good music.
It's back to the task at hand.
Dickie Barrett has started a new band called The Defiant.
Other members include ex-Offspring drummer Pete Parada, longtime Street Dawgs bassist Johnny Roo, original Smash Mouth guitarist Greg Camp, and The Briggs frontman Joey Briggs.
They finished recording a 12-song debut album and plan to release it later this year.
The band also posted teasers for two tracks, Everybody Loves Me and Know Nothing, which you can check out below, which I believe I will.
But, the Offspring drummer, is this the guy who couldn't get the vaccine?
He couldn't get it?
Right here.
Offspring drummer says he's been booted from band for not getting vaccinated.
Yeah, yeah.
Pete Parada, so that's who this guy is, says he's not, he's been told to not show up at the studio, though he says he has a medical reason for not getting the vaccine.
That don't matter, dude!
That's, that's cool, you know, if you can't get the vaccine, that's understandable, but you gotta realize that other people don't wanna catch it, man.
Yeah, yeah.
They're all like, we all got families.
But you do too.
What do you do?
Oh my God.
Yes.
Are you?
Are you good?
Are you have something that you can't get it for?
You know, tough on the streets.
Look at this guy.
What?
This isn't this.
This story is on his side.
And this is the picture they picked for him.
So he kind of looks like, you know, Wayne style, Wayne static type, but he's just got a chin strap beard.
He doesn't have like a crazy goatee, but they also.
Yeah.
You want to do it?
He also looks like a Culkin.
Like Macaulay Culkin?
He looks like he could be a Culkin.
Like a fourth brother.
He looks like a white guy actor, too.
He looks kind of like Ryan Gosling or something like that.
But his hair, I mean, he's got shaved on the sides and then he's got the hair mustache, which is where maybe you had it slicked back.
Everything else is shaved with a one.
But then the top, Is like four or five inches long.
So maybe it was slicked back at some point.
But right now, what it's doing is what I like to call the hair mustache, where it breaks down the middle and parts parts down the middle.
And it looks like your head has a mustache on top of it.
Yeah, totally.
That's exactly what that is now.
Forever in my head is a hair mustache.
Yeah.
OK.
Pete Perotta, the germ for the offspring, has found out the hard way that some businesses and even bands are drawing a hard line on requiring vaccinations to come back to work.
That's the point of the vaccine.
He posted on his social media Tuesday that he's been ousted from the group because he won't agree to the COVID vaccine.
Beyond being replaced on an upcoming tour, Parada says he's been told not to show up at the studio either, even though he claims to have a legitimate medical reason for not getting... It's so funny!
It's so obvious that you're using this as an excuse.
You don't understand the actual function of the vaccine or the reason that people want to get it.
It's because they don't want to get sick, man.
It's cool.
We totally respect that you have a quote, medical reason to not get the vaccine.
That's, that's totally fine.
No judgment.
We can't play together for the time being.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Tough on the streets.
And I mean, it's not fair for me to request like, Also, you said you have a problem.
I feel like you're I'm not saying trying to out you for whatever your health thing is, but I also feel like you're the kind of person who if you do have a legitimate thing, you're going to let us know about it.
Yeah, so maybe say something.
That's so funny.
He already had a case of COVID and thus believes he has the antibodies, but in any case, he contends his lifelong history of, here he says it, uh, Gillian, Gillian Barr syndrome puts him at a greater risk for side effects from a vaccine, vaccination for adding that he is supportive of anyone who resists getting the vaccine for any number of reasons.
There we go.
Uh, from fear of side effects to distrust of the medical and government establishment.
Yeah, he posted it on Instagram.
Yeah, so, okay, the name of this bowling rock super group is The Defiant.
And their drummer defiantly refused to get the vaccine.
So if that's pointing us in some direction.
I love it.
Keep your ears peeled for relevant lyrics.
Barrett had the following to say about the new project.
Quote, all I've ever really wanted to do is bring people together and share a message of peace, love and unity.
With that in mind, the music created by the Defiant could very well be some of the best I've ever had a hand in making, as well as one of the most important and thoughtful musical experiences of my career.
I'm thrilled to be a part of it.
Listen, we're not trying to separate people like the offspring.
Gotta keep them separated?
What's that about?
This will be Dickie Barrett's first new music since The Boss Tones broke up in early 2022?
What?
That's when they broke up?
Shortly after the release of their last album, When God Was Great.
After months of speculation regarding the band's demise, the singer revealed in a recent interview that the breakup was due in part to his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
This is the fucking, this is, not only is this a bowling rock supergroup, this is like the most diseased supergroup out there.
Let him tour.
That's like the most eco-fascist thing I've ever said, like right there.
Let him tour.
According to the band's website, they plan on touring following their debut album's release.
We'll keep you posted to find out more.
OK, let's hear some of these songs.
I think there's one full single out, and then we might only be able to hear a teaser of another one.
We'll see you next time.
Everybody loves me.
Loves me.
Everybody loves me.
Loves me.
I think he said, I'm pushing your buttons.
And I think so.
That's his vocals?
Whose vocals are those?
Yeah, that's Dickie Barrett at the beginning.
Yeah.
He's got an insane voice, man.
There's some really good Mighty Mighty Boston songs.
Oh, yeah, totally.
Oh, just just for the record, according to the to the the Julian Barr Syndrome Association, according with COVID-19 concerns, they say they actually like they say they encourage it, actually.
But, you know, whatever.
That wasn't Hey, this is like the dumb guy we didn't start the fire I love it.
These rules.
I mean, I'm still not against anything they're talking about so far.
We are a patriotic punk slash metal crossover band.
Fuck you.
You're definitely not a crossover band.
Fuck off.
Amazing.
A patriotic punk.
We're called The Defiant.
We love America.
I mean, that's the most punk rock thing to do now, right?
Right.
Warning.
This is posted in 2022 by The Defiant.
Warning, if you get a link called, quote, Justin Bieber sings Christmas carols, don't open it.
It's a link to Justin Bieber singing Christmas carols.
Fucking yeah.
I mean, got their ass.
Like, I mean, that's a good joke.
Um, whenever I go to Defiant, uh, the Defiant show and they say, yeah, let me hear you scream to the audience.
I say, why don't you play a Taylor Swift track?
That'd get me screaming.
That'd get me screaming, yeah.
In pain.
Get it?
Oh, they have, they have, uh, what's her name from Sound of Music?
Uh, playing Fuck You, I Won't Do What You Tell Me.
Oh, they have ZZ Top playing Give Me All Your Stuffin', All Your Yams and Biscuits, too?
It's a Thanksgiving meme?
Meme?
Awesome.
Punk rocker?
A leather jacket on a rocking chair?
Yeah, yeah.
This is amazing.
It's all pretty wholesome.
It's all normie memes.
It's the most normie meme ever.
I love that.
I love that.
That's amazing.
Wow, maybe these guys are alright.
Yeah, maybe they are cool.
Maybe America's not so bad.
Yeah.
Okay.
So this, I think I like this Defiant better.
I like them.
I think so.
The St.
Petersburg crossover Defiant.
That's funny.
There's a YouTube interview with Tim Pool, the drummer, Pete Paratus.
Oh my God.
This is good because we have a rocker interviewing him.
So that's good.
A fellow musician is going to be able to ask more relevant questions.
What are you guys tuned to?
You guys tuned to 432 or what?
You guys aren't playing 440 hertz, right?
Yeah.
Basically says.
If you deviate from leftist economic positions, the left will not care, right?
If you deviate from their social positions in any way, you are right wing.
Yeah.
So what this says is.
I, man, it's, I've never like watched Tim Pool really.
I just kind of know like when he does something extra stupid on social media.
He just said if leftists, if you don't follow leftist economic theory, the leftists don't care.
But if you deviate on social issues, that's when they care.
It's like, maybe, do you realize you're not talking about leftists now?
No way.
It's kind of the cool thing.
You just call anybody.
You're doing what he's saying they're doing.
You call anybody to the left of you a leftist.
Yeah.
I mean, it's, it's deliberate.
He's talking about Democrats, like Democrats.
Right.
But it's, it's, yeah.
But it's beneficial for them to obfuscate or, uh, conflate Democrats with leftists because they could paint, you know, they could paint them both as like socialists and as hypocrites in the same sentence.
So I don't know why you're pointing out, you probably shouldn't be picking apart this difference for people.
Um, but anyway, The left and the right is not about economics anymore.
It's not socialist and capitalist.
It's culture war.
Do you march in lockstep with us or not?
It's culture war that you're doing.
I don't know, man.
And that's what I try to point out to some people that I know.
He does have the hair mustache.
He's got like a mohawk question mark.
I haven't seen the back of his head yet, but it's like a stripe down the top of his head, but it's slicked back.
Best case scenario, you look like you sing for Tool.
Or Rammstein.
Or Rammstein.
That's like the tippy top of any sort of good that's going to come out of this haircut.
Well, like, for me, the siren started going off in 2020, or leading up to that, where everybody was, well, it's blue no matter who.
And, like, we'd be in the primaries, and we'd be trying to have conversations.
I got scared by blue no matter who.
It scared me away from the Democrats.
I mean, yeah, me too, bro.
Like, plenty of people thought that I was stupid.
Yeah.
Everyone hated that.
Who are you voting for?
You know, who do you, who do you like?
And it's like, doesn't matter.
Blue no matter who, we got to get Trump out.
And I was like, but right now is when you got to say, like, are you really telling me you're just going to let the party pick your person?
And you know, I'm naive.
All this is so stupid because it's like whoever you were talking about, whoever you were talking to had no power to actually do that.
Were you talking to like a democratic con caucus member?
Like were you, were you talking to one of the electoral college?
Were you talking to, Anybody who would actually have any control over that?
Like anybody in the infrastructure or whatever?
Because if you were, why were you friends with that person in the first place?
They're probably a bad person.
Again, it's like, well, no.
Also, you weren't having these conversations.
You were having these arguments in your head on Facebook or by yourself with your friends.
But this never really happened.
Or... Sorry.
No, you never asked anyone, who are you voting for?
And they said, Blue no matter who, bro.
That never happened.
You're right in a way in that it never happened in the real world.
You just got into arguments with strangers online because you're the drummer for Offspring and you don't have a real job.
So you just argued with strangers online.
I don't know if this is really the case.
I don't have a hard time believing it would be though.
Because he's just talking about, like, annoying Democrats on Twitter or whatever.
It's like, yeah, you don't have to vote blue no matter who, man.
You don't have to listen to those people.
I don't know.
Yeah, it's fine.
It doesn't really matter either way, but you don't have to.
I never thought that anyone had a choice anyway, but then watching Bernie... It's so funny to be, like, accosted by BlueWave19767534 saying blue no matter who and being, like, Well, I don't think so, you know?
I think I should be able to vote for whoever I want!
Yeah, yeah.
He's about to go Bernie though.
He's about to go Bernie right now on us.
Probably.
Just get completely railroaded, like, media blackout until he dropped out and then like, oh yeah, please come on and tell us about your endorsement of Joe Biden.
I know!
Anyway, but then watching Bernie just get completely railroaded, like, media blackout until he dropped out and then like, oh yeah.
Bernie would have made you get the vaccine even harder, dude.
Yeah.
Bernie would have locked your ass up.
He would have put you on house arrest, bro.
No, I don't know.
I don't, I don't, I actually don't know.
I mean, I feel like Bernie was better on COVID, but I don't, I don't really know.
I think so.
Yeah, please come on and tell us about your endorsement of Joe Biden.
I know, right?
But I try to point out to people.
Wow.
It's almost like the farthest actual left politician experienced a systemic pushback from the Democrats who you're, you're pretending are leftist.
Sorry.
I, I know I didn't mean to put this interview on a fucking nitpick it and break it down, but it's just, it's insane that this is the kind of, we're only a minute and 15 seconds in.
I just wanted to hear a song.
Yeah.
Look at his stupid mouth.
He has one of those dumb mouths.
You just saw his little dumb first mouth and you just knew he was like a little idiot.
Look at it.
The poor guy has like no upper lip at all.
You need to grow a mustache, for sure.
Take the one off the top of your head and put it on your face.
Put it on your face, yeah.
Man, I swear I read the lyrics, but whatever.
Let's hear the music again for Everybody Loves Me.
Everybody Loves Me Everybody loves me.
Loves me.
Sounds pretty bowling, Rob.
They're being cheeky.
Yeah.
Yeah, very Bowling Rock.
Sounds pretty fun-loving and a little, I mean, the song title itself is ironic.
I think we got a good case for Bowling Rock here.
I like it.
I think they might be the headliners of the Bowling Rock Bowling Rock Fest.
Shit.
We'll call it Punk Rock Bowling.
Alright, that's it for the episode.
Thanks for supporting the show.
Why don't we go out here with a little Someday I Suppose by the Mighty Mighty Bostones.
