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Aug. 19, 2023 - The Michael Knowles Show
52:45
The Little Mermaid Is Racist: YES or NO with Eric July

Eric July joins the show to answer the tough questions and talk about his new comic book ISOM #2.

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Time Text
Every Hollywood superhero moving forward will be required to have at least one LGBTQ character shoved into the story.
What do you mean moving forward?
We're already there, buddy.
As occasionally happens on this show,
maybe more than ever in this episode, though, I am completely out of my depth because today I will be playing the yes or no game with my friend Eric July, the biggest comic book maven on the right, and one of the biggest ones in the country, frankly, Founder of Ripaverse, the founder of Being Libertarian, we won't hold that against him though, and now a participant in Yes or no.
Get your copy of Yes or No over at dailywire.com slash shop.
We have sold about a bazillion copies of this game, and it's still not as many as the number of comic books that Eric has sold.
So head on over right now, dailywire.com slash shop.
The most anticipated follow-up to the best-selling game is finally here.
The Yes or No Conspiracy Expansion Pack is here!
If you haven't gotten the full Yes or No game, Eric, thank you for coming in.
Oh, of course, man.
I'm actually stoked to play this.
- Fly shop, get yours, and the all new Yes or No Conspiracy expansion pack.
Play responsibly.
Eric, thank you for coming in. - Oh, of course, man.
I'm actually stoked to play this. - So, the first time I ever even heard about you, my producer said, "Here's this guy, you should have money." I was like, wow, that sounds so interesting.
But I never, man, I don't know anything about comic books.
I don't, there's no, I don't think the audience is going to really be there for that.
But whatever, let's try it out.
And then you were one of the fan favorites of all time of the show.
So I'm very excited.
Here we go.
I hate all comic book movies.
Oh, Eric, this is not starting off well for you.
What?
I hate almost all comic book movies.
So I was close.
I liked Logan.
And to a lesser degree, I liked Dark Knight.
I didn't like Dark Knight as much as everybody liked Dark Knight.
I thought it was fine.
I enjoyed it.
I really liked Logan.
Is it because it's more dark-ish?
Because it's a cowboy movie.
Logan, the fact that it was a superhero movie was kind of tangential.
You know what I'm saying?
Which I guess the same thing is true of Dark Knight, but the other ones like Captain Marvel America 17 with some chicks batting off feminism, I can't- Nobody wants that.
Nobody wants that.
It's not just me, everybody hates that.
I'm right there with you on that.
Most of them are terrible.
I'll be the first to tell you that.
I'm not the biggest fan of a lot of these.
They're not really that good, but I can deal with most of them, let's just say that.
Have you seen any of the Netflix ones that were like Daredevil?
If you like Logan and Dark Knight, you've never seen... I heard Daredevil was good, though.
I think if you like Logan and you like Dark Knight, I think Daredevil might be of your sport.
I want to see the Ripaverse studio movies.
That's what I want to see coming.
Hey, man, at this rate, it might happen sooner than later.
It might.
Like, seriously.
It actually might happen sooner or later.
Man, alright.
You're up.
Let's do it.
Political commentary is the lowest form of art.
Hmm.
Hmm.
Let's say you would say no.
Or would you say yes?
I would say that, to me, it brings out the ugly in people.
And I'm not the biggest fan of it.
People know that.
I think it's kind of in the title.
But I do think there's something to be said for the people that are able to galvanize troops.
I think that's a, that's an art net.
If you can like, no matter what it is.
But is it the lowest?
I agree there's an art net, but is it the lowest?
That is... It's down there.
It's down there.
It's definitely down there.
It's down there.
It's for sure down there.
Do you know why I say... So you're right.
I don't think it's the lowest form of art.
But the only reason?
Slam poetry.
That is obviously a lower form of art than even the worst political commentary.
Okay.
I can see that.
I'm actually following you on that one.
I'm actually following you on that one.
I'll drink anyway, though.
So you know the rules.
The rule is if you get it wrong, you have to drink.
And if you get it right, you get to drink.
Okay.
Okay.
That works for me.
It was just a coincidence that the major opponents of the Federal Reserve died when the Titanic sank in 1912.
Hmm.
Hmm.
It was just a coincidence.
So I'll tell you what.
I... You're right.
I soft lean, yes, it was a coincidence.
But I'll tell you, man, I don't really like coincidences.
I find them delightful, but I often see intention behind coincidences.
Yes.
I mean...
I can actually see where it is a coincidence.
And I'm the libertarian here, so I'm- Yeah, you're supposed to be- I know, that's where I'm supposed to be.
But I don't know if the guys that were advocating this knew just how rotten it was going to be years, years beyond.
Because you think of it even in the context of right now.
A lot of people are economically illiterate.
Absolutely.
We accept that.
However, you know, people tend to kind of grow out of that sometimes.
I mean, what's the old saying?
You're a conservative.
If you're not a liberal by the time you're 17, you don't have a heart.
And if you're not a conservative by 30, you don't have a brain.
Exactly.
So considering that, I like to think that even the people that were advocates of it didn't know how rotten it actually was.
And I mean, the people that were against it probably didn't understand just how bad it was going to, let's say, impact the economy, especially going to.
1913 sucked because you didn't just have that.
You had the income taxes implemented then that same year.
It's just a terrible year.
Well, what happened to the income tax, guys?
We need to figure that out.
And the Titanic.
Yeah.
Well, that was 1912, I think, but it was right around that time.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, I really...
I like your take on it, because it's rosy in that you're giving the benefit of the doubt.
Which I shouldn't be doing.
Yeah, but no, it's very charitable.
I probably shouldn't be doing that, to be fair.
Fine, I'll say it.
The Little Mermaid was hot garbage.
And it should only be shown to inmates of Guantanamo Bay for interrogation purposes.
What kind of information are we going to get out of them?
Okay, so hold on, but now you gotta... This is vague.
Are we talking about the original Little Mermaid or the new one?
No, we have to talk about the new one.
It's the new one, okay.
Let's make it apply to the new one.
So we're saying that, yeah.
Now, I did not see it, and I read like half a news article about it, but that's not going to stop me from having a very strong opinion on the subject.
And yes, I totally agree with that, and it's especially painful because the original Little Mermaid, which came out when I was four or something, I not only loved it, I loved her.
She was very hot.
Little Mermaid, alright, the recent one, yeah, I think everybody, even the people that were defending it, they have to accept, I mean, it doesn't matter if they think it was great or it sucked anyway because it lost all that money, or it's gonna lose all this money.
So at the end of the day, I mean, it's terrible.
Nonetheless...
I don't even understand.
I don't know if you remember.
What's the actress's name?
Halle Bailey or something.
I think that's the lead actress's name for the new Little Mermaid, right?
Is Halle Bailey different than Halle?
Halle Bailey, yes.
They're two different.
I get them.
I don't know.
I haven't seen a movie in a while.
So she went on to say that she was obviously influenced by the original Little Mermaid.
She loved it.
But then she flipped, and then out of nowhere, she's talking about how, well, the little black and brown boys can see, and they can finally be influenced and all that.
I'm like, well, you still somehow got something out of it.
I mean, when you were young, despite it being a fair-skinned Little Mermaid, there's nothing wrong with that.
I mean, to be honest, I can't think of anything whiter than a Danish fairy tale.
Well, so this is a big debate, though, because that was my take, and I guess that still basically remains my take.
It's Han Christian Anderson, you know, Little Mermaid is a white character, and so they're just race-switching to be, you know, provocative politically.
My friend Spencer Clavin had a different take.
He said that actually the Little Mermaid should be black, even though it's written by a Danish guy.
Okay.
Because where is the mermaid being spotted?
The mermaid's being spotted somewhere in the Caribbean.
And so, you know, you don't buy it.
No, I'm sorry.
I will say that definitely African folklore has mermaids.
Why didn't they just do those if they really wanted to tell one of those stories?
Now, did you hear?
There's a story from Columbus's Voyage where he sees a mermaid.
And he writes about this.
Okay.
And the libs today, they say, well, he saw a manatee.
He mistook a manatee for a mermaid.
And I thought, I don't know, man.
Unless that guy was blind, I wouldn't mistake a manatee.
How do you mess that one up, right?
Yeah.
And they're all modern libs, so they don't believe in any fun, mystical stuff.
But I don't know.
Like, look, I don't know, maybe the guy saw a mermaid, is what I'm saying.
I guess it could happen.
I don't know, people are talking about seeing aliens, why can't they see a mermaid?
Yeah, exactly, exactly.
All right.
Although most are charlatans, some psychics are real and can actually see and predict someone's future.
You're gonna say no, and you're gonna get mine incorrect, Michael.
What?!
Oh yeah, you're gonna have to explain yourself.
I don't know, I think there's more...
In heaven and earth than is dreamt of in our philosophy, Horatio.
I think some of these guys, look, they're all dealing with the devil.
I mean, it's all bad stuff.
Okay.
But like when the Bible says, the Bible says, don't consult astrologers.
Don't consult these mediums and stuff.
But I don't think the Bible says that because it's like they're a bunch of dumb idiots and they're charlatans who are going to steal your money.
I think the Bible says that because it's real and sometimes these, maybe a lot of them are charlatans, but maybe sometimes that you actually can do it and that it's demonic.
Never heard it expressed like that.
I thought for sure, definitely going the biblical route, you would have for sure said the opposite.
But putting it that way, I guess I can kind of see where you're coming from.
So you're looking at it from the perspective of that they exist, and because you can't separate what is truth from what is false, And because it compromises your free will.
So if you go to a psychic and the psychic says, you know, you're going to die on Thursday.
Okay.
Then, you know, if you predict the future, you read the stars or whatever, you're compromising your free will and you're not trusting in God's providence.
You're trying to assert control over the order of things.
Can you even see this in the Bible in the Witch of Endor?
When Saul, who says, no more necromancy, you know, and he goes to the Witch of Endor and he's like, I need to talk to some dead people.
And she goes, nah, King Saul said we can't do that anymore.
And he's like, yeah, don't worry about King Saul.
I'll take care of him.
And she goes, okay, whatever.
And then she conjures up the ghost of Samuel.
But what's real, and look, this is just my interpretation of this scene, but she seems kind of surprised that she actually conjured up this ghost.
Okay.
Which makes me wonder, is she mostly a charlatan?
But then when the ghost comes up, she's like, oh, shoot, man, I actually conjured a ghost.
Pulled this off, type of.
I guess I could see that.
I mean, Bible's interesting.
I definitely read, you know, read a lot more of it as an adult.
And you start to pick up things.
There's a little, even a little stuff about, oh, everybody has their position on dinosaurs.
And you'll hear in the Bible, it's these like massive animals that are around.
It's like, well, maybe, I mean, I don't think they use the term dinosaur, but maybe that was what they were referring to.
So I can see that.
Yeah, OK.
All right.
Now, I don't... I'm just going to choose to drink on that one.
Yeah.
All right.
A parallel economy is the only way forward for non-leftists today.
And I... Yeah, that's a no-brainer.
I think, for me, it's... There's no... It's not even up for dispute.
You know, I think there's a lot of pushback.
I think people... They have some sort of... How do I dare explain this?
The status quo comes with its set of familiarity as well as comfort, right?
And so I can understand and empathize with people that believe that there's something to salvage there.
But I think for non-leftists, if we're going to be able to definitely be creative and to be able to do it freely, the parallel economy is the only answer.
Of course.
I mean, I'm trying to think, what would you and I be doing right now if we didn't bet on the parallel economy?
And if the parallel economy didn't exist?
I actually don't even know.
I don't have that many hard skills.
I'd be in Hollywood, like, pushing a broomstick.
It'd be virtual.
I mean, you'd get knocked down, you know, definitely as people have become so ideologically obsessed.
You'd be knocked down at every turn.
Even if you did make any general stride, you'd be knocked down.
There's a lot of pushback on this, though.
I think there's a lot of folks that do believe that the status quo is worth salvaging.
So, you know, get a little nostalgia bait, especially with a lot of modern, like, creative stuff.
People are still clinging on to that idea that there will be room for us.
But here's the thing.
I'll use the pushing a broomstick in Hollywood example.
So a lot of people, if you're in Hollywood, that's what you do.
You start in the mail room, or you start doing these really basic jobs.
But it used to be you would move up and you'd be building towards something.
And what you're really trying to build toward is to help create this beautiful art or some kind of vision that you really believe in.
But now you go through all the hassle of pushing a broom, working in the mailroom.
For what payoffs?
So that you can push some awful message and some ugly, dumb art that the audience doesn't even want to buy?
Why wouldn't you just go start your own comic book and sell a bazillion copies?
That's the only way forward.
And I think people need to take that seriously as an option.
Because, you know, we've had a lot of people, you know, talking about ISOM2, for example, with Gabe L. Taibb and Cliff Richards.
These are former Marvel and DC guys.
You know, they tell me all the time how much fun that they're having with working with these sort of projects because it's more fulfilling than it ever had been working for some soulless sort of mega corporate entity.
So with that being said, these guys feel like they're doing their best work.
You know, so I think even if you just look at it just from the sense of if you're a creative person, you want to entertain people, whatever it is that you want to do, you really have to consider the parallel economy as really the only option because that's the only place that you can be free to create.
Then you'd be rewarded, too.
Or you'll fail, but you could fail on anything.
But at least here, you're controlling the audience.
I agree.
You're serving the audience.
The audience kind of controls you, actually, but you're serving a real audience.
There's no mediator.
The I-S-O-M, I sum, comic book, and its main character are attacked by the left primarily because the main character is black and the left is racist.
That's the... So primarily, that's why.
It's not the only reason.
Yeah.
Primarily?
Primarily.
I would say that, yeah, you're correct.
The reason being is because of what all that it means.
Like, the book's existence, the company's existence alone, shatters everything that they not only believed about me, but they more importantly believed about the audience.
So it nullified them of whatever argument.
The arguments that were, well, people have an issue with black characters.
No, that was never the issue, right?
Or people don't like to see black people be creative.
No, that was never the problem.
So you see all that stuff get knocked down, and that's why they're so aggravated and angry.
And the racism, the legitimate racism, actually comes from the box.
Yeah.
Look, I'll say this here on the record.
I have not been, I mean, I've had my hot takes politically, right?
We've all had those, and you get your pushback.
Nothing has gotten me pushback, and this is apolitical more than anything.
Nothing has gotten me more pushback Then creating my own comic book company based on this character, the first character that we launched being Isom.
But also, I've not been called any names remotely to what, I mean I have to Google some of this stuff that I get called from these guys who apparently are, they claim to be fist in the air, pro black, all of this stuff.
Yeah that stuff went out the window pretty early.
Yeah, of course, of course.
Because that's really what gets the ire up.
It's not so much the perspicacity of your insight.
It's not so much the precision of your attack and rhetoric.
It's success.
When you're successful, that's what really gets them the most.
Okay, you're up.
I'm up.
Oh man, this is good.
Christopher Nolan is overrated. - Mr. July, I'm afraid you're gonna have to take a little sip of your Diet Coke.
I think he is, I'm not saying he's totally without talent.
With the movies that you say that you like.
I know, I know, but he's still, those movies are very good.
He's a very fine director, especially for comic book movies.
They talk about this guy like he walks on water.
They talk about him like he's Orson Welles.
They talk about him like he's Coppola or something.
He's a fine movie maker, but I just think, if he were to make Citizen Kane, if you put him to make The Godfather or On the Waterfront or something like that, I wouldn't be, he wouldn't be up to the task.
Okay, for me- Did I get that right?
Wow, okay, huh?
Okay, the reason being, the reason being is because people look at what he, like if we talk about the movies that you were just referencing, as that being the definitive version of those characters, and they're not.
They're not.
They're not.
Too much artistic license.
Far too much.
I mean, top to bottom, really.
This replies really to everybody that's been in either of those movies.
That doesn't mean that, if you look at it isolated, that they aren't good.
So I don't want anybody thinking that I'm saying they suck.
No.
But that's where, to me, they overrated, because now, even to this day, people look at, and they look at, like, what's the one of the greatest comic book movies, or trilogies, or whatever, what do they point to?
The Dark Knight.
Okay, right there.
And I would say, maybe if you look at it in isolation, but if you're talking about adaptations, no, no.
I'm sorry, I can't go that far.
Right, because I think even of, like, I'll just use the Joker.
Of course, that's the main one.
And you're just like, man, that was an interesting movie, I enjoyed it, there were very memorable scenes, especially at the end.
But that's not the Joker.
I didn't know it isn't.
That's just like a crazy guy.
It's interesting to watch a movie about a crazy guy.
Yeah, that's what it is.
In movies and TV, men are held to a more unrealistic body standard than women.
You know, it's like us men, man, we just don't get enough.
No, look, man, I'd love to complain as much as I can. I'd love to complain as much as I can.
Okay.
But, no, you can be a kind of dad bod guy and still get away with it.
That was especially true in the 50s, when even the most fit guys were just kind of fat.
Yeah.
But it's even true now.
A guy can kind of get away with it.
I'm thinking of, obviously, older actors can really get away with it, but even younger guys.
I mean, Leo's gone through dad bod phases, right?
Yeah, yeah.
And whereas for women, They either need to be cartoonishly ugly, or they need to be very hot. - I'll say this.
I think men look at, definitely like in a superhero realm, they look at it different than what women do, right?
So when, for whatever reason, women see a very attractive, even in a comic book, right?
It's like, oh, it's unrealistic.
Where are her organs, they'll say, if she is fit.
And for us, it was just different.
We would see He-Man, and he's jacked to the deals.
And a lot of dudes looked at it like, I want to get I want to get buffed up, you know what I mean?
That's something to strive for.
And I think still to this day, when you look at some of these anime, Goku has muscles where a guy, I don't know if he can actually really get there.
But it's still like, oh, I can be that person.
That's how they look at it.
So I think it's just a difference in approach.
We just don't have an issue.
Most men don't have an issue with seeing it versus women when they see a lot of female characters.
Nobody can look like that.
I could look at a modern Batman, who's built up like the craziest muscle man ever, and just think, like, okay, well, man, that's Batman, that's fine.
But you think, you're right, in comic book movies, the men tend to be pretty jacked, except for Spider-Man.
Yeah, he seems lean.
Parker's kind of like a lean, like, weeby kind of guy, you know?
Yeah, that's true, that's a good point.
Okay.
I'll choose to drink for that.
Okay.
You're up.
In general, the left wins more libertarians over than the right does.
You're going to say no, but I am going to say yes.
And if you had asked me this question seven years ago, I would have said no.
The right gets more libertarians.
Because libertarians cut, they're right libertarians and left libertarians, right?
I would have said the right gets more libertarians.
Because that was the era of the real hardcore libertarian types, the Ron Paul people, and the kind of lalbertarian, internet, fashionable, I just want to be liked libertarian types.
They still went along with Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan or whatever.
Trump, I think, broke that, and I think you had a lot of libertarian or libertarian-adjacent outlets who just hated this guy so much, and in part because he was more statist and more authoritarian than the libertarian types present themselves as, at least, that they tended to go a little bit more either third party, Evan McMullin, Egg McMuffin-type guy in 2016, or even some of them now are openly Democrat.
I'll say that I think that you're at least correct that in 2016 there were a lot of people that claimed to be Libertarians that proved that they weren't actually that.
It was more of, and I think a lot of them fit the bill of the latter position it is that you mentioned, where you have Libertarians or people claiming to be that, that more so use it on some edgelord stuff.
Like, hey, I just don't want to be lumped in with these guys or that guy, so I'm just I'm above it all.
- Oh, I'm cool. - And I think that the only reason why I would say that I would kind of detach myself from that idea is because I look at, while that was true, we saw a shift like in the Libertarian Party as an example where the Mises Caucus guys took the entire party over.
And they were like, you left us all up out of here.
And they are still screeching and screaming about that right now.
Like, oh my God, look at a little fascist now run a Libertarian Party, because you have actual people that actually believe in Libertarianism running it.
And unfortunately, and I actually thank Trump in that regard, because he showed these people are more libertine than anything, they're more hedonistic.
Right, than anything.
They don't actually value liberty by any means.
Yeah, that's such a good point.
And this is the other thing I've noticed.
It's why I can never totally discard the libertarians, is the real hardcore types, not the Lalberts, not the libertines, but the real hardcore libertarians, I disagree with them on their premises But I often agree with them on many of their conclusions.
It's sort of like the Mormons to me.
You know, the Mormons, I don't buy the premises of the religion.
And yet when I look at the outcomes of Mormon societies, I agree with a lot of what they're doing, right?
And I think there's, yeah, the purging of the Lalberts, the purging of the Squishes.
That can be very helpful.
Oh yeah, most definitely.
- I'll drink to that anyway. - I'll drink, yeah, yeah. - The main reason the left is so focused on destroying superheroes and rewriting their origins is because many of the traditional heroes reflect Christian values.
For example, with great power comes great responsibility, Uncle Ben, and from everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded, St.
St. Luke chapter 12, verse 48.
Yeah, okay, I agree with that.
Okay.
Yeah, I can agree with it, too.
It was certainly a lot more traditional back in the day.
That's it.
Yeah, that's more the term that I would certainly use with a lot of these characters.
I mean, even with Superman, you know, truth, justice, and the American way, they kind of went back on it.
Now they're trying to bring it back.
I think they realized how much of a terrible idea it was to try to drop some of that rhetoric.
I mean, what did they say in the movie?
This was like 15 years ago.
They said, now it's going to be truth, justice, and all that other stuff.
It took out the American way.
Yeah, most definitely.
Now they'd probably take out Truth and Justice.
Oh, I would say, I mean at this rate, definitely the direction that they're going, I don't know if you know, I don't remember if we talked about this when we discussed this last year, how now Superman's son is gay.
Yeah, that's a thing.
It's out of nowhere.
They didn't stop telling you about it either.
They made sure that everybody knew just how gay.
So who's the Lois Lane of the gay super junior?
He has neon colored hair, like seriously, I'm not even joking.
Leroy Lane?
Is it Lewis Lane?
Some guy that has neon colored hair.
Dennis Rodman.
I think Dennis Rodman would be more manly than that.
The constant news of aliens is a distraction and not proof of life from a galaxy far away.
Eric, you're going to be hammered on death.
What?!
Yeah, bro, it's a complete distraction, and it's a distraction either by the government, because you notice whenever there's a hot political story, like they're indicting the leader of the opposition, all of a sudden these UFOs start popping up everywhere.
But I don't even buy that totally.
I mean, the government's always trying to distract us with all sorts of nonsense, but it's a distraction by demons who are here to lure us away.
When you see Like weird flickerings that defy all the laws of gravity that don't really make any sense based on everything we know about physics and even light, even the speed of light.
And they're making these 90 degree turns in the sea at like 1,000 knots or whatever, I don't know, whatever, g-forces that totally exceed expectation.
It's because it's demons, man.
So you think, be it from the UFOs, Or the unidentified things.
Paranormal.
You think it's demons.
Less aliens, more demonic.
Yeah, it's demonic in the sense that it's not corporeal.
I think that the only rational soul in the created universe with a body is us.
I think we are the pinnacle of creation.
Creation is for us.
That's why we don't, you know, like a dog doesn't have a rational soul.
That's why we don't put him on trial for biting people.
And I don't think there's some superhuman Martian type thing out there somewhere either.
I think it's really, really us.
But there are intelligences that are more intelligent than us.
Just as there are things that are purely physical and not intelligent, like a rock, there are things that are purely intellect and not body, like angels and demons and spiritual things.
And we all, I know this sounds kind of kooky in the modern era, but You know, we all acknowledge spiritual reality, because we say there's morality, we say that there is metaphysics like hope and dreams and loves and all that.
So, if you believe that God exists at all, right, what you're saying is that God the Father is metaphysical.
He doesn't have a body.
And so, we're granting that there is at least one intelligence that is not corporeal.
And then if you believe that, then you might believe, whether through your natural reason or more likely through revelation, that there are other intelligences that are not corporeal, and I think that's what people are seeing in the sky.
Man, I can go either way on that, or I can say a little bit of both.
I do for sure believe that there are demons.
I think that there are things that exist that are here, that have been here, and it's far more difficult to explain.
However, I still think that there's an idea of something beyond what we know to be our planet that has something.
Any kind of life or intelligent life?
I think intelligent life.
Maybe not intelligent enough, because I look at it like, you know, Earth, like, we have these people that we like to think are intelligent, right?
And we haven't quite figured out how to even navigate outside of Earth.
It's like America, frankly.
Yeah, to be fair, we haven't figured that out.
So, I'd imagine that there may be intelligent life that also Has not been able to crack the code on that.
Okay.
So, they're contained to their geographical area.
Now, as far as them coming here, which they would have to be uber smart, right, to be able to figure out how to leave where they're at to get here, that's where I think the debate more so needs to be had.
And I don't know if we've seen anything that's that smart.
Because, you know, often I was talking about this with a buddy not too long ago.
You think about these guys, they see a certain thing, and it's like, hey, this is an alien, right, and he's hiding behind some Car or something.
I'm like, I don't know if they were that intelligent to figure out how to get here.
Couldn't they?
You know, would they be able to?
Why on earth, that's how they would react?
I don't know about that.
Yeah, that you just, they like, are in your backyard.
Yeah.
Scampering away.
I don't really buy that.
Yeah, that's my thing.
Okay, who's up?
I think it's you.
Alright, I've had three sips of my martini.
I didn't have lunch today though, that's why.
RFK.
Junior, I assume.
All right.
That winning part is the key.
Not a chance.
No.
I'm not saying it's not a chance that, you know, some crazy world Trump picks Bobby Kennedy, they run, and they win somehow.
On the winning ticket.
Not a chance.
No.
I'm not saying it's not a chance that, you know, some crazy world, Trump picks Bobby Kennedy, they run, and they win somehow.
I'm not saying that can't happen.
Today, if you said odds are who wins the presidency 2020.
Joe Biden.
I mean, they kind of scooted him in there, right?
And he's, we can think that he's as crazy and old as all get out.
But if you don't think they would pull the stop, they already pulled all the stops they could last time.
With this, they especially would.
So I just can't, I can't see it.
I'd like to think that maybe, but that's me being too optimistic about it.
If I'm going to be rational about this situation, considering all evidence, there's no way that they would even allow that to happen.
That's the thing, they found, the other day, they found 300 mail-in ballots from 2020 in a locker in Michigan.
And I know all the Uniparty says, we're not allowed to ever raise any, I'm not raising any questions!
It was, the 2020 election was the most secure election ever in all the history of democracy.
But, I think, man, there's probably a lot of lockers in Michigan.
Probably a few in Pennsylvania, too.
There'll be a lot more this go around, that's for sure.
Alright, you're up.
Plato was clearly on shrooms when he said Atlantis was a real place.
Well, hold on.
I don't want to give... I'm not very subtle.
Okay, so... Plato was on shrooms.
Give me a break.
You know, there were a lot of weird druggy cults back in ancient Greece, but Plato was not among them.
Okay.
And Atlantis maybe was real.
What's your take?
What did they say as far as the sea?
They say, what is it, 5% of it has been actually discovered, right?
And we know that there's all sorts of things that, I mean, through the years, you know, new thing that got discovered in the sea, like this creature might've looked like this, and it's like, we clearly haven't seen everything.
And we were just talking about mermaids earlier on, so.
Yeah.
Maybe that's where they're at.
We haven't seen, I mean, to you, not that we haven't seen everything, we haven't seen anything.
We have not really explored the ocean.
I was talking to a friend of mine, there was a tragedy, obviously, in the ocean a little while ago.
Back when it was unclear if the people in that submersible would still be alive or not.
And I asked a friend who was a special forces guy, I said, is there any way to locate them?
He goes, man, it's the ocean.
Like, you can't, it's the ocean.
You can't find stuff in the ocean, basically.
Like, wow, you're in the Navy.
You're supposed to know.
But it's just, we talk about exploring outer space.
when would we even begin to start seriously making a dent into exploring the ocean? - That's true. - That's actually an even better point.
I mean, you look at, it might, maybe that's the, you deal with finding what's in the ocean before you even explore that idea.
Yeah.
I mean, because it has a lot, I don't want to say similarities, but as far as the pressure and all, that's all stuff that you deal with if you went to space as well.
But yeah, it's here, you know, and we haven't figured out how to actually navigate it.
And because of that, I believe definitely deep down there are some probably crazy animals out there, man.
Yeah.
Insane ones.
Hot mermaids.
I think we both know.
Every Hollywood superhero moving forward will be required to have at least one LGBTQ character shoved into the story.
Uh, yeah.
What do you mean moving forward?
We're already there, buddy.
We're already there.
Oh, hands down.
I mean, they're not even able to get nominated for certain awards.
Unless they check these boxes, right?
So Hollywood did themselves in.
This is why I've said it might get worse before it gets better.
Because they've made it abundantly clear, and they love that stuff, right?
It's all about the peers.
They really don't care about what customers think at all.
It's like, they want to get the admiration from the peers.
And the investment from the welfare sector.
Yeah, exactly.
So it'd be any of that ESG stuff.
Whatever that is, they have to check the box, or they feel like they have to check the box.
So for sure, you're going to get Even though it's an over-representation.
I don't know if you, if you saw that GLAAD, they had did some like, end of year, like, um, they went through all the TV shows and they were looking at it.
It's really detailed.
And it, comparison to the population, it's, they're actually vastly, it's not even close, over-represented.
Wait, hold on, you're not, you're telling me that not 97% of human beings are transgender or something?
It's not even close.
So when they published that, I was like, They're kind of doing themselves in there because that's what they've led with, right?
They need to be represented like this.
The world outside, and this is how it looks nowadays.
This is why old stuff has to be changed because this is how it looks.
And you see those percentages, and it's like 20% here of like 50% here.
And I'm like, wow, this is a high.
You guys are vastly overrepresented.
Yeah.
It's like I didn't realize that everybody was a lesbian.
Who knew?
Who would have thought?
Got here.
It's racist to cast black actors as traditionally white characters.
It is racist?
- It's racist.
To cast black actors as traditionally white characters. - Well, I'll answer for you.
I'm actually kind of torn under myself.
Okay.
It's racist.
I'm gonna say, you would say it's not racist, it's just like stupid.
Okay.
I would say, I would say both.
I'm gonna tell you why.
I'm gonna make my case here.
So, I call this tokenism.
That's the term that I see, you know, that's what I call it.
So, when I see race swaps, you can even apply gender, sexuality, all that stuff.
I call that tokenism.
So, for me, I do think it is a slap in the face, and I do think it is The reason why I would call it slightly racist, and I don't use that term loosely, is because they often, like, let's speak about superheroes, excuse me, they generally have a big pool, Marvel DC, they have an encyclopedia that they put out all the time, where they have an incredible amount of, let's say, non-white characters.
They get left on the shelf.
And their version of representation or trying to do something that is quote-unquote black is turning something that everybody recognizes as white to just race swapping it.
And then they just say, hey, here's a palette swap.
It's a new character.
Like, no, it's not.
It's just that character in blackface.
That's all it is.
Yeah, yeah, that's true.
You're right.
And it's racist in the sense that it is The decision is made almost entirely on the basis of race.
That's the primary determinant.
That's true.
The counterexample to this is Denzel in Macbeth, I think.
I love Denzel Washington.
I think he's one of the greatest living actors.
Macbeth is a Scottish character, so you'd say, okay, it should be a Scottish part.
But Shakespeare, I think, has transcended a limit that virtually no other writer gets to transcend, where his plays are taken as so representative of the universal human condition that You can do it.
You can get away with it.
It doesn't bother me on the screen.
Whereas, like, Black James Bond, I would say, well, I don't know.
James Bond's not black.
As much as I love the James Bond movies, they have not transcended the limit where I think they're talking about a universal human condition.
Okay.
And also, Denzel's performance was just so good.
Do you think that's like the time that has passed that makes, to you, do you think that's what makes it acceptable?
No, I think it's that.
I mean, we call Macbeth the Scottish play, but it's not just about Scotland.
It's not just about Scottish people.
It's about human beings and power and ambition.
And whereas, James Bond is really about like a British guy, you know?
Yeah.
So, that would be one exception.
Now, there was a big debate on this back in, I think it was the 90s, between this guy Brustein, who was the head of the Yale Repertory Theater, and then took over a theater in Boston, the American Repertory Theater, I think, and August Wilson, who was one of the big black playwrights, who did Fences, which is another Denzel movie, actually, and did Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and all these plays that are pretty good.
They're not Shakespeare, but they're pretty good.
Yeah.
Bruce Dean was a white liberal, and he said, you need to be able to race swap.
You need to be able to have color blank casting.
And August Wilson, who is, I think he was mixed race, but he identified as black, he said, no, you need white parts for white people, black parts for black people.
At the time, Brustein's view was the liberal view.
But now, August Wilson's view is the liberal view.
And I don't know, it just keeps switching.
And anything you do, you're damned if you do and damned if you don't.
Okay.
But I agree.
I guess, okay, I'm going to give you the point that you got me right.
Okay.
Because it is... When they do it, they're doing it because they're saying like, hey, we're going to give this little token to a black guy and we're going to stick it to the white guy.
That's true.
That's true.
I agree.
Most definitely.
Okay, I'm up.
Drag Queen Story Hour is protected under the First Amendment.
No.
It's not, my man.
Here we go.
Let's go.
Yeah, man.
The reason why I say this is, oh my God, definitely because it involves children.
Obviously, that's the big issue with it, the core issue with it.
But you look at even what historically, actually drag has a lot of similarities historically to blackface.
- Yeah, yeah. - It's actually came about around the same, roughly the same time, and really for the same reasons, to be completely fair, you had black actors that couldn't act in these plays, obviously, and they thought to make these sort of hyper, weird versions of them, and they used to do the same thing with women.
And for me, it became this, for them, you know, this uber-sexual thing, right?
And I think for people that value liberty, and I'm saying this obviously as a libertarian, we recognize that children and protecting their sanctity is something that should be of the utmost importance, right?
And to me, Drag Queen Story Hour, you take this sexualized sort of, I don't know, subculture, whatever you want to call it, and you're- It's like a burlesque show.
Yeah, parading around in that and then speaking to children.
I would imagine, though, unfortunately, not enough people.
would be against that, and that doesn't fall under some umbrella of it being liberty or being based on liberty.
If we accept that children can't consent and we accept the idea that their innocence should be preserved, then that is something that is rotten and boring, right?
So that's my opinion.
That's the thing about the really hardcore libertarian types today who I would identify as on the right.
They're not these relativist squishy jokes who say, you know, well, actually, you know, James Madison secretly wanted a bunch of drag queens to jiggle for kids.
Like, are you kidding?
He's rolling in his grave thinking about that.
The ones today who are really hardcore are the ones who have a, not a relativistic framework, Hardcore objective framework of morality.
And they say, no.
You know, they're the ones who are pro-life.
Yeah.
It's the squish libertarians who say, well, actually, you know, the states can decide.
You know, and it's like, no, you're saying, actually, if we have any rights at all, we've got the right to life.
Bingo.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, that's great.
That's good.
You're making me a libertarian.
My success.
You're making me at least very amenable to libertarians.
Ooh.
Metal is the only genre Worse than a rep. - You'll say no.
Of course.
I mean, obviously, this is... This is rigged.
Yeah.
This is rigged by the producers.
I'm a big metal guy.
Huge metal guy.
Massive.
Performant.
Though, I will say that if I am to put them both on a just straight artistic level, I have to put metal above rap.
And I say this as a guy that has performed in both genres, though, yeah, as of late, primarily metal, just because the instrumentation and all that stuff.
And there's a level of creativity that comes with rap, but you can't really get away with being a terrible I'm a metal artist, but you could certainly get away with being a terrible rapper.
So, that way, I mean... No, man, listen.
I mean, my name is Wonder Mike, and I've come to say hello to the black, the white, the red, and the brown, the purple, and yellow.
So, I'm very well aware of the intricacies of rapping.
I think you're right, too, on the instrumentation, because, you know, metal is too percussive and too...
Flat in its harmonics, I think.
But the melodies can be really wild, right?
Not the vocal melodies, but the guitars are just flying everywhere.
I'm thinking like Yngwie Malmsteen or some insane, virtuosic playing.
Whereas for rap, you don't usually get melody.
You get too much percussion in metal, but you also get too much percussion in rap, too.
So I think that's about even.
I'll probably get canceled for saying this.
The one exception to rap, though, is Kanye, who at this time of hardcore gangster rap, comes in and just reintroduces this really light, melodic, kind of musically interesting type of rap.
Creative.
Absolutely.
Yeah, but that's the problem of why, if we're going to talk about it as a genre, yeah, you have those.
You have Kanye, the Lauryn Hills, and the people that are producing the rap that have been able to blend genres as well as be able to obviously show that they have a creative bone in their body.
And even from the rap stuff, the Nas is where they're being actual wordsmiths, right?
Not just rhyming the end of the word, but being actual wordsmiths.
But again, the problem is that, as a genre, that's not the main thing.
Like, that's not what's going to hit the Billboard charts.
That's not what's being created.
Whereas, again, with metal music, there's no room for that.
There's no, I don't know who the, maybe a hot rapper is, but there's no, like, metal equivalent to that, you know?
It doesn't exist.
Yeah.
Okay.
I'm up.
You're up.
Here we go.
Then you get the last card.
It's okay to drink Bud Light.
You know, remember with Seinfeld?
They said, like, no, there's anything wrong with that.
If you're picking up that Bud Light, man.
At this point, yeah, you're going to get judged, and rightfully so.
Like, I'm not saying that I'm gonna, like, send the police to your home to arrest you, but it's like, there's something a little wrong.
I mean, this thing became so massive, man, that even, like, normies know about what's going on with it.
Like, even people that just don't, they don't keep up with it.
That's the marker, is when the normies figure out, not these people who are watching politics all day, Yeah, yeah.
Normies now understand it, and I think, yeah, I mean, if their stock is anything, or their brand in itself is anything to show for it, people are responding the way that they are.
But yeah, I mean, we make jokes about it now.
I mean, I don't think that's ever going to go away.
You do something mildly fruity, we're going to say, oh, that guy drinks Bud Light.
That's just what it is.
Wedding for my cousin.
And so, you know, the cousins are pretty close and we got a bunch of them.
And this one cousin comes over and he's like, hey, Michael, you need another drink?
I was like, yeah, I could have another drink.
He's like, cool, I got you a beer.
I figured you'd really like it.
You know, it's Bud Light.
And I thought, man, if this is a... I've had liberal friends make this joke.
I've had not that politically engaged.
And I thought, Oh, that's bad.
You don't come back from becoming a meme.
No, you don't.
There's no turning around from that.
Okay.
All right.
Last one.
Let's see what we got.
Women should never fight in action movies.
It ruins the movie about, I think this is the key, 97% of the time.
So maybe you disagree on the percentage, but let's say 97% of the time.
So the first part... Women should never fight in action movies.
I don't like to see women being hurt.
Okay.
So I lean a little bit, yes.
But as a hard rule for filmmaking, The problem with women fighting in the movies is not the fighting, it's that they beat up the guys, which is absurd.
And so women, I would allow, in very tastefully shot, where it's not too graphic or anything, I would allow the studios to allow women to fight in the movies.
But they have to lose.
You can't have some little girl beating up the Hulk.
And that's why I would say, You know, this is what I'll say.
I think if it's done, and even definitely, especially if it's like Kill Bill or something, you know, let's say they're fighting, like, even another woman or something like that.
Yes, yeah, yeah, that's true.
I think that could be huge.
Or if they have powers, obviously.
You know what I mean?
Like, that makes it make a little more sense.
But I'm with you on- Or a gun.
That's the natural scenario.
That's probably even better.
That's the great equalizer, they all say.
But yeah, if you get some like, even if they do have powers, but if it's like some scrawny, and generally they kind of do that, not built probably, it's not believable, right?
And it's like the first thing that's going to go in your mind is like, all right, this chick just went in.
Black Widow kind of, it happens sometimes, right?
She just went in and destroyed all of these built dudes that are also probably in levels of expertise probably up there with her.
Maybe that doesn't happen, right?
It doesn't happen to that degree.
So in an action movie, I...
Yeah.
I remember in one of the new Star Warses, one of the Disney Star Warses, I guess it was the first one maybe, where the little girl is fighting the big new Darth Vader guy.
And they're fighting with lightsabers.
I thought, like, that's not... It's not believable.
That's not in any way... Like, do you know what muscle is?
Do you know what swords are like to fight with?
That's not...
It's just so... I'm right there with you on that.
But I do believe that it can be believable.
I think it can be believable.
But you need to explain it.
It can't just be like, okay, I'm a chick, but I've got girl power.
Well, yeah, see, and that seems to be why I think so many people are leaning towards this moronic idea that Well, people have a problem with women being in action films, and I think that's less of the issue.
I think more it's the setting that they're being put in, and people are like, this is corny.
And I can be with them on that.
Yeah, I'm happy to have women in movies.
I really enjoy it when women are in movies.
But they gotta play women.
They can't be playing men.
Eric, I truly have no idea who won or lost that game.
Where can people get that comic book?
Rippaverse.com.
You can go to the campaign page there.
You can pre-order and get all your perks.
We've got bundles.
People are able to save money.
We've got several covers as well of that.
That's the main cover right there, but there's several other covers that you can get as well.
We appreciate it.
We appreciate it big time.
This is something that's been unprecedented.
It wasn't supposed to happen when it happened the first time, and here we go again.
It shows that it wasn't just like... It wasn't a fluke.
No, not by any means.
So I'm very appreciative.
My team's very appreciative.
And look, I'm just thankful to be in a position where we're able to employ people in an industry that people thought were dying.
You know, it's a challenge.
Not only have you softened me on libertarianism, You've softened me on comic books.
It was very impressive, Eric.
Thank you for coming on.
Thank you, little brother.
See you next time.
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