James Smith and Dave Smith dissect the erosion of truth, contrasting Robbie Bernstein's COVID symptoms with Macron's six-month prison sentences for unvaccinated patrons. They condemn the Libertarian Party's silence on vaccine passports while praising principled opposition to statism, then expose CNN's Brian Stelter as a propaganda tool selling books rather than facts. The hosts argue that state-driven censorship of platforms like Facebook, suppressing treatments like ivermectin since 2016, destroys the public square and validates the claim that government intervention, not private property rights, dictates modern reality. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Smell, Touch, and Government Overreach00:03:59
Fill her up.
You are listening to the Gas Digital Network.
We need to roll back the state.
We spy on all of our own citizens.
Our prisons are flooded with nonviolent drug offenders.
If you want to know who America's next enemy is, look at who we're funding right now.
Every single one of these problems are a result of government being way too big.
You're listening to part of the problem on the Gas Digital Network.
Here's your host, James Smith.
What's up, everybody?
Welcome back.
Brand new episode of Part of the Problem here.
Rejoining us, the fire, Robbie Bernstein, the king of the caulks.
I'm Dave Smith, of course.
Happy to have you back, sir.
How you feeling?
Feeling better, dude.
I mean, Corona's a weird one, but I'm fine.
I got through it.
All good.
We made so many jokes about you having COVID.
It was only a matter of time until it really happened.
Do you know where you got it?
I don't know.
I travel a lot and I look a lot of things.
You know, it's kind of my way of getting a sense of where I am is I like to just taste random objects.
Sometimes it's telephone poles.
Sometimes it's random pieces of wood.
Really just anything I can put my tongue to.
So it's hard to really pin down.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I've traveled with you a lot and I can verify that.
It's weird.
It's an un and I traveled the whole country to try and get this thing.
You know, I really, I really put in the effort.
Most people, they just kind of go out and get it.
I went to Portland.
I really, I traveled the whole country.
It took me a long time to get it, but thankfully we're letting people in from India and so they got this new variant, which is a little more contagious and easier to get.
So I think that's why I was finally able to get this thing.
Yeah, you were failing there for quite a while.
I was putting in the effort.
I was really trying and it took me a really long time.
So I just I'd like to thank our open borders policy and that as they be as you get these worse and more extreme variants, you know, I'll be able to get it a second time, which is pretty cool.
Yeah, yeah, well, hopefully.
We'll see.
Cross your fingers.
It took you a long time to get it this time.
Well, I'm very, I'm very happy that you're doing that you're doing good and seem to be fully recovered and drinking again.
No, just seltzer cans, you know, okay.
Just a seltzer can, trying to keep my immune system good.
Yeah, there you go.
Okay, well, that's.
You know, I lost my scent and my dick turned blue.
Those are the weirdest things.
Wait, the second one's not true, is it?
No, it's a common side effect.
It should turn back, but the scent thing is really weird.
Wait, you're kidding about the dick dick, right?
Okay, but you really lost your sense of smell?
Yeah, totally.
Dude, and when it hit me, I was like, oh, I don't think I can smell anything.
And then, like, I opened up some cinnamon, a whole bunch of stuff.
Nothing.
Wow.
That's fucking, yeah, that's got to be a bit weird.
Is it back?
No, it's gone.
I got like a superpower.
You can fart as much as you want around me.
Wow.
It's going to be my new thing, my new circus act.
I'll be like, fart in my face.
I don't care.
Wow, that's pretty nuts.
So how are you feeling now?
I think I'm fine, whatever.
Like, I was definitely sick for a couple of days, but I think I'm fine.
So you're not dead?
No, definitely not dead.
Dick is blue, but not dead.
Brian, Brian, your dick's not blue.
Stop saying this.
Brian asked, what about taste?
Did you lose taste too?
Oddly enough, I don't know how this is possible that you can lose your sense of smell, but not your taste.
I still got my taste.
All right.
Well, that's all that really matters.
You lose your sense of taste.
Is it weird that this makes me feel better about myself?
Because I just, I travel with you so much that I'm just like, obviously I have superpowers and I just can't contract this thing.
Could be, dude.
That's the way I felt for a while, though.
And then suddenly, once you have the first symptom, you're like, how bad is this going to go?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I'm glad you're feeling better.
Hopefully you get that smell back soon.
But if you had to just lose one scent, one sense for life, smell would probably be the one, right?
Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, it's not even close.
Smell.
I mean, as long as you can still taste, you don't want to lose your sight or hearing.
You don't want to not be able to touch stuff.
You don't want to not be able to touch your blue dick.
Libertarian Camps and Economic Basics00:05:22
So, yeah, I'm just saying, it's in the grand scheme of things, everything is in compared to what, you know, basic lesson of economics.
So, there you go.
Well, for that, uh, that story, it sure doesn't seem like uh the hysteria going on is necessarily justified, seeing as how it's just a little bit of loss of smell and some blue deck.
But the, you know, I wanted to mention there's a few things on my mind for today's show, but the thing that I just saw about an hour ago was a Guardian article that I wanted to just talk about briefly, not even go through the whole article, but just the news that they were reporting.
But so, some people may remember, and maybe I should even zoom back a little bit more.
Over the last 16, 17 months, I've been we've been pretty on top of this, the COVID thing and the lockdowns and really, I think, planted a flag as being in the opposition to the COVID regime camp, you know.
And a lot of great people, it's funny because there's like these different camps even within the liberty sphere.
You know, there's different camps of libertarians.
And it's an interesting thing that, you know, I feel incredibly vindicated, validated, whatever the right word is, for the camp that I chose after the last, you know, 16, 17 months.
Like, I was always, not even like I hated other camps.
I mean, there's certain things they do that really bother me sometimes, but everyone knows I was always in the kind of like Mises Institute, Ron Paul, Army, you know, Mises Caucus, like that camp, that slice of the liberty movement, the libertarian, you know, sphere.
And there were a lot of reasons for it.
I always just thought that they were the smartest, the most interesting, and the most principled of the libertarians.
And they weren't this kind of like, you know, a lot of other, the other branches are much more milquetoast, much more beltway, and seem to have a very weird view of social issues as if libertarians have to be, you know, like promoters of alternative lifestyles or something like that.
And to me, like the what I really loved about the Ron Paul campaigns and stuff like that was that they always put what were the most egregious acts of statism first and foremost, you know, namely war.
They were always the best on war.
And you wouldn't find, you know, you would find in Reason Magazine, at Cato, at some of these other places, historically, you've found people who are like a little bit wishy-washy when it comes to like the sanctions regimes, military bases abroad, foreign intervention.
And you don't find that at the Mises Institute or with the Mises Caucus or with Ron Paul.
You just don't find that stuff.
So I was always kind of in that camp.
And it's funny when this big crisis hit, it's just like, I'm very proud that, yeah, that camp was just so good.
They were so good from the very beginning, from the very beginning, Ron Paul and Tom Woods and Jeff Dice and Lou Rockwell.
These guys were just great.
They were all over it.
Like, oh, this is all just like we.
Ron Paul was the coolest of everyone.
He was just like, you just need some sun.
Just get some sun.
I don't know.
Ron Paul still has that.
Like, he's the kindest guy ever, but he was also, I think, born in like the 30s.
You know what I mean?
So he's just like, even though he's so kind and he would never swear, you know, you always see this thing like kind of right underneath him where it's like, ah, this is, what are you guys, a bunch of pussies?
Like, yeah, I don't know, go outside.
Oh, is there a cold going around?
Liberty.
Yeah, shake.
You know, this is my interpretation of him.
He's much, you know, better and from just a better generation.
But, but yeah, but they were just great right away.
They were just like, well, here's where the government's lying.
Here's where the corporate press is lying.
This does not justify totalitarianism.
The totalitarianism is much more of a threat than this virus is.
Like they were just great right away.
And then there were other areas of the Libertarian Party, Libertarian Party and the Libertarian Movement that just, I mean, I really think, and I don't take any pleasure in this.
I think it's unfortunate.
But I think in many cases, they forever sacrificed their credibility and their seriousness.
You know, I mean, the Libertarian Party, the people in the party who were silent on lockdowns, I mean, I don't know.
They were silent.
They said that we beat the virus by being anti-racist.
That's what they said.
Yes, yes, that's right.
Well, silent on lockdowns focused on anti-racism and still, like, it was so weird.
I know Tom Woods loves making fun of it, but it would be like April of 2020.
So it's like a month after the government locked everyone in their homes.
And like, there's like every social norm has been overhauled.
Quitting Vaping with Fume Sponsorship00:02:31
And like, we're in this crazy world.
And like the Libertarian Party would tweet something about how we oppose civil asset forfeiture.
And you're like, I mean, yes, like we do, but this is, and it was so, it was like mind-blowing seeing.
I remember watching Joe Jorgensen give campaign speeches that literally, I remember I actually listened to one the whole time with this in mind and she passed.
And I said, I was just saying to myself, could this speech have been given in 1996?
And all of it.
It was all about the war on drugs and centralized power and how decentralization allows people to make their own choices and blah, blah, blah.
And she's speaking in this park outdoors to a bunch of people in masks.
And it's like you're not addressing what's happening right now.
Like the thing covering their face.
By the way, in that very park where she was, several people had been arrested for not social distancing.
So it's just like, again, it's not like even technically that anything she said from her 1996 stump speech was wrong.
It was just like, how tone deaf can you be to not be addressing the crises that these people are living through?
You can see on their face, like the crisis that's in front of them.
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IP Vanish and Passport Freedom00:12:17
Anyway, but those people, I mean, it's very tough, but you know, when you're a libertarian and you say your whole ideology rests around you believing in liberty, when the biggest, you know, robbing, I don't even know how exactly to put this, but when the most naked, blatant form of totalitarianism and crackdowns on basic human liberty come,
if you're not there to speak up against that, it just makes you kind of like, how does anyone look at you as anything other than useless?
So what?
You'll oppose government tyranny, what, of the past that's already been defeated, or you'll take positions that are easy.
It only matters if you're willing to fight for it when it's really happening and when it's somewhat dangerous and unpopular.
Anyone can fight for liberty when it's popular.
You know, it's like that's now you're just, I'm against, you know, slavery.
I think it was really wrong in 1855 when they were enslaving people.
I wouldn't have done that.
You know, like, what does that mean?
Anyway, so when the vaccine passport stuff was first being floated, this is, I really went nuts about this.
And I believe to this day, it's the most engagement I've ever gotten on a tweet.
It's still my pinned tweet railing against the vaccine passports.
And let me see if I see this.
I mean, it's got, let me see, the Twitter activity.
I got, yeah, I got like 3 million impressions on it.
So I think it's the most viewed tweet I've ever had.
And I really pressured the Libertarian Party to condemn them, which I was able to get them to.
It wasn't quite as forceful as I would have liked, but I was still very appreciative that they condemned them.
And that was actually when Rogan reached out to me.
This is the last time I was on because he watched our show that we did about that.
And he was like, yeah, dude, I think you're really on to something here.
Like, this is really creepy.
And there was a lot of pushback against it.
Now, I got called out.
It's funny, just maybe a month ago or something like that by the former, former chair, not the former disgraced chair of the Libertarian Party, but the disgraced chair before him.
I got called out by him and he was like, oh, look at, you know, I forget exactly what he said.
I don't even respond to him anymore because it's just too ridiculous.
But he said something about, he's like, oh, look, look at Dave's like pinned tweet here.
He's just pandering to, you know, vaccine, you know, conspiracy theorists or something like that, anti-vaxxers.
And he goes, oh, why don't you tell me, Dave, what exactly is the vaccine passport?
Where is it implemented?
What are the problems?
Blah, blah, blah, you know, all of this.
Like, this was just an idea that never even came true, you know?
And I mean, at the time when I tweeted it, the Biden administration said that they were talking with private companies about how to establish a national vaccine passport.
So they're talking about a mobile app on your phone that can track your location, that can track your medical history, and will allow you, at least the ideas that were being floated out, very basic liberties.
And we weren't talking about like, oh, you can't travel to another country unless you've got your vaccines.
You can certainly make a libertarian argument that that is a violation of your liberty.
But we were talking about, can you go to the grocery store?
Can you go to a sporting event or a concert?
Really, really basic things and like everyday life things.
And they were just openly floating out, creating a national caste system.
The unvaccinated people don't have basic human liberty.
So to me, this was like, it was really something to not only see those guys who, you know, is a perfect embodiment of the type of libertarians who wouldn't dare challenge lockdowns while they were happening because that's not respectable or something like that or a little bit too dangerous.
But not only that, but they will challenge someone like me for being adamantly opposed to vaccine passports.
And I left the tweet up there as still my pin tweet to this day because this is to me still the biggest threat, like the biggest potential government policy that could be, you know, like the biggest threat to human liberty.
So like, yeah, and it's got a lot of attention on it.
So yeah, I want to like leave that up there until I'm convinced that this isn't a threat anymore or until I come up with something better to tweet that I think is really important.
And that'll be my new pin tweet, whatever.
But anyway, so that was just on my mind today as I read The Guardian just put out this article reporting that the president of France, Macron.
Is that the proper way to say that?
Macron?
Is that really it?
I don't know.
I'll go with it.
It's not a good thing.
Macron.
How would you say that in a French accent?
I probably would have just gone...
Mackerel?
Macaroni?
I don't know.
Macron issues a six-month prison decree for entering a bar or restaurant without a vaccine passport.
Proprietors who allow the unvaccinated into their establishment face one year prison sentence and a 45,000 Euro fine.
30 euros.
Yeah.
They got a lot of prison space in France?
Or are they just super obedient?
You know, I couldn't tell you.
Listen, I'll be honest, I don't spend a lot of time in this show, and I don't have a whole lot of interest in foreign politics.
Well, France sucks.
Like, we're basically basically reporting, hey, just in case you forgot how much France sucks, we're just coming in with some new information that it sucks.
Every couple years, I like to check in on France, make sure they still suck, and then let you guys know that they still suck.
But that is, you know, like, I don't, and part of it is, well, part of it is that I don't know that much about the internal politics of other countries.
And part of it is like, I really don't care.
I'm just not super interested.
And the only countries that I'm particularly interested, you know, are usually the ones that America is involved in or, you know, usually militarily.
I suppose you could say we are involved militarily in France.
I mean, we've been, you know, protecting France since the end of the Second World War, and they're a part of NATO and all of this.
But really, it's like that to me is very in line with the kind of libertarian ethic.
And I also just think that, like, you know, like, I don't know, I'm just more focused on my country.
I'm an American, you know, so France isn't really my business.
But this particularly, you know, is of note because this is something that's been floated out as something happening here.
It's been floated around all of Europe and it's been, you know, instituted in many Western countries.
So this becomes something that is like, you know, this is interesting.
So is this from the Guardian article, Brian?
Is that from the same piece?
So I just want to make sure I get it right.
This is from Healthline.
Anyone over the age of 12 will also be required to show the pass to visit a movie theater, museum, live museum, live theater, theme park, or cultural center starting July 21st.
Yeah, within 48 hours of Machron's announcement, more than 2.2 million vaccination appointments were booked online.
That's not great.
So a lot of people were scared into compliance.
Yeah, yeah.
But this is, I mean, like, so here it is right now.
If any of these, you know, people who call themselves libertarians want to talk about this, we're talking about a six-month prison sentence for the crime of entering a bar and a one-year prison.
And by the way, so that includes you could be vaccinated, but just forgot your passport.
Well, yeah, I mean, the wording of what was reported is entering a bar without a vaccine passport.
I mean, I don't know.
That's actually an interesting question.
And a one-year sentence plus a 45,000 euro fine for a bar owner for serving someone.
So talk about a completely, you know, immoral law against some people who are not violating the non-aggression principle.
You know, and especially given the fact that it's, once again, all based on pseudoscience.
I mean, it's not like, you know, there's a bunch of data in now about some of these highly vaccinated countries that have gotten hit harder by the Delta variant than other countries with lower vaccination rates.
It's not even clear, like for anyone who would go down the road of making this argument of like, well, it's not completely victimless if you can spread COVID to someone else.
And it's like, yeah, yeah, but there's no way of determining whether that person actually had COVID.
If someone didn't have COVID there, then you can't even make that libertarian argument.
There is absolutely no argument to like, in other words, there are some libertarians, many of whom happen to be the more bootlicking type who supported the whole COVID regime, but they would make the argument that you could theoretically argue that it's an act of aggression if you knowingly spread a virus to someone, right?
So in other words, if you're HIV positive, Rob, if, and, and you had sex with someone and didn't inform them of that, that is certainly an act of aggression.
Like, you know, you're like.
I mean, it's a Tuesday, but yes, I agree with you.
Yes, but yeah, I'm not saying you don't do it a lot.
I'm just saying it is an act of aggression when you do it, right?
So like that, that's clear.
Now, if similarly, if you know that you have COVID and you just go around a lot of people and don't tell them and spread it to all of them, then yeah, you could certainly argue that that's an act of aggression.
It gets a little bit murkier or not even murky, but you can't really make that argument successfully if the person doesn't know that they have COVID.
But if the person doesn't have COVID and the government just says, oh, you need this vaccine passport, there's no libertarian argument.
It's just a non-existent argument.
You couldn't possibly make it that that is anything other than a completely non-violent person.
There's no victim, nothing.
And this is, you're talking about six month to a year sentences.
This is very serious, very serious penalties.
And this is the same thing that's been floated out here.
So anyone who wants to like, you know, say, oh, we're being hysterical or conspiracy theorists or something like that, it's like, I don't know.
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Psychological Effects of the COVID Regime00:09:42
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When a policy is being pondered very publicly by our federal government and is going into effect in our European partner countries, I think it's more than appropriate to really start being concerned about that.
Isn't it something, Rob, that the whole, you know, the whole political class and the whole corporate press goes nuts about things like Charlottesville.
You know, it's, oh my God, there's this rise of fascism.
Fascism has come to the American shores and all of this.
And we need to do all of this stuff.
We need to, you know, throw the book at these guys.
And we need to, you know, oh my God, like January 6th was this threat to our democratic republic.
And we got to throw the book at all these people.
And we got to, you know, find them on social media and all of this, like all this hysteria about Nazis.
And this, by the way, you know, happens in the tiny left corner of the woke libertarians as well.
The hysteria about Nazis and fascists.
And meanwhile, this is what's so crazy about the woke libertarians.
It's like, meanwhile, it's like, you don't need to go ghost hunting.
It's right here.
You know, concern about like Nazi shit.
This is it.
It's right here in front of you.
The government of France is saying they will throw people in a cage for going to a bar.
Like, what do you're worried about a couple hundred people who marched in 2017 in Charlottesville?
That's like this big threat.
And so many of those same people who will lose their minds about this threat of Nazism see a headline like this and just go kind of, hmm, all right.
Well, they're getting more people vaccinated.
All right.
You know, it's like, it's really, it's, it's shocking.
I hope the yellow jackets take to the streets and drink outside.
Well, there have been, uh, there have been some pretty huge protests in France recently and just over the last few years in general.
And so I wonder, I mean, certainly, you know, you, I think, understandably had the reaction when we read that two million vaccine appointments have been made.
Like, ah, shit, they're going to comply.
But maybe not everyone.
I mean, you know, maybe there'll be a whole lot of other people who don't.
I guess it'll be interesting to see.
But that is why it's like, it's really so important that there is as much loud resistance to the proposals coming here.
You know, so, yeah, so it's, you know, and you see it already, right?
Like they do seem to be trying their best to recapture the COVID regime juice.
Like just the other day, Florida announced, excuse me, Florida.
No, Florida's good.
Just the other day, California, Los Angeles announced that they're going back to mask mandates, even for the vaccinated.
So that's, you know, a real unfortunate slide back.
I just wonder, you know, like, because I've seen, I'll see people on Twitter and stuff like that, but sometimes it's hard to get, you know, it's hard to get like a real gauge of what is real life on social media.
But I'll see people on social media, you know, like progressive types who are like, yeah, I knew it.
We never should have been taking the masks off.
We should have the masks back on.
And it's a real interesting little time where you're like, okay, so now you almost get to see like the lasting psychological effects of the COVID regime on individuals.
And because you had this whole, you know, like new normal time.
And now we've been gradually going back to the old normal.
And people, even in places like New York City and in very blue areas, people are taking off the masks and even going inside without masks and just kind of living a normal life again.
And, you know, it's an interesting kind of psychological dynamic.
Like, okay, you'll go along with this whole like giving up every inch of your freedom for a while.
Then you get it back.
Now there's a push to take it away again.
So it's like that, you know, how broken were you by that period?
That like, couldn't you, because even like the most, like, even the people who really bought into like, yeah, I wear the mask because I'm a good person who follows the science and I'm not like these Trump supporters and all this stuff.
On some level, you know, they had to be like, it's kind of nice to breathe fresh air again, right?
That's kind of nice.
It's kind of nice to not live with this fucking muzzle over my face and look ridiculous and be breathing in my own fucking, you know, hot breath.
Like that's on some level, you have to enjoy that.
And you wonder, like, what, aren't you a little bit motivated to not give that all up again or not?
You know, or are they just willing to do it again?
So anyway, it's an interesting, interesting little moment that we're living through to see where people are psychologically.
Was France having like high numbers of infections?
Like, was it getting bad?
Or I don't.
First, I'm hearing this story.
I don't know how it missed my radar.
I literally just saw this article here, but let me look that up real quick and see.
I mean, I'm sure they had something to kind of justify this.
So it does look, I mean, you know, it's like, it looks like there's a little bit of an upward tick.
They seem to be right around 10,000 new cases a day, at least from the numbers I'm seeing here.
But it's not like nearly where it was, you know, back earlier this year.
Also, are they using AstraZeneca in France?
I'm not sure.
Couldn't tell you.
Could not tell you.
But it's, yeah, I don't know.
It just, from the numbers I'm looking at here, I mean, it does seem like there's a little bit of an uptick, but certainly nothing that would justify that stuff.
But I mean, you know, none of these government policies have been justified by the actual data throughout this whole thing.
So that's nothing new.
But, you know, it's yeah.
To think about all the death we've already had, and now you can't get into a bar without paperwork.
Is that what those people gave their lives for?
But it's funny.
It's literally, it's unbelievable that someone could like, there could be these completely powerless people who everyone flips out about being, you know, neo-Nazis.
And then actual governments are like, show me your papers before you enter this bar.
And the same people who flipped out about that will cheer that on.
Also, if there's anyone that...
By the way, I'm not talking about the libertarian world so much as I was just talking about.
If there's anyone that's going to lose their vaccine passports, it's people going out drinking.
Anything, I'd be like, I better be leaving this at home.
I'm going to need it for work.
Like, I'm going out drinking.
I don't want to bring this to the bar.
You're like, hey, I was here drinking last night.
I think I left my vaccine passport.
And they'll be like, so you walked in without a vaccine?
I think I left my vaccine passport right here.
And they're like, well, we found it and we'll give it back to you in six months because you're going to jail.
So sorry.
That's how that works.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I don't know exactly how it's going to be enforced.
Or those cops.
Those cops are going to be taking bribes.
It's going to be the greatest thing that ever happens to them.
Every once in a while, they'll arrest somebody, which will suck for them.
But for the most part, they're going to be getting so much bribe money.
Well, you know, it is interesting because a lot of times, you know, there is a disparity between the letter of the law and how it's actually enforced.
And so you never know.
Like the, you know, the devil's always in the details with these things.
But so for example, you know, like in New York City, I mean, they have minimum wage laws.
There are, I mean, there have to be tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people working for less than minimum wage, just working off the books.
They're all over the place, you know.
But there's no real mechanism to enforce that, at least not on mid and small size businesses.
Probably on the bigger companies, they don't take the risk of doing that.
But so it just kind of doesn't get enforced.
You know, it still fucks up the economy to the degree that it does get enforced, but it kind of doesn't.
And so, you know, I guess we'll see how much this is actually, you know, like, are people actually going to be put in jail for this?
But it's still a naked threat of violence to get people to do what you want them to do.
And just an egregious one.
So anyway, we'll keep up.
In a couple of years, I'll check in and let you know how France is doing.
And I'm sure they'll still suck.
So sorry for any of our French listeners.
You know, that's, yeah, that's the total numbers, but I was just kind of curious what the, you know, what the more recent trend is.
Yeah, they lost a little over 100,000 people to COVID are the official numbers, you know.
Criticism, Laughter, and French Politics00:14:03
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All right, let's get back into the show.
Okay, so switching gears a little bit, our favorite little piggy is trending.
And he's trending never for a good reason when Brian Stelter's trending.
I don't know how Brian Stelter became our favorite punching bag on this show.
I think there's just something about him.
He's so unlikable.
He's fat and he's like, he's just, he puts that big, stupid grin on his face.
And he's a repellent person on many different levels.
But he's so smug about being right.
He's right.
He's just incredibly smug, incredibly self-righteous.
He's physically just like...
Disgusting.
Yeah, just awful.
Like everything is just awful.
And he also, on top of all of that, hosts the CNN Media Watchdog show and literally comes out every week to report to you that they are the glorious truth tellers who never get anything wrong.
Like it's just, it's this unbelievable mix of just awful.
And yes, as Brian says, he's only 35 years old, which is bananas.
He is younger than me.
He is three years younger than I am.
That's it.
Only a couple years older than Robbie the Fire Bernstein is.
He looks like he should be like, I don't know, like hanging out with our dads.
Like he looks like that you're lying takes its toll, especially if they haven't started giving you whatever they give Nancy Pelosi.
Like he's not, he hasn't reached that level yet in the club where he gets the baby blood.
So he's just lying all the time without any of the, you know, support of the, that the demon overlords usually get.
But he's going to be there.
Like he's working his way up to getting into the baby blood club.
And you know, like Nancy Pelosi and them are like, listen, we got like this is we're going to have to put away a lot of baby blood for Stelter when he gets here.
They're like, by the time Stelter gets in here, he's going to need an extra lot.
Okay, so Michael Wolf was the guy.
I was just looking up his name because I couldn't remember.
So Michael Wolf was on his show.
Now, Michael Wolf is one of the, he was the guy who wrote Fire and Fury, which was the book on Donald Trump.
And then he just wrote another book, I guess, on the final days of Trump's presidency.
Now, I know that he is a bit of a hack.
Like, his last book, Fire and Fury, got exposed for having a whole bunch of lies in it.
Just straight up lies.
I don't know if you remember, but he was the one who insinuated that Trump was having an affair with, what's her name?
What was her fucking name?
South Carolina lady.
Oh, geez.
I'm fucking retarded.
Hence his wife?
No, no, the one, no, the one he made ambassador to the UN, Mikki Haley.
Oh, she's a good catch.
I mean, not like, she's kind of aged out of it, but she definitely had a stretch where she's like, hell yeah.
She's not the worst in politics, I suppose.
But yeah, so he like insinuated that they were having an affair.
I mean, that'd be awesome.
And then he got, no, but he got like pressed on it and just had nothing to back it up.
And I don't know if you remember, but this was the one, like, I think Mika actually kicked him off of Morning Joe at one point because she was still on her like Me Too kick.
And she was like, well, wait a minute.
I mean, if you're going to say that, like, what evidence do you have of this?
And he just had nothing.
And she was like, well, then you can't say that.
Like, how do you know this?
And he's just like, well, I heard rumors.
And they're like, what?
That's like a fucked up thing to say.
You're literally talking about two married people just publicly on national television claiming they're having an affair.
Anyway, so I just wanted to preface by saying, I don't like this guy.
My take is that he's a real slime ball, but he had a very interesting exchange with Brian Stelter.
And I thought it was worth playing and discussing.
You know, and that's what Trump does.
He has spent most of his administration seeing people like Stelter from the future.
Pause it right there.
It's hilarious.
He goes, Brian, I'm back to tell you.
Stop.
It doesn't work out well.
Look at me.
Yes, you look tanner and slightly better looking, but there's lots of costs.
All right, here we can play it.
People on television and immediately calling them.
But maybe that's how it works sometimes.
I don't want you to think.
Is that how it works?
That's how you got it.
Yeah, but I don't.
Yeah, but I don't want you to think that what I said at that point was in any way inauthentic.
I think the media has done a terrible job on this.
I think you yourself, you know, while you're a nice guy, you know, you're full of sanctimony.
You know, you become part of one of the parts of the problem of the media.
You know, you come on here and you have a, you know, a monopoly on truth.
You know, you know exactly how things are supposed to be done.
You know, you are why one of the reasons people can't stand the media.
Sorry.
All right, so pause it right here.
This is, I already thought this was just really interesting because he does a very good job of, and you got to kind of respect him for doing it because he tried to do it in not like that shitty of a way.
He was like, look, I'm sure you're like a good guy, but you're part of the problem here.
He gave us a nice shout out.
And he was like, look, you act like you have this monopoly on what the truth is and how everything should be.
And clearly, that's not really the role of what a real journalist would be doing, you know.
And he goes, and you're part of the reason why people hate the media.
And Brian Stelter immediately cracks up laughing, which is a very interesting reaction to that.
Because I don't know why.
Maybe it's because I'm a comedian, me and you.
We dabble in funny business.
And so there's, I don't know why I always find this interesting.
Like this, this always triggers something in my spidey senses, like the different types of laughter.
Like I remember going on about this for a while with that Don Lemon clip when they were laughing about how dumb.
Yeah, when they were laughing about how dumb Trump supporters are, and he's like cracking up and pretending that there's tears coming down his face.
And I was just talking about, I'm like, this isn't a real laugh.
Like nothing that was said was that funny.
Even if you believe what he believes, he's like performing in a way, you know?
I remember when I debated that Andy Craig guy and I said something about how, you know, he asked me something about like why I hate social justice warriors or something like that.
I think I don't remember exactly what the topic was.
And I was saying like, I was like, well, look, I mean, there's like several reasons.
And one of the ones I listed off was like just their blatant anti-white racism.
I was like, it's horrible.
Like, I don't know.
Like, I would hate any group that was this blatantly racist against others.
And I think that's awful, you know?
And he just started like pretend hysterically laughing.
Like, but this real performative, like, ha, which is like, I'm a comedian.
I know when someone really laughs.
And I know what makes someone really laugh and like what's funny and what's not.
And, and I just said to him, I go, but look, like, you're, I said this in the debate.
I think it was one of my better moments in the debate, which I just dominated this guy in.
But I said to him, I go, yeah, and look, as a counterargument, you're reduced to pretending to laugh.
And then he just kind of stopped mid-laugh.
And it was like, yeah, because this wasn't real.
This was a performance.
I want to let everybody know how ridiculous I think what you're saying is.
But if you really did think something was ridiculous, your laugh would be like, dude, that's ridiculous.
You don't actually start belly laughing.
You know what I'm saying?
It's kind of a hard thing to exactly put into words.
But it's funny what Brian Stelter is doing right here.
Look, this guy didn't say anything funny.
Brian Stelter doesn't think this is hilarious, that he goes, look, I think you're very sanctimonious and you're kind of part of the problem and part of why people hate the media.
And he just starts laughing.
He's doing this performance to let you know, to signal to everybody else that it's so ridiculous to even think this way, you know?
They even think this way.
And so it's just this performative laugh.
I just find this very interesting.
Anyway, what he said was essentially that, look, you act like you have this monopoly on truth, and you don't.
You might disagree with someone else's perspective, but you don't have some monopoly on what is true and the way everything should be organized.
And so, anyway, his response was to laugh.
But let's go back to the video and play a little bit more.
You're cracking me up.
It's your fault.
So, what should I do differently, Michael?
You know, don't talk so much.
Listen more.
You know, people have genuine problems with the media.
The media doesn't get the story right.
The media exists in its own bubble.
That's true, I agree.
You know, you got to stop.
I mean, that last segment that I just had to listen to of all of the people saying the same old stuff.
Also, you're incredibly repetitive.
It's week after week.
I mean, you're the flip side of Donald Trump.
You know, fake news, and you say virtuous news.
You know, just figure out what is real.
I mean, we let's pause it right there.
It's unbelievable.
Did you catch what he said?
What, that we just try and find out what's real?
No, he said, we just figure out what's real.
He can't even.
Because he's the truth arbitrator.
As it's being said to him, as the criticism that's being leveled against him is that you pretend to be the arbiter of truth.
He goes, no, as we just figure out what's real.
They're still on this, you know, like it really is this unbelievable kind of narcissistic attitude about oneself and one's own industry.
That it's like, even as he's being called out for that, he's like, oh, you know, like, Donald Trump says fake news, and you're like nothing but virtuous news.
You're both kind of the flip side of each other, which is a fair enough point to make, even though I think one is a lot closer to the truth, and it ain't Brian Stelter's side.
You know, Trump's wrong about a lot of shit, but when he says the corporate press is the enemy of the American people, he is right on the money.
But Stelter, even in this moment, his response is like, but we just figure out what is real and then let everyone else know what it's real.
As if like he can't acknowledge, and it just blows my mind.
Like, you know, if someone, the lack of self-introspection, or at least the lack of honesty, because maybe he does know what he's doing and this is just what he puts out there.
But even if you were trying to be dishonest, even if you were being dishonest, I should say, it would still kind of behoove you to at least fake a little bit of humility.
Now, I do tell the truth on this show, but if someone were to ever say to me, it's like, well, look, I mean, you have your own agenda here as well, or you have your own bias here as well.
I couldn't imagine my response being anything other than like, well, yeah, I mean, that's true.
I certainly do have my bias.
Like, I'm literally in the business of spreading liberty propaganda.
You know, like, I'm not, I don't pretend to be doing anything else.
Like, I have a goal, I have a worldview, an ideology, and that's what I am pushing.
I think it is the correct one.
So I believe in it, you know?
But yeah, but it's just this idea of just like, nope, just truth.
Just we just decide what's real and then inform everyone else.
As if, are you pretending that there was not a we want to get Donald Trump agenda at CNN?
He's still talking about Trump every show.
And Trump's gone.
He's gone and they still have to talk about him every fucking show.
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Selling Narratives on Social Media Censorship00:15:36
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All right, let's get back into the show.
All right, anyway, let's uh let's keep playing.
Well, well, figuring out, yeah, figuring out what is real is not so, is not so uh is not so easy.
And and you know, most people don't want to talk turn to Brian Stelter to tell us what's real.
I'm sorry.
Well, then why'd you bother coming on CNN a few times this week?
You know, I'm a book salesman, Michael.
I love talking to you.
I'm grateful you came on.
Uh, and I guess let's do it again in four years.
Thanks.
All right, I love the Jewy honesty at the end.
I got a book to sell.
What am I supposed to do?
Not sell my books.
I loved it.
I loved it so much because, like I said, even at the beginning, where I was just like, I just think this guy's dishonest and a hack, just for the record, just so you don't think I'm like on this guy's team.
But I liked that moment so much at the end where he's just like, Yeah, dude, I'm just trying to sell my books.
Like, I don't know.
I really, it made me think that I mean, if he's not being real in this moment, he at least sold it pretty well to me.
You know what I mean?
But it, it just made me go, yeah, I think he's just having a moment of honesty.
And then at the end, when they're like, Well, then why do you come on CNN for all this?
You're like, dude, I'm trying to sell shit.
I don't know.
I'm making money off this whole racket.
And that's that.
But I just kind of felt like telling the truth this time.
That must have been his last CNN spot for the week where he's just like, all right, I already did them all.
Fuck it.
And he's just probably fed up.
Like each time he's on there, it's just probably wearing away at his soul a little bit more.
And then by the end, he's just like, dude, this is all just like this is all bullshit.
And I did like that moment where he's like, look, I'm just trying to fucking sell my book.
At least I'll be honest with that.
That's why I'm here.
That's why I'm here because I'm trying to fucking push this book.
I already cashed a check from my publisher and now I'm obligated to go try to sell as many of these damn things so I can get another check for whatever next book I write.
So that's why I'm here.
But sorry, Brian Stelter, people aren't turning into you to be the arbiter of truth.
And that's so I don't know.
I just thought, I thought that was an amazing moment and watching it like kind of said to Brian Stelter's face and this weird defense mechanism of him just having to laugh.
There's always something there's fake laughter is very revealing in people, you know?
And I'm not talking about like there's a difference.
There are moments where people will say things that are so absurd that it really makes you laugh.
Like I'm not talking about that.
You can tell the difference.
If you start to look for it, you can tell the difference between like when people and the way he just keeps like kind of this, this, you know, pretending like, oh man, this is just so ridiculous.
It's all just signaling.
It's signaling to an audience.
It's like these weird social cues signaling to you, this is you'll be laughed at if you think this way.
So don't think this way because this is just so ridiculous to think this way.
But it's obviously true.
It's obviously true.
This idea that, you know, CNN has any more claim to the truth than anyone, including Donald Trump, is absurd.
It's absurd.
And it is like, it's a real interesting thing.
You know, I was talking about on the last episode when you weren't here.
I was talking about just how crazy the, like, if you, if you almost try to like remove yourself, which is something that we try to do a lot on this show, it's a little bit of a struggle because we're so in the news and we're talking about what's going on in the country like every episode that we do that it's hard to kind of zoom out sometimes and just look at this from almost like a neutral perspective.
But I was saying last week, which I think is really an interesting way to look at this, right?
Is if you just look at the facts on the ground, right?
Like you talked about an emperor has no clothes type of moment.
The official narrative of the corporate press, corporate America, the political class, all this, the narrative is that the worst pandemic in 100 years is ravishing the world.
And it was so bad that it warranted giving up every ounce of liberty and every societal norm that we have.
That's how bad this pandemic is.
And we have a cure.
And the cure is completely safe.
That is the narrative.
And also, we're having trouble selling the cure.
Like, that is the official narrative.
There's no like spin on this or my opinion or your opinion.
This just is the narrative.
Worst pandemic ever, cure, completely safe cure.
And free.
And comes with free animal off you corn dogs to take it.
Yes.
We'll pay you to take it.
We'll pay you to take it.
And we still, we got a real problem.
We got to crack down on social media.
Like, if those first two were true, isn't it just so obvious that this would be a very easy set.
Like you, as a salesman, you know, you look at that, you're like, okay, well, that's an easy set.
Like, you don't have to like, I don't know.
You just don't have to show up to people's doors to help them.
Yes, yes.
Like, I mean, come on, dude.
It's like, if you have something that is this, obviously, if your whole narrative is true, then this is the greatest product ever, you know?
So that's just like kind of the situation.
And, and likewise, with someone like Brian Stelter, he's got to sell you on this narrative that, you know, I have the truth for you.
And still everyone hates me for doing it.
So conclusion, you know, just like with the vaccine, conclusion, it's the fake news and the right-wingers and the this and the that.
You know, so conclusion, once again, who is it?
It's the fake news and the right-wingers and this and that.
It's all, it's everybody else's fault that me, Mr. Arbiter of Truth, is universally loathed.
That's everyone else's fault except my own.
This is the story that he's got to tell himself.
And this, I really think, is like something to be optimistic about, is that when you step back and look at that, you go, it is, this narrative is absurd on its face.
Forget, you know, being like, I want to convince people that like, you know, you should believe in the free market or that the Federal Reserve creates the boom bust.
You know, like, forget all that.
I'm just saying on its face, this story can't be real.
It's so it's so unbelievable.
Like it just, how could you buy into that?
That there's the worst pandemic ever.
I have a foolproof cure that with no risks is completely effective and is free.
It's more than free.
We'll give you a corn dog, you know, if you come in and get it.
Like that's, but people still don't want it.
Something's not up.
Something's not right in that story.
Okay.
So I just wanted to say one other thing I wanted to mention before we wrap this one up.
And this is another topic that I had been talking about on the last episode that you were unable to be there to smell for.
That I was talking a bit about the stuff that was said by the administration about social media censorship.
And I posted something about it and I got a message from Facebook.
Yeah.
And I was arrested.
I'm going to jail for 40 years.
I'm a domestic terrorist, they tell me.
But I got some pushback from some libertarians on this.
And I just, I got to say, I kind of thought, and I always do, I have a touch of naivete to me, but I did think that once Joe Biden's press secretary came out and said that we've been in contact with Facebook and we are telling them, we are labeling what is misinformation and who should be banned.
And we are saying that those people who are banned should be banned across all social media platforms, not just Facebook and all this.
I go, doesn't that kind of once and for all kill the it's a private company argument?
Like, isn't that just...
Well, that's just responsible governance.
They're reaching out and making sure that Facebook is, you know, toe in the party line, making sure they're not spreading misinformation.
But at the same time, apparently their protocol doesn't work that well because I think they also didn't quite open up suit, but they got upset with them that they weren't doing enough.
And then Facebook had to put out this article about, look at how good we're doing at basically censoring the internet.
Like, what are you looking at us for?
We're doing our part.
Did you see that?
It was the attorney general made some statement and then they released back saying, what are you talking about?
We're doing our part for censorship.
Go yell at someone else.
Yeah.
And by the way, I could, in a weird, sick way, I kind of get where Facebook's coming from.
Like, they've just, they've made a deal with the devil and they're just getting shaken down by the government.
And they're like, but we censor so much.
Right.
We've already made our platform so not good.
What more do you want from us?
We're still a business.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a weird fucking thing.
But I really did think that that would almost be like, okay, so now, oh, it's got to be right there for everyone to see now, that this is not simply the result of like, oh, private companies are exercising their property rights and their right of freedom of association, and they don't want to host those people that they don't want to host.
This isn't like under the table anymore.
This isn't me and you, as we were talking about a few weeks back, where we're like, hey, you know, the same organization that's labeling, you know, stuff that is extremist content also got like $750,000 from the Department of Homeland Security last year.
And so this has kind of got government strength.
This is just blatantly the executive branch, the president's office telling you, like straight up, we are like censoring the content that you get on your phone and computer.
We are deciding.
Like the most blatant violation of the First Amendment, like violating freedom of speech and the freedom of the press.
Like, we're just telling these companies what they can and can't report or what they can allow American people to say.
And at that point, isn't it just so obvious?
And so anyway, I tweeted a thing about this and I was like, look, they just proved that all you libertarians who have been saying it's a private company for the last few years have been completely dupes.
Like either wittingly or unwittingly, you've been defending the government as they crack down on dissident voices.
So that's that's it.
Like what else can you say about that, right?
And so I got a bunch of people giving me pushback on that.
And I think I also called it the greatest threat to liberty.
And so I just wanted to like explain this a little bit clearer because look, maybe I could have been a touch clearer about this on Twitter, but it's also, it's Twitter.
You know, you only get so many characters.
But just to be clear about this, because I saw some other libertarians being like, Dave is advocating state intervention, which I didn't.
And in fact, what I'm saying is that this is a result of state intervention.
So it would not logically follow that I'm advocating state intervention.
Although I will tell you this.
Let me say this, right?
I think this is such a big threat that I'm not allergic to the idea of it.
I just haven't heard a proposal that I think would work or won't make the situation much worse.
But at this point, if you accept that this is a result of state intervention, then, you know, it's like if you were to say that like, like Congress was going to write a law to audit the Federal Reserve, and then you'd say, oh, so you're advocating state intervention?
Oh, you're advocating regulation or something like that.
It's like, well, no.
I mean, the Federal Reserve was created by an act of Congress.
So if an act of Congress would then audit it or end it or regulate it or whatever, then like, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Let me see what the proposal is.
Like, yeah, I might be very on board with that.
But I'm not advocating any government intervention necessarily.
I just think this is a really huge problem.
And I think the case is just overwhelming at this point.
That, look, the idea of like, this is just the market deciding.
No, the market was the social media in 2015, in 2016.
That was the market where they had no interest in censoring all these people.
All of us were able to say whatever we wanted to say on social media.
Wild voices were out there saying really crazy, wild shit.
Some of it really bad.
Some of it really good.
But, you know, like, whatever.
That just was what that was the game.
And because all of the market incentives lined up for these social media companies to not want, like, why would they want to spend all of this money, develop all of these algorithms to then kick customers out?
You know what I mean?
Like, it just doesn't make any sense.
And then what happened was that Hillary Clinton lost.
And the narrative just couldn't be what was right in front of everyone's face, which was that she lost.
Nasty bitch.
Because, yeah, because she's a nasty woman.
People don't like wars that much.
Such a nasty woman.
And it's just that it's beyond the war.
Listen, I wish it was all the war thing.
I mean, that certainly played a role in it.
But the truth is that she was a transparently corrupt, unlikable person who was the embodiment of the establishment.
And people were pissed off at the establishment.
And it was really hard to, and all the dignity of the office talk when your husband's a creep.
It's not that easy.
Yeah.
And if it hadn't been for all of those factors, it probably wouldn't have even been close with Trump.
But she was just so awful that she lost.
Now, that couldn't be accepted as the official narrative.
So it became Russia and racism and fake news, which was very related to the Russia thing because all they could really claim was that Russia manipulated social media and all of this.
The Censorship Machine and Official Stories00:05:32
So they hauled all of the social media heads in front of Congress.
They threatened the crap out of them.
And nothing is scarier to a business, especially a very successful business, than threats from the government.
They're really, they're the only ones that can easily do it in a day.
You also got to give a little bit of credit to the censorship machine, because if they did not take control of social media companies in the way that they did, the Hunter Biden story actually would have probably gotten republished and reproduced quite a bit, which might have changed the election.
But the biggest thing that you're not seeing on social media now, which is basically, I mean, it's almost incredible the amount of work that the social media companies are doing on behalf of the large pharmaceutical companies that you won't see bad vaccine information and you won't hear chatter about drugs such as ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine, both of which I think are now in more regular use.
But you would have to do your own research on that and you won't find on social media that that is a treatment protocol by some doctors in some areas.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So the machine is, I'm saying their censorship machine is up and running and it's working.
And it's in part because they realized, oh, there's a flaw in the game.
And then an outside, firstly, the way Trump was able to win and then also Trump's superpower of generating his own news where stories such as even what happened with the elections, you know, Trump is very, yeah.
I think you're 100% right about all of that.
No, I think you're absolutely right.
And that's important, you know?
But to me, like what's right at the core of this is statism.
Like if you're a libertarian or an ANCAP, you go, oh, yeah, but this is all about political shakedowns, politics in general, trying to get politicians that they want elected, trying to get laws and policies that they want passed.
This is not a function of the market.
And now with this stuff from Biden, just being like, yeah, straight up, we are telling them who to censor and who not to censor.
He said straight up, Facebook is killing people.
That's their attitude, you know?
And so once you look at it like that, I'm not saying you have to advocate for any government policy.
You can just point out that government policy is what got us to this place to begin with.
Now, I don't know exactly how you get that toothpaste back in the tube.
That's a different question.
I'm not allergic to the idea of some type of intervention.
I don't think this should be allowed to happen.
But the other thing that I'm saying is that all I said, my point is that the line, oh, it's a private company.
This is the market.
That should be completely destroyed.
No, it is not.
This is a result of government intervention into the market.
And the reason why I said it's the biggest threat to liberty is quite simply that it's like, well, look, this is the public square now.
This is, so all of it, because I had other people saying they're like, oh, this is the biggest threat to liberty, not lockdowns and wars.
And I'm like, yes, no, obviously, I'm not saying this in itself is the, I'm saying, where else do you raise awareness about the lockdowns and the wars?
Where else do you talk to people about it?
Where else do you share the real information that the corporate press won't put out there?
This is it.
And so if they're locking it, so it's almost like an umbrella thing where it's like, yeah, look, this is where, where do you really find out what's going on in fucking Yemen?
It ain't on Brian Stelter's show, right?
It's from Scott Horton's.
It's from like, you know, so my argument is just that if they can't, if the, if the federal government can squash and silence all dissonant voices, then we're toast.
So anyway, that more or less, just to clarify a little bit of what I was saying, I'm not calling for any government policy.
I think the threat is big enough that I'm all ears.
If someone's got a suggestion, you know, I'd be interested in hearing it.
But from what I've heard so far, I will say, and I did tweet this the other day, that none of the right-wingers who have like these proposals for what to do, I don't think any of them are going to work.
And many of them would make the problem much, much worse.
Maybe we need like a separation between church and state, like a separation between state and social media and some sort of a penalty if it's like, in other words, I guess Facebook as a private company, if they came up with their own guidance for what they wanted to censor on the platform.
But if you found out that it was actually, you know, lined up with the government very specifically that like they were giving their marching orders, then I don't know who would be in trouble.
But maybe there's some sort of a way to police for that.
Yeah, maybe.
Well, anyway, that's our show for today.
Robbie, it's good to have you back.
I'm glad you're here.
Let's plug some gigs, dude.
Huh?
Get him back out there to spread the corona tour.
Oh, yeah, that's right.
Yes.
The Rob Bernstein Spreads Delta around America Porch Tour is coming.
Well, I'm leaving the day after tomorrow for Freedom Fest.
So get those people going.
I know there's a whole bunch of our people are going to be out there.
So I'm real excited for that.
And what else we got, Rob?
Well, we got Rochester.
I believe, I think it's, well, August 26th, full weekend up in Rochester.
Name of the club is Comedy at the Carlson.
If you go to their website, I'm sure you can find the exact date and ticket links.
We're there for the full weekend.
That's going to be a blast.
And then, of course, we got Washington, D.C., August 8th.
We got a live podcast and stand-up show.
Hit me up on social media if you can't find the ticket link, but it's out there and we'll tweet it out.