Tupac and COVID Jesus analyze the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, contrasting the corporate press's initial "white supremacist" narrative with evidence of self-defense during the 2020 riots. They critique the Libertarian Party's silence on mob violence and Jo Jorgensen's failed campaign, arguing libertarians must reject "woke" orthodoxy to defend private property rights. Ultimately, they assert that true libertarianism requires radical opposition to government overreach and price controls, urging the movement to challenge political dogma rather than align with either side. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Fill her up.
You're listening to the Gash 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 Gash Digital Network.
What's up?
What's up, everybody?
Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
I'm the libertarian Tupac, the most consistent motherfucker you know, and he is COVID Jesus, the king of the caulks.
Robbie the Fire, Bernstein.
What's up, my brother?
I'm doing well, man.
Back from Skank Fest.
Nice to be back in my beautiful home here, but I had a blast.
Yeah, man.
You were out there for longer than I was, but we had a fun time out there.
And from what I've heard, you had a fun time the rest of the weekend.
And yeah, man, great, great fucking festival.
Goddamn, just incredible.
Dude, those crowds come out and they like the dirty jokes.
So it's the funnest shows to do all year.
Yeah, this was the first time we've done a live part of the problem.
That was so fun.
Skank Fest.
And it went really great.
It was a lot of fun, man.
Thank you to everybody who ordered that pay-per-view event that we did.
I was real happy with how it came out.
I thought everyone was great.
And Sam, evidently, you can still go order it at momenthouse.com/slash SkankFest.
But fucking the stand-up comedy from Rob, Chris, Fega, of course, BK Chris, Sam Tripoli, Ryan fucking came through and did a set that was fucking great.
And then BK Chris.
I said BK Chris.
Oh, my bad.
He needs to be a shotgun.
He gets a double shout out.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
There you go.
But and then, so Ryan Long and Sam Tripoli and everybody, they all joined us on the podcast.
It was just a lot of fun.
Very great time.
That thought was electric.
I barely even got a line and I was just laughing the whole time.
This guy fast.
Yeah, there was a lot of fun shit happening real quick, but it was great.
So the whole thing was just fucking a lot of fun.
And then the Legion of Skank show and the other stand-up show that I did was great.
And so it was a lot of fun.
I know you were having a good time out there.
So yeah, absolutely, man.
If you guys can make it out to a Skank Fest one of these years, if you like fucking edgy humor and partying and all that stuff, it's a good time.
How many shows did you get in on the one day you were there?
I wasn't even, I was just did the live stand, the live Legion of Skanks live part of the problem and one of the big stand-up shows and got right out of there.
Yeah, you know, flew.
I flew there in the morning and flew back at night.
But, you know, first class, I'd tell you.
I fly nice.
But yeah, I was probably, you know, I got a newborn and a three-year-old.
So it's the best sleep I got in a while.
But yeah.
Was that flight back?
Did you just like get to the airport, hit the bar, and then have another drink on the plane?
So it was just like the funnest plane ride?
No, I did not do any of that.
I didn't hit the bar or drink on the plane, but I had a fun plane ride.
But it was, but it was, no, dude, I was just, I was beat at that point.
I like, I made it like just in time.
I was like cutting it close.
I didn't have time for any of that.
And then I just fucking fell asleep on the plane.
I love airport drinking.
You have a lane-nice flight and you can get hammered just so that you know that you can sleep on your flight.
Like I like to get a little hammered.
I like airport drinking.
I like plane drinking.
I like drinking on the plane.
It's fucking great.
Cameras vs. Trial Facts00:12:16
I think they're playing just like in life.
Just plain, regular, boring drinking.
No, like on the airplane, airplane drinking, I should say.
Yes, I like that.
Anyway, it was a great time.
And I appreciate everyone who came out.
And for those who couldn't, everyone who bought the pay-per-view and the rest of you, you know, I still appreciate you.
Just not as much as those folks.
Romanhouse.com.
I watched it today.
It was fun.
Romanhouse.com slash Skankfest.
Go check it out.
Stand up from all of us.
I did a set, Rob did a set, all the other guys, and then the whole podcast.
So yeah, it's, I think, I think worth the worth the price.
But you go buy it and then be the judge.
And if it's not, then, you know, you have permission to hate me.
Okay.
So what I wanted to talk about today, first of all, there's a couple of things that I wanted to get into.
But the first thing is the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, which has really become, at least if social media is engaged, quite a big, quite a big trial.
And it's, I don't know, I find it, you know, there's been like a few trials in my life, I think, that are kind of have this energy about them.
These things where there's a big trial and it has a lot of cultural, it's just very relative to the culture and very, you know, kind of like gets at the kind of underpinnings of the angst in society and where they let cameras in.
You know, all of those things kind of happening because that's a big deal.
It makes it, it's a much different thing when cameras can come in and you can actually see what's going on.
And, you know, I'm reminded of, you know, obviously like the OJ Simpson trial is probably the biggest.
There's probably never been one quite on that level in my life.
The, what, what's it called?
Trayvon Morton.
Well, I was thinking Trayvon Martin and George, not Trayvon Martin.
He wasn't there.
But George Zimmerman, that was a big one.
And then the, of course, as you said, the one that we just had last year.
Although in that one, there weren't cameras for the, what's his name?
I keep remembering the victim and not the fucking name.
But yeah, the George Floyd.
No, no, no.
George Floyd's killer.
Not Trayvon Martin's killer.
George Floyd fucking, what's his name?
God damn it.
The cop.
The cop who got convicted last year.
Oh, that's bad.
Yes, Chauvin.
Derek Chauvin.
Thank you, Brian.
That's why we have a producer.
So we still look like idiots, but then eventually get the name out of our mouth.
So yeah, but that one there weren't cameras in, but still, I mean, you must, you have to admit, I mean, that was a huge, you know, like, like moment.
But this one feels big too.
And it's not quite maybe not quite as big as the Chauvin trial Because the George Floyd thing was what set off the entire chapter of Black Lives Matter protests and riots and all of this shit.
But this does feel pretty big.
And watching the trial and the bits that I've seen, it's weird because it's not like back with even the Trayvon Martin, again, the George Zimmerman trial.
I remember it was aired on CNN, like they were playing the trial.
And it was TV still seemed like the way to get it even then, you know?
And of course, with OJ, TV was the way it was.
Like court TV was like a new thing.
There was cable now and you could get, you could just watch the trial.
And then clips would be shown all over other news channels and all over your local news and stuff.
But this is like live streaming on YouTube and shit like that.
And it's a whole different way.
So it's harder to gauge how big this is, you know?
The OJ trial was like everyone was talking about it.
But it seems to me, at least my social media, now the algorithm, I think, makes us all, you know, a little vulnerable to our own echo chambers.
But this one seems to me to be very big.
Like a lot of people are talking about it.
And are there as many people rooting against him?
I haven't picked up on that.
Like in the Floyd one, it was pretty obvious that a lot of people were hoping that that cop would be found guilty.
Are there actually people hoping that he's found guilty on this?
You know, again, I'd have to almost plead algorithmic, you know, echo chamber, but I haven't seen that.
But I'd have to imagine there's a ton because he was that they really went all in on this guy being a murderer at the very beginning.
And like all the just about the entire corporate press.
It was one of those issues that like the kind of the left-ish, you know, progressive establishment Democrat kind of part of the corporate press, meaning like everything except Fox News and, you know, one or two other outlets.
They were all in on this guy as a white supremacist murderer who got in his car and crossed state lines to kill people just for standing up for the rights of blacks.
You know, like that was the narrative up to the entire Democratic political establishment was right on the same page.
And even the right wing, like Fox News types, probably be few and far between who would defend them because this is what they always do.
This is the game is that they don't have the courage to do it when it actually matters.
But then like later, they'll be like, oh, yeah, you know, I think maybe that guy actually acted in self-defense, whatever.
But so many people went all in on it that, you know, Joe Biden called him out.
Like, you know, people way up to the top that I'm sure they're rooting for him to be convicted.
I will say I have not been watching every inch of the trial.
Just, you know, got a family now.
I can't just hang out and have fun and watch every part of a trial.
But it does seem, I've watched a decent amount of it.
And it really does seem like it's hard to imagine him not getting off.
Now, I'm not going to say it's impossible.
It is still, it is still possible that he doesn't.
And I think with trials like this, in America in 2021, things are so polarized politically that once something is a political issue, I think you have no idea how people are going to how a jury is going to vote.
And you just don't know who those people on the jury are.
And they may have made up their minds.
And this is one of the things that's sickening that's really happened over the last five years or so in America, but particularly over the last, you know, almost two, is that politics has become people's entire identities.
You know, and this is a huge issue with the COVID shit.
This is what makes it so hard for someone who's dug in on one side to ever walk back what they believe in.
It's like, because this is now, this is who they are.
It's not going to rob that person of who they are.
And, you know, people don't give up their identity very easily.
So I don't know, but it sure seems like the prosecution's case, not only is it going bad, but it seems like it's hard to understand how you even brought this to trial.
You know, like that's, that's the level.
I've never seen anything like this.
And I've, I've watched, you know, several of these like high-profile trials before.
And I remember watching George Zimmerman's trial.
And I remember there was all this energy.
Like, you know, all everything in the press was like, this fucking bastard fucking just gunned this unarmed black boy.
And I don't know if you guys remember, but they were showing pictures of Trayvon Martin when he was like nine, you know, and like, and they, and they made a huge deal in the press about how, you know, he said this guy was fucking him up and then he shot him.
And then they showed a picture, like a real grainy picture of his face.
And you're like, look, he's fine.
He doesn't have a mark on him.
He wasn't in a fight like that.
And then there was the MSNBC dirty, dirty job that they did, which is unbelievable.
It's one of the best examples ever of Michael Malice's the corporate press is what does he say?
He got factual, but not truthful.
And so they play this video clip of him talking to the cops.
And so it's the 911 call with George Zimmerman.
And George Zimmerman is like, well, there's this guy.
He looks like he's breaking into houses.
I'm following him right now.
And they go, okay, what's he wearing?
Blah, blah, blah.
What's this?
Blah, blah, blah.
Or they go, what race is he?
And he goes, he's black.
And they edited out the 911 caller asking him, what race is he?
So that he just goes, there's what you hear on MSNBC is, there's this guy.
He looks like he's breaking into houses.
I'm following him.
He's black.
So they literally, they edited out this one part to make it seem like he offered this detail about his race, that that was clearly on the front of his mind when it's so, like, it was so devious.
You know what I mean?
Like that, there's this one thing that you make it seem like, oh, yes, see, clearly this played a role in his mind.
He was thinking, here's this black guy.
I'm going to go kill this black guy.
But really, the 911 operator asked him.
And then they said, like, they were like, no, we just edited it down for time.
You know, you're like, come on, motherfucker.
We know what you did.
But so there was this huge kind of like narrative that was built.
And I remember as I watched that trial, and I didn't have a family back then.
I watched a lot more of that trial.
I remember thinking to myself, I go, I'm seeing reasonable doubt.
And I'm just seeing, now, again, I didn't leave that with like, I am sure that George Zimmerman was in the right in this altercation.
It came down to a thing of like, I don't exactly know who started the fight or who didn't.
Like, you know, kind of by the nature of this whole innocent till proven guilty court of law jury of your peers situation, when one guy's dead, you don't get to hear from him.
You know, you don't know what his side of the story was.
The narrative started collapsing.
And you saw that George Floyd actually had a shattered nose and a big laceration on the back of his head.
So, first off, that whole narrative that like he didn't have a scratch on him, well, that's gone.
And the forensics people determined that he was on the ground and shot up at Trayvon Martin, who was over him.
So the dude was like mounted on top of him.
So again, that narrative of like he just gunned down some kid.
They were saying that certain people were saying that like he shot him in the back.
And he was none of that was true.
And then you see the pictures of what Trayvon Martin looked like that day.
And it's not the nine-year-old boy.
You know what I mean?
And like, so again, this does not prove that Zimmerman's innocent, but it certainly was like being like, I think there's reasonable doubt as to what happened here.
And certainly that doesn't mean Zimmerman's a good dude, or it doesn't mean he didn't handle it in a shitty way, but that's not really the question.
The question is, in the moment that he killed this kid, is it, was he, you know, acting in self-defense?
And that to me became plausible as I was watching the trial.
And I was like, well, them are the rules.
So if it's plausible that he acted in self-defense, then I don't think, you know, probably the right thing to do here is to convict him.
Plausible Self-Defense Arguments00:15:33
Again, it was, but so, so with this one, anyway, I'm sorry, did you want to jump in there?
Was there something you want to say?
It was a terrible racist joke and anyways.
It wouldn't even make sense in this context.
You wanted to say something racist five minutes ago.
Jump back in here with that.
I just want to make sure you have your opportunity.
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So with this one, it does seem like, you know, this isn't even like a narrative falling apart.
This is like this, this was pretty obvious from the get-go.
And it was pretty obvious from the videotapes that we saw that it was like, I don't get how you're even going to charge this kid.
Like you got people in a chaotic, you know, riot situation.
You have people chasing him down.
He's falling down to the ground.
They're cursing, yelling, screaming at him.
He shoots back.
One dude runs up, reaches for a gun, and he shoots him in the arm with the gun.
Like pretty clearly could have just like taken the dude out, but just tries to kind of neutralize the situation.
And this is what we knew back last year when it happened, you know?
And now you're seeing this all unfold.
And it's been, I mean, kind of unbelievable to watch.
I mean, there was the one guy, the, was the Daily Caller reporter.
I saw who the prosecution was grilling.
And they were like, oh, so you're, you're claiming to know what was in, you know, he shot the one guy who reached for his gun.
And he's like, he's like, oh, okay.
So you're saying this guy was trying to do him harm, but do you know this guy?
Can you read his mind?
There's like the prosecutor, like grilling him down.
Oh, can you read his mind?
And he's like, oh, all of a sudden you have some magical ability where you can understand what this guy says.
And the reporter guy's like, well, I've never had a conversation with him if that's what you're asking.
And he goes, so how do you know what he was thinking?
And he goes, well, he yelled, fuck you, and reached for his gun.
You're just sitting there like watching this moment in court.
And you're like, yeah.
I mean, really?
Like, okay, this the prosecution seems to be so like, did you guys not think about this?
And then, of course, the huge moment that has been going super viral and watching it spun in the press is really something.
But the moment going viral is that they had, this was the prosecution's big ace in the hole, is they had the guy who he shot who lived testify.
And he's testifying to the prosecution.
Well, for the part that the prosecution is, you know, they're, you know, questioning him and then the defense gets to cross-examine.
And while they're questioning him, I guess it was going okay.
Although I didn't think it was particularly great.
He's talking a lot about what type of person he is and how he wants to help people and not hurt people.
And that's why he didn't shoot him quicker.
And because he just didn't, he wasn't prepared to really take, he wanted to, you know, whatever.
He's like literally talking about what a great guy he is.
And then the defense cross-examines him and they go, and they just cut right to the chase.
And they're like, okay, so you were, you go, so you chased after him, which he did not, he goes, no, I didn't, I didn't chase after him.
And he goes, but you sprinted in his direction.
And he's like, yes, that's correct.
And he goes, so were you just sprinting in his direction for unrelated reasons?
And he's like, no, no, it was, it was related to the situation.
And the defense attorney's like, yeah, so, so you chased after him.
And he's like, I wouldn't describe it that way.
You're like, dude, like, we watched this on video.
And he goes, so you chased after him.
He goes, and you had your hands up while you're chasing him.
And he goes, did he pull out his weapon or shoot at you while you had your hands up?
And he's like, no.
And they're like, so it wasn't until you reached down and pulled out your gun and pointed it at him that he shot you.
And he's like, that's correct.
And you actually see the prosecutor, which I couldn't believe.
And this has gone super viral, but he actually just puts his head down in his hands like that.
And I would think just purely on like the optics of it.
I mean, this is a jury trial.
You'd think you just wouldn't do that?
Like you would be well trained enough as a lawyer to go, you don't like the EOC move and you'd be like raising your hands and won somehow.
Well, that's right.
You don't do that like, cause it just, the optics of it are like you send this message to everyone like, oh, shit, our case just fell apart.
But it kind of seems like it did.
I mean, I don't know.
I don't know how else to look at that.
But anyway, so I don't know what have you seen anything of the trial, but this is my take so far is it just seems like, wow, this is really, this has fallen apart in a pretty unbelievable way.
So when I saw it was going to trial, I was like, oh, that's cool that that's going to trial.
But from what I remember of seeing the footage, there was no reason for a trial here.
It's all on camera.
Literally the whole thing was on camera.
I remember watching it and being like, this is some superhero shit.
He's talking and weaving.
It was like Eli Manning on that famous Super Bowl win.
Except, I mean, this guy was cooler.
He killed some people.
He didn't just win the Super Bowl.
But, you know, yeah.
No, I remember watching the footage a year ago or whenever it was and just being like, okay, yeah, like that was clearly self-defense.
I'm surprised that there's a trial.
So I wasn't really paying that much attention to it until today when I watched that exact clip that you just mentioned and just thought it was hilarious.
Yeah.
You know, I'll tell you, as I'm watching this, it was.
It was having like an impact on me in a few different ways.
Number one, just being like, you're kind of like, wow, this is actually, it seems at least to me, like it's going the way it's supposed to go, like that the truth is actually coming out in a trial.
And, you know, it kind of, it does let you know that.
And sometimes I think is, you know, some libertarians, I think, are guilty of oftentimes making the perfect the enemy of the good.
And I think that, you know, we may, it's not that our criminal justice system is great and there's a lot of problems to it, but there is something about this, this time-honored tradition of like, you get a trial with a jury of your peers and a lawyer in a suit who defends you and a judge in a robe who's supposed to be neutral and like all of this shit.
Now, it doesn't go that way a lot of the times.
And it'd be better off if it was all privatized, if you ask me.
But it is still like, man, this is a lot better than just, you know, the days when it would be like, well, whatever the fucking, you know, political class says, we drag you outside and execute you or something like that.
And like, it's kind of cool to see like some of this stuff actually coming out.
And that, yeah, you're not just going to be tried on CNN.
You're going to actually get to go, you know, present evidence.
Now, this, of course, this process gets perverted quite a bit, but it's still, there's something.
It's better than, you know, it's better than it could be, I guess.
I think it makes all the difference when there's actual footage.
Like the, even the George Floyd one, that cop would not have gotten in trouble if there wasn't that much footage of it.
Like there was just so much footage of him clearly being on a guy's neck for far too long.
Yeah.
And to be honest, and to be honest with the Zimmerman one, it's the kind of issue was that there wasn't footage.
And so you're like, I really don't know who started the fucking altercation.
That's like a huge thing.
You know what I mean?
Like who, you know, and you could say, you know, okay, whatever.
We get into this more in a second.
But the other thing that was just really like kind of in my mind as I've been watching, you know, a bit of the trial is just, it's just kind of taking me back to that time in the summer of 2020 and how crazy things were.
And, you know, I like, I remember during that moment, and I think this is why this trial has such cultural significance.
I don't think I'm saying anything like groundbreaking or, you know, unique here, but the reason why this has so much significance is because there were kind of like these lines drawn on like, what side are you on of all of this shit?
Like there were riots sweeping through the entire country.
And just kind of like this chaos ensuing following months of lockdowns.
And now like, and here you have one kid who goes out there, you know, you could say foolishly.
I mean, I certainly think at the very least it was somewhat naive probably.
But that's not really the question, you know, in front of you here.
It's not like, ah, was he really prepared to do this?
I mean, like we said at the time, we pretty much defended the kid at the time and said, look, it looks like this was self-defense from everything we're seeing pretty conclusively.
But we also go like, you know, hey, look, if you're going to do something like this, you don't just, you're a 17-year-old.
You don't just go alone with your rifle and go out there.
You got to get a group of men together.
You got to be a part of something.
You got to like, you know, think this through because you might end up right here where this kid is, you know, with your whole life, you know, hanging in the balance.
But that's not the question.
The question isn't like, what were his motives when he went there or what exactly happened before that?
Or was this a smart decision?
The question, strictly, you know, legally speaking, is was it reasonable for him at the moment to think that these people were a threat to his life?
And that seems to me to be like, I don't even understand how you could argue against that.
I really, I really don't.
And perhaps someone has it and I just don't know, but I don't even know what the argument is that he could not have reasonably thought that his life was in danger at that point.
And this was the only thing he could do to protect himself.
So, you know, again, and it's not like, it's not like he fucking like chased down one of them and stood on top of him and shot him or some shit like that.
He's like on his back and they're running at him and he's shooting back at them.
You know, it's a anyway, seems to me like clear-cut self-defense, but who knows how this goes.
Maybe I'm just thinking this now.
Maybe the optics are that they were hoping that people would be frustrated by the fact that he got away with it.
Like maybe they were hoping that they could present the case in a way where it's like someone shouldn't be able to show up to a location with a gun, potentially try and provoke a fight and then be able to get off because of self-defense.
And so maybe the optics were, hey, let's go bring this case.
Then maybe we can change the gun laws.
So then in the future, if it seems like you were not even the one provoking it, but even because someone could show up and provoke it, we clearly need stricter gun laws here.
So maybe this case was really only brought because they thought they would be able to create more optics and public outrage against guns.
Yeah, perhaps.
Or I think also that a lot of it was just that, you know, there was this huge investment in the narrative that these were peaceful protests.
And so why the hell would some white kid go out there with a gun?
You know, why would you even be there with a gun?
And why would you even be pointing it at these people?
I mean, they're there, you know, protesting, you know, racial injustice or something like that.
And of course, that was, I mean, just so far removed from reality.
And that's the other thing, you know, like one of the guys he killed was like a convicted child molester and stuff.
And you're like, oh, so what's the child molester doing in the protest for racial justice, right?
Like that's, that seems to be a little bit of an odd.
And of course, but like everyone knows this.
It's like that, yeah, well, I mean, you have mass riots with all this violence and stuff.
And it was attracting all types of like the worst people.
Who's who's going out and joining in on that?
It's not like the, you know, and again, I don't like, I know people, when I talk about this, at least I remember last summer when I was talking about this, I felt like there were a lot of people, particularly, you know, some in the kind of libertarian libertarian world who would kind of misconstrue what I'm saying.
I'm not pretending that there weren't protests, that there weren't protests of like real people who were like, hey, the cops are fucked up and they're good.
But let's not pretend that that part wasn't happening too, that every night it wasn't turning into riots.
And I hate when, you know, people like always making these excuses.
They're like, well, at first we supported Black Lives Matter, but then it turned violent.
And you're like, what do you mean?
Like after George, George Floyd, I think it was two days later in Minnesota, it turned violent.
It didn't eventually turn violent.
And this was a thing that, you know, it was a real, it was like an eye-opening and kind of an interesting experience for me, Particularly as a libertarian and in the whole kind of libertarian world, and particularly in the libertarian party, where I remember, you know, having this real kind of like, it was like there were the, there was, I was sitting here just fucking railing against the violence and the riots with you,
you know, and we were like, this is just unacceptable, barbaric, primitive, outrageous, appalling behavior.
Like, we're against it.
And we're with anyone who's against this.
And this was a big split.
A lot of libertarians, and I'll tell you, even some people in what would probably be broadly considered my camp of the libertarian world were the ones who were like, whoa, Dave's really straying here.
Like he's kind of lost his way.
And he's, he's, you know, like whatever.
I mean, not like the leaders in my camp, but some of the people.
And they'd be like, whoa, you're like, you know, we're supposed to be against the cops or something like that.
And we're supposed to be on that side.
But to me, it was just so, so obvious.
And I got to say, dude, like, you know, I don't mean to be a narcissistic asshole here, but, you know, got to be me.
But we were right.
We were right.
And just listen to this show.
We're right about everything.
Like, that's what we do.
We're right about everything.
Look at that guy who just got fucking the main fucking guy for the, we were talking about before the show.
HR Issues Kill Businesses00:04:17
The main guy from the Steele dossier just got fucking indicted, right?
Oh, yeah, look, we were right about all that shit.
Oh, yeah.
Turns out.
And I saw, by the way, I'm getting off on a tangent.
That story is getting juicier than even you and I thought, though, because originally we were just saying, hey, this thing is bullshit.
And I mean, the fact that anyone listens to Corona after two full years or four, what is it, three years of that total just bullshit?
And you and I, they could not have been louder about the threat that Donald Trump's a spy from Russia and that this is treason.
And we knew from the beginning it was bullshit.
And not enough people read through that, but we did.
I saw at Adam Schiff.
I'm sorry, go ahead, finish your thought.
No, I was going to say, but now it's looking like the Clinton, they actually put it together.
Yeah, but we knew this.
We knew this was all I don't remember that we were saying that.
I was saying from the very beginning that it was all about how Donald Trump was.
I think it was Team State people.
I didn't think it was Clinton.
Well, it was, well, here's the thing: it was.
It was all of them.
And there's not that much separating the Clinton campaign from the deep state people.
You know what I mean?
But yeah, no, look, this was, I've been saying this since fucking 2016, that it was all about how Donald Trump ran his president's presidential campaign and that he was promising to end all the wars and make detente with Russia and have this deal with Russia where we could end all the wars and get out of Syria and who the hell cares if Assad stays and all this shit.
That's what it was all about.
And poisoning that, sabotaging him and then poisoning that opportunity to make that deal.
And the first half didn't exactly work, but the second half sure fucking did.
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All right, let's get back into the show.
Anyway, whatever, regardless.
So I saw, I'll say this, the last part of this tangent, but so I saw Adam Schiff was on the view and he's, he's on the view.
And one of them, I guess, whoever their token conservative is now, I assume that's who this lady was.
She's grilling him about that.
She's like, well, you were pushing the steel dossier and that like completely fell apart.
And he's going off.
He doesn't even kind of apologize, just going off on how awful Donald Trump is.
And he goes, look, we had to investigate it.
That's all I ever said was we should investigate it, which is like, you said quite a bit more than we should investigate that.
You literally claimed you had seen the smoking gun evidence that no one else had seen.
I'm the head of the House Intelligence Committee and I've seen we know Donald Trump's in bed with Russia.
Anyway, bullshit.
Donald Trump guilty of a whole lot of things, not a Russian spy.
But, you know, but then he goes at one point, he goes, well, listen, no one could have known at the time that the steel dossier was all bullshit.
And it's like, really, it's fun to hear.
It's like, well, like the fucking chair of the House Intelligence Committee, sitting congressman, goes, who could have possibly known this?
And you're like, a couple jerk off comedians.
That's who could have known this.
Like anyone with their goddamn eyes open.
That's who could have known this.
Anyway, but I just, I remember, you know, at the time in the summer of 2020.
I'm trying to say about that on the shift thing.
It doesn't look like it took that much of an investigation to unline the fact that it was bullshit.
Violence Against Innocent People00:14:53
So if you're going to, you know, go on a giant campaign, I mean, talk about treason.
You're going to go on a giant campaign against the president and say that he's not authorized to be the president and basically ruin his entire agenda.
You would think you would have to at least investigate the origins of that and make sure that it's accurate.
Who would know?
The one person who would be responsible to look into it before changing the course of the entire country off of bullshit.
You're the guy.
You're literally the guy.
That's your job.
Go check.
Yeah, you'd think so.
Maybe.
But anyway, so last summer, when there were all of the mass riots all across the country, I mean, I thought it was so obvious that libertarians should be opposing this.
And like, I always said, I didn't think it was like, not only did I not think I was straying from principles, I thought it was like, how, how could you have these principles and not even not agree with this?
I mean, the whole purpose of being the whole thing, the libertarian business is believing in like self-ownership, the non-aggression principle and private property rights.
That's our whole thing.
And okay, so you believe in non-aggression and private property.
And there's these roving gangs of people just smashing private property, assaulting people, killing people, terrorizing people all throughout the country.
And you're like, well, of course we're against that.
And typically speaking, it's not like that.
The libertarian thing is like, we believe in peace.
That's basically the whole essence of it.
That's just a different way of describing non-aggression is peace.
And if you think of war and peace, that's like kind of on the fucking macro level, right?
Like the biggest level of violence is like a war declaring war, a country declaring war on another country.
But if you just whittle that down and part of the libertarian thing is not really believing in the distinction between micro and macro, that we're all people and we just, the more of us, the more of us, but that the principles still apply.
Like in the same way, like you can't get 10 people together and change morality from when there's two people together and same up to 100 million.
But so we believe in peace and the whittled down version of that is just like you not attacking and stealing from your neighbor, you know, like, but the reason why it's not just that we're against the government, we're against the government for a reason.
And this is where the like taxation is theft and all this shit, war is mass murder and all of this comes from, is that it's like, well, it's like the government doing something doesn't change the moral character of it.
Just because they're the government, they're still human beings, just like the rest of us are.
And if any other group did what the IRS does, we'd consider them like an extortion racket, the mafia or something like that.
So just because the government did it, and I don't even give a shit if 51% of people voted for it, that doesn't change the moral character of it.
Like that's kind of the libertarian thing.
And so, but the reason I guess why libertarians focus on the state more than anything else, well, I guess it's twofold, right?
So one, it's because they do it on a larger level than anyone else.
You know, no one's, even if there's like some gang violence in the south side of Chicago and they're killing some people, they're not going to kill as many people as George W. Bush is going to kill declaring war in Iraq, right?
But the second reason, and I think the more, in a way, important reason is that in general, for at least my entire life, in modern moral Western civilizations, all that other shit is already known that it's evil.
You don't really have to debate anyone to try to convince them that gangbangers killing innocent people is wrong.
You know what I mean?
Like, yeah, we know.
I don't have to like debate someone and go, you know, I think mugging someone is immoral.
I think raping someone is immoral.
I think stabbing someone is immoral.
Everyone's pretty much together on like, yeah, those are bad things.
It's only when this one group of people, you know what I mean, who declare themselves government do it that it's even debatable, that it's even a question of whether or not it's wrong.
So that's why we do it.
But so now you have these mobs, these mob, you know, crazy rioting.
And it's like, well, first of all, they're rivaling the state on the level of violence that they're doing.
And I know I got some pushback from libertarians when I said this before, but it's like, I'm not saying like, okay, I'm not comparing, you know, the summer of 2020 to fucking the levels of violence that have been done by like, you know, 10,000 years of statism.
Like, I'm just saying that it's like the amount of violence that they were doing that night in that area compared to what the state was doing that night in that area was worse.
It was like worse than the state and more chaotic.
And at least the state gives you order, you know, with their violence, whereas they just give you chaos and violence.
And the other thing is that, you know, the second part that we object to about the state, their perceived legitimacy, was also kind of a thing with this, where the entire establishment that justifies the state was telling you that these are mostly peaceful protests and that you're actually, you actually don't have a right to be against this.
And to me, that was just bonkers.
And it was like, this is insane.
Of course we should be against this.
And I remember thinking that it was so obvious to me that libertarians should be leading the charge opposing this shit.
Because that's what we say.
We're for property rights.
Like, what?
We're for property rights.
Of course we're against the people looting.
Like what?
How complicated is that?
And so, of course, the libertarian party was like damn near silent on it.
I was the one who got them to fucking finally condemn it.
And it's so funny because I don't know if I've talked about this before on the show, but I just tweeted back and forth with the Libertarian Party official account.
I don't know who was running it at the time, but those people don't like me.
They've unfollowed me and they've never fucking promoted my shit again.
You know, if you go to the Libertarian Party Twitter account, you know, they'll promote Spike Cohen's shit.
They'll promote Justin Amash's shit.
They'll never promote my stuff, which, whatever, I don't, I don't care.
And I love Justin Amash and Spike Cohen.
I think they're both great.
But just saying, whoever's running that shit, they're no fans of mine.
This is fine.
I'll get my shit without them promoting me.
It's not a problem.
But I was tweeting back and forth with them and I was like, can you just condemn the looting and the rioting?
And I had to ask them like five different times.
You can probably find this.
It's probably still up on Twitter if you find the keywords.
I don't know to search.
But finally, they eventually went, well, yeah, it goes without saying that we're against the violence.
And I thought that was such a funny thing for them to say.
It's like, oh, it goes without saying.
That's a really interesting thing for the Libertarian Party Twitter handle to say, you know, it's like, okay, it goes without saying.
Well, first of all, we're in the middle of these like gigantic nationwide riots.
So maybe it should be said.
Bless you.
Maybe it should be said.
You know what I mean?
Maybe it shouldn't go without saying.
Maybe it's, you know, maybe it's something worth saying.
But then the funny thing is that for the same account that's always talking about how, you know, bigotry is irrational and repugnant and we must be anti-racist and all of this stuff.
You're like, oh, but that doesn't just go without saying.
It doesn't just, it doesn't just go without saying that like, yeah, we're against like hating someone just for the color of their skin.
No, that must be said and said over and over again.
But oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, we're against the rioting and the looting goes without saying.
Even though we were just saying we support Black Lives Matter, it's like you're saying we support the movement, Black Lives Matter, and yet it still goes without saying, like, oh my God, I thought it was so like unbelievably revealing and insane and all of that.
And it's funny because, you know, at the time, I remember this being like a stand that I was taking that was widely seen as controversial within the movement.
But now taking the same position, just saying the same thing I just said now, I have no feeling that this is even going to be received as controversial amongst libertarians because now it's just kind of obvious.
And that's how these things go.
And that's why I, you know, I was saying libertarians should have been defending this Kyle Rittenhouse kid at the time.
You got it.
There's something really important about getting the thing right when it takes courage to get it right.
You know, I don't know why I use this example all the time, but you know, Roseanne getting fired from her show.
There was all that.
How ridiculous does that look in hindsight now?
That there's not like an outrage mob that she made one like silly little joke about what's her name?
Susan Rice was the one, right?
She made one little joke about her.
And you're like, oh, really?
That's what got you kicked off.
But you're like, at the time, oh, I don't know.
If I say something, I'm going to get mobbed.
So I don't want to say anything.
But libertarians should have been against that shit.
And it was an easy thing.
It was a slam dunk.
It was obvious.
And then, of course, eventually even the Democrats turned on it.
And then all of a sudden it stopped.
Anyway, but even the Democrats turned on it because it was just such a loser.
It was such a political loser.
But I'll tell you, you know, but here's another thing, by the way, too, is that right at the end of the campaign or close to the end, I guess it was like the end of summer that maybe even the beginning of fall, I had some people reach out to me because I was being really critical, if you remember, of the campaign, which I still think was a tragedy.
Like, I wasn't being critical of Joe Jorgensen's, you know, campaign just because like I have some desire to, you know, start fucking, you know, infighting or to trash other libertarians.
I just thought she was- She was anti-free speech and pro-openess.
So she's deadbeat liberal.
Well, I mean, you know, she and like, look, she was a good libertarian on a lot of issues.
And I actually don't think she was really responsible for any of that stuff.
I think just people on the campaign, she just didn't know what she was doing and appointed the wrong people.
But I just, to me, I thought it was a tragedy.
Like, I thought that campaign was a tragedy.
The same way Gary Johnson's campaign was a tragedy and also Rand Paul's campaign was a tragedy.
That it's like, you have a libertarian running in 2020 for president.
You got one person, as much as you may hate it, right?
That, and this is the whole deal of me like considering this for 2024, is that as much as you might hate it, the way Americans think about politics and how we do government is that once every four years, there's this big competition.
And in this moment, you had someone saying, hey, I'm not a Democrat or a Republican.
I'm this other thing called libertarian.
And, you know, she got, Joe Rogan voted for her.
Never even had her on.
Never even talked about her.
But just one time was like, oh, yeah, I voted for Jorgensen because just like, I don't know, libertarians are better than these two, right?
So that's pretty big.
I mean, someone with an audience like 10 times bigger than CNN's biggest show was just kind of like, okay, I like that.
You don't think you could maybe like use that to maybe like let a lot of people know in this country that it's like, hey, there's a whole other option.
There's a whole other way of looking at all of this shit.
And you think about a libertarian running in the year 2020, the year of the lockdowns, that this wouldn't be an amazing opportunity for like, what do you associate with that word?
We're here, here's what you associate with that word.
The government has no fucking right to tell you you're non-essential.
You know what?
Actually, they're non-essential and evil and criminal and like, fuck all that, you know?
And like, wake all these people up and affect the culture in a meaningful way.
And culture has a big impact on politics, you know, like that, who knows what that could maybe do.
And you have this opportunity.
And of course, this was completely blown.
And why was it blown?
It was blown because they decided, the people who know better than all of us, you know, they decided that we should support, we should throw our weight behind Black Lives Matter.
And, you know, not the organization, not the communists who were like putting the whole thing together, but the movement, you know, the movement of people who just want racial justice and an end to like police brutality or something.
Except the movement also included like mass violence.
And so at the very minimum, if you're going to say we support this movement that includes mass violence against innocent people, then you got to say we don't support the mass violence against innocent people and not make me badger you into saying it goes without saying.
And again, if you can find that Twitter thread, I'm not making this up.
This is exactly how it went down.
And so anyway, so I was very hard on the campaign.
And toward the end of the campaign, I won't give any names away, but some a couple people who were like higher ups in the campaign, like very higher ups, not Joe Jorgensen, but people who were very high up in the campaign, reached out to me for advice, which was infuriating because you're like, listen, motherfucker, I am giving you my advice three days a week.
You know what I mean?
You don't have to fucking call me.
Like you, I'm telling everyone what I think.
There is no on-camera, off-camera, Dave Smith, the libertarian.
Like that, you see what I'm saying.
This is my advice to you.
You just watch my show.
That's my advice.
But I gave it.
I was happy to give it, even though it was obviously way too late and none of this would matter.
But I said that I thought that they should really defend this Kyle Rittenhouse kid.
I go, that's what you should do.
Supporting the Violent Aspect00:04:52
Because that will be, number one, it's completely within libertarian principles to defend him.
He is being, this is a kid.
He was 17 at the time, I think.
He is being destroyed, but without a trial, right?
We're libertarians.
We believe that someone's innocent until proven guilty, especially when the tape really seems to indicate they were acting in self-defense.
Also, we believe in self-defense.
Also, we believe in protection of private property.
Also, we believe in private people's rights to protect private property, right?
Like everything about this, but it would also signal that we're not just supporting the violent aspect of all of this shit.
And so that was my big advice.
And from what I heard back, they said, oh, we did say something about it, but something they said about it was like very, you know, lukewarm to me, you know?
But to me, it was like, look, you had a situation where there was like mass violence and destruction of, like, these are just facts, okay?
There was mass violence and destruction of private property.
The police, the state, you know, forced security service was standing down and just letting it happen.
And then the corporate press, which basically should be viewed as another arm of the state that exists not only with, you know, not only are they, you know, half of them freaking members of the deep state or former members of the deep state, but all they're there for is to justify the existence of the state.
The corporate press had completely decided, oh, this kid is evil and the riots are all peaceful.
There are no riots.
What are you talking about?
What are you, racist?
Peaceful protests.
You know, oh, that Molotov cocktail, that's the, you know, voice of the unheard or something.
And so, of course, it made complete sense to like defend this kid right away.
And, and, you know, so, so anyway, all of this stuff is kind of going through my mind as, you know, I'm watching this trial.
And I feel like I do with all this other stuff, just like with the libertarians who were like, I don't know.
I mean, Trump might be in bed with Russia or the libertarians who were like, I don't know, we might need a lockdown or maybe, yeah, COVID's pretty bad or all of this.
Like, dude, just fucking, I wish I didn't have to be the guy to even do this.
I just want to do what I do, but just like, fucking listen to what I'm saying and then go say the shit that I'm saying because I'm right about all this shit.
I mean, Jesus.
I'm not like, I'm not wrong about any of what I'm saying here.
This is all it.
You should be defending this.
Like, here's one kid.
Okay.
None of the cops are protecting private property.
And here's some kid.
I mean, what is the issue here?
What, what is the, what would the issue be?
It's like, oh, did he have a gun that he wasn't supposed to have?
Okay, well, we don't believe in those laws, right?
That's not a libertarian problem.
So why would you not go out there and fucking like say like, yeah, no, listen, this, this kid went out there to, you know, try, okay, again, like I said before, maybe should have had some more people with him, be a little bit smarter about it.
But this kid went out there to try to, he basically said he's trying, you know, and the thing that was crazy to me is that they defended that Garrett Foster dude, like right away.
You know, I know Spike Cohen, I'm not trying to knock Spike.
I think he's really great.
Spike's been killing it, by the way, over the last year.
And I really think he's, he's great.
The best thing that came out of the 2020 campaign is that Spike Cohen is like a voice in this movement.
And he was kind of made like a libertarian guy, like one of the big libertarian voices by that campaign.
That was the best thing that came out of the 2020 campaign.
But he like right day one, it was like Garrett Foster is a hero and he died protecting his wife and he was like this great fucking person and blah, blah, blah.
And all this.
It's like, what?
He wasn't getting like crucified by the press.
I mean, he died.
It's tragic, but his situation was a lot murkier.
Evidently, I think there is a trial coming up on that.
So I don't know what's going on.
But, you know, the situation with Garrett Foster, if you remember, was the one in Austin where it was kind of like one of these things where you don't exactly know.
This car, there was one of these mobs, you know, or protests, whatever.
I don't know how violent they were being, but they were protesting, you know, a whole bunch of people.
They're blocking a street.
He tried to turn in.
The people started like yelling at him.
They started banging on his hood or whatever.
And they're yelling at him.
He didn't like mow over people, but he turned in.
Maybe shouldn't have turned in.
Maybe should have just driven the other way.
I don't know.
But he turned in and then there was an altercation.
And this Garrett Foster guy charges at him with a rifle.
And he had it like in downward ready position.
And the dude pulled out a gun and shot him and killed him.
And it's an awful situation, but to right away just be like, we're on that guy's side.
You're like, I don't know.
You know, it just seemed to me for a while.
Garrett Foster Rifle Incident00:03:03
It's like, I don't know.
It's plausible that this guy feared for his life.
A guy was with a gun is running up to your car.
Maybe you're, I don't know, or maybe not.
I don't know.
But this one seems so much more clear cut.
But of course, this guy was the guy who shot the Black Lives Matter protesters or whatever, and not the guy who was with them.
So we can side with that one, but not with this one.
And that just like, that seems crazy to me.
All of this shit just doesn't seem right.
And now, you know, you see, it's like the same thing with the riots.
It's like, well, how long did you think the violence had to go before, of course, finally, Joe Biden was going to come out and condemn it?
And all the Democrats are going to come out and condemn it.
And then, of course, and then, of course, now the libertarians will come out and condemn it.
Now there's no problem.
But like, we're going to be last.
We're going to be last on this shit.
Why?
Why not just say what we believe and like go for it?
Like, who's going to go with the underdog third party or forget even the party, just the, you know, the underdog like ideology when they're just following what the other two are saying, you know?
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And now this is coming out.
Quip Good Habits Company00:14:50
And now you see a lot more people like, oh, yeah, sure does look like there's not much of a fucking case that this guy murdered people.
Just doesn't seem like that.
And anyway, so we'll watch.
We'll see how much the corporate friends freaks out about it.
I don't know.
I don't know exactly, but I know that the prosecution rested their case today.
So what, I don't know, how much longer is there after that?
I guess.
Yeah, then they just have to be like, all right, so I'm just going to show you this tape again.
And now a replay.
And just in case you missed something, here's one more replay.
All right.
You guys want to make a decision?
Well, it does seem to me for like the defense's closing statements, they have some pretty like, you know, compelling things to say.
Like, okay, let's whittle this down to the major facts here.
And, you know, I just don't think that look, look, from what I've seen, it seems like I don't even know how they'd convict this kid.
But again, I will go back to what I said before that you don't know in these situations.
And I really do think that, you know, because things have been so politicized and all of that, that there are, there are probably some people, you know, like who could be jurors who it's like, no matter what happened in that case, you know, like if you think about it like this, right?
Where it's like, let's say Donald Trump was on trial for treason, you know, whatever the treason is.
He, you know, was in bed with Vladimir Putin or something like that.
And you pick a jury.
There are going to be, and my guess would be there are going to be a whole lot of Americans, like a huge percentage of Americans who you, they know what they're going to vote on that before the trial.
And there is nothing that could happen in that trial that would change their mind.
You know what I mean?
Like the true Trump haters are going to vote that he's guilty and the true Trump lovers are going to vote that he's not guilty.
And that's just going to happen.
I don't think there's anything that could change their minds.
That's a large percentage of the population.
Now, that's an exaggerated example.
It's not quite that crazy with Kyle Rittenhouse, but I still think there's a lot of that.
And so you never know.
You never know what's going to happen in one of these trials.
But from everything I've seen, goddamn.
God damn, is it falling apart?
Is it falling apart for them?
But anyway, so that's my thing.
Like, you know, with like, I guess like the essence of everything I was saying, you know, it's like, I don't think that it's like, it's not that libertarians, like, I think should only be on the right side, the right wing side of like any of these kind of cultural issues, or that they should only be on the left side of those.
I don't even think like we should never be on the right side or the left side.
We should be on the libertarian side every single time.
And that side should be so much better than what the right is good at or what the left is good at in that moment, if that makes sense.
We should take all of their steam away by going, oh, you know, in the same way that Ron Paul did when like Barack Obama was trying to be anti-war and then you'd see Ron Paul and it was like, oh, wow, he's way better at that than he is.
Like, oh, you think he's anti-war?
You know, Barack Obama's like, well, the war in Iraq was a mistake.
And I will end this war within 16 months.
And Ron Paul's like, I'll bring the troops out tomorrow and also from Afghanistan and also from Europe and Asia.
And I'm going to abolish the CIA and the FBI.
And you're like, whoa, like this dude's just, he's way better at that thing that you're claiming to be good at.
You know what I mean?
And like, that's how, that's how the libertarians should be.
That when they hear our perspective, it's not just like, oh, we're falling in line with the left or we're falling in line with the right.
We're offering you a radical new way to even look at this.
And if there was anything you liked about the right wing on that, well, we're 10 times better.
And if there was anything you liked about the left wing, then we're 10 times better.
So I'm not just, by the way, when the, when the left was saying defund the police, we absolutely should have been like, yes, and we mean it.
Unlike them, we mean it.
And here's why you want to defund the police, you know, and then own it from the right wing position and go, that's why you want to defund the police because now you can have whatever gun you want to and you can protect your own property however you want to.
And this can be privately decided.
Like all of that, like we should have like owned it right away.
Yes.
And then some left winger, you know, who's like, well, you know, there was some Democrat is like, we should defund the police.
But by defund the police, I mean cut 10% and give that 10% to social services.
And then you look at us and you go, no, we're done.
We're defunding them and it's over.
The war on drugs is over and these interactions in black neighborhoods are over and all of this stuff.
And we'll end it today.
Whatever problems you have with cops, they're over right now because we're for that.
You know, you're like, wow, that is way better.
That is way better than what they're saying.
And then you attack it from the right and go, you know, no one's going to enforce all these bullshit regulations and shit and whatever.
You know, it's, there's just all these opportunities there.
But what you can't do is just repeat the dogma.
You can't just say, hey, you know, you got to be an anti-racist and not just not racist and all this.
And so anyway, I don't know.
The Rittenhouse trial for whatever reason was just making me think of all that shit during 2020.
And I guess the cool thing about it is that, man, throughout 2020 and then really throughout 2021 is that all this shit of us and our wing and the Mises caucus really just been killing it.
And that I'm really excited for fucking like the next few conventions that are coming up.
And I'm telling you guys, man, get on board now if you're not already because what the Mises caucus is doing in the Libertarian Party is really goddamn exciting.
And this is going to be now we're going to kind of like, we're going to be able to control the messaging of what the official, you know, as dumb as it is.
I understand.
It's like people be like, well, why do you even need the Libertarian Party?
You know, we could just be the Liberty Movement or whatever.
And it's like, whatever you may think, look, to a whole lot of Americans, there's still the third biggest party, which is the Libertarian Party.
And what they say is what stands for what libertarians mean.
And I think when they hear that, they should hear what it really is, that real shit.
I think the Libertarian Party should reflect what the Liberty movement wants it to reflect.
And they're going to.
They're going to very soon.
And so I think that's going to be a real cool opportunity to wake a whole bunch of people up and, you know, change this whole goddamn country or at least change a whole bunch of people's lives.
And at least if nothing else, fucking, you know, do our part, carry our cross and take it one inch further than it was when it was handed to us.
Maybe that's all.
Maybe that's all life's really about.
I don't know, Rob.
Anything else?
I've been rambling a lot today, but this Kyle Rittenhouse trial, I expected this Rittenhouse to be half hour and then we were going to do a half hour about something else and it went the full hour.
So I don't know.
What do you think?
I enjoyed it, man.
I had the front row seat.
And yeah, dude, we cocks.
Love it.
Dude, I've been doing some of their events.
I have fun at all of them.
It feels very vibrant and alive.
And it's nice to actually have our views represented.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it's funny.
And it's, I'll tell you, man, it's a big, I really do think the same thing.
I've seen this for a while now.
And this is what drives me crazy when people just make excuses.
You know, people just be like, well, in 2016, you know, this or that happened.
Trump sucked all the oxygen out of the room.
Or, you know, in 2020, well, that was an incumbent year.
And those are never really good for third parties.
And you're like, yeah, but we're also for liberty and the government locked people in their homes.
So does that make it a good year?
You know, and I just like, I look around right now.
And, you know, in 2008, when Ron Paul had his huge moment, and this is kind of what created the modern, you know, liberty movement really did.
I mean, if you, if you talk to like, if you talk to a group of people who are 40 and under that are libertarians, it's all, you know, the vast majority of the time it goes back to the Ron Paul campaigns.
And what was going on in 2008 was like, oh, well, like we had seven years of wars that were disasters and they were very clearly disasters.
And then the economy crashed.
And the economy crashed.
And the guy who had predicted it and explained exactly why both of them, the wars and the economy were going to crash was this Ron Paul guy.
And it was all this government overreach.
And here's the guy preaching against that.
And I got to say, like, I really feel like right now, I mean, this just seems like the best moment, the best opportunity to get to wake a lot of people up and have a real movement in this country, like against all of the worst shit the government does and for liberty.
I mean, you know, you think, like these 19 months or whatever of just government totalitarianism over fucking this germ that they did nothing to mitigate that it that very likely was at least, if not created, you know funded, you know by uh, our own government um, just failure after failure, ruining tens of millions of people's lives without doing any good.
And then the other thing that's just really at the forefront right now I mean we got all the war shit still a disaster, and all that.
But the other thing that's really a huge opening is that it's like, let me tell you about something that we like to talk about a whole lot, that regular people really don't think about a whole lot but regular people are really Thinking about right now.
And that's the money.
That's inflation.
And this is not going any away anytime soon.
People are really thinking about why the fuck does everything cost more?
Why do things cost so much more?
You know, I was reading the other day about the prices of the things that are not included in the CPI.
You know, there's the minor little things that most people don't use.
Yeah, yeah.
The things that people don't really like use that much, like food, energy, housing, water, you know, that type of stuff.
I mean, they're up like double digits, some as high as like 20, 25% up.
Not to mention the CPI, which is already up, you know.
People are noticing this.
Like, you think, you know, you think housing prices go up 15, 20% or energy costs go up 15, 20%.
You think people don't notice that?
I mean, it's the same way if you get like if you got a 20% pay cut, would you notice that?
Okay, well, it's the same thing.
It's literally, it's literally, there's no difference between a 20% price inflation or a 20% pay cut.
It's the exact same thing in effect, right?
So, or, or basically, you know, I guess savings and stuff like that.
But, you know, basically.
And people notice that.
And it's really something to watch all these people try to come up with their different justifications.
It was what Biden said the other day, where he said there was price gouging.
We're looking at antitrust laws or something like that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You should look at the price controls to try and hide your own ass.
And how does that ever work?
Right.
You can look forward to rationing.
Great.
That's ever worked before.
Is no one going to point out that we've just been printing trillions of dollars for a year and a half?
Like, maybe this monetary inflation has something to do with this price inflation.
Like, do you not see that as an opening right there?
And I also think, you know, and I'll say this at the end, it's like, I think like if libertarians want to be successful, if the goal is to have a big movement, you know, and for people who's like, the goal isn't that, then, okay, fine, but we're just in separate games and I don't really care about what your fucking game is.
Like, there's some people who are like, like, there's almost like one side of it.
I see sometimes people who are like, well, their goal is to be the purest, best, you know, most virtue signaling libertarian out there.
And it's like, if that's your goal, cool, but I have nothing to do with you.
We're not in the same people that are interested in that.
So if you're going to be the autistic, I'm the most libertarian and I just say the most libertarian, four people will like you.
And half the way they're, and most of the time, they're not even correct in what the most libertarian thing is or what's the most like their autism isn't even good.
You might as well be obsessed with magic cards.
It's the same audience of four people.
Yes, exactly.
So it's like, okay, so if you're in that world, like I'm just not in your game and I don't care what you think of what my game is.
And then there's other people who are in the game of like, you know, you know, their game is like, well, I don't even care about making more people libertarians.
I want to go take care of my own thing and my own life and all that.
And it's like, okay, I mean, fine, that I'm just not in that game with you either.
You know, like I'm, I'm over here where I do care about their, I do care about like knowing what's really going on, knowing the truth and showing other people what I fucking know and what you know and what they should know, right?
Like I am in that game and I don't believe it's futile.
Like I believe it's like the most important thing we could do.
So if that's the case, then you got to realize that it's like, in order for us to do this, what we're going to need to do is like be willing to challenge the fucking orthodoxy.
Be willing to challenge the church of wokeness and all of this shit.
If they're telling you there's peaceful protests, but they're actually violent riots, be like, no, fuck that.
These are violent riots.
I see what I see and I'm willing to stand up and tell the truth.
That's the only way it ever works.
It's the only way any like non-dominant, you know, philosophy ever works.
It's that someone's willing to just tell the truth as hard as it might be to tell it and reject the whole woke shit.
That's that should just be like synonymous with libertarians.
Man, that would be, oh, we'd have such a better chance if that was it.
We're against the woke shit.
And even though the woke shit that's like outside of the realm of strictly libertarian, we should still be opposed to it.
And that doesn't mean you have to use non-libertarian means to oppose it, but just be like, yeah, we hate that.
It's not conducive to a free society.
It's not conducive to a free society where everybody's ratting out everyone else for the crime of wrongthink and you have to be ruined or be fired or any of this shit.
Rejecting Woke Shit00:01:47
We should be against all of that shit.
Against all of it.
And a big part of that, by the way, it's all the woke shit and the COVID shit all bleeds into each other because it's become the kind of like the politically incorrect thing is to challenge, you know, like for a long time, the New York Times ran an article.
Their head person on the COVID beat ran an article saying that what was it to discuss the lab leak theory?
Oh, yeah, it was racist.
See, they're using all the woke tricks just the same way.
And like, so it's like you got to kind of recognize all of this.
And just like, if we're opposed to all of that, there's going to be enormous potential for how many people we can reach.
And if we're trying to suck up to all of that, we're toast.
There's no chance.
There's no chance.
Oppose.
By the way, the funny thing is like all the best leftists oppose that shit.
They don't fucking fall for these tricks.
It's not a coincidence that all the best leftists who are like anti-war and like all the, you know, all the Glenn Greenwalds and Matt Taibbes and Jimmy Doers and whoever they are, they all oppose all the fucking crazy woke shit.
And they say things they're not allowed to say all the time and get called these names.
And who, who supports it?
Oh, yeah, like fucking Hillary Clinton and John Kerry and Nancy Pelosi and John Brennan.
That's who, you know, who's better out of that group.
So anyway, there you go.
Okay, let's wrap up there.
RobbieTheFire.com slash shows.
RobbieTheFire.com slash shows and go check out Run Your Mouth, of course.
It was great doing SkankFest with you, brother.
And we'll, I bet in 2022, me and you are going to get back on the road and we'll do a bunch more, a bunch more fun shows together.