James Smith and Robbie the Fire Bernstein critique "woke capitalism," linking Netflix's stock drop to political misalignment and CNN Plus's $500M failure to Biden bias. They analyze Disney's conflict with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over inappropriate transgender narratives for young children, arguing state rights offer a practical path against corporate overreach. The discussion extends to President Biden's potential second term and the establishment's fear of Trump or DeSantis, concluding that undermining state legitimacy is crucial regardless of technical voter fraud evidence. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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Government Spending and Netflix00:13:34
Fill her up.
You're 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 to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem.
We just found out that I don't know what day it is.
So take everything I say with a grain of salt.
But I am excited for today's episode because I'm always excited when I get to talk to my brother, Robbie the Fire Bernstein, the king of the caulks, COVID Jesus.
How you living, sir?
I'm doing well.
How are you, Mr. Smith?
I'm good.
I'm very good.
And I'm getting more and more excited for our fun times ahead in Reno, Nevada, where we will be, of course, out there for the National Libertarian Party convention.
But Thursday night, the 26th, we will be doing two live stand-up shows and a live part of the problem podcast.
We booked a live stand-up show and a live podcast.
They both sold out right away.
And so COVID, Jesus, Robbie the Fire Bernstein, he looked down on you people as the king of the caulks, and he had pity that there were some people who couldn't get in.
And so he instructed me, and who am I to not follow?
Words of the King of the Caulks.
He said, we're going to add another show.
And so we added another show.
There are still some tickets left for that.
I will tell you, this show is selling very fast.
So if you want to come out, go grab those tickets right now.
We will post the ticket link in the episode description.
All three of these shows are going to be completely sold out.
So if you want to come, make sure you grab tickets.
And then June 18th, me and Robbie the Fire Bernstein, we're going to be out in Chicago.
So we got a lot of fun stuff.
Two stand-up shows and a live part of the problem out there as well.
Setting up dates in Philly, in Brooklyn.
Got a lot of stuff coming up.
Summer Porch Tour.
And of course, Rob, you have the Summer Porch Tour, which has turned in.
If you were betting three years ago on what tour is least likely to actually turn into a real successful tour, this would have been right at the top of the list.
And yet somehow this has become a real thing that is awesome, that is unlike anything else anyone's doing.
And people like, I get people all the time when I'm on the road who are like, dude, I went to the summer porch tour.
It's so fucking cool what Rob's doing and all that.
So go check that out.
And yeah, where can people get all that information?
There's a lot more dates coming soon, but the ones that are live right now is going to be Florida at Top Lobsters Ranch and then in California at Brian from Lions of Liberty.
And these are fun shows, live podcasts, stand up.
You get to hang out and drink.
It's cool.
So come hang.
And those two guys, two of my favorite people, Top Lobsa and Brian, both fucking great guys.
And I'm big fans of both of them.
I say I've done both of their podcasts, but then I realized I don't think Top Lops actually has a podcast.
I think I was just like on Josh Smith's podcast with him or something.
He's affiliated with the Tower Pod people.
You've done that shenanigans.
Oh, yeah.
Have I done that one with him, though?
I don't know if he was on when I was on.
I don't think he was.
I think he was.
I don't think he jumped on that one.
But anyway, but yes, but he's a great dude.
And all those guys are great.
All those guys, him and Brian.
Okay.
Anyway, so let's get into some stuff for this show.
All right.
There's several different things that I thought that were newsworthy that have been going on lately.
One of the things that's been very, very interesting to me has been the stock prices of a few of these different companies.
The number one Netflix, who evidently, their stock is just plummeting.
And, you know, again, this show is a little bit more about politics in general.
than it is about just like entertainment, you know, issues or stuff like that.
We don't usually like spend a lot of time talking about this.
But one of the things that I thought was so interesting about it is that I think at least a big part of the reason why so many of these companies are failing is because they've become so political and people in general don't like that.
And so I certainly think that's part of what's going on with Netflix.
Although I think there are other things there as well.
Is that Netflix always had like a weird business model that didn't seem to quite make sense?
They're like, here's, here's from what I understand of it.
And this is, I'm really speaking as a layman here.
I don't like really exactly understand how Netflix does this.
And I do not hate Netflix.
In fact, I kind of, there's some things about Netflix, like I have a Netflix account and I think I'm supporting half a city with my Netflix account.
Like I literally, I think how many people are on your Netflix account?
I mean, an insane amount of people.
And then everyone from there is like people who aren't even like technically on it, who just have the password.
I mean, it's literally, there's a whole mini economy from my Netflix account that's going on.
Have you ever not been able to watch TV on your own Netflix account because there were too many people on at once?
No, but I will get calls from like my mother-in-law will call me and she's like, it's not, I need a code from the computer.
You have to put it in the game.
I'm like, okay, one second.
Let me, you know, because like whatever, every now and then it just does that thing.
But, but I also like Netflix because Netflix has like done a lot for some people I love.
Like I like Nate Barghatzi is was launched off of Netflix, you know, and I mean, he, the tonight show really helped him a lot, but then the Netflix thing like changed his life, like made him a fucking famous, the successful comedian.
And I love Nate.
And so I'm so glad he got that opportunity.
And then a lot of other people who I love also got Netflix specials and it didn't do as much as it did for Nate, but, you know, I was happy to see them get a lot of success.
And so, and I like Netflix.
I've watched a bunch of stuff on there and whatever, but their business model always seemed to be like, okay, look, here's a, here's what it costs for a subscription.
You can buy one and get probably 100,000 people watching off of that one subscription.
And we will, with that revenue, with your, you know, $12 or whatever the fuck I'm paying every month for Netflix, we are going to spend more money than everyone else combined for every single production that we have.
And you always felt like, okay, this is odd.
But it seemed like their model was like, well, we're just going to corner the market.
And the payoff will be once we've cornered the market.
We've, you know, then it's ours.
We own it.
And to some degree, that seemed almost like, well, okay, it seems like this is working.
You know, it's like Netflix and chill or whatever.
Like you've become part of the culture.
You're, this is what people refer to.
You know, it's not Hulu and chill, right?
It's Netflix and chill.
It's like, that's what people think of.
There's nothing worse than when it's Netflix and chill.
And it turns out you're just watching Netflix.
I've been there.
That's literally what they meant.
Yeah, you're like, oh, so we're actually watching this?
Fuck me.
I had no interest in that at all.
Really glad I'm out of the dating world.
But yeah, I've sat through some bad movies.
But now it does seem like maybe to some degree it's the bill of that coming due.
And I think this happens a lot in the marketplace when people have a plan of we're going to corner the market and then we'll really make a killing.
The problem that you have is that by the time you think you've cornered the market, competitors have been drawn in because you're doing so well.
And then when you try to make your killing, it's like it's just very hard to do that.
Someone's always there to undercut you or to provide something else.
All these shows can leave and go to a different service and all this.
So there's part of it's that.
But I think there's no question that part of it is also just the fact that almost all media everywhere is their ratings are going down.
I don't mean media like the press.
I just mean like all like TV shows, all that.
There's no one who maintains, you know, when I was a kid, when me and you were young, Rob, there were shows that got numbers that no shows today are doing.
Now, part of that's because there were a lot less options, you know, but also part of that's because the message of so many of the shows wasn't we hate you to 50% of the country.
You know what I mean?
And like that just seems like the woke shit has dominated so many of these platforms that I don't know.
It just seems like you're turning off a huge portion of what your base might be.
And I think that that's certainly one of the elements in what's going on there.
Any thoughts?
Yeah, no, I think you're 100% right on their growth model of, hey, we're just going to spend all of the money and have quality programming.
It seems to me like they definitely have overspent and the growth model is catching up to them.
Netflix, though, listen, I don't have a Netflix subscription and I don't spend that much time there.
If you want to jump on mine, we were always happy to have one more.
Excellent.
I think there's a lot of failing media.
And I think we're going to segue into some of the other traditional media platforms that are failing.
And that is certainly because of the wokeness.
Netflix doesn't strike me.
Like sometimes Netflix politics are weird.
They did that Brad Pitt movie that criticized the hell out of the Afghanistan war.
That one was great.
What was it called again?
That one was really fucking great.
God damn, I'm blanking on the name of it, but man, that was so fucking good where he was General McChrystal.
And it was just so apparent that there was no plan and that there was no way of winning.
They were really honest about that.
It was basically, yeah, it was the story of McChrystal and how the Rolling Stone article got leaked.
And they were really pretty.
What was really interesting at War Machine?
That's right.
And what was really interesting about that movie?
Thank you, Brian, for being near the computer and making me look smarter than I am.
What was really interesting about that movie too was that they showed, I think, at least I think very accurately.
And of course, there's probably more to the story than what any of us know, but they really showed also how he attempted to roll Obama, which was a real thing that he got on TV and like, you know, like really like trashed Obama.
I mean, didn't exactly trash him.
He trashed him in the Rolling Stone interview, but he got on TV and it was Rolling Stone, right?
I think so.
And he got, but he got on TV and talked about how he hasn't had communication with the president and all this and then put all the pressure back on Obama to get the escalation in Afghanistan that he wanted on a more permanent basis.
And it's really interesting when you think about that.
It's like the longest war in American history.
I guess if you don't count Somalia now, but that was kind of a big thing that kept it going and kept it going past Obama's timeline.
Yeah, really interesting movie.
You're right.
There were some things, no question that Netflix In the macro, I think you're 100% right.
Traditional media is failing, and it's largely because they've made this investment in not entertaining, not actually giving good information.
I mean, dude, I don't even know what exists on Comedy Central anymore.
Five years ago, I used to check every show that Comedy Central would launch because they had a great track record.
When I was just graduated high school, so when I was like 19, 20 years old around that time, so we're talking like 2003, 2004, like in those years, the Comedy Central, Comedy Central was South Park and The Chappelle Show and The Daily Show and the Colbert Report and like all this stuff.
I, it was crankhankers.
This might be a little after crank anchors, even.
Um, but it was just shit that was like, it was, it was the comedy channel, you know, it was just that.
And I loved it.
I was obsessed with all of this.
You know, like I watched all of these shows religiously.
And it wasn't something like, I wasn't even, I wasn't a libertarian yet.
It wasn't, I mean, I was kind of a left winger, but it had nothing to do with that.
It wasn't like something that like a right winger couldn't enjoy.
Also, was it just had nothing to do with that?
It was just really funny, you know?
And that was the, that was the shit.
That was just, and that is not now.
Obviously, it's not true for me anymore.
I am a professional comedian.
I don't even know what the fuck is going on on Comedy Central.
But I also just think that's not the truth for 20-year-olds today.
You know, I just don't think that that's it, it has that type of appeal.
Corporate Woke Culture Risks00:03:21
Like, it's like, I don't know, there's they went in a very specific woke nerd direction.
And again, there's this weird dynamic, right?
And this is kind of the theme.
And right, we'll get into some of the other ones, but this is kind of the weird theme of woke capitalism, as it's called, or the woke giant corporations, where it seems like these corporations have made this bet, like almost all the giant corporations have made this bet that we're going to throw our lot in with the woke shit.
Now, this is, I think, to say, like, in the more traditional left-wing analysis of how giant corporations work, I do think the traditional left-wing analysis is kind of correct in the sense that they're worried about the bottom line.
That's their concern.
It's not as if they're doing all of this because they have some, you know, moral conviction about how they really care about like transgender people or something like that.
That's not what's going on.
And in fact, you can, this is pretty easy to demonstrate because all of these companies, right, like even, you know, these corporations are so giant at this point that it's not like they're only in America.
They're all over the world, right?
So you might see Coca-Cola or whoever, McDonald's, or, you know, whatever, some giant corporation, whoever you could think of, you know, you might see them in America putting up the rainbow flag and talking about woke shit or whatever.
But, you know, they're like in Saudi Arabia, too.
You know what I mean?
And they ain't doing that there because they understand.
Like they understand.
That's not good for the bottom line there.
So it is like, it is very clearly a very calculated decision.
But at the same time, it seems pretty clear to me that the majority of their base is not asking for this.
The majority of their consumers are not asking for this.
So, it's like, what's going on here?
And I think what's going on here is that there's a couple of things.
Number one, and I remember Jeff Dice said this when he was on the show a while ago, several years ago now.
But he said this where he goes, he goes, well, look, the left means business.
And when the left sets the cultural agenda, they mean it.
And the right doesn't.
And, you know, the left will say things like, you know, if you think like whatever, 10 years ago or something like that, they go, gay marriage should be the law of the land.
And then what happens?
It is.
Like they say it, and then it is.
And what will the right say?
You know, abortion should be illegal, but it's never going to be.
You know, it's just like they, they mean business on their cultural issues and the right doesn't.
And that's part of what affects this.
It's like these big corporations are like, well, no, this is what we're putting our lot in with like this culture is going to win out.
And also, I think part of it is that they just know, and this is something that the woke progressives have really been able to create is, you know, if you piss them off, you're going to get a real headache.
The Sheath Underwear Trend00:02:33
You're going to get a real headache on your hands.
And that's not true as much if you piss off the right, but perhaps that's starting to change.
So I think that's a big part of kind of these big corporations going woke is that they know what's what they're betting on is going to happen and they know what's going to cause a problem.
And I also think that in my experience, big corporations tend to be very risk averse.
And so they're like, well, what's the bigger risk here?
And they see the bigger risk as being labeled, you know, non-inclusive or racist or something like that.
Whereas they don't see a big risk in offending, you know, Red America.
That's kind of how I see it.
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Okay.
On this theme, there's a couple other stories here.
Pouring Millions Into Failure00:12:47
I guess one that's more up our alley is CNN Plus.
Did you see what happened with them, Rob?
Yeah, it lasted like 10 minutes.
Got all of 10,000 subscribers.
Also, talk about being a bunch of fucking dicks.
You know how many people they gave jobs to and convinced, like, this is going to be the biggest thing.
And now you've got your dream position, and you just find out that they were only in it for what was it, 10 days or a month?
Or I mean, it was nothing.
They weren't that committed to the cause.
Dude, they were selling this like this is the biggest thing in CNN's history.
Because this is the biggest thing since Ted Turner started CNN, but that was way back last week.
This is this week, Rob.
It's a whole different world.
But that's because they know in part they're admitting that CNN itself is dying and that we're in a new digital landscape and we have to make the investment into a digital landscape.
And they lost so much money so quickly that even they were like, we can't sustain these kinds of losses.
We are going to be exiting this digital landscape immediately, which is also a giant admission of defeat because they know that cable news is done for.
They know that their entire if they didn't know that they had to try and figure out how to be in this other landscape and it's gone.
It didn't last.
They're finished, dude.
Yeah.
So what I, what I saw, Brian says 100 million lost on the app.
What I read was $500 million is what they sunk into this thing, which is that's a lot of money to just fucking tank immediately.
And I think you're right that there's, I mean, it's a really like crucial point that, look, they would not have done this unless they felt like they had to.
And this is, by the way, I think one of the big failures of giant corporations in general.
And this is, you know, as someone who's like a free market guy, I think sometimes the free market position gets misconstrued as like, oh, well, then you must be for the giant corporations or something like that.
But the truth is that what really, I mean, look, the fucking government is almost always in bed with these giant corporations, and they're almost always doing each other's bidding.
And look, big business loves big government.
And if you haven't figured that out by now, then you're really not understanding this whole fucking thing and how it works.
But again, the market does a better job of kind of reining in big companies than government ever does.
The government ends up solidifying the control and positions of giant companies.
So what you have a lot of times when you deal with these giant corporations is that they're just, they're very removed from what's going on on the ground.
And they make decisions in a certain way.
So it's a very like typical big corporation move that CNN made here.
And what they did was they basically went, well, look, I mean, our ratings are going down and down, and the internet people's ratings are going up and up.
So we got to get in that business.
And how are we going to do it?
We'll do it by fucking pouring $500 million into it.
What can they do to beat that?
You know, that's the way a big corporation thinks about these things.
But they did not understand the nuance of what is working and what isn't.
And the truth is that, look, just on its face, forget even like our specific analysis or our political leanings with any of this shit.
CNN, why is CNN failing so badly?
Why is it that CNN is just like, no, I mean, it's unbelievable how fucking pathetic it is that they can't get one show with a million people, you know, watching it.
That they have shows like that you like, look, dude, if you're talking about just pure numbers, and particularly if you're talking about in the key demo type numbers, which is what all these corporations care about, me and you, Rob, just sitting here having this conversation, we're like fucking nipping at CNN.
Like, we're really, and then a lot of the other shows that like I'll go on are crushing them, crushing them.
Like the big, you know, Rogan or fucking Tim Poole or like any of these guys, all so many of these other guys, fucking Crowder and Dave Rubin and like all these, they're just destroying them.
Oh, why is that?
Well, okay, there's a lot of reasons, but if you just look at it right on the face of it, look, they're the pro Joe Biden Democratic Party network.
No, they've, they've just completely revealed their hand.
And the more that they've revealed their hand as being that, the lower their ratings have gone.
And Joe Biden is, where are his approval ratings?
They're terrible.
Like, so you're just the one who's just, what?
You're the network of apologizing for the regime that everybody hates.
Okay.
Good luck getting big numbers.
And then to go, well, no, no, no, no, but we'll go to a streaming service because the online like industry is fucking crushing it.
He goes, yeah, but the reason the online industry is crushing it is because they're the alternative to you.
It doesn't matter that you poured more money into this.
Dude, they had on their streaming service, one of their first big things was an exclusive interview with Dr. Fauci.
What's compelling about that?
Who wants, look, these people are getting CNN for free or not for free, but they pay for cable.
You know, they get it for free, basically.
Now, what, they want to go pay for a streaming service to hear Fauci tell you that you should wear a mask.
Everyone's heard Fauci tell them this for free for two years.
It's just like, it's like, where is the fucking mentality?
And then it's really funny that as they're pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into this and claiming it's going to be the future of CNN, this is such a big deal that they literally just have to go, fuck it.
This is such a failure.
We're pulling the plug on it immediately, a couple weeks in.
I mean, the degree of embarrassment to that, like, think about it, CNN as a brand, that was like Kleenex to tissues.
You know what I mean?
Like, that was like the brand when it came for, hey, where do I just get the basic information?
And so for them to try and enter the growing market and not being able to compete with you or I, think about that.
They stepped into the internet market and they couldn't figure out how to be competitive with just everyone who's just doing this.
Like that, that just shows how pathetic it is.
Yeah, it really is unbelievable.
It's an unbelievable time.
You know what we could do with $500 million?
Like if you give me five, you know what we could do?
Retire.
We could retire with that type of money.
I'm just saying, I really don't like working all that hard and I'm a fucking idiot.
I don't like I'm lazy.
If you give me $500 million to go build a news or like just entertainment empire, I promise you I could do something that would last longer than CNN Plus did.
I promise you.
Well, that's it, right?
The amount of content that I could go hire to people that I know are good at doing content creation and just not fail within 10 days.
Oh, yeah.
I know you're, that's a really interesting way to put it, but, but a big part of that would be that I would, yeah, dude, I could look for a fraction of that, I could make something really cool happen.
But if you're talking about with that type of money, I would also just understand what would be compelling that people would want to watch.
Like what, and this is the problem is they have no understanding of this.
It's like they don't get.
I was talking about this a lot when I was on my, uh, on Rogan the last time, because it was right when he was getting like, he was in the hot seat, you know, which hilariously just kind of passed and then they didn't get him.
And then it's just like, oh, all right.
They recognize they didn't get him and they just move on to like other shit.
But I was like, it's really amazing how they have no like self-reflection and no awareness about why it is that they're bleeding and he's thriving.
Like they don't get it.
They don't get what it is that people are attracted to about this alternative kind of like, you know, media versus the traditional one.
And ironically, he's not even competing with them.
He's not even trying to compete with them.
And he's just crushing them just off being who he is, you know?
And so this is part of that.
It's all kind of related.
It's like they don't even get that it's like, well, yeah, if you're going to have a streaming service online and you are like, oh, well, we'll have Fauci and we'll have, I don't even know who interviewed Fauci, but, you know, Chris Wallace, they hired on there.
And they hired, who is it?
Like some NBC reporter.
These were like their big gets.
They hired her.
They'll have them.
They'll have some NBC reporter talk to Fauci for whatever, a half hour.
I go, no, no, no, listen.
You want to get fucking ratings?
You're talking about making money on this.
Fauci versus Alex Berenson, a one hour debate.
That's what you have.
Like, I'm just saying, if you're just looking at this from a capitalist perspective, I want to get, I'd break the internet if I had the type of money that they had to do this.
It'd be, it'd be that easy, dude.
I don't even fucking need.
It's so easy to set this up.
You know how fucking like easy, you know, Dr. Malone versus Fauci, debate.
One-on-one.
Now that would get, you're talking about, I, I would get ratings like what the fucking 70s TV shows used to get.
I'll get Johnny Carson ratings if you gave me that type of money to like set some fucking shit up.
Cause it's obvious right away, right?
Like you just from from, and I'm not even like a great business guy.
I just like understand this shit.
It's very simple to understand.
Like most people listening to this show could probably come up with things like this.
You go, that's the thing that 100 million people would want to watch.
That's the thing that no one else is giving you that you could be like, okay, this is, but of course, CNN is boxed into this position where it's like, well, why can't they give you those two things?
Why can't they give you those examples that I just mentioned?
Because it would destroy their entire fucking world.
You know, I mean, like Fauci would get his fucking like ass handed to him.
And then they'd be like, fuck, we've just, so they have this agenda that locks them into this position where they can't succeed.
And that is really wonderful.
It's really beautiful.
Yeah, because they're fully committed to propaganda.
Right.
And propaganda, when there's any competition whatsoever, people just go, oh, well, that guy's not lying to me.
So I guess I'll listen to that.
Yeah.
That's it.
Yeah.
But by $500 million, I would just start my first show would be better than SNL.
That's what it would be called.
And that's what it would be.
It would just be better than SNL.
But wouldn't it, but like, isn't it if you were trying to do like a news thing that had that type of money behind it, wouldn't it just be like, you could right away just like start rattling this off?
Like, oh my God, I'm going to like, we're going to really have like the best thing here.
We're going to have something that everyone will want to watch.
But the problem is that CNN is not interested in having something that would actually attract people.
But I do think there's something very cool about this.
And I think that we really almost need like we need the market to be the solution here.
And I don't, I'm not saying that just because I'm ideologically a libertarian, which of course I am, but it's just that I think this is the only way that this actually works.
State Rights vs Big Corp00:15:27
You know, there's kind of like, there's this saying, you know, go woke, get broke, I think is what people say.
And, you know, I mean, there's truth to it.
Go get woke, go broke.
Okay, I messed it up a little, but you know, there's truth to it, but it's also like, eh, I don't know.
There's a lot of really successful people who have gone woke.
So I don't know.
Some of them aren't exactly broke.
Some of them go woke and get rich.
But if we can see some more of that, that will be really important.
And there's, you know, it's in a way kind of the only hope that we find a way that people just are not putting up with this shit anymore.
And it forces kind of a lot of these companies to realign.
Now, of course, you're competing in many ways with like the power of the state.
And that's a whole different battle than, you know, just profits.
But man, it's really good to see CNN's digital thing just fucking collapse like that.
That's that's really important.
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The other one is Disney, who's really in the spotlight now.
And they have been not doing very good from what I understand.
Their stock over the last year has really been plummeting.
And they are now in this weird battle with Ron DeSantis in Florida.
And so I guess Ron DeSantis just signed into law several bills that are really kind of like going after Disney.
This is a very interesting situation.
And it's something I'm struggling a little bit with about exactly how to feel.
Okay, sure.
Go ahead.
Go ahead.
Let me know what you think.
I'm actually very curious to hear what you think about all of this DeSantis versus Disney stuff.
Well, it's hilarious that Disney goes, we can only exist if we've got this protected status where we don't have to go through red tape.
Where all of a sudden, if they've got to start applying for permits because they need a bathroom or they want to build this piece of property.
And so that's essentially a corporation advocating for libertarianism where they go, hey, if we can just buy a piece of land and just do what we want with that piece of land, look at this incredible site that we can build and the profits that we can generate.
But if we have to participate and be partnered with the state, we can't accomplish this goal.
And it's just a remarkable story in what you and I are advocating that the most successful corporations, these ones that generate jobs and are generating income, said, hey, we'll partner with you, but we need our own slice of land because if we've got to go to you to try and make decisions about running our business, we can't get it done.
And so if anything, it's just this, like, it's a walking, talking example of exactly what we're looking for in the world, which is why can't we all have that?
So why is it just if you're Disney, you get to have a little slice of land to run in an efficient manner without the state as your partner?
Yeah.
Well, okay.
So I exactly, I completely agree with all of that.
But now this is what like kind of throws me for a loop is so like now DeSantis is like, well, we're going to crack down on that.
We're not going to allow you to have that.
So DeSantis, yeah.
No, sorry.
On one hand, I'm like, shit, no, not only do I want Disney to have that, I want everybody to have this.
I want everyone to have this self-governing, you know, status and all of this stuff.
But obviously, there's a lot more that, you know, it's a lot more complicated than that.
And what's going on here is that you have this giant corporation in Disney.
Disney is a lot more than just this theme park.
You know what I mean?
Disney is a huge fucking company that owns ABC and ESPN and, you know, it's a giant corporation.
And then they're going to come in when DeSantis is in this, whatever, you know, what they call the don't say gay bill.
But really, if you look at it, and there are legitimate critiques of that bill, like I think one of the legitimate critiques is the language being vague and things like that.
But DeSantis will come in, and this is what it all started off of, was, you know, the governor of the state saying that we, you know, we don't think that you should be teaching, you know, whatever sexuality or not sexuality isn't even the way to put it.
We don't think that you should be teaching, you know, let's say there shouldn't be sex ed slash transgenderism slash like gender identity, you know, whatever education for fucking six and seven year olds, which is, if you really look at it like objectively, as Tulsi Gabbard said the other day, I give her a lot of credit for saying this, that he goes, the bill didn't go far enough.
And she said this and they go, the bill didn't go far enough.
And they ask her like, well, what, what grade do you think it would be appropriate to start teaching about like, you know, you know, gender fluidity or something like that?
And she was like, I don't know, maybe 12th, you know, like maybe like 18 year olds.
I don't know.
And I think that's completely reasonable.
And so he's a great senior moment, by the way.
You're about to graduate high school.
So, you know, if you're thinking about swelling vagina for a dick or you're a dick.
All right.
So you're about to graduate.
You've been doing pretty good.
So I know you think you've been a dude this whole time, but let me throw a curveball your way.
None of you don't want to be.
Anyway, but so he's going to say that.
And then Disney's going to come in and try to put their thumb on the skin and go, no, no, no, we oppose this bill and we're putting off.
And it's like, there's just, I think sometimes, and particularly, I think this is a problem.
I think libertarians get goofy with some of this stuff sometimes, where I will, I will certainly grant, I'm not advocating for any non-libertarian policy on this.
However, when you see these fights playing out, I think sometimes you have to understand that there's more at work here than just the specific policy, you know?
And there's also, it's not a coincidence.
It is not a coincidence.
And no libertarian should be stupid enough to think this is a coincidence.
It's not a coincidence that Ron DeSantis is the governor who most loudly and vociferously stood down the world during the COVID regime, right?
Like, sure, Christy Noam beat him to the punch a little bit, but really South Dakota just doesn't matter as much as Florida.
That's the reality of the situation.
And, you know, the he was really the one who was loud and vocal and really explained why all of the mandates were stupid and that he would guarantee they weren't happening in his state and all of this.
And he's also the one who has a target on his back from these giant corporations who are all, by the way, in bed with the government and getting all types of crazy like special privileges.
And then when he goes to war with this, you know, and then when he wants to say something like that I am going to restrict what government employees can propagandize your children with, that then this corporation says they're going to, they're going to go to war with him.
And then he goes, okay, well, then I'm going to fucking look at all this stuff that you rely on me for.
I'm going to start stripping this away from you.
Okay.
I would like to see that.
I would like to see taxes kept as low as possible.
I would like to see self-governing statutes applied to everybody.
But at the same time, I recognize there's kind of a bigger fight going on here.
And it's, I don't think the role of libertarians is to just, you know, throw your lot in with the big corporation when really, in reality, we all know that they would not be what they were if it was not for being completely in bed with the government to begin with.
It's just, there's a lot going on here.
I think sometimes libertarians have trouble dealing with these complex issues.
I think state rights inches us, or not even inches us, and moves us significantly closer to the reality that we want to live in.
And the more localized government is, the more you have an opportunity to vote with your feet, move to an area with like-minded individuals and potentially get a government that represent now, is that no government?
No, but it's a lot closer to what you're looking for.
And so for Florida to be a state and to, you know, decide, hey, we're not into this COVID thing, or hey, this is the exact values that we want being taught in our public schools.
And then for an institution to step in and try and combat them for it, fuck them.
Like, I'm saying, like, listen, your perfect libertarian no government thing, good luck.
It's not happening.
State rights, that's a topic we can take up.
That's something we can push.
Getting rid of the Fed, that's something that we can push.
I mean, there's a lot of like really, and even more to that, I think that, look, the no government thing or living in some like anarcho-capitalist society, in order for that to happen, what probably has to happen first is the stuff you're talking about, right?
So, like, even if you think that that is a possibility that can happen realistically, I do think that it like could.
Look, it's theoretically possible, and I think it theoretically works.
And so, why not fight for the best outcome?
You know, like, again, it's like you could have said in the year 1820, like, oh, you want a world without slavery?
That's never going to happen, but you know, it could happen and it did, right?
And it would seem crazy at the time, but that still doesn't mean that you don't still fight for, okay, let's end the slave trade, let's have, let's have new free states, let's have new, like, let's, let's argue, you know, like there's going to be steps along the line here, along this, this path.
And so, to your point, like something like ending the Fed or having more states' rights or localizing government, that's going to bring you closer to that.
And in this case, when you have a state government, which is the declared enemy of the federal government, and then a corporation, which is taking up for the federal government, you know, like battling with them, is it so clear that like libertarians have to fight this battle to say, no, they ought to maintain their kind of, as you put it, libertarian-ish privileges.
But at the same time, it's privileges that none of the rest of the people get, that this one giant corporation gets that all these other people don't get.
Now, I'd rather see those privileges or rights extended to everybody else.
But I also am also willing to kind of go, hey, you know what?
There's a lot going on here.
And I think that I understand where, like, if I were a parent in Florida and you're a parent who doesn't want your little kid propagandized with this stuff, and then the government that you elected is finally going to say, hey, you know what?
Government employees, they're not allowed to do this stuff that you don't want them to do.
I think libertarians always should be on the side of the parent rather than the government employee.
And then this big corporation is going to come in and try to like, you know, sabotage that bill.
Okay.
I think a corporation getting spanked for trying to push wokeness is a giant win for libertarians.
Like the fact that, like, I'm just saying, if you want to talk about a leap in the right direction, it's corporations caring about profit, creating value in the marketplace.
And when political topics coming up, turning to their employees and going, hey, we're a business and we're in business.
So we're not going to get involved with this because it's only a loss.
So the fact that consequences are going to be introduced for large corporations trying to push wokeness on individuals that aren't looking for that, they're trying to live in a state.
And by the way, the don't say gay bill, the liberal win on that, that we're all addressing it as the don't say gay bill.
Yeah.
As far as I understand, as much as what it introduces is the fact that you can sue a school if they're doing something inappropriate, which should be your right anyways.
There shouldn't be a bill needed.
And it's not, it's not truthfully, if you actually look at the language of the bill, it's not the don't say gay bill as much as it is the don't say straight bill.
It's, it's all, it just says that you can't talk about sexual orientation or any of that shit with kids third grade or under.
Now, what they, it's vague enough that the what opponents of the bill will say, what the more, the, the more honest and more like, you know, the more intellectual and more honest critique of the bill is that they go, well, look, you're saying I can't talk about anything having to do with sexual preference to a second or third grader.
Well, what if we have a situation where the, you know, you're in second grade and you have a kid who has two moms or two dads.
And yeah, hot, not hot.
Exactly.
Exactly, Rob.
And then someone, you know, in class asks about that and the teacher's not allowed to say something, like, are they allowed to go?
Well, some.
Teacher Speech Restrictions00:03:28
parents have, you know, some kids have two moms and some kids have a mom and a dad and blah, blah, or whatever.
Or is a teacher not allowed to say, you know, I was just on vacation with my husband.
Is that introducing sex?
Now, okay, the idea that any of that would ever actually be like prosecuted seems kind of crazy to me.
Or that it would be, you know, legislated.
Okay.
Not legislated, litigated.
Okay.
That seems kind of crazy that anyone would like apply the law that way.
But there's a reasonable point there.
Like I personally, right, don't think if there is a kid in a class in a first grade class or a second grade class and they have two moms, like a lesbian couple who has kids, and someone went, hey, you know, how come so-and-so has two moms?
And the teacher were to go like, well, some people have two moms and some people have a mom and a dad.
And that's okay.
We're all families.
I have no problem with that.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that.
I think a teacher should be allowed to say that.
But if you're talking about what is going on in a lot of public schools across the country, where they're actually like introducing these topics and really pushing this kind of narrative and then talking about how some people are boys and girls and some people are something totally different and all of this stuff.
Yeah, I think that's wildly inappropriate to be talking to these little six and seven year olds about.
So I think a bill that more targetedly could ban that and have wiggle room for the other stuff would be ideal.
But, you know, when they'll say like, well, what if I can't, now I can't talk to my first graders about my trip.
I just went on with my husband or wife or whatever.
It's like, all right.
So don't.
Is that really that big of a deal?
Okay.
So don't talk about that anymore.
Like, I just don't, I don't, this isn't some great affront to liberty.
It's like, look, we all get what they're trying to control for in this bill.
And almost every rational person like will say, yeah, okay, I get that.
Look, none of these type of topics should be approached with very little kids.
And that's just what I think DeSantis has pulled a brilliant political move here and is going is like, which side of this do you want to be on?
Do you want to be on the side that says, no, we must teach transgenderism to seven-year-olds?
Or do you want to be on the side that says you can't?
I'm very comfortable being on the side that says you can't.
And I think most people, especially people with little kids, would agree with that.
So anyway, it's just there's things here that are complicated.
I haven't seen a single article on it, but I'm very curious on who has the upper hand here.
And what I mean by that is this change in legislation, how much more difficult that actually makes it for Disney to do business in the state versus how much of an investment they've actually made to being there and whether or not they would decide, hey, we're moving to another state.
I would think that there's so much infrastructure in Disney World that they're kind of being fucked right now by Florida that they can't just pick up and go, hey, no more Disney World.
Meepod Vape Device Review00:02:14
But Florida does benefit from the fact that there's tourism and jobs.
So it would be interesting if Disney said, fuck you back, but I'd have to imagine that they'd roll into it.
I'd guess that'd be very tough.
I'd guess that'd be very tough to do.
But I guess we don't know for sure.
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Trump Legitimacy and Elections00:11:50
All right, let's get back into the show.
Hey, so one more thing here.
Let's talk about this before we get out of here is that, because I thought this was interesting and it kind of relates to one of the themes I was talking about about how libertarians think of all of this stuff.
But so it's being reported, although not very widely, that Biden has told Barack Obama that he will be seeking a second term.
And this is not being reported.
It's not, the news is not all over this, which I think in itself is interesting.
Well, they're burying it, but I think before we flip topics, we mentioned the fact Obama was not renewed by Spotify, which kind of fits the theme here of that the woke is not profiting as much because they're willing to shell out that money for Rogan all day.
You think the access to your celebrity president who's a liberal would be well worth that dollar tag.
I'm telling you, man, people do not understand the revolution that's going on in this country.
And they really should because it's all around you everywhere.
But yeah, that's right.
People are not interested in hearing Barack Obama talk the way they're interested in the way they're interested in hearing Joe Rogan talk because what's he going to say?
Everyone knows this already.
Look, the reason why people turn off the TV and go to like online sources like ours and ones that are way bigger than ours and ones that are way smaller than what we're doing.
The reason they go to them is because they're going to hear some real shit.
But what are you going to hear from Obama?
The most scripted, careful, you know, like making sure he never says anything.
I'd rather hear from Obama in fucking, you know, his crazy, what was his name?
Who's that crazy pastor who he used to have?
I don't remember the guy's name.
That came up the first time he ran.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Wright.
Was it that?
Was it Reverend Wright?
Whatever.
I'd rather hear Obama's conversations with that dude.
That I'd like to hear, you know, but I don't want to hear a post, you know, former President Obama talk, Jeremiah Wright.
That's right.
I'd love to hear those conversations.
I'd pay.
I'd pay a fee to hear him and that guy sit down and talk, you know?
But I don't want to hear the former president talking about how, you know, the Republicans are trafficking in hate and the Democrats are trafficking in hope.
You know, the healthcare that I did, it's good.
It's going to continue to be good.
And as long as Biden doesn't fuck it up, we'll be good.
That's more, that's a little more Clinton than Obama.
But it's okay.
That's fair.
That's a reasonable defense in my book.
But you know what I mean?
It's like people don't want that.
And so this is what they don't understand.
There's a whole new world out here.
What people want is real shit.
What people want to hear is like the conversation where someone's going to say what they really believe.
And then like, man, people can feel that.
They know that on an instinctual level.
So yeah, okay, that's a good point too.
Anyway, so Biden evidently or reportedly told Obama he's going to run again.
This story is being buried.
I find this very interesting that the establishment is in a real pickle right now.
And they're like, fuck, what do we do here?
Run Biden again?
They are terrified that Donald Trump is going to run against Biden.
I think they're also terrified of DeSantis because right now they know this will be a very difficult.
I mean, the prospect of having to do that, having to have an election season with Biden against either of those guys.
And let's say there was some great libertarian candidate out there too.
That's possible.
You never know.
But the prospect of that, I think, is really terrifying to the establishment.
Like, what do they do here?
They certainly can't just throw their support behind Biden.
I'd have Kamala talk about space a bunch.
That's what I would do.
She is, she really knows space.
She's very good on space.
But, you know, they can't have Kamala.
They can't have Biden.
They have to now find a way to get both of these two out of their way.
And then they got to find someone who can be the person to fucking run.
It's a very tall order.
It's a tough task.
The Rock or Mark Cuban.
They need some celebrity to come out of nowhere.
Here's another.
Here's the thing that's really incredible that is probably, it's probably one of the biggest stories.
And this I'll get back in.
We'll close on this.
But I think this gets back into kind of like where I think libertarians get goofy sometimes.
But the thing that they're scared of the most is Trump.
They're scared of Trump running.
Because if Trump runs, it's very hard.
If he decides to do it, it's very hard to see him not winning the Republican nomination, even with DeSantis.
I think it's very hard to see Trump not winning the Republican nomination.
He's got a lot of advantages.
He was the last president.
He's got money.
He's got huge support amongst the Republicans.
He can really look back and say, look how much worse things are now than they were, you know, when I was president, even though 2020 was a disaster.
He can, you know, he can kind of blame that on the Democrats to some degree and all of that.
But the huge thing that's like the elephant in the room here is that Donald Trump never really conceded, you know, Donald Trump's going to run on I was elected twice already and I'm getting elected a third time now.
And that is fucking fascinating.
Like this was such a fascinating thing that Donald Trump, you know, it's what why does the what is the corporate press talk about all the time when they talk about Donald Trump?
The big lie.
The big lie.
This is what CNN has dubbed it: the big lie.
They're literally trying to take a term that's associated with the Nazis and apply it to Donald Trump because it is such a mind fuck to the establishment that he says that that last election wasn't real.
And this has become a thing like that people on the right mock Joe Biden with all the time.
Every single video of Joe Biden trying to shake someone's hand who doesn't exist or getting shoed away by the Easter bunny or just talking to space or whatever, you know, Joe Biden does on a regular basis, you know, every right-winger has to say on Twitter about it is they go, 81 million votes.
That's their response.
It's like just going, sure, sure, dude, this guy got 81 million votes.
And this just completely, it's like an attack on the very credibility of the institution that is the federal government.
Now, what libertarians, this is where they get goofy on this issue, is that they go like they'll look at it and say, there are one or two things.
They'll get really technical and say, well, I haven't seen enough evidence to support the allegation that there was widespread voter fraud.
Okay.
That's the kind of like autistic libertarian take, right?
Which, by the way, I'm guilty of too.
I've said that before and I agree with it, right?
Yeah, I think I mostly fall into that category.
No, no, no.
No, I'm saying, I think in many ways, that's technically correct, you know?
Or they'll be the type that are like the type of kind of like Beltway libertarian who are like scared to even say anything like that.
And so they'll rail against it as well.
Be like, Donald Trump is a wild conspiracy theorist because he's saying these things he can't prove.
But if you kind of zoom out and you understand like the bigger picture, like if you, if you really think about like what Rothbard was talking about in Anatomy of the State, and you think about like, if you really believe, right?
Which I really believe that the state is the greatest evil in civilization, and that particularly the United States of America's federal government is the greatest purveyor of violence in the world over at least the last 20, 30 years.
And you realize if you internalize the lesson of anatomy of the state, which is really what?
That the state is essentially a criminal organization.
And what separates them from other criminal organizations is their perceived legitimacy.
And then you realize that this is in many ways the biggest attack on the perceived legitimacy of the state.
How exactly are you supposed to feel about that?
Is it really the correct position?
Even though I agree, Rob, with you, that's as I, the truth as I see it.
And you know, my strength or weakness is that I always try to tell the truth as I see it.
But at the same time, can't you sit there and recognize that like, oh, there really is something valuable and important and incredible about someone attacking the very underpinning of the perceived legitimacy of the state?
And that if Donald Trump were to run against Joe Biden, that it would be a complete, like that would be the whole thing.
That he's saying, this isn't, you're not legitimate.
This whole thing isn't legitimate.
I don't know exactly what the libertarian take on that should be.
But if you look at that and see that like the greatest evil is propped up by this kind of like perception of legitimacy and that someone is undermining that legitimacy, I don't know that it's your role to sit there and correct their undermining of their legitimacy.
I think maybe your role is to run a really great libertarian president, presidential candidate against them.
We can fucking shit on all of them.
Come to Reno.
Unfortunately, we don't have anyone like that, but come to Reno.
We're going to be doing some great shows there.
We're going to have a fucking fun time, man.
Reno is going to be a party.
I hope to see a whole bunch of you guys out there.
And yeah, check out Run Your Mouth, Rob's podcast, the Summer Porch tour.
Go check all of that out.
We'll be in Reno.
There's still tickets for this last stand-up show, and this is going to sell out soon.
So please come grab those if you want to be a part of it.
Chicago, Philly, Brooklyn, we got a bunch of stuff coming up.