Dave Smith critiques the British monarchy as a "pretend institution" while comparing CDC Director Rochelle Walensky to a "queen of science" for enforcing untested COVID-19 boosters amidst 400 daily deaths. He argues that deploying vaccines without clinical trials due to variant urgency mirrors authoritarian rule, contrasting this with libertarian Hans Hermann Hoppe's defense of monarchy. Ultimately, the episode frames continuous mRNA boosting as a faith-based compliance exercise rather than empirical science, warning against centralized authority overriding evidence. [Automatically generated summary]
Transcriber: nvidia/parakeet-tdt-0.6b-v2, sat-12l-sm, and large-v3-turbo
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First Time Visit00:11:34
Fill her up.
You're listening to the Gash Digital Network.
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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.
Here's your host, Dave Smith.
What's up, everybody?
Welcome to a brand new episode of Heart of the Problem.
I'm Dave Smith.
He is Robbie the Fire, Bernstein, the king of the caulks.
COVID Jesus.
What's up, brother?
How are you feeling tonight?
I'm doing pretty good.
How about you, Davey Smith?
I'm doing very good.
I just got back a few moments ago from the Fox News studios.
It's the first time I've been there in a while.
And I went in to do Kennedy in studio for the first time since March of 2020.
Wow.
I do Kennedy like every week, every two weeks or something like that, but they let us do it, you know, from home.
I used to wave at you through the window sometimes.
Did you really?
Yeah, because sometimes I was just roaming the streets doing LOL.
I'd be like, oh, Davey's doing Kennedy.
And I would try to distract you.
Did I see you?
No, I'm pretty sure you can't see through the window, but I would do goofy shit through the window.
No, you can see through the window.
Oh, but I would just happen to be looking in that direction.
That's hilarious.
I would Nazi walk past it.
I would do all sorts of weird shit.
You can see through it.
You can see it on television.
You can go check the archive, people.
If someone can go find that moment, that's fucking hilarious.
But they're not anymore.
They're not in that studio.
They moved to a different studio.
It's not on the ground floor anymore.
But yeah, it was kind of cool.
Like I've gone into the Fox News building a few times to do Gutfeld since then.
And this is, but it's been a while since I did that even.
It was still back at the time.
It's so funny how all this shit changes.
We might get into some of the COVID shit later in the show because there's some other interesting little news about that.
But it's like there.
So when I was doing the Gutfeld show was like where, whenever it was, it must have been at least early.
The last time I did it, it must have been at least very early in this year.
Cause like, when did like the, I want to say, okay, so when we did Boston, when we did that stand-up show in Boston, that was the night before the COVID passports came in, right?
So, but the COVID passports had been in New York for a while.
So this is before my son was born.
It was at least in 2021, earlier, you know, a few months, maybe in the summer of 2021, last time I did Gutfeld.
And so then I had done Gutfeld a couple times where they were COVID testing, you know, like that was the thing.
You had to, before you got in, you had to do a rapid test, which, you know, was like, whatever.
I don't care about that.
And then when the COVID passports came in, the law was you had to be vaccinated to go into Fox News.
And so, and I didn't make like a big thing about this or say it, but I was just like, oh, no, okay, then I'm not going in.
And I'm not going to like, I'm not going to use like a fake vax card to go in because it's, there's something almost about like once it's public and it's known that you're only allowed to be in this building if you have a vac, if you're vaccinated, even if I'm faking it, I just kind of felt like there was something like I was endorsing that in some way.
I don't know.
It just felt like, yeah, well, I'll play this game in order to be on.
And it just for whatever reason, I'm not like, by the way, I'm not judging other people for doing that if they did it.
It's all, this is, we all got to figure out exactly where our line is.
Like, don't, I'm not like completely pure.
I don't think anyone's completely pure.
Like I put on a mask to get on an airplane a bunch of times.
You know what I mean?
That, okay, I don't, I don't think that makes me a sellout.
It was like, I don't know, I got to get to where I'm going.
So I'm going to do that.
So anyway, but I, but so that was like the step.
And now it's funny to just be back and they're just like, oh, yeah, no, none of that.
You know, like, it's just, it's just like everything else with the COVID regulation.
So it's like the first time I've been back there.
It was just like, oh, yeah, no.
I mean, back then, even when they were doing the tests, you know, you'd come in and there'd be people wearing masks and stuff.
And no one, just everyone's just like, no, we're not doing that anymore.
That's stupid.
Even though ironically, in some way, the COVID that's out now is way more contagious than the COVID that was out back then.
Granted, less deadly, but it's all just so ridiculous.
Anyway, that's kind of an aside.
But it was cool.
It was cool to be back there.
Literally, the last time I did Kennedy was in the studio.
And one of the topics of the thing, it was like, I think the first week in March of 2020.
And one of the topics was like, so there's this coronavirus in China.
And it wasn't even like the lead.
It was like the last, the last topic was like, yeah, what do you guys think about this?
Where's this going to go?
So it's kind of just an interesting thing to be back there after all that.
Yeah.
Any sparks fly during the episode?
No, not really.
You know, it was the episode itself was a weird one.
I'll get into it, I guess.
But it was just, it was really nice to see Kennedy.
I haven't seen her since the last time I was there.
Like I do her show all the time.
Another weird thing, I remember when this is one of the weird things that's also happened through the COVID years.
I remember actually with Brian, our wonderful producer here.
I remember, I think it was in the summer in, I guess it was the summer in 2020 when we started doing skanks outside at the Creek.
And like one of the first episodes we went there.
And I remember Brian came and I and Brian comes up and he's like, what's up, dude?
And I was like, oh, what's going on, Brian?
And then like, I almost had like a beat.
And then I went, oh, yeah, I haven't fucking seen you in six months, you know, because it's like, I don't know, I see him like every other day.
We do this show, but then you have a moment where you're like, oh, but I haven't actually, like, I haven't fucking seen you.
I shouldn't be like acting like I see you every day.
It'd be like, hey, good to see you.
The very weird, you know what I'm saying?
So that very weird dynamic.
Like, I, so I, I see Kennedy all the time, but I haven't actually been in the same room with her in all these years.
And it was nice to just get, have a moment to talk to her.
I really love Kennedy.
She's just a, like a fantastic person.
Um, and uh, it was her birthday today.
So it was cool to like come in and see her there and say happy birthday.
Free cake?
No, didn't get any.
But you know what?
If I had stuck around longer, there probably would have been some cake in it for me.
So I blew that.
But anyway, she's the first person who ever put me on television.
And she kind of like was the first, you know, she really like, not only the first person to put me on television, but immediately just like made me a regular on her show.
And at the time, it was a really big deal for me.
So it's, I'm always like very grateful and loyal to her for that.
And she's just great.
I love her.
I think she's a fantastic person.
But so the, so as I'm going there, right?
I'm on, I got the notes for what the show was going to be about on or on my way in.
Like they, they, you know, they have a car come pick you up.
And on my way in, I get the email with the notes and it's all just about the queen.
That was the whole show.
It's all we were talking about.
And like all of Kennedy's show was about the queen.
I talk about hats.
That's about all I know about her.
Yeah.
And it's just, so that was almost like this thing where you're like, okay, so I'm going back to Kennedy.
It's like the first time I'm going back to this show, the first show that ever put me on TV, the libertarian show on cable news.
And it's the first time I'm back there.
You know, obviously, I'm on the show, but physically back there, you know how you research that, by the way.
Yeah, you got to think in your mental Rolodex, who's the most annoying female that I know, and you have to call that person.
To be honest, in my life, it was my grandma.
She died over COVID, but she was all about the queen.
Yeah, yeah, well, that's yeah, you're kind of right.
But it's just, it was kind of like ironic that it's like, oh, so in this moment of going back to the show, what are we talking about?
You go, the one topic you could find that I just have nothing.
Like, I have nothing to say.
But then, as I was kind of going on, I was like, oh, actually, there is, there is some stuff I would say.
It would just be, it would take longer than like a cable news show.
So we could talk about this a little bit.
Like, there is some like there is an interesting conversation to have over it.
But anyway, so the show, if you guys happen to see it, it's like it was a kind of funny moment where, like, you know, even Kennedy, everyone's talking about the life that the queen lived and blah, blah, blah.
And like, she did this and she did that.
She was there for 70 years and she represented this.
She upheld the image of Britain and the world and blah, blah, blah.
That's and uh, then it goes to like the other two guests, and they both say similar kind of things about what she did, different stories about her.
And then it came to me last, and I was like, um, I said, I uh, I just don't care.
And I said, I'm sorry, this is awkward.
I feel like it's, it's almost like an actress on a soap opera died, you know, and it's like, oh, I'm sorry, she died for a family, but I just, I didn't, I didn't watch that show, so like, I don't know what the whole thing's about, you know?
And then I just went, I go, isn't it stupid?
Like, are we all pretending this isn't stupid?
Like, it's just, you have a queen, really?
How do they react?
They, well, they kind of got it, but they were kind of like, well, no, no, no, no.
But it's like, oh, you know, you know, and then Kennedy, you know, like, Kennedy's like, always like fun, you know, like, she's just like a fun, like, happy person.
So everything was like, no, Dave, I, I love the show, uh, whatever that show is that's based around the British monarchy.
Yeah, yeah.
And she's like, I'm a fan.
McMoring.
Yeah.
And she's like, and I'm into it.
I think it's all really cool.
Blah, blah, blah.
I was like, yeah, but like, they have a pretend monarchy.
Like, it's ridiculous.
Isn't this ridiculous?
The crown.
That's right.
Thank you, Brian.
I was like, what are we?
What are they doing?
It's 2022 and they have a pretend monarchy.
It's not even like they have a real monarchy.
They just, they were like, no, we're going to stop having a monarchy, but we'll still pretend like we have one.
Like, what, what is this?
You either have popular elections or you have a queen or a king.
You can't have both.
This is ridiculous.
You know, like, anyway, so that was kind of my whole take on it.
And then I at one point go, I mean, you know, if you want to talk about something interesting, we could talk about why her son Andrew was on Jeffrey Epstein's flight logs.
That's kind of interesting.
I just mentioned that.
That seemed to get a little bit of an uncomfortable reaction.
And I get okay.
She just died.
It's, but come on.
I mean, isn't that like more of an interesting thing to talk about?
Like, well, okay, if we really want to talk about this, I don't care about like the, it's, it's a, I think I also called them uh a celebrated welfare family or something like that, uh, you know, but but but really, isn't that just what they were?
They're just like this family that's like, yeah, go ahead.
I like the way you just put it that, you know, we all, I guess, pretend that government's important, but they take the fantasy one step further of having a pretend queen.
Dictatorships vs Monarchies00:10:46
Yeah, yeah.
And so there's something anyway.
I don't know.
I just find it uh is it welfare?
I thought it's stolen wealth.
It's all the shit they took from India when they plundered and shit.
Oh, is it?
I don't really know.
Honestly, I mean, that's still kind of welfare to be honest, but yeah, I don't know.
I think like they can't, I think they get money from the tax base in some sense or another.
I don't know.
I'm really talking about my ass because I care less about this than you do.
I believe that they had some very large real estate properties that were given to the state in exchange for like a yearly type salary.
So I think some of the plundered wealth was returned to the state in return for, but I don't know.
I'm going to be completely honest with you.
I have no goddamn idea.
I don't know.
But I'm tourism.
It's a tourist attraction.
I called them that on national television.
Every other, that's the other thing, too, is that it's so weird.
Like almost every topic, not every topic, but almost every topic that I talk about on cable news shows, I'm very confident in the fact that I know more about this than any of the guests that are talking, but not this one.
So I just don't know.
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All right, let's get back into the show.
Anyway, you know, one of the things I was thinking about is how.
So Hans Hermann Hoppe, who's a brilliant libertarian theorist, an economist, philosopher, he has made the argument in the wonderful book, which I really recommend everybody read: Democracy, the God That Failed.
He's famously made the argument that monarchy is preferable to democracy.
And this is his, it's hard to kind of like summarize the entire argument in the book, but basically his argument is that anarcho-capitalism or pure libertarianism is the ideal model, but monarchy is like, so libertarianism is preferable to monarchy, but monarchy is preferable to democracy.
And that the move away from monarchy to democracy was actually a huge step backward for civilization and prosperity and peace and all of this stuff.
And that we would, if we had maintained monarchy all this time, we'd probably be better off than we are having democracy.
And it's a really interesting argument.
I'm not sure I completely buy it, but it's really worthwhile to read and really bat this around in your mind, which is what I've always said about Hoppe.
Like there's certain things that he's like, there are some pieces.
I highly recommend anyone who's like really interested in really taking a deep dive into any of this shit.
I really recommend they read a lot of Hoppe.
I really recommend A Theory of Socialism and Capitalism.
Phenomenal book.
I highly recommend people read about argumentation ethics and Democracy, the God That Failed.
That's, I think, probably his most popular book.
And he makes a compelling point.
And basically, the argument is that in the same way that private ownership of property, private ownership of the means of production is superior to public ownership of property and the means of production.
He goes, it also kind of applies to government.
That if you have a government, you're better off with it being privately owned than it being publicly owned.
So, in other words, if a monarch owns the government, he's incentivized in some way to not trash it.
You know, he's incentivized to, if he gets to pass this on to his children, well, he's incentivized to pass something on to his children that is, you know, in decent shape.
Whereas if it's just kind of like someone who's voted in who has a four-year term, then they're incentivized to extract as much wealth out of the power that they have for four years and then screw what happens after that.
And there's a really interesting point to that.
I mean, it's certainly true that you're probably much less likely to get $30 trillion of debt in a system run by a monarch than you are under like this kind of democratically elected system, which relies on this illusion that we're all part of the government.
And he also, he makes an argument, which is, I think, drawn from the Rothbardian argument that one of the major problems with democracy is it gives everyone this illusion that, well, like, well, then of course they're legitimate and we're all the government now because we voted, you know, and so these people who rule us are somehow legitimate.
I get that.
I get that argument.
I do.
And I think it's a really profound one.
But I'm not sure I'm completely 100% sold.
And I'll tell you, this is a really stupid response to Hoppe.
But if you just, if you just take the term monarch as its literal meaning, like one ruler, okay, whatever.
We could get into that a little bit.
But just the idea that there's a queen, like, or there's a king.
And just as I'm watching people, you know, talk about the queen on television.
And I'm just sitting there and I'm going, but she's not.
She's just some lady.
This is just so goofy to like pretend, like give this like imagined thing.
Oh, yeah, you're the queen and I'm the, I'm just a peasant, but you're the queen.
Like, no, I just don't buy any of that.
I understand that's a stupid response to Hoppe's like well-laid out point, but it's just all I was thinking all day today.
Yeah, I just don't, I don't know.
I hate this kind of like made up category of you are the royalty.
I don't know.
Just rubs me the wrong way.
I don't like it.
You feel like everyone's got to buy into something stupid and that can't be the way we organize society.
Yeah, yeah.
There's, we're going to buy into stupid things, but this one's just too stupid for me.
I've not read all the books you mentioned.
I did read Democracy, the God That Failed.
It's a great read, and it's almost too dense because the bottom notes are like its own separate book.
Yeah.
If I had one criticism of the book, it's that certain pages of that, if you put it out in front of the public, they go, oh, yeah, this is racist.
And for the brilliant ideas contained in that book, it's almost not great how seemingly blatantly racist some parts of it are.
However, he certainly, the thing about it is, is like he certainly certainly doesn't guard against accusations of racism or those things.
Like he, it's not if you, the thing about with a lot of Hoppe's stuff, if you give it the most generous interpretation, or if you read him in context of everything he's saying, you'll be like, okay, I understand what you're saying.
I get the point that you're making, you know?
If you, if you don't, it's very easy to take some of his passages, his passages and go, whoa, what the fuck is he saying with this?
You know, so I, so, so my tendency is always to say, well, look, I'll read, like, I, cause I've read a lot of his stuff.
I'll read all of it.
And it's like, no, I get what he's saying.
And on, on some of the things, there's a few things that I just disagree with him on, but on a lot of those things that you're talking about, I'll go like, okay, well, I'll give him a generous interpretation of what he's saying here.
And I think that's reasonable.
But he certainly has absolutely no interest in going like, well, if I say it this way, a lot of people will probably interpret it this way.
He has, he just doesn't care about that at all.
So all I'm saying, if you had a random black friend in your house who decided to pick up that book and just open up a page, there's a good chance he could, not a good chance, but I mean, maybe a 2% chance he picked a paragraph that you would have to explain.
Well, you got to read the rest of this and this, that, like, they would have a moment of why is this on your shelf?
If I had a random black friend who just opened up a Hoppe book, I'd be like, let me just pick the page for you.
Let me tell you which page to read and which page not to read.
I had a Hopa question for you that's not dumbassery because I don't remember this from the book, but it would seem to me that current modern day dictatorships are not that different than monarchies, like Saddam Hussein, when he was in power.
I don't know what other examples you'd have, probably in Iran, but like the current dictatorships are definitely not better for their citizens than your current.
I mean, you might be able to say that our current democracy here is robbing so much from future generations that at a future point in time, it might be more disastrous than the way, you know, these dictator people are living within the dictatorships.
Not the easiest of arguments.
Quit Naturally With Fume00:03:18
Do you remember?
I don't remember him addressing that.
Well, I think what the argument would be, more or less, is that, okay, yes, you can pick like you can point to examples of monarchy that are very bad.
And then you can also point to examples of democratically elected governments that are very bad.
And so it's not exactly fair to just say, okay, well, here's this one monarchy that's very bad.
And then here's this, you know what I'm saying?
Like to compare it to like the, so what the question is, is overall, what is more likely to produce these results and what's not.
Now, I do agree.
By the way, I'm not like defending the Hoppe position here.
I'm just saying it's a very interesting thought experiment.
I would tend to agree that, or I would tend to believe that certainly monarchy when it goes bad or dictatorship when it goes bad is the, I think, the worst situation.
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Rise of Democracy00:11:49
At least under democracy, now, by the way, there's a lot of there's splits amongst us.
I mean, like Ludwig von Mises, who is Hans Hermann Hoppe's like hero, who he credits as being like the greatest economist who ever lived and the great, one of the greatest thinkers to ever live, was a supporter of democracy.
And he basically, Mises basically argued that democracy was gave us the ability to have like a peaceful transfer of power at least, and that what you wanted was like a democratic process.
But also, Mises argued that localities should be allowed to secede if they didn't agree with the kind of majoritarian outcome.
So, you know, there's like some nuance there.
I would also point out that it does seem to me that within the modern, you know, modern Western civilization, democracy, at least to some extent, seems to be a tool that the populists have to fight back against the ruling elite.
Like it seems like in many situations, and Donald Trump, of course, is an example of this.
Unfortunately, Trump wasn't like a good leader.
Excuse me.
But it seems like there's many people who have everything else is completely pitted against them.
And the only tool they have to fight back is that they can vote for someone who you don't approve of, you know?
And so it's like, well, they can't like change the Federal Reserve or what's being taught in their public schools or what's being broadcasted in the corporate press or what's being forced down them by the IRS or any of these other things, but they can vote.
Like that's a thing they have.
And I think that's an important thing to keep in mind, that it's like, it's not so clear that, you know, taking that weapon away under current circumstances makes things like it is a net benefit.
I would say the only flaw to me in terms of the argument that if you look at the current dictatorships and go, well, those are the bad ones, and you also have bad democracies.
It's a little bit of like a magic sauce argument.
And by that, I mean, like, that's what I hear liberals say a lot, where they're like, well, with the right amount of regulation, they can never define what that is, but there's some sort of a magic sauce that if we get there, it will all work.
So his monarchy kind of depends on a magic sauce that the leader you get is not completely corrupt.
Well, just to do Hoppe justice, right?
If you remember from reading the book, and this is kind of one of the major themes, is that basically before World War I, in Europe, it was basically ruled by monarchs.
Monarchy was the norm in the same way that in Europe and the United States of America in Western civilization, right now, democracy is the norm.
If you utter the term democracy to most people, that means the good guys.
And if you utter the term, you know, anything other than democracy, that means you're Adolf Hitler.
You know, like that's the kind of the current worldview.
But before World War I, it was basically monarchs throughout Europe.
And his argument, I think, would be that, okay, well, what happened after World War I where basically there was the fall of the monarchs?
And what happened was you had the 20th century, right?
This was right at the beginning of the 20th century.
And you have the rise of the communists in the Soviet Union, the Nazis in Germany.
You have the century in the 20th century of central banking and war and superstates in a way that you never had before.
Whereas in the 19th century, not that it's perfect, but in the 19th century, you had the century of the Industrial Revolution and huge advances in progress in civilization, the abolition of slavery, just like a huge increase in the standard of living for many people, enormous, like kind of economic freedoms.
Now, of course, there was an advance in the standard of living in the 20th century as well, but it also came with the price of a huge growth in the size of governments and all of the evil things that come along with that.
So it's not like there isn't any argument there that if we had if we could have continued along the progress of the 19th century without having the central U.S., though, which was a democracy?
Doesn't the 19th century include the U.S., which was a democracy, though?
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't really, I mean, yes, but if you really want to get into it, I don't know if you would consider the United States of America in the 19th century a democracy exactly.
I mean, there were democratic processes, but it's not as if, I mean, I think, I mean, I don't know, go look what year did what year were like even like black people or women allowed to vote, you know?
I mean, it wasn't until pretty late.
I mean, now you say that, that's kind of when it went to shit, huh?
I mean, that's not the point I'm making.
Oh, my bad.
But I'm just saying you couldn't, it's certainly nothing close to a pure democracy.
It's it's it's probably much closer to a, you know, um a constitutional republic with some democratic, you know, uh elements to it that were very strictly limited.
Uh, for, you know, not to say they were limited in the exact right ways, but that just factually speaking, they were limited.
So I think that there's there's just an interesting kind of conversation to have around all of that.
Like, yes, it's true that the absolute worst, even look, even in the examples I gave, I mean, like the Nazis were a fucking dictatorship and the commies were a dictatorship.
But also the rise of mass democracy certainly is related at least to the rise of, you know,
the century of central banks and full out war in a way that no, look, I mean, the a big part of the story of humanity is that you have so much beautiful shit happen in the 19th century.
And, you know, it's very easy to for people to kind of like strawman or characterize, um, caricature this argument.
But if you think about the progress that was made in the 19th century, like all of human history is basically like, if you look at economic growth throughout all of human history from the year whenever the fuck we start, like, I mean, you know, go back to 5,000 years ago.
And if you measured economic growth, it's like this.
And then in the 1800s, it does this.
Like there's, there's never been actual prosperity until the 1800s.
And it's the late 1800s, really, where you see it happening, right?
Because you have the Industrial Revolution.
It's like nothing's ever happened like that before.
All of a sudden, regular people can actually start having a shot at having like a life that is not pure misery.
And in this century, in the 19th century, you have, you know, the Industrial Revolution, the abolition of slavery throughout the Western world, at least, you know, I mean, libertarians I know can argue we're all still slaves to the government or whatever, but you know, like real fucking slavery, what we mean when we say the term.
You know, at the beginning, I remember Thaddeus Russell put it this way one time, where he goes, at the beginning of the 18th century, or he said, at the beginning of the 19th century, the rich people are still like having someone, not themselves, but probably having their maids or whatever, like so close for them.
And by the end of that century, they're ordering clothes from Macy's.
Like it's a real jump in the standard of living.
And you have all like a tremendous amount of progress.
And then in the 20th century, certainly they build off of all of that progress, you know, but you also have two world wars where all of that technological advance is used to have the biggest mass slaughter campaigns in the history of the world.
You have the rise of Hitler and Stalin and Mao Citong.
And you know what I mean?
It's just like a lot of like really evil shit that ends up happening.
And this is also happens to be the rise of democracy.
And so there's there's there's at least something very interesting to question, like what's the relation between those two?
Is it necessarily so self-evident that that was a good, that that was a, you know, a benefit?
Now, I would personally, you know, again, back to the conversation of the queen.
When I look at it, I just still go, it's just so goddamn goofy for everyone to sit back and pretend like this old lady who just died here was the queen.
Wasn't his argument kind of even if that was an idiot or an asshole, it was still better for it to just to be the one person and that like the monarchy system is kind of just the best available system to go, well, he's the son of the last one.
Well, and yes, and I think part of the argument is also that at least people knew that it didn't have the effect of like, at least if the king or whoever, whoever the ruler is was overstepping his, you know, overstepping or, you know, doing something really horrible or something really destructive, that at least people would kind of go like,
they'd know who to blame.
And it wouldn't just be hidden behind this whole kind of this web of like, well, I guess it's just us.
Right.
We've all failed.
And there's, there's a powerful argument to that.
So anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say is rest in peace, your highness.
I don't know, whatever.
I don't know what was anyway.
To the point I made on Kennedy earlier, isn't it so much more of a story?
If you're on the news and you're talking about this shit, you go, yeah, that's all really interesting.
What the fuck was your kid doing on Jeffrey Epstein's plane so many times?
Why was he involved in this fucking like sex trafficking ring with this guy who was clearly an intelligence asset, probably Massad, trapping all of these like very powerful people?
Sheath Underwear Sponsor00:03:33
I mean, okay, it seems like what was the game there?
It was like get to get older looking underage girls to have sex with these guys and on camera and then blackmail them with the fact like, oh, we got you because you're, you know, you had sex with underage girls.
It's like, okay, so that was the game.
And then some of the people were just kind of like, all right, you got me.
Let's go back for round two.
All right.
I just want, I'm more interested in that.
That's a news story to me.
That's something I'd like to talk about.
I really don't know my history that well.
I don't really know a lot of things that well, but you're better than you think.
If there was one family in the South that owned all the slaves and we defeated them and we got rid of slavery, but they were still an empire of wealth and we just celebrated them as the royal family of the South.
Wouldn't everyone just be like, it's a little weird?
Like, where did they get all this money from?
Like, I get that that was history and whatever, but like they did some shitty stuff.
Isn't that kind of what they did?
If nothing else, it just seems bizarre.
It just seems bizarre in the year 2022 to be talking about like the queen died.
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All right, let's get back into the show.
Okay, listen, let's move on for a second because there was a, we're going to go a little bit shorter than we normally do, just because I have, I've had a crazy week and I have to get up early tomorrow to travel because I'm going to do Tim Poole show tomorrow.
So I'll be on that.
Looking forward to that.
Going back on the Tim cast.
But there is, you sent me there's two videos that I want to make sure we play today.
Speaking of queens, our queen, the queen of the United States of America, as we all know, which is far preferable to a monarchy, is having our system.
Vaccine Message Debate00:15:19
But the closest thing to a queen we have is the head of the CDC.
You know, that's really who we look to as pure royalty.
A fucking great clip that Rob sent me today.
Here is the head of the CDC addressing a real question and taking it head on and giving the American people the answer to this question.
Let's play the clip.
Dr. Paul Offed, an infectious disease and act vaccine expert at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, he's also a member of the FDA Advisory Committee, has been critical of this updated booster.
He says that a healthy young person really is unlikely to even benefit from a booster dose.
It should be targeted more specifically to those who really are most likely to benefit.
And I wonder if you agree with that assessment and whether just even saying that adds to what's been, as you know, an ongoing criticism of CDC messaging that COVID vaccines, COVID itself, the messaging has been confusing.
So first, deep respect to Dr. Offed.
Here's what I will say about our updated vaccine.
We are simplifying our message.
The message is you need to get your fall booster vaccine.
So go ahead and get it.
If you're over the age of 12, if you've received your primary series, if you're more than two months out of your last shot, you can get an updated vaccine.
And so we've intentionally simplified the message.
So it's very, very clear.
It's also very clear that those who are over the age of 50, even over the age of 60 or 70, are more at risk for severe disease, hospitalization, and death.
And it is especially important that people in that demographic and others who are at high risk of severe disease.
All right.
All right, Rob, do you want to hear, you can jump in on this.
I'll just say, why are this chick's eyes so wide?
And why do we need to have an overlay backdrop of needles going into arms as she dodges this very specific question?
Yeah.
Well, she looks like one of the vultures from the jungle book with like the eyes of a bodega cat.
That's her look.
That is the look.
Yes.
The idea that we're going to simplify our message by double downing on things we're unsure of is we've hit a new level of stupid.
So in other words, I mean, the idea that the CDC wasn't clear, like that they lacked clarity, because that was a big thing.
They're trying to say, hey, we're going to change our systems here because apparently he never lacked clarity.
Was if you get the vaccine, you're not going to get sick.
Right.
Right.
It was, hey, wear a mask, you'll be protected.
They were very clear on their message.
It was very clear.
Yes.
The issue was that they were wrong.
And the issue was that at times they were unclear because what they were telling us made no sense.
And so now they're being asked a question.
They're going, Does your policy even make sense?
And they're going, Well, instead of explaining it, we're just going to have one clear thing, which is, you have to get this.
That doesn't answer the question.
Yeah, it's so exactly, dude.
Exactly.
It's so funny when you go, it's like, no, it's not like, yes, it was always simple, what you guys were saying.
It's not that it was ever not simple.
It was always from the very, very beginning.
It was like, stay home.
They literally have more.
Don't go outside.
They have the most expensive, I would assume, the most expensive marketing campaign ever to have very simple messages, safe and effective.
If you get this, you won't get sick.
You can't transmit.
And even before the vaccine, it was like, stay home.
Don't go outside.
Don't go out unless you need to.
Don't do this.
You know, don't get the vaccine.
Right.
It's not that it was the only point where you could say, yeah, there were some points.
I will grant them this, where the message was confusing is when they were saying things like, the vaccine absolutely works.
It will make sure you don't get the virus and you can't transmit the virus.
And also, we have to protect the vaccinated from the unvaccinated.
That was a point that was a very, you know, muddled message, right?
So if you remember, a lot of them were saying this: we will not let you put the vaccinated at risk with the unvaccinated.
And then you were like, wait a minute, but if the vaccine works, then why this was, this was one of the big examples where that is true, that they were like, you're sending a very confusing message, which was a huge thing at the very beginning of the vaccine regime.
Like you kind of have the COVID regime, the lockdowns, and then you had the like vaccine, you know, regime where it was, we're pushing everyone to get the vaccine.
And at that time, the talking points were the vaccine is 98% effective.
99% of the hospitalized and dead are unvaccinated.
And also, we can't let the unvaccinated anywhere near the vaccinated.
And that was a message that was very much like, hmm, but wait a minute.
If the vaccine really works, then what do they have to fear from the unvaccinated?
So that was like one.
But the specific question here was like, it's unclear whether a lot of people will even benefit from a booster.
And then she, of course, as what the corporate press does, is then she says this thing, but then carries water for her.
And the question she asks is, has there been mixed messaging?
And then she can just say, no, yes, there has been, but you know what?
Here's the message is clear.
Get the booster.
They're clarifying the message by becoming more authoritarian.
Right.
That instead of we're not going to explain our reasoning, it doesn't need to make sense.
The problem is the clarity of the message.
Even if it's wrong, we just need to have a clear message.
So even if the directive is bad, and the issue the whole time is that you've been lying about the information and then you've been playing a censorship game where you won't let very intelligent voices criticize it to find out if even what you're telling us is accurate.
And now your solution to this problem is we're going to be more authoritarian and just give one clear directive and not explain it or give any reasons.
All right.
Well, look, Rob, if you're looking for some more clarity and you're looking for some more reason, don't worry.
I got the guy for you.
Nice.
He's the guy.
He's known as Dr. Truth Science.
He's going to retire, and this is going to be, it's going to be a nightmare for humanity, but he's still on the job right now.
And he will grant you the clarity that you're looking for.
Here he is, Dr. Fauci.
So when you have a updated vaccine that serves as a boost, as it were, and it's directed against the dominant circulating strain that's in society, you have every reason to believe that that is going to be better than having a vaccine that isn't highly specific to the circulating strain.
It hasn't been proven in a clinical trial because we don't have time to do a clinical trial because we need to get the vaccine out now because we have such a situation throughout the world and certainly in the United States.
We're having 400 deaths per day and up to 5,000 hospitals a day, hospitalizations.
And that's predominantly very, very heavily weighted towards BA45.
We are moving towards a cadence that for most people...
Hold on, let's pause it there.
So, Rob, I don't think you should have any more questions at this point.
There's your answer.
You have every reason to believe that you're better off getting an updated vaccine, a booster, as some would call it.
And sure, we don't have clinical trials to tell you that there's evidence that this will help.
But, you know, Rob, we don't have time for clinical trials, which he actually, that is correct.
We don't have time because by the time we did the clinical trials, there'd probably be another variant of the virus.
And so what does that do?
So since we have every reason to believe that an updated vaccine will work, we don't have time to do clinical trials.
Okay, I understand what you're saying.
I can already anticipate your objection.
You might wonder, why would we then ever do clinical trials?
Shouldn't we just use every vaccine if there's, I mean, time is of the essence here.
Why even do clinical trials?
Many would argue the reason to do clinical trials is to find out whether the vaccine actually works against what they're claiming it works against.
But, you know, we don't have time.
So there's no scientific argument for why this actually works, or there's no scientific counter to what this doctor was saying, but we just don't have time.
So we have every reason to believe, every reason, Rob, every reason, even without clinical trials, to believe that this will work.
So I assume you're satisfied now.
Well, I enjoy that.
The first part of his sentence is basically, I was wrong about the usage of the initial vaccines, but here's another untested version of it.
Because at first it was that the thing just works.
Now they're finally admitting it doesn't work for the variants, but now they're like, but it's still so urgent.
And amidst all the things that haven't been tested, I mean, this is not what he's saying, but what he's trying to say, the argument he's trying to say is that we know that the mRNA technology is safe.
And so we don't need to experiment for these new variants because we know that there's safety to this.
So let's just get it out to market.
However, not only, I mean, amongst all the things that have never been tested, we certainly have never tested a continuous boosting campaign with the mRNAs.
I mean, talk about limiting testing about giving people an initial dose of this experimental stuff.
There certainly isn't any.
And forget about the fact, I mean, we know nothing about long-term health effects of taking it.
We certainly don't know the effects about taking this thing continuously.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No question.
And I guess we just don't have time to study any of that.
And what is the what is the emergency threat, especially now that you got the PAX Levid?
Like what specific grouping of people are so at risk that they're better off taking the new technology with at a minimum, you have not done any experiments about the actual dosing or like the actual, like the actual usage of it.
You know what I mean?
Like you definitely haven't like usually because like even with the COVID vaccine, it was like, is it going to be one shot?
Is it going to be two?
For kids, it's going to be three.
It's like they have to run some sort of an experiment to figure out exactly how they're supposed to dose.
So I guess on this one, they're even being honest.
They're like, we got no idea.
We're fucking winging it.
Yeah, that's it.
It's like, look, I don't know.
Just fucking take it.
We're going to put some shit in your arm.
Just fucking take it.
So anyway, I guess, and we can wrap up on this, but I guess kind of the point here is like, and how this relates to the conversation we've been having throughout the podcast.
As goofy as we think the idea of having a queen is, and believe me, I think it's as goofy as anyone.
Is this any less goofy?
Is this any less ridiculous that this is what we have?
Okay, fine.
We don't have a king.
We don't have a queen, but we still kind of have this guy who calls himself the king of science.
And, you know, or the queen of science, as we've heard from the head of the CDC and the head of the NIH or whatever.
Like it's still these two people who are just going like, this is the dictate.
This is what I demand everyone do.
And in the same sense of like, well, how can you justify that you're the queen?
Well, from the whatever, you know, what go watch the ridiculous rituals that they have to go through to like make the new king the king now.
It's, it's like, I don't know.
This isn't any better.
No matter what form of government you have, it's all just the same religious, you know, kind of like nonsense of, okay, well, it's because we say, it's because we dictate that this is what we have every reason to believe.
There you go.
Take another shot in your arm.
The point is, is it as absurd as one system may seem to the modern American person?
Is this any less absurd?
That's kind of where I'd leave it with that.
All right.
Thank you guys very much for listening to this episode.
We'll be back with a brand new one very soon.
I will be on Tim Pool Tim Cast tomorrow night, if you're listening tonight, I suppose.
And then we'll be back with a brand new episode the following day.
So thank you guys very much.
You got the creek at the end of the month.
That's right.
25th, September 25th.
I will be at the Creek in the Cave one night only.
Jamie Kilstein will be on those shows, comicdave Smith.com to go get some tickets for that one.
There's still, they've been selling very fast.
I think there's a few seats left.
So go grab tickets now.
Rob, what do you got?
Check out Run Your Mouth also on YouTube, Robbie the Fire, all one word.
I just put out the smoke out bug out, which was a big success, and also some stand-up clips.
And then I got a date at the end of the month in Maryland with BK Chris, Menu and Hart, and Justin Silver.
It's a lineup of killers.
So come hang out for that.
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P-O-T-P.
Man, do we have an archive?
Go get yourself some education.
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