True Anon Truth Feed - Episode 52: Love in the Time of Corona
Aired: 2020-03-14
Duration: 56:33


=== Trickle-Down Viral Phenomenon (07:37) ===

[00:00:00]  So this is not, I mean, I feel a little uncouth saying this.
[00:00:04]  I feel, I'm feeling fucked up saying this because, you know, what happened?
[00:00:09]  Well, okay.
[00:00:10]  But yeah, this is not like a grassroots viral movement.
[00:00:15]  No, no, this isn't.
[00:00:16]  This is a, this is, this is some Justice Democrats bullshit.
[00:00:20]  This is a one, the 1% trickle down.
[00:00:23]  There's a trickle-down viral phenomenon.
[00:00:26]  So the crazy thing is there are what, eight or nine?
[00:00:29]  Eight or nine billion people in the world, potentially, just due to censuses being incomplete and stuff.
[00:00:34]  It's possible that there's that many people.
[00:00:37]  Also could be large cave populations.
[00:00:41]  I know it's like 7 billion technically, but I also, now that I'm realizing that I'm wrong because the facial expression, I now believe that life begins at conception.
[00:00:51]  Well, there is ball.
[00:00:53]  Data for progress is the one who did that census, so you got to add in a good margin of error there.
[00:00:57]  Yes.
[00:00:58]  So, but like, it's crazy that there's all these people in the world, but like the people who get it are A, Hollywood pedophile, allegedly Tom Hanks.
[00:01:05]  B, ex-girlfriend, Justin Trudeau's wife.
[00:01:09]  C, Bolsonaro.
[00:01:10]  Does Bolsonaro have her or not?
[00:01:12]  Trump.
[00:01:12]  Okay, so we are recording today is Dateline.
[00:01:17]  February 13th.
[00:01:18]  It's TF.
[00:01:19]  It's March.
[00:01:20]  Thank God it's flu season.
[00:01:23]  Yeah.
[00:01:24]  Wow.
[00:01:24]  Look at that.
[00:01:25]  Sorry.
[00:01:25]  I'm so sorry.
[00:01:26]  It's okay.
[00:01:26]  Liz hasn't been outside in a fortnight.
[00:01:30]  That's true.
[00:01:31]  I haven't eaten much in like 48 hours.
[00:01:33]  No, you look so good.
[00:01:35]  Oh my God.
[00:01:36]  You straight up scrumptious.
[00:01:39]  Thank you.
[00:01:40]  Here's a little tip before we get started here.
[00:01:42]  It's circled that way.
[00:01:43]  You just get rolled.
[00:01:44]  Well, that, first of all, very true.
[00:01:46]  Also, methamphetamine, which is like the male, you sort of break it up with society here.
[00:01:50]  Here's the thing.
[00:01:51]  Fellas, ladies, everything in between.
[00:01:54]  You want to get fit.
[00:01:55]  Is that okay to say?
[00:01:56]  It's okay to say.
[00:01:57]  You want to get fit during this upcoming global pandemic.
[00:02:02]  Don't get rations.
[00:02:04]  Check that out.
[00:02:06]  Get like a week's worth of groceries.
[00:02:08]  You know what would be nice?
[00:02:09]  What?
[00:02:10]  I think Young Chomsky, since he's going to have some time on his hands, should come up with a nice little Truanon approved workout video.
[00:02:19]  Listen, if I have to stream, if I have to, actually, I'm not going to.
[00:02:22]  If I have to make Liz stream the entirety of a video game front to back, you have to come up with a workout video, all right?
[00:02:28]  Okay.
[00:02:28]  Okay.
[00:02:29]  I think that would be really cute.
[00:02:30]  That's going to seal a deal.
[00:02:31]  And this is maybe some little internet followers on Twitter.com have picked this up.
[00:02:37]  But Brace and I have gone sicko mode.
[00:02:40]  Absolutely.
[00:02:41]  And when I say that, I mean triage, nurse, taking care of all you little sick piggies because shit's about to get real and Truinon is here for you.
[00:02:54]  Yeah, absolutely.
[00:02:55]  In this past, I don't even know, how long is it?
[00:02:58]  Was it like since Wednesday that things have gotten like this?
[00:03:02]  I feel like Wednesday is when stuff got society caught up with us.
[00:03:06]  Yeah, basically, so Brace.
[00:03:08]  Okay, okay.
[00:03:09]  Look, I don't want to, it's not the time to brush the dirt off our shoulders.
[00:03:13]  But, however, I do like to do that.
[00:03:17]  Yeah.
[00:03:17]  And you do often weirdly have dirty shoulders.
[00:03:20]  No.
[00:03:20]  And many listeners, I will say, and also many personal friends have commented, Liz, why aren't you always right?
[00:03:28]  Yeah.
[00:03:29]  Yeah.
[00:03:29]  I got to say, it's very weird, but Bryce and I were on this corona thing real early.
[00:03:36]  Absolutely.
[00:03:36]  So ever since the invention of 5G, I've been warning about an upcoming superflu.
[00:03:42]  No, this, it's like, it's been really weird to sort of deal with this for the past, I guess it's like month or three weeks, really, that like it's been getting kind of intense because it's like, okay, we can see that this thing is coming, right?
[00:03:56]  Like you can look in the distance and that there is an avalanche coming.
[00:04:01]  And, you know, your automatic instinct is like, wow, I hope that the avalanche stops.
[00:04:08]  And, but like, until then, you know, it's a couple of weeks away.
[00:04:11]  What am I going to do?
[00:04:12]  Stop going out to Chez Panisse every night?
[00:04:15]  Yeah.
[00:04:16]  Stop having cocktails with beautiful women at the top of the mark?
[00:04:19]  Absolutely not.
[00:04:20]  But it's like, you want to live your normal life, right?
[00:04:22]  You don't want to freak out, but you know, this is coming.
[00:04:25]  Yeah, it's like a weird limbo zone.
[00:04:27]  We're in limbo.
[00:04:27]  We're in limbo.
[00:04:28]  I was talking to my beautiful Jungian analyst about this.
[00:04:32]  I went to it twice this week.
[00:04:33]  Oh, Brace.
[00:04:34]  No, I'm trying to, well, because the thing is, I got to be tip-top shape because every woman I'm going to be talking about.
[00:04:39]  Yeah, we're going to get into this.
[00:04:40]  That's freaking the fuck up.
[00:04:41]  Yeah, we're going to get into that in a second.
[00:04:43]  But I went to my beautiful Jungian analyst twice this week.
[00:04:47]  And yesterday I sort of realized that like, yeah, the reason I feel so sort of have this crazy energy and this like almost, I feel almost, by the way, I am not manic because I am not bipolar.
[00:05:03]  I know a lot of people think I am.
[00:05:04]  No, he's not.
[00:05:05]  Because, but I never go down, baby.
[00:05:08]  Excuse me.
[00:05:09]  I never go.
[00:05:10]  Well, all right.
[00:05:11]  Yeah, I can mean that two way.
[00:05:12]  I don't give head to women.
[00:05:14]  Okay, okay, okay.
[00:05:15]  Get back.
[00:05:15]  Yeah, get back.
[00:05:16]  Anyways, so I fuck, you fuck me up there.
[00:05:21]  No, so it's like this transitionary period where it's like, I'm good.
[00:05:25]  I'm back.
[00:05:25]  I'm back.
[00:05:25]  So I went down.
[00:05:28]  It's this transitionary period where it's like, I don't know what to do right now, right?
[00:05:32]  Like the new reality sort of has it.
[00:05:35]  The dialectic is literally in motion right now.
[00:05:39]  Yeah.
[00:05:39]  Brief just doesn't know what to do with himself.
[00:05:41]  I don't know what to do.
[00:05:41]  I'm just going to go.
[00:05:42]  And he's freaking him out.
[00:05:43]  And he's been trying to get a handle of it and be a big boy.
[00:05:46]  Yeah.
[00:05:47]  But it slips through sometimes.
[00:05:49]  Yeah.
[00:05:49]  Well, I've been spending a lot.
[00:05:50]  I spend a lot of time alone as it is, but I've been spending a lot more time alone.
[00:05:55]  And I have no option of not being alone.
[00:05:57]  Yeah.
[00:05:57]  And I mean, I do, but it's like, I feel, I don't know.
[00:06:01]  Yeah, I mean, again, we're going to get into this later in the episode, but like getting yourself mentally prepared for what's going to happen is really tough.
[00:06:09]  And I don't even know if, I mean, I'm just speaking like, just to be totally frank, like I'm not there.
[00:06:16]  I don't think you're there.
[00:06:17]  Like we don't need to pretend like we're genius soldiers, but we'll get into like good ways to kind of try to get yourself there.
[00:06:26]  I think it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:06:28]  I mean, because as of right now, where we stand, there's 120 something cases probably by the time this comes out or probably by the time I recorded this, since I wrote down that statistic, I'm sure it's grown a lot.
[00:06:39]  But there's a lot of cases worldwide.
[00:06:41]  I mean, the situation is mostly 1205,000.
[00:06:44]  Okay.
[00:06:45]  Yeah.
[00:06:45]  There it is.
[00:06:46]  There's 120 cases worldwide.
[00:06:47]  And I'm really worried recording this in September of 2019.
[00:06:51]  And I'm really worried that this is going to, this is going to snowball.
[00:06:55]  I just got.
[00:06:55]  No, anyways, there's a lot of cases worldwide.
[00:06:59]  Situation is basically the same.
[00:07:00]  Italy, not looking so great, right?
[00:07:02]  No, we both linked on Twitter to a great episode from Friend of the Pots at The Warner.
[00:07:09]  They did a great episode that they unlocked, gratefully, or grateful to them, live, you know, an interview with someone in the quarantine in northern Italy.
[00:07:23]  And it's about two hours.
[00:07:25]  They get into some real, you know, real talk, real stuff.
[00:07:28]  And I think it's a good, listen, we can, we can link to it again in the show notes.
[00:07:34]  I highly, highly, highly recommend everyone listen to it.

=== BART's Future Uncertain (11:12) ===

[00:07:37]  It's a great conversation, but it's also a really good way, like I said, get yourself sort of like out of shock mode and in, you know, into the real.
[00:07:46]  Yeah.
[00:07:47]  Yeah.
[00:07:47]  That's that, that's really been like, so many times, just like in my life, I've had to sort of, as Jim Morrison calls it, break on through to the other side, right?
[00:07:58]  Like I've stood at many precipices.
[00:08:01]  And the thing is that makes this so different, not just for me, but for everybody, is that a lot of those things were personal things, right?
[00:08:08]  Like I had to make a big personal decision or like I had to, you know, admit to something or I had to turn, you know, turn myself over to something or like whatever.
[00:08:17]  But this is different and it feels different in one particular way in that it feels like there's this sort of like heavy blanket settling on society.
[00:08:26]  And it's like, it's, you feel it in the air, right?
[00:08:29]  Like the air has like a certain like a tinge and like a, like a, like kind of like, it's, it's, you can see it in a way, right?
[00:08:38]  Like this, this, there's like these particles of fear.
[00:08:42]  The avalanche, I really feel that.
[00:08:44]  It's like you can see, and it's like miles and miles away, but you can see this like tsunami or something.
[00:08:50]  Yeah.
[00:08:50]  Or maybe it's like a really dark fog.
[00:08:53]  Yeah.
[00:08:54]  Yeah.
[00:08:54]  And you see it and like look at Italy, right?
[00:08:57]  Like we can see, like, I mean, the internet exists, right?
[00:09:00]  Television exists.
[00:09:01]  We have no problem seeing what's going on in Italy, but I can't internalize that really because I look outside my window and I see joggers.
[00:09:09]  And like, you know, it's like when we were in here the other day, sort of having, you know, having our little sort of psychic melding about this.
[00:09:17]  And then we walked outside and there was like four joggers and people buying sandwiches and just totally normal.
[00:09:22]  Cat calling me.
[00:09:23]  And it's like, it's totally normal.
[00:09:27]  And it's like, okay, well, you know, at first that sort of like is not like offensive to me, but it's jarring.
[00:09:35]  But then I'm like, what am I supposed to tell them?
[00:09:37]  You know, like, don't go.
[00:09:38]  Jogging is probably fine actually, because it's not like you're really getting close to anybody.
[00:09:43]  Yeah.
[00:09:44]  But it's like, I can't give them the advice, like, oh, you should go home and freak out right now.
[00:09:51]  Because if like, it's not going to work.
[00:09:54]  But it's at the same time, like that avalanche is getting closer.
[00:09:59]  Yeah.
[00:09:59]  Right?
[00:10:00]  Like, we can see it.
[00:10:01]  That black fog is, you know, is almost hitting Marin if we're doing a sort of geographical analogy.
[00:10:08]  Yeah.
[00:10:08]  So we unlocked the last episode we did about coronavirus because a lot of people were asking and we kind of like went through some stuff that people should do to kind of get ready.
[00:10:20]  Yeah.
[00:10:20]  If you haven't listened to that, I recommend you do so.
[00:10:23]  Yep.
[00:10:25]  But, you know, we don't really know what's going to happen.
[00:10:30]  I have a feeling, given what seems like the severity of the situation in the United States and the status of our infrastructure and the status of our current federal leadership, which we'll get into in a second, that you're going to see a lot of counties and particularly major cities go into lockdown in whatever form that takes.
[00:10:54]  I don't know if it'll be as intense as like Brace and I have kind of talked about this and tried to walk through different scenarios because it's difficult to understand because, you know, like Brace and I were, you know, not on mic or whatever.
[00:11:07]  We were just talking about like, you know, the United States is not centralized in the way that even, you know, Italy is, even if their, you know, culture is, you know, hesitant about going.
[00:11:19]  That was like a big thing with the Italian quarantine is that Italians were like, what are you talking about?
[00:11:23]  I'm not doing any of that.
[00:11:24]  Yeah, I'm still going to a restaurant.
[00:11:25]  Like, I'm going to the, you know, I'm going to the movie theater or whatever.
[00:11:29]  Yeah.
[00:11:29]  Yeah.
[00:11:30]  So, you know, but the United States, I mean, we just, you know, we, you know, news flash, we have a federal system.
[00:11:37]  Yes.
[00:11:37]  Yes.
[00:11:38]  So, um, you know, a lot of the pressure is really falling on the governors.
[00:11:43]  And from what you can really tell, you know, what looks like to all of us, I think there's not a lot of guidance from the federal government.
[00:11:50]  No, I mean, that's, that's one thing.
[00:11:51]  So it's like I've been able to, you know, watch sort of the reaction on the ground here.
[00:11:56]  And to tell you the truth, the government, I'm just speaking purely about the local government in San Francisco, there is no plan in place, right?
[00:12:03]  And it's like, on some level, that's pretty understandable.
[00:12:06]  It's like you're not really planning for like a giant epidemic, especially because there hasn't really been one, especially on this level for a lot.
[00:12:14]  Exactly, a century, right?
[00:12:15]  And again, I don't know if I mentioned this last episode.
[00:12:18]  As far as I can tell, there have not been like a quarantine like the one that we're expecting to happen pretty much ever.
[00:12:25]  I mean, at least since the, since before the, like, I think 1799 or something like that.
[00:12:31]  It's, and it's, it's, it's like, that's sort of where I struggle with this, right?
[00:12:35]  Because like a lot of people, I, I look to history, get to get some answers about the president, or at least a clue about how the shape of something might happen, or at least some possibilities.
[00:12:44]  And that's, that's difficult to do because the closest thing we had for a second was China.
[00:12:48]  And China has just a very different and it looks like in this situation, much more effective government than we have in terms of dealing with the problem like this.
[00:12:58]  Whereas here, it's like, okay, well, San Francisco can make a plan, right?
[00:13:01]  Like the city government in San Francisco, and we have a big budget here.
[00:13:04]  We have a budget that's larger than many countries.
[00:13:06]  What is it?
[00:13:06]  $7.
[00:13:07]  $10.10.
[00:13:08]  Something billion.
[00:13:09]  Yeah.
[00:13:09]  $10 billion budget for San Francisco.
[00:13:12]  $10 billion.
[00:13:13]  Now, by the way, I should say, Trump in his speech today said that they were releasing, what was it?
[00:13:20]  $50 billion?
[00:13:20]  $54 billion.
[00:13:22]  So that's only five times the budget of San Francisco County.
[00:13:26]  For every single all over the world.
[00:13:29]  For the United States.
[00:13:30]  And so like, that's not a lot of money.
[00:13:31]  You know, if we're looking at Italy, like, okay, well, what do we know works?
[00:13:34]  Like, what, what helps is pretty like heavy quarantining, basically, and like not like trying to prevent people.
[00:13:42]  Social distancing.
[00:13:43]  Social distancing and like through whatever means trying to prevent people from sort of creating these new clusters of sickness, right?
[00:13:50]  These new sort of methods or like these new avenues of virality.
[00:13:56]  And that, you like that one?
[00:13:57]  I did.
[00:13:57]  It sounded like little what?
[00:14:01]  What's the struggle?
[00:14:02]  That was a kind of sexy struggle.
[00:14:05]  All right, let's go.
[00:14:06]  Okay, so we don't ever do that again to me.
[00:14:10]  Fuck me.
[00:14:10]  Again, you're distracting me today.
[00:14:12]  I'm going to start wearing sunglasses.
[00:14:13]  I am the dragon of chaos.
[00:14:15]  What's the other, what's the opposing thing to the dragon of chaos?
[00:14:17]  Isn't that woman dragon of chaos?
[00:14:19]  Yes.
[00:14:19]  Yeah.
[00:14:20]  Yeah.
[00:14:20]  According to my other Jungian psychiatrist, Dr. JP.
[00:14:26]  Prayers left for him, by the way.
[00:14:27]  I haven't checked down with him.
[00:14:28]  His daughter's been staying with me during the course.
[00:14:30]  Oh, for God's sake.
[00:14:31]  But it's so we can look there and we can see that like a lot of people are in their apartments.
[00:14:36]  And like, you know, there's been some pretty nasty stories coming out of there too.
[00:14:40]  You know, we're talking about people who are stuck in apartments with dead people.
[00:14:43]  And like, you know, one of the things that in Italy, not in the United States.
[00:14:46]  Wife.
[00:14:46]  Yeah.
[00:14:47]  Yeah.
[00:14:47]  One guy I think was his wife.
[00:14:48]  One guy with sister.
[00:14:52]  But then we look at like, okay, the closest thing in America to that is we have New Rochelle, right, in New York.
[00:14:57]  Yeah, we can't really see what's going on.
[00:14:59]  Well, there's been a lot of reporters there, but it's like you can't really tell exactly.
[00:15:03]  It's like a lot of people are in their houses.
[00:15:05]  There's a lot of National Guard, but it almost seems like a sort of play acting at what actually needs to be done because it's absurd.
[00:15:12]  Like if we zoom out for a second, quarantining one little town and not really even quarantining because boy, there's a lot of reporters in and out of there isn't going to be effective, right?
[00:15:23]  And like, so I think what we're going to see across the nation is just like these sort of piecemeal efforts to stem the tide.
[00:15:31]  But like, you know, it's not like all Bay Area governments, and you know, God help me, I hope I'm wrong.
[00:15:37]  It's not like all the Bay Area governments are necessarily going to connect on this and create some like comprehensive plan.
[00:15:44]  And I'm not even really sure what plan they could make just in the geographical sort of like problems that we're faced with.
[00:15:51]  You know what I mean?
[00:15:52]  And like, can they quarantine San Francisco?
[00:15:55]  Okay.
[00:15:55]  Well, most are they going to close the bridges?
[00:15:57]  Are they going to close the freeway?
[00:15:58]  I know.
[00:15:59]  Are they even going to close BART?
[00:16:00]  Like, because it's like, I mean, so when I worked at the factory here, most of my co-workers lived outside San Francisco.
[00:16:07]  Some of them lived outside what you could even call the Bay.
[00:16:10]  I'm talking about Santa Cruz, talking about Hercules, et cetera.
[00:16:13]  Like, that's not, that's like far.
[00:16:15]  And so, like, even if they extended it to like the East Bay, well, that's still like a lot.
[00:16:19]  I mean, businesses would close.
[00:16:20]  And that's another thing, too.
[00:16:21]  It's like a lot of businesses are going to close.
[00:16:24]  And we'll get to Trump's speech later, but like, there is no plan.
[00:16:28]  Okay.
[00:16:28]  Like, people got to realize there is nothing coming from the federal government for this, as far as I can tell.
[00:16:36]  And if I had to predict, probably nothing ever coming.
[00:16:40]  I think things are going to come, but I think they're going to not look like a plan.
[00:16:45]  Yeah.
[00:16:46]  Yeah.
[00:16:46]  And I don't, I worry about like what shape they're going to take in terms of like them training medical or military personnel.
[00:16:54]  Yeah.
[00:16:54]  For example, I mean, I don't want to get into too much of that stuff, but I do think that that is like very much on the table.
[00:17:00]  Yeah.
[00:17:02]  And I also would say that like New Rochelle is one of the richest towns.
[00:17:08]  It's like a tony suburb.
[00:17:10]  Yeah.
[00:17:11]  I think it's Westchester.
[00:17:12]  I don't know.
[00:17:14]  And, you know, whatever's going on there, whatever Cuomo is doing there is going to look very different than what he does in the Bronx or what Newsome does in South Los Angeles.
[00:17:26]  And, you know, and where I'm further.
[00:17:29]  So, yeah, I just, you know, I really don't know what's going to happen.
[00:17:35]  I saw today that like BART, which is our like, you know, public transportation.
[00:17:39]  And it's like cross-city.
[00:17:40]  Like BART goes, it's like a subway system, but like also, it's, it's, but it goes like to Oakland and all it's going to be.
[00:17:47]  It's all over the Bay Area.
[00:17:51]  And it's losing like $5 million today or something.
[00:17:55]  And so it's already asking for money from Congress.
[00:17:58]  So we're going to see, I mean, you're going to see total, you know, a lot of industries either needing to be bailed out, which I think they will be, you know, or floated or supported, what have you.
[00:18:10]  Yeah, I mean, but that's the thing is like on this scale, I mean, that almost seems like.
[00:18:14]  I don't know, because, you know, obviously, you know, this is not my purview.
[00:18:17]  Like, that almost seems like if that happens everywhere with like not just public transportation, but like, you know, the liquor store and the corner, well, actually, those are probably okay.
[00:18:25]  But like, you know, the shoe store to the, you know, whatever, the movie theater to the, to the public transit.
[00:18:34]  Well, Bart's technically private, but you know what I mean?
[00:18:36]  Like still public transit.
[00:18:37]  They, they get revenue from fares.
[00:18:39]  Yeah.
[00:18:39]  All those things will need bailing out.
[00:18:42]  And it's like, is that possible?
[00:18:44]  It's really, it's a really, this, it's so crazy.

=== Public Transit Oddities (07:49) ===

[00:18:49]  So like, you know, Hollywood has already started shutting down production.
[00:18:54]  Thank you.
[00:18:55]  Different studio.
[00:18:55]  I mean, thank God.
[00:18:56]  Yeah.
[00:18:56]  Thank Christ.
[00:18:57]  Because we hate them.
[00:18:58]  Yeah.
[00:18:59]  But no, but also because it's a real yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:19:02]  Also, respect to the, you know, the gaffers, et cetera.
[00:19:04]  Yeah.
[00:19:06]  No, but it's also that, you know, those, that's a lot of work that people are now out of.
[00:19:10]  Yes.
[00:19:11]  And that's also a huge, huge part of the economy.
[00:19:16]  Yeah.
[00:19:17]  And I really want to impress on people, like, you know, when people were calling this, that's just in China.
[00:19:23]  Oh, it's just the flu.
[00:19:24]  It's just old people.
[00:19:25]  It's just old people.
[00:19:26]  I'll get to that in a second.
[00:19:29]  You know, China didn't shut down their economy for the flu.
[00:19:32]  And California is not going to shut down its economy for the flu.
[00:19:36]  Exactly.
[00:19:37]  Like, that was something that was like driving me up the wall when people were talking about the flu.
[00:19:42]  It's not.
[00:19:42]  And there's like still people that are like, I mean, even Trump.
[00:19:45]  And it comes from Trump, basically, right?
[00:19:47]  Like, he was calling this a hoax, I think, last week.
[00:19:50]  And I was arguing with some dumbo online.
[00:19:54]  He was like, well, it's, you know, it's just the flu.
[00:19:55]  I'm like, well, you have the same opinion as Trump on this.
[00:19:57]  And like, you might want to like sort of examine that, right?
[00:20:01]  Like, it's not that really, I mean, I think that what Trump has modeled is just like incredible.
[00:20:06]  I mean, it's fucking Trump, but it's like, it's incredibly harmful.
[00:20:10]  Like when he basically, he went on TV on Fox, sort of when this crisis really first like started becoming apparent to more people that it was a real thing.
[00:20:18]  And he was just like, it's fine.
[00:20:19]  You're not going to get sick.
[00:20:20]  You can still go to work if you get sick.
[00:20:21]  Blah, blah, blah.
[00:20:22]  Like, it's all right.
[00:20:23]  So bad.
[00:20:23]  And it's like, there's these mixed, like, I mean, I have, you know, I've listened to, I don't know if I should, well, I have intimate knowledge of some calls that have been happening with the CDC around here.
[00:20:33]  Right.
[00:20:34]  And I'll tell you what, there is no plan.
[00:20:38]  There is no plan.
[00:20:40]  Like there is no, you know, hopefully that have changed by the time this episode comes out, but they do not have a plan.
[00:20:48]  And I'm not even talking about FEMA camps.
[00:20:50]  They don't even, they could create a FEMA camp.
[00:20:52]  They wouldn't know how to put you in there.
[00:20:53]  There is no infrastructure for this.
[00:20:55]  There is no money coming for this.
[00:20:57]  There is no plan for this.
[00:20:59]  I mean, if we just look at the bungling of the tests, right?
[00:21:03]  That should be indicative of how all of this will go down.
[00:21:05]  Instead of using the widely available and credible tests that were like approved by the World Health Organization, the UN, which America is, of course, a prominent member of, America decided to develop its own proprietary tests.
[00:21:20]  The tests did not work.
[00:21:22]  They used them anyways.
[00:21:25]  They had to end up sending all samples back to, I think, Atlanta, the main CDC headquarters.
[00:21:31]  And still, it's like, I'm really suspicious of that because of the test and work in the field.
[00:21:35]  I'm not sure it's working in Atlanta.
[00:21:36]  Yeah.
[00:21:37]  And now all the places where they're doing the best work on this, you know, when you look at what's going on in Washington, it's like they developed their own tests.
[00:21:43]  They developed it really quickly.
[00:21:44]  They've been tracing, they've traced it back to a patient zero in Washington.
[00:21:49]  Yeah, I want to say something about that in a second.
[00:21:51]  Yeah.
[00:21:52]  So they're doing, all of that is done through basically private labs.
[00:21:57]  Stanford has its own test.
[00:21:59]  You know, a lot of some places around here are developing them too.
[00:22:04]  Yeah.
[00:22:04]  I think other universities and university hospitals, the Cleveland Clinic has its own test.
[00:22:10]  Yeah, I'm sure they're sharing that shit around too.
[00:22:11]  So I don't know.
[00:22:12]  Cleveland Clinic is pretty tony, but we'll see.
[00:22:15]  Yeah, I know.
[00:22:16]  I went there for, you know, the tit thing.
[00:22:19]  Anyway.
[00:22:21]  But, you know, so none of that is coming from the federal government is, I guess, what I'm trying to say.
[00:22:26]  No.
[00:22:27]  And, you know, that was really prominent when we watched Trump's speech today.
[00:22:32]  Yeah.
[00:22:33]  So the entire theme, if you will, of that speech was public-private partnership will save us.
[00:22:40]  I should have recorded how many times they said that.
[00:22:44]  But, you know, Trump goes up there and he's with some of his medical people and he's with, who was that little doctor man's name?
[00:22:51]  Faucio Fauci.
[00:22:52]  Dr. Fauci.
[00:22:54]  Good they got an Italian.
[00:22:56]  Trump looked like shit, by the way.
[00:22:58]  Yeah, to really cement that.
[00:23:00]  I tried to do my first ever.
[00:23:03]  You were live tweeting.
[00:23:04]  Well, I paid Farouch Zatar media company to live tweet it while I spoke to him on the phone.
[00:23:11]  He's in the hot zone.
[00:23:12]  He is in Cairo, bully.
[00:23:14]  Yeah, wow.
[00:23:16]  But, you know, Mehmet, respect, the $25 a month checks are still coming through.
[00:23:22]  But it's, it's, Trump, Trump got up there and he looked like, oh my God.
[00:23:29]  The Chinese called him Guailo, which means literally, it's transliterated as white ghost.
[00:23:35]  And he looked, I mean, he was a phantom up there.
[00:23:39]  So the thing that's thick phantom.
[00:23:41]  The thing that's tough for me is, and I was saying this before we started recording, is that it's like he, whenever they make him read something, he hates it.
[00:23:49]  He's just like, hello, thank you for coming.
[00:23:52]  My name is the Professor Dr. Trump.
[00:23:54]  I am your president.
[00:23:55]  Here is what I think.
[00:23:56]  No one thinks it's good.
[00:23:57]  Like he's just like reading, it's like a high school report or something.
[00:24:00]  And he does it like a little petulantly too.
[00:24:01]  Like he sounds like kind of annoyed.
[00:24:03]  Yeah, like he sneaks in on some little jokes and then he feels like, oh, did you catch me?
[00:24:07]  Yep.
[00:24:08]  Went off script.
[00:24:08]  It's kind of cute a little bit.
[00:24:10]  But then, so it's like, you can't tell.
[00:24:14]  You're like, okay, is he just being like that way?
[00:24:18]  Or do I hear some shortness of breath?
[00:24:20]  Or do I hear some weird stuff?
[00:24:22]  I'll tell you, I heard some shortness of breath.
[00:24:25]  My God, at certain times, he sounded like he was croaking.
[00:24:28]  It did not sound great.
[00:24:29]  And also, what was so weird is he kept shaking hands with everyone.
[00:24:32]  Well, that was shaking hands.
[00:24:34]  The way it worked is Trump went up there.
[00:24:36]  He gave a very short, I think four-minute about speech.
[00:24:40]  It's very weird, which did not say much.
[00:24:42]  It was really like monotone.
[00:24:44]  And like he was, maybe it's him trying to be grave as well.
[00:24:49]  Oh, like have like some dignity.
[00:24:51]  Exactly.
[00:24:51]  Some like some impact to what he's saying or something by not doing his usual sort of theatrics.
[00:24:57]  Is it crunkite?
[00:24:58]  I don't know.
[00:24:59]  More like, suck my dickite.
[00:25:03]  Yeah.
[00:25:05]  Sorry.
[00:25:06]  I mean, it's again, it's your fault.
[00:25:08]  You know that would make me do that.
[00:25:10]  You provoked me.
[00:25:12]  But like he looked, I mean, Christ, man, he looked like a ghost.
[00:25:17]  And the mumbling and so what the way it worked was four minutes of speech, if you can call it that, basically an introduction.
[00:25:24]  And then he had an array of people come up and basically say like one or two sentences.
[00:25:30]  So his medical people went up and explained how now our big plan is this public-private partnership where the parking lots of Walmarts will be converted into mobile testing zones.
[00:25:43]  They will be drive-through tests.
[00:25:45]  And now this is funny because Azar the other day said that they were not going to do drive-through tests because they wanted to maintain the relationship between the patient and provider.
[00:25:55]  Keep in mind that 25% of people in the U.S., including myself, do not have like a doctor, right?
[00:26:03]  And it so I know it's well, it's obviously just because there are there were no tests.
[00:26:09]  And like as of right now, there still are no tests, like no federal tests.
[00:26:13]  I mean, they were talking about rollout for those.
[00:26:15]  They mentioned that is going to be next week.
[00:26:18]  And then like really, you know, the capacity will eventually ramp up.
[00:26:22]  But like, keep in mind that Italy was like basically fine a week ago.
[00:26:27]  You know?
[00:26:28]  Yeah.
[00:26:28]  I mean, every, you know, based on the available data, it looks like Washington, which would be kind of the like hot zone of the United States or the Wuhan of United States.

=== Moment of Dissociation (13:14) ===

[00:26:39]  Western Wuhan.
[00:26:40]  Which way, Western Wuhan?
[00:26:42]  That's funny, mate.
[00:26:43]  Thank you.
[00:26:46]  They say that they're about 10 days out as of today, Friday, from where Italy is right now.
[00:26:53]  So to put that in perspective, that means that millions of people are going to live with their mothers until they're 45.
[00:26:58]  No, no, no.
[00:27:00]  But it does mean that the situation is going to, I mean, and I think everyone can understand this, but as we said, it's like everything seems like it changed in the past two days.
[00:27:08]  Tomorrow it's going to seem crazier.
[00:27:10]  The day after that, it's going to seem crazier.
[00:27:12]  And it's going to keep going for a while.
[00:27:14]  Yes.
[00:27:15]  Yeah.
[00:27:16]  Yeah.
[00:27:16]  And that's something that's like really difficult to deal with too.
[00:27:19]  It's because like, to be honest, like, so, so right now, what day is it?
[00:27:22]  It's Friday?
[00:27:23]  Yeah.
[00:27:24]  Think about it.
[00:27:24]  You guys check this one out.
[00:27:26]  You guys want to get bummed out?
[00:27:27]  We should be in New York right now.
[00:27:29]  I know.
[00:27:30]  We were supposed to be flying into New York City today and staying at a seven-star hotel in downtown Manhattan.
[00:27:39]  I was going to do some hooking at the bar.
[00:27:41]  No, but we were supposed to go to New York because we have shows next week.
[00:27:44]  We were going to go there early, build the set, you know, do a bunch of cool stuff.
[00:27:49]  But I had a facial.
[00:27:50]  Oh, I have to, I have to cancel that facial appointment.
[00:27:53]  Oh.
[00:27:54]  Oh.
[00:27:54]  Shit.
[00:27:55]  I just remembered that.
[00:27:57]  Yeah, so he was going to get his face combed on.
[00:28:00]  And I was just, my face looks normal and usually comes.
[00:28:04]  I meant a real, you guys know what I meant.
[00:28:05]  I know what you, Jesus.
[00:28:07]  Listen, baby, come on.
[00:28:09]  You think I don't know what you mean?
[00:28:10]  Do you think I don't know what you mean?
[00:28:12]  First of all, I don't, you know, I don't like that kind of thing.
[00:28:15]  I know you don't like that kind of humor.
[00:28:16]  That's what I was saying about him.
[00:28:18]  Baby, don't worry.
[00:28:19]  All right.
[00:28:21]  I know you got the corona chitter, but it's okay.
[00:28:23]  I would never joke about that with you.
[00:28:25]  No, but we were supposed to be in New York right now.
[00:28:28]  Oh, I have a friend going to New York right now, too.
[00:28:30]  Wow.
[00:28:32]  I think she's.
[00:28:32]  Brayton, she should not go.
[00:28:34]  You can stay with me.
[00:28:36]  No, it's, it's so, it's like we were supposed to go, and I was really excited, right?
[00:28:40]  Like, I like, I have not, I mean, as it took brace to co-so, I, look, it took me transparency.
[00:28:46]  Yeah.
[00:28:46]  I was on the tip of like, there's no fucking way we're going for a while.
[00:28:50]  Yes.
[00:28:51]  I got talked down to by two men repeatedly.
[00:28:54]  Yeah.
[00:28:54]  Well, the thing is, I knew we were never going to go, but like, I didn't really want to pull the trigger because I'm like, well, what if like they figure out how to fix this?
[00:29:06]  I know in my heart of hearts basically for the past denial.
[00:29:10]  I've like, yeah.
[00:29:11]  And it's like, I think I needed that.
[00:29:13]  Now I don't need that, right?
[00:29:15]  Like I've ascended, basically.
[00:29:17]  Like I've understood my parameters.
[00:29:20]  I paced my cell.
[00:29:21]  I've walked the feet off and I've figured out which fingernail I'm going to use to mark in the wall, right?
[00:29:26]  Right.
[00:29:27]  I'm good now.
[00:29:27]  Yeah.
[00:29:28]  But up until recently, up until this new phase, we enter the new phase of Corona.
[00:29:32]  This is phase two.
[00:29:33]  This is phase two, right?
[00:29:34]  Wait till we get to phase four, guys.
[00:29:35]  Jesus fuck.
[00:29:37]  Wait till we get to phase four.
[00:29:38]  And then phase five when Biden gets it.
[00:29:42]  But it's, it's, it was, it's disappointing, right?
[00:29:46]  I really wanted to go to New York.
[00:29:47]  I, you know, haven't seen a lot of my friends there in a while.
[00:29:50]  I spent a long time not going out of town because I really desperately wanted to get out of town.
[00:29:56]  Yeah, I think all of us kind of needed that.
[00:29:59]  Had an appointment again to get cumbed on.
[00:30:02]  I, you know, I is he editing, is he making a thing to edit that out?
[00:30:08]  Oh, shit.
[00:30:08]  You're right.
[00:30:09]  Sorry.
[00:30:10]  Whoops.
[00:30:12]  Young Chomsky had an appointment to get to get cummed on.
[00:30:15]  I had an appointment to come on Young Chomsky.
[00:30:18]  And it's like we, we, we, we were all looking forward to this.
[00:30:22]  And I love doing shows.
[00:30:23]  I love doing the shows.
[00:30:24]  I love doing that.
[00:30:24]  We're supposed to do two big ass shows.
[00:30:26]  We've only done three before.
[00:30:28]  And it's so fun, too.
[00:30:30]  It's so fun.
[00:30:30]  And we had to, and believe me, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great show.
[00:30:34]  But we got a reschedule for June.
[00:30:36]  Inshallah, it'll be June, right?
[00:30:38]  Like, I, you know, as far as right now, we have rescheduled those.
[00:30:41]  You can check your emails.
[00:30:42]  This is an ad for it, whatever.
[00:30:44]  But we had to cancel that.
[00:30:46]  And it's like, duh, we have to cancel that, right?
[00:30:49]  Like, it's, there's about to be like possibly, not possibly, probably, very probably, going to be a quarantine.
[00:30:57]  Yeah.
[00:30:57]  I mean, also, you know, and this is something I said on Twitter.
[00:31:00]  It's just that, you know, I think we and also anyone who is in a position where I think, listen, if you're thinking about having over 10 people in a space, let alone 50, 100, 250, 450 people at a venue or a bar or a restaurant, you have an ethical responsibility to shut down.
[00:31:26]  Absolutely.
[00:31:27]  We're bodies and spaces.
[00:31:28]  Yeah.
[00:31:28]  Literally, we're done with the bodies and spaces.
[00:31:30]  Bodies and spaces.
[00:31:31]  Thank coronavirus did what years of me complaining could not, which is shut down bodies and spaces and make people not horny.
[00:31:43]  I've been aggressively unhorny the past week.
[00:31:46]  I mean, I usually am, but this is, it is, this is going to change a lot of stuff.
[00:31:50]  And I think it's, it's, again, like, I'm not going to pretend like I know everything that's going to happen or that I'm 100%.
[00:31:58]  I think I'm prepared to deal with it.
[00:31:59]  I don't know if I will deal with it as I want to.
[00:32:03]  Yeah, I mean, I think like, I think that Bryce and I are pretty good at being pretty transparent.
[00:32:08]  Yeah.
[00:32:08]  And I like to be pretty transparent.
[00:32:12]  I'm going to be kind of like vulnerable with you guys because why not?
[00:32:14]  Yeah.
[00:32:14]  I'm feeling a little soft today.
[00:32:17]  You are wearing a transparent blouse.
[00:32:19]  That's true.
[00:32:21]  You checked.
[00:32:24]  What are you thinking?
[00:32:25]  What are you?
[00:32:25]  What are you playing with like Blade Runner?
[00:32:27]  She's wearing a normal shirt, for God's sake.
[00:32:31]  Do you have?
[00:32:32]  Okay, go on.
[00:32:33]  Anyway, I'm scared.
[00:32:36]  Yeah.
[00:32:37]  Yeah.
[00:32:37]  Like I'm like really scared and I don't really know what's going to happen and I'm worried about a lot of things.
[00:32:47]  Yeah.
[00:32:48]  But I will say this.
[00:32:49]  I like kind of said that on Twitter yesterday.
[00:32:53]  And what I realized is that like this is a moment where I think a lot of people feel really like out of their bodies or dissociating.
[00:33:01]  Yep.
[00:33:01]  Don't know what to do with themselves.
[00:33:04]  You know, you're kind of like trying to mentally prepare yourself for what it's going to mean to be stuck in the house, whether that's with a partner or a family or not.
[00:33:11]  Or like the scariest thing sometimes, I think it's just being by yourself.
[00:33:14]  Being by yourself for a time for a period that you, I don't think we can fathom.
[00:33:20]  Right.
[00:33:22]  And what I realized was that like that can feel really helpless.
[00:33:27]  And a way out of that is to make yourself useful for other people.
[00:33:32]  Yeah.
[00:33:32]  And so for me, you know, I put, and this like completely stands, like, you know, look, don't abuse this privilege.
[00:33:40]  Don't be a creep.
[00:33:41]  But if you are having a hard time, you can DM me.
[00:33:44]  I've talked to a lot of people over the last 24 hours.
[00:33:47]  And I've talked to people's parents and, you know, given instructions on how to get prepared or if you just need help calming down or if you need advice on how to get your family or your friends or your friends of your family to take this seriously, that's like an open invitation.
[00:34:06]  You can DM me on Twitter.
[00:34:07]  My DMs are open and I am more than happy to talk with any of you guys about any of that.
[00:34:14]  Yeah.
[00:34:15]  Same goes for, I mean, Farouk Zatar, you know, forwards me the messages that we get on True Anon podcast account.
[00:34:23]  But it's like same thing.
[00:34:24]  Like I'll, if you like, I'll call you if you need me to.
[00:34:27]  I mean, Jesus Christ, I'm going to be my house.
[00:34:29]  Plus, I go to AA, so I got to call strangers all the time anyways.
[00:34:32]  But like, that's the thing about like what Liz says is correct.
[00:34:35]  I mean, I think for me, like, for me, I have felt really sort of helpless in the face of this because in every other sort of adverse situation in my life, basically the way to get out of it, or like at least after the initial sort of crisis or panic or bad thing that happened, the way to get out of it is to put yourself at service to others.
[00:34:55]  Like that's something I learned a long time ago that I've tried to be, to be, to be, to show fidelity to, right?
[00:35:03]  And for the most part, I've been successful, right?
[00:35:05]  Like if there's something that's really driving me crazy, I can do something about it, not necessarily fix it, but ameliorate the problems for somebody else.
[00:35:13]  And in this case, it's difficult because you're not dealing with like an enemy that is, you know, walking around wearing a business suit or walking around, you know, or someone's personal demons or something like that.
[00:35:25]  This is something that like, not only are we not equipped to handle, like literally we're not equipped to handle it, you know, but it's dangerous, right?
[00:35:34]  It's really dangerous and it's dangerous in a way that's like that that it's it's hard to really grasp and I think that like you can't kind of go out there and slay the dragon and save the damsel or whatever.
[00:35:46]  You know, there's no like great act like that that you can do.
[00:35:49]  I can't like literally, it has been driving me insane that I can't shoot this because like yeah, stop trying to do that.
[00:35:57]  I have been waving it around a while.
[00:35:59]  Yeah, that's correct.
[00:36:00]  And I've been wearing it to be honest with you because it makes me feel it makes me feel complete.
[00:36:05]  Granted, I was wearing it for about a month before this happened as well, but that was the advice of my beautiful analyst who I really like.
[00:36:12]  I think that, you know, also that, and this is, again, something that Brace has gotten into, and I think he speaks very eloquently in his own way about it.
[00:36:23]  But that like this is a moment that is going to demand a lot from every single one of us in ways that we can't anticipate.
[00:36:32]  Yep.
[00:36:32]  And that means that it's time to like step up in a way that I really, you know, I don't know any of your lives, but I would imagine in a way that your life has not been presented.
[00:36:46]  And like what we're looking at, you know, you got to take this, you know, just to be brutally like totally honest, like, well, this, we're looking at casualties like in the range of World War II.
[00:36:58]  Beyond that.
[00:36:59]  Possibly three times.
[00:37:00]  So.
[00:37:01]  Oh, worldwide are you talking about?
[00:37:02]  Well, I was talking worldwide, but also, but definitely in America.
[00:37:08]  So, you know, this is a situation that I don't think that any of us can get our minds around.
[00:37:15]  And I don't think that it's possible to get your mind around without driving yourself crazy.
[00:37:19]  But a way through that is, you know, connecting with strangers, make, you know, talking to people, because the only way any of us are going to get through it is with each other.
[00:37:31]  And I don't mean that in a cheesy way, but I mean like you're going to have to meet your neighbors.
[00:37:37]  You're going to have to talk to them.
[00:37:38]  You're going to got, you guys are going to have to figure out some plans and you're going to have to figure out also how to do that from a distance.
[00:37:44]  I mean, it's very complicated, but not impossible.
[00:37:47]  It's funny you say that because like something that's kind of come up a lot in the past few days, especially has been how this crisis has basically immediately presented us with all of the things that like all of the all the solutions we have are perfectly matched to this crisis, right?
[00:38:03]  Universal health care, you know, strong labor protections for people, universal rent control.
[00:38:11]  All of those things are the solutions to large swaths of this crisis, right?
[00:38:18]  Especially the economic impacts.
[00:38:19]  I mean, basically, like it's, really actually kind of heartbreaking in a way because it's like Bernie Sanders, for instance, is, is, he has, he's the only man in government, the only person in government in basically any higher level that has solutions for this.
[00:38:37]  Right.
[00:38:38]  And, and it's like, it's some, you know, if, if, if you've, if you've had a political trajectory like I have, uh, you are used to decades of disappointment.
[00:38:48]  Sure.
[00:38:49]  Um, but it, it is, it is, it's tough to see this happening right now instead of maybe a couple months ago.
[00:38:55]  Um, I think that maybe it is like a little, who knows, you know, it does, it does bump up our percent one or two, but uh, it's, it's, I'd rather he just stormed Washington with all five million of us donors.
[00:39:08]  I'm not gonna lie.
[00:39:09]  But he's not that he's not that guy, but but I am.
[00:39:14]  Well, yes, that's right.
[00:39:16]  Yeah, well, I'm a little young for that.
[00:39:17]  Uh, but it's it's so it's like like what you're saying about talking to your neighbors and stuff.
[00:39:25]  It's like, I mean, if you're in like an urban environment and most, you know, non-urban environments as well, you don't really know your neighbors generally, right?
[00:39:36]  Like only in a few places I've lived here, and I've always lived, I've, I've lived in one kind of house before, but I guess it was a duplex.
[00:39:44]  But I've only lived in apartments, and in those apartments, even though you're crammed in there, you know, I've been lived in like the heart of the city with, you know, hundreds and hundreds of people in apartment buildings.
[00:39:52]  I knew maybe one or two, right?

=== Why Generational Grievances Matter (08:07) ===

[00:39:53]  Or I know some people's faces, but not enough to say anything.
[00:39:57]  This is the time when it's like, you should go and don't go in their house or shake their hand.
[00:40:02]  But if you have old neighbors, which I know you do, everyone does.
[00:40:05]  Seek them out, right?
[00:40:07]  Yeah, a good way to do that is, you know, go old school, slip the note, slip a note under the door with your phone number and talk to them.
[00:40:16]  And basically like offer your, like, just tell them if you need anything, right?
[00:40:20]  Yeah.
[00:40:21]  Do they need groceries?
[00:40:22]  Do they need cleaning supplies?
[00:40:23]  Like, these, there are vulnerable populations and it's our job to take care of each other.
[00:40:29]  Yeah.
[00:40:29]  And like, it's, I think a really important thing to fight against this, which is something that, again, ironically, that this has been a large factor in, I think, American, I mean, I can only speak to American life for quite a long time is this sort of, this alienation, this disconnection between people and not just between old and young people, between everybody.
[00:40:48]  And it's like, you should also offer this to like basically anyone you know.
[00:40:52]  Like, you know, we're saying like, you know, I will call you or whatever.
[00:40:55]  Like, you also have to do that, right?
[00:40:59]  Like, because there's no, like, and even if like, whatever, you don't think you can or whatever, like, I don't know, maybe you're fucking, a lot of people are fucking crazy, you know?
[00:41:08]  I know a lot of crazy people.
[00:41:09]  It's fine.
[00:41:10]  It's okay to be crazy.
[00:41:12]  But it's like, you can't let, you can't use any of that shit.
[00:41:14]  Like, I'm socially awkward.
[00:41:15]  That shit's bullshit.
[00:41:17]  But like as an excuse, like this is like, this is our break moment, guys.
[00:41:21]  Exactly.
[00:41:22]  This is your like time.
[00:41:23]  And the thing is, the funny thing is, is it's not like glamorous, right?
[00:41:27]  Like it's not cool to do.
[00:41:30]  Or like, you know, it's not like, it's, yeah, it's, it's mundane.
[00:41:33]  It's banal stuff.
[00:41:34]  It's probably going to be boring a lot of the time.
[00:41:37]  But it's, you, you, you should, you have to do it.
[00:41:41]  You have no other choice.
[00:41:42]  Well, I think also you're going to find a purpose for yourself in the face of crisis.
[00:41:46]  Yeah.
[00:41:46]  And like, that's the, you know, I think that a lot of people that describe our generation, which, you know, I don't believe in generational politics, but I will say a lot of people that describe millennial generation.
[00:41:58]  I'm consumer, actually.
[00:42:00]  I know you are.
[00:42:01]  Yeah.
[00:42:01]  Yeah.
[00:42:01]  Me and him were born in 1999.
[00:42:07]  You know, a lot of people describe, you know, lazy, self-absorbed, you know, completely atomized, you know, all of that.
[00:42:16]  Good at dancing.
[00:42:18]  And, you know, I do think, you know, I think a lot of that stuff is true.
[00:42:20]  Yeah.
[00:42:21]  But this is a moment where like you get, you know, you have a chance to kind of get rid of all that baggage.
[00:42:29]  Yeah.
[00:42:30]  And I'm not sure you're going to get through it if you don't.
[00:42:34]  That's the thing is because like this is the, this is the real secret to this I was taught is that it's not really about helping other people.
[00:42:42]  Like it's the thing.
[00:42:44]  It is to an extent, but it's really like, that's how you get through it, motherfucker.
[00:42:49]  Yeah.
[00:42:49]  Like that's how you don't go crazy, you know, in despair.
[00:42:53]  Or like, even if you're not quarantined, I don't know, you know, because again, we don't know what's going to happen.
[00:42:57]  Like, no matter what happens, though, like, there will be a need for this in some way or another.
[00:43:02]  And so like, even if your life doesn't immediately start sucking ass like mine has, it's you, like, you still like, you still need to do this because you're going to feel some despair if you don't already.
[00:43:16]  If you don't already, brother, I got some bad news for you.
[00:43:20]  Yeah.
[00:43:21]  And it's like people are also, people are going to die, right?
[00:43:24]  A lot of people are.
[00:43:25]  A lot of people potentially are dying.
[00:43:27]  You're going to know someone that dies.
[00:43:29]  Yeah.
[00:43:30]  I hate saying this like for sure, but like just let's qualify it like this on the current trajectory.
[00:43:36]  Yes.
[00:43:37]  Absolutely.
[00:43:38]  Yeah.
[00:43:38]  And it's like, you know, I think we should sort of touch on the generational stuff real quick too.
[00:43:43]  Sure.
[00:43:44]  Because I've seen a lot of people talk about like, oh, you know, this is, I get it.
[00:43:49]  It's sort of this morbid humor.
[00:43:50]  I've done the same thing a million times.
[00:43:52]  But this sort of like, you know, it's going to get the boomers.
[00:43:55]  No, okay.
[00:43:56]  Yeah.
[00:43:56]  Shut the fuck up.
[00:43:57]  That means our dad, moron.
[00:43:59]  Yeah.
[00:43:59]  Also, that it's, it's unspeakably cruel.
[00:44:03]  Yeah.
[00:44:04]  I can't even.
[00:44:08]  I have a really hard, you know, I can't even put myself in a mindset where I would even think that.
[00:44:13]  It's so unspeakably cruel to even fucking think about that kind of shit.
[00:44:18]  Well, I think, so, so, so to play, to play the devil's advocate real quick, I think for a lot of people, they're like, you know, there is, there is generational disgruntlement on all sides of that, except who really gives a fuck about Gen X. Sorry.
[00:44:33]  Empire Records sucked.
[00:44:34]  I don't care.
[00:44:35]  I don't like your music either.
[00:44:37]  Whatever.
[00:44:38]  I'm not even sure how old you guys are.
[00:44:40]  But I get it because I think for me, especially, I mean, you know me pretty well.
[00:44:47]  It's like, I think, especially for a lot of people, or a certain kind of person is joking about stuff and like sort of taking stuff to the morbid sort of extremity is a way of putting the problem almost into the realm of like the farcical.
[00:45:02]  Yeah, no, I get that.
[00:45:04]  But I've seen it like in seriousness, which is like very troubling.
[00:45:08]  Like it's like very weird Malthusian.
[00:45:10]  Also, it's like weird demographic because it's always putting it in some sort of like rich white person.
[00:45:16]  Yeah.
[00:45:16]  Well, okay.
[00:45:17]  Well, oh, I'll get into that.
[00:45:18]  But it's like, yeah, number one, all these boomers that you rail against aren't just rich white people, you dumbass.
[00:45:24]  Try a class analysis, you fucking dumbass.
[00:45:27]  Number two, another thing I'll say about the boomers is they fucking stopped a nuclear bomb from being dropped on Vietnam and you haven't done fucking shit but sit on your ass.
[00:45:37]  Yeah, you joined the army to go and fight in Iraq.
[00:45:40]  They literally stopped a country from being obliterated off the earth and you want like a country, by the way.
[00:45:48]  Just shut the fuck up.
[00:45:50]  Yeah.
[00:45:50]  Hello.
[00:45:51]  Thank you.
[00:45:51]  It's Vietnam.
[00:45:52]  Yeah.
[00:45:53]  But it's like, it's, and I get it.
[00:45:55]  And like, obviously I make jokes, you know, like it's, it's kind of what I do for a living, but it's also like the only thing I'm good at naturally.
[00:46:02]  So it's like, yeah, I make a lot of jokes.
[00:46:04]  I'm funny too.
[00:46:06]  Yeah.
[00:46:06]  But, you know, but that's like, I'm funny.
[00:46:09]  I'm also good at.
[00:46:10]  It's funny because I laugh.
[00:46:11]  Okay.
[00:46:12]  Yeah.
[00:46:12]  Really good at it.
[00:46:14]  But it's, but like, it's, I get, I get that temptation, but it's like, don't let that like sneak into the realm of the real, right?
[00:46:22]  Yeah.
[00:46:23]  Like, don't let that.
[00:46:24]  No, that gets dark real fast and you get it in your brain and suddenly you think, well, first of all, it's also just not, you know, look, high-risk categories, you know, 65 and over, but also 55 and over.
[00:46:34]  But also like, that doesn't mean that other age groups are not at risk.
[00:46:39]  Yeah.
[00:46:39]  Like there have been cases of 30 year olds, of 20 year olds being, you know, not just dying, but also like having severe like organ failure, respiratory issues for the rest of their lives after this.
[00:46:52]  So this is not like, I don't know.
[00:46:56]  I just, I think like you hear someone say that, you hear a friend say that, you hear your brain going there and you got to say, nope, stamp it out because it can, it, it'll take you to a real ugly place real quick.
[00:47:06]  Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
[00:47:09]  And like that's, that's that.
[00:47:12]  On that one thing

=== Must Prepare for Evil's Amplification (05:25) ===

[00:48:01]  I read that I really liked.
[00:48:03]  I put this on twitter, but I want to share it um.
[00:48:07]  This is from Anne Boyer, who's a poet, and she was writing on her substack about this current conjuncture.
[00:48:16]  Oh, so she's around now?
[00:48:18]  Yes.
[00:48:19]  Great.
[00:48:20]  This is what she writes.
[00:48:21]  She writes, These are the same types who say the only thing to fear is fear, which of course is not true, because fear educates our care for each other.
[00:48:30]  We fear a sick person might be made sicker or that a poor person's life might be made more miserable.
[00:48:35]  And we do whatever we can to protect them because we fear a version of human life in which everyone lives only for themselves.
[00:48:42]  I am not the least bit afraid of this kind of fear, for fear is a vital and necessary part of love.
[00:48:48]  And this fear, which I love, is right now particularly justified because we have a pernicious virus that travels inside the healthy to sicken and kill the already fragile, and therefore requires that the healthy and strong deepen their moral commitments for the benefit of the sick and the weak.
[00:49:05]  We must learn to do good for the good of the stranger now.
[00:49:09]  We now have to live as daily evidence that we believe there is value in the lives of the cancer patient, the elderly person, the disabled one, the ones in unthinkable living conditions, crowded and at risk.
[00:49:21]  We also must engage in large-scale social distancing.
[00:49:25]  The way social distancing works requires faith.
[00:49:28]  We must begin to see the negative space as clearly as the positive, to know that what we don't do is also brilliant and full of love.
[00:49:37]  We must face such a strange task here to come together in spirit and keep a distance in body at the same time.
[00:49:44]  We can do it.
[00:49:45]  I am writing this because I want the good in us to break through the layers of hateful nonsense we've been drowning in.
[00:49:51]  I think we can be good, but we also must prepare for an amplification of evil's evil.
[00:49:56]  time when the invisible becomes visible is at hand
[00:50:28]  that was this has been a probably our most unusual episode except for the one where i well we can't really talk about it i think I think, you know, look, we're, this is strange times.
[00:50:39]  I feel like our podcast is changing a little bit.
[00:50:42]  Yeah.
[00:50:42]  Yeah.
[00:50:42]  We've, you know, Brace and I are going to have to, and Young Chompsy are going to figure some things out.
[00:50:47]  We are going to be corona casting live from the hot zone.
[00:50:52]  We are anticipating that we will also have to be doing some social distancing.
[00:50:58]  Yeah.
[00:50:58]  Likely be quarantined, maybe as well, if what we're hearing turns out to be true.
[00:51:03]  Yeah, so we'll see what happens, but we're going to try and do, I mean, we're not going anywhere.
[00:51:08]  No.
[00:51:09]  We're going to keep.
[00:51:10]  I'll tell you what.
[00:51:10]  We're going to keep potting.
[00:51:12]  If I get 100% organ failure, I'm going to once again borrow one of Young Chompsy's kidneys.
[00:51:17]  He has about four.
[00:51:18]  Most of them are external, but I'm probably going to try to get the one that's in him.
[00:51:23]  And shit, we're going to bring it straight to you.
[00:51:26]  I'll take it from the hospital bed, baby.
[00:51:28]  Yeah, we got a lot.
[00:51:31]  Look, we're plugged in.
[00:51:32]  We're here for you.
[00:51:33]  We here.
[00:51:34]  What was it?
[00:51:36]  We here for you?
[00:51:37]  We here.
[00:51:37]  I don't know what that is.
[00:51:38]  It was from that show, Success Shit.
[00:51:41]  Look, people watched it now that you got quarantined.
[00:51:43]  Brace doesn't like TV.
[00:51:44]  I don't like TV.
[00:51:45]  I've been watching TV.
[00:51:45]  He's a literary band.
[00:51:47]  I tell you what, I am a book.
[00:51:49]  Because you're a romantic.
[00:51:51]  First of all, I am a romantic, but new Dennis Johnson book out.
[00:51:54]  He's dead, R.I.P., also an AA guy.
[00:51:57]  But I can finally read the entire collected works of William Vollman.
[00:52:02]  Fuck, what else have I been playing on?
[00:52:03]  I'm going to read My Struggle.
[00:52:05]  Which one?
[00:52:06]  All of them.
[00:52:06]  But like, no, the Hitler one or the I have my, you know what?
[00:52:10]  I'll tell you what, I'm not going to.
[00:52:11]  I have it, and I tried to read it, and I was like, why would I read that?
[00:52:14]  I could have.
[00:52:15]  Everyone says this.
[00:52:17]  You know what?
[00:52:17]  I can finally.
[00:52:18]  You know, I got a Kindle.
[00:52:19]  You did.
[00:52:19]  Oh, you told me you did.
[00:52:20]  Yeah.
[00:52:21]  Which is like very not on brand for me because I definitely like old-timey things.
[00:52:25]  Yeah.
[00:52:26]  And I hate that.
[00:52:26]  You got a lot of books, too.
[00:52:27]  Yeah, I do.
[00:52:28]  And I hate technology, like in all forms.
[00:52:31]  Ugh.
[00:52:31]  Disgusting.
[00:52:33]  But I did get one, so now I can get whatever I want.
[00:52:36]  Young Chompsy, what are you going to do?
[00:52:38]  Play synthesizers.
[00:52:40]  Yeah.
[00:52:41]  I'll tell you what, that would make these little piggies oink.
[00:52:45]  Put out some tunes.
[00:52:47]  Yeah, I've been posting some dispatches on the TL.
[00:52:50]  You also have to do a workout video now that Liz.
[00:52:54]  Yeah.
[00:52:55]  Oh, yeah, like that.
[00:52:56]  That is literally in alignment of every single one of your interests, which is A, your physique.
[00:53:03]  B, taking photos and video of yourself.
[00:53:05]  And C, showing it to girls.
[00:53:07]  Okay, well, you're making a good pitch for it.
[00:53:09]  I'll think it over.
[00:53:10]  Okay, and you know what I'm going to do?
[00:53:12]  What?
[00:53:13]  I am going to try to help as many people as I can by killing myself.
[00:53:17]  No, don't.
[00:53:18]  No, you're not.
[00:53:19]  No, I've been working on the novel again.
[00:53:22]  I've been working on the novel again.
[00:53:24]  No, but I'm going to help deliver groceries to old people.

=== Killing Yourself to Help Others (03:05) ===

[00:53:27]  But I can't.
[00:53:28]  They're doing in San Francisco, they're doing a program that is doing that.
[00:53:34]  There's a bunch of people getting together.
[00:53:35]  It's been kind of exciting to see who are trying to do this.
[00:53:40]  I think it's going to be an official program as well.
[00:53:41]  Right, right, right.
[00:53:42]  A lot of this stuff is you're going to want to do through your city.
[00:53:44]  Exactly.
[00:53:45]  That's the thing.
[00:53:45]  It's like, I know there's a big temptation to be like, where can like, you know, don't go anarchists.
[00:53:50]  Do not mutual aid a pandemic.
[00:53:52]  I'm telling you.
[00:53:54]  Do not look to Joshua for Congress for leadership of this.
[00:53:57]  Look to Brace Belden, who is a city employee.
[00:54:01]  $10 million pension.
[00:54:02]  The state.
[00:54:03]  Exactly.
[00:54:04]  This is the kind of power we need right now.
[00:54:06]  None of this kumbaya.
[00:54:08]  Yeah.
[00:54:09]  I won't talk about anarchism because we love you guys.
[00:54:12]  Listen, come on.
[00:54:13]  Some of my best friends are anarchists.
[00:54:16]  So I can say the word.
[00:54:20]  But here's the thing.
[00:54:22]  You got to be, like, you might see, like, I've seen everybody around me, except for some reason, young Chomsky, freaking out.
[00:54:32]  And that means I've been like, holy shit.
[00:54:33]  Like, well, I want to freak out too.
[00:54:35]  You can't be the one to freak out.
[00:54:38]  Like, you got to be the person that's like there for other people.
[00:54:41]  Yes.
[00:54:42]  That's, yes.
[00:54:43]  This is not about you anymore.
[00:54:44]  Yeah.
[00:54:45]  No.
[00:54:45]  It's not.
[00:54:46]  What did you say to me when I was having, and I put it on Trader?
[00:54:48]  I don't know if you saw.
[00:54:49]  No.
[00:54:49]  But it was really, it was really sweet.
[00:54:51]  You said the goal of life is to not do or care just about whatever it is you want.
[00:54:58]  Yeah.
[00:54:58]  Only what you want at any given time.
[00:55:01]  It's actually the point is to resist that.
[00:55:03]  Exactly.
[00:55:04]  Yeah.
[00:55:06]  And I think that's like, that's like sort of my weird, I have like a very bizarre internal, like extremely strange connection of like my moral sort of like qualifications and all, I don't know.
[00:55:22]  I have a weird brain.
[00:55:23]  But but I think sort of denial of despair, but like denial of these things that are easy impulses that like that that you fall into.
[00:55:33]  Easy gratification.
[00:55:34]  Denial of temptation, denial of despair, denial of all these things.
[00:55:37]  Like that is what makes, to me, you know, speaking for myself, like that is what, that is the metric I use to judge whether I'm being a man or not.
[00:55:45]  And, you know, you can, of course, extrapolate that to whatever.
[00:55:48]  It's not really a gendered.
[00:55:49]  We don't mean that in a gendered way.
[00:55:50]  I'm saying just to me.
[00:55:51]  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[00:55:52]  For in my own sort of like Byzantine system of checks and balances, that's what it means to me.
[00:56:00]  But again, like, yeah, you can extrapolate to anybody.
[00:56:03]  But yeah.
[00:56:04]  On that note, in the words of psychonaut Terrence McKenna, take it easy, but take it.
[00:56:12]  Yeah, we're going to, we'll be back soon.
[00:56:15]  Yeah.
[00:56:16]  Yeah.
[00:56:16]  We got, you know, we'll, we'll, you know, a lot of people are going to be wanting a lot of podcasts.
[00:56:21]  And if you DM Liz Horny, I'm answering.
[00:56:26]  Okay, on that note, I'm Liz.
[00:56:28]  I'm Brace, joined, of course, by producer Young Chomsky.
[00:56:31]  And we're going to see you real soon.