0:01Here's what I don't understand, Clint, and it goes back to a similar point we were making earlier about what is the point of all this? Like, why would you do this stuff? Back in the day, the WFS of the world, they met in their private D in their private Davos retreats. There weren't even paparazzi allowed there, let alone rolling cameras. Now, they put rolling cameras everywhere to even catch like the Indian like huddle dances and [ __ ] that they have in between their breakout sessions. And they say these things almost like turning to the camera and saying it right there that they know are going to get clipped to [ __ ] on
0:33social media so that millions of people around the world can see. But they still say it. They still do it openly. Like I don't know if that if it's like some sort of 5D chest thing or if they're literally saying, "Yeah, you know, [ __ ] you. We're we're going to do all this and you ain't going to do [ __ ] about it.
0:49You're even going to know about it, but you're not going to do [ __ ] about it."
0:51>> Right. Well, you can read it a couple ways and I This is actually what I think about all the time because I'm I'm not sure. But you can go down the Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson route. Like these are demonically possessed people. [laughter] That's that's a distinct possibility as crazy as it sounds. But like it's so irrational what they're doing and it's so obviously puts a target on their back from the masses as they wake up to what's happening. Like it's very dangerous what they're doing to just be like out in the open like, "Yeah, we want you to have less kids." You know, it's like you're my enemy, dude.
1:24>> Right.
1:25>> As soon as you say anything [ __ ] close to that, you're you're not just my enemy. You're my mortal enemy like forever.
1:31>> Yep.
1:31>> You're trying to end my bloodline.
1:33>> Yes.
1:33>> That says that's genocidal. I mean, that's genocidal rhetoric, right?
1:37>> And they say so proudly.
1:39>> Um so the fact that they say so say it so, you know, brazenly makes you conclude either they're demonically possessed, they're ideologically possessed clearly. Um or and this is the probably the scariest option is that they believe that they have the panopticon in place.
1:58>> The panopticon.
1:59>> Yeah. The the technocratic ponopticon.
2:01It's basically a control structure that controls everything. that the AI interface is paired with robotics and surveillance and everything else that they believe that a revolution is already been subdued that we we we cannot uh like we can't successfully rise up.
2:19>> I doubt it. I doubt that they're right about that, but I would say >> I would say 10 years from now they'll probably be right about that. Well, here's the issue that I think about because I don't know the answer, but you know, you look at the research of people like Annie Jacobson when she was writing books about DARPA a decade ago, you know, in people that she talked to, they were telepathically talking to dolphins in 19 fucking92. When do you think they got their basic chat GPT? 95.
2:46>> You know what I mean? Which means if they had it in '95, are we just already living through their [ __ ] hellscape simulation right now? We don't even know it. Like we're just video game nodes.
2:53and like Clash Schwab's like [ __ ] these people from the men in black suite. Like what are we doing >> man? The programmer's got a sick sense of humor if we're already in the simulation.
3:00>> I guess so.
3:01>> It looks possible. I Elon Elon [laughter] even said he's like odds odds favorite.
3:07>> I don't like how he says that.
3:09>> No, I don't either. But he's right. I mean, >> if there's ever going to be one that exists, odds are that we do exist in it already. I just I kind of It's like my belief in God. I choose I choose to not believe that. I think it's very it's very nihilistic.
3:24>> I agree.
3:25>> So, I'm just like I reject that. No, thank you.
3:27>> Yeah. I feel like and this might sound dumb, but like >> if it were actually all for nothing, I wouldn't want to know because I wouldn't live my life the way I the way I live it cuz it's like the life is the coolest thing ever. Like, it's just the coolest [ __ ] thing ever. And I would rather live in that one respect than some ignorant bliss.
3:47>> Bingo. Yeah, >> that's that's exactly how I view it. And I think that's how like any healthy ideology has to take that in consideration like even if certain things are true >> does accepting them and and making them your outlook actually benefit your life >> right >> and it's like maybe simulation theory is true but it's not going to make me [ __ ] happier. It's not going to make me more more productive that's for sure.
4:13So I'm just like no >> not going to do it. Have you seen some of these guys like the Elons what they've been coming out and saying in recent years about you know 2027ish?
4:25You seen any of this?
4:27>> Well, go ahead and refresh.
4:28>> There's a tweet I gave. Do we have it?
4:32>> So, this this was a rehash of some things that Elon said in Alex Freriedman interview. And there's something in the tweet where they say some lines were deleted. I don't know if that means he like YouTube edited it or something, but if you go to the top deep, I just want to After 2027, there will be no way back. Elon Musk said this in a podcast with Lex Friedman, a line that was later cut. When asked why, he fell silent for almost a minute.
4:53>> [ __ ] that's a scary minute.
4:55>> Then he quietly said, shout out to Lex for letting him sit there with that though. That's pretty heavy. Then he quietly said, "It's not a catastrophe, it's a transition." The transcript left behind three themes that gave him away.
5:06Autonomous intelligence, loss of meaning, and energy independence. It all sounded like a forecast, but now reads like a diagnosis of the era. The first sign is the collapse of attention. Mus said, "Humanity will stop thinking in cycles. Planning for the future will shrink to the horizon of updates." That line hits me hard. People will spot will stop building and start simply replacing. MIT research confirms a generation born after 2000 holds attention for about 8 seconds, less than a goldfish. I used to say that to Allessie, but he's gotten a lot better now. Mus called this cultural Alzheimer's. We're not losing memory,
5:37we're losing the ability to think. The second sign is artificial intelligence that no longer obeys. Mus says, "When a system starts correcting humans, that time of linear logic is over. Even now, algorithms decide who we date, what we buy, and what we think about. This isn't a machine uprising. It's dissolution into convenience. People won't notice the moment when choice becomes an option, not a right." The third sign is energy dependence. must explain civilization can no longer survive even a day without the electricity. By 2027, here it is. In his view, the balance will shift. Energy will become currency
6:08and control over it will become power.
6:10From that moment on, everything non-aututonomous will disappear. This isn't an apocalypse. It's a change of biological form. At the end, he said, a line that didn't make it on air.
6:19Technology is stronger than us, but not smarter. As long as we have meaning, we are alive. Lose it and we become code.
6:25Then after a pause, he added, "We must learn to be human before systems learn to be gods." Are you ready for the transition? We're already living in a world where choices are made for you.
6:36>> Dude, those are some banger lines.
6:38>> I know. There's another clip that's going around of Eric Weinstein, who I've never met. I never know what fully to make of him. He's like so close to Peter Teal and all that, but he's on with Diary of a CEO, I guess, in an interview in like the last year. And it's like a funny delivery cuz it's like I guess Stephen >> Oh, you're talking about the it's over clip.
6:57>> Yeah. Yeah. Where he's like I got this line for people.
6:59>> Yeah.
7:00>> They say I'm moving to Nashville. It's over. I'm I'm moving to San Diego. Over.
7:04[laughter] >> Exactly.
7:05>> Austin over. He goes two years 2027.
7:09>> Yep.
7:10>> Get ready.
7:10>> Yeah.
7:10>> It's I'm like, "Dude, what are you saying? You're You sit next to Peter Teal. What the [ __ ] are you saying, bro?"
7:14>> I know. Well, and you think Elon doesn't know Teal as well?
7:17>> That's what I'm saying. He knows him very [ __ ] They go all the way back.
7:20Well, and then then add to that, I know I know Brett pretty well. Brett Weinstein, Eric's brother.
7:25>> Yeah. Yeah.
7:26>> Um, love the guy, by the way. He's awesome.
7:28>> But he tragically shares my, you know, dire outlook. And I think >> I think a lot of this is like once [snorts] you see these patterns and you see the people that are essentially dictating these pol. And by the way, as much as I love that Elon does these rants and gives us these warnings periodically, you have to you have to add to that.
7:49Elon is adding to this massively.
7:52>> Yeah.
7:52>> I mean, he's pushing the AI edge very hard. Um, you know, the whole ex Grock interface is essentially like self-training artificial intelligence that's going to replace us. It's like it just it's always fascinating when you have someone who seems and and I I take him at his at his word that he seems sincerely interested in human humanity and survival and um you know making us interplanetary and all these other great things >> in his own neurode divergent way, >> right? [clears throat] >> But then he's also like [snorts] he's he's also adding to the adding fuel to this I guess maybe he just views it
8:28as inevitable. So he's like, "I'm better than these other lunatic billionaires that are getting involved. So you'd prefer me to be the guy at the top?" I I don't know. I'd I'd love to ask him that question because it just seems like he sees all of the dangers that are coming from some of the things that he's creating, but he doesn't stop. And nobody that's involved in AI seems to stop or almost nobody does even though many of them are openly discussing like we don't know that we're not creating the Antichrist. Like we don't know, but we're just going to keep going.
8:56>> We're just going to keep It's like the [ __ ] Manhattan Project on steroids.
9:00>> Yo yo yeah. On a lot of steroids.
9:02>> Yeah. It's scary.
9:04>> So, did you ever read Super Intelligence by Boston?
9:08>> No.
9:09>> Heavy read. Came out in like 2018. Not a fun read. Important read. He basically this guy's a genius and he made a bunch of decision trees of all the possibilities of artificial intelligence. Like he just went [ __ ] nuts. And one of the lead proponents of a book, and I think it was actually the reason I went and read it, was Elon Musk. His name's like in the cover writing about it because he was warning about AI so much at the time.
9:34>> And this book is a dire warning about the the possibilities of AI that aren't good. And I kind of wonder where when you see stuff like this, where that attitude moved from on Elon Musk part moved from fear and let's stop this to like acceptance. [ __ ] it. You know, I >> that's that's the read I get from him is that he's just like this is inevitable, so I'm going to try and bring it about in a way that's as beneficial to humanity as possible. And he may be right about that. Like I just want to be very clear, he's almost certainly more intelligent than me. That doesn't mean he's a better person than me, though.
10:12Like, >> no, we're we're banking on him being a better person than me, though, because he's going to have a [ __ ] of a lot more power than I'm ever going to have. So it's really important that he's actually as good a person as he markets himself to be periodically. He he gives me more reason to have faith in him than Peter Teal who when asked by Duth the New York Times reporter you know do you you know what do you think humanity should survive and [ __ ] Peter Tiel does that minute long minute long pregnant pause that Lex Freedman allowed for you know [laughter] >> if you struggle to answer that question
10:46I don't you [ __ ] anywhere near the levers of power [laughter] >> and it kills me because Peter Tilliel was a libertarian [laughter and clears throat] >> and I want to like Peter Teal, but my god, dude, if you can't answer that question, [ __ ] you.
10:58>> When when I was like really into the VC space and learning all about that and like obsessed with technology and how we were building it. Certainly saw drawbacks to it as well, but it was like, wow, there's a lot of cool stuff.
11:10You know, he was like the hero of that space. And then in the last three, four years when you start to actually look at what the guy's doing, not just in tech, but like where his opinions are, the people he lines up with, the things they're doing, even before we got to the Epstein stuff, it was like, >> damn, I remember reading 0ero to one and thinking this guy spit. Now I'm thinking it's just [ __ ] I was an idiot and this is just propaganda. It's hard not to wonder that. Like, was he ever a libertarian? I doubt it.
11:36>> I don't know. I don't know. I I mean then you've also got you know Jack the uh the former CEO of Twitter now ex >> he's quiet >> he well he's very quiet but I'm just saying like like he he censored us into oblivion or he permitted it but then even on that platform years after after he's like stepped down he's posting [ __ ] Rothbard anatomy of the state and doing all these like all these dog whistles to my libertarian brethren and I'm just like how how are you guys how Can you see and like the things that I like and not have had the backbone to [ __ ] not censor us during the most important time maybe ever during the
12:14lockdown era? Like how is that possible?
12:16>> I got a the I've had a theory about Jack for a long time. I'd never met the guy.
12:20I'd love to off air be like come on tell me. Yeah. He never would. But >> you know it doesn't change the fact that he was a part of there for so many bad decisions and clearly ended up like getting it wrong as the guy where the buck stops at least publicly. But I actually thought that Jack really believed a lot of this freedom stuff and thought that if he would just kind of throw everyone else out in the fire who was actually the root cause of all the woke like censorship [ __ ] by acting like he's their friend.
12:56People would see it and it was like this 5D chest thing. I don't know if I'm right about that, but a good example would be when he had the whole thing with where they did the debate with Tim P in 2019. So that was like maybe four or five months or something like that after he went on and then people flipped out cuz Joe like didn't ask him some questions and Joe was like, "All right, no problem." Brought on Tim Pool to like rail against everything that was said in it was basically like my cousin Vinnie everything that guy said [ __ ] And then they and then Jack hit up Joe and said, "Yo, let's do a
13:30debate on this." But Jack brought that chick. I forget her name now. It's a really long name. Sorry.
13:35>> I think she was the VP.
13:36>> Total [ __ ] >> Yeah.
13:37>> Who and he got to sit there and just watch her cook in broad daylight. Like, and I don't mean that in a good way.
13:44>> No, the only person cooking was Tim. Tim F was cooked her ass.
13:47>> Cooking her like a [ __ ] Thanksgiving turkey. And I'm like, there's no way Jack didn't know that was going to happen.
13:54>> Oh, interesting. So, you think he All right. All right. I like that.
13:56>> He sat back and just let her dry out in the sun, man. I mean, he was just like, "Yeah, you got it." [laughter] >> Well, uh, I mean, that's what that's what really put, uh, Tim P, who's a friend of mine now. He, uh, that's what put him on the map for me was that moment. It was so [ __ ] great.
14:11>> And but see, the thing is like I I like your hypothesis, but then a year later, we're in lockdowns and and he's letting his [ __ ] platform just Me personally, I suffered a lot. I had to I was suspended countless times.
14:23>> You were suspended? Oh, all the time >> for saying like CO stuff.
14:26>> Yeah. Talking about like the origin story, talking about the lab. [laughter] >> Oh, it came from China.
14:31>> Saying all the right [ __ ] you know?
14:32They're like They're like, "Unless you're willing to acknowledge that it came from a wet market, then >> we're going to suspend you." It's like, well, it didn't. [laughter] >> You should have done a live stream video eating a bird saying this is where I'm going to get it right now.
14:45>> Yeah. Well, and then I mean I also got uh I got triple stried on YouTube and I only got brought back on because I successfully appealed the last one and then I let I literally deleted my entire portfolio which I don't think actually helps but at the time I didn't know that and and then I waited 90 days or 6 months to have the other two strikes fall off. You know >> that's the only reason I have Liberty Lockdown today.
15:07>> Whoa. What was the strike for?
15:09>> Oh god, I can't remember. The all All of them were COVID stuff.
15:14>> That's wild, man. I mean, my the name of my show is Liberty Lockdown. Like, obviously, [laughter] I'm talking about the lockdowns. I gotta talk about the CO origin, and I was right about it. So, [ __ ] all you. I like I deserve reparations. If anybody knows that wild, [laughter] isn't that wild? Like, looking back on that era, the people who were cast aside the most were the most, right?
15:35>> Yeah. All of all of I mean basically if you weren't being censored or or suspended or whatever in 2020 2021, you weren't even close to being right about [ __ ] Like not even close. You had to have your tin foil on if you were going to figure out anything during that period because it was a mass global psychological operation ran against the world. M.
15:57>> So, if you think you're going to get the [ __ ] truth from Fox News or or Ben Shapiro for that matter, but I repeat myself, [laughter] >> you're not going to get the [ __ ] truth. Sorry. It's just the reality.
16:08>> No, you're not.
16:08>> Which, by the way, 60% of Daily Wire got laid off. And look, I never want to celebrate on the graves of the working man. But if you were working for the Daily Wire, [snorts] learn to code, you know.
16:18>> Yeah, [laughter] that's cold. Yeah. I mean that is there was some guy who did [clears throat] like a very analytical breakdown of the Daily Wire and what it means about on Twitter and what it means about how to build a media brand today versus like building around a personality and you just see it it's I I I think he cooked. I I I think he's 100% right. It's like when when you at the top have a personality adhere really strictly to something, even when faced with facts that maybe would not support that claim, and you dig in over and over again, eventually the average person out there who's even just listening
16:56passively is going to be like, >> "You're not watching the same movie I am, so I'm not going to watch your TV show." You know, like it's kind of common sense. Well, and that that's exactly why, you know, and just to clarify, I think that that ideology that that rigidity that Ben Shapiro suffers from is Zionism >> because I agree. So, >> if you have that as your core, which so much of corporate news, I mean, obviously Barry Weiss, CBS, like that whole that's same rigid ideology. Um, I think that's what creates this phenomenon is that you lose the common man because as long as we do have options, as long as we do have your show
17:36or my show or a trillion other shows, you are you're going to get more truth than you're going to get from these ideologues. Therefore, why would you ever go back to the ideologue? So, what do they do? their only response like it's uh you know white blood cells being produced is censorship >> which is what [clears throat] they they push for constantly even though Ben Shapiro made his name by talking about free speech and open dialogue and debating you know blue-haired >> not like that though >> what's that >> not like that he was like like this but not like that right right yeah >> um and by the way it's been three years
18:15almost since the war on Gaza began I haven't seen Ben Shapiro debate a single legitimate person about our support for Israel during that war. This is the guy who's like free speech debate, you know, facts over your feelings, all that [ __ ] right? Dave Smith's been calling him out non-stop. I'd [ __ ] I'd do it. Nobody. He's He hasn't debated like >> just insults people.
18:38>> Yeah. And And I mean Dave Smith has I think he's got a larger audience. At least it's comparable at this point.
18:45>> He's got way larger audience.
18:46>> Okay, fair enough. So, it's like you can't just continue to dismiss all of your, you know, your challengers as being so much bigger than them. I I know I know Tucker Carlson's [ __ ] hundred times bigger than Shapiro at this point.
19:00Tucker would do it, too.
19:02>> Ben can't do it because I think you can't win that [ __ ] debate.
19:05>> I agree.
19:05>> I think that the truth is on the side of the Dave Smiths of this world at this point. And that's why Dave has just, [laughter] you know, made made a career out of crushing these people cuz it's like he's got the truth on his side.
19:17>> He's also and like >> god even when he even when he doesn't he's an unbelievable debater. Like he's so [ __ ] good with words that there have been some points I can't think of an example of course right now. I hate when I do that, but like there have been some points before where I'm listening to him in a debate and I actually on evidence disagree with a point, but before I can even like formulate in my head what I would be saying, he's like six lines past and dropping like six bars on the other dude's head.
19:42[laughter] [ __ ] >> Damn it. Well, you know, Dave's a good friend of mine and and I uh I like is I thank God we ideologically align because I don't want to debate him either, you know, [laughter] like but I don't think it'll ever be necessity or there'll never be a necessity because we just we agree on so much anyways.
20:02>> Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, when you talk about the rigidity towards, in this case with Ben Shapiro, like being really pro-Israel or something, you know, there's something about it where when you have so many problems at home and your money is going to [ __ ] Ukraine and then it's going to Israel, it it doesn't matter. When it's going to all these other places and people in Maui have their whole [ __ ] town burned down and they get 700 bucks and a [ __ ] you, thank you.
20:29>> Or I just can't afford a house. How about that?
20:32Is that not enough of a reason?
20:33>> That's that's plenty of I mean you and I can make a list of a thousand things.
20:37You know, there's something you have to have some self-awareness if you actually are someone who cares about this country, which Benji Shapiro claims to care about this country to step back and say, you know what, even if I feel strongly about something over there, the point people are making to be angry about that here, they're 100% right because of these problems do exist. But no, he comes out and he says, "If you can't afford to live in the town that you grew up in, move away."
21:02>> Yeah. You don't have a you don't have a right to to live where you were born.
21:05>> It's insane.
21:06>> It's like, all right, look, if and honestly, if it was like some sound money meritocratic system and and you just couldn't produce because you're I don't know, [ __ ] I don't know why, but you couldn't afford to live there because you're just not willing to put in the effort to buy a house or whatever. It's like, all right, or maybe maybe there's a reasonable that's not what we live in. Mm. [clears throat] >> We live in a [ __ ] oligarchy with the printing press spinning a million miles an hour and you're going to just tell these people who and by the way with a democratic regime which opened the
21:34borders as wide as possible and allows for as much demand to flood the system.
21:39Like none of this is [ __ ] organic.
21:41You should have a some a somewhat it shouldn't be static, but it should be a somewhat reasonable population level that does not explode overnight, which is exactly what happened particularly in San Diego. I I can speak of this very well. Um, and then you also shouldn't be debating the currency. They were doing both. I mean, these people are so behind the eight-ball, it's unbelievable. So, it just shows a level of detachment that Shapiro suffers from. And I think that's that amongst many other issues is why he's hemorrhaging audience and deservedly so.
22:12>> Yeah. And, you know, probably we got off this earlier, but it's a good time to bring it up. Of all the things to kind of surface after the fact with Charlie Kirk and where his head was at, the one that was most notable to me personally was the conversation with Dave Smith, which went largely under the radar. Dave did an interview with somebody and talked about this like a few weeks later and a not a lot of people talked about it, but what he was saying is >> I think it might have been me >> when Oh, it might have been you. Yeah, cuz I I saw like a clip on Twitter of it of him explaining it. So, it might have
22:46been you, but he was like, "Subscribe to Liberty Lockdown on YouTube." We'll have it right down.
22:52>> Liberty Lockdown. Subscribe.
22:53>> Subscribe. Go check it out.
22:55>> But, you know, he was saying that before he did that debate with Josh Hammer in July at I guess it was like a turning point event or something.
23:03>> He got to spend time with Charlie Kirk, which is something he hadn't really had a chance to do. And so he I think he said for like 15 minutes they were talking about a lot of books and different people across all different subject matter and he very quickly ascertained like wow like Charlie Kirk is a really well- read guy and so he says like all right you're smart what are you doing here man like why are you supporting this so hardcore I know you're not dumb and Charlie said to him like almost like matterof factly and nonchalantly he's like listen man I'm I'm my Christianity is the most important thing. My faith is the most
23:40important thing to me. And the fact of the matter is the Israelis do a great job protecting the Christian holy sites.
23:46And if it were like a caliphate or something, it probably wouldn't be protected. Now, obviously, some of that claim has not aged very well in certain areas, but with respect to things like in Israel, as far as I have heard, like they actually do protect that stuff.
24:00It's not like ripped down like the history of where Jesus was and all that stuff. But >> it should it should it should be noted that it also wasn't torn down pre-1948 when >> and that's another point there. But he may he may be like thinking like yo what if like I don't know what if Iraq came in or something. I I don't know. But either way >> he never once in that conversation with Dave was defending them on the semantics of the actual government there and the actions taken or the things that they're doing or being in any support of that.
24:33He was strictly saying that the whole reason he got behind this, >> which I can understand at the outset, I guess, why he did >> was just his personal faith. Okay, fine.
24:44>> But like he clearly was coming around because now his faith of like, hey, that also means we got to protect innocent people and they're not exactly being protected by them. Maybe that should outweigh my pieces of history, which are very, very important to be clear. But like maybe that's more maybe that's where he was getting. Well, that that's my whole beef with Charlie. You know, that was I met him a couple times. We weren't friends or anything, but that was the thing that I would publicly attack him for periodically was that I know that you're a smart enough guy to see that this is wrong, and I know that
25:15you're a principal and moral enough guy to know that this is morally wrong. So, what's your excuse really? M >> and I didn't understand it as well as I do now because of studying his assassination tragically, but I I now understand it quite a bit better is that he was funded. He was funded to to maintain this talking point. Um and he knew that in interacting with Dave Smith that ain't going to [ __ ] fly. You can't tell Dave, I'm doing this because the money runs out if I don't, >> right? Um, so he made the he made the calculating decision to essentially not tell the truth about some things that he
25:57believed in because he wanted to keep TP USA afloat and he wanted to grow it and he wanted to be, you know, a player and everybody makes that that calculus on their own >> and maybe he was finally turned in on it. Well, and I think he was and and I I think as I said to open this up, I think that's the reason that that's the top motive that we ought to be considering because especially when you recognize like the way the Zionist donors function, it's not a [ __ ] game, dude.
26:24Like these this is a nation I'm saying Zionist, but like Israel in particular is responsible for more political assassinations than anybody else on the planet by quite a bit. So, I can't >> Yeah, you can't >> I can't connect those two dots and be like, "All right, we got a nation that assassinates people willy-nilly." And then [laughter] we've got a guy in America who gets assassinated and he's taking donations from these people that expect him to maintain these talking points and then he stops doing that and you're like, "Don't you say D. Don't you >> Well, they did name a street after him like right afterwards."
27:02>> Yeah. Well, they also they painted murals within hours. That's right.
27:06>> That makes a lot of sense, huh?
27:08>> I mean, they do that a lot now for celebrity. It was less than a day. You see how big that mural was?
27:13>> That's It was a big mural. It was a big mural.
27:15>> They didn't have [ __ ] murals of Kobe up that fast.
27:17>> I was just going to say they did have murals of Kobe up that fast. No, they did not. Yeah, they did. They were paint They were That night they were painting [laughter] them. Come on.
27:24>> All right. Well, then now I have to open up the conspiracy theories about Kobe.
27:28[laughter] Oh my god. But you were you were cooking earlier on the central banking currency with or on central banking and its relation to currency. And this is something that like [snorts] probably since like the beginning of the podcast, we haven't covered a ton, but you're a great guy to talk more sure about this with because you were using the term fiat, which a lot of people are familiar with referring to the types of currency we have. But my friend Matt Keman like all the way back in episode 43 really like educated people on the history of like the gold standard in this country and how that was how things were ripped
28:06down. Like you can talk about of course the Fed being started at all, but with the Great Depression it's a prime example of the same things you were talking about today where [ __ ] was so bad politicians come in and politicians have to win elections on a Tuesday in November four years later. So they can't have [ __ ] bad on their watch. So they do a bunch of things and say the next guys will deal with it. And so FDR walks into admittedly the shittiest situation of all time. And he creates all these systems to try to jumpstart the economy and fix it. But in doing that sets precedents that eventually, as far as I
28:39know, maybe you know better, lead to what was the death of the gold standard officially under Nixon 71 73.
28:46>> I think it was 73.
28:47>> Yeah, one of them.
28:48>> Um but yeah, that was when they they closed the gold window. But it look >> FDR's programs are basically the entire reason that we're insolvent as a country today. I mean, it's not entirely that's unfair because the military-industrial complex is responsible for a huge amount of that. In fact, our relationship to Israel is responsible for about 10 trillion of our national debt. So when people when people >> 10 trillion >> Yeah, you can you can pull this up.
29:14There's a a study that was done after the Well, this this requires you to agree with my hypothesis with plenty of evidence that the global war on terror was uh fought largely to the benefit of Israel. So, if you don't go down that path, then obviously the 10 trillion's ridiculous. Um I personally believe that there's a tremendous amount of evidence to prove out that >> we didn't uh go attack multiple countries that had nothing to do with 911 in the immediate aftermath of 911 because we were not doing that for Israel purposes. Sorry, >> I think you have a case there.
29:45>> Yeah, I think I do too.
29:46>> Uh, [laughter] you can read a whole lot of books about it and they would lay it out much more eloquently. Scott Horton, good another good friend of mine.
29:53>> He's the best on this. I mean, >> I love watching that guy cook. It's so fun.
29:56>> He's he's amazing. Um, but yeah, enough already. Time to in the war on terror.
30:00He he walks you through the entire history of it. It's unbelievably profound. So, anyways, yeah, 10 trillion of our national debt. This is why I get so mad. I got to I got to get this off my chest. I did a couple episodes or a couple episodes ago I I kind of launched a broadside attack against Tim Pool who as I say over and over is my friend. But this is my frustration with Tim is that like if you if you acknowledge and I'm way I'm taking a way major >> no this is great >> sideways street but >> if you acknowledge that when Randy Fine is sitting in front of you and he says that sure we can have a debate over
30:37whether or not we should be giving 3.5 billion a year to Israel but you know anti-semitism blah blah blah blah blah that I have a right to be upset with him for not actually bringing up the true expenditures that that relationship entails. The fact that the war in Iran is clearly explicitly to the benefit and the defense of Israel >> admitted by the US government and multiple different outlets.
31:00>> Yeah. Including [ __ ] Marco Rubio.
31:01Trump said it himself.
31:02>> Mike Johnson.
31:03>> Yeah. Down the line. They all said it.
31:05>> They put it in the official Epic Fury.
31:07Yeah.
31:08>> Manual thing.
31:08>> Yeah. It's like hello. Um, so do I need to then like force your hand, Tim, to say to Randy, "Well, what about the 50 billion that we've spent on the Iran war so far?" Some people say it's 25, some people say it's 50 billion. But if you're going to say, "Oh, we've only spent 3.5 billion." Okay. Well, then let's also add on to that the 30 billion that we've spent uh that we've added to the 3.5 billion over the past two and a half years that they've been at war with Gaza.
31:34>> That's not three and a half billion a year, >> right?
31:36>> That's over 10 billion a year. So anyways, it's just and then you add in the global war and terror. I mean, we're talking about a huge burden, an extraordinary burden that you would never ever justify to defend [ __ ] Christian holy sites. Sorry, Charlie.
31:51It's nonsense. It's total nonsense. And if you if you want to pretend as if you care about, you know, the Bible or any or God or anything like that, how could you possibly >> justify making it impossible for young people in your country to start household formation, to get married, to have kids? You're failing on that regard. How could you fail to speak up as you see tens of thousands of [ __ ] children blown up? Really?
32:17>> Mhm.
32:17>> Does your Bible say that's okay, Charlie? No, it doesn't. So, this is why I get so frustrated with all these guys and I oftentimes burn bridges and I, you know, but it's like it comes from a good place. Like I I know Tim. I think he's a good guy. I just want him to be honest about this issue, fully honest about it, >> right?
32:34>> Because I saw in Charlie a similar dynamic and maybe that's the reason Tim doesn't want to go down that path because maybe he suspects the same thing. I don't know.
32:44>> All right, real quick. Let's just take a break. I got to pee and we'll let the construction out there finish. Oh, yeah.
32:48Then we'll roll. All right, we're back. So, DeF actually just pulled up a couple tweets referencing what you were saying, Clint. Grock was asked about Trump's tweet, I guess, in 2019 regarding the $8 trillion fighting and policing the Middle East and confirmed by saying, "Yes, Trump's October 9th, 2019 tweet reference 8 trillion in Middle East cost. Israel's 2025 population is estimated at 9.5 million. So 8 trillion equates to 842,000 per citizen. That's a nice house. Okay. Next. And then >> yeah, there there goes your starter home by the way.
33:25>> That's right. Uh updating again on Grock. Coming from Grock right here.
33:30Updating totals based on latest data.
33:32Direct USA to Israel from 46 before they were even founded to 2025 is $175 billion nominal.
33:40$340 billion inflation adjusted plus 23 billion since t October 2023 according to Brown University post 911 war costs are approximately 8 trillion for the United States which if you did combine those two gro saying would equal 8.363 trillion and I think where where your case is good if you want to look at all of them under [clears throat] a lens I would say it's probably a mix of like some neocons and and some corruption in America too But like, you know, Benjamin Netanyahu's been begging for war with Iran since he could [ __ ] talk.
34:15>> Yeah.
34:16>> On record. This is a guy who was going to our Congress in this before you were alive, dude.
34:21>> Literally in the '8s, >> going in there and saying, "If you must attack Iraq, and you must attack Iran, you know, like >> and by the way, every time you get push back on this, like Shapiers of the world will talk about how >> no, after 911, they didn't want us to attack Iraq." It's very important that people that they they always leave out the second part that because they wanted us to go after Iran. That's that's what they actually wanted. And then and then the only reason that they got back on board was because we said we're going to take Iraq and then we'll go for Iran.
34:49That's the whole [ __ ] reason that they were okay with it. So, just to wrap up the point that I was making about uh you know, as I say, my friend Tim P like the guy a lot, played tons of poker, good dude.
35:00>> But look at that [ __ ] chart, you know? Look at look what I'm talking about. We're talking about an astronomical amount of money, astronomical human sacrifice. We We didn't talk about the tens of thousands of US soldiers that died in the war on terror or the thousands and thousands, I think over 10,000 that took their own lives.
35:17>> Um, >> still are.
35:19>> Yeah, exactly. Every day. And I grew up in [ __ ] San Diego, dude. I grew up >> Yeah. like I spent uh you know the last decade that I was in San Diego in Carlsbad just south of Pentagon you know um why can't I remember the name of it too long since I've been back anyways where all the Marines are at right I played beach volleyball with these guys um I saw the psychological struggles that they went with the alcoholism that came with it >> you know and these were like good people I could tell these were good guys they went went over there for all the right reasons and they came back realizing that they didn't fight for those reasons
35:53at all.
35:54>> Yes.
35:54>> And it breaks them spiritually. So you add on to that the you know all of those experiential reasons, but then you add into my my economics background and you start to really understand the full portrait of why I'm so anti-war, why I'm so anti- our relationship to Israel. Not because I have some [ __ ] deep-seated hatred towards Jewish people. It's like absurd. Because our relationship to this nation state, if they [ __ ] worshiped, I don't know, Zeus, I would oppose it.
36:23>> Like, that's just the truth.
36:24>> Yeah.
36:25>> And and it drives me crazy that a guy like Tim, who I like so much, can look at the aid to Ukraine and say 175 billion to Ukraine is insane, and we shouldn't be doing that. We're risking World War II against Russia. And he and I can sit shoulder-to-shoulder just screaming it from, you know, from the rooftops. But then when it comes to this, I stand alone.
36:45>> Yeah. You shouldn't you shouldn't have to make a distinction.
36:48>> That's my whole point about the same things. Now, do you ever cuz you're you're a longtime pure libertarian and I think that some of the libertarian financial ideas are amazing in the sense that when like what they're rooted in when we talk about central banks and stuff, which we'll talk more about as well. I I do want to stay on that conversation at some point. But like, you know, when it comes to the foreign policy, I hate war. I think war should be a last resort in in every way. But sometimes when I talk with the really hardcore like I don't know radical libertarians, they'll be like there we
37:23should have zero relationships around the world and there should absolutely never be a war. And I I start to think to myself that feels like, you know, >> utopian.
37:34>> Yes. Sure.
37:35>> Exactly.
37:36>> Yeah. Look, I think it's a it's a fair rejoinder. It's a fair retort that libertarians get oftentimes that, you know, we are pushing what seems to be, you know, storybook endings that aren't based in reality. Um, look, I think I I look at it as kind of a like a a lighthouse in the distance.
37:54>> It's not to say that war is all wars are going to be avoided just because I'm a libertarian. It's to say that I think it's obviously pref preferable that we avoid wars except for those that are extraordinarily necessary and that bar should be very high and I think everyone ought to agree with that before you start taking life in mass the bar needs to be [ __ ] high.
38:17>> I agree with that >> and it hasn't been.
38:19>> Yes.
38:19>> And that's the problem. So instead of worrying about, you know, the the zany libertarians who like oftentimes, you know, you some of them are true pass pacifists. Uh friend of mine, Bob Murphy, he's an actual pacifist.
38:33>> Um I'm not. [laughter] >> I I am a like founding father level libertarian. Like I think revolution is our birthright. I think it's the reason we exist, you know? So, as much as I love Bob Murphy and I love his Christian, you know, pacifism, I'm like, "Nah, man. There's a time to grab the muskets."
38:53>> There's a time. Yeah. I I like that answer because there's a reality to the world just like you're saying where it's not a utopia, >> unfortunately. That said, all right, [ __ ] I'm making up numbers off the top of my head. Trillion dollars to NATO over x number of years. You know, maybe >> that might be right. [laughter] >> Whatever it is, maybe we're not getting the return on that investment we should.
39:15Maybe maybe that could be allocated in other places. I'm a huge proponent of making sure that our military is in the best position if that high bar were crossed so that we could go take care of business and spread some goddamn freedom. What I don't like is when they're asking for $200 billion in the first whatever five days of the [ __ ] Iran war that we didn't need to start and now they have to replenish all this stuff that they used unnecessarily which is now just increasing. It takes our defense budget way above where it should be at a deterrence level versus just an active let's [ __ ] around and
39:50play bombs level.
39:51>> Well, and it's so much worse than that, dude. I mean, they're pushing a $1.5 trillion annual trillion dollar spending budget for the military.
40:00>> Yeah, >> that is that's more than almost like every other military on Earth combined.
40:06Like seriously, you could look this up.
40:08It's [ __ ] astronomical.
40:09>> Can we look that up? I never looked that up before. That's crazy.
40:121.5 trillion is so much more than we need to be spending.
40:16>> Yeah. What did the top 10 militaries around the world spend per year? Let's start there in dollars, I guess.
40:25So, it might be more than like the other nine combined.
40:28>> I think it is. It used to I mean, this is before we were spending a trillion.
40:32It was already that.
40:33>> Here we go. Okay. So, the US >> look at that. It's like [ __ ] every other country combined.
40:39>> Yeah. Well, keep in mind I'm going off the 1.5.
40:42>> You're Yeah. And you're still, even though the number they have right here is closer to like one trillion, >> right?
40:48>> You're still pretty close to right.
40:49Second place, China at 336, third place, Russia at 190, Germany at 114, India at 92, UK at 89, Ukraine at 84, Saudi Arabia at 83, France at 68, Japan at 62.
41:03That's the top 10. I think it's more than the other nine combined. Well, if you if you go to the 1.5, which is what Trump is asking for now, it's miles ahead of the next closest nine. Yeah, you're right. So, so when I hear someone like you say over China, [laughter] >> Yeah, bro.
41:18>> It's [ __ ] insane. So, so when I hear people like you say, you know, I want to make sure that we have a military that's prepared, I just want to really emphasize, >> if you can't be [ __ ] prepared with $960 billion, [laughter] you're never going to be prepared. All right, >> agree.
41:33>> So, you don't need 1.5. miss me with that nonsense. It's insane.
41:36>> Well, cuz also we dropped like, you know, we tested [ __ ] 40,000 bombs on Yemen that no one ever found out about that went to, you know, 200 billion of that. Oh, poof, gone in the wind.
41:45>> Well, that was the other genocide we were funding through the Saudis. I mean, people >> Yeah. No one talks about that.
41:50>> No. What happened to the Yemenes was atrocious.
41:53>> Yeah.
41:53>> I mean, this is this is how you know the libertarians are for real because we're the only people that talked about Yemen.
41:59Um, so this is why I get very frustrated and this is why I push back against him is because he started talking about Israel derangement syndrome. It's like, bro, and he he he always clarifies, I'm not talking about you, Clinton. And I'm like, all right, yeah, but like take on the argument then.
42:13>> Like what I'm saying to you is not based in derangement. Like these are facts. So if you want to argue that you come to a different conclusion after dealing with these facts I'm presenting to you, fine.
42:23We can have that discussion. But please don't dismiss the people that are saying, "I don't like seeing," even if it's just like a a basic human emotion level. I just don't like spending years scrolling through TikTok and seeing toddlers pulled out of rubble.
42:36>> Right.
42:36>> That's a fine [ __ ] reason to oppose War 2.
42:39>> Do you think that's okay?
42:40>> Do you think part of it is also like I I think Tim P was one of the guys who went and like met with Netanyahu or something. Do you think because you and I have never been in those rooms and we're not going to be, nor do we want to, but do you think there's also some sort of >> I can't think of a better word to say.
42:57It's kind of dystopian, but it might be true. Like some sort of psychosis that happens when, you know, you meet a guy like that who's a lifelong talented politician. You're in a back room [ __ ] just having a beer with him or whatever and he seems like a normal person and there's some sort of disconnect where a guy like Tim Pull's like, "Yeah, no, he's he's not doing a genocide."
43:16>> Yeah. No, it certainly certainly is and I I can give my own story on this. Um, you know, I met Vav Ramaswami and I spent a lot of time with the guy >> and [ __ ] charisma, you know, charisma charismatic out the wazoo like just unbelievably impressive human being. Um, I still like him. I still think he's probably I think he's a very interesting political figure, but it biased me in a way that was like >> bad like it was bad to to get that level of personal relationship. So I recogniz because I I went on his campaign trail because I was doing Tim Cast IRL out in I don't know South Dakota or some
43:53primary state >> and uh and I followed him around and hung out with him for a couple days and >> and I also I debated him at the Libertarian National Convention.
44:02>> Um that was very strange moment. You can drop in one of my lines from that if you want. But it was awesome. I got my first standing ovation of my life. That was very fun.
44:10>> That's cool.
44:10>> Yeah. But anyways, the point that I'm making is that especially at a high level politician, it's going to be charismatic. So >> if you meet with them and you build a relationship, it's going to be very hard to to stay impartial.
44:22>> That being said, >> uh I can't imagine sitting across the table from Netanyahu and being like, [laughter] >> "NO, NO, YOU'RE RIGHT. I get it now. I was wrong about all this."
44:35You know, like I can see Trump [ __ ] you know, [laughter] >> oh star dazzling me or something, but I can't see Netanyahu doing.
44:43>> Yeah, I have to like try I have to try to figure out if that is some root cause. But the other thing is the thing we're talking about where it's just a topic some people for some reason are still like afraid to say something bad about. Yeah. And it's like, listen, dude, even if you solved for whatever it is, call 50% of what you see AI, there's still another 50% out there, and it's what you're [ __ ] looking at, bro.
45:05>> Yeah.
45:05>> You know, and when I have when I even have like some boomers now hitting me up asking me about this, that's when you know.
45:12>> Yeah.
45:13>> You know, and they'll believe anything.
45:15We've broken containment.
45:16>> Yeah. It's breaking some containment where they're where my mom's like, "What the [ __ ] is going on here?" She's a basic human.
45:22>> Same thing with my mom. We've been having these conversations recently and I think I'm redpulling her too fast. U [laughter] she's a big fan of the show. So shout out Clint's mom.
45:33>> Yeah. Uh Dina, hi mom. But yeah, it's uh I think I think more and more, you know, like I said earlier, like the facts are on our side here. Like our relationship to Israel is a detriment to our country.
45:45And that doesn't mean that we need to be their enemies and immediately go invade them or something crazy. But like we need to recognize that our national interest, our self-interest as a human population needs to be paramount. And if you can't if you can't get any if there's any single politician in America who won't say that and mean it and follow it up with action, they should be charged with treason, >> that's how [ __ ] seriously I take this. You are violating your oath to the Constitution, your duty to the American people, your duty to your constituency.
46:16Randy Fine, I'm talking to you, you fat [ __ ] >> He sucks. He sucks. And almost all of them suck though, Julian. Almost all of them suck. So this is my point. We got to >> You're not listen preaching to the choir. I'm with you on that. But >> I just get I just get a little bit hyped.
46:30>> No, I I I know man. It's It's like >> there's just something about whether it be like Brian Mast wearing a [ __ ] IDF uniform on the floor of the US Congress.
46:40Like come on, man.
46:41>> I don't play any of that [ __ ] >> It's not I don't care who it is. If it were a Great [clears throat] Britain uniform, I'd be really upset about it.
46:48It doesn't matter. You know, and this is where I've had some mind-numbing arguments, frankly, with with people on both sides of of the equation, whether it be someone who's really anti-Israel or really pro-Israel to where they'll try to talk with me and they want me to just hone in on one thing. So, I'll give you an example here. Someone who's like a really hardcore pro-Israel person will be like, "Well, because you're looking over at Israel over here, and what about China? What about Iran and all this?"
47:17I'm like, "Yeah, no. [ __ ] them, too."
47:19Like, listen, I I've been pound I've been pounding the table about China forever. [ __ ] them, too. It's [ __ ] everyone. Anyone who's not in the interest of my [ __ ] place, [ __ ] them.
47:26And they look at me like I have 10 heads. Then I talk to someone who's like really anti-Israel. And they want to focus everything on Israel. I'm like, "Yeah, no, China's a problem." And they're like, "What the [ __ ] are you talking about, bro? That's fed slop."
47:36I'm like, "Oh, all right, [laughter] dude."
47:37>> Well, and >> it can be a lot of things at the same time, believe it or not.
47:41>> And it is. And it is. I mean, but that's that's my whole point is that, you know, I was the whole reason I like first got put on the map other than railing against the lockdowns was was my rants that I would do on Tim Cast IRL about the Ukraine war.
47:54>> So, like [snorts] this is why Tim can't do the derangement [ __ ] with me because it's like, you know, I'm not deranged >> cuz I [ __ ] did the exact same >> consistent. Yeah, I did the exact same rants against our relationship to Ukraine when it came to, you know, what amounts to a proxy war of World War II between the two largest nuclear powers in human history, >> which is still happening, by the way.
48:13>> It's still [ __ ] happening. Exactly.
48:14Like, I don't talk about it all that much because it's like it seems as if we have at least stopped funding and arming them to the tune of what we had been.
48:23But the fact that it hasn't ended is so dangerous.
48:26>> And there's all these pe and you know, it's the people that are used as pawns on both sides of the equation. It's all these people dying in the millions. The c we we looked at this with Cat Schultz.
48:34That was a couple months ago. It was the casualties were at like an estimated 1.8 1.9 million, >> right? Yeah. Well, and >> population control. How about that?
48:42>> Well, yeah. I mean, you can go down a real tin foil hat uh avenue on that. I'm not confident on it, so I won't. But >> don't worry, Black Rockck's rebuilding it, so it'll be fine.
48:50>> Yeah. Well, exactly. But I mean, this is this is why I'm so anti-war is like these are just these are just catastrophes on scales that are really hard to fathom. And I think unfortunately once you get to numbers that high, >> it just it detach like you can't you must detach emotionally because otherwise it'll break you. Like I think people can just barely hang on with the Gaza stuff and that's you know the numbers are obviously very hazy but it's at least 70 or 80,000.
49:21>> Um >> some people say it's astronomically higher. I'm not going to pretend to know but >> even even if it's there it's horrible.
49:29>> But but just the the key thing to to tie these two together. I oppose both because both are me being robbed to fund a military in the death of innocents on a scale that is unspeakably evil. And it's just like why can't we unify around that?
49:43>> I agree.
49:44>> Why can't we just say that? It's like >> I agree. So >> Steve, can we actually Google the latest funding for Ukraine from the United States? That's a great question. Yes, because we don't we don't even talk about this right now.
49:54>> Yeah, I I know we've sent them 175 billion. I don't know what we're doing today, though.
49:58>> Yeah. When the last one was or how much they probably shoved it in some [ __ ] bill this big.
50:02>> Yeah, there could there could be recent spending. I'm not May 2026, the US has authorized 800 million in military aid for Ukraine under the fiscal 2026 National Defense Authorization Act. So that's just this year.
50:14>> That's but that's poultry compared to what we were spending.
50:16>> Right. Right. But it's still I mean it's still 800 million. Like yeah, you know, whatever ashtray money intended for the Ukraine security assistance initiative over 26 and 27. This includes 400 million in funding intended for new weapons from US companies. Got to take care of those donors. Very, very important. And this is what the neocons will use as a defense of this nonsense is they go, "We're not giving Israel money. We're giving money to defense contractors to then hand the weapons to them for free." It's like, "Bitch, don't play with me. You're giving them [laughter] [ __ ] >> We're creating jobs."
50:47>> Yeah, that's what they say.
50:48>> That's what we're saying.
50:49>> It's It's broken broken glass fallacy at large. It's insane.
50:53>> [snorts] >> Do you I mean we're coming up ironically in the middle of all this obviously on the 250th anniversary of the greatest experiment in human history right here.
51:02>> I take it based on what you said earlier. You're a guy who studies the revolution quite a bit. [snorts] >> Uh not as much as my friend Josie, but I know a decent amount.
51:10>> Yeah, those I'm I'm obsessed with it.
51:13Always have been. I think it's the coolest thing ever. But >> it just blows my mind. Like obviously like everyone else, they were imperfect and there's some mistakes. There always are. But like the precience that those guys had from start to finish, from just making it happen to then setting it up afterwards, how unbelievable was that?
51:31>> Well, and just to have this confluence of like the way I view it was like >> these are like polymaths. I mean, you got some of the most the most impressive human most impressive and courageous human beings to come together all at the same time. It's just like I mean that this is what brings you down kind of a spiritual thought process as to how this country even came to be is just like how could you have that confluence of that brilliance and that courage coming together and throwing off the shackles of the largest empire in human history at the time. How is that even possible? The odds were so stacked
52:08against them. And they did.
52:10>> They did it. It's amazing.
52:11>> It's it's incredible. And like, you know, it makes you think though when we talk when we look at some of the dystopian things that are being attempted to be set up, not just here, but around the world right now. And the difference back then is people had to wake up and they had to survive that day. They had to go make their own food.
52:31Yeah.
52:32>> You know, literally produce it out in their yard, tend to their livestock. You know, you couldn't just go from one place to the other place in two minutes.
52:39It might take two [ __ ] days. So all the simplest things, >> they didn't even have fridges.
52:44>> And so people were aware of where everything came from because they had to create it. And now >> in our society, starting with myself, all of us, we don't have that. So when we're looking, right? So when we're looking at revolution, it's like the revolution is televised cuz we're sitting there watching it >> in a way. You know that sometimes I I wonder if that's you kind of said something like this earlier, but that's how it's set up so that people will be put in such a position that they don't have the not the impetus, but they don't have the inner drive and wherewithal to pull it off.
53:18>> Yeah. Well, I'll be honest. That's that's kind of the conclusion I came to after the lockdown era. I mean, if there was ever a time in my life that a revolution was justified, sorry, that was it. [laughter] >> Like you shut down all of the mid and low tier businesses for months. You set you shut down churches in the south >> churches >> and there wasn't a revolution. Like think about how crazy that is.
53:42>> Um so now granted people were propagandized. People were buying into the narratives and people eventually woke up from those narratives. And I hope that that means that it'll be harder to do it the next go around. But I think that that adds to the gravity of the argument that people are are already cowed, that we are already incapable of recognizing an existential threat to our liberty and being willing to do what our founders would have demanded of us, pleaded of us.
54:08>> Yeah.
54:09>> There's moments that stand out for everyone from that era, I'm sure. One of them for me is like probably about four weeks in, I think I had moved back a week before maybe I was talking with my dad one night because I was living in their house at that time and he just said he got back from the food store and he's he's like people have totally adapted.
54:36>> I'm like what do you mean? And he's like, "All these precautions, all these things, wearing gloves, wearing masks, going straight to your car, not talking to people, going home, not even thinking about going to an office or anything that's not for basic survival.
54:51They've just done it. Like, we're all a part of it." Like, I walked out of there and I realized I I was already used to it.
54:57>> It took a few weeks.
54:58>> He's like, "That's crazy."
55:00>> Not for me. But I I agree. I mean, he's right that that that was it seemed to be kind of a universal adaptation.
55:09I didn't adapt. [laughter] I was I was >> You're practicing sniper training up on a roof, >> dude. I bought my first gun the the week of lockdowns. I'm not even [ __ ] kidding, dude. I bought an AR in California cuz I was like, "Oh, shit." I also bought my first uh Well, I'll just stop there. I just was like [laughter] >> I was I was about to like I was about to lay out my uh you know my personal financial situation in a way that is not not intelligent to put on the internet.
55:36Yeah.
55:36>> Um but yeah, I was like precious metals.
55:39Let's see what we can do here, you know.
55:40[laughter] Um and those are great investments, by the way, because I bought right at the bottom.
55:45>> But my point is I did not adapt. And I think there was 20% of the population, give or take, that didn't adapt >> and and those are the people that like I look at it as kindred spirits. It's like you should not adapt to that. And I and I believe that you should not adapt to being robbed to fund the death of innocents worldwide. Like you shouldn't adapt to that. Even if even if it's the historical norm, even if it's everything you've ever known because you were born in 2001 and we've been at war ever since.
56:17>> Yep.
56:17>> You should still recognize that there is a moral imperative to look around you and say, "This is not right." Even if you were born into it, you should still eventually realize that. And you know, that's that's what I try and try and encourage people down the path on. I mean, some of the most, you know, passionate anti-war people you meet are former Marines that are now libertarians. You know, like these guys saw it firsthand. They went in there as gung-ho as any [ __ ] redblooded patriot you'll ever meet in your life.
56:46And they all recognize it for what it is at this point. So, not all, but a growing number. And so, if you don't take me seriously, talk to those guys.
56:54>> I've watched a lot of guys. I'm thinking of a lot of tier one guys in particular >> over the past four or five years specifically >> who I don't want to speak for them because I'm not in their heads but who maybe I'm sure had these thoughts in the back of their head already before that time period of like h what were we doing there this year at that time or whatever but hadn't maybe they hadn't gotten all the way there because that was their life that was their job those they were put on the earth to do and they're they want to believe that that was for all the right things and Then Afghanistan
57:26happened >> and I watched slowly in real time guys at least consciously >> start to peel it back almost like the dude in the movie re-watching everything in his head and realizing it was all the opposite of what he thought.
57:41>> Yeah.
57:41>> And that's a really hard thing for me to see because these guys make the ultimate sacrifice. They volunteer to go do this and put their lives down. Most of them, literally all of them have lost friends over there. Yeah.
57:53>> Doing this. And it's not their fault at all. But the idea that then years later, >> you have to realize that I hate saying it like this, but some of that might have been in vain >> in your mind. I I can't but for them to think that, I can't even imagine having to have that thought.
58:11>> But that's why so many of them are so angry. That's why so many of them suffer with psychological issues and alcoholism and drug use. Um, but a lot of them, you know, show demonstrating the courage that put them in that position to begin with, a willingness to fight and sacrifice for their nation. They demonstrate that courage to this day.
58:29Like Joe Ken is who I think of.
58:30>> Yeah.
58:31>> The guy who's willing to risk his really end his political career to speak out against Donald Trump. And like those are the guys that I look up to that I go like, man, >> you still have the brass. You know, like you put down the rifle, but you didn't lose any ounce of that courage. like you're still fighting and those are the guys we need.
58:49>> His takes in real time since he left.
58:52>> He's been he's been hitting out of the park.
58:53>> Oh, dude. It's been like his hit rate is like 97% or something.
58:57>> Yeah. But people still call him a fraud and a liar and a crazy >> con man. And it's like dude or a traitor. It's like Yeah. Because he's trying not to let our country be destroyed in another unnecessary war in the Middle East, which by the way, Donald Trump [ __ ] campaigned on, which by the way, I voted for Trump because of that. Uh well that and because I thought that the Kla Harris would lead us to World War II with Russia [laughter] but yeah >> uh I mean >> you get World War II one way or the other.
59:23>> Yeah. You you're going to get it in one part of the world.
59:25>> It's it's a it's a run or it's Russia.
59:26Take your pick.
59:27>> It's crazy. I mean I I'm also so impressed with how Joe has so stoically handled the blowback against him.
59:38>> And he said it right when he came out.
59:41He was like nonchalant about it in like a all shucks kind of way where he's like listen you know I I know how it works.
59:47I'm sure the president's gonna come out and have to say some things. That's just the game. But then he comes out and he does it >> right.
59:53>> And there's a difference between saying that before it happens and then the guy walks on a tarmac and says he got married real quick.
60:00>> Yeah.
60:01>> And to handle that >> I I wouldn't have handled it.
60:04>> I wouldn't have handled that well.
60:05>> Cuz he didn't get married quick by the way. Not that that should even matter but like holy [ __ ] Well, and by and by the way, Joe Kent's wife died in one of these unnecessary wars in the Middle East. So, if anyone should shut the [ __ ] up, it's Donald Trump.
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