Everyday Is National Cookie Day

Summary

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Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "Everyday Is National Cookie Day"

Date: November 19, 2025
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Producer/Contributors: Katie Greener, Michelangelo Michael

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode focuses on several topical issues:

• The political fallout and implications of the forthcoming disclosure of the Epstein investigation files.
• Media and public reactions to presidential disclosure battles.
• Broader cultural and generational trends, including "Trump Derangement Syndrome," Gen Alpha behaviors, and the intersection of capitalism/socialism.
• Commentary on recent news, social quirks, and life lessons.

The tone is lively, irreverent, and conversational, typical of Armstrong & Getty, combining sharp political critique with humor and cultural observations.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Epstein Files Disclosure & Political Fallout

• Breaking News: The Senate passed a bill requiring disclosure of Epstein investigation materials; it's headed to the President's desk.

  • "It is the most bipartisan, fastest piece of legislation...outside of a declaration of like National Cookie Day." (Jack, 04:41).

• Real-time Epstein influence:
  Discussed a Washington Post report revealing House Democrat Stacy Plaskett was texting with Jeffrey Epstein during the Michael Cohen hearings, taking real-time advice to question Trump’s finances.

  • "...using Epstein as a 'How do we badmouth Trump' source in real-time." (Joe, 02:23).

• Discussion on Trump's alleged involvement:

  • Hosts highlighted that, despite conspiracies, no direct evidence connects Trump to Epstein’s sex crimes; not one accuser or corroborating document has surfaced.
  • "Not one [victim] has come forward and said, yeah, I had sex with Trump." (Jack, 04:08).

• Media bias narrative:
  The hosts claim that while Epstein had ties across the political spectrum, mainstream coverage skews the scandal as a Republican or Trump-centric issue.

  • "He was a big player in New York and New York's almost entirely Democrats." (Jack, 03:21).

• Why presidents resist full disclosures:
  Referencing a Mark Halperin newsletter, they argue it's standard for presidents to resist wholesale release of investigative files for reasons ranging from civil liberties to preventing reputational harm.

  • "The reasons not to release the Justice Department materials would be familiar, even boring to most people. Presidents have always found virtue in withholding information." (Jack, 05:53).
  • Files may contain “innocent mentions” or falsehoods later disproven, and uncharged private citizens’ reputations could be shredded. (Joe, 06:27).

• Norms & the risk to privacy:
  Warning that this could set a dangerous precedent, making raw investigatory material fair game and amplifying due process concerns.

  • "If you start doing this, everybody's names, circumstances, quotes… reputations, civil liberties, livelihoods shredded for sport." (Jack, 07:06).

• Media’s selective coverage:

  • "It'll be substantially one-sided too. They will ignore stuff that doesn't fit the 'up with Democrats' narrative." (Joe, 07:39).

Notable Quotes

• “Endless hours are going to be spent dealing with the fallout rather than governing.” (Jack, 09:36)
• “This is the tempting case where you can rationalize why you ought to throw out all investigatory norms…” (Joe, 11:25)

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2. Conspiracy Theories, Disclosure Fatigue & Historical Precedent

• Parallel to past disclosure battles:
  Discussed how every modern president resists releasing potentially damaging info for both real and political reasons. Examples: Obama’s birth certificate, Clinton’s Whitewater, Hillary’s emails, Bush’s missing Iraq memos, Reagan’s Iran-Contra.

• Public never satisfied:
  The constant hunger for scandal is unsatiable; even mass disclosure will only breed further suspicion.

  • “None of these people will ever be sated by any level of disclosure. The appetite for scandal is the one human hunger that grows with the eating.” (Jack, 09:26)

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3. Culture of Guilt by Association

• Epstein’s social ties post-conviction:
  Reflection that many elites chose to associate with Epstein after his conviction, raising questions about their values.

  • “Finding out that so many of the rich and powerful are perfectly okay having sleazeball friends…” (Jack, 12:56)

• Dangers of character assassination:
  Cautioned about media and government using investigations as tools to ruin reputations without proof of wrongdoing.

  • “Show me the man and I'll show you the character assassination…” (Joe, 13:48)

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4. “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and the Politics of Obsession

• Is it real?
  Read from a psychotherapist arguing that fixation on Trump causes anxiety/OCD-like symptoms in patients across the political spectrum.

  • “They can't stop thinking about Donald Trump even when they try. ...their distress is symptomatic, not ideological.” (Joe, 17:05)
  • “You can't like, enjoy your vacation because Trump is president.” (Jack, 18:00)

• Projection of anxieties:
  Trump as a psychological “screen” for unresolved fears/insecurities.

  • “Trump himself isn't the pathology, he's the trigger.” (Joe, 18:07)

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5. Gen Alpha, Shared Experience & TikTok Culture

• Exploring Gen Alpha’s online vocabulary:
  Noted the rapid spread of online-generated slang and habits among today’s youth, in contrast to the fragmented experiences of previous generations.
  • “A shared experience which we just don’t have anymore…” (Jack, 19:12)

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6. Capitalism vs. Socialism: Thiel’s Critique & Culture’s Role

• Peter Thiel’s argument:
  Capitalism isn’t “working” for young people, partly due to regulation and policies causing student debt and unaffordable housing.

  • “People assume everything still works, but objectively it doesn’t. If you proletarianize the young people, you shouldn’t be surprised they eventually become communists.” (Joe, 20:24)

• Debate over mixed systems:
  Blake Shoal’s point: inserting socialist elements into capitalism leads to blaming capitalism for problems created by socialism, and vice versa.

  • “If you insert enough socialist elements into a capitalist system, when the socialist elements inevitably cause problems, people will blame the capitalism and then turn socialist.” (Joe quoting Shoal, 21:26)

• Over-regulation:
  Regulations often serve to protect big players and crush competition.

  • “A lot of regulations are attempting to stifle competition. The big guys figure… we will quash any competition with regulations…” (Joe, 27:00)

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7. Personal Choices, Culture & Socioeconomic Mobility

• Life outcomes & responsibility:
  Emphasized the role of personal choices—rarely acknowledged in contemporary debates about inequality.

  • “The idea that personal choices…aren’t listed as the king of the hill — they’re not discussed at all.” (Joe, 26:05)
  • “You're shaming people if you look at their choices; they're blaming the victim. Exactly.” (Jack/Joe, 26:15)

• Role of culture in economics:
  Quoted Thomas Sowell & Roland Fryer on how culture, not just discrimination, explains group differences in progress.

  • “Culture is a form of capital, an accumulation of habits and know-how that powerfully influences a group's project. Progress could not be truer.” (Joe, 29:59)

• Taboo around discussing cultural factors:
  The left, they argue, is unwilling to acknowledge the importance of productive habits.

  • “Punctuality as white supremacy and trying hard is white supremacy and exceptionalism… is white supremacy. Meritocracy, exactly.” (Joe, 29:50)

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8. Humor, Oddities, and Personal Reflections

• Bill Ackman's “May I meet you?” dating advice:

  • “That opening line works if you look like him. Practically any opening line would work if you look like him.” (Jack, 34:13)

• Chris Rock's sexual attraction thesis:
  Noted comedy bit: the most desired guys in a friend group set the style for everyone else (Jack, 34:24).

• Art auctions and modern art reactions

  • Light ribbing of “early modern art” that actually “looks like art” (Jack, 35:07).

• Animal nicknames and scientific curiosity

  • “Raccoons are trash pandas... gators are murder logs and peacocks are disco chickens.” (Katie, 35:55)
  • Raccoons as the next domesticated species? (Joe, 36:20)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (With Timestamps)

• Political manipulation:

  • "They were using the House Democrats were using Epstein as a ‘How do we badmouth Trump’ source in real time." (Joe, 02:23)

• On no direct Trump-Epstein scandal evidence:

  • "Not one [Epstein victim] has come forward and said, yeah, I had sex with Trump." (Jack, 04:08)

• On leaking Trump's taxes:

  • "Awful, awful crime. Nobody ever prosecuted for it. ...Anyway, Trump's taxes come out. There was nothing there." (Jack, 08:17)

• On appetite for scandal:

  • "The appetite for scandal is the one human hunger that grows with the eating." (Jack, 09:26)

• On modern disclosure norms:

  • "If you start doing this all the time... The collateral damage, reputations, civil liberties, livelihoods shredded for sport." (Jack, 07:06)

• Modern obsession & mental health:

  • "Patients describe sleepless nights, compulsive news checking, and physical agitation." (Joe, 17:05)
  • "You can't like, enjoy your vacation because Trump is president." (Jack, 18:00)

• On the role of personal choices:

  • "There are a number of different things that can affect your life in a material way... but the idea that personal choices... aren’t listed as the king of the hill." (Joe, 26:05)

• On the importance of culture:

  • "Groups that develop productivity enhancing traits such as skills, an orientation toward education and work and thriftiness tend to advance." (Joe, 29:59)

• On overregulation and competition:

  • "A lot of regulations are attempting to stifle competition. The big guys... will quash any competition with regulations that sound like they're protecting the consumer..." (Joe, 27:00)

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [01:31]- [07:39] – Epstein/Plaskett texting, Trump’s involvement, Biden admin's disclosure, and the risks of file release.
• [09:23] – The public’s insatiable appetite for scandal.
• [14:50] – Caveats in mass release of investigatory files and historical perspective.
• [17:05] – Discussion of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" and obsessional political anxiety.
• [18:26] – Gen Alpha’s lingo and TikTok-fueled online subculture.
• [20:24] – Peter Thiel on capitalism's failure for youth and the socialism/capitalism mix-up.
• [25:15] – The importance of personal choices versus system/governmental factors.
• [27:00] – The hidden anti-competitive purpose of regulation.
• [29:50] – The (taboo) role of culture in economic outcomes.
• [34:13] – Bill Ackman’s dating advice, attractiveness bias.
• [35:55] – Fun nicknames for animals.
• [36:20] – Raccoons as potential future pets.

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Final Thoughts & Reflections

• Life is about choices:

  • "If I made that choice, my life would be different. But I'm pretty happy with the way things worked out." (Michelangelo Michael, 35:41)

• 80% want Epstein files public:

  • "Latest poll, 80% of Americans wanted the Epstein files to come out… Lots of people agreed with that." (Jack, 36:09)

• Raccoons domesticated like dogs?:

  • "Raccoons are doing exactly what dogs did way back in the day." (Joe, 36:20)

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The episode weaves between weighty political and social analysis and the show's trademark levity, making a case for skepticism about media narratives, caution in mass disclosure, and a return to basic personal and cultural values.

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Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Joe Getty]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center. Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and get it.

[Narrator/Reporter]

Tonight, new questions about Democrats intentions. The Washington Post reports House delegate Stacy Plaskett, a Democrat from the Virgin Islands, was caught texting with Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing in which President Trump's then attorney Michael Cohen was testifying. Epstein appeared to feed Plaskett information in real time about the President's finances and his aid, which she then used in her of Cohen.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do you all remember that hearing? We took some of it live. The fixer. The idiot. Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer. What? What polls? All of them. Okay? That guy Michael Cohen, when he was being questioned by Congress, one of the Democrats was texting with Epstein during the hearing and he was feeding her questions to try to get into Trump's finances.

[Joe Getty]

And if you've seen the captioning of the texts in real time with the video of the questioning, which they now have, it is. It's funny but it's beyond doubt exactly what was happening there. They were using the House Democrats were using Epstein as a How do we badmouth Trump source in real time.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, now that I think about, I was about to say that the crazy thing about the whole Epstein story is is there are people of all political stripes that were hanging around with him, flying on his plane, friends with him, blah blah blah. But somehow like the current mainstream media version of it, is it's a Trump thing or a Republic thing thing. But Trump was a Democrat back in the day. He was a Democrat his whole life, basically up to the moment he decided to run for president. So are there any Republicans, like big name Republicans that, that were tied in with Epstein a lot? I can't think of any of them.

[Joe Getty]

That I've come across. Nothing leaps to mind. I'm not saying there aren't.

[Jack Armstrong]

He was a big player in New York and New York's almost entirely Democrats.

[Joe Getty]

Certainly he was kind of a fake Democrat, honestly. I mean, he was always pro choice, but yeah. Hey, just a quick observation here. It is a hearing where they're trying to discredit Trump with Michael Cohen on the stand, getting fed information by Jeffrey Epstein himself. And at no point did Epstein say, ask Trump about November of 2007 at the island the pool party. He had nothing on him other than he didn't like him and he thought he was, you know, fast and loose with his finances or whatever. He was literally on the line with Democrats when they were trying to impugn Trump and he didn't offer anything up. Can we stop talking about that aspect of this now?

[Jack Armstrong]

With all the emails and phone calls and everybody that know him, there's not one where he makes it like even pretty clear that Trump was having sex with underage girls. And of the thousand victims out there, not one of them have come forward and said, yeah, I had sex with Trump in 2000, blah, blah, blah.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, there are references to Trump knew about the girls or whatever, but that's not necessarily the underage girls. And having a notion that, you know, I think he may like a young girls is different than participating in any way. I'm not saying it's right if you know about it and don't say anything, but come on.

[Jack Armstrong]

By the way, as we are live on the radio right now, the Senate has sent the bill to the president's desk. It is the most bipartisan, fastest piece of legislation, by the way, the only piece of legislation that has passed in the last 60 days. But it's the most bipartisan, fastest piece of legislation outside of a declaration of like National Cookie Day that I can think of in many, many, many years. And now it's going to the President's.

[Joe Getty]

Desk every day is National Cookie Day.

[Jack Armstrong]

And, and they're going to disclose all kinds of different stuff that normally doesn't come out from investigations. And that's where I get to Mark Halperin's newsletter for today, which I thought was really interesting. He writes, I had a realization this morning about the Epstein files and Donald Trump. If Trump were a normal president, one whose motives weren't viewed through a funhouse mirror by both fans and foes, that gets to Trump derangement syndrome, which Joe is gonna talk about later. The reasons not to release the Justice Department milli materials would be familiar, even boring to most people. Presidents have always found virtue in withholding information from investigations. The list of reasons any rational president would resist pulling back the curtain is long and predictable, starting here. That's getting to the whole. Why would he be fighting it so hard? Well, he, he could be doing it for the right reasons. Like the impropriety of flinging around FBI 302s. Those are the, the, the, the, the investigation documents that they use to look into people's lives that kind of violate your normal constitutional standards, but they get a special A302 warrant to be able to look into your stuff. That stuff's not supposed to come out public, especially if you haven't been charged or convicted of anything.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right. And those files can include, you know, people saying, I saw him, he did it. It can include innocent mentions. It can include people who later turn out to be liars. What they say are all in those, those files. That's why they're not automatically admissible in court.

[Jack Armstrong]

And this sort of stuff is going to be flying around here within the next 30 days when the, when the Justice Department turns this stuff over. So the impropriety of flinging FBI 302s, the National Security and law enforcement documents and grand jury material all into the, all into the public maw to consume the way it will.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Halperin writes, that's how republics slide toward reality television.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

If you start doing this all the time with every big investigation and you just let everything out there, everybody's names, circumstances, quotes that, as Joe said, might be made up, it turns out to be someday. But that won't matter for the time being. The collateral damage, reputations, civil liberties, livelihoods shredded for sport. When the mob gets a peek at the raw material of the justice sausage making. Absolutely. That's where we're headed. And is this going to set a new standard for doing it in the future?

[Joe Getty]

And given the nature of our media right now, it'll be substantially one sided too. They will ignore stuff that doesn't fit the up with Democrats narrative.

[Jack Armstrong]

God, how many times have we been through this? Somebody brought up the other day when Trump didn't release his taxes when he ran for president, and that had been the standard for Quite some time he wouldn't release his taxes. There's got to be something there. Why would he fight so hard to keep his taxes secret? Obviously there's something there. And then finally, somebody illegally leaked Donald Trump's taxes. Nobody's ever paid a price for it. I mean, what could be worse than that? Somebody who had his taxes, probably at the irs, leaked them. I think it was to the New York Times, and they all came out. Awful, awful crime. Nobody ever prosecuted for it. Nobody even talks about it. Anyway, Trump's taxes come out. There was nothing there. Nothing, nothing. Do you remember the story? No, you don't, because there was nothing there.

[Joe Getty]

Well, all there was was a rich guy with good tax advice maximizing his returns and minimizing his liabilities, which was then portrayed just ridiculously by. Look at him, look at him trying to minimize the amount of tax he paid. And he answered back, yeah, that's the same thing Hillary does and everybody else does. They get good tax advice. What are you talking about?

[Jack Armstrong]

If you don't like it, change the tax law. But there was nothing explosive there that he was hiding. That's the point I'm making because the assumption here is that he's fighting to keep this Epstein stuff from coming out. It might be just like his taxes. It's just gonna be. I don't know. There's also the knowledge that conspiracy theorists, Epstein hobbyists and profiteers will. Profiteers is a big part of it. People that get money off of clicks for suggesting something.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, a lot of the conspiracy theorists are profiteers.

[Jack Armstrong]

None of these people will ever be sated by any level of disclosure. The appetite for scandal is the one that human hunger that grows with the eating. And that is certainly true.

[Joe Getty]

Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Endless hours are going to be spent dealing with the fallout rather than governing. For quite some time, we're all going to deal with that. And then Halpert also brings back presidents in the past that have fought all kinds of disclosure on a whole bunch of different things. See Barack Obama and his long form birth certificate. Think Bill Clinton and Whitewater, Hillary and her emails, George W. Bush in the missing Iraq, WMD memos, Reagan and Iran Contra. It's just a thing presidents do to fight to keep all this information coming out on these sorts of things, because it's just, it's a distraction, it's a mess, it can be used improperly, et cetera. So to me, that answers the whole, why was Trump fighting so hard to keep this vote from happening? It's just what presidents do. They don't Want more information. They're not sure how it's gonna be used when it gets out there. You know, disclosure.

[Joe Getty]

Right, right, right. Well, I've got to admit, now that it's happening, I'll be curious to see whether anybody is specifically named as violating the law. Well, as opposed to hanging around with Epstein or staying in touch with him after his first conviction or, you know, just, you know, getting drunk on the island or whatever. Specifically being sexually with underaged girls.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. So there's that, but then there's all. How many Larry Summers are there going to be? I'll bet there's going to be a bunch whose lives are changed. They didn't do anything illegal, but their lives are going to be changed by their association with Epstein and seeing various connections and. Wait a second. You told me you weren't. You didn't talk to him anymore after 2008 or whatever. Yeah, from a wife or a boss or all kinds of different situations.

[Joe Getty]

Here are your two reactions to that. The first reaction is, good. Their lives should be changed. They're despicable people. They're amoral people, and we ought to know what sort of people they are. Larry Summers I'm thinking of specifically. But the second reaction is, beware, friends, this is the tempting case where you can rationalize why you ought to throw out all investigatory norms and just throw out all these. The FBI forms you were talking about before. It's so tempting and almost justifiable. Let's throw out all the norms and everybody whose name who ever came up, no matter how, what, how, or what context. Let's throw that name out into the media. But the next case, the next two cases, the next 200 cases that come along are going to be much less compelling, much less excuse to do that. And what you've done is explode the norm that unless the government and, oh, you have great trust and love for the government. You do. Since when? If the government investigates you but decides there's nothing we can charge here, so it's nobody's damn business what we found out because this is a private citizen and we only looked at them in the context of a criminal investigation. We're not in a who's a good person, who's not investigation. So we can call tmz. That's not what the government's supposed to do. And beware encouraging them to start doing.

[Jack Armstrong]

That, God help us, as a republic slides toward reality tv. Yeah. My last thought on the Epstein thing for today anyway, will be what Mark Halpern was talking about and several People have written about in the last couple of days finding out that so many of the rich and powerful are perfectly okay having sleazeball friends. Oh, they just don't think anybody's gonna notice or care or catch on or whatever. Because, I mean, a lot of the hanging around Jeffrey Epstein stuff happened after he was convicted once and spent 13 months in jail. And lots of powerful people, Hollywood types, political types, you know, the super rich, they were perfectly okay having him as a friend and hanging out in those circles. What other kinds of human beings are they all okay with hanging out with?

[Joe Getty]

Right. So it was Berea. What was. What was the. He was Stalin's guy. I can't remember Laverne T. Berea who originally said, give me the man and I will find the crime, or show me the man and I'll show you the crime. Picture this back to my previous point and then I'll shut up. Show me the man and I'll show you the character assassination. Who's that character? Do you need to be assassinated? Okay. Jack Armstrong. Let me think. Give me a couple of days. I'll figure out what investigation I can come up with that will get close enough to him. We can drop his name and darkly suggest that he's guilty of something. That should give you long enough that you'll win the bid on the apartment complex or whatever.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Effortless. If the government turns toward the job of character assassination in a kind of open, willy nilly way. At the same time. Epstein was a perv. His rich friends are pervs, and it's all sickening. But beware. Beware the temptation.

[Jack Armstrong]

Good stuff. Trump derangement syndrome, an actual medical thing, among other things to talk about on the way State.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Do you wear Armstrong and Getty sweatshirts, hats, stuff out and about in public? Katie? Oh, yeah, all the time. You do, Joe?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, occasionally the less provocative stuff, because in real life, I don't really want to talk politics.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know. I feel uncomfortable wearing my own. Wearing my own swag in public. But I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

And get over it. Some of it's really cool.

[Jack Armstrong]

Get over it. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

I can't wait to get my ruin the entire Country Newsome 2028 shirt.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's.

[Joe Getty]

I will wear that everywhere I go. Yeah. Available right now. Oh, and the F y' all again party. I really like that one too. I want people to ask that. Ask. What does that mean, F F y' all looking? It's the. Both parties are phonies in it for themselves. I want to start a new party.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know what I think of the salty language.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I hear you. So I'm not sure we have time for this now, but is Trump derangement Syndrome real? A actual psychiatrist or a psychotherapist, whatever he is, is writing this article. He says no serious mental health professional would render such a partisan and derogatory diagnosis. Yet I've seen it in my own psychotherapy practice. You know, it's funny because we talk about Trump Derangement syndrome as it's like a weird form of partisanship where you never allow that the other side is right about anything. You never agree that your side is wrong about anything. And within the Republican Party, like, you're never. Trumpers share Trump Derangement Syndrome. It's like they can never admit when he gets something right, but this guy's approaching it a little differently. He says he's seen it in his own psychotherapy practice. Patients across the political spectrum have brought Donald Trump into therapy not to discuss policy, but to process obsession, rage, and dread. Their distress is symptomatic, not ideal, ideological. Clinically, the presentation aligns with anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorders, persistent intrusive thoughts, emotional dysregulation, and impaired, impaired functioning. Patients describe sleepless nights, compulsive news checking, and physical agitation.

[Jack Armstrong]

I know, I know a couple people like this, that, that fits perfectly with them.

[Joe Getty]

Many confess they can't stop thinking about Donald Trump even when they try. They interpret his every move as a threat to democracy and to their own safety and control. Call it obsessive political pre op preoccupation. An OCD spectrum presentation, which a political figure becomes the focal point. I'm sorry, I'm hurrying, so I'm getting every third word wrong. Idiot becomes the focal point for intrusive thoughts, heightened arousal, and compulsive monitoring. And he says, just wait, you're a child. I initially view this as an ideological reaction, but he says, over time, the more I see it, it makes looks more like a fixation that distorts perception and consumes attention. One patient said she couldn't enjoy a family vacation because, quote, it felt wrong to relax while Trump was still out.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes, I know people like, whatever.

[Joe Getty]

I know people like this sleeplessness.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I know people like this that you can't, you can't, like, enjoy your vacation because Trump is president.

[Joe Getty]

Interestingly, he says Trump himself isn't the pathology, he's the trigger. For many, he functions as a psychological screen on which unresolved fears and Insecurities are projected.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, it'll be so fascinating when he's gone from the scene. If this persists and they just attach it to something else.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, we need to take another look at this when we have more time.

Armstrong and Getty when the phrase 6, 7 exploded online this year, it was fueled by Generation Alpha kids 15 and younger who've begun forging a dictionary's worth of often baffling vocabulary. Still eats lingo that's burst into classrooms like Amy Wargo's. How often are you hearing phrases like this?

[Jack Armstrong]

Every day?

[Joe Getty]

What do you think that's about? Having something to actually bring them together. Many younger Gen Alpha kids started school during the isolation of the pandemic. Wargo says that attachment to the virtual world remains in a way that differentiates them from Gen Z. Previous kids it was fidget spinners and bottle flipping. Now it's anything they hear on TikTok.

[Jack Armstrong]

A shared experience which we just don't have anymore. So whether it was, you know, the pandemic hurrying it along, it was going to happen anyway because we just don't have shared experiences anymore.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. How interesting. Apparently Peter Thiel wrote a piece recently about how capitalism, the free market, is failing millennials.

[Jack Armstrong]

He's an interesting dude, that Peter Thiel. He has paypal mafia billionaire duty that has gone out there and done all different kind of stuff. He's all over the map politically. Sometimes I agree with him vehemently and sometimes I don't.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, he's behind Palantir too, which is doing amazing work and really patriotic anyway. But he was reaching out to Facebook executives of all people. But he said when 70% of millennials say they are pro socialist, we need to do better than simply dismiss them by saying that they are stupid or ENT or brainwashed. We should try and understand why. Which is absolutely true. Then the Free Press's Sean Fisher sat down with Thiel to talk about what he saw in 2020 that made him write that more recently. And just a super quick summary. Capitalism is not working for young people, thiel said, citing burdensome student debt regulations putting homeownership out of reach for many. Quote, people assume everything still works, but objectively it doesn't. If you proletarianize the young people, you shouldn't be surprised they eventually become communists. Now I wish I had more of the the piece in front of me. I don't. I could have grabbed it. But what the Free Press did was they ran a bunch of reactions to it from people both, you know, people you may have heard of and some you didn't. I love this one from Blake Shoal, who's the founder and CEO of something called Boom Supersonic, which I have no idea what that means. It might be a dance video platform. It might be an airplane. It might be a drug or associ. Social network. Anyway, perhaps Katie could endeavor to figure out what Boom Supersonic is just to amuse me, if you don't mind. But what he said was really cool.

[Jack Armstrong]

Any idea?

[Joe Getty]

Not yet.

[Katie Greener]

Okay, now we're jumping there.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, here's what he said. If you insert enough socialist elements into a capitalist system, when the socialist elements inevitably cause problems, people will blame the capitalism and then turn socialist. That's what's happened in New York City, for example, where Mamdani voters are motivated by high rents and crippling student debts, even though rent control drives up housing prices and government subsidies for higher education encourage universities to raise tuition.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, because I can see.

[Joe Getty]

Wait, there's more real quick. Likewise, you insert enough capitalist elements into a socialist system, the system sort of begins to work and people think socialism works. That's what happened in China, Damn it.

[Jack Armstrong]

But I can see how I've even done that. I've talked about this many times over the years. I just did a few minutes ago. Since we do live in a welfare state, then I think the government should be able to do this. I. I don't justify the, you know, more socialism so much, but the more government control aspect of it. If you're going to allow. If some of my money is going to go feed people who lose all their money gambling, then I think society ought to be able to outlaw gambling, which just, you know, just is an argument towards bigger government making more decisions for us. So, yeah, you inject a little bit of socialism because I don't care if people just use. Staying on this example. I don't care at all if somebody spends their life savings on gambling and runs out of money. Unless at the end of that story, when you and your kids are hungry, you take my money. Now all of a sudden I care. So you've injected some socialism because we do do that. I said do do we feed the hungry. So now I'm feeding you with my money. Now I get to decide whether or not you gamble, which is kind of an element of big government socialism.

[Joe Getty]

And getting back to Blake Shoal, the founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic, which is the largest chain of car wash centers across America, or. I don't know. What is it, Katie? Have we figured that out?

[Katie Greener]

Yeah, it's a company that's aiming to make commercial supersonic flights more accessible.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, okay, okay. Interesting. Anyway, so he goes on, at the root of this. At the root of this terrible confusion is a failure of our education system and our media to give the next generation a proper history education. Today's problems of affordability almost exclusively come from our most socialist institutions, such as our heavily regulated, subsidized in centrally planned health care and education systems. By contrast, the freer, more capitalist industries such as electronics and computing have driven enormous improvements across the board in real world standards of living. The closer we get to capitalism, the more everyone is better off in real terms. The closer we get to socialism, the more death and suffering result. We can't let capitalism be socialism's fall guy. Fall guy. It's on us to help the next generation separate the capitalist wheat from the socialist chaff so we can all enjoy a freer or more prosperous future. That was my favorite answer.

[Jack Armstrong]

The socialist noise from the capitalist signal, as people like to say nowadays.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. Interestingly, a couple of my other favorites were all about life choices.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is really good. So just to dwell on that a second before you get to the life choices. So you have a socialist society, you do a little capitalism like they did in China, which helped them make a lot of money, and you credit socialism.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And if you insert enough socialist elements into a capitalist system, when the socialist elements inevitably cause problems, people blame the capitalism and then turn socialist.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's unfortunate.

[Joe Getty]

It is good. So there's a lot of stuff about personal choice and we talked about this earlier. It is the 800 pound gorilla, you know, in a pet store full of little kittens in terms of how people's lives turn out.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. Clean up on aisle five.

[Joe Getty]

There is there. There are a number of different things that can affect your life in a material way. From your, your upbringing to your genetics to your race to a whole bunch of stuff. But the idea that personal choices, your life choices aren't listed as the king of the hill, aren't not just not listed as the king of the hill. They're not discussed at all.

[Jack Armstrong]

No. In fact, it's frowned upon if you look at them.

[Joe Getty]

It's, it's. That is an excuse for what I would call governmentalism, the idea that government should solve all of our problems.

[Jack Armstrong]

You're shaming people if you're going to take.

[Joe Getty]

They're blaming the victim.

[Jack Armstrong]

Exactly.

[Joe Getty]

Right. Yeah. But I thought it was interesting that so many really brilliant and persuasive people wrote about. About personal choices.

[Jack Armstrong]

Jim the gorilla is in the kitten aisle.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, boy, not again.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, say no more.

[Joe Getty]

And the other thing that they talk about is over regulation and how. And oh man, I just came across across a great example of this. And. And most people don't know this. I didn't know it until fairly late in life. A lot of regulations are attempting to stifle competition. The big guys figure, all right, compliance with these complex regulations will cost us 3% of our revenue. But a plucky startup with good ideas that wants to come and take our market share, that'll be like 15% of their revenues, and they could never afford it. So we will quash any competition with regulations that sound like they're protecting the consumer or the environment or whatever. But they were. They. They lobbied, the big guys lobbied to regulate their own industry to crush competition. Did you know that's a thing? It's a thing, folks. Then finally, this love, Jason Riley, Wall Street Journal, and he wrote a great piece about this incredible school, Piney Wood School in Mississippi. It is again, yet again, the classic educational success story. A lot of poor kids, a lot of black kids doing amazing things, achieving learning, getting into college, the rest of it, why? High standards, strictly enforced discipline, and high expectations of the kids. And the kids love it and they excel like crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sounds like white supremacy to me.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, my Lord. Jason Riley with a great piece about that. But I was going to use that to introduce another one of my favorite black thinkers, Roland Fryer, who's writing about the economics of culture, which we were just talking about life choices. People from cultures that emphasize productive habits tend to advance. The reverse is also true. I mean, that's one of the most self evidently obvious things you could possibly say. But man, that is strict verboten on the left to say that. That is why you hear those idiotic things like punctuality as white supremacy and trying hard is white supremacy and exceptionalism, or what's the. You promote people based on their excellence. Is white supremacy meritocracy? Meritocracy, yeah, exactly. But Roland writes, and you may know, he was the guy who came out with a carefully constructed study early in his career that said no, young black men are not disproportionately shot and shot dead in America by police. It's not true. And it was unassailable research, but the left essentially made him a proprietor. But anyway, he writes, culture is one of the most underrated ideas in economics. For decades, economists avoided invoking cultures.

[Jack Armstrong]

The share you are, you are scratching the biggest itch. I've got this. This is. Wow. Really my, this is my thing right here.

[Joe Getty]

I'm loving putting aside the highly troubling metaphor. I'm glad to be doing so. For decades, economists avoid invoking culture, the shared values, norms, beliefs, preferences and behaviors of a group, as an explanation for economic outcomes. It seemed too intangible to measure and too messy to model. Thomas Sowell. Oh my God. Two of my favorite thinkers happen to be black men quoted in the same thing, whose legacy was celebrated recently at Stanford's Hoover Institution. Changed that. He was among the first economists to treat culture as an important economic variable. Mr. Sowell has argued that both human capital and culture drive mobility, more so, in his view, than discrimination or external barriers. Groups that develop productivity enhancing traits such as skills, an orientation toward education and work and thriftiness tend to advance. Those whose cultures don't emphasize these things tend to fall behind. In Mr. Sowell's view, culture is a form of capital, an accumulation of habits. And know how that powerfully influences a group's project. Progress could not be truer. And, and you know, I'd like to read this whole thing because it's so incredibly important. I'll bet he goes into a bunch of different studies. Go ahead.

[Jack Armstrong]

I'll bet that the reason it's so recent that anybody talked about it, wrote about it, is that we just were all in agreement up until fairly recently, mid ish 20th century, that yeah, of course being thrifty and working hard is a good idea and everybody should do it. It was mostly in agreement. It wasn't until we started to. Well, you know, I get back to Elvis and the Beatles and the devolving of our culture. I think it all fits together actually.

[Joe Getty]

But so again, we're pressed for time, but so he goes into his research and his academic background and he talks about cultural differences across racial and ethnic groups are unmistakable. And then he talks about various shows and how popular they are among cultures. But for social scientists, the hardest part of studying culture is trying to find a way to measure it. And in the early to mid 2000s, Stephen Levitt and I tried, he's from Freakonomics Guy tried to answer that question by focusing on one small but revealing expression of cultures. The names parents give their children. Um, man, that's, it's long and interesting. But here's, here's the most revealing part of this. They went into other parts of the world, other countries with cultures you know nothing about, and you had two groups of people that look just like this, just the same similar religions et CETERA but over here they valued hard work, savings, education, et cetera. Over there they didn't. Guess what the first group did way, way better than the other ones. And it wasn't white supremacy because there weren't any damn white people. They refer to the fact that. And what's the number? I wish I could find it. That Pakistani Americans earn 60 cents on the dollar to Indian Americans because of what?

[Jack Armstrong]

White racism?

[Joe Getty]

Are you kidding me? No. Cultural norms. It's like the most important thing in the world and nobody wants to talk about it because they're chickens. But I don't care. I'll talk about it, sir.

[Jack Armstrong]

Chickens. We'll finish strong. Next.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Michelangelo Michael]

Billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman shared some dating advice over the weekend on X and said that he would ask may I meet you? Before engaging further in a conversation and claimed he, quote, almost never got a no. However, he did get a lot of six digit phone numbers.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that was his opening line. He'd walk up to women and say may I meet you? And he said it worked a lot. Guess what? He's pretty good looking guy. See, that's the thing with everything when it comes to dating. That opening line works if you look like him. Practically any opening line would work if you look like him. Almost none would work if you don't. And it's the same with just all kinds of different things. That cologne smells good on you because you're attractive. It's making it just all kinds of different things like that.

[Joe Getty]

I've always like that study that came out that good looking guys are almost never cited for sexual harassment. Whereas the plain looking sort are all the time for precisely the same thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Chris Rock has a routine where he talks about the guy who gets the most girls. Sets the fashion sense for your friend group. When you're young and I was looking back on my life and that's very, very true. And he said like, you know, there's a group of four or five dudes, they're all friends. The guy who girls like the most, you look at his outfit, you think, yeah, those are pretty cool shoes. I need some shoes like that that you think that that's like the key and it's. And it's not rich. The most expensive piece of modern art sold yesterday. Sotheby sold this painting from 1914. This is really early modern art. I don't mind early modern art because it actually looks like art. But it sold for $236 million in salt.

[Joe Getty]

This one particular painting, the Klimt, it's in my family room. Looks great over the sofa. Cool. Yeah, nice.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's final thoughts. I'm strong. It's final thoughts.

[Joe Getty]

It's final thoughts.

[Katie Greener]

I'm strong.

[Jack Armstrong]

Here's your host for final thoughts, Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew to wrap things up for the day. There he is, our time technical director, Michelangelo Michael. Final thought.

[Katie Greener]

You are so correct about life being all about choices you make. I think back and I think, you know, if I made that choice, that my life would be different. But I'm pretty happy with the way things worked out.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, good for you.

[Joe Getty]

There you go. Katie Greener, esteemed newswoman, has a final thought.

[Katie Greener]

Katie, we were calling raccoons trash pandas. My two other favorites. Gators are murder logs and peacocks are disco chickens.

[Joe Getty]

Murder. One of those things. Murder. They're both great. Jack, a final thought just to justify.

[Jack Armstrong]

Us talking about it a lot today. Latest poll, 80% of Americans wanted the Epstein files to come out, including 2/3 of Republicans. Lots of people agreed with that.

[Joe Getty]

My final thought is also raccoon related. I'm fascinated by this article from Scientific American talking about how raccoons are doing exactly what dogs did way, way, way back in the day. Hanging around kind of at the edge of our campsite, picking at the garbage. And the more friendly ones and the less aggressive ones are getting closer and closer. Soon somebody's gonna pet one. You know, they may get their hand chewed off, but maybe not pet raccoons in 30 years, 100 years, we don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

We're gonna talk about that more in the One more thing podcast, are we not?

[Joe Getty]

I thought we were. Are we not?

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't remember.

[Joe Getty]

No, I would not.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.

[Joe Getty]

You gotta go to armstrong yeti.com. check out the Armstrong Yeti swag store. Oh my gosh. Pick up T shirt. A hat for yourself for your favorite ang fan.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'll see you tomorrow. God bless America.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty. There's a fantastic podcast that you gotta listen to every day. It's got Jack and Joe, Katie and Michelangelo. It's called Armstrong and Giddy on Demand. Subscribe now wherever you download your podcast Armstrong and Getty on the net. Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

This is an I heart podcast.