Go Feed Fairy Dust To Your Pet Unicorn, Sir

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: Go Feed Fairy Dust To Your Pet Unicorn, Sir

Date: December 4, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty dive into the ramifications of rising corporate taxes in Washington state and the increasingly antagonistic political rhetoric surrounding big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon. They critique progressive ideology, explore the realities of economics through Hayek's theories, and weigh in on topics ranging from designer babies and marriage culture to the perils of mob mentality and performative corporate activism. The show is peppered with their trademark sarcasm, biting humor, and frequent digressions into cultural commentary.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Washington State vs. Big Tech: The Tax Debate

• Context: Reporter Brandy Cruz interviews State Rep. Sean Scott about Microsoft's warning over high taxes.

• Rep. Scott’s Stance: He refuses to prioritize the needs of corporations, implying workers could create a "better" Amazon by collectivizing.

• Hosts' Reaction: Jack and Joe mock Scott’s “fantasy view” of economics, arguing it’s naïve and untethered from reality.

  • Jack: “Seriously, go home and feed fairy dust to your pet unicorn, sir, because you have no connection with reality.” [06:09]
  • Joe: “You just think that like multibillion-dollar corporations will just keep cranking out money for your town or state or this country regardless of how you treat them.” [03:45]

• Brad Smith’s Warning: Microsoft’s President points out that excessive taxes drive jobs away, even for his own company.

  Timestamps:

  • Interview & analysis – [01:29]–[07:00]
  • Rep. Scott’s answer dissected – [04:30]–[05:27]

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2. Economic Realities: Hayek and the Limits of Planning

• Main Point: Jack references Friedrich Hayek’s "The Use of Knowledge in Society" to stress the impossibility of central economic planning.

• Quote:

  • Jack: "The free market solves all of that and nearly instantaneously, over and over and over again. It's a miracle of efficiency. And yet we keep everything effing with it." [10:20]

  Timestamps:

  • Hayek discussion – [09:27]–[10:41]

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3. The Ethics and Weirdness of Designer Babies

• News Segment: Discussion of Nucleus Genomics offering embryo screening for “desirable” traits like intelligence, height, or lack of acne.

• Hosts’ Reaction: All co-hosts find the language and practice ethically troubling and foresee social pressures for “perfection.”

  • Joe: “The term desirable child is not troubling at all.” [16:10]
  • Katie Greener: “This whole thing is sick to me… you shouldn’t be a parent.” [18:37]

  Timestamps:

  • Genetics & ethics topic – [15:20]–[19:12]

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4. Changing Pressures on Marriage and Settling Down

• Article Discussed: Freya India’s commentary in The Free Press challenges the narrative that young women face societal pressure to marry young.

• Hosts’ Discussion: The modern script often values independence over early commitment, with those marrying young now seen as “wasting their potential.”

• Quote:

  • Jack (paraphrasing the article): "The young woman who settles down has always been seen as wasting her potential." [24:40]
  • Joe: “There’s certainly not community pressure to find a man, get married and have kids around here.” [24:12]

  Timestamps:

  • Marriage norms debate – [21:57]–[31:01]

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5. Mob Mentality & Performative Corporate Change

• Example: Land O’Lakes butter changed its Native American logo during “The Great Awokening”; hosts lampoon how minor symbolic changes were made out of fear, not public demand.

• Main Point: Social movements can become absurd and destructive when fueled by groupthink and intellectual fads.

• Quote:

  • Jack: “That's what the postmodernists do. They bully you into changing everything, and so confuse you that you just go ahead and take orders from them because you don't know what to do.” [33:03]
  • Joe: “Being part of an angry mob is fun and exciting.” [35:09]

  Timestamps:

  • Logo changes & mob mentality – [32:08]–[35:29]

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6. Other Notable Segments

- Pipe Bomber Arrested from Jan 6th

• The suspect is from a wealthy family, still living at home at 30.
• Jack: “The rich ninny anarchist. Oh, golly.” [36:47]

- Metal in Cheese Recall

• Sarcastic commentary on modern safety scares.
• Jack: "Daddy, there's metal fragments in my taco. Shut up and enjoy it." [32:10]

- Final Philosophical Reflection

• Jack: “Take time to be morally serious before you would direct others.” [37:08]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "Go home and feed fairy dust to your pet unicorn, sir, because you have no connection with reality."
  – Jack Armstrong [06:09]

• "I don't center those people in my policies."
  – Washington State Rep. Sean Scott [02:17; 02:50] (mocked throughout episode)

• "Being part of an angry mob is fun and exciting."
  – Jack Armstrong [35:09]

• "The pressure today is to avoid anything that might stick, to run through life without getting snagged on any responsibilities..."
  – Quoting Freya India, discussed by Jack and Katie [23:30–29:10]

• "You just think that multibillion-dollar corporations will just keep cranking out money...regardless of how you treat them?"
  – Joe Getty [03:45]

• "The free market solves all of that and nearly instantaneously, over and over and over again. It's a miracle of efficiency. And yet we keep effing with it."
  – Jack Armstrong [10:20]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• Big Tech Tax Debate — [01:29]–[07:00]
• Hayek and Economics — [09:27]–[10:41]
• Designer Babies Ethics — [15:20]–[19:12]
• Marriage, Singlehood & Social Pressure — [21:57]–[31:01]
• Land O’Lakes & Mob Mentality — [32:08]–[35:29]
• Philosophical Final Thought — [37:08]–[37:32]

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Tone & Takeaways

The episode maintains Armstrong & Getty's well-known sardonic tone, blending passionate critique with exasperated humor and cultural skepticism. They lampoon progressive economic thinking, express deep wariness of utopian social engineering, and rail against intellectual trends they see as disconnected from common sense or lived reality. Listeners are left with a blend of economic literacy, cultural skepticism, and frequent comedic asides—encouraged, ultimately, to think critically about both policy and prevailing cultural winds.

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Useful if you missed the episode: This summary captures the central themes, memorable soundbites, and provides clear markers for the show’s key arguments—minus the ads, intros, and outros.

Transcript

[Podcast Advertiser]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio Studio, the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty. Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty.

[Reporter Brandy Cruz]

So do you understand that there is a likelihood that businesses could decide Microsoft just said they would sure to move jobs out of the state. And are you concerned about that?

[Washington State Representative Sean Scott]

Right. Those aren't the entities that I center in my policy making. I believe that they're spoken for enough in Olympia.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my gosh, you can tell a progressive, can't you? Because they hurl around the nomenclature, the terminology they learned in college and in their marches training classes. That's reporter Brandy Cruz talking to Washington State Representative Sean Scott about what was what's called a chilling warning from Microsoft. New Washington state taxes trying to soak corporations in the quote unquote rich are going to drive high paying jobs right out of the state.

[Joe Getty]

And what did he say? I didn't understand what he said.

[Jack Armstrong]

He said I don't center those people in my policies. Okay, you gotta center people right and speak their truth and all that crap that they're always talking about. So as thousands of tech workers across the Seattle region face layoffs, Microsoft's top executive is issuing a stark warning to Washington lawmakers. Keep raising taxes and you risk driving companies and their high paying jobs out of the state.

[Joe Getty]

Well, that's fine.

[Jack Armstrong]

Brad Smith.

[Joe Getty]

I don't center those people in my policies.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, maybe you should start. Microsoft President Brad Smith said if Washington's tax burden becomes quote, prohibitive, companies will reconsider where they put jobs. That includes Microsoft itself.

Democrats and newly elected Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson have campaigned on raising taxes on wealthy residents and large companies. Tech has become the political punching bag of choice. Cast is the villain in the region's affordability crisis even as the industry powers Washington's economy.

[Joe Getty]

You know, maybe it's because I'm sick, but I've got.

I got less energy for this crowd right like right at this moment. I hate, I don't want to you call them progressives. Is that the right name?

[Jack Armstrong]

Or.

[Joe Getty]

I don't even know.

[Jack Armstrong]

But I hate them.

[Joe Getty]

I hate you.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, you're dumb. Think you hate them? You're dumb. Wait till I play the.

[Joe Getty]

What?

[Jack Armstrong]

You're completely ignorant of how the world works. Yes.

[Joe Getty]

You just think that like multi billion dollar corporations will just keep cranking out money for your town or state or this country regardless of how you treat them. It's just what.

[Jack Armstrong]

Indoctrinated into this fantasy view of how humanity works by smart but insidious people and they swallow it whole and they spout it out. They repeat the mantras. There's no like original or critical thought here. You're just demand. It's just demanded of you that you repeat the mantras. So anyway, this. Brandy Cruise, the reporter, continues the conversation with State Rep. Sean Scott. Listen to this. Would you.

[Reporter Brandy Cruz]

Would you like them to leave? Representative SCOTT do you think that Amazon and Microsoft are a net good for our state?

[Washington State Representative Sean Scott]

Say more about that. When you say net good, what do you mean?

[Reporter Brandy Cruz]

Do you think they contribute and add more value to our state than they detract?

[Washington State Representative Sean Scott]

I think that workers, were they to collectivize, could come up with something like Amazon on their own, but that Amazon has a very difficult time providing the value that you would like to see in reverse. In other words, I think that working people getting together, forming unions, coming out and lobbying for policies such as this could create something that resembled an Amazon corporation without that added layer of exploitation. But I don't know that Amazon's leadership, such as it is, would be able to do something like that on its own. So I'm much more concerned with the social good of people that are in Washington state that want to be here, that believe in Washington state enough to fight for well funded public programs and they can speak for themselves through other channels if they would like to.

[Joe Getty]

That was, that was too many words. The correct answer to that question was yes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yes, yes.

[Joe Getty]

It is a net good that we have Amazon in the state.

[Jack Armstrong]

How great was his idea that if workers unionize and band together, they can come up with their own socialist Amazon and get that going and have all the benefits without exploitation.

[Joe Getty]

Because creating one of the, what, two or three most successful companies in the history of the world is easy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. The workers can just band together and do it instead of the evil capitalists.

[Joe Getty]

You're an idiot. You're just. These people are idiots. They drive me crazy because they're moronic.

[Jack Armstrong]

Seriously, go home and feed fairy dust to your pet unicorn, sir, because you have no connection with reality. Does he have no understanding of how the world actually works?

[Joe Getty]

I think he believes that S. Oh, he does.

[Jack Armstrong]

100%.

[Podcast Advertiser]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's my point. He lives in a fantasy world.

And he's, you know, a popularly elected government official in Washington state.

Even some Democrats are sounding alarms. Now, of course, virtually everybody who gets office in, except for eastern Washington is Democrat. But the commerce director, Joe Nguyen, who himself is a proud progressive, he told Bloomberg that he has spent time and this is smart. Mr. Nguyen, you are not a unicorn riding jackass. You might be wrong about stuff, but I congratulate you on your realism. He has spent his time studying Rust Belt cities that collapsed after driving out employers. And he has been telling lawmakers that punitive taxes risk repeating that history says, quote unquote, if you want to tax the rich, you have to have rich people to tax. If you want to protect workers, they have to have jobs to work in. It's a good point. Great coverage as usual from our colleagues at Seattle Red 7:70am I tip my.

[Joe Getty]

Cap to whoever that reporter was. What a great question to ask somebody like that. Do you think this company is a Net plus? And then just let them. Let them answer that. Let them hang themselves by their own nonsense.

Because any answer other than yes is moronic. I mean, even if they were like.

Relatively abusive, I mean, like your worst version of capitalism you can possibly come up with, it still would be a net positive for the state because people are voluntarily working there. And the amount of tax money you're getting, jobs and tax money you're getting, it's just overwhelming.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right? Microsoft is not enslaving people. All right? The Microsoft cavalry didn't come across the hills conquer Seattle and has now enslaved the poor residents. They're there voluntarily, you jackass. You know, where do you even start with somebody that, well, he's a cultist. He's been convinced of reality that is not real. Which reminds me, I read a great piece. I think it was in. Yeah, it was in the Dispatch talking about one of Friedrich Hayek's books which I haven't read and I'm going to buy it and add it to the stack of stuff and at some point which one I'm gonna go wild reading the Use of Knowledge in Society which came out 80 years ago last month. It's not nearly as well known as the Road to Serfdom. I read that which is his all time, you know, great. It's his stairway to heaven. But the Use of Knowledge in Society Hayek lays out society's fundamental economic challenge quite clearly. It's not merely a problem of how to allocate given resources. In other words, settling the usual who gets what and how debate. It's a knowledge problem. How can we make the best, most efficient use of our limited resources when no single entity, even like a vast government, can know everything there is to know about a given economy?

And if you're familiar with the great SAI pencil, you know what we're getting at here. But can a team of the world's greatest economists come close to accounting for what a factory will pay for steel, what it will do next if it can't find that price, and what every employee or steel using industry and those companies employees will do once they are affected? The ripple effects are endless and unknowable as Pete Bottke writes in the Dispatch.

And planners can't know what firm's employees are willing to pay for a sandwich outside the plant, or what the sandwich maker, bread maker and meat supplier, each with their own set of countless unknowable circumstances, are willing and able to do to meet the workers price. There's simply too much information underlying even the simplest seeming economic transactions.

And the free market solves all of that and nearly instantaneously, over and over and over again. It's a miracle of efficiency. And yet we keep everything effing with it. The government does. Or the fools who believe in big government to try to gain a utopia. Leave it alone.

[Joe Getty]

Can can you play that last clip that we played again? We won't play the whole thing, but I want to hear the first.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh so good.

[Reporter Brandy Cruz]

Would you like them to leave? Representative Scott do you think that Amazon and Microsoft are a net good for our state?

[Washington State Representative Sean Scott]

Say more about that. When you say that good.

[Reporter Brandy Cruz]

What do you mean you think they contribute and add more value to our state than they detract?

[Washington State Representative Sean Scott]

I think that.

Were they to collect.

[Joe Getty]

He goes off on his rant. So it's just, it's mind blowing to me. So you think the state would be better off if Amazon and Microsoft were.

[Jack Armstrong]

Somewhere else.

Well, yes, because the workers could develop a perfect socialist Amazon.

[Joe Getty]

Of course they would have.

[Jack Armstrong]

And they haven't. Just because they've been held back by the evil capitalists.

[Podcast Announcer]

That is so nuts.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

There are arguments where, you know, you're.

I'm right, but they got a 20% decent point. But this one is just, this one's open and shut.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, yeah, it's, it's fanciful. It's ridiculous. I mean, if he said, well, yes, of course, but if you look at their rate of on the job accidents, they're mistreating workers. Okay, let's talk. That's fine, let's talk. But no, we should build a worker Amazon and then a worker Apple and then workers of the world unite. OpenAI and have workers develop all the great medications that are saving so many lives these days.

[Joe Getty]

Well, yeah, it's a simple thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Start with a jackass like that.

[Joe Getty]

You don't need to go into all that. The answer is yes. Is a net positive for the state to have Amazon and Microsoft here? Yes, of freaking course it is.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Every other state would crawl on their knees over broken glass to have Amazon or Microsoft in their state.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is it a good thing to saw off your hand with a rusty saw? What do you mean by good thing?

[Joe Getty]

Expound on that, would you?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, expound on that. But, well, yeah, that's, that's, that's a person who has completely lost their head.

I would, you know, I'd like to ask Representative Scott.

I'm not going to threaten him with a hammer or a sickle, but I'd like to ask him, why do you think states, counties, countries compete feverishly to get these companies to build a headquarters, build a plant there? Why do you suppose that is? Is it possibly because, yes, it's an effing net positive. You don't.

[Joe Getty]

Jackass. Butt clown.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow. There are some ideas so idiotic only an intellectual could hold them.

[Joe Getty]

Yep.

[Jack Armstrong]

Thomas Sowell.

[Joe Getty]

Yep. And there, there are intellectuals who heard that answer and nodded their head because it made sense to them.

[Jack Armstrong]

Collectivist Amazon. Yes, let's get to work on that, you weirdo. It'd be like a Soviet, you know, tank factory. Every bit is efficient and profitable.

[Joe Getty]

More on the way. Stay here.

[Podcast Announcer]

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[Joe Getty]

Play it, Steve. Did you hear the Steve from Play it? Steve died yesterday.

Steve Cropper.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh. Oh, no, I didn't. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

One of the great guitar players of all time, if you're into guitar.

He was old.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. The Stacks record.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

House band.

[Joe Getty]

Him and Duck. Done. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

The. The Blues Brothers corps, essentially was, you know, the Stacks records. Geniuses. You know them.

[Joe Getty]

I was a little concerned that we haven't presented you with enough things to be worried about today, so here's this.

[Narrator on Nucleus Genomics Segment]

Keon Sedegi made headlines this year when his company, Nucleus Genomics, offered to screen embryos for risk of disease and much, much more.

[Jack Armstrong]

We look at something like height, even.

[Joe Getty]

Eye color, hair color.

[Washington State Representative Sean Scott]

Intelligence.

[Joe Getty]

Intelligence.

[Katie Greener]

We give you acne.

[Jack Armstrong]

Acne. Y.

[Narrator on Nucleus Genomics Segment]

The idea, he says, is to help deliver not just a healthier child, but a more desirable child, too. At this sprawling facility in central New Jersey, Nucleus scans samples of embryos conceived through in vitro fertilization for about $30,000. Parents can see the results before picking one to implant. But as his company grows, the field of reproductive genetics itself is an ethical mess, according to the MIT Technology Review.

[Joe Getty]

Well, the term desirable child is not troubling at all.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah, no kidding. I think we all went. We talk about that phrase. It's horrifying. Yeah, it's horrifying. It really is horrifying.

[Joe Getty]

Well, and so kind of like with the thing with braces, where.

It went from, if you have really, really crooked teeth, you get braces, but everybody else know to like. Practically everybody gets braces. And now if you don't get braces with a minor thing, you stand out. Blah, blah, blah. So is that what it's going be like for kids in 10 years? You're gonna let a kid come into the world that has acne and is under 6 foot tall? Kind of horrible parent, are you?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Yeah.

I feel like you need to have a more desirable. Something weird and awful as a race.

[Joe Getty]

Of course we have no idea. Like they said there at the end, Scott, like just endless list of ethical problems. We have no idea from a evolutionary standpoint what this is going to do if we start picking out all six foot, blue eyed, blonde haired, no acne children.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right, right. And anybody who's not repulsed by the phrase desirable child, you know, is gonna go wild. You know, we can give you the most attractive, intelligent child that is up to our highest standard. There is an upcharge, of course, but your neighbors are fathering, mothering. They're. They're producing desirable children. If you want to go one level above, we can help you do that.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, that neighborhood over there, they can only afford undesirable children, which is an awful thing to think.

[Jack Armstrong]

We're heading for H.G. wells, the time Machine. Right. Your. Your Eloy and your whatsits, your brutish creatures.

[Joe Getty]

So I assume everybody would mostly pick tall as opposed to not tall. What. What hair color would people mostly pick? Blue eyes.

[Jack Armstrong]

They seem to be popular in popular culture.

[Joe Getty]

Wouldn't be as. Wouldn't be as universal as tall, because I don't think anybody picks short, but.

Some people would pick brown, but it'd be a lot of blue. Be a lot of blonde hair, I suppose. I don't know. I don't have enough. I don't have an opinion on that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Judging by the hair dyeing industry, yes. Katie, your thoughts?

[Katie Greener]

This whole thing is sick to me.

[Joe Getty]

It is sick.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Katie Greener]

I mean, I. I just did the IVF thing for health reasons, and the thought of, oh, well, I'm gonna pick his eye color and his hair color and how smart he's gonna be because I want him to be desirable. You shouldn't be a parent.

[Joe Getty]

And then the whole smart thing, I mean, that's more. That's more complicated than eye color and hair color. Smart. There's plenty of smart people who are miserable.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, yeah? Yeah. Genius is just another form of crazy.

[Katie Greener]

And I'll be damned if my kid's gonna have a pimple. Come on.

[Joe Getty]

And then, of course, the flip side of desirable is undesirable. So people are having undesirable children. Well, that's sick.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

Just in case you haven't heard it, there's a pretty big revelation that came out yesterday around the whole Pete Hegseth second strike on the boat story thing. It turns out there was a JAG officer there, a lawyer. Which is what? A JAG officer is a military lawyer who advises the commanders on whether or not what they want to do is Legal and signed off on. Yeah, these two guys not clinging to the boat. People love the word clinging because it sounds so helpless. They weren't clinging to the boat. They were scrambling across the boat while communicating, it looked like, with somebody on land or another boat to try to rescue the drugs. In other words, they were still participating in the effort to transport drugs. And the JAG officer, the lawyer there, told the commander, you are within your legal rights to blast them. Now, I don't know if that technically is true or not, but the idea that it was just kill them all and we just went off half cocked, right? No lawyer involved. It's just. And they were clinging to the boat, helpless. None of that is true.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now, if you want to argue Rand Paul style about whether this is a legitimate use of the military at all or killing people is justified, we can talk about that. But, yeah, I think to your point, the whole they went wild and just wanted to snuff people out of pure meanness narrative is just. It's not true. So, again, let's let some facts come out. You know, speaking of the drug thing, I was just reading how Venezuelan gangs and African jihadists are flooding Europe with cocaine.

They're now, you know, making enormous profits and. And financing their horrific Islamist activities and that sort of thing through selling drugs to Europeans. And I'm reminded of, was it Khrushchev who said, I will sell you the rope you used to hang yourself, or whatever the heck it was back in the day, The. The commies threatening us. Bastards. We showed them. For a while anyway. But that reminds me. So we're. We're financing the very jihadis who will bring down Western civilization with the Marxists. You know, I tell you what, you're in a society that does that. You're reaping what you sowed, right?

I mean, if you won't protect yourself.

All right, enough said, I guess. Okay. Total change of topic. I thought this was so interesting. I am not a young woman. I want to make that clear. I'm not even an old woman. Came across this piece, Katie, by.

Freya India. Her name is. It's an interesting name. It was in the. In the Free Press. And she says.

And jump in anytime. I keep hearing about how there's too much pressure to settle down as a young woman. Apparently, everyone wants to know when you're getting married, when you're having kids. Being single is stigmatized, shamed, pitied. We supposedly feel so rushed to find partners that we choose wrong, and that's why relationships are failing.

[Joe Getty]

Did she Write this in 1950.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that's kind of her point. It's this pressure to couple up, this feeling of being alone, blah, blah, blah. But this has never been my experience. She writes, my whole life, I've only ever felt the opposite.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

An overwhelming pressure to be single. Yes.

[Joe Getty]

And. And, and looking people giving you the side eye. If you want to get married young.

[Jack Armstrong]

And have kids, definitely right in the sec. Go ahead, Katie.

[Katie Greener]

Well, I'm just thinking, like, I mean, I know it varies by age. You know, I know a bunch of people that are in their 20s that that's the last thing on their mind. And I also have friends that are around my age that are like, I better get going.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, but that's their.

[Joe Getty]

That's an internal feeling, isn't it? As opposed to an external, internal push.

[Katie Greener]

Not completely, no. No. Because, you know, then there's the pressure. All your friends around you or Mario. When. When are you gonna find your guy? You know, it's. I, I mean, that happens.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well in societal pressure forms people's desires all the time. Yeah. Your clocks start to tick and scream.

[Joe Getty]

Really loud when you get to be.

[Katie Greener]

No, it's deafening.

[Jack Armstrong]

So she writes, in the secular liberal world, I used to think there were no expectations, no pressures. There is, though, the pressure today is to avoid anything that might stick, to run through life without getting snagged on any responsibilities, without getting tethered to someone else too early. I'm sure in some cultures there's some pressure to find someone, but I have felt rushed to do many things in modern life, and settling down has never been one of them.

Hmm.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Well, I live in a liberal enclave, so I don't know how much it represents the rest of the United States on this topic, but there's certainly not community pressure to find a man, get married and have kids around here.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And. And she points out that in a recent podcast, Emma Watson, the intelligent yet utterly unwise Harry Potter galaxy who's been slandering J.K. rowling, even utterly unjustifiable, said something about women are made to feel like they have no worth or haven't succeeded in life until they settle down. What, and fry again? Writes I. I have a hard time understanding this. In my world, it's the opposite. The young woman who settles down has always been seen as wasting her potential.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

The single child, free, even divorced woman is strong, wise, and knows her worth.

[Joe Getty]

Absolutely. Yeah. That is just completely made up scenario. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Most of the time, people aren't wondering why young women aren't having kids, but why we would at all. Nobody really mentions it, let alone pushes it. And I'm sure it wasn't always like this, but lately I see young men praised for committing while young women are warned. We are proud of young men. We pity young women.

[Katie Greener]

That's an interesting way to look at it, but I can see, I can see where she's coming from. Especially, you know, a lot of the people that are, or the women that are single. It's like that independent woman.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

You're calling your own shots. You're not answering.

[Katie Greener]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

Patriarchy. Who tells you you need to get married and have a kid.

[Jack Armstrong]

Are you implying that the patriarchy is supposed to be running the household? Because if that's the case, I've gotten it wrong.

Announce you're getting married in your twenties and complete strangers will rush to tell you horror stories about affairs and divorce and heartbreak. Why would you do that to yourself? Don't do what I did. Throw those years away.

We don't scrutinize the 25 year old who is still single, but the one who settles down. In fact, this feels like the only life decision left to disapprove of. The only one acceptable to judge. Wanting to commit is the one desire that is discouraged. Treating with suspicion the only thing in the modern world we are ever told to delay.

[Joe Getty]

I, I agree with that. Based on my observation.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Joe Getty]

And then you can add another layer to, of it. As a guy from the rural Midwest, there's the. If you, it you only do that because there's nothing else to do. There's nothing better to do. Like the better things are what.

I.

[Jack Armstrong]

Don'T know, more money for a corporation having exotic vacations.

[Joe Getty]

Well, you can do, you can make, make money for a corporation anywhere. So I think they, they mean like the entertainment options that exist on the coasts. Like, I don't know, concerts and ball games is a better thing to do than get married, have a kid, raise a family.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right? Yeah. And have a career.

[Joe Getty]

Look at it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny, I, I don't, I don't feel that.

I have three kids. One is married, one maybe at some point. Oh, my dad who turned 85 on Thanksgiving Day. I don't know if he has lost his filter or just doesn't give a crap because those are two different things. If you think, you know, this is going to make people uncomfortable, but it needs to be said or you've just lost the sense of how uncomfortable it's going to make people. Those are two different situations. But he Was utterly shameless in quizzing my youngest daughter Delaney and her man about what's going on here. What's. What's the timetable? What are we thinking here? You gonna make an honest woman of her or what?

[Katie Greener]

Oh, it's always a good time.

[Jack Armstrong]

And it was playful. It was definitely playful, but it was, it was.

It caused a great deal of rolling of eyes and hands and heads in hands.

[Joe Getty]

How did the male handle it?

[Jack Armstrong]

With a pretty good sense of humor.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it's an uncomfortable.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which is one of the reasons I like him.

Yeah, it was shameless.

[Katie Greener]

I can't wait for that time in my life.

[Joe Getty]

What I like with those kind of things is how some people just look like couples. Like, I got one niece and she's had several long term boyfriends. But her current long term boyfriend, they look like they've been married for 30 years. They just do.

[Jack Armstrong]

They just. They just.

[Joe Getty]

They should. They're out. They're probably going to get married and they just look like they. They are married couple. It's funny how people. Some people just fit together.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. You know, as. As this piece goes on, she gets more philosophical about.

There'S this pressure to delay, pressure to keep searching, pressure to do life alone. Don't fall too hard, too fast. Not to intertwine and entangle. Never to lose control, to keep lives and hearts uncrossed.

This impossible tightrope we're trying to walk. This vain attempt to fall in love while standing perfectly upright without ever losing our footing. Depending on someone without losing an inch of independence.

The pressure and pain of holding each other at arm's length at all times. Our lives perfectly partitioned, the stakes permanently low. That's really good writing.

[Joe Getty]

When's the timetable change that clearly they mean in your 20s at least.

[Katie Greener]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Really making a mistake if you get married and have kids. But. So by 42 you should. Or what does they get to that there are.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, no, she doesn't really write about that, but.

The lie. And it's interesting why people would. Would be so enthused about this lie. The lie that you can wait as long as you want and have kids.

Is. It's. That's. It's bad, it's damaging. It hurts people, particularly women. It gets more and more difficult. It's more and more prone to, you know, trouble for you and the baby. It's just. It's wrong. We're made. Look, we're made to have babies and start producing them when we're like 16, 17, 18. Because we are even by my comforts. Well, right. We're at the peak of our physical health. And did you tell you can't. You can't kill an 18 year old if you want to.

And granted, you know, okay, society's changing, put that off. But the idea that, oh, yeah, yeah, have your career, establish your career, then at age 45, become a mommy. It happens. And it's okay in a lot of cases, but as plans go, it's not nearly the best one. But again, if that has been your plan, you have a child and you love it dearly and you're doing your best, I, I bless you and wish you nothing but happiness.

[Joe Getty]

No, that's good because you can answer those emails all day long.

[Jack Armstrong]

You'll get generalized though. I'm talking. Generally speaking.

[Joe Getty]

No.

[Oregon Charter Academy Advertiser]

Are you?

[Jack Armstrong]

Please.

[Joe Getty]

Sounds like you're attacking them to me.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's like. No, it's like generally, it's like generalizing about whether it's a good idea to run off and join the circus or not. Generally speaking, no.

[Katie Greener]

Good comparison.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, it is a good comparison. Unless you're a dope. Oh, now I'm insulting my co workers. Wow, I'm so sorry. I just, I wag out of control. No, you're taking a much higher set of risks. Pros and cons, but, you know, teach their own. That's the beauty, Bill. And being a libertarian, I speak my piece now you go, do you. And I don't particularly care what you do.

[Joe Getty]

So they arrested the pipe BOMBER from the January 6th thing, if you remember that whole story. We'll see if there's any new details on that. And we will finish strong.

[Jack Armstrong]

Next, Armstrong and Getty. Major recall. More than 250,000 cases of shredded cheese products sold at major retailers, including Aldi, Target and Walmart. Sold in 31 states in Puerto Rico under different brands. Great Lakes Cheese Cheese Company says that cheese may contain metal fragments.

We are grateful for metal fragments in our grated cheese. When I was a kid, our shredded cheese. Please, our tacos. Our taco mix had DDT in it and the meat had rat's heads. We've gone soft as a country kids.

[Joe Getty]

Are there weak?

[Jack Armstrong]

Daddy, there's metal fragments in my taco. Shut up and enjoy it. Choke it down, son.

Yikes.

[Joe Getty]

For some reason, I was reminded the other day of the. The cheese company made me think of the butter company. Whichever butter company it was, that had an Indian on its logo. And during Lando Lakes. Right, Land o' Lakes. It was the same company, wasn't it? Wasn't that who they just mentioned? Anyway.

[Jack Armstrong]

The.

[Joe Getty]

During The Great Awokening.

[Jack Armstrong]

What.

[Joe Getty]

What drove Land O Lakes to have to get rid of the Indian woman on their butter? That's. That's right.

[Jack Armstrong]

It was a caricature of a native person who was exploiting them as a.

[Katie Greener]

Culture, not a costume.

[Joe Getty]

How did that become such a point for like 24 hours that they got frightened into changing their logo so there's no Indian woman on there.

[Jack Armstrong]

At the risk of turning this too serious, that's what the postmodernists do. They bully you into changing everything and so confuse you that you just go ahead and take orders from them because you don't know what to do or.

[Joe Getty]

What was he that was on the list of the. The dumbest things that happened during the Great Awokening. Like the angel Mimus syrup lady having.

[Jack Armstrong]

To look completely different even though it was modeled after the actual person. Sure. Uncle Ben's rice.

[Joe Getty]

Nobody was. Nobody was damaged in any way by any of these things. Nobody.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, Yeah, I know.

[Joe Getty]

It's a weird period. I hope we don't ever do that again.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. If you ever read some of the, like, original writings of. Of critical theory, the idea is you just pick out words and explain to the poor son of a bitch you spoke them how they're problematic and you need to.

Deproblematize them. And the point is to so confuse and discourage people, they don't resist anymore. That's the point of quibbling with every word you use and calling it problematic.

[Joe Getty]

That's what the intellectuals do. But then there's the crowd that goes along with it and gets all worked up and ahead of steam. That's like the French Revolution where it's just like on a daily basis you would change what you're all hot for.

[Jack Armstrong]

We can't have clock. Clocks are evil.

[Joe Getty]

And they go around all the churches and carved all the clocks out of the churches because clocks were somehow. We need to come up with a new way of keeping time 100 minutes in an hour or whatever.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

You get these fevers for these stupid things that last like a day. It's nuts.

[Katie Greener]

That's right. They really. They erased the chef from Cream of Wheat.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes. Oh, yeah, yeah. Because the systemic racism.

[Katie Greener]

Oh, and they got rid of the Eskimo on Eskimo Pies. That's.

[Joe Getty]

It goes without saying.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know if that guy is doing that Joe Getty quotes Twitter feed anymore. Oh, he is good. Here's one for you. And get it right. Would you do. Don't. Don't paraphrase what I say. I am a Wordsmith. There it is. And. And people don't. I don't think I've ever heard anybody say this.

Being part of an angry mob is fun and exciting.

That's true about human beings. They like it. We. They like I'm a dog. We like it. We like being part of an angry group.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, there's something evolutionary beneficial to evolution there, obviously, but it's not just, I'm.

[Jack Armstrong]

Pissed off, I let my mask slip. I am a space alien. I've been sent to observe y', all, and I'm not impressed.

Admit me chorus to this history who Prologue. Like your humble patience, pray gently to hear, kindly to judge the final thoughts of Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

And here's your host, Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew. There he is, Michelangelo, pushing the buttons. Michael, final thought? Yeah, I've been writing these down, Jack. People are sending in texts about how.

[Katie Greener]

To get rid of your cold.

[Joe Getty]

We got so far.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sleep with onions on both ankles, take a bath in tomato juice and put leeches on your back.

[Joe Getty]

Leeches on my back?

[Jack Armstrong]

Leeches on the back. So all three time. Katie Greener, esteemed newswoman, has a final thought.

[Katie Greener]

Katie, pregnancy problem, 936. You guys mentioned McDonald's in hour two. And that's all I can think about eating now.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, boy. Boy, it's pretty good. Jack, final thought for us. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

The only thing we know about this pipe bomb suspect from January 6th that they finally arrested five years later, super wealthy family, 30 years old, still living.

[Jack Armstrong]

With mom and dad, the rich ninny anarchist. Oh, golly. My final thought. Xu Shi, the Confucian philosopher of the 12th century, felt that he lived in an era characterized by a pressing need to go out and act, to rule and manage the world without first having ruled and managed the soul.

Take time to be morally serious before you would direct others. I'll work on that. Good.

[Joe Getty]

I'm gonna spend my afternoon, then I'll mow the lawn.

After being morally serious, it is necessary.

[Jack Armstrong]

To first devote the heart and mind to knowing one's nature, understanding its roots, and after that, exerting the meritorious need of maintaining and cultivating.

[Joe Getty]

Good idea. Worst live on Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.

[Jack Armstrong]

So many people to thank, so little time. Go to armstrongandgetti.com free shipping from the Ang store. Will you get it for Christmas? Probably. Maybe that's why we're offering free shipping. Roll the dice. Be bold.

[Joe Getty]

Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

Take the Armstrong and Getty challenge.

[Joe Getty]

We'll see you tomorrow. God bless America.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and get.

[Reporter Brandy Cruz]

The podcast.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty on demand. Let civilization fall apart. It's so my sheeple.

[Jack Armstrong]

Don't say anything crazy. Man.

[Joe Getty]

That's Joe's impersonation of if a sheep could talk.

[Jack Armstrong]

Thought that was self evident.

[Joe Getty]

And scene.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think my art speaks for itself. Armstrong and Getty.

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