Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: "I Want To Live Long Enough To See History Misportrayed"
Date: February 19, 2026
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty

Episode Overview

This episode centers on the current state of U.S.-Iran relations and military posturing, the lack of public debate about potential conflict, the complexities of historical events (especially as they’re misportrayed over time), culture wars in American education, youth activism, and a human/animal neuroscience lesson related to high-performance pressure. The hosts blend their trademark conversational, often wry style with sharp commentary on politics, history, and society.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. U.S.-Iran Tensions: Military Build-up and Media Messaging

• Main Takeaway: Tensions in the Middle East are rapidly escalating, with a potential U.S. strike on Iran said to be "90% likely" according to leaked administration sources (Axios). The hosts critique the lack of public awareness and engagement on the topic.

  • Joe Getty (01:15): “Axios reports the chance of military action against Iran in coming weeks is 90%.”
  • Jack Armstrong (01:30): "These are on purpose leaks designed to reach the leadership of Iran… much more like a war than what we saw over the summer."
  • Discussion around possible intended messaging behind leaks and the possibility of a more severe and protracted campaign compared to previous operations.

• Quagmire or Quick Strike?

  • Hosts debate whether a strike on Iran could become another Iraq-style quagmire.
    • Jack Armstrong (05:22): “My pushback on the idea that this will be another quagmire like Iraq… Iran has killed more US soldiers than any other country on the planet over the last half century.”
    • Joe Getty shares a listener’s email—a retired Air Force veteran—arguing that the Iranian regime is weak and could crumble quickly, with much of the population opposed to the Ayatollah.

• Trump’s Style:

  • Contrast Trump’s transactional approach with President Bush’s democracy-spreading ethos.
    • Joe Getty (06:28): "Trump, I think, is well cut out to deal with the Middle Eastern countries. He gets it… Unfortunately, sometimes he treats our neighbors and friends in the same way, in an entirely transactional way, which I don't think is proper, but he gets the Middle East."

2. Iraq War Reflection & History’s Misportrayal

• Hosts recall the massive public debate preceding the Iraq War—and contrast it to current silence on Iran.

  • Jack Armstrong (03:49): “The build up to Iraq… was like the only topic for a long time… I haven’t heard a single person bring up Iran.”

• Critique of the de-Baathification blunder in Iraq and its role in generating chaos; discussion of figures like L. Paul Bremer and Wolfowitz.

• Jack Armstrong references John Lukacs’s “Five Days in London, May 1940” as a model of how history is always more complicated, and how future retellings are often wrong or oversimplified.

  • (12:09): “One reason I want to live to be a very, very old man is I want to see how a lot of things I’ve lived through are portrayed historically decades and decades later…”

• Memorable Moment

  • Joe Getty (12:32): “I want to live long enough to see history misportrayed and it makes me so angry I die. That’s good to have a goal.”
  • Jack Armstrong (12:41): “I can’t wait to live long enough to see everybody get history wrong.”

3. Youth Activism, School Indoctrination, and Neo-Marxism

• Armstrong & Getty delve into student protests against ICE in American schools, questioning the role of teachers and school administrations in encouraging activism at very young ages.

  • Joe Getty (14:05): “You know, I’ve been howling for quite a while now about the progressive neo Marxist takeover of our nation’s schools.”
  • Jack Armstrong (14:11): “[My son] would talk about these arguments they got into at lunchtime about trans stuff and all these and I said, who’s bringing this up?... It’s got to be being introduced by the school, doesn’t it?”
  • Discussion transitions to disturbing audio of high school and even middle schoolers (heard chanting and reciting politically charged poetry) at anti-ICE protests.
    • Joe Getty (21:36): “That’s unbelievable. That’s like the sound I expect out of kids if a school shooter is on campus.”
    • Both hosts express alarm at the level of anger and politicization among very young students.

• Historical Parallels:

  • Comparison to China’s Cultural Revolution and Mao’s use of youth.
  • Joe Getty (21:54): “That is straight out of the Cultural Revolution in China where Mao turned the kids against their parents…”

• Classroom Reality:

  • The hosts highlight a high-profile essay by Professor Sam Abrams of Sarah Lawrence College, who details his students’ immediate rejection of nonviolent protest in favor of armed confrontation.
    • Joe Getty paraphrasing Abrams (25:35): “Several endorsed armed confrontation with ICE as both effective and ethically justified.”
  • Further reading and commentary follows, warning that students’ naïveté about violence may end tragically and arguing that the rule of law exists precisely to protect the privileged.

• Notable Quote

  • Joe Getty, reading and reflecting (27:23): “This may be the first generation of utopians who want to wage a revolution without spilling their lattes…”

4. Social Class, Revolution, and Lawlessness

• Conversation about the tendency of privileged youth to feel immune from the repercussions of social breakdown.
  • Jack Armstrong (30:38): “It is interesting that the mostly well to do college crowd thinks that if the S really hits the fan, they’ll be safe.”
  • Joe Getty (31:16): “They’ve learned self hatred. They hate their parents, they hate themselves, they hate their society. And so they become Marxists to ease their guilt.”

5. Performance Pressure: The "Quad God" & Rhesus Monkey Neuroscience

• Transition to Olympic winter sports: analysis of U.S. men's and women's hockey teams and the figure skating “Quad God,” Ilya Malinin, who fell from grace under Olympic pressure.
  • Joe Getty (34:25): “Ilya Malinin, the so called quad God, who… fell on his arse repeatedly and ended up in eighth even though he is the best skater on the planet.”
  • Joe Getty shares a Carnegie Mellon/University of Pittsburgh study on rhesus monkeys to explain the neuroscience of “choking” under pressure:
    • When the stakes are raised too high, the primates’ brains become overly cautious, interfering with normally smooth motions—mirroring what happens to elite athletes and performers.
  • Joe Getty (36:52): “Earl the monkey consistently hit the target… until the reward hit Jackpot proportions… then he missed 11 out of 11 times because there’s too much on the line.”
  • Hosts discuss how performers must rely on training and avoid overthinking to succeed in these high-pressure situations.
    • Jack Armstrong (38:14): “There are some people who that part of their brain probably doesn’t work very well. They don’t care. So they just get out there and excel.”

Memorable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• On lack of debate about Iran
  • Jack Armstrong (03:49): “I haven’t heard a single person bring up Iran.”
• On history's distortion
  • Joe Getty (12:32): “I want to live long enough to see history misportrayed and it makes me so angry I die. That’s good to have a goal.”
• On school activism
  • Joe Getty (14:05): “You literally now have third graders walking out to protest ice. That is insane that that’s being permitted. Why is it being... it's being encouraged and organized by the administration and teachers of your local schools."
• On youth revolutionaries
  • Joe Getty (27:23): “This may be the first generation of utopians who want to wage a revolution without spilling their lattes.”
• On the neuroscience of choking
  • Joe Getty (36:52): “Earl the monkey consistently hit the target… until the reward hit Jackpot proportions… then he missed 11 out of 11 times because there’s too much on the line.”

Key Segment Timestamps

• Opening U.S.-Iran Military Discussion: 00:58 – 07:48
• Debate: Quagmire vs. Quick Strike: 03:20 – 07:48
• History & Iraq War Reflections: 09:21 – 12:41
• School Indoctrination, Youth Protests: 12:59 – 19:11
• Middle/High School Protest Audio & Discussion: 14:47 – 24:41
• Professor Sam Abrams/Student Violence Rhetoric: 24:41 – 30:17
• Class & Revolution: 30:17 – 31:40
• Sports: Olympic Hockey & Quad God: 32:54 – 38:02
• Rhesus Monkey Study (Performance Pressure): 34:25 – 38:44

Tone & Style

The episode maintains the Armstrong & Getty signature: candid, conversational, equal parts satirical and earnest, with layered references to history, politics, and culture. While the tone is often wry and exasperated, the hosts shift to passionate seriousness when discussing the stakes of foreign policy and generational change.

Summary

For listeners wanting both sharp current-events insight and broader worries about how our stories are told and retold, this episode offers a broad tour: from impending war, to the pitfalls of past policy, through the cultural battles in schools, and ending with a blend of science and Olympic heartbreak. Armstrong & Getty keep it lively, critical, and thought-provoking throughout.