Target the Mediocre

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand — "Target the Mediocre" (May 19, 2026)

Podcast: Armstrong & Getty On Demand (iHeartPodcasts)
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Episode Theme: Examining how ordinary, non-extremist individuals play critical roles in enabling authoritarian regimes and extreme actions, followed by an exploration of media activism, moral responsibility, and contemporary sociopolitical conflicts.

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Episode Overview

In "Target the Mediocre," Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty delve into the dynamics that allow authoritarian regimes and harmful institutions to function—not through fanatical ideologues, but thanks to scores of average people seeking personal advancement. Drawing from a recent Washington Post article and a new book on Argentina's Dirty War, the hosts explore the "banality of evil," career incentives, the nature of activism, and how societies are shaped by the acquiescence and ambitions of ordinary individuals. The episode then pivots to discuss current events, including controversy over activist-journalists at the Mangione trial, media bias, and broader sociopolitical trends.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Mediocre Underpinnings of Authoritarianism

[02:55 – 13:48]

• New Research Spotlight:
  Jack introduces a Washington Post article on autocracy, summarizing,
  "New research sheds light on how mediocre employees help would-be authoritarians maintain power."
  Leaders don’t just rely on committed ideologues; regimes function thanks to many ordinary, risk-averse workers on lower rungs, motivated by minor promotions or career pressures.

• Historical Parallels:

  • Reference to Argentina's Dirty War, Soviet apparatchiks, and Nazi bureaucrats.
  • Ties to Hannah Arendt’s concept:
    "She argued that great evil could be committed by ordinary people who simply accept premises, follow orders, conform with the system without really thinking about it, and are just trying to get ahead." [05:41]
  • Joe brings in Dostoevsky:
    "One can commit the foulest and most villainous act without being in the least a villain…You just get swept up." [06:54]

• Extrapolation to Today:
  The same patterns apply in corporations, universities, and modern activism:
  "You only really need 15% of committed revolutionaries to overthrow anything because you have enough other people that'll just go along with you." [09:40]

Notable Quotes:

• "The people who make those decisions, the research suggests, are neither extremists nor victims. They're often just middling workers looking for a way to get ahead." – Jack [05:15]
• "They just need to figure out how to target their ideal labor pool that are frustrated and mediocre." – Jack [07:20]
• "I don't think as many people are afflicted with a conscience as we'd like to believe." – Joe [10:17]

2. Social Norms, Mass Movements, and ‘Sheepleness’

[11:19 – 15:46]

• Norm Manipulation:
  Societies are governed by incentives and disincentives.
  "If you're trying to get a revolution started… you’ve got to change those norms… You've got to change people’s basic moral framework." – Joe [11:19]

• Measuring Compliance:
  The notion that most people are “sheeple,” following paths of least resistance.

  • "Some scientist needs to come up with a scale, a way of measuring sheepleness or anti-sheepleness." – Joe [13:48]

Notable Quotes:

• "You're really only looking for… X number of people with your high flying rhetoric. The rest just want $20 more than the other guy." – Joe [15:08]
• "Makers, not takers." – Jack [15:44]

3. Activism, Media, and the Mangione Trial

[23:19 – 35:08]

• Controversial Press Credentials:
  The hosts discuss the presence of radical activists posing as journalists at the Mangione trial, noting how lines between activism and journalism blur when institutional barriers are lifted for certain worldviews.

• Activist Soundbites:
  Clips feature April Rios and Lena Wise making extreme statements about a murdered healthcare executive, equating his policies with mass murder and justifying violence:

  • "His children are better off without him. They need to learn to not be like their dad and enjoy the blood money." – April Rios [25:57]
  • "If you guys are okay with someone like Ryan Thompson being around… you look monstrous… defending someone like that participates in social murder." – Lena Wise [26:54]
  • "He's responsible for more deaths than Osama bin Laden… It's not like we don't understand heroic violence." – April Rios [28:08]

• Critical Response:
  The hosts express alarm at the normalization of such rhetoric and the lack of mainstream pushback:

  • "It's horrifying that you could come out pro murder like that… and have it not get more attention than this." – Jack [34:56]

  • They question the light treatment by media and the mechanism by which these activists obtained press passes and advance their worldview under the veneer of journalism.

Notable Quotes:

• "They might be violent fools, but they're tools of the evildoers like we're describing in the earlier segment." – Joe [29:59]
• "You're giving press passes to people who are saying, glad the guy was murdered. Really, you gonna keep letting them go in?" – Jack [30:21]
• "If we start murdering people because of the alleged sins of their corporation… that's not a civilization I want to live in. I hate that we have to point that out." – Joe [31:41]

4. Societal Trends & Cultural Commentary

[37:21 – 43:04]

• Pop Culture & Politics:
  Brief pivot to marvel at American cultural exports (e.g., Elon Musk’s visit to China) and satirical news headlines.

• Superhero Media as Social Allegory:
  Jack reviews the new Marvel series, "Daredevil: Born Again," observing:

  • "It's about a crime-ridden New York City… former mob boss gets elected mayor… people just want order… people are willing to give a fair amount of leeway… you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to clean up the streets." [39:11]
  • The discussion is used to draw parallels between fiction and the way societies tolerate strongman tactics when desperate.

• Foreign Policy Sidebar:
  Joe briefly discusses the close relationship between California politicians and Chinese Communist Party officials, hinting at growing foreign influence.

5. Final Thoughts

[42:26 – 43:34]

• The hosts reflect on the deeper implications of ordinary people’s willingness to conform, as well as the media’s role during major events like the Mangione trial:
  • "How far has the Marxist movement gone to convincing people that yes, we must murder to free ourselves from capitalism?" – Joe [43:19]
  • "And how much will the mainstream media present it as, there's this side of it… as opposed to, obviously, it's wrong, right?" – Jack [43:34]

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Memorable Quotes (with Timestamps & Attribution)

• "Great evil can be committed by ordinary people who simply accept premises, follow orders, conform with the system without really thinking about it, and are just trying to get ahead." (Jack [05:41], paraphrasing Hannah Arendt)
• "It's hard to imagine not thinking much about exterminating Jews to get ahead. But clearly that's the way human beings work." (Jack [09:40])
• "Some scientist needs to come up with a scale, a way of measuring sheepleness or anti-sheepleness." (Joe [13:48])
• "They just need a bunch of half-wits or kind of sheeple... who just want to get ahead and get a promotion or not get in trouble or whatever." (Joe [23:57])
• "His children are better off without him… enjoy the blood money, kids." – April Rios [25:57]
• "He's responsible for more deaths than Osama bin Laden… It's not like we don't understand heroic violence." – April Rios [28:08]
• "Don't underestimate these people because they're stupid or easily led. That makes them more dangerous, not less." (Joe [34:29])
• "How far has the Marxist movement gone to convincing people that yes, we must murder to free ourselves from capitalism?" (Joe [43:19])

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Highlighted Segments (w/ Timestamps)

• Discussion on Authoritarian Labor Pools & Banality of Evil: [03:01–09:02]
• Philosophy of ‘Sheepleness’ and Societal Incentives: [11:19–15:46]
• Mangione Trial Activists’ Statements & Media Critique: [25:57–34:56]
• Marvel, Order-Security Tradeoff, and Political Fears: [39:11–43:34]
• Final Reflections on Moral Responsibility & the Role of Media: [43:04–43:34]

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Tone & Style

Armstrong & Getty’s signature blend of dry wit and exasperated realism pervades the episode. The tone is conversational, skeptical, and frustrated at times—punctuated by the duo’s humor, skepticism toward institutions, and sharp cultural commentary.

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Conclusion

"Target the Mediocre" offers an incisive, sometimes unsettling reminder that history’s greatest social evils (and many contemporary moral breakdowns) do not require monsters or zealots—just regular people looking for a leg up, uncritically playing along. Armstrong & Getty interweave modern headlines, philosophical reflections, and gallows humor, prompting listeners to reflect on the creeping normalization of extremism, the power of ordinary conformity, and the increasingly blurred lines between activism, journalism, and complicity.

Transcript

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln Radio

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studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center,

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Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong and Getty. How you doing? We ought to play those numb nut chicks that were at the Luigi Mangioni trial. We gotta play those again. I. I want to hear myself and I already heard them once. They're. They're those astounding.

[Joe Getty]

And I will remind you, I don't think they're numb nuts at all.

[Jack Armstrong]

Interesting.

[Joe Getty]

I think they're activists.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay, well then maybe that fits in with or doesn't fit in with what I'm about to talk about. I think it's really interesting.

[Joe Getty]

They're activists and numb nuts Clear, there

[Jack Armstrong]

are numbnuts involved in a lot of the bad stuff that happens in our country, in the world, in world history. According to this, there's a new book out and this article about it in the New York Times called actually Democracy Dies in hr. Actually this is from the Washington Post, not the New York Times. Actually Democracy Dies in hr, which is a pretty good headline from the Washington Post, who had the sub headline of Democracy Dies in darkness. New research sheds light on how mediocre employees help would be authoritarians maintain power. And I found this quite fascinating.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

I could read this whole long article, but it would take like an hour. But it talks about Putin and Orban in Hungary and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in Iran and just any dictatorship you want. And of course they try to extrapolate it to any burgeoning autocracy we have in the United States that's a fascist. Rather than have the help of just judges and political enforcers and super ideological, you know, fully bought in revolutionaries or whoever in your dictatorship to actually carry out the dirty work of consolidating and maintaining power, such leaders rely on help from a far greater number of lower and mid level people that are just very average people of average intelligence. Until recently, researchers paid little attention to how leaders convince and recruit ground level workers to go along with their demands. I'm often asking this like do these people believe this that are going along with this at the universities or the business or the college kids to a certain extent or whatever. We've always intended to assume that these people cooperate because ideological extremism, fear of persecution, or some combination of the two. New research, drawing on an extraordinary data set from Argentina's dirty war in the 70s and 80s, which I don't know much about, suggests a very different explanation. It turns out that the kinds of career pressures familiar to employees everywhere, and I would extrapolate this maybe to, you know, just being a young person out there in the world, even without the college pressure is a desire to revolve, revive a stalled career or obtain a minor promotion can be enough to incentivize lower and mid level officials to violate professional obligations, fundamental norms and even basic morality just to try to get slightly ahead in life. The people who make those decisions, the research suggests, are neither extremists nor victims. They're often just middling workers looking for a way to get ahead.

[Joe Getty]

Boy, I'm immediately. I don't want to steal any thunder, but I'm immediately reminded of the apparatchiks in the Soviet Union are the gray men that perpetrated so many of the horrors of the Holocaust.

[Jack Armstrong]

We're about to get to that notion. Yeah, Making a Career in a Dictatorship. It's a new book by two German political scientists. Reads like what you would get if you crossed Hannah Arendt's ideas about the banality of evil with a Business school guide. So I went to. I'm aware of the name Hannah Arendt, if that's how you pronounce her name. But I'm not aware. I'm aware of that book. I've never read it. But here's the book that they're talking about, the Banality of Evil. She wrote a book. She died in 75. So this was, you know, much earlier in last century. Her book was about the 1961 trial of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who is one of the architects of the whole, you know, killing the Jews and everything. Final Solution. Instead of finding a monstrous, sadistic mastermind, Arendt observed that Eichmann was a terrifyingly ordinary, unimaginative bureaucrat. He wasn't motivated by deep ideological hatred, but rather by profound thoughtlessness, a complete inability to look at the world from another person's perspective. She argued that great evil could be committed by ordinary people who simply accept premises, follow orders, conform with the system without really thinking about it, and are just trying to get ahead.

[Joe Getty]

Man, that's that Dostoevsky quote I've been obsessed with lately about how, you know, one can commit the foulest and most villainous act without being in the least a villain. She gets swept up when violence becomes fashionable. Literally anything can be justified.

[Jack Armstrong]

And the thoughtlessness of it is interesting. So this new book that's out their in depth study of Argentina's military during the country's era of coups and forced disappearances found that low performers, whom they refer to as career pressured individuals, filled the ranks of the secret police. That service allowed them to detour around the ordinary hierarchy and jobs they didn't want to get jobs they wanted achieving promotions and career success that they couldn't have gotten otherwise. So they just went along and did whatever they're. Without really thinking much about it. You snatch somebody off the street, you know, beat them with a rubber hose, whatever you got to do. I'm just, you know, I'm just a kind of average intelligence guy trying to get, get along in the world. It turns out that would be. Authoritarians don't need to staff the regimes with ideological true believers, offer extreme enticements or impose draconian punishments in order to make successful Power grabs. They just need to figure out how to target their ideal labor pool that are frustrated and mediocre. Their conclusions have implications for countries around the world grappling with stability, including the United States. And it goes on and on and on. In that vein, I thought that was really, really interesting from looking at the government, political parties, corporations, and maybe like I said, extrapolating it to just young people in general who are just trying to get ahead, not in the corporation, but just socially.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, well, it's like it reminds me of, and this fits in perfect when after the no Kings Day we had all those quotes from all those idiots on the street. I didn't really know why they're there and I really have any strong opinion about anything. I'm just trying to move up in the world, you know, subconsciously. I'm just trying to move up in the world in my sector. So it's not in business, but it's just in society. I'm just trying to move up ahead. I'm kind of a non thinking nobody. I'm just going along with whatever's going to get me ahead. I don't care. I don't really need to know the details. Right.

[Joe Getty]

Which brings us right back to our discussion of whether the activists outside the Mangione travel inside it for a while or morons or activists, or both. The answer is kind of sort of both and neither. Yeah, this absolutely rings true. It also reminds me of our discussions over and over again when I'm going on about neo Marxists or postmodernists and how the activists know precisely what they're doing. But the masses of college kids, like even some of the professors, they don't understand that they're executing those plans. They just look around them and think, this is how I get ahead by saying these things and doing these things, therefore I will do them.

[Jack Armstrong]

And fitting in with a book I'd read many years ago, and I quote a lot about revolutions and how you only really need 15% of committed revolutionaries to overthrow anything because you have enough other people that'll just go along with you. Well, this explains the I'll we'll just go along with you crowd that just don't think about it. Which it's hard to imagine not thinking much about exterminating Jews to get ahead. But clearly that's the way human beings work. I mean, we can go pretty far down the road of awful. And it's just gonna make my life a little easier and I'll get a little more social cachet. Or make a little more money or whatever. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I don't think as many people are afflicted with a conscience as we'd like to believe. I think a lot of people look around, they think I'm powerless to stop this. So what am I going to do? Shrug like the Girl Scout thieves? Those two morons in Southern California, was it who stole the money from the Girl Scouts? Why'd you take the money? Because I wanted. Because I wanted was sitting right there and they don't need it.

[Jack Armstrong]

So you know how I always, I'm always like, looking for the evolutionary angle on this sort of thing. Maybe it's. Maybe we're built to. This will help you get ahead, which is, you know, our prime objective is to stay alive, procreate and raise another generation to procreate itself. That's. That's what our brains are doing, our bodies are doing all the time. And maybe so it's just, okay, this will help you get ahead, which will help you survive. So. So our brains are built to block out the noise. This is going to help you get ahead. Do it. Period.

[Joe Getty]

Here's, here's the real essay question. How do you manage a society? Having learned this, the answer is have incentives and disincentives such that the brainless masses who will go one way or the other don't go the wrong way. Which is why if you're trying to get a revolution started and say, I don't know, overthrow Western civilization, capitalism or whatever you want to call it, you've got to change those norms. You've got to start talking about, will they commit social murder so it's actually acceptable to commit actual murder. The Jews are why we lost World War I and were humiliated. And now you're poor. How many lives has that cost? So we're justified in killing them. You've got to change people's basic moral framework to get a revolution going in many, many cases.

[Jack Armstrong]

But all those lower level members of the, the Nazi Party or the Soviet, you know, CCCP or, or whatever, you know, Moran's another example, as she uses in the first paragraph of the article. You always wonder about their ideology and how do you get that many people? They aren't ideological or extreme or anything. They're just, they're just trying to get along and move up in the world.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

You want me to do what?

[Joe Getty]

No.

[Jack Armstrong]

Okay. That's wild. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

It's worth knowing.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's worth knowing. I think your question is a good one. What do you do about it now that you know it?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I can't decide if this is incredibly encouraging or incredibly discouraging. Maybe both. Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Generally, more knowledge is encouraging, but it is pretty discouraging knowledge.

[Joe Getty]

Although I, I am a big fan of realism. You've got to understand the task in front of you.

[Jack Armstrong]

It also explains that, you know, to get away from exterminating Jews or, you know, trying to. Whatever they're doing in Iran. And Colton, people just like your workplace if, if you, if you ever get the. Because I've had this experience, like you're complaining about something your corporation does and you get a blank stare from people like they don't understand or don't care. And I'm always like, how do you not care that we're functioning this poorly in this. It's because they don't. They're not ideologues about the corporation you work for. I'm just trying to get ahead or really Anything. Yeah, or anything. I'm just, I'm not thinking about it. I'm just trying to keep my job and move up a little bit. That's all I want to do. I'm not thinking big picture here.

[Joe Getty]

Some scientists needs to come up with a scale, a way of measuring sheepleness or anti sheepleness, what you might call, I don't know, I was going to try to come up with something silly lone wolf tude or eagle tree or something, you know. And so I would find it incredibly interesting as, you know, whatever we are, I would find it incredibly interesting and useful to understand. Okay, 61% of people have no real political will whatsoever. They're simply trying to survive and they will go in whichever direction you point them. If it is the path of least resistance or more immediate reward or whatever. I don't know. So you're really only looking for. You can only persuade, quote, unquote, X number of people with your high flying rhetoric. Right. The rest of them. You know what? Both political parties have figured this out. The rest of them just want. You'll give me $20 more than the other guy. Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

I feel like if only landed males voted, that would help a lot.

[Joe Getty]

Landed males of what race?

[Jack Armstrong]

I was gonna leave that out.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I, I would leave that out too.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't care, actually.

[Joe Getty]

How about landed females? What if they have a landed adults. Landed adults, basically.

[Jack Armstrong]

And that you don't even need to have a land, just a stake. You've got a stake somehow in the system.

[Joe Getty]

How do we define steak?

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know. But like you're, you're, you're. You're taking less than you are giving.

[Joe Getty]

Oh. Makers, not takers.

[Jack Armstrong]

Makers, not takers. There you go.

[Joe Getty]

Yes. Any thoughts on anything? We round them up and put them in. Wait a minute.

[Jack Armstrong]

I realize this is some thick, chewy stuff. Any comments on this text line? 415295KFTC Armstrong and Getty.

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[Jack Armstrong]

How's your relationship with Eric?

[Joe Getty]

Are you guys still friends? Eric who?

[Jack Armstrong]

Is that clear? Don't bust the trust. You bust the trust.

[Joe Getty]

Okay?

[Jack Armstrong]

You don't exist in my life.

[Joe Getty]

You don't bust the trust.

[Jack Armstrong]

The trust?

[Joe Getty]

Damn straight. I need to live by.

[Jack Armstrong]

I need more hard and fast rules in my life. Like, yes, you know what you did? You busted trust. You don't trust the trust.

[Joe Getty]

Damn right. I Branded Stephen Klubeck. That's the fellow there as America's wackiest billionaire. Maybe our wackiest person. He was Eric Swalwell's financier and roommate. Also part of a bizarre case with this porn girl, Penthouse Pet, who bilks old rich guys and is like on trial for it, but he insists, no, she's innocent, she's really in love with me and I still want to marry her, etc. This, there's so much to this case. This is like the new Murdoch case. Nobody dead so far, but. So this Advil Lavie. Who's the Penthouse Pet girl in question? Engaged to billionaire Stephen Klubeck. Him of the tight pants and the. What was he, timeshares or something. I can't remember what his money came from. But she was ordered by the court to surrender her passport and not get another one. Cause she's such a flight risk. She went out and got herself an Israeli passport. Somehow the judge gets wind of this, busts her for it, and she sprints out of the courtroom wearing designer duds in Van Nuys, California, and runs across the court in her like platform sandals. She was. How'd they let her run out of there?

[Jack Armstrong]

Don't they have bailiffs or something? I guess on low level crimes like this, they're not.

[Joe Getty]

Well, or she. Or she was just running away to avoid getting any. Any reporters asking her questions or anything like that. Judge did not raise bail, but placed additional restrictions on Levy's movement, ordering her to stay away from airports and the Israeli consulate and only allowing her to leave LA county with permission she'll never seen again. A visibly irritated Levy blurted out she didn't know what the county is. To which her attorney replied, shh, we'll explain it to you. When the judge asked if she understood the order, the model replied, I understand everything you say. I will follow. But then for some reason, she sprinted out of the the courtroom. Boy, there's some serious multi layered wackiness going on here.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, I was blown away. Don't get involved with the crazy hottie like that.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, dude. Dude. Oh, big old fat rich boy thinks. No, she doesn't. Look, she doesn't even like you.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's obvious.

[Joe Getty]

Come on.

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making, and we want everyone in America, from Maine to Montana, from Alabama to Alaska to be a part of it.

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[Jack Armstrong]

Stop showing me near collisions. Collisions, whatever from airports. Just stop showing them to me. I'm just. I don't need to see them and I know statistically they aren't happening more than they used to. So we just have more cameras now and you're making it seem like every plane is crashing everywhere all the time.

[Joe Getty]

Just stop brushing wings or what have.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't find it as interesting as you think I do.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, no kidding. I flew all day Sunday and not for a single second did I think about boy, I hope we don't whack another plane's wing on the tarmac, because that's always freaking happening. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Land on a van or something.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I find it unlikely. So this is. This really has come together beautifully, kind of unintentionally. I really enjoyed our conversation of a couple of minutes ago. If you missed it, grab the podcast. Armstrong and Getty on Demand this hour, but talking about how to make a dictatorship run you don't need a bunch of dedicated ideologues. You just need a bunch of half wits, are kind of sheeple or gray people who just want to get ahead and get a promotion or not get in trouble or whatever. So they do what you want them to do.

[American Cornhole League Advertiser]

It's just.

[Joe Getty]

It's like they have no will nor conscience. A lot of people are like that, apparently. Well, at the Sergio Mangione trial, it's actually the pre trial hearings still going on, I believe, but the young, confused young man who like so many young men, I can practically guarantee the two that shot up the mosque in San Diego yesterday, were confused, disappointed by life, suicidal maybe, and decided to latch onto a cause and go out in a blaze of glory. Sergio Mangione decided he was mad about healthcare even though he'd not done any business with the United Healthcare and thought, that's the problem with America. I'm gonna kill an executive. And the idea that he's become a cause celeb because he's handsome is yet another indictment of human beings. I give them too much credit. Yes. So anyway, a fair amount of notice was given to these three youngish, attractive, you know, attractively dressed chicks who had city issued press credentials who came out of the trial pretrial hearings that they were quote, unquote, covering and made a number of absolutely outrageous statements to the other press that was assembled. This is a human by the name of April Rios. We'll start here.

[April Rios / Lena Wise (Activists)]

His children are better off without him. They need to learn to not be like their dad and enjoy the blood money. Kids,

[Joe Getty]

this is another human by the name of Lena wise brought in. Ms. Rios. Once again, I'm standing on business.

[April Rios / Lena Wise (Activists)]

Ryan Hobson. I don't give a flying ride. Millions of Americans. I liked it.

[Jack Armstrong]

So they coming out pro murder. By the way, this is the part that should be hammered by everybody in media. How did they get press passes? Why did they get press passes? Mandani's office should have to answer for that. City Journal has been hammering on that. They're a Manhattan based news publication that maybe you have heard of or maybe you haven't. But anyway, they're talking about how they couldn't get press passes. Why did these girls get press pass?

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, Chris Rufo does great work for City Journal, for instance. Let's do a little more. This is Lena Vice BR Again.

[April Rios / Lena Wise (Activists)]

Millions of Americans suffer every single day. We had a literal infant because of how negligent her health insurance was. She died. An infant died. So if you guys are okay with someone like Ryan Thompson being around and that being a part of our society, that says more about you as a person because you look absolutely monstrous defending someone like that participates in social murder. That's what mass social murder.

[Joe Getty]

Ah. Anybody familiar with revolutionary movements recognizes the, the notion of he create, he committed social murder. Mass social murder. His policies that I don't like were bad and led to people's deaths, allegedly. Therefore murdering him is justified in self defense those policies created.

[Jack Armstrong]

And if you defend him, that tells me everything I need to know about you that you would defend a murderer like that.

[Joe Getty]

Right. And you should probably die too, because you're aiding and abetting a social murderer. One more. This is once again, Ms. April Rios.

[April Rios / Lena Wise (Activists)]

He's responsible for more deaths than Osama bin Laden. And I remember Americans celebrating when Osama Bin Laden was killed. It's not like we don't understand heroic violence or like when violence is good. There's a. That's like as American as America.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, so this brings us back to our previous discussion. We talked about this earlier in the show. I can't remember what was it, hour one, hour two, that these ladies got their press passes from. Zoran Mumdani's executive director of press, the press credentials office. Samer Nasser, who is a young woman, describes her as a native New Yorker, first generation Arab American who worked at Al Jazeera. She is like so many of the people in Mamdani's outfit, an Islamist, clearly, and again, an Islamianist, as I call Mumdani. She's part of the Red Green alliance, the young radical leftists and Islamists who both want to overthrow Western civilization or capitalism or whatever you want to call it. And that's why they were given those passions and that's why they came out and promoted. Obviously they, they weren't even imitating journalists or reporters. They were radical Islamist or, you know, red Green activists who came out and said he deserved to be murdered for being a part of capitalism and committing social murder. That's why they were there. And I was a little frustrated with the New York Post, who wrote a great piece about this, concluding with these vile young women, these fools. They might be violent fools, but they're tools of the evildoers like we're describing in the earlier segment.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, it'll be interesting to see if, as the trial continues, they'll still have press passes to get in. And if they do, legitimate press should be asking about that. You're giving press passes to people who are saying, glad the guy was murdered. Really, you gonna keep letting them Go in and watch the trial. You think that's okay, by the way? Somebody ought to ask these women, there are five big healthcare companies in the same vein as United Healthcare. Should the CEO of Humana, Cigna, Kaiser Permanente, Blue Cross, Blue Shield, should they all be murdered in their driveway or walking down the street or whatever, man or woman? And you know why? Just the CEO, I mean the board of directors and everybody who makes all the decisions. Probably, probably. Probably dozens of people you should murder in the street if you want to do that. And then a. A secret. A lot of people don't know that. I learned from Craig, the healthcare genius. Your corporation is who makes the decision most of the time. Most big companies there, they're self. They have. They hire a health care company, but they're self insured. They make the decision. So you have. So now you got to kill the CEOs of all these individual big companies in the country, of which there are hundreds of or thousands, depending on how far down the road you want to go of murdering all these people who you don't like their health care decisions. You're gonna have to murder thousands of people is my point.

[Joe Getty]

That's just getting started. Signed Chairman Mao.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, and.

[Joe Getty]

But Shay Guevara.

[Jack Armstrong]

Somebody ought to ask them. As long as they're going to have press passes, somebody should ask whoever's giving them the press passes.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And then themselves these questions.

[Joe Getty]

Well. And you know, it seems. It seems frustratingly ridiculous to even ask those questions because the answer should be self evident. But getting back again to our initial discussion this hour, the masses of people don't think like that. They don't think. Well, wait a minute. All right, maybe United Healthcare was unnecessarily restrictive or didn't live up to its moral and financial obligations, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But if we start murdering people because of the alleged sins of their corporation, as Jack, you just pointed out, there are thousands of people that are going to be slaughtered. And that's not a civilization I want to live in. I hate that we have to point that out. We as a society. Not me and Jack, but you too. You good people. But I guess we have to.

[Jack Armstrong]

Step one is why did you give them a press pass? Freaking Mandani's office should have to answer for why they got press passes.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, because we want them to promote our worldview. And if you're overthrowing Western civilization.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, if your answer is, we didn't know who they were, they had a connection, blah, blah, blah. But they will. We're taking away Their press pass. Fine. But yeah, if you're gonna. If they're gonna continue to be in the courtroom, wow, that should really be hung around the mayor of New York's neck.

[Joe Getty]

There is zero chance that it was an innocent mistake. As the person who wrote this up in the New York Post points out, she has had a. For a long time and has had friends come and say, I want to cover this. How do I get it? And she says it's really, really tough because you've got to have a major alliance or affiliation, I should say, and a pretty solid track record of producing serious journalism or you don't have a chance. And these chicks are influencers and former child actors. This one describes herself as formerly child model, actress and influencer, currently female rage encourager, abolitionist and socialist fascism resistor. Weaponizing my mast.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, yeah, it was the lead story yesterday. I mean, if it hadn't been for the horrifying shooting at the mosque in San Diego, it would absolutely have been the lead story all day long for a variety of reasons. A big story. And it happened in New York, so lots of press wanted to get in there from all around the world and these dip asses got in.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, well, that was intentional. It was not anything close to an innocent mistake. And one of these dip asses warned media members that they should be kissing the feet of the Manginistas, as they call themselves.

[Jack Armstrong]

However, I'd like to remind you him for that just having that term.

[Joe Getty]

Oh God. And mixing a beating. However, I'd like to remind my love lovely journalist friends that they might want to stay in our good graces if they want to get their stories about us out during the trial.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh boy.

[Joe Getty]

So they see themselves as part of it. Yeah, they've latched onto it. They're activists, they're morons. But if they wish you dead and some disaffected young man thinks, hey, they're right, you're dead, you're dying on the sidewalk thinking, what the hell just happened? Don't underestimate these people because they're stupid or easily led. That makes them more dangerous, not less. They're insane in the brain.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's horrifying that you could come out pro murder like that. Pro cold butted shooter. Shoot a dad in the back because he works for this company. Murder and. And have it not get more attention than this.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah. We're in an odd spot sociologically as a people. Yeah. Whoops.

[Jack Armstrong]

We will finish strong. Next.

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

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And we want everyone in America, from Maine to Montana, from Alabama to Alaska to be a part of of it.

[America 250 Announcer]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Come on. America still rules in a lot of ways. We got Elon Musk. He was there in a suit. You don't see that often. That shows the respect Elon Musk has for the Chinese leadership and out of

[Joe Getty]

respect for the one child rule that

[Jack Armstrong]

was a pillar of Chinese society for so long. While he was in China for two days, Elon only fathered one child. So I was just reading through Babylon Bee headlines, which I do every once in a while. They're often making me chuckle out loud. This one made me laugh. Scientists discover tea tastes better when dumped out and replaced with coffee. Wow. I'm on Team Coffee.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah, take that. Have you watched?

[Jack Armstrong]

I'm sure you have not. Have you watched any marvels you see? Like saw the some of the early ones when your son was young enough.

[Joe Getty]

Let me check the date of my birth. No, I am not a child. So I don't watch the Marvel movies.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right.

[Joe Getty]

No, yeah, I've actually seen several of

[Jack Armstrong]

them and I, I, I, it's highly unlikely I would see any of them if I didn't have a kid or kids. I'm down to one kid that's interested in them anyway. I'd actually heard an adult on the National Review podcast talk up the latest Marvel saying this is the first good Marvel thing in a long time. The last several Marvel things have been awful. I mean, just awful. But this new one, the, the Daredevil Born again. Really liking the that with my son and he's loving it. It is, it is not like other Marvel shows. First of all, there's lots of like long, intricate court room drama stuff that my son's loving, which is cool.

[Joe Getty]

This is like a streaming show as opposed to a movie.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, streaming show. There are eight episodes and then the second season just came out. That's why it's kind of in the news. And I heard about it and started watching it with eight more episodes. But it's about a crime ridden New York City and former mob boss gets elected mayor. As you know, I've turned straight now, but everybody's like, we just want somebody that gets it so it's safe to walk the streets again. And they know he's willing to go over the top and does go over the top with his police force. But I don't care as long as there's order. Which is just true of human nature and has been true, always been true, always will be true if things get ugly enough. They're willing to give, give a fair amount of leeway, which is not good ultimately to, to doing what you got to do to clean up the streets. And I just, the politics that have are pretty interesting what people will vote for if things get bad enough. It's, you know, it's on a much lower level like what we saw in San Francisco where people were too compassionate about all the drug addicts on the street until to a certain point I don't know where you're sending these people, but they got to go somewhere else else.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I don't think anybody is paying any attention to where they're going. They're just not here anymore in front of my business, which is nice.

[Joe Getty]

But at some point a character becomes a superb hero, as I prefer to call them.

[Jack Armstrong]

The Daredevil character is interesting. Different than a lot of Marvel characters in that he, he takes out his anger on people a lot. Like.

[Joe Getty]

Oh.

[Jack Armstrong]

Really gets gruesome with him.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Saying he's conflicted about it, but he's had bad things done to him. These people deserve to pay. So I'm going to use my superpower now to break your bones.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. Yeah. That reminds me of my favorite graphic novel of all time, Watchmen, which is just fabulous.

[Jack Armstrong]

Really. I've heard about that.

[Joe Getty]

Very dark, very. It's, it's, it's a serious piece of literature. It just has pictures. Anyway, I wish we could have squeezed this in a little more thoroughly. California's two term treasurer, Fiona Ma, speaking of totalitarian governments, has met with high level Chinese Communist Party officials and intelligence personnel dozens of times in the last several decades. During these meetings in the US and China, the Democratic front runner currently for 2026, lieutenant governor for California, has introduced American lawmakers to Chinese intelligence officials, repeatedly presented awards to CCP members and influence operative has said during a recent interview, we should really be more integrated. The more that we can get along work together I think would create more peace in the world as well as better economic opportunities for both countries. Has Fiona Ma got a. What was the name of the town? The gal was the mayor of Arcadia Arc. She's got a mayor of Arcadia moment coming up. Inquiring minds want to know. Fiona Hammer, Sickle.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is art. It is art of some sort. Oh. Why it. Because it has an effect on you that makes it hard. Here's your host for final Thoughts, Joe Getty.

[Joe Getty]

It really made me stop at the think. Let's get a final thought from everybody on the crew to wrap up the

[American Cornhole League Advertiser]

show for the day.

[Joe Getty]

There he is, Michelangelo, pressing the buttons in the control room. What are you doing in there?

[OnDeck Advertiser]

Six, seven.

[Jack Armstrong]

Working my glutes.

[Joe Getty]

My wife texted me, said I have to work my glutes. She wants me to be around for a while.

[Jack Armstrong]

So.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, work your glutes. It's important. We'll let him finish his set. Jack, you got a final thought for us?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't remember if we did that hour two or three, but that was about how a man's butt determines his longevity or how healthy a life he's going to have. If you have a good butt, it's gonna more likely that you're gonna all your other joints and body parts and glucose and all kinds of different stuff is better if you have a nice butt.

[Joe Getty]

My final thought is this, sir. What's his name? Imagini Trial. How can I forget? Everybody's dressed up like the damn video game character could be a major inflection point for this country.

[Jack Armstrong]

You think?

[Joe Getty]

Not just the trial and the outcome, but the coverage of it, the commentary about about it. How far has the Marxist movement gone to convincing people that yes, we must murder to free ourselves from capitalism?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And how much will the mainstream media presented as there's this side of it and on the other hand there's this side as opposed to obviously it's wrong, right? Armstrong and Yeti wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.

[Joe Getty]

So many people. Thanks. So little time. Go To Armstrong and Yeti.com for the hot links. Drop us a Note [e-mail] what do you think about all this cerebral musing we've done this hour? [e-mail] we will see you tomorrow.

[Jack Armstrong]

God bless America Armstrong and get it. Yeah, I'm strong and get it Superstore we got your hats, hoodies and more more, more more but it's out T shirts that tell it straight Enforce the law don't bust the trust Hot dogs are dumb, stupid should hurt and things are getting weird and they're getting weird weird fast. Get [e-mail] the Armstrong and Getty Show

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty Warning.

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It's a celebration 250 years in the

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making and we want everyone in America, from Maine to Montana, from Alabama to Alaska to be a part of this

[America 250 Announcer]

year marks America's 250th anniversary and we're coming together from coast to coast at star spangled events, live performances and the largest day of giving in American history.

[Announcer]

Join the nationwide [e-mail]

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