They're Selling Hope

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand – "They're Selling Hope" (April 29, 2026)

Podcast: Armstrong & Getty On Demand
Hosts: Jack Armstrong & Joe Getty
Episode Theme: A freewheeling discussion on political pageantry, US-UK relations, European dependence, the media’s influence on social narratives, cold medicine placebo, California's billionaire tax, privacy challenges, and the uncanny rise of robot dogs.

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Episode Overview

This episode blends humor, political analysis, and cultural critique as Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty move from reflections on King Charles III’s address to Congress and the symbolism of US-UK relations, into sharp commentary on Europe’s military dependence, media’s role in shaping public perception of “bigotry” and violence, and the psychological comfort of placebos in medicine. The hosts also dissect California’s much-contested billionaire tax, debate geofence warrants and digital privacy, and cap off with an entertaining discussion on advanced robot dogs – with their signature wit and skepticism throughout.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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I. King Charles III's Congressional Visit & The "Special Relationship"

[02:31–07:49]

• The show opens dissecting King Charles III’s lighthearted speech in Congress and his references to the American Revolution and his ancestor King George III.

  • Quote (King Charles, 03:01): “King George, as you know, never set foot in America. And please rest assured, ladies and gentlemen, I am not here as part of some cunning rear guard action.”
  • Hosts poke fun at the British burning the White House in 1814 (03:04), and King Charles' age (“He could pass for 85.” – Joe, 03:48).

• The hosts contextualize the pageantry as part of Great Britain signaling its weakened global role, needing the US more than ever.

  • Joe (06:43): “Great Britain is the weakest they've ever been... They need us more than they've ever needed ever. They can't have any sort of daylight between the United States and them. They're your old college friend who has come back... you kind of laugh and he makes some jokes... ‘If you could help me out, I really could use some money.’”
  • Emphasized by jokes about Britain’s now-feeble navy:
    “Even your mid sized tuna companies have more impressive navies than the Brits, which is just shocking.” (Jack, 07:49)

• Media’s portrayal of the meeting as a US effort to mend a “frayed relationship” is challenged; hosts argue the dynamic is reversed.

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II. European Dependence & The Realities of NATO

[08:01–09:51]

• The hosts challenge the narrative that Trump is undermining NATO; instead, they argue, European allies have shirked their defense spending commitments for years.
  • Joe (08:47): “They're the ones that have unhonored the NATO commitment for decades.”
  • Jack (08:18): “We have allowed [Europe] to become the most worthless, lazy, lacking in character trust fund kid... drug addicted, useless, unemployable, rich 34 year old. Is there any fix in them at this point? I don't know.”

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III. Media, Academia, and Narrative Inflation

[09:53–11:21, 24:04–35:49]

• Media Amplification of Racism & Bigotry: Armstrong introduces forthcoming discussion about how media coverage of “racism,” “sexism,” and related terms exploded post-2010, likely due to critical theory’s dominance in academia and media (09:53–11:21, 24:04–27:07).

  • Jack (09:53): “Mentions of, say, racism, racist, racists in the New York Times...percolated along at more or less the same level...then all of a sudden they skyrocketed...Is that because America became more racist?...Or is it the whole critical theory crowd taking over the universities and the media....?”

• Progressive Orthodoxy in Universities:
  Data discussed from the Carnegie Foundation reports the US university faculty is now overwhelmingly left-liberal or socialist, dwarfing conservative representation:

  • Jack (30:16): “American university faculty are more likely to identify as socialist than conservative.”
  • Joe (30:41): “Twice as many socialists as conservatives on a college campus in the faculty. That's amazing.”

• Technology’s Role in Social Shifts:
  The smartphone era enabled fringe ideas to gain traction and fostered harsh social enforcement (34:40–35:49).

  • Jack (34:40): “Smartphone social media enabled the brutal, hateful policing of anybody who went against them...ruining people's careers, getting them fired from their jobs for saying no, there are two sexes...”

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IV. Placebos and “Selling Hope” in Medicine

[15:37–16:56]

• Discussion on how popular cold medicines replaced effective pseudoephedrine with a placebo alternative after legal restrictions. Despite FDA’s finding it ineffective, these products remain on shelves.
  • Jack (16:43): “That's why I disagree. It gives you hope that soon you'll feel better. They're selling hope, Jack.”
  • Joe (16:49): “Maybe I'd have been better off not knowing. It does nothing, but just keep that in mind.”
  • Theme tie-in: Much in modern society is about providing psychological reassurance over genuine substance.

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V. California’s Billionaire (Wealth) Tax – False Promises & Real Costs

[17:40–19:16]

• Ballot initiative to heavily tax California billionaires is critiqued; hosts say it will drive billionaires out, decreasing revenues, despite populist claims.
  • Jack (18:30): “Nonpartisan legislative office...said the wealth tax would probably generate a few tens of billions once, while costing hundreds of millions...annually. The backers claim it'll immediately raise $100 billion even if billionaires leave California. It's fraud. It's utter fraud.”
  • Joe (18:52): “You're going to be so incredibly short sighted. And we'll pay a price for it in California for a long time.”

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VI. Geofence Warrants, Privacy, & Technological Overreach

[19:16–21:29]

• The hosts discuss law enforcement use of geofence warrants: broad data grabs from devices near a crime scene.
  • Jack (20:16): “Is it a violation of the Bill of Rights, the fourth amendment?... Gobbling up...data involving huge numbers of Americans.”
  • Joe (20:34): “You’ll be having your data grabbed up all the time and in various investigations... it would expand to more and more instances...”
  • Broader anxiety about privacy, surveillance, and technology.

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VII. Underreported News: Antifa, Iran, and the Funhouse Mirror

[16:58–17:40], [23:53–24:04], [31:04–33:35]

• Joe notes the media’s lack of coverage on Antifa convictions for terrorism following a shooting at a Texas immigration facility, contrasting how right-wing violence is covered (16:58–17:40).
  • Joe (17:27): “If you had a right winger that did anything like that, I would definitely have heard about it.”
• Quick mention of hardships in Iran and a future war update (23:53), not deeply explored in this segment.
• Critique continues on how media frames political violence:
  • Jack (31:04): “Nakedly partisan propaganda presented as data and then mainstreamed in the American press... Our perceptions of what is happening in the world are so twisted or misfocused by the lens of our mainstream media and education. It's funhouse mirror.”

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VIII. Tech & Culture: Wacky World of Robot Dogs

[38:28–44:22]

• Transitioning to tech, the hosts discuss the rise of robot dogs – from Sony’s pet-like “Aibo” to high-end, utility-focused (Unitree) robots.
  • Joe (39:47): “Runs about $75,000 currently. And that's the most high tech robot dog out there...people are wondering if they're going to combine the pet version...with the $75,000... If you can combine them together, you'd really have something.”
  • They imagine these dogs patrolling homes, performing maintenance, perhaps even morphing into oddly romantic companions (thus lampooning future tech dystopias).
  • Jack (42:00): “Can that robot arm, I don't know, say, grasp a knife in the middle of the night? Because it resents me just asking for a friend.”
  • Playful, sarcastic banter on whether such technology would ever “shed” or replace real pets in homes.

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IX. Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On British Weakness:
  “Even your mid sized tuna companies have more impressive navies than the Brits, which is just shocking.” – Jack, 07:49

• On Selling Hope:
  “That's why I disagree. It gives you hope that soon you'll feel better. They're selling hope, Jack.” – Jack, 16:43

• On Academia’s Leftward Shift:
  “American university faculty are more likely to identify as socialist than conservative.” – Jack, 30:16

• On the Media’s Funhouse Mirror:
  “Our perceptions of what is happening in the world are so twisted or misfocused by the lens of our mainstream media and education. It's funhouse mirror. It's crazy.” – Jack, 33:17

• On Robot Dogs:
  “Can that robot arm, I don't know, say, grasp a knife in the middle of the night? Because it resents me... just asking for a friend.” – Jack, 42:00

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X. Timestamps for Key Segments

• King Charles, US-UK relations: 02:31–07:49
• NATO & Europe Analysis: 08:01–09:51
• Media & Academia’s Shift: 09:53–11:21, 24:04–35:49
• Placebo Cold Medicines (“Selling Hope”): 15:37–16:56
• CA Billionaire Tax Critique: 17:40–19:16
• Geofence Warrants & Privacy: 19:16–21:29
• Robot Dogs Discussion: 38:28–44:22

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Conclusion

This episode captures Armstrong & Getty’s trademark blend of insightful political and cultural analysis, biting satire, and humorous skepticism toward both establishment narratives and “solutions” presented by government, media, and tech. With historical allusions, data-backed critique, and sidebars into modern absurdities (robot dogs, faux medicine), the hosts strip pretense from contemporary news, highlighting how often institutions “sell hope” – be it in pills, policies, or alliances.

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For more detailed graphs and follow-up, visit armstrongandgetty.com as noted on-air.

Transcript

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Broadcasting live from the Abraham Lincoln radio studio at the George Washington Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty. And now here's Armstrong. Armstrong and Yeti.

[King Charles (quoted)]

And if I may say so, it is a particular pleasure to be back in this wonderful building, the heart of your democracy. On this occasion, I cannot help noticing the readjustments to the East Wing. Mr. President, following your visit to Windsor Castle last year, and I'm sorry to say that we British, of course, made our own small attempt at real estate redevelopment of the White House in 1814.

[Joe Getty]

Boo. Never forget.

[Jack Armstrong]

Flat, room temperature, water under the bridge. That's what I say. Bygones, the special relationship, etc.

[Joe Getty]

You're gonna let a king come to our country and joke about trying to burn down the White House

[Jack Armstrong]

bugger about and find out. King Chuck, that's what I say. Katie, I need no kings Protesters right now.

[Joe Getty]

That's a good point.

[Jack Armstrong]

You got a damn king in the White House. That's what you warned us about.

[Joe Getty]

Katie, I need an age on King Charles. I'm guessing 78. Hell, 78 is what I'm going with. Maybe he's older than that. I don't know. Oh, 77. There you go. Boy, he looks older than that. He does.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

He could pass for 85.

[Jack Armstrong]

Heavy rests the crown on the head of that fella or something. Shakespeare said

[Joe Getty]

so. He gave pretty good speech yesterday and the Congress really enjoyed it. And I thought it was all very, very nice. And if you're going to try to show the world that we're still close, you got to have King Charles here. Because their actual prime minister, the actual power of their Politics is a 13, 15% approval rating in his own country. So nobody gives a crap what he thinks about anything. Here's a little montage of various things King Charles said yesterday.

[King Charles (quoted)]

Mr. Speaker, this is by no means my first Visit to Washington D.C. the capital of this great republic. It is, in fact, my 20th visit to the United States and my first as king and head of the Commonwealth. This is a city which symbolizes a period in our shared history, or what Charles Dickens might have called a Tale of Two Georges.

[Joe Getty]

Somebody hold up the applause, son. Good one.

[Jack Armstrong]

I got it.

[King Charles (quoted)]

The first President George Washington, and my five times great grandfather, King George iii. King George, as you know, never set foot in America. And please rest assured, ladies and gentlemen, I am not here as part of some cunning rear guard action.

[Joe Getty]

That's funny. Yeah, but that's wild that the King George of the American Revolution250 years ago this July is his great, great, great, great, great five times grandfather. That's just wild.

[Jack Armstrong]

And it's indefensible. Yes, by enlightenment standards.

[Joe Getty]

That's why it's wild that that's possible today, that there would still be any line of succession like that anywhere on earth.

[Jack Armstrong]

God save the Queen. Cause tourists are money. Johnny Rotten 1977.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, that is something.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyhow, yeah, I liked your screed earlier. And honestly, I appreciate the spirit of the visit because we have been very close friends and incredibly close allies at extremely important times over the last, you know, 100 years, especially 125 years. And. And sometimes you have rough patches with a friend. But it's helpful to be reminded. Hey, we're old friends. Let's not do too much damage here on the Other hand, as you pointed out, our old friend is not our old friend anymore. We remember him when he was a friend and ally. Now he's, well, I'll let you take over.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. The media portraying it as an attempt to re establish our close relationship as it's frayed because of Trump and how awful Trump is and this and that. I think it's more Great Britain coming. Great Britain's worried about the frayed relationship more than we are. They are incredibly weak. Great Britain is the weakest they've ever been, maybe ever, certainly in like a thousand years relative to other world powers. And they need us more than they've ever needed ever. They can't have any sort of daylight between the United States and them. They're your old college friend who has come back and you're like, hey, I haven't talked to you for years. You talk about some old times and you, he kind of laugh and he makes some jokes. Remember the time when, then he hit you. You know, if you could help me out, I really could use some money. That's, I think that's what yesterday?

[Jack Armstrong]

Five grand till the end of the month.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, I think that's what yesterday's visit was.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Remember, you kind of need to protect us because we don't really have a navy anymore. So those jokes about King George, that was funny, huh?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. I guarantee you they're like, you know, your, even your mid sized tuna companies have more impressive navies than the, the Brits, which is just shocking.

[Joe Getty]

I don't like the way Trump has talked about NATO necessarily all the time, or our European friends, but they need us more than we need them by far. It's not even close in terms of a relationship and I feel like mainstream media portrays it all the other way around.

[Jack Armstrong]

And we have had a very, very toxically helicopter parenty relationship with Europe for a very long time, as we've talked about on many occasions. But we have allowed them to become the most worthless, lazy, lacking in character trust fund kid you can imagine. And, and like, you know, some drug addicted, useless, unemployable, rich 34 year old. Is there any fix in them at this point? I know, I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

And we've, you know, we've talked about this over and over again. But to say it one more time, to portray Trump as somebody trying to destroy one of the great organizations in world history, NATO, and not say NATO. All those other NATO countries not honoring their commitment of spending the amount of money that they swore legally signed a piece of paper that they would do over decades. They're the ones that have unhonored the NATO commitment for decades.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

How do you not look at it that way?

[Jack Armstrong]

I know, I know. Because they are so obsessed with Trump, who, again, you know, he said some stuff that's unhelpful. But yeah, the way you describe this

[Joe Getty]

is the most successful alliance in world history because we continued to pay for it all. That's why it wouldn't have been six. If we had done what Germany did and, and only spent the amount of GDP on our military they did, the whole thing would be worthless, Right?

[Jack Armstrong]

Yep.

[Joe Getty]

I don't get it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, well, the media are utterly ideological liars. I want to give you a couple of pieces of information that are so interesting as applies to, as applied to how people's perceptions have been formed in the last 10, maybe even 20 years about a, quote, unquote bigotry and B, left wing and right wing violence and how those numbers and perceptions have been so manipulated. I think maybe we'll do that at the bottom of the hour in a little bit. But I mean, for instance, just to give you a little sampling of, of what we're talking about, mentions of, say, racism, racist, racists in the New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal percolated along at more or less the same level with a few ups and downs for 40 years, and then all of a sudden they skyrocketed to triple and quadruple the number of mentions that they'd ever had. Is that because America became more racist with more racists? Or is it the whole critical theory crowd taking over the universities and the media, Right, who want to divide us all by race or sexual minority as an excuse to bring down Western civilization. It's so obvious. But we'll have those stats for you coming up.

[Joe Getty]

So, Katie, I got something I would like you to look into because this seems like the sort of thing you'd be good at reporting on. Oh, okay. A photo of President Trump is going viral showing him holding a bee in his hand alongside an apparently shocked first lady yesterday. If you could look into that story for me, I would like to know what's going on holding a bee in his hand. Okay, so we'll have that among other things on the way. Stay here.

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[Jack Armstrong]

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Ethos.com Armstrong It's a celebration 250 years in the making and we want everyone

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in America, from Maine to Montana, from Alabama to Alaska to be a part of it.

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This 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.

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Join the nationwide celebration at america250.org

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if

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you're feeling off fatigue, mood changes, skin shifts, yet your labs say everything's normal. You're not alone. Meet Oestra from Inner Balance, the first all in one prescription strength bioidentical hormone cream that's natural and effective and only takes one drop to 10 seconds a day. Oester replaces five to six products women typically use to treat symptoms and is third party tested to ensure the highest quality. Visit innerbalance.com today to start feeling like yourself again. That's innerbalance.com let's get a couple of

[Joe Getty]

things off our plate. First of all, did Donald Trump hold a bee in his hand yesterday or is that AI? I think it's real Israel. Okay, just caught a bee and decided to show it to people. All right, well, they're doing that whole adding a beehive to the rose garden thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

I didn't know that a Little context there.

[Joe Getty]

Or it was another assassination attempt. We don't know. Okay, cool. Remember when this happened last year, the California Coastal Commission wasn't going to allow SpaceX to launch something because of Elon's political views. Well, they issued a formal, formal apology yesterday, adding that it will not consider the political views or speech in future regulatory decisions, Whether or not SpaceX can launch a rocket or whatever.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, that's so enlightened. Thank you.

[Joe Getty]

The commission admitted some officials made politically biased and improper statements about SpaceX. That's unbelievable. You people are so crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Calunicornia is so run on like, righteous adolescent emotion, including bilking the taxpayers. But yeah, you are crazy if you did that. I'm not really an adult yet.

[Joe Getty]

I wanted to mention this because it's cold and flu season. When is it not cold and flu season? Cold is going through the house and I'm just always amused when I. When I go to buy some cold medicine at the pharmacy and all the stuff that has that Fenner fenarin Ren in it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Fennel.

[Joe Getty]

Fennel. Fenarin. I don't know how to pronounce it. Starts with the phone. That does nothing. That was announced a couple of years ago. Does nothing. So I did a little deep dive on your AI chatbots about it. Yep. The FDA found that it doesn't do anything, but they didn't ban it. And it's still like the leading ingredient. And most cold medicine that's there at your pharmacy when you go to buy cold medicine, it does nothing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

It's so wild that it's still there. Manufacturers started putting it in their product when they made pseudoephedrine go behind the counter, which actually does do something. That's a cold medicine that actually has an effect. But because people were making meth out of it, they had to move it behind the counter. And because they wanted to have something out there, they had this thing that kind of looks like it and sounds like it. And so you kind of think maybe it's similar, but all the studies show it does zero for you.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's why I disagree. It gives you hope that soon you'll feel better. They're selling hope, Jack.

[Joe Getty]

Maybe I'd have been better off not knowing. It does nothing, but just keep that in mind.

[Jack Armstrong]

Curio placebo, as you often say.

[Joe Getty]

Exactly.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hey, you didn't hear this story. Need to spend a lot of time on it. It's funny how little this was reported. Happened several days ago. But a federal jury on Friday in Dallas. Not this Friday, last Friday. Convicted eight People on terrorism charges over that shooting at the Texas immigration facility. All eight of them tied to Antifa. Eight people convicted of terrorism charges tied to an tifa. Funny how all these outlets that have been telling us Antifa doesn't really exist

[Joe Getty]

or the fact that case, or the fact that I just heard this from you and not anywhere else.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I know, I know. It's unbelievable.

[Joe Getty]

If you had a right winger that did anything like that, I would definitely have heard about it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. California's billionaire tax made the OR has enough signatures to make the ballot officially, according to their backers, they got way, way more than they need. So even if a bunch get tossed out. But I thought it was worth mentioning that virtually every nonpartisan institute to look at this has said that it will ultimately cost a great deal of money to the state of California. A California tax foundation, which does not take positions on state legislation, estimated the billionaire tax would reduce state revenues by 3.53 to $4.49 billion a year due to billionaire departures and their economic spillover effects. California's nonpartisan legislative office, by the way, said the wealth tax would probably generate a few tens of billions once.

[Joe Getty]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

While costing hundreds of millions of dollars or more annually. The backers claim it'll immediately raise $100 billion even if billionaires leave California. It's fraud. It's utter fraud.

[Joe Getty]

It's gonna happen.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. The unions that are backing it, they just want the one time cash grab. That's all they care about. And soon you wake up and figure that out, the better.

[Joe Getty]

You're going to be so incredibly short sighted. And we'll pay a price for it in California for a long time. And it won't be a one time thing which will really drive the billionaires out.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. But again, the union goons are not simpletons. They know precisely what they're doing. They just don't care. It's the voters who are who are being duped.

[Joe Getty]

People don't understand Laugher's Curve, but whatever. Maybe another day we'll talk about that.

[Jack Armstrong]

No. And they don't understand. They never ever think about second tier effects. What will people do in reaction to this? Must be asked of every single law and regulations passed. But people don't for whatever reason because they're stupid. There's a Supreme Court case that's gone more or less unnoticed that I'd love to talk about more. It has to do with the, the what's, what's the name of this thing? Geofence warrants. Cops say hey, there was a terrible murder. Maybe like poor Savannah Guthrie's mom disappearing. Terrible crime. We are going to subpoena all of these cell phone carriers data for a, you know, size of like a large city park around her property. We need all the numbers. Wow, that went through there. Wow. And whether that's a defensible warrant, is it a violation of the Bill of Rights, the fourth amendment, et cetera, et cetera.

[Joe Getty]

I don't that first blush, I don't like it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, at first blush I think a lot of people don't like it. It's really useful to law enforcement. But that sort of gobbling up of huge amounts of data involving huge numbers of Americans.

[Joe Getty]

Well, they'll be doing it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Each of whom there's no reason to suspect whatsoever.

[Joe Getty]

It'll be happening constantly. There'll be overlapping geofences. You'll be having your data grabbed up all the time and in various investigations and you know, similar to the one time tax, it'll turn into a multi time tax. I would guess that it would expand to more and more instances where they'd

[Jack Armstrong]

be willing to do that minute by minute. Location tracking is based on GPS data pings to nearby cell towers, Blue Bluetooth beacons and wi fi connections can be remarkably effective at identifying new suspects in cold cases. But it can also reveal information about the movement of innocent people, including their visits to sensitive places like churches, doctor's offices or political organizations, or their wife cross town and their illegitimate kids or whatever.

[Joe Getty]

Or yeah, you did something that would be really inconvenient for you and you're in the other party and somebody's running for office. I mean that all that stuff could happen.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

I don't like it.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I'm really uneasy with it. It's super interesting topic though. And the supes are going to deal with it. Maybe. Probably. I hope it's not one of the your so called narrow rulings. Different topic. Have you noticed? I know you have all of these progressive attitudes that you're supposed to mindlessly repeat came out of nowhere at more or less the same time. Yep.

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Stay with us, Armstrong and Getty.

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Warning. This product contains nicotine. Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Views is smooth, consistent and intentionally simple. It's vapor done. Right. Because when you're free to focus on what really matters, everything just clicks. Find views that's V U S E VUS at your favorite convenience store.

Underage sale prohibited. VUSE is a vapor product website restricted to age 21 plus tobacco consumers.

[America 250 Announcer]

Copyright 2026 RJRVC It's a celebration 250 years in the making and we want

[Announcer]

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

[America 250 Announcer]

This 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 celebration at america250.org

[Sponsor/Advertiser]

if you're feeling off fatigue, mood changes, skin shifts, yet your labs say everything's normal, you're not alone. Meet Oestra from Inner Balance, the first all in one prescription strength bioidentical hormone cream that's natural and effective and only takes one drop, 10 seconds a day. Oester replaces five to six products women typically use to treat symptoms and is third party tested to ensure the highest quality. Visit innerbalance.com today to start feeling like yourself again.

[Announcer]

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[Joe Getty]

Iranians are undergoing hardships they haven't seen in many, many decades. Maybe going back to the Iran Iraq war, according to the Wall Street Journal. We'll have an Iran war update coming up a little bit later.

[Jack Armstrong]

Looking forward to it. Great. So I'm going to build a case right now and I feel like it is pretty damn strong about why all of a sudden, like after 2010 or so, all of us started hearing about these radical ideologies about systemic racism or transphobia or transgenderism in general. And you know, all your gender bending madness and your there are actually a number of variations. You should read James Lindsay's and Helen Pluckrose's fabulous book Cynical Theories about the critical theory crowd. But everybody started hearing about this all of a sudden and like washed across the the, the landscape like a tide. And all of a sudden if you were to say, wait a minute, that's cuckoo nuts. I'd never even heard this until a year ago and now you're telling me I have to parrot it or I lose my job. What the hell are we doing here? Thought many, many people, some of us said it out loud, some of you weren't in a position to do that. But I've been looking at a bunch of different statistics and they all kind of come together in my head. The first one is a set of graphs and we'll post [e-mail] about mentions of terms like racism, racist, racists in your big four newspapers. New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal. Also sexism, sexist and misogyny and homophobia and homophobic, transphobia, transphobic, Islamophobia, Islamophobic, and finally antisemitism and anti Semitic. I will tell you in advance that that one's not nearly as notable for reasons which I'll bet you could figure out. But. So these graphs virtually, and they all have little variations, but the overall shape of them are identical with the exception of the anti Semitism one. They kind of burbled along with events at a very low rate through and. Oh, I'm sorry, I should mention to you that this is who did this poll. Oh, I can't see it, it's half obscured. But it's. They've been doing this poll since. Or they. The data went back to 1970. So anyway, they burbled along with little ups and downs as news occurred in the United States. But then all of a sudden in like 2012, racism, racists, racism, racist. All those mentions in the big four newspapers skyrocketed to many multiples of what they've been in the past.

[Joe Getty]

Interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Like likewise, sexist, sexist, misogyny, as you might guess, transphobic didn't exist.

[Joe Getty]

Well, yeah, that one, of course, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

But prior to like 2008, then in 2012 or so, it started to skyrocket. Likewise Islamophobia and Islamophobic.

[Joe Getty]

This has been going on for so long now. I didn't note that there were much fewer mentions of racist prior to 2012. I didn't, I didn't perceive that. It's been going on so long, I guess I don't remember.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah, the whole. Well, generally you had to have racism to call something racist. And I'll skip to the end the conclusion, then I'll back it up. But my conclusion is the critical mass of critical theory infecting our schools and universities, which started in the 1970s. I'll spare you the whole history of it, but it achieved a real critical mass in around 2008, 2010, for reasons which we'll get into in a minute. But I remember I read a great editorial to y' all several weeks ago from a professor who said, hey, I was a professor at that time in the 70s and we thought, look, if we're gonna be an institution of open inquiry, we've gotta admit these radical leftist professors in who are doing their anti colonial stuff and critical theory and all the crap that you hear all the time now out of the mouths of your college sophomore just came home unrecognizable to the little girl you'd sent away anyway. But then once those people got in, they closed the door behind them and refused to hire anybody but those people. And I just think that critical mass in academia infected media and your social type of majors and just people who tend to think like that around, you know, the late 2000s, and then it just exploded because they felt like they had the power to advocate for themselves around 2010 or so. And again, these graphs are quite striking to look at. I told you I'd back it up. You know, that's. I'm gonna skip over here.

[Joe Getty]

Back it up, backing it up.

[Jack Armstrong]

Totally different meaning. So, and this is from the invaluable Chris Ruffo, but he's been involved in a bit of an online debate about taking the middle ground or trying to be fair, blah, blah, blah, and universities and where will they get you? And he says, look, there's nothing beautiful about losing in this manner. We've been trying to do that, and it's been a miserable failure. And this is from the Carnegie Foundation. They've been doing this polling since the late 1960s. It's the faculty Ideology in the United States poll from 1969 to 2022. And just for the sake of the argument, I'm just gonna pick out 1984 when Reagan was in office. It was about 40% of faculty called themselves far left, liberal, 34% called themselves conservative. Far right and middle of the road was about 27%. Okay, so it was liberal, but yeah, colleges have always been kind of liberal. Now, far left liberal is 74%, middle of the road is 15%, and conservative or far right is just under 11%. So again, it's 74 to 25 even, including middle of the road. And scientist who's looking at this commented that because they dug into the statistics, American university faculty are more likely to identify as socialist than conservative.

[Joe Getty]

Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's more than double. 26% say I'm a socialist, 11% say I'm a conservative. Wow. And conservative only leads Marxist by 3%.

[Joe Getty]

That is something.

[Jack Armstrong]

So when I'm ranting about how diseased our education system is, folks, I'm not paranoid. The last thing I am is paranoid. I'm an avowed realist Twice as many

[Joe Getty]

socialists as conservatives on a college campus in the faculty. That's amazing.

[Jack Armstrong]

And if you include them at far left liberal, it's seven and a half to one for conservatives. And you got a handful of middle

[Joe Getty]

of the road and people who are willing to call themselves Marxists.

[Jack Armstrong]

Probably a lot of those socialists are.

[Joe Getty]

But I mean you're pretty hardcore if you're willing to call yourself a Marxist. Is almost as many as conservatives.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that 26% that are socialists. How many of them are actually Marxists? They're just not willing to say it. That's actually a really good question. And then my final bit of evidence that this is just. And again, I know you're busy, I know people don't like to read books, but this is an absolutely well known movement in intellectual circles and it's been accumulating weight for a very long time. And I would suggest I was talking about this yesterday as a guy who studied political movements since I was a kid and certainly a college student. Look at radical political movements and whether there's something you really need to worry about the same way, relate to it the same way you would if you heard somebody say I'll never get cancer or I don't have to worry about my kid being on drugs or I don't have to worry about my marriage falling apart because we're solid. You would look at that person, you'd think, oh boy, you may be mostly right. But you're being very, very cavalier. I would seriously urge you to take an attitude more like that when you look at radical political movements ability to really pervert what we do here in the United States. Final thing, and this is of all things, in the Wall Street Journal, which is among the best available of the major news websites, which is not to say it's great, but it's one of the best. They graph they published this the other day that seems to show near parity between left and right wing political violence. It was in the journal. It was sourced to the center for Strategic and International Studies, which by its own admission reclassified all pro Palestinian violence not as left wing but as ethno nationalist. It classifies all antisemitism as right wing and all pro Palestinian attacks on Jewish individuals or institutions are ethnonationalist, which is left off of the right wing, left wing little graph. And as this author, who we've quoted many times, she writes for the Free Press, points out, this is just nakedly partisan propaganda presented as data and then mainstreamed in the American press. And there's more to our column, but we're kind of out of time. Maybe for another day. You know, I think you all know this. We all know this. Our perceptions of what is happening in the world are so twisted or misfocused by the lens of our mainstream media and education. It's funhouse mirror. It's crazy.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. I was going to throw in at one point that a lot of the explosion of various things we talked about happened at the same time, that smartphones and the Internet really got going and all that sort of stuff. That's not a coincidence. It just helped spread all that information. But along with the Internet and everything like that came people being able to snatch your data and hang on to it and hit you with scams all the time. And that's why we want to tell you about Incogni.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Your number, your phone number, your address, who you know, who you, your friends, your kids are on data broker sites right now. Your email, your age. It's unbelievable. All of it's searchable and for sale. Every scam starts with one thing. Your personal info being available to the wrong people.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And all those texts, emails, phone calls you get are people trying to scam you most of the time. This is what needs to happen. This is what Incog does. They contact hundreds of data brokers. They know the big ones out there and legally force them to remove your information. We're using an Incogni to get our names and info away from these data brokers. You're going to notice a reduction in the number of spam text calls and emails that you get.

[Jack Armstrong]

It can't spam you if they can't find you right now. Get 60% off with an exclusive deal at incogni.com Armstrong. That's incogni.com Armstrong. And take back your privacy one more time. That's incogni.Com Armstrong. You know, I want to dovetail off that point you made about the smartphone era, because I think you're absolutely right. Number one, as we know smartphones and the Internet as how terrible ideas which were laughed out of every town in America. Enough people came together globally to reinforce each other and so those terrible ideas grew. The other thing is that the smartphone social media enabled the brutal, hateful policing of anybody who went against them. Doxing, ruining people's careers, getting them fired from their jobs for saying no. There are two sexes, men and women, and you can't change. It's impossible. Which is self evidently true. But yeah, people's careers were ruined over that. That was part of the cell phone explosion too.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, you don't have to. I mean we don't guillotine people in the United States. We ruin your life through, you know, the whole social media thing. And that keeps a lot of people quiet.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, but that's why all of these crazy Marxist progressive theories all launched when they did the coming together of critical mass in the academy, as they say. And technology.

[Joe Getty]

I've got the very latest news in the world of robot dogs coming up. Let me say that again in case you ran over a pothole and thought you heard incorrectly. Have the latest news in the world of robot dogs.

[Jack Armstrong]

The kind with machine guns coming out of their eyes or just the regular kind?

[Joe Getty]

Just regular kind of robot dogs and a bunch of other stuff on the way. So stay here.

[Sponsor/Advertiser]

Armstrong and Getty

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[America 250 Announcer]

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[Announcer]

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

[America 250 Announcer]

This 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]

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[Sponsor/Advertiser]

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[Announcer]

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[America 250 Announcer]

a Missouri man was recently charged

[Joe Getty]

with sexual misconduct after he Allegedly danced

[Jack Armstrong]

naked in the vestibule of an Aldi store. Or more likely he was just stripping to raise money for groceries.

[Joe Getty]

There you go. So I was reading up on the latest in robot dogs yesterday and then started asking a couple of my favorite AI chat bots to give me more information. And so I think we've talked about in the past Sody's A Ibo. How do you pronounce that? A Ibo.

[Jack Armstrong]

Ibo. I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

It's their sort of pet version of a robot dog. I think we've talked about it that in the past. It's several thousand dollars. I think I've seen him in the store in Vegas. Yeah, pretty sure I have.

[Jack Armstrong]

That sounds like a drunk in Vegas. Purchase. Hey honey, look what I got.

[Joe Getty]

And, and it's more pet related. It looks like a dog. And, and, and, and they've, they've tried using them in nursing homes and that sort of thing to walk around and the patients see him and with various levels of success, I guess. Wow, Katie, jump in whenever you want as a proud dog owner on the whole robo dog topic.

[Jack Armstrong]

But then do they poop bitcoin or what? How does that work?

[Joe Getty]

So then I was asking about the best ones and there's one called the Unitree. Go to that.

[Jack Armstrong]

That does,

[Joe Getty]

that runs about $75,000 currently. And that's the most high talk, high tech robot dog out there. And what people are wondering if they're going to combine the pet version of the robot dog that looks like a dog with the $75,000. It's more of a helper security thing. Doesn't look as much like a dog. And all its technology, if you can combine them together, you'd really have something. So the one that's $75,000 does all kinds of amazing stuff. An autonomous inspection routes. It walks the same path daily. Photographing gauges, thermal imaging equipment, detecting leaks. All the kinds of things it can just do walking around your, your property.

[Jack Armstrong]

Am I running an oil field in this scenario?

[Joe Getty]

Well, I could see if like you're, you know, you're. What is your water, your lawn, your lawn watering system, if you got a leak out there or what? Just anything, there's a hole in the fence. Notice anything going on around your property and walk the route and walk your house and do all this sort of stuff. Yes. Katie, is this the same type of

[Jack Armstrong]

AI that caused that woman to go

[Joe Getty]

what the f kind of.

[Jack Armstrong]

Point?

[Joe Getty]

Very good point, Katie.

[Announcer]

That's what the type of AI shit it is.

[Joe Getty]

That was A robot dog right in her apartment complex. It was probably this sort of thing, 3D site scanning and mapping with lidar remote inspection and had blah blah, blah, blah, can do security patrols. And here's what I thought was even more amazing. It can go upstairs and traverse rocky, uneven self rights if it falls over, avoids obstacles, has five stereo cameras in it, maps itself, localizes itself within known spaces, knows where it is, detects and avoids people, objects and drop offs, returns to dock to recharge on its own. But it can open doors, its arm can open lever doors and round doorknobs, pick up object objects up to 11 pounds, turn valves and flip switches, drag things as heavy as 55 pounds.

[Jack Armstrong]

Just, just out of curiosity, can that robot arm, I don't know, say, grasp a knife in the middle of the night? Because it resents me just asking for a friend.

[Joe Getty]

Well, what y' all got the robot

[Jack Armstrong]

dog in here for, right?

[Joe Getty]

So it seems to me if you can combine the two, the one that looks like a dog and is kind of designed to wag its tail and be friendly with the, you know, it listens for sounds that, you know, like your regular dog does and all that sort of stuff, and goes outside and patrols the fence and make sure there's no holes or nothing has happened and blah, all these different things. That could be quite the little tool.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I would imagine like much security gear, it would be graded and priced depending on your needs. You know, if you're running some sort of high dollar car showroom in, in the city, you'd my dog than just an average homeowner.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, and maybe that would be a more functional use for it. Instead of your quote, junkyard dog, you have one of these robot dogs. It's patrolling the fence and everything, keeping an eye.

[Jack Armstrong]

Although certainly part of the junkyard dog package that'll bite the hell out of you. So true.

[Joe Getty]

This would have to be more like our Simply Safe commercials, I suppose, where it just, you know, alerts somebody of something.

[Jack Armstrong]

Then it shoots lasers out its eyes.

[Joe Getty]

You might, you might like this. So then I say to Claude, or chat GPT or whichever one I'm on, I said, does it shed? Wondering if it would pick up on the fact that obviously that is a joke, but it said no, it's metal and plastic, no fur involved. Unable to pick up on sarcasm, apparently, Claude. The only thing it leaves behind is the occasional oil drip of a hydraulic seal goes bad and the faint smell of regret when you see the invoice, which is actually a pretty good joke

[Jack Armstrong]

that, that is pretty good.

[Joe Getty]

75, 000 robot dog.

[Jack Armstrong]

Huh?

[Joe Getty]

Not.

[Announcer]

They got the robot dog.

[Joe Getty]

I think the hood. That's right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. That is the situation well encapsulated, my dear.

[Joe Getty]

You need to combine all these things. Well, for some people that are going to have like the.

[King Charles (quoted)]

The.

[Joe Getty]

The romantic companion that does the robot dog thing. Your romantic companion who you sit on the couch and watch a show with and then maybe have sex with you weirdos. And then it goes outside and walks, taking a shower to see if anybody's busted in or there's a leak in the water.

[Jack Armstrong]

Perfect companion to me. So are you picturing some sort of Transformer thing that goes from leggy buxom blonde down to golden retriever and then. What the.

[Joe Getty]

I don't know what we'll end up with, but I'm sure we'll have something like that somewhere between the dog and the person that's doing laundry, inspecting the fence. Just all these different things. Hopefully not the romantic part. If you miss a segment of the

[Sponsor/Advertiser]

show, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

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[America 250 Announcer]

It's a celebration 250 years in the

[Announcer]

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

[America 250 Announcer]

This 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 celebration at america250.org if

[Sponsor/Advertiser]

you're feeling off fatigue, mood changes, skin shifts, yet your labs say everything's normal. You're not alone. Meet Oestra from Inner Balance, the first all in one prescription strength bioidentical hormone cream that's natural and effective and only takes one drop, 10 seconds a day. Oester replaces five to six products women typically use to treat symptoms and is third party tested to ensure the highest quality. Visit innerbalance.com today to start feeling like yourself again.

[Joe Getty]

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