Upper Class Twits Promoting A Revolution

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand

Episode: Upper Class Twits Promoting A Revolution
Date: January 8, 2026
Host: iHeartPodcasts
Main Hosts: Jack Armstrong, Joe Getty
Producer/Contributor: Michael

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Episode Overview

This episode of Armstrong & Getty dives into several hot-button cultural and political issues, centered on themes of internet radicalization, elite hypocrisy in leftist political movements, property and housing in America, developments in the culture war (especially regarding gender ideology), geopolitical tensions in East Asia, and the dangers posed by advances in AI-powered deep fakes. Throughout, the hosts approach these topics with their characteristic blend of sarcasm, skepticism, and punchy commentary.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Internet Radicalization & Recent Minneapolis Shooting

Segment Begins: [02:12]

• The show opens with analysis of a recent police shooting in Minneapolis involving a protestor who allegedly blocked traffic with her vehicle.
• The role of "LARPing" (Live Action Role Play) in modern protests and radical activism is raised. The hosts read from the account "Mimetic Sisyphus," which critiques how online radicalization pushes people to enact fantasy roles in the real world, with deadly consequences.

"It's easy to LARP as a revolutionary, as someone who stands against oppression... Then you convince yourself to do something really dumb like pull your car in front of police officers. They draw their guns and the LARP crumbles."
— Michael, quoting Mimetic Sisyphus [03:25]

• Armstrong and Getty discuss how peer groups and viral online praise reinforce reckless real-world behavior, recalling examples of online threats they've received that evaporate when cops get involved.

"They always back off. 'Oh, no, I didn’t mean that at all. It’s a joke.'...They’re playing a character. They don’t realize when you cross the line into the real world..."
— Jack Armstrong [05:51]

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2. The Left's Elite Hypocrisy: "Upper Class Twits Promoting Revolution"

Segment Begins: [06:45]

• The episode title is explained as the focus turns to "upper class twits"—privileged young elites now spearheading radical leftist movements, notably in New York City politics.
• The hosts detail the elite backgrounds of recently appointed officials: Anna Barr, Julian Gerson, and Morris Katz—all educated at extremely expensive private schools.
• Mamdani, New York’s new mayor, is quoted from his inaugural address:

"We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism."
— Quoted from Mayor Mamdani’s speech [07:47]

• The hosts sarcastically point out the disconnect between radical anti-capitalist rhetoric and the privileged upbringings of those most loudly advocating it.

"So going forward, there shouldn’t be these super expensive high schools because nobody would have the money to send their kid there?"
— Jack Armstrong [11:18]

• They criticize the lack of intellectual consistency and accuse these figures of being "overgrown children who are dangerous to themselves and others." [12:01]

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3. Housing, Capitalism, and Foreign Ownership

Segment Begins: [17:03]

• Hosts discuss an article about Trump’s proposal to ban large investors from buying single-family homes, tying into larger anxieties about housing affordability.
• Debates arise about free market orthodoxy vs. the negative community impact of foreign or corporate mass-purchasing of homes.

"Land is different than like a shirt. It just is."
— Jack Armstrong [18:59]

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4. Wealth, Media Collapse, and Ghost Cities

Segment Begins: [19:01]

• There’s a brief tangent on Elon Musk's net worth (claiming $700+ billion, with disbelief), the closure of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, and the phenomenon of China’s ghost cities (65 million empty homes).

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5. Gender Ideology, Parental Rights, and Legal Battles

Segment Begins: [23:29]

• Michael brings news of two cases:
  • A Maine mother petitioning the Supreme Court after school staff supported her child’s gender transition without parental consent.
  • A pending Supreme Court case about transgender athletes in West Virginia sports.
• They feature Dr. Miriam Grossman, who argues that "gender-affirming care" is legal fraud:

"When I examine gender affirming care and the history that led up to it, I see fraud and deceptive practice everywhere."
— Dr. Miriam Grossman [27:21]

• The infamous "John Money" experiment is recounted, reinforcing the hosts’ view that current gender medicine is rooted in failed and harmful science.

"The idea that this sort of thing is being called settled science or that there's a medical consensus is actually fraud according to the definition in the penal codes and somebody ought to enforce it."
— Michael [30:49]

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6. Deep Fakes and the Dangers of AI

Segment Begins: [34:13]

• News item: Elon Musk’s Grok AI is being used to generate non-consensual sexual deepfakes at alarming rates.

"More than 50% of images generated by Grok between December 25 and January 1 were non consensual sexual images. Wow."
— Michael [34:37]

• The hosts lament the inevitability of deep fake abuse, especially among teens, with no effective way to police it.

"I think the only cure for it is that there's a picture of every other girl floating around too naked... So we're. Everybody is. Yeah."
— Jack Armstrong (sarcasm) [35:38]

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7. Rising Tensions: China vs. Japan, Geopolitics in East Asia

Segment Begins: [35:49]

• Japan announces that it will treat a Chinese attack on Taiwan as an existential threat, prompting sharp words from Chinese diplomats.
• The hosts discuss cultural and historical animosities between China and Japan, referencing atrocities and the absurdity of lumping "Asians" together as a concept.
• They warn of the gravity of the situation, calling it “the most underreported story” and speculating on the real possibility of WWIII if the US is drawn in.

"Would we say no to helping Japan fight China and that? No. That's full on World War 3, isn't it?"
— Jack Armstrong [38:15]

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8. Historical Lessons & The "Failure of Imagination"

Segment Begins: [39:07]

• Drawing from WWII history, they discuss how people’s inability to imagine world war often precedes catastrophic conflict.

"I think that's the right term, failure of imagination... You can't imagine that it would ever happen. Just like they couldn't imagine... in June of 1914."
— Jack Armstrong [39:46]

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9. Closing Thoughts & Offbeat Nuggets

Segment Begins: [40:43]

• The team delivers final thoughts, ranging from shoe sizing confessions to Denmark’s colonial acquisition of Greenland (“just kind of happened because it was big and frozen” [41:44]).
• Jack teases a future tale about quitting alcohol.
• The episode ends with a mix of banter and playful sarcasm.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On online radical LARPing and tragic real-world consequences:
  “No one in this woman’s life told her she’s on a retarded, destructive larp... She needed someone to tell her to grow up. Instead, she had no one and now she's dead.” — (quoted Twitter thread) [04:50]
• Elite hypocrisy in leftist politics:
  "Trust fund socialist...surrounding himself with like minded elite who hate capitalism." — Michael [06:45]
• Hammering the generational divide on war:
  “Most people, especially younger people, just have a failure of imagination that this could actually occur. It has occurred multiple times... In fact, it is the norm.” — Jack Armstrong [39:44]
• Biting sarcasm on AI deepfakes:
  “The only cure for it is that there's a picture of every other girl floating around too naked... Everybody is.” — Jack Armstrong [35:38]
• On “Settled Science” in gender care:
  "The idea that this sort of thing is being called settled science or that there's a medical consensus is actually fraud according to the definition in the penal codes and somebody ought to enforce it." — Michael [30:49]
• Withering summary of elite progressives:
  "Overgrown children who are dangerous to themselves and others." — Michael [12:01]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• "LARPing" & Modern Protest Radicalization: [02:12–06:45]
• Privileged Elites and Left Revolutionaries: [06:45–12:11]
• Housing Market & Foreign Ownership: [17:03–19:01]
• Gender Ideology Legal Wars: [23:29–31:09]
• AI Deepfakes & Grok: [34:13–35:47]
• China/Japan/Taiwan Tensions: [35:49–39:12]
• Final Thoughts – History & Miscellany: [40:43–42:14]

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Conclusion

This episode knits together the dangers of online-driven activism, ongoing culture war flashpoints, and looming global conflicts, using biting humor and skepticism to highlight inconsistencies and alarming trends. Listeners are left with a sense of the cultural and political moment’s volatility, and the enduring Armstrong & Getty message: be wary of groupthink, take historical lessons seriously, and brace for the unexpected.

Transcript

[Joe Getty]

This is an iHeart podcast.

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[Michael]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Broadcasting live from the Abraham.

[Michael]

Lincoln Radio studio at the George Washington.

[Joe Getty]

Broadcast Center, Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty.

[Michael]

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

[Angie Hicks]

They clearly wanted her out of there because she was the main car leading the the protest is my understanding. I talked to another guy who was driving behind her, but she was, she was very, she was very successful in blocking traffic. She was doing what she was what she was set out to do and so they wanted to get her the.

[Sponsor Voice 2]

Hell out of there.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah.

[Sponsor Voice]

So it looked like she was impeding ICE vehicles, definitely.

[Angie Hicks]

Yeah, that was her goal.

[Michael]

So there's one of her compatriots saying, yeah, that's what she was doing all day. She was blocking ice and stopping traffic with her car. And the rest of it. The shooting in Minneapolis we're talking about. Obviously, we've talked about various aspects of this throughout the show today, but I came across this and I thought it was so good because everybody's rushing to, you know, conclusions and assigning motives to people, even though they don't have any idea what people's motives are. And the rest of it, it's just the modern way. I don't like it. This is from a Twitter account. I refuse to call it X. It's a letter of the Alphabet. You can't trademark letter of the Alphabet. Mimetic Sisyphus, which is a terrific account. Anyway, I think a lot of radicalization happens in spaces where it's all talk, everything is hypothetical. It's easy to LARP. Do you know what LARPing is? Live action role playing. It's easy to LARP as a revolutionary, as someone who stands against oppression. There's a lack of seriousness about it all. You start to believe the memes. You start to believe you're a hero, you're the main character. Then you convince yourself to do something really dumb like pull your car in front of police officers. They draw their guns and the LARP crumbles. You're not that person. This is real life and those are real guns. Guns, nothing but get the hell out of here. Screams in her brain. She probably didn't see the officer standing in front of her car as she smashes the gas. The officers can't know this, of course. They don't know what she's thinking. They just know that when guns were drawn, asking her to step out of her vehicle, she slammed on the gas in the direction of an officer. They're not in a larp. Their job is real and they encounter people who want to kill them. So they fire. No one in this woman's life told her she's on a retarded, destructive larp. She was encouraged by her peer group. Viral videos of similarly lost radical LARPers getting nothing but praise online. Politicians calling the enforcement of our laws akin to Nazis, calling them illegitimate, calling them evil, telling their citizens to make their voices heard. Everyone in her life failed her. She needed someone to tell her to grow up. Instead, she had no one and now she's dead. A horrible case of Internet radicalization. To that point, her wife is one.

[Jack Armstrong]

Of the best things I've ever heard.

[Michael]

Yeah, it's terrific.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is so good.

[Michael]

To that point, her wife ran up to the vehicle screaming, oh my God, this is my fault. This is my fault. I made her come out here. They were playing the brave revolutionary, wittingly or unwittingly doing the Saul Alinsky rules for radicals technique of putting the cops into decision dilemma, provoking them and provoking them until they got a reaction. The reaction was deadly and that's tragic, but yeah, that's exactly what these people are doing. God dang it. And the college campuses of America are encouraging this constantly. In fact, in some colleges in California, for instance, it's required to work this sort of radical neo Marxism into every class, including astrophysics.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, to the extent that it's the online radicalization thing, some of it is the. It's a version of what we run in all the to all the time where we've had, we've gotten law enforcement involved with people who have threatened us online. We do that. By the way, if you decide you want to threaten us online and think that'll be fun because you're doing a larp, you're doing like a live action role play. I'm going to pretend to be the whatever online. And then you run into the real world of the cops, say, yeah, that's actually a threat. That's actually something you can't do. And they always back off. Oh, no, I didn't mean that at all. It's a joke. I actually like the show that has happened over and over and over again because people are doing this like, game. They're playing a character. They don't realize when you cross the line into the real world and it's.

[Michael]

Exciting and it feels very vital. If your world is mostly online, you.

[Jack Armstrong]

See other people doing it.

[Michael]

Screens.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Michael]

And you see other people doing it. You get lots and lots of. They get lots of praise, you get lots of praise and it becomes who you are. On a similar note, this is actually kind of hilarious. Zoran Mumdani, the trust fund socialist who recently became the mayor of New York, is surrounding himself with like minded elite who hate capitalism. His new communications director, Anna Barr, attended one of the most expensive private schools in Los Angeles. Annual tuition at her high school alma mater, Oakwood School in North Hollywood runs as high as $55,000 a year. Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

$55,000 a year high school. Whoa.

[Michael]

Interestingly and oddly, her most recent boss Bernie Sanders has repeatedly denounced private schools for perpetuating economic inequality. Bar 33 is one of many expensively educated professionals who've made the entirely natural transition from journalist to Democratic flack. While attending Barnard College, the sex segregated Columbia affiliate that costs roughly 100 GS per year, Barr entered at the HuffPo, the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC and Ms. Magazine. And then she landed a job at the New York Times before becoming a press aide, et cetera, et cetera. Let's see. So Barr will oversee the mayor's communications department, working alongside a number of privileged youth to craft messaging in support of Mamdani's efforts to dismantle capitalism. The mayor said, quote, last week in his inaugural address we played this. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. We will replace the frigidity of rugged individualism with the warmth of collectivism. An early candidate for the clip of the year. Anyway, the person responsible for that bone chilling sentence is Mamdani speechwriting director Julian Gerson, who's a 29 year old graduate of the Dalton School, one of the most expensive private schools in New York City. That makes the LA place look cheap. It has a tuition as high as $67,000 a year.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now I understand that trying to come up with like an overarching philosophy that makes sense doesn't work with a lot of this stuff on both sides really. But what is. So you think the world is. America is full of inequity and unfairness and all these different sor of things. So do you think those schools shouldn't exist anymore or it's bad that you went there or your parents should your parents have given away their money to various.

[Michael]

I want to tear down all inequity.

[Jack Armstrong]

Or organizations and you gone to a public school. I mean, how does it all fit together with your worldview?

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[Jack Armstrong]

Do you know?

[Michael]

No, they would just. I was giving their actual response. We should tear down all. An echo day, including inequities that I may have enjoyed. I am ashamed of that. Anyway, so this Gerson fellow honed his writing craft at Middlebury College, which will run you 94 grand a year if you play full freight. He spoke glowingly of Luigi Mangione. Fairly recently he was quote, adored. Not only because he dared to target a leader of one of the most vile self enriching industries darkening our society today, but because he dared to defy the stasis of nihilistic rejection. Well, that's a fair. That's A fair charge. He probably did defy the stasis of nihilistic rejection.

[Jack Armstrong]

It'd be hard to say because I don't know. I don't know what it means.

[Michael]

So it's hard to argue what the what? Well, Bar and Gerson will presumably collaborate with Morris Katz, the mayor's 26 year old senior advisor and muse. Katz is the son of David Bar Katz, a semi renowned television screenwriter and playwright, and Julie Merberg, a celebrated author of left wing children's books, including Diversity Is a Superpower, My First Book of Feminism, and My first Book of Feminism for Boys. He attended an exclusive New York City public school that caters to wealthy elites, et cetera, et cetera. Among other things, this scrappy gang of privileged white radicals will craft messaging solutions to bolster Manami's ambitious housing agenda. Led by Sia Weaver, who we quoted the other day. Do you have the quote of her? Yeah, go ahead. Especially white families, but some POC families who are homeowners as well are gonna.

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[Michael]

Yeah, so she is for confiscating all private property and putting everyone in public housing. Everyone.

[Jack Armstrong]

But so, and I'm being sincere here, I would like to know what they would say is so going forward, there shouldn't be these super expensive high schools because nobody would have the money to send their kid there.

[Michael]

Because they would say they should be open. Everybody. Oh, and you would say, well, how would that work economically? Because it's a small school with a very, very high teacher to student ratio and all that. And they would just respond with whatever nonsense their professors taught them. We need to tear down the walls of inequity and white supremacy and have equity. They don't think these things through. They don't think logically. They're not adults. They're overgrown children who are dangerous to themselves and others, as we learned in Minneapolis.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's amazing how often this happens. I mean, it is a thing, whether it's Osama bin Laden or these people, the privileged who grew up hating the elite.

[Michael]

Upper class twins promoting revolution, which you.

[Jack Armstrong]

Have been your whole life. That's wild.

[Michael]

Uctipurs. Upper class twits promoting revolution. Octopus? Did you say octopus? No, I said octoper.

[Jack Armstrong]

So I mentioned the battle that's going on in the upstairs bathroom between my two teenagers. One of them clean, one of the messy. Somebody came up with a way they handled it in their family, which is pretty good. Among other things. On the way.

[Joe Getty]

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Michael]

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[Michael]

Florida man was arrested recently after he allegedly stole $1,000 from BJ's Meat Market while completely naked except for a face mask. Dude, you should have known. It's Florida. It's illegal to wear a face mask. So for two on Seth Meyer jokes.

[Jack Armstrong]

Michael, we'd have been better off without it than with it. So we've got to, we gotta raise our standards for jokes. They.

[Michael]

Well, if they don't, funniness might be the standard.

[Jack Armstrong]

If we don't laugh, it is not, you know, to my mind, a joke.

[Michael]

Yeah, we don't need them. They're fun when they're funny. When they're not funny, they're not fun.

[Jack Armstrong]

I should have brought this up last segment because I want to move on from this. But Mom. Dani's commie housing official. This is the National Review. Their editorial today by all the editors. Mamdani's commie housing official is a lunatic. That's their head maintenance. Well, it is. I can hear.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

The governor of New York is trying to pass a law there that it'll be illegal for 3D printers to be able to print guns or gun parts. I don't know if that's one of those things that'll be easily gotten around by bad people, but I don't think I have any problem with it on its face on how effective it'll be or not. That is something. That is something to be concerned about, though. I saw some YouTube video about how credibly easy it is to make a ghost gun that will fire on your 3D printer. And it's not even like a $400 3D printer. Print out a gun and now you've got a gun that nobody knows you have.

[Michael]

Right. And nobody can be forbidden from manufacturing it. You can be forbidden from possessing it, but you're probably going to commit a crime anyway. So you don't care. Yeah. Our gun laws either have to change completely or we'll be in a new reality of even more guns. Of course, there are already more guns than people in America.

[Jack Armstrong]

Did you read the article in the New York Times? I did not. I meant to. I bookmarked it. A close call for US Commandos and an emboldened Trump. This is from the raid on Maduro. As a damaged US Helicopter struggled to stay aloft over Venezuela's capital, the success of the entire operation hung in the balance. Oh, it sounds very dramatic. I will read that at some point and bring you the details. Looking forward to it. Yeah, this yesterday Trump said. This is from the Wall Street Journal. He's taking steps to ban large investors from buying single family homes. I don't know where that squares with my usual free market libertarian sort of beliefs. But I know in the town I live in, particularly foreign, big time, like conglomerates of foreign. They come in and buy all the houses.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And there's just. There's just no way you can compete as a regular person.

[Michael]

I have had some really interesting discussions with some of my libertarian brethren about this very topic. Because you're right, it's a good one. It's if you like, you know, chewy conundra. This is a good one because I'm for the free market too. But it is too disruptive in the supply of an A, necessity and B, something that's pretty limited. And I think it's one of those rare exceptions. You've got to craft legislation that limits the amount of that you get. Otherwise it just causes too much damage. Now, the libertarian argument was the free market will figure that out. It will drop the value or the value will rise. That will cause more building. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I just, I don't like it. I don't like Chinese oligarchs coming in and buying up all the available houses in a market. And it's just. That's not right. It's not American. Speaking of money, land is different than like a shirt. It just is.

[Jack Armstrong]

Speaking of money. So I had lost track of this Elon Musk's net worth. So we're driving my Tesla. I mentioned something about Elon should blah, blah, blah. And my son said, elon doesn't run the con. He only cares about robots now, doesn't he? Blah blah, blah. Anyway, we've gotten into this conversation about Elon and I was wondering what is. I said, well, he's the largest shareholder, so he has a lot of sway, but he doesn't. And I just asked Grok, what's Elon Musk's net worth? North of $700 billion currently. Last time I checked in, it was like 260. And I remember when people talking about him becoming the first trillionaire. He's a long way there. Over $700 billion, according to Forbes.

[Michael]

Wow. It's just incomprehensible.

[Jack Armstrong]

Just a couple of years ago, that was impossible. Anyway, that's where it is currently. The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, one of the America's oldest newspapers, goes back to 1786 closing its doors because newspapers don't work anymore. Because there's no way for them to make any money. Any good. That ain't good.

[Michael]

Oof.

[Jack Armstrong]

I didn't read this article. Inside China's Ghost Cities. The country with 65 million empty homes. Oh yeah, 65 million empty homes.

[Michael]

I remember 60 minutes years and years ago did a feature on that. I found it absolutely fascinating. There's these entire cities of high rise, often luxury apartments, condos. They're just empty for a mile. Crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

And finally this I talked about my two teenage boys kind of battling over the upstairs bathroom. One of them is a slob, one of them is not. And trying to keep it clean. Somebody texted this. My mom made us each take turn each week cleaning the bathroom. When it was the other person's week, we would try to make it as gross as possible.

[Michael]

Ha ha ha.

[Jack Armstrong]

That was a bust.

[Michael]

I am not sure that was a good solution.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh that's funny. Oh it's your. You got to clean the bathroom next week. Oh, wait till you see this. That's disgusting.

[Michael]

Is radical gender theory a fraud? Legally fraud? Stay tuned.

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[Michael]

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[Jack Armstrong]

Hasn't been as awful as I thought.

[Michael]

It was going to be.

[Jack Armstrong]

Talking about the shooting today, I didn't. It wouldn't. You know, I would like to have not had to do it. But when it happened yesterday, I thought, oh boy, tomorrow is going to be something.

[Michael]

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I don't know. It's funny. I never had that attitude. I thought. For whatever reason. I know exactly what you mean, though. I just thought this. All right, here's a great opportunity to just. Can we please be adults here? I don't know. That's out of style, out of fashion. Look at me. So, Michael, if you would be so kind, I meant to alert this to you. Alert you to this, rather. Clip number 18. Have that ready. It's a Gender Bending Madness update.

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So I kept hearing about this thing.

[Michael]

Called Ginger Bending Madness.

[Jack Armstrong]

They're locos.

[Michael]

We're in a brave new world. I want to touch on a couple stories really briefly. One that might go to the Supreme Court and one that is at the Supreme Court. In fact, the hearing is going to be held five days from today. So here's a Maine mom who is asking the U.S. supreme Court to hear her parental rights. She alleges school staff encouraged her child to socially identify as a different sex at school without her knowledge. She learned her 13 year old daughter was given a chest binder by a school social worker. And school staff had used a different name and pronouns for her child at school without informing her. Indeed, as this the tradition among radical leftists, the word was don't tell the mom, don't tell the parents.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that's the secret law in California, right?

[Michael]

Uh, yeah, essentially, yeah. And I tell you what, anybody who doesn't understand how, hey, don't tell the parents is a flaming red flag that something untoward is happening is an idiot. So anyway, a federal judge dismissed the case in 2024, concluding the mom had failed to establish legal claims under which the school board could be held liable. According to the AP, 1st Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that dismissal in 2025. So Ms. Levine, that's her name's attorney at The Goldwater Institute, our good friends, are now petitioning the US Supreme Court to take up the case. The idea that there's no grounds for a mom to sue the school who are trying to twist and pervert her daughter is sickening to me. Second case actually is going to be before the Supreme Court. Two West Virginia high school students and their families are alleging that the transgender identifying male student at the center of a case that will be heard by the Supreme Court on January 13 is engaged in sexual harassment and intimidating. That seems to be true. It's. It is what we've been talking about for a long time. West Virginia has a law that bars dudes from competing in female sports just because they throw on a little mascara. And of course, the dude in question, her parents have sued the state and the rest of it. Good. Let's get to the end of this. This bizarre and hilarious notion that you can change sex, you can't. It's impossible. You can present any way you want, but the idea that trans women are women is laughable. Anyway, looking forward to talking to our Supreme Court correspondent about that case. And then, of course, we'll have the oral arguments next week on the 13th. I can't wait to hear that. I'll listen to the whole thing and bring my thoughts to you. But I found this very, very interesting. Dr. Miriam Grossman has done a lot of good writing about the gender bending madness thing. And her premise, which she makes, I think pretty clear as I recall here, is that radical gender theory is committing fraud legal, according to the penal code, fraud.

[Dr. Miriam Grossman]

When I examine gender affirming care.

[Michael]

Hey, Michael, can you stop it? And of course, because it's the Internet, you gotta freaking have sad piano on it or some sort of music in the background. I don't know about you, I'm a grown man. I can listen to people talk without, like, a little melody playing in the background. Makes me insane. Anyway, so here's the learned doctor with some inexplicable piano music that you should try to not get distracted by.

[Dr. Miriam Grossman]

When I examine gender affirming care and the history that led up to it, I see fraud and deceptive practice everywhere, going back decades. I see it in the landmark experiment on Bruce Reimer when he was a toddler and John Money instructed his parents to socially and medically transition him. This was to be Dr. Money's proof for a concept he'd come up with in 1966 called Gender Identity. Dr. Money announced to the world that the experiment was a resounding success. And for years, the World believed it, but in fact, it was a catastrophe from the start. Decades after Dr. Money consumers were misled again when gender specialists took the results of one tiny Dutch study whose subjects were carefully chosen and led parents to believe that every child distressed about their sex could benefit from that model of care. And now families are told there's a consensus among clinicians about the best way to help these children, but there is no consensus. What there is is the silencing of opposition. There are many more examples that you're going to hear about today, but I think it's fair to say that the fraud is wide and it's deep.

[Michael]

Deep.

[Jack Armstrong]

The fact that she could get through that while keeping her piano melody going and playing drums with brushes with her feet.

[Michael]

Right.

[Jack Armstrong]

Is very impressive.

[Michael]

That's why she's so respected.

[Jack Armstrong]

But, yeah, that's something. Yeah, the.

[Michael]

The story she was talking about, Bruce Peter Reimer was born 1965 and he had a. A problem with his genitals. And so do we know what the problem was? It was a condition in which the foreskin of the penis cannot retract, inhibiting regular urination. He underwent circumcision, common procedure, obviously, but there was. I don't want to get too much into the surgical issues, but it went wrong and the penis had to be removed. And this guy, this John Money guy, was a psychologist and sexologist who worked at Johns Hopkins. He helped establish the views on the psychology of gender identities and role. Role within society. He was one of the leaders in, you know, your sex is just a. It's a construct, it's a societal construct. And we'll raise this child as a girl and treat her, medic him medically and never tell them what happened and it'll be just fine. It'll be a girl. And the. His ideas, it turned bizarre, sickening, heartbreaking. And this poor lad ended up psychologically traumatized and miserable.

[Jack Armstrong]

Man, if the doctor says, I've got some bad news for you, we're gonna have to remove your penis. Ah, that is bad news. Whether I got it or not, though, I'm still a dude.

[Michael]

Right? Right. Yeah, that. It's a very. Well, anyway, before we wrap it up, the idea that this sort of thing is being called settled science or that there's a medical consensus is actually fraud according to the definition in the penal codes and somebody ought to enforce it.

[Jack Armstrong]

That's interesting.

[Michael]

It's a gender bending madness update. And sue the crap out of these monsters. That would help too.

[Jack Armstrong]

That is something.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

So the DHS secretary gave a speech a little bit ago and now live. Tim Walls, the governor of Minnesota, speaking. I don't think anybody speaking is probably going to make anything any better, but I hope things have calmed down. It doesn't look like we're going to have a George Floyd like situation. You remember George Floyd was one guy actually like a mile from where this happened yesterday in Minneapolis and it roiled the entire nation. So we don't want that again.

[Michael]

No, no indeed.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't think it's got the elements though. I mean, you don't have the racial. I mean that.

[Michael]

And can you imagine if this poor gal was black? It would all be about race. Which goes to show your validity of claiming it's about race.

[Jack Armstrong]

Hispanic would have been the sweet spot.

[Michael]

That's a good point. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, you're right. It would have been. God dang it, not good. All right, we will finish strong next. Stay here.

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[Michael]

Lenovo.

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[Michael]

Grok, the AI tool from Elon Musk's.

[Jack Armstrong]

Company X, is under fire. The app, which has an image editing.

[Michael]

Feature, is now being used to create.

[Jack Armstrong]

Non consensual and sexualized deep fake images of women and children.

[Sponsor Voice]

Grok was producing at least a dozen.

[Michael]

Inappropriate images every minute.

[Jack Armstrong]

An uptick in those pictures after Grok.

[Michael]

Enhanced its image generation abilities with a new model.

[Jack Armstrong]

Month one analysis found more than 50%.

[Michael]

Of images generated by Grok between December 25 and January 1 were non consensual sexual images. Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

Primarily targeting women. Wow. So we've had a lot of fun. We were doing this over family Christmas using the old Grok. We took some family pictures and you have us fighting or dancing or whatever. It's. It's pretty hilarious.

[Michael]

Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

But half of the requests people are making on Grok for the images are some sort of sex thing.

[Michael]

Yeah, apparently. Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

There's no stopping this, by the way.

[Michael]

I don't know what.

[Jack Armstrong]

What you want to do.

[Michael]

Every proposed way to stop it I've come across. I think that's doomed. And that's not to say we shouldn't try or it's not a good idea. You know, some poor 14 year old girl at high school. All of a sudden everybody's laughing and giggling because there's a naked picture of her making the rounds. I hate that. I really hate it.

[Jack Armstrong]

I think the only cure for it is that there's a picture of every other girl floating around too naked. That's. That's fake. So we're. Everybody is. Yeah.

[Michael]

I don't know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, that's not good. Yeah. This is also not good. Change of pace. Just came across this and then I. Well, the headline is this. China just announced they will not sell anything, export anything to Japan that could be used for military uses. No dual use. Anything. Which is pretty provocative because that includes lots of stuff. So we're not allowed. We're not doing any trade with you. Anything you could use militarily. This comes on the back of really lots of things that have happened over the last two months that mostly got obscured by Christmas season. But there's been some serious back and forths between China and Japan, particularly that new prime minister. They got the chick, she is hard ass and she putting up with China's bs. And so things are getting uglier and uglier I was just reading this article whose title was Relations between China and Japan Worst since World War II. Having just been to the World War II Museum and gone through the whole what Japan did to China thing, their relations have been very, very, very, very bad in the past. That's one of the reasons that any sort of like anti Asian this or that is kind of hilarious. Because Japan and China have murdered, raped, beheaded, tortured each other many, many different times over the centuries.

[Michael]

But I have a close pal who's Filipino. Ask him about grouping all Asians together, he will guffaw.

[Jack Armstrong]

For instance, in a now deleted social media post, a Chinese diplomat commented that the dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off about the Prime Minister of Japan. They have now deleted it. But that was an actual tweet from an official Chinese diplomat. That's a heck of a thing to say. Anyway, this is after. And this is the big, this is the news part. This just happened the other day. The Prime Minister of Japan said that they consider a China invading Taiwan an existential threat to them. They will treat it that way. So you attack Taiwan, China, it's the same as you attacked us. And we'll react accordingly because you're clearly.

[Michael]

On the war path, snapping up all the islands in the Pacific and we happen to be several of them. Yeah. Wow.

[Jack Armstrong]

So the big question there is. So the question ends up being not would we, the United States, come to the defense of Taiwan if China tries to take Taiwan? I think the answer is no, by the way. I don't think we would. But if Japan and China get into it, we're supposed to help Japan. Would we say no to helping Japan fight China and that? No. That's full on World War 3, isn't it? If we in Japan and whoever else gets involved is fighting China, Russian price.

[Michael]

Help with China and get the potential. Yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh my God. I mean this, this is. I was listening to the Dispatch end of the year podcast. They named this the most underreported story. The, the. The heightening tensions between Japan and China and they ain't playing around. And what that would do to the whole world. Holy crap. Anyway, there's a little something fun to have on the back burner.

[Michael]

I feel then as I felt, I fail now as I felt then. The world feels precarious.

[Jack Armstrong]

It does. And again, a lot of my are informed by having just gone through the World War II Museum and Step by step by step by step by step. I just think most people, especially younger people, just have a failure of imagination that this could actually occur. It has occurred multiple times in world history. In fact, it is the norm. In fact, it is a certainty. It is guaranteed it will happen at some point. It's just whether it's now with these particular people. But it's just. I think that's the right term, failure of imagination.

[Michael]

You just.

[Jack Armstrong]

You can't imagine that it would ever happen. Just like they couldn't imagine whatever happened in June of 1914, that these major powers would ever go to war. War against each other. But they can and they will.

[Michael]

And interestingly, because I've been digging into World War II, because that's what you do when you turn a certain age. As an American male, one of the main messages the Nazis were given to the German people in the late 30s and early 40s was that, look, this is not going to become a world war war. It's gonna be easy peasy. We've thought it through. This will not be a world war, because the German people had zero interest in a world war. They were as decimated as the rest of Europe was. And yet there it went. Almost finished. Oh, yeah. Let's get ready. Final Thoughts with Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

And here's your host for Final Thoughts, Joe Getty.

[Michael]

I needed that soothing introduction. Michelangelo, our technical director, will lead the way. We're gonna get a final thought from everybody to wrap up the show. Michael, I just got a text from a relative, wanted to know what a ham kick is. I said it was a type of martial arts move him right in the hand.

[Jack Armstrong]

Listen to the podcast from yesterday, the ham Kick.

[Michael]

If our number four, Katie Greener, esteemed newswoman, has a final thought. Katie, what is it?

[Jack Armstrong]

It's.

[Michael]

My brain still hurts from trying to figure out Michael and Jack wearing the wrong size shoes.

[Jack Armstrong]

I just don't. I still can't understand it.

[Michael]

It's a little mystified.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't know about Michael's situation, but for me, it's not just the length. I mean, we all get our foot measured, right, but there are other things involved. Yeah, I was wearing the wrong size shoe.

[Michael]

All right, Jack, final thought for us.

[Jack Armstrong]

I am going to, in our One More Thing podcast, describe the day I lost the desire to drink alcohol, which was 20 years ago yesterday. And I think it's an interesting story, and I still don't understand it.

[Michael]

Wow. Interesting. I'll try to understand your lack of understanding. My final thought is Denmark acquired Greenland through a gradual colonial process starting in 1721, but there's really no good reason. Greenland is part of Denmark just kind of happened because it was big and frozen.

[Jack Armstrong]

Nobody gave a crap. Yeah, go ahead. Knock yourself out. Enjoy Greenland.

[Michael]

You want it? Okay. All right. Well, now it matters. It's a different time.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty wrapping up another grueling four hour workday.

[Michael]

So many people. Thanks. So little time. You got to go to armstrongandgetty.com for the hot links. You can drop us Note [e-mail] you ought to follow us on the Twitter if you're into that sort of thing. And we'd love to hear from you. [e-mail] I said that already, remember?

[Jack Armstrong]

The dirty neck that sticks itself in must be cut off.

[Michael]

Words to live by.

[Jack Armstrong]

We'll see you tomorrow. God bless America.

[Michael]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

They meet every day and talk about.

[Michael]

The way the world has gone astray. Jack and Joe they mixing jokes for all you good folks and podcast and for later in the day, subscribe to the podcast.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Giddy on demand.

[Michael]

Armstrong and Getty yo, you know Ball.

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[Jack Armstrong]

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[Joe Getty]

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[Michael]

Lenovo.

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