You Know What? That's Rude.

Summary

Armstrong & Getty On Demand: "You Know What? That's Rude."

Release Date: January 8, 2025
Host/Authors: Jack Armstrong and Joe Getty
Podcast Description: The official, On-Demand podcast of The Armstrong & Getty Show! Accept no substitutes!

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1. Wildfires Ravage Los Angeles

Timestamp: [00:24 - 02:00]

The episode opens with a grim report on the severe wildfire situation engulfing Los Angeles. A reporter details the relentless fires affecting nearly 360 areas, exacerbated by escalating winds since the previous night. The intensity of the situation is underscored by the evacuation of approximately 30,000 residents.

Notable Quotes:

• Reporter: "Different properties just on fire for hours... it is very difficult, very smoky out here." (00:24)
• Joe Getty: "30,000 people evacuated their homes so far in the LA area..." (01:02)
• Jack Armstrong: "All I know is it's very windy. It's going to be very, very windy." (01:50)

Armstrong and Getty discuss the challenges faced by firefighters, emphasizing the unpredictable nature of the winds and expressing skepticism about exaggerated reports of sustained 100-mile-an-hour gusts.

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2. Immigration, H1B Visas, and the American Talent Pipeline

Timestamp: [01:54 - 13:08]

The conversation shifts to a heated debate surrounding immigration and the strategic importance of H1B visas in sustaining America's technological and economic growth. Joe Getty references a controversial tweet by Vivek Ramaswamy, which criticizes American culture for prioritizing mediocrity over excellence, thereby hindering the nation's ability to compete globally.

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Getty: "The reason top tech companies often hire foreign born and first generation engineers over Native Americans isn't because of an innate American IQ deficit..." (03:15)
• Vivek Ramaswamy's Tweet (summarized): Criticizes American culture for veneration of mediocrity and emphasizes the need for a meritocratic system that prizes excellence. (01:54 - 06:17)
• Jack Armstrong: "The idea that in popular culture, the quick-witted, wiseacre guy... is revered. But... the technical wizard is an object of mockery." (09:52)

Armstrong and Getty delve into the complexities of the H1B visa system, highlighting its role in allowing businesses to leverage foreign talent due to cost efficiencies and contractual bindings that tie employees to their employers. They express concern over legislative and cultural pushbacks that aim to restrict immigration, potentially jeopardizing America's dominance in technology and innovation.

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3. Meritocracy vs. Pop Culture's Influence on Youth

Timestamp: [10:48 - 12:21]

The hosts explore how American pop culture often glorifies social charisma over academic or technical prowess. Joe Getty shares a personal anecdote about his son, who excels in chess but is dissuaded by portrayals of "nerdy" kids as outcasts in media.

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Getty: "Every TV show you ever watch, every movie, the chess kid is the nerd. I'm not gonna do that." (10:55)
• Jack Armstrong: "The ability to charisma, in short, it's not worthless. But in popular culture, that person is revered." (09:52)

They discuss the broader implications of this cultural trend, suggesting that it undermines the development of future engineers and technical experts who are crucial for maintaining America's competitive edge on the global stage.

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4. Medical School Acceptance Rates and Racial Disparities

Timestamp: [17:02 - 17:20]

Armstrong and Getty address the alarming statistics surrounding medical school acceptance rates among different racial groups. They critique the superficial solutions that focus on promoting diversity without addressing underlying educational disparities.

Notable Quotes:

• Jack Armstrong: "The idea that you solve it at the end by promoting people who are clearly not qualified is idiotic." (17:02)
• Joe Getty: "We want the best people, we want the best people. I don't care what they came from or what color they are." (17:13)

The hosts argue for a more foundational approach to improving educational outcomes in underserved communities rather than relying on systemic adjustments in higher education admissions.

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5. Facebook's Shift Away from Professional Fact-Checking

Timestamp: [18:53 - 29:11]

A significant portion of the episode critiques Mark Zuckerberg's decision to eliminate professional fact-checkers on Facebook and Instagram, replacing them with community-driven notes. The hosts express deep skepticism about the efficacy and motivations behind this move, suggesting it epitomizes the broader challenges of misinformation on social media platforms.

Notable Quotes:

• Jack Armstrong: "They're abandoning, quote unquote, professional fact checking, which is a phrase so repugnant I can barely get out of my mouth." (18:53)
• Joe Getty: "It's a crime that I haven't seen that." (21:48)
• Jack Armstrong: "Mark Zuckerberg is a force for evil on the planet. He is a monster." (21:30)

They critically analyze the Wall Street Journal's coverage of this policy change, highlighting the partisan biases inherent in the selection of “experts” who predominantly identify as Democrats. This, they argue, undermines the credibility and impartiality of the new fact-checking system.

Additional Insights:

• Jack Armstrong: "We've got to saluting and respecting excellence of this country or we will be doomed." (12:52)
• Joe Getty: "Everybody should know this, right? It's obvious once you hear it." (29:34)

The discussion extends to the ideological homogeneity of academic experts and its impact on public discourse, emphasizing the need for diverse and unbiased fact-checking mechanisms to preserve free expression without sacrificing truth.

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6. Critique of Tech Giants and Censorship

Timestamp: [21:07 - 25:12]

The hosts continue their critique of big tech, specifically targeting Mark Zuckerberg's role in shaping information flows on social media. They reference the documentary "The Social Dilemma" to illustrate the detrimental effects of unchecked tech influence on society.

Notable Quotes:

• Jack Armstrong: "There could be no more effective indictment of them than these tech giants won't let their kids use their own products." (21:48)
• Joe Getty: "If Zuckerberg came forward and said... that the Biden administration hinted strongly they were going to ruin us if we allowed that kind of talk." (23:50)
• Jack Armstrong: "I have called him Satan, I believe." (21:30)

Armstrong and Getty lament the erosion of free speech on platforms like Facebook, attributing it to both corporate interests and external political pressures. They argue that the removal of professional fact-checking is symptomatic of a larger trend towards censorship and control over public narratives by tech conglomerates.

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7. Light-Hearted Segment: New Year's Resolutions and Subscriptions

Timestamp: [30:12 - 35:17]

Transitioning from serious topics, the hosts engage in a humorous discussion about common pitfalls in maintaining New Year's resolutions, particularly focusing on diet and exercise. They share personal anecdotes about struggling to quit gym memberships and subscription services, highlighting the manipulative tactics these businesses use to retain customers.

Notable Quotes:

• Joe Getty: "The most common New Year's resolution is to either eat better, exercise more... And saw this thing in the New York Post, red flags for, you know, the fact that you're going to fail." (29:55)
• Jack Armstrong: "I'm taking massive doses of turmeric. It's all about the turmeric pills." (31:54)
• Joe Getty: "They have all kinds of different ways to make sure you can't quit and they can keep you around." (34:22)

The segment serves as a relatable interlude, offering listeners both laughs and a nod to the often frustrating realities of self-improvement efforts.

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Conclusion

In "You Know What? That's Rude," Armstrong and Getty tackle a range of pressing issues from environmental disasters and immigration policies to the influence of big tech on free speech. Through a blend of serious analysis and humorous anecdotes, they provide listeners with a thought-provoking commentary on the state of American society, culture, and governance.

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Note: Timestamps correspond to the approximate beginning of each segment within the provided transcript.

Transcript

[Jack Armstrong]

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

[Joe Getty]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Jack Armstrong]

And now here's Armstrong and Getty.

[Reporter]

We have fires almost, almost 360 around us here. Different properties just on fire for hours. These winds definitely from when we first came here have picked up a lot. It seems like this has been burning just, I think, I believe since last night. And so firefighters trying to do their absolute best. But as far as a reporter's perspective out here, while we are safe and we do have protective gear, it is very difficult, very smoky out here, a lot of ash. You know, we have protective gear to cover our eyes and our mouth, but it is just impossible to be out here if you do not have protective gear.

[Joe Getty]

That makes it tough. 30,000 people evacuated their homes so far in the LA area starting yesterday morning and going all throughout the day and the night and expecting the a hundred mile an hour winds to continue throughout the day. Uh, it says there on Fox, as I look at the TV screen with some giant mansion burning behind the guy, I mean, an enormous house that looks to be burning to the ground. That's quite a deal.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, I don't, I don't know where FOX is getting that number. The winds are very high and there are some extraordinary gusts.

[Joe Getty]

Anyway, Joe, downplaying the threat of the fire in LA now, just the idea.

[Jack Armstrong]

That they're 100 mile per hour winds all day is just, I don't think that's so.

[Joe Getty]

I know, I don't know, I'm not there with a measuring thing, but I've heard it on like four different outlets so far today.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, all I know is it's very windy. It's going to be very, very windy. Yes.

[Joe Getty]

So maybe you missed this during the two week break. This, the moment that a whole bunch of MAGA people turned on Elon. And from what I can tell from when I dip into those circles, it has continued. And that's an interesting thing. And it's all around the whole immigration thing. As you know, Elon himself is an immigrant, came to this country as a rocket engineer and he has talked at length about this in many, many interviews and how he came here because it's a land opportunity where he could, you know, start a business and do its thing in a way that he can't anywhere else in the, in the, in the world. And that's why the United States is the greatest country, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And the guy that's working with him on Doge Vivek Ramaswamy has got a very similar story, also became a billionaire. And when Trump was talking about deporting people and the immigration situation and everything, Elon was talking about how we need, you know, talent here in the United States. So let's, you know, let's come up with a way to make sure we have people. And then there was a big pushback from some of the MAGA crowd because they want, they don't, they want to really restrict immigration a lot. So Vivek puts out this tweet, this really, really long tweet that I won't read all of, and then we'll discuss it a little bit. But it, it came out, I dunno, two weeks ago. The reason top tech companies often hire foreign born and first generation engineers over Native Americans isn't because of an innate American IQ deficit, a lazy and wrong explanation. A key part of it comes down to the C word culture. Tough questions demand tougher answers. And if we're really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the truth. Our American culture, I like him calling it our. Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long. At least since the 90s and likely longer. That doesn't start in college, it starts young. I gotta say, before I get back to Vivek's, we've been talking about this for a long time. It bothers me a lot. I think that's a huge problem we've got in the United States. I don't know how at least that part of it is controversial at all.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right. And part of it's the whole equity crowd. That or disparate impact. If anybody does better than anyone else, that's absolute irrefutable evidence that somebody cheated or wronged somebody or there is racism afoot. And so that turned very quickly into demonizing or being suspicious of any sort of excellence or success, which is a terrible way to look at life.

[Joe Getty]

Back to Vivek. A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the Math Olympiad champ or the jock over the valedictorian will not produce the best engineers. A culture that venerates. Now, you're not gonna get all these references. I only get some of them. A culture that venerates Corey from Boy Meets World or Zack and Slater over Screech and Saved by the Bell or Stefan over Steve Urkel and Family Matters will not produce the best engineers. Fact. I know multiple sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates. Uh, then he mentions a couple more movies, TV shows and cartoons that, that he doesn't think is good for our culture. We need more weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons, more books, less tv, more creating, less chillin, more extracurriculars, less hanging out at the mall. Most normal American parents look skeptically at those kind of parents. More normal Americans can view those kind of kids with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve. Now close your eyes and visualize which families you knew in the 90s or even now, who raised their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest, normalcy doesn't cut it in a hyper competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we'll have our asses handed to us by China. This could be our Sputnik moment. Right, Vivek? And then I will stop. We've. We've awakened from our slumber before and we can do it again. Trump's election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy, excellence over mediocrity, nerdness over conformity, hard work over laziness, Tremendous amount of pushback to that. I mean, people went crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Interesting. I didn't really follow the pushback over.

[Joe Getty]

The criticizing of American culture that way. And then it got into the H1B visas and all that sort of stuff. And then you get down to the nitty gritty where it's very, very complicated. And I don't know much about it, but we have had many people tell us over the years whenever this topic has come up, hey, businesses hire these people from other countries because there's all kinds of tax advantages to hire in the foreigner over the American with the same qualifications. And you can't get rid of them or they can't leave. So you have all kinds of leverage over them because of the way the visa system works.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I remember it was about a decade ago, there was a big controversy over this in Silicon Valley, and we got the word directly from a bunch of people who worked in tech that, look, these guys will work for half what an American engineer will work for, and they will live in a dorm with eight of their fellows and sleep in a bunk bed and blah, blah, blah. That's why they're so attractive. It's not that they're better or work harder, it's that they're cheaper now. That was a while ago. I haven't heard directly from anybody for some time. That is certainly a factor in the H1B thing.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. And I just found this out yesterday. Part of the agreement with the H1B thing is you stay with your employer for a certain amount of time or something like that. So you're stuck there. So, you know, they don't have to give you raises or whatever. Another advantage. You can't quit. You can't.

[Jack Armstrong]

So that's a separate question.

[Joe Getty]

That is a separate question.

[Jack Armstrong]

Greater point.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah. So they all got tied together and just a lot of people being butt hurt, I guess, over American culture being disparaged. It doesn't bother me. I think it's absolutely true. I worry about it with my own kids and I know plenty of my kids have friends who are growing up with parents from other countries and they are way more serious about education than I am with my kids. And I am embarrassed by that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. You know, it's funny, I was thinking about this in a different context, specifically the Mark Zuckerberg Facebook fact checker censorship thing and how everything's either got to be entirely good or entirely bad. I'm either for it or against it. It's in our politics a lot too. There's. There's very little recognition that everything is a trade off. Everything in life practically. And in this deal in, in Vivek screed, there's a good deal of truth there. A whole lot. Now is that some sort of I hate America and every kid should be a hard driving tech student? Well, no, of course not. Take it with a grain of salt. Seek the truth that's in his statement. And the part you don't like, you can toss. But you don't have to hate him for saying it. I don't. Well, everybody's so mad all the time.

[Joe Getty]

I don't have any way of knowing how true that is. I do know some people from like Asian where it is absolutely, completely true. They've explained it to me on how you are the rock star of the school. If you're the math kid, the science kid, the whatever, you're the coolest person in the school. We all know that's not true in the United States for the most part. But I don't know, is that true in Europe or is it is that limited to like Vietnam and South Korea and places like that? I don't have any idea of that.

[Jack Armstrong]

I don't either. I'm thinking about Europe probably. Europe has its own problems, culturally speaking. Certainly don't want to imitate them.

[Joe Getty]

A high school in France, Are you better off being the soccer star than the math nerd? Or like the United States? Or is it more like other countries I was mentioning where it's an academic thing? I don't know the answer to these things, but it is odd that that's what we gravitate, have gravitated toward.

[Jack Armstrong]

And I wasn't familiar with some of those pop culture references either. I didn't watch that stuff very much. I was too busy studying my physics and computer science, learning to code. But I tell you what does ring true, and it's, it's food for thought. At least what rings true is the idea that in popular culture, the quick witted, wiseacre guy and I do it for a living. So believe me, I'm not denigrating communication ability or certainly leadership ability, the ability to draw people around you, the ability to charisma, in short, it's not worthless. But in popular culture, that person is revered. And the fairly shy, maybe socially not as capable, technical wizard is an object of mockery. I don't know how much that means, but it does mean something.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, it bothers me a lot. Like, my son, my youngest, we play chess a lot. He's pretty good at chess. And I've been really pushing him.

[Jack Armstrong]

It's actually not pronounced chess to Michael. There's no T there.

[Joe Getty]

And I've been pushing him to try to get in to chess. And I happen to live in a town where they're like chess coaches and stuff like that. And, and he said, dad, every TV show you ever watch, every movie, the chess kid is the nerd. I'm not gonna do that. And I just, I hate that that's the culture. I've been trying to talk him out of that, but I just, I just hate that that's the case.

[Jack Armstrong]

Which brings us back to my grand unified theory of the modern world. And that is that 99% of, of everything we observed which formed our thoughts and beliefs in all of human history up until like 10 minutes ago, was direct personal experience. Your eyes, your ears, your senses. And then once in a while you'd get a letter from your aunt in New Jersey and that would be the only like, significant input. Maybe, maybe, maybe you'd watch the evening news and you'd flip through a newspaper. But the vast majority of your experience was your personal experience. Now the vast majority of it is virtual, it's electronic. And so how I think about different sorts of people and where they are in the Pecking order is affected in an outsized way, in an unhealthy way through the very stupid pop culture we're talking about in a way that it wasn't in, you know, the 20th century even.

[Joe Getty]

All I know is this. The idea of a meritocracy I am 100% for. I want the smartest, best people to be on a different track. And who cares if that makes your kid feel bad or my kid feel bad. My kids are going to be that. At least so far. Take the best talent, prize them from all countries. And in our country, anybody that wants to come here, that's the best, smartest people, let them come. I can't imagine being against that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. Again, you get back to the visa thing, it gets a little different topic. Yeah, but, but yeah, excellence. We've got to get back to saluting and respecting excellence of this country or we will be doomed. We will become, as we've been saying for a very long time, Europe. We don't want to be Europe. Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

If anybody wants to weigh in on that, with your experience, our text line 415295 KFTC.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Michael]

Well, guys, the country is still dealing with freezing temperatures as millions of Americans are getting slammed by an Arctic blast.

[Joe Getty]

How cold is it?

[Michael]

It's so cold this morning President Biden had chains put on the tennis balls of his walker. Chained him up.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

So I left something out of the big dust up that happened over the last two weeks that most of you probably didn't even know about. Over immigration and top talent from around the world coming here. And some of you, I don't know if it's you, but some people on the right seem to be anti anybody from other countries coming here. And I definitely not with you on that. I want the best talent from all countries to come to the United States. That's the way we dominate.

[Jack Armstrong]

You gotta sign on to our beliefs though.

[Joe Getty]

Yes. And you gotta have a fair playing field for competing for jobs you can't have some sort of advantage over. You know, my kid who grows up wants to be an engineer, but elon a different attitude on the H1B visa. This tweet is what turned a lot of people on. Elon a week or so ago. The reason I'm in America, along with so many critical people who built SpaceX, Tesla and hundreds of other companies that made America strong is because of the H1B. Take a big step and in all caps, f yourself in the face. I will go to war on this issue. The likes of which you cannot possibly comprehend. Comprehend. And he spelled out the word, so it was spelled out F yourself in the face in all caps.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow, that's. You know what? That's rude.

[Joe Getty]

So a lot of people, A lot of the maga rights split on that, and it was all fu in the face. Elon over this. No more blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. So it's. It's a thing. That's harsh rhetoric.

[Jack Armstrong]

Right? Right. Yeah. Online is just not where you go for. Well, that seems harsh. And I don't understand his point of view, but I have respect for him, so I want to find out what he means. I mean, that's just. That practically doesn't exist on Twitter.

[Joe Getty]

No, no, it does not. And just all anger.

[Jack Armstrong]

Getting back to the thought of, you know, excellence and that sort of thing. And this, I guess this has something to do with race, I suppose, but not at its core. I came across these statistics. Medical school acceptance rates. These are your doctors who are going to be trading you. Okay? Trust me, when you get a little gray in the hair, it becomes a bigger part of your life. But these are, and I won't tell you the actual MCAT scores. That's the grad school score for getting into medicine. But in the below average range, only 6% of Asian people and 8% of white people in that range get accepted. 6%. And 8% black folks in that range, 56% get accepted in the average category. If you're Asian, 21% of you get in, 29% of white people, 81% of black people get in. And it actually continues in a lesser way in the upper ranges of scores. My problem with this always is that this is a band aid on the terrible wound of lack of black achievement in schools and the reasons for it. And the idea that you attack it at the level of medical school as opposed to in neighborhood schools. Kids, sociological problems which exist. You want to blame it on racism or slavery, fine, let's talk about the sociological problems. The idea that you solve it at the end by promoting people who are clearly not qualified is idiotic.

[Joe Getty]

Well, that's bad for society. And then just on the level of, we want the best people, we want the best people. I don't care what they came from or what color they are. It's crazy.

[Jack Armstrong]

Mark Zuckerberg, Censorship, Fact checkers. We will discuss next Armstrong and Getty.

[Michael]

Mark Zuckerberg announced that Meta will no longer fact check posts on Facebook and Instagram, and users will now have to correct any false posts themselves. I'm a little Concerned. I mean, this is like Chipotle announcing that it's ending health inspections. You know what I'm saying? If you're keeping track. Fact checking is gone from Facebook and Twitter right now. Wikipedia is like, how did we become the responsible one?

[Joe Getty]

I mean, now Joe isn't going to like that joke.

[Jack Armstrong]

No, I didn't. Last part was all right.

[Joe Getty]

But yeah, before we get back to the Facebook thing, one stat we've left out of the fires in the L A area that are completely out of control and we personally know people who have had to flee and their homes may have burnt down already. All of those fires are zero percent contained. Zero percent.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah. And growing. Yeah. Whipped by the winds at least through today and probably into tomorrow. It's, it's, it's, it could be cataclysmic. Let's certainly hope it's not. At least the lives are spared, if not the structures. So, yeah, getting back to Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook, maybe you heard the announcement yesterday? Probably. We, we talked about it a little bit. They are abandoning, quote unquote, professional fact checking, which is a phrase so repugnant I can barely get to come out of the same mouth. I used to kiss my wife. And going with community notes, much like Twitter does. I refuse to say X. Here's berserker Berg yesterday. Clip 80.

[Joe Getty]

Michael, we're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies and restoring free expression on our platforms. More specifically, we're going to get rid of fact checkers and replace them with community notes similar to X starting in the US So his, his new look is he wears a T shirt. He's let his hair grow out.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yes.

[Joe Getty]

But he's wearing a million dollar watch with his T shirt and his long hair.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, it was funny back when he was getting grilled by the Democratic Congress and ordered around by the White House, which we'll get to in a minute. He was going with a very close cropped Suti look. But now that the pro business Republicans are in charge and the pro free speech types is like, all right, I'm going to let my freak flag fly.

[Joe Getty]

Interesting.

[Jack Armstrong]

Anyway, I don't want to spend too much time on that. Here's his spokesman, Joel Kaplan, who's talking a little more about the policies, then we will discuss 82.

[Joel Kaplan]

Michael, there's a number of changes we're making, but if I could just highlight three. Yep. First is as, as you heard, we're eliminating the third party fact checking system.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know. Well, intention Too much of what we've already covered. My apologies. Let's go with 84.

[Joel Kaplan]

So the second one is about the rules that govern content on our platform. They've just become too restrictive over time about what people can say, including about those kind of sensitive topics that you mentioned that people want to discuss and debate. Immigration, trans issues, gender. We want to make it so that, bottom line, if you can say it on tv, you can say it on the floor of Congress, you certainly ought to be able to say it on Facebook, Instagram, without fear of censorship. So we're changing those rules?

[Joe Getty]

I would freaking say so.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, yeah. That is an absolutely, undeniably reasonable thing to say. Jack, would you like to briefly characterize some of the mockery that's taking place on the. Right. On social media, of all places, around this move?

[Joe Getty]

Well, it's the idea that now that there's a Republican Congress, Republican government, the winds are blowing that way and Trump's gonna be president, that all of a sudden he's a free speech warrior and wants the truth to come out. Hilarious. And because they can do serious damage to his business model, like, could ruin him.

[Jack Armstrong]

Sure, Right. Katie, did you have a thought? Yeah.

[Joe Getty]

Babylon B headline guy who said Facebook was not suppressing free speech, announces Facebook.

[Jack Armstrong]

Will stop suppressing free speech. Yeah, I love that. Love that. So here's. Here's the deal. And Lord knows snark makes my world go round. I'm not anti snark. Everything cynical said about this is 100% correct. But there's more.

[Joe Getty]

There's more.

[Jack Armstrong]

And the more I think is more important, because Mark Zuckerberg is a force for evil on the planet. He is a monster. I have called him Satan, I believe. Wow. Watch the social dilemma, the 2020 documentary. I beg of you.

[Joe Getty]

I still haven't seen it. It's a crime that I haven't seen that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Damn you, sir.

[Joe Getty]

I know.

[Jack Armstrong]

Am I allowed to say that or will I be censored? Michael? No. We allow free speech and talk radio anyway, so watch that and understand how evil big tech is and how. And as Jack has said many times, there could be no more effective indictment of them than these tech giants won't let their kids use their own products.

[Joe Getty]

No kidding.

[Jack Armstrong]

Effing kidding me. Sorry, folks. Anyway, having said that, blank yourself in.

[Joe Getty]

The face, like Elon says.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, no, no. This has gone too far. You don't know when to stop. We should have stopped Anyway, so all of that snark about Zuckerberg is 100% true. But here's the Part that's missing, you've got to remember the enormous unconstitutional, unholy pressure these guys were under from the forces of the progressive left.

[Joe Getty]

That's a good point.

[Jack Armstrong]

The government was trying to do an end run around the First Amendment by strong arming guys like Zuckerberg, who again, I got no love for Zuckerberg whatsoever, but I do have a love for free speech and free enterprise. And they were getting absolutely mobster style. It'd be a shame if something happened to your social network. If you don't, I don't know, silence Dr. Marty Macari. You don't silence Dr. Bhattacharya who are saying, you know, I think young, strong people don't need the vaccine, you better silence them. That's the really unholy part.

[Joe Getty]

You're right. That would be the profile and courage that I'd like to see out of Mark Zuckerberg. If he come forward and say, hey, the reason we did what we did about not allowing people to discuss, hey, kind of weird that the virus came out of Wuhan right next to the lab. Kind of weird, huh? The fact that we wouldn't allow that conversation is because the Biden administration hinted strongly they were going to ruin us if we allowed that kind of talk. God, I wish he would say that out loud. That'd be fantastic.

[Jack Armstrong]

And you know, I could give you a long list. I'll touch on a couple of things. Johns Hopkins surgeon Marty Mackere was talking about the pace at which Americans would develop herd immunity. That was flagged, taken down. They targeted the Wall Street Journal's review of a book by a guy who's a climate contrarian and like, suppressed that. You couldn't even hear the review of that guy's opinion because of the progressive censorship by proxy. And that's the really, really ugly part of it to me, so. And actually, interestingly, Zuckerberg, prior to that said some great stuff about free speech. I mean, like, he stole it out of my mouth. And again, I'm not a fan of the guy at all.

[Joe Getty]

I don't think he's particularly smart. That's been my take for a very, very long time. I think he's probably a great computer programmer and that sort of thing. I just don't think he's that smarter guy. I don't think he understands the big issues on, on a lot of this stuff.

[Jack Armstrong]

Or cares. Yes, I think that's possible. I've always felt he kind of got lucky.

[Joe Getty]

Oh, hell, yes he did. Absolutely. If you build a. This is how we're going to get laid app in college and it turns into what Facebook is. That's an accident.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, but I wouldn't, I wouldn't go that far to underestimate the guy. To assemble a great team and help it function is a gift.

[Joe Getty]

Okay, maybe this is the wrong wor know a bunch of very successful business people. They have no knowledge about issues like free speech and that sort of thing.

[Jack Armstrong]

Zero.

[Joe Getty]

I know so many really successful business guys that have never read a book and are proud of it. I know a handful of millionaires who have who are proud of the fact that they've never read a book. They've got whatever talent that is about business, but they just have no like and I don't know what, what word you should use. Smart, knowledgeable, wise. I don't know what it is but.

[Jack Armstrong]

You know, it's broad ranging. Ranging knowledge. Yes. That characterization characterization of them I will sign on to. Here's the part I wanted to get to. Oh, this is still the. Is that still the editorial? Yeah, which is excellent. In the Wall Street Journal the editorial board is saying all the right things and they, and they go into detail how the so called fact checking became a tool to censor. It was just a way to get your preferred political outcome is completely phony. But so it's funny because often the editorial board in a paper is, you know, there's a high wall between them and the reporters at least when papers function the way they're supposed to. But I'm looking at the Wall Street Journal's coverage of the story and they go through the facts. But then who are these I would like to personally. Oh, it's a list of journalists who worked on this piece. But they quote all sorts of different people in this story about whether this is a good move or a bad move. And then they quote Alex Mahadevan, who's director of MediaWise, a digital media literacy project at the Poynter Institute. Hang on, I'll reveal something in a moment. He says journalists say researchers say the program has shortcomings and should not replace professional fact checkers. Notes take time to appear, blah blah blah. And this guy says since it's based on finding consensus, it can't work at scale. This is the guy who runs the outfit that runs politifact, a fact checking website, quote unquote, that is one of Meta's partners. There could be no more divorce from fact partisan hack outfit in the world than PolitiFact. The idea that the Wall Street Journal is quoting them as experts quote unquote is hilarious.

[Joe Getty]

Well, fact check. The term professional fact checker is hilarious.

[Jack Armstrong]

I mean, how do you, how do.

[Joe Getty]

You say that with a straight face? Who's paying you to do this? And what are their wants and needs? Okay.

[Jack Armstrong]

Exactly. You've got a child's perception of what fact is and is not, particularly when you're talking about controversial issues. That's the whole point, is different people are sure they know different things from the other people. Anyway, I found this so interesting and this is the perfect time to drop this in because the Wall Street Journal, which is my favorite big paper publication website these days, along with the Free Press and a couple of others, but among your traditional outlets, I should say Wall Street Journal is my fave quote, unquote, unquote Experts. I'd come across this earlier. It's, it's. And I'll just briefly summarize it, this story and Twitter thread makes the point that so called experts are drawn wildly, disproportionately, not entirely, but mostly from academia.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jack Armstrong]

And they make the point that for instance, in. We're talking about communications now, right? Well, communications, in short, 100% of professors in communications that were polled, and they polled thousands of professors were Democrats, 100% in communications. Likewise in anthropology. In religion, it's just under 99%. I could keep going. Sociology is 98%, not surprisingly, music, theater, classics, 96 and a half percent percent Democrats.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, we did this a couple of weeks ago, I think you were out for an hour and I did this topic. But it is, everybody should know this, right? It's, it's obvious once you hear it. But of course, all of the views you hear are left leaning when they go to the experts. When you look at who's an expert and the fact that they're in some cases, as you pointed out, 100% one direction politically.

[Jack Armstrong]

And as I'm sure you pointed out, you've got to get down to engineering to get to a modest 62% of the professors are Democrats. So if you ever hear a quote unquote expert quoted, the chances are overwhelming they're going to be a lefty.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, that'll change my perception of that for the rest of my life. It's obvious.

[Jack Armstrong]

Including in that damn Wall Street Journal article.

[Joe Getty]

Yep, yep. I had never thought of it before. Speaking of experts, how are you doing on your diet? We're eight days into the new year. Experts say the four signs that you're not going to make it, you're going to fail on your diet.

[Jack Armstrong]

Oh, I Thought you meant not going to make it at all.

[Joe Getty]

No, you're going to fail on your.

[Jack Armstrong]

I got to get my affairs in order.

[Joe Getty]

Here are the key things to watch out for. So we'll have that coming up.

[Jack Armstrong]

Armstrong and Getty.

[Joe Getty]

I was just watching a video of them loading seniors onto buses at the senior center that burnt down in Pasadena with the flames, you know, coming down the hill really fast. Wow, that had to be a pressure situation. Wouldn't be easy to do to move people in that age group either. The most common New Year's resolution is to either eat better, exercise more, combination of those two things. Generally lose weight, get your act together, that sort of thing. And saw this thing in the New York Post, red flags for, you know, the fact that you're going to fail. And I thought this would probably be kind of jivey and stupid itself. Actually pretty good. It's the sort of stuff we've been saying for a long time. It's, it's, it's like more common sense than anything else. It says here 80% of people fail in their New Year's resolutions. I don't know if that's true or not. Probably close to right, sure. One of the things it says is if there is one pill or ingredient or something like that that you're using to, to change everything, that's probably not going to work. Take a look of whether or not you have time to do what you're planning to do, like how you know you're going to start going to the gym or running or whatever it is you're going to do. Do you have free time now? If you don't, then you got to pick something specific that you're going to eliminate to allow time, which is obvious, but maybe you don't think about that.

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, no, I don't have time, which is why I'm taking massive doses of turmeric. It's all about the turmeric pills.

[Joe Getty]

But it makes sense if you're already like busy every single day and now you're going to start going to the gym, there's isn't going to be magically another hour added to the day. You're going to have to cut something out.

[Jack Armstrong]

Yeah, yeah. Which, screwing around, wasting time, watching tv.

[Joe Getty]

Pretty damned obvious.

[Jack Armstrong]

Get down to business.

[Joe Getty]

Also said, and we've talked about this for years, you got to kind of ease into modest expectations as opposed to, you know, I'm gonna lose £50 by, by January 20th. I'm gonna start working on an hour and a half every single day. Oh, My God. Nobody's gonna change your life that drastically. Nobody. Ease into it gradually. I thought that was a good idea, but that, that, that time thing really struck me as so incredibly obvious. But I don't know, at least it's something I've never thought about many times if I'm gonna start anything like my playing the piano. Okay, how much do you want to practice? You're already busy. What's going to give to allow this to happen? All right, Whether it's watching less tv, sleeping less. I don't know. Eliminate it. Yeah, I don't know. But it's got to come from somewhere, right?

[Jack Armstrong]

And at some point you. Although X. I was going to say you have to rest your brain and your body, although I think most of us get plenty of rest for our bodies. And if you're working out, that is a good rest for your brain. But, yeah, I don't know.

[Joe Getty]

This. Speaking of working out, I had the classic trying to quit a gym thing happen over the last couple of weeks. We had a gym that we started like. Well, it was last July. I happen to know exactly, because they claim I signed up for a year, even though I know I didn't. And the hardest thing to do in the world, everybody knows, is quit a gym. They've come up with all kinds of different ways to make sure you can't quit and they can keep you around. And I went to quit this gym. I went into the first of all, they said, you have to come in to do it. Oh, that's funny. I could sign up on the phone, but to. To quit, I have to come in. So I drive to where it is, fill out the papers, all that sort of stuff. Then credit card thing shows up in my email. I got billed again for another month. I called them up and they said, well, we have you here that you signed up for a year. No, I didn't. I would have never signed up for a year. There's no way I knew I was going to be there for a year. There's no way I signed up for a year. Well, we have you down and signing up for a year. Well, whoever was there when I came in let me quit. They said I could quit and I signed a piece of paper. We don't have any record of that. Here's the number. You call for the main office and it's a big national.

[Jack Armstrong]

Wow.

[Joe Getty]

Same thing happened to me yesterday with a coffee company. And I won't mention the name because I don't want to be sued, but they. I was on their automatic send me the pods thing, and I decided I didn't want those anymore, and I quit it. And then I got sent more pods, and I contacted them, and they said, well, it takes 45 days for that to go through. That's interesting. I can sign up immediately to spend money and get pods, but if I.

[Jack Armstrong]

Want to send them out the next.

[Joe Getty]

Day, the fine print is it takes. Takes 45 days to process. You're ending your commitment. How do you like that?

[Jack Armstrong]

Well, that is clearly what it is. I mean, everybody knows what's going on there. Yeah, we'll let you. I tell you what. We'll let you quit without argument. You take one more shipment. That's what they're saying.

[Joe Getty]

Yeah, yeah, we can get. We know we can get one more shipment out of everybody this way. And so we do.

[Jack Armstrong]

Now the health club is saying, you're gonna burn a thousand calories to get out of this deal. We're doing you a favor.

[Joe Getty]

If you miss a segment or an hour, get the podcast Armstrong and Getty on Armstrong and Gettysburg.