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- [00:00]
A
Hello, you're listening to a preview of our premium episode of Blocked and reported today. What happens when Blue sky gets mad at Jamelle Bowie? Really mad for really crazy reasons. If you want to hear the whole thing, go to blockedremporter.org and become a premium subscriber. Either way, hope you enjoy the preview.
- [00:23]
B
Jesse, do you have a way you want to start this one?
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A
Yeah. Do you want to talk about the weather with me?
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B
All right, let's do weather talk. How's your weather?
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A
It's, like, really. It's really warm here and in, like, inland from where I am in California. It's like, in the 90s. What. I know we're not supposed to, like, point to one weather thing and be like, that's global warming, but this is global warming, right? You tell me. You're the environmental reporter.
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B
No, you can't point to one weather thing and say, that's global warming.
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A
Yes, you can.
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B
You can't.
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A
It's trends over what if it affects me personally?
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B
No, this is what's what. What you were experiencing is now is a high ridge. Does climate change make high ridges more likely? I don't know.
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A
What's a high ridge?
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B
I don't know. It's a weather term. I saw it on Twitter.
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A
I know that there's a. There's a heat dome parked over the Sierras. They really like to talk about, like, geography and weather out here. And I also know this because it's affected me personally by. Also by affecting the. Just obliterating the snowpack. So do you guys have it up where you are?
- [01:20]
B
It's not. Well, it's definitely kind of warm here. Like, it's in the high 50s today, but the snowpack up here. So I have this maybe, like, 10 times a day. I will look at the porn the cameras up on. Nope. Never. I've ever. Actually, the only time I have ever seen porn in my life was at home. My bosses. My former boss's pornography festival. Not a. Not a.
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A
My former boss's pornography festival. It's just a great phrase.
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B
It seems like an HR violation, and yet. No, I look at the. At the webcam at Hurricane Ridge, which is the. Like, one of the. It's a mountain in. And the Olympics. I just look at the snowpack over and over all day, and it's all gone. All gone. It's just grass. It's very sad.
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A
Yeah, there's these parts of the Sierra where, like, there's. I mean, there. There's still time for more storms, but, like, there are these but there's no base often covered. There's no base and parts that are often covered in snow. Like well into April, if not later. And it's just been destroyed, so. Picked a hell of a year to come out here.
- [02:21]
B
It is strange. Yeah. When we were driving across the country and when was that? February. It was just no snow. Like Montana was absolutely clear of snow. We got a little bit in South Dakota, but otherwise it was just nothing. And it's been, you know, I think they had one good weekend of skiing out here, which was last weekend, and then it just like started raining. So have you also noticed that weather, like things like heat dome, atmospheric river, these terms that I don't think existed like 20 years ago. I don't know.
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A
They're mainstream.
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B
Well, yeah, maybe they're mainstream. Maybe they didn't.
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A
Or invented.
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B
Or invented. Big weather is trying to make things more dramatic than they necessarily are.
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A
I was, I was trying to like, I would like to ski. I've basically not been able to ski because of all this. What? Is Crystal Mountain? Good. Should I go there? Do you want to go to Crystal? Matter with me. And Moose. Does Moose ski or snowboard?
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B
Moose can't go to Crystal. Unfortunately. The only, the only dog skiing in the area is White Pass.
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A
But sorry, sorry, sorry. The only dog skiing.
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B
Yes. Is White.
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A
Now I have to White Pass dog skiing.
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B
It's just, it's just on the Nordic trails. So after like when they're about to close for like an hour at the end of the day, you can take your dog on the grim trails.
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A
The one other like important outdoor update I wanted to give is, well, this was like weeks ago now. I went snowshoeing for the first time. It's so awesome.
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B
Oh, yeah.
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A
Why didn't I do that already? Do you snowshoe a lot? Do you have snowshoes?
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B
No, I don't. I have, I have. I do. We do some skate skiing, but no, I don't, I don't snowshoe.
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A
Okay, well.
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B
And we do some walking in the
- [03:54]
A
snow, like, but not in snowshoes.
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B
Not snowshoes.
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A
Okay, so now we're going to talk about Lindy West's latest follow up piece, right?
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B
No, we're going to have to, we're going to have to wait on this. So there is more to be said about Lindy West. She is, she's trending. She's still trending, which is good for her because she needs the money to float her throuple. She said that in a Slate interview. Did you see this Slate interview.
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A
Kitty, I'm not. I. If I read, like, one thing about this, that's just my day in terms of, like, my brain, it just. It breaks my brain. So, no, I have not, like, read everything, so. But she did. Oh, wait, I'm sorry. This was. What's her name? Went to profile her. I think I read the first part of that.
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B
Sachi Cole. So, okay.
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A
The journey to visit Liddy west is much like the journey to visit you, as I've mentioned.
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B
Yeah, yeah. Okay, here's the thing, okay? We're not actually talking about this right now. We're going to talk about this on the next.
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A
We're not talking about it now. This isn't real.
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B
But I'm going to complain about one thing. So let me just read you the top of this Slate piece by Sachikohl.
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A
If you read this, I get to read just a very quick thing as a preview for. Yes. No, you go first. You go first.
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B
Lindy West, how not to Guide to Polyamory and a long career of shaming herself online. Not shaming, sharing herself online. Adult Braces is West's most human memoir.
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A
Interesting.
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B
Here's the top. It takes one cross country plane, a train, a ferry, then another hour or so by car to reach the writer Lindy West. I had read plenty about how remote her home is, but only by sitting shotgun with Wes and her girlfriend's Marin Hyundai Elantra. Elantra. Is that how you say that? Did I. I don't speak Japanese. Korean did I understand how far she was from even a gas station? When I had asked weeks before my arrival if I could take an Uber to her house on Bainbridge Island, Washington, from Seattle's Amtrak station, she laughed at me. Okay, okay, okay. First of all, Bainbridge Island, Washington, is not remote. You've been there, Jesse. Yeah, it is pretty rude. No, no, you can literally walk. You can. You can travel from Bainbridge island to Seattle to the Sea Tac Airport, mostly by foot. So you take the light rail. Now, Amtrak has nothing to do with this. I don't know why she fucking mentioned Amtrak. The correct passage, if you were going to Bainbridge, would be you take. You go from SeaTac to the light rail, you walk onto the light rail, you take the light rail to. To Pioneer Square Station, you walk to the ferry, you walk onto the ferry, and then, bam, 30 minutes later, you're on Bainbridge. This is not remote by any means. It would be. It's probably easier to get to Bainbridge island than it is to get to Brooklyn from Whatever airports you have in New York. Second of all.
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A
Oh, there's another thing.
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B
Lindy west doesn't live on Bainbridge Island. She doesn't even live close to Bainbridge Island.
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A
Where did she live? What's her address? If you're going to talk to a baby.
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B
I found it. I found it really quickly. It was extremely easy to find. It's not. She lives. She lives, like, out where I live. She doesn't live near Bainbridge Island. Her place is remote. It is true. I found the address and then I figured out how far it is to a gas station. It's literally 30 minutes to the closest gas station, but it's nowhere near Bainbridge Island. She is in Jefferson County. This is Jefferson County Erasure. I won't stand for it. Okay, what was your thing?
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A
We're gonna talk about her butt. News response.
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B
This is her subject.
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A
Criticism. Yeah, we're gonna talk about that, I guess, next episode. But I just. This. There's so much to say. I just want to read this. Aham. His full name. Ahama Fule. Is that the name? So. So her complaint is, like, I wrote this thing about how. How shitty and embarrassing my life is, and everyone's making fun of my family that I chose to hold up for public scrutiny.
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B
I don't even think people are making fun of it. They're, like, concerned about her.
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A
They feel bad for her. Yeah, like, do you need to be rescued? So this is about Aham. Ahama Fule. I think her. Her husband. Or can I say husbands.
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B
Yeah, they're married. He just has a girlfriend.
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A
No, I know, but, like, he's not. He. I guess he goes by. They. Oh, so he's not a husband. So this is. This is the part I have concerns about. Even though Aham is non binary, they do all the man things around the house. They chop wood, clean gutters, dig holes, carry mattresses, throw the Frisbee for the dog, catch bats in a big Looney Tunes net. When they get in the house, pull dead rats out of the crawl space.
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B
That is a man thing. During Frisbee for the dog, Girls cannot do Frisbee. Girls can throw chuckets, but girls cannot do Frisbee.
- [08:14]
A
Aham is very smart and very emotional, very sensitive. Aham tries to have the difficult conversations. Aham is neurodivergent. Aham is always learning. So.
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B
So the first part of that was all man things. And the second part being. Wait, read it again.
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A
Aham is very smart and very emotional and very sensitive. Aham tries to have the difficult.
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B
Okay, so Being very smart, emotional and observant and trying to have the difficult conversations. Those are women things. So that's what makes him non binary is he throws the Frisbee for the dog and he tries to have hard conversations. I think the perfect male female dichotomy,
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A
I think like there's got to be some push pull with some of this stuff where like, like, well, well, you know, if someone wants to be called, they'll call, they'll be called they. But like, even though aham is non binary, they do all the man things around the house.
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B
This is like fucking two women also. That's the man thing.
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A
Even, even, even among ardent believers in like in these ideas about gender identity, isn't there a certain point at which like just stolen valor comes in? This is like, this is a male person who is married to two women who just like is a guy by terms we used to understand.
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B
No, Jesse, it's queer to have. For a man to have two women is queer, right?
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A
Also, he identifies as queer.
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B
Yes. Yeah, it's very queer for a man to have. Joseph Smith was very queer, quite queer.
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A
Osama bin Laden did have like a little bit thing going.
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B
He wore dresses.
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A
Okay, well, we'll have a lot more to talk about this soon, but she's doing a good job of getting attention.
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B
She is. And she needs the money because that. Oh yeah, that was the thing. One of the things she said in the Sachi Cole interview is that she was hoping that the book would float the. The trio for the next couple years. Anyway, before we get into whatever we're going to talk about today, I just wanted to ask you about this. We haven't talked about this in a while. You wrote this piece for the New York Times a couple weeks ago. Was a couple of weeks ago.
- [10:02]
A
Me, Me in the Times. Oh, right, I did.
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B
How is the response to that emails?
- [10:08]
A
Overwhelmingly positive among, like overwhelmingly negative. Well, I was going to get there among like. Among. If you look in the comments section which is surely significantly far to the left of the American public. Also sort of overwhelming support, although some pushback and they, they let me respond articles which I. Comments which I appreciated on Blue sky ob. Mostly people are furious because the reason they're furious is I. I lied, Katie. I lied.
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B
Oh, what did you lie about?
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A
I don't.
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B
You did that in the New York Times.
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A
I lied in the New York Times. I don't know. I've read the article.
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B
Didn't tell you.
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A
By a certain. I guess it's a hashtag say her name situation Aaron Reed.
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B
Oh, yeah.
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A
Saying I lied. I've read it several times now in search of the thing I lied about and I can't find it.
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B
Really.
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A
I don't know. Yeah. Which seems. It's bad because, like, there's this thing hanging over me of I, I intend, apparently, because lying is intentional. You can't lie accidentally. I lied and I can't even figure out what I lied about.
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B
I'm just gonna check really quick and see how many subscribers she has on Substack.
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A
Oh, she has a shitload. She is a huge influencer. And the sad. Well, in her. I looked briefly and like, in her comments. I do think there's a significant number of like, parents of trans kids who I think are in like, a scary situation right now. But I think they. They've unfortunately found a source that will just reinforce.
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B
Yeah.
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A
A lot of prior beliefs that maybe
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B
aren't great to have over 131,000 subscribers.
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A
She's very successful on there.
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B
On. On Substack. Which means that presumably over 131,000 people. Because I'm sure everyone who subscribes reads everything that Aaron Reed writes.
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A
They know I'm a liar.
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B
Think that you're a liar. They know you're a liar.
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A
Well, the other thing was, what was interesting is the point of my article was that these big sciencey professional organizations are influenced by politics and you can't, you can't necessarily. You can't necessarily trust them. Her response was that in citing some of these big professional organizations that have changed their stance on this, I failed to account for the fact that they're influenced by politics just in the other direction. So her argument is literally, you can't trust these organizations because they're influenced by politics. My argument is you can't trust these organizations because they're influenced by politics. But I'm a liar, so it's got it.
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B
Okay, well, I'm. I'm glad that finally someone called you out.
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A
Yeah, finally.
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B
I saw that there was some New York Times also did some reporting on this. Not an opinion piece. Jeremy Peters wrote an article that was about something similar. Is this correct?
- [12:38]
A
This was a meeting with Dr. Oz. Oh, that I had. I. I mean, I'm not trying to be that guy, but I, I had heard about it and I was like, briefly, like, should I do some reporting on this? For various reasons, it didn't come up. And I'm glad I didn't because I obviously would have been beat by the New York times. But yeah, Dr. Oz summoned, I guess, summons the right Word. Oz summoned a bunch of like representatives of these major medical groups, he called
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B
them from behind his curtain.
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A
Exactly. To talk about youth, gender, medicine. And I mean the sense I got is like sort of to try to pressure them to, I mean, I don't know how you could describe it other, other than pressure. Like the, the head of. Or he's not headed, he's head of fucking. Sorry. I was briefly mixing him up with RFK Jr.
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B
Different TV stars.
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A
So yeah, I mean you have the, the administrator for the Centers for Medicaid works under HHS under RFK Jr. I'm not sure how to interpret this other than the administration sort of trying to pressure these medical organizations, you know, into taking a different stance on this stuff. But I think this is so hopelessly politicized and was also hopelessly politicized under Biden. So it's, it's like, it's all, it's all really bad. But yeah, so that was the Times. Just report on that.
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B
Okay, so I have not read Jeremy Peters article, but I saw Benjamin Ryan tweeting screenshots of Michael Hobbs ski skating angrily about this, about this piece. Hobbs writes. Weird how every journalist writing scare quotes balance feature stories on this issue, turns out to be a deranged conspiracist. Conspiracist and ideologue the second you hear them speak off the cuff.
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A
I, I, I just, I find this infuriating because like if there's one thing Michael Hobbs is known for, it's he refuses to ever engage with his critics in any meaningful way. I would kill for a situation. One kill for it. I would appreciate a situation where Michael Hobbs, who's like actually extremely influential, he's an incredibly successful podcaster and he, his words at one point carried weight on this stuff. We're going to talk a little bit about Blue sky soon. So I think it's getting more and more echo chambery. But I would, I would love Michael Hobbs to have to answer like basic questions about his work on this and really his work on sort of weight and obesity, which is, has been heavily criticized. We'll include a link to the show notes. But I mean, it's, look, it's just crazy how anyone who reports on any of this stuff in anything but an orthodox trans activist group way, they're a liar, they're delusional, they're crazy. The thing he called, the thing he called Jeremy Peters a conspiracy theorist for was basically saying that like in terms of the stuff that gets published in journals, there's a bias toward publishing Stuff that makes youth gender medicine look good. I don't see how anybody could deny that at this point. Like, if you just. Not just. Not just because the political issues, but because, like, stuff that says a treatment works, I think is on balance more likely to get published. But for Michael Hobbs to say that, you know, people come off bad when they speak off the cuff. Anyway, this is a good coincidence because unfortunately, today is our. Is a Blue sky story.
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B
Oh, all right. We're doing Jamal. I'm going to pronounce it correctly every time. 100%.
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A
I don't. This is not like. I know you're not good at. I'm not good at names either, but this is not a complicated name.
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B
How many people do you know named Jamal and not Jamal?
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A
I would go back to.
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B
You mispronounce our actual real life friend Camille Foster's name. You mispronounce. You mispronounce it on a regular basis.
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A
Your inability to pronounce Jamelle Bowie's name. It would go back to that critique Freddy DeBoer leveled at you about you being racist. Just to be clear, I'm going to declare this. Everyone can quote me on this. This is our last story about Blue sky forever. Probably. Unless something juicy comes up. Because I'm just. I'm having.
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B
And that's a promise.
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A
And that's a promise. But yeah, so every time I log on to there, it's just like a little bit more sealed off from reality. And I mean, Michael Hobbs is an example. But yeah. Our story today is about Jamel, or as you would call him, Jamel Boot. Jamal.
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B
Bowie Jamel. No, I call him Jamal. Okay, so what. What happened?
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A
Well, let me just. Slight preamble. I. I've noticed sometimes if you post crazy about Blue sky, people are like, what about Twitter? What about Twitter, Jesse? There are Nazis on Twitter. And I feel like you and I have done a sufficient job acknowledging that there are Nazis on X.
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B
We've done multiple segments on Captive Dreamer.
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A
Yeah. Our favorite friend of the pod.
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B
Are there Nazis on Blue Sky? I think. I think Nazis should go to Blue Sky.
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A
That would be amazing. Just send the like. Because eventually we need to settle on one just normal social media platform. I mean, we don't need to. They should just all.
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B
I think there should be an exchange program where like the most like woke tri gender, purple haired, woke school. Yeah.
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A
Has to go on Twitter.
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B
They come to Twitter.
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A
Yeah.
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B
And then we send them Captive Dreamer.
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A
X has Nazis, but I just think it has like beyond Nazis, sort of the full range of opinion on every issue. If you. If you post something crazy on X, you will be exposed to people telling you why it's crazy. For better or worse, Blue sky is both extremely politically homogenous and it also has insane blocking norms that make it hard for people to see outside viewpoints. I think sealing the place off from outside viewpoints is actually part of the point. Because people feel, like, threatened by being disagreed with.
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B
Yes. And. Well, and they left because, like, in a fit of rage. Because they didn't like Elon Musk and they didn't like the new enforcement policies when he brought back people like. Well, a lot of people.
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A
Yeah. Some of whom are horrible.
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B
Yes.
- [18:11]
A
Yes. Yeah. But like, on Blue sky, if you follow. So if you follow Matt Iglesias on Blue sky, you'll get immediately added to a bunch of block lists. So Matt Glacis is not a Nazi.
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B
That's interesting that Matt Iglesias is like the. Or Jesse single. Like, you guys are the far. Are like, considered, like, the far. Far right problematic on Blue sky, whereas you're basically like milk toast on, like, the real world. Yeah.
- [18:36]
A
I just think the site, like, the way the site Blue Skies built it, really actively disincentivizes any engagement with anyone who isn't, like, you know, Michael Hobbs or Aaron Reed.
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B
Yeah. Okay, so what are people Mad Jamelle Bowie about?
- [18:51]
A
So? Well, first, give people a refresher on who Jamel Bowie is. For those of us who don't read the Times, that's it. That's all you're getting. If you want to hear the whole thing, go to blockchainport.org and become a premium subscriber. All sorts of perks, Best deal in media, et cetera. Hope you enjoyed the preview. Bye.