Host (3:21)

We should clarify because I said in America, but it is a global bunker city. It is not, it is not located just in Washington, D.C. for our elites. It is a global elite program.

Will Sommer (3:34)

That's right. I mean, she says there are 170 bunkers in the United States alone, some of them underwater. So, you know, it's not just underground. And so.

Host (3:43)

I'm sorry, I can. I need to interrupt you here. Under, under the ocean or under, like, lakes? How far underwater?

Will Sommer (3:49)

She doesn't specify. Right. I mean, I, I probably a mix. You know, I, I'd assume if you have that many. And, and so her idea is that, you know, the, all of these elites around the world know that this, whatever it is, this big volcano or an earthquake or something is coming, and if you're not underground, you're going to be dead. And, you know, this gets into your, your area of expertise because this, this, this is a, a plot line that we're seeing repeated a lot in entertainment right now.

Host (4:17)

Sure, sure. Well, the apocalypse always sells. You can't, you can't go wrong with the apocalypse. The Last of Us, of course, is very popular on hbo. Walking Dead was a huge hit for AMC for many years. The movie 2012, which of course was tied to the ancient Mayan prophecy of the, the, the end of the world happening in 2012 from Reason, for reasons. You know, climate shifting, poles, whatever. No, the. I, I do find it, Look, I find this all very, very interesting because it's clearly insane. I do want to get the ask about the Tucker Carlson portion of this because, you know, there's, when I When I watched clips of this, and I watched some clips of this when it first circulated, you know, a month or two back, I was. I. I was. I was kind of struck by it because Carlson himself, it's hard to tell how seriously he takes any of this. He's got that kind of smirk, you know, he's. He's always got that smirk. He reminded me of Bill Murray at the start of Ghostbusters 2. Do you remember Ghostbusters 2? Well, there's this. Bill Murray is. Peter Venkman is working as a, like, kind of fake local news show guy who's, like, interviewing crazy people. One of them's a psychic, you know, one of them, Ben Spoons, whatever. But he has this kind of, like, grin on his face the whole time that he's not taking it seriously. That. Do we. Do we think Tucker really buys into the trillions of dollars on underground bunkers?

Will Sommer (5:40)

You know, it's a good question. I, you know, I can't speak to his, you know, certainly the demeanor he presents is that he believes it or at least finds it a viable theory. I mean, on this interview, he also talks about, you know, things he's heard about underground bunkers in D.C. which, of course, you know, is not hard to believe. But. But he. I mean, he's playing into it here, I would say.

Host (5:59)

I mean, and there are. Look, there are. Right out in West Virginia, we have. Or the eastern part of. Or the western regular Virginia, there. There are bunkers where the government is supposed to go to in case of nuclear attack. Right. There are. There are these things, but the idea of a massive, sprawling, you know, trillions of dollars that have just disappeared, that strains credulity a little bit.

Will Sommer (6:24)

Yeah. I mean, and specifically her. Her claim here is that there is something that's going to happen to the earth that, that the people in power know about. And so they're building these bunkers and they're not telling the rest of us to avoid causing a panic, which I would note is also literally the plot of paradise on Hulu this year. So. So they are, you know, I don't know if she's cribbing a little from there, you know, taking some inspiration, but that's her claim. You know, she claims that she sort of refused to join the Council of Foreign Relations, which is, you know, kind of a big player in the imagined cabal. And as a result, she says she will no longer be on the bunker list.

Host (6:59)

Great. Well, that makes. You don't want to. You don't want to have a non Believer on the bunker list. So that makes sense. Use of HUD contracts to hide all of this money is a very interest. Interesting facet to me again, because it echoes some plot lines from TV shows like the Sopranos where they were doing millions of dollars in fraud at the Esplanade to, you know, get all this HUD money. They were refurbishing houses. They were, they were scamming the government. They were. Is Tony Soprano in on the government bunker business?

Will Sommer (7:27)

You know, it's funny you say that. I mean, do they have a. Some no show jobs at the bunker construction site or what have you? I mean, it is, I guess, diagnosing this former HUD official, it seems like she just became obsessed with missing money. And rather than saying, well, are we paying too much to the developers this HUD property or something, she jumped to the bunker, which I think is a bit of a leap. But now, I mean, it's catching on. There are geophysical Event X accounts that are kind of diagnosing or saying, you know, maybe it's this ancient Mayan prophecy mixed up in there. So this is, I would say, sort of the conspiracy theory with really a lot of movement on it on the right.

Host (8:03)

And this is like kind of the root problem here is, all right, one crazy thing goes viral and then all of a sudden you have dozens of other accounts piggybacking on this and doing the same thing and aiming to enter the algorithm the same way and get audience and, you know, of course, revenue sharing that way.

Will Sommer (8:21)

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I think what's refreshing about this, maybe for the right and the people getting onto it, is that it's actually a concrete conspiracy theory. It's a thing that you're saying, even if they aren't saying, well, this is a volcano is going to do it or what have you, but that they're saying something is going to happen. And, you know, for the past few years we've been dealing with a lot of kind of nebulous conspiracy theories. It's sinister forces, shadowy agendas, you know, someone killed Jeffrey Epstein, but maybe we're not going to say exactly who, but this is, this is putting it out there, which I appreciate as well.

Host (8:52)

Yeah. All right, the second item in your newsletter this week is follow kind of a follow up to an earlier story for background here. There was a woman who used the N word against a child and it was on videotape and she did a GoFundMe or whatever, whatever the racist version of GoFundMe is. She did that and then raised A bunch of money. And there we have a, we have a follow up to that story. A less successful race slur fundraising effort.

Will Sommer (9:20)

Yeah, this was a huge cause celeb on the right. A few weeks ago, this woman called a five year old the N word. And rather than, you know, being exorcated or what have you, the right turned her into sort of a Cancel Culture hero. And she raised $750,000. And so then, you know, I figured, you know, someone's going to try to repeat this. As it turned out, it was the guy who. This sort of racist Twitter guy who had started her fundraiser in the first place. A week later, he posts a video of himself as a rideshare driver calling a passenger the N word. He posts the video himself. So there's a key difference there. He posts the video and then Lyft says, I guess you're not going to work for Lyft anymore. And he goes, oh, no, I need money. And so he's trying to raise all this money. All these other racist accounts are saying, well, but in this case, you posted it yourself, right? Like there seems to be like, maybe you set this up, you did this deliberately. And he said, well, you know, I, who's to say, you know exactly how it got posted? It's, you know, either way, I'm really like a martyr here for Cancel culture, just like this previous one.

Host (10:24)

So it wasn't, it's. And, and he has not been as successful right there. This, this has, this has kind of crashed and burned.

Will Sommer (10:30)

Yeah, he's raised a 1/100th of what she has. I, I think he, he's at 7,000 at this point. I mean, he really, he's kind of been banished from the white supremacist movement in part because they found out he was Jewish. And he was saying, you know, come on, guys. I'm like, he goes, in this whole discourse, this was very, I should say this is like a very hot debate in like really far right Twitter the past few days. He's saying, come on, guys, you know, I get a sunburn too. That means I'm white. All this stuff, really pathetic stuff. But at least for me, it was heartening. I found that the original playground story was so depressing that this woman could call a child the N word. Totally terrible thing to do and then become a near millionaire. But at least maybe it's not that easy to repeat.

Host (11:10)

Yeah. It seems though, his biggest crime was being stupid. Well, in addition to being Jewish, just, just doing this stupidly, that was his, his biggest problem wasn't the racism, it was the stupidity.

Will Sommer (11:20)

Exactly. I mean, his mistake was doing it. People were just saying, you know, but you uploaded it yourself, right? And the guy said, well, you know, yeah, but I still don't think I should face consequences. And, you know, one of these other racist guys said, look, I'm very racist online myself, but if I went in front of my job and stood out there with a sandwich board with a slur on it and got fired, I wouldn't be surprised that that happened.

Host (11:41)

Will, there's one other line from the end of this piece that I just was hoping you might clarify for me. So the. The woman, this Shiloh Hendricks woman, she. She. She removed herself from the situation. She denounced this Ratchland fellow and said, as soon as we found out the truth about all that, I sever ties with him immediately. Hendrick said, this is you now, while also stressing for some reason that she wasn't married to Ratchlin either. Is. Was there a question about that? Was there some. Some suggestion that the two of them were a couple?

Will Sommer (12:15)

I think there have been a lot of allegations about, like, how was this. The original thing all is set up, which I don't think is true, but basically, what was this guy's role? He had described himself as the mastermind behind the original fundraising campaign. And so ultimately, you know, she. To me, you know, this guy helped her raise nearly a million dollars, and suddenly, you can see how quick she throws him under the bus and says, by the way, you know, I'm not. Not romantically involved with him either. You know, it's adding insult to injury.

Host (12:40)

That's. Yeah, that's a real kick in the pants. Will, thank you for keeping an eye on all this for us. I love. I love talking about this stuff. It just makes my. It makes my whole day brighter, even when it's horribly depressing. But thanks for chatting.

Will Sommer (12:55)

Yeah, thanks for having me.