Digital Warfare: The Hidden Dangers of TikTok Data Collection | Dave Rubin DSH #954

Summary

Digital Social Hour: "Digital Warfare: The Hidden Dangers of TikTok Data Collection | Dave Rubin DSH #954"

Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Dave Rubin
Release Date: December 6, 2024

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1. Personal Anecdotes and Political Evolution

Dave Rubin opens the discussion by reflecting on his political transformation. He shares his experiences engaging with individuals across the political spectrum, highlighting the unexpected kindness he found among those he was previously told were "evil."

"[01:38] Dave Rubin: That's partly why I evolved politically, because I was talking to all these scary right wingers and all the people that I was told were evil and they happened to be the nicest people that I'm meeting."

Rubin emphasizes the asymmetry in political discourse, noting that while engaging with the right has softened perceptions, reciprocal interactions with the left often lead to increased animosity.

"[01:38] Dave Rubin: ...the more you talk to the people on the right, the more that the left hates you."

2. Experiences in Las Vegas and Personal Interests

Rubin reminisces about his solitary trip to Las Vegas in 2016 during the Democratic National Convention, detailing the subpar accommodations and the lasting impact it had on him.

"[02:14] Dave Rubin: I have only been to Vegas once in my life for one night. It was the Democrat National Convention... We stayed at Circus Circus. I still have the disease I caught that night."

He contrasts this unpleasant experience with his genuine appreciation for the vibrant energy of casinos, despite not being a gambler.

"[02:53] Dave Rubin: It freaked me out. But I love... the energy of it. I love the overstimulation... there's something about a casino... something about the gestalt of life or something."

3. Optimism for America's Future and Political Landscape

Rubin expresses a bullish outlook on America's resurgence, anticipating a cultural and economic renaissance reminiscent of the 1980s.

"[03:18] Dave Rubin: We're about to have the renaissance of America... there's a lot of goodness coming."

He critiques the current political maneuvers, particularly those aimed at undermining figures like Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, suggesting such tactics could escalate tensions internationally.

"[04:06] Dave Rubin: They're trying to start World War Three. There's a lot of stuff that we're going have to deal with till then."

4. The Role of Alternative Media in Politics

Highlighting the influence of alternative media, Rubin argues that it played a decisive role in the recent election, emphasizing that the electorate's preference leaned towards "reality" over traditional political narratives.

"[06:05] Dave Rubin: I think this was the election over reality. It wasn't really... but it was reality."

He asserts that a growing skepticism towards mainstream media has empowered alternative platforms, shaping public opinion more effectively than conventional channels.

5. Content Creation, Censorship, and Platform Policies

Discussing his ventures into content creation, Rubin shares his experiences with YouTube's demonetization policies, viewing them as covert methods of censorship that affect content visibility and creator revenue.

"[18:44] Dave Rubin: One is once you're demonetized on YouTube, then you're not fed into the algorithm as much... it's a secret way of censoring you."

He details his initiative, Locals.com, designed to empower creators by providing ownership over their data and communities, countering the control exercised by larger platforms like Patreon and YouTube.

"[17:23] Dave Rubin: We started Locals.com... to build subscription models for creators where you own everything, you own the data, you control your community."

6. Social Media Platforms: X (Twitter) and TikTok

Rubin delves into his perspectives on various social media platforms. He champions X (formerly Twitter) as the current hub of digital interaction, appreciating its open environment despite the prevalence of negative interactions.

"[25:27] Dave Rubin: X is where the action is right now... I'd much rather be in a place where the action is and be a part of that than just go to my own little nothing and argue with... not the brightest people in the world."

Regarding TikTok, Rubin expresses caution due to concerns over data privacy and potential spyware, despite its effectiveness in reaching large audiences.

"[26:32] Dave Rubin: I did not want to do it [TikTok] because of what's going on with China and everything else... I can't totally speak to everything that's going on there."

He acknowledges the platform's influence, citing Charlie Kirk's success on TikTok as evidence of its significant impact on public perception.

7. Data Privacy and Concerns with Tech Companies

A significant portion of the conversation addresses the pervasive issue of data collection by tech companies. Rubin voices apprehensions about platforms like 23andMe and BlackRock, highlighting incidents where boards resigned and questioning how amassed data could be exploited.

"[29:12] Dave Rubin: There's a whole slew of problems there because, like, what kind of data did they just get? And they've now connected people over generations..."

He underscores the broader societal implications, emphasizing that these companies possess more personal data than individuals themselves understand or manage.

"[28:37] Dave Rubin: And the truth is... the bigger the meta issue is that they're gathering data on everybody. They know us more than we know ourselves."

8. Personal Interests: Video Games and Sports

Transitioning to lighter topics, Rubin shares nostalgic anecdotes about his gaming history, from playing early Nintendo consoles to modern-day interests like playing Contra on the PS5.

"[47:54] Dave Rubin: That should be in my Twitter bio. What am I doing with my life?"

He humorously recounts his competitive spirit in games like NBA Jam, contrasting it with the complexities of contemporary gaming and expressing a preference for simpler, more engaging gameplay.

"[48:20] Dave Rubin: You remember NBA Jam? So I have... I have the arcade version of that house. That's... three buttons and a joystick. And I can still beat my 20-year-old social media guy."

In discussing sports, especially basketball, Rubin engages in a spirited debate about the legacy of Michael Jordan versus LeBron James, emphasizing Jordan's flawless finals record and his dominance during his era.

"[44:05] Dave Rubin: He just assassinated everybody. Countless expert analyses suggest Jordan’s 6-for-6 finals record cements him as the GOAT."

9. Reflections on Technology and Future Innovations

Rubin touches upon futuristic technologies like Neuralink and transhumanism, expressing both fascination and caution. He contemplates the ethical and societal implications of integrating such technologies into everyday life.

"[32:14] Dave Rubin: I'm a big sci-fi guy... I'm a little hesitant to directly connect myself. We're basically there already."

He reflects on Elon Musk's ventures, balancing admiration for technological advancements with skepticism about their broader impacts.

"[32:27] Dave Rubin: Elon's literally trying to get life to go interstellar... He's going to crush 300 government agencies and save $2 trillion."

Conclusion

Throughout the episode, Dave Rubin intertwines personal stories with broader societal critiques, offering insights into the intersection of technology, media, and politics. His candid reflections on data privacy, platform censorship, and the evolving landscape of American politics provide listeners with a nuanced understanding of the digital age's challenges and opportunities.

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Notable Quotes:

• "[01:38] Dave Rubin: That's partly why I evolved politically...they happened to be the nicest people that I'm meeting."

• "[25:27] Dave Rubin: X is where the action is right now...I'd much rather be in a place where the action is and be a part of that."

• "[28:37] Dave Rubin: ...they know us more than we know ourselves."

• "[44:05] Dave Rubin: He just assassinated everybody... cement him as the GOAT."

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This episode of Digital Social Hour weaves a rich tapestry of personal anecdotes, political insights, and technological concerns, anchored by Dave Rubin's engaging and candid conversational style. Listeners gain a comprehensive view of the hidden dangers of data collection on platforms like TikTok, the shifting dynamics of media influence, and the profound implications of emerging technologies.

Transcript

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[Dave Rubin]

This is the sound of your ride home with dad after he caught you vaping.

[Unknown Speaker]

Awkward, isn't it?

[Dave Rubin]

Most vapes contain seriously addictive levels of nicotine and disappointment.

[Unknown Speaker]

Know the real cost of vapes brought.

[Dave Rubin]

To you by the fda? That's partly why I evolved politically, because I was talking to all these scary right wingers and all the people that I was told were evil and they happened to be the nicest people that I'm meeting. And then unfortunately, what happens usually on the other side is the more you talk to the people on the right, the more that the left hates you. And actually it's not a two way street there. When you're on the right and you start talking to people on the left, people are usually like, oh, that's interesting, they're not that bright or they don't really understand what they're talking about.

[Unknown Speaker]

All right, guys, Dave Rubin here from Miami hasn't been to Vegas in a while.

[Dave Rubin]

I have not been in Vegas since 2016.

[Unknown Speaker]

Damn.

[Dave Rubin]

I have only been to Vegas once in my life for one night. It was the Democrat National Convention. Bernie. Bernie versus Hillary. I was going to cover it. I was working for oratv. They had no budget, so I had to pay to take my team out. And because I didn't have much money, I was making maybe 50, 60 grand a year. We stayed at Circus Circus.

[Unknown Speaker]

Wow. $20 a night.

[Dave Rubin]

I still have the disease I caught that night.

[Unknown Speaker]

The bedbugs.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, it was that place. I mean, the whole place smelled like a. Like a Disinfectant factory.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Something is not right over there. We're leveling up this time. We're over at the fountain Blue.

[Unknown Speaker]

There we go.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

No wonder you haven't been back since. So that was your experience.

[Dave Rubin]

It freaked me out. But I love. The funny thing is I actually. I'm not a gambler, but I love casinos. I love the energy of it. I love the overstimulation. I love the scent. I love the. Just. There's something about a casino. Everyone is just who they are. When you're in a casino, you know what I mean? You see people in tuxedos and you see, like, the biggest trash of all time and everything in between, and they're all interacting, and I just. I love that. It's something about the, like the gestalt of life or something.

[Unknown Speaker]

I'm sure you've been a lot happier since the election is finally over.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, my God. This is. I mean, we're. We're about to have the renaissance of America. How old are you?

[Unknown Speaker]

27.

[Dave Rubin]

You do not remember, my friend, the 80s, and they're about to be back, and it was the best decade in American history. Certainly, you know, from. If you're any modern times, at least. Like, there is going to be such a burst of culture and comedy and humor and movies and music. Like, all of the stuff that has been just so rotted and calcified and sucked for so long now it's all coming back and the economy is going to boom and the world is going to get reordered politically. It's. There's a lot of goodness coming. Not to say they don't have two months to really fuck up a lot of shit.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, they're trying to put Kamala and they're telling him to resign.

[Dave Rubin]

They're trying to put her in. They're trying to start world war, World War Three. I mean, there's a lot of stuff that we're going have to deal with till then, but I'm so bullish on the future of America right now. And had it gone the other way. No, no, no, no.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. Yeah. They might actually really start that war. It's looking pretty concerning, right?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. I mean, it's sick. Like, these people want to hold on to power in a way that they're literally now knowing they're losing power. They're shooting. We are now basically giving Ukraine rockets to shoot further into Russia than ever before. At some point, if you're Russia, you might say, we're not going to take this anymore. That's not Making the case for Russia or arguing for Russia or anything else. But it's just. They're a sovereign nation, too, you. Sovereign nation. They're a sovereign nation. If somebody was paying for Cuba to shoot rockets into Miami, I might be for destroying that place.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. They're going to make it hard on Trump to negotiate because the more they attack him, I mean, the harder the negotiations are going to.

[Dave Rubin]

Well, it feels right. I mean, that's the thing. It feels like they're thrown in the kitchen sink now. It's like, oh, Trump's going to come in and fix this real quick. Let's see how. How dirty we can make it, you know?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Before he gets in there.

[Unknown Speaker]

It's like they're sore losers, right?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. Not like it. They are sore losers.

[Unknown Speaker]

And then they blame the J6 incident that we're sore losers, too.

[Dave Rubin]

So the fact that they even. That that is even a thing anymore, that anyone buys any of that. I'm so over all of that. And that's why I'm so, like, please. Not just because of the election, but just the upheaval now with mainstream media and that no one's buying this nonsense anymore. And that even today, Elon's like, maybe I'll buy msnbc. Did you see that? And it's like, we don't need a cable channel, really, because the Internet has clearly eclipsed all that. But just the wholesale change that has occurred. We've known it. We've all known it for a while. You're online, you're doing a show. Like, you get what's going on out there. But we needed the culture to have a real sort of mindset shift, where it was like, oh, the online thing doesn't mean we're all perfect at all of this, or there's all kinds of fault lines there, too. But that the mainstream corporate press is dead and it needs to be buried and we need to keep burying it. You know, there's an inclination like, oh, they kind of. They're losing numbers and everything else. Like, now just stop talking about them, stop paying attention. But like, it's like Freddy Krueger. You got to bury their bones a couple of times. Absolutely.

[Unknown Speaker]

Alternative media, I think, decided the outcome of this election.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, I completely agree. I mean, that's. I think this was the election over reality. It wasn't really. People think it was Trump versus the Dems or Biden, Kamala, whatever it was, but it was reality. And I think they finally learned that enough of us had woken up to the bullshit. We had woken up to the bullshit around very fine people on both sides and all of the COVID stuff and the Russia hoax and just enough of us were like, you know what? Enough of this. Enough of this bs. And the amount of people that I know in my personal life, I'm not even talking about my audience in my own personal life who had absolute Trump Derangement syndrome for the last eight years.

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[Dave Rubin]

Safety info found @freestylelibre us.

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[Dave Rubin]

Who are now the biggest Trump supporters. It's crazy. I know at least a dozen people in my own personal life.

[Unknown Speaker]

Wow.

[Dave Rubin]

And that, that tells you, you take a guy like Bobby Kennedy should not be voting for a Republican. Tulsi should not announce that she's a Republican and be on stage with Trump. Elon should not be a Republican. I should not be a Republican if things were set in some kind of sane way. But here we are. And again, I think this is now the greatest political movement that I've ever seen in my lifetime. This is. It's because it's not a conservative movement. It's a. It's an America movement. And we're going to fix the health system. The economy's going to start chugging. We got some good stuff on.

[Unknown Speaker]

I'm excited. What was that final straw?

[Dave Rubin]

Maybe I'm just hopped up on that crazy air they pump in the, in the hotels here.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. Oh, you could be.

[Dave Rubin]

You know, they pump that air and start feeling a little crazy. I think, I think I might have a little.

[Unknown Speaker]

Gives you that itch to get on the tables. Absolutely. What was that final straw for you to switch because you were a little sooner than some of the people you named.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. You know, there were a couple things along the way. The one that most people sort of know as my famous moment was I was on with Larry Elder when I was still a lefty. I had just left the Young Turks Network. Larry Elder, who happens to be black, he's a conservative. He's libertarian. Really. And we started talking about systemic racism. And he, I was interviewing him, but he just flipped the interview on me, just completely twisted it on me, started asking me all these questions. I did not have proper answers. And I don't know how many people get to say this. Maybe you'll get to say it one day. But in my career, I think my best and worst moment was at the exact same time, because it was my worst moment because I came to a gunfight not ready for the debate. I was not prepared. And he was. So that was why it was my worst moment, and it was my best moment, because when that show ended, we weren't live streaming. It was going to be aired the next day. And I was at ORATV at the time, so we had a bunch of producers and stuff. I go into the control room after, and all the producers were like, don't worry, Dave. We'll cut that part out. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. And, you know, sometimes in life, you just say something. You don't. You don't even think about it. You just say something, and it's the right thing. And it's. And there's a reason it's right, because it's true. I was just like, no, we got to leave that in. If I'm an interviewer, I can't cut probably the most important part of the interview. Then what am I doing this for? And we left it in. And the next day, you know, a million. It gets cut a zillion ways across YouTube. And, you know, it's black conservative destroys white lib tard and all that. And it gets, you know, millions of views in many different iterations and across all platforms. And for a day, I was like, man, this really sucks. And then I started looking at the comments, and there were all these people like, hey, you know, Ruben was listening, and he said that they'd continue the conversation and everything else. And then you flash forward five years, and I'm on stage with Larry Elder when he's campaigning to be governor during the Gavin Newsom recall. Because. Because we became. And he's a dear friend of mine now, and it's like, that's what a proper evolution is about. If you go. If you go towards the truth, good things will happen.

[Unknown Speaker]

Full circle moment.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. 60 Minutes did not. Or they did cut stuff out. You did not.

[Dave Rubin]

I just wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do it. You know, I've done thousands of interviews at this point. We've. We've edited only one for content ever. And it was because somebody who name need not be mentioned, but who's fairly big star. Everyone watching this knows the person was so drunk and stoned that I actually felt it could, like, completely wreck their career in a really terrible way. So we added that one. And then beyond that, we've edited, you know, if somebody has, like, a coughing fit or, like, so, yeah, has to get up to go to the bathroom, but otherwise, we just let it. We let it be and let the chips fall.

[Unknown Speaker]

Where they may 100. I'm the same way. I've only edited if they asked. If they asked to cut something out. But other than that, have you had.

[Dave Rubin]

People ask because they want to cut out, like they said something wrong or they realized they stepped in some shit?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, more like a PR thing. Like they announced something too early or like, what, whatever.

[Dave Rubin]

So that type of thing. I wouldn't have an ethical problem with that. If it was like, literally like, oh, I shouldn't. We're. We're launching a product and I, you know, something like that. I wouldn't have a problem if it was content, if it was specific content, I, I think I would have some sort of ethical dilemma or at least a discussion with them about it. I don't do as many live as I used to. I used to. I used to do a ton of my interviews live stream. Now we do my daily show live stream, and we do the interviews usually pre taped.

[Unknown Speaker]

How come?

[Dave Rubin]

More because of scheduling than anything else. You know what I mean?

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[Dave Rubin]

Like, you just start doing this and just like you, you just finished up some stuff, and then, you know, it just gets more complex to be doing it that way. So for me, it's like, we know we're doing my live show every day, 11am Eastern. That's what we're doing. And then the interviews, we just kind of set them as the day's going by. And also, I'm busier now than I was back then. So with hits or travel. So it's just, it's purely like a mapping thing.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. When it comes to picking guests, do you have a line that you draw with certain people that you'll have on.

[Dave Rubin]

I try to make it as wide as possible, but as you probably know, like, it starts. The bigger you get, it starts becoming a little bit more complex because especially if you do anything roughly political or cultural, generally speaking, people on the right or whatever we just described as this new Trump thing, they're willing to talk to anybody and have those conversations all the time and laugh about it and then break bread with you after. And that's partly why I evolved politically, because I was talking to all these scary right wingers years ago, and I was like, wait a minute, Larry Elder is a nice guy. Ben Shapiro is kind of cool. Having dinner with Dennis Prager and Glenn Beck and all the people that I was told were evil, and they happened to be the nicest people that I'm meeting. And then, unfortunately, what happens usually on the other side is the more you talk to the people on the right, the more that the left hates you. And actually, it's not a two way street there. When you're on the right and you start talking to people on the left, people are usually like, oh, that's interesting, they're not that bright, or they don't really understand what they're talking about. Sort of what Bill Maher is going through right now where he can very easily talk to all of these people on the right on his show, even on his podcast, he's just getting stoned with largely conservatives, and he doesn't really disagree with them anymore. But it's getting harder for him to find lefties that make sense because the progressives have, you know, gone.

[Unknown Speaker]

So, yeah, yeah, it seems like he has shifted.

[Dave Rubin]

Bill Maher, he says he's in the exact same spot. I would argue, and I've made this argument to him on air, Randolph, that he should shift. Because you get it, Bill. You're right on free speech, you're right on identity politics, you're right on all the stuff what the Democrats have done across the board. Just vote the. So then don't vote with them. Like, come on, man, last step, last step. He may never get to the last step, but the fact that he's willing to hold the position, I think is honorable, which is why I play a lot of clips on my show of him. I credit him a lot and I give him a lot of shit. It's like. It's like a total 50. 50 parody on that.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, no, that's a good point. What you said earlier, though, because I've had PAC man on. I've had Harry Sisson on. I don't know if they'd have me on their show, to be honest.

[Dave Rubin]

You know, I just did this thing with PAC man on Piers Morgan. You know, you get 18 boxes and everyone's yelling at each other, and it's just like. There's just nothing there. There's nothing there. And the fact that Cissen, who. It's not even worth finishing the sentence, but it's like you're basically getting like a 15 year old. Like this is what the left has been left with. There's so few people to make coherent good arguments on the left that when Piers Morgan, who has a huge show is trying to get people left, he's left with getting this kid. Because there really are very, very few people on the left willing to make good arguments.

[Unknown Speaker]

Very few. I can only think of a handful. Maybe Destiny, Pac man, and I really don't know after that.

[Dave Rubin]

Like, yeah, I don't, I don't even know that those guys are making particularly good arguments. But I'll at least grant you that they're willing to go on those things, talk to people.

[Unknown Speaker]

Do you do debates often?

[Dave Rubin]

Not as much as I used to. I used to do a lot more. You know, I was kind of early in on the Internet when that was like happening all the time and then. And I have like the scars of that and the successes of it and everything else. I'm much more interested in building things right now. I'm much more interested in people that are just like doing cool things and building businesses and doing things that are less political. I built a tech company in the middle of this. I'm interested, you know, everyone's kind of interested in like the food and health and fitness stuff right now. So I'm more interested in like, let's do all the things to fix America rather than debating whether socialism is good. I'm past it, man. I'm past it.

[Unknown Speaker]

I feel that. What's your tech company about?

[Dave Rubin]

So we started locals.com about five years ago basically to fight big tech Patreon. Do you remember Patreon or do you use Patreon by chance? No, I remember it okay. Patreon was basically the subscription model for all the creators and they were kicking people off and just banning them overnight without any recourse. And I was touring with Jordan Peterson at the time and we were looking at that like, well, this isn't right. And I was making about 80% of my company's rev on Patreon. I was like, well, I can't survive like this because I might say something that they're going to kick me off tomorrow. I can't run a business like that. That so spoke to my brother in law who's a tech guy. We started Locals.com which was basically to build subscription models for creators where you own everything, you own the data, you control your community, live chat, video, blah blah, blah. We built it. We eventually merged with Rumble. Rumble went public and I think we did A really nice. Let's say it's a nice little feather in my cap of fighting for free speech, fighting for the things that I talk about all the time. I put it into action.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's talking about, well done. Yeah, not bad. I remember Patreon was everywhere, and they kind of like fell off. Right.

[Dave Rubin]

Deservingly so. So locals has taken a lot of the. A lot of the market from them. And then, you know, there's some others as well. But we just did. We just did. I saw a problem and I was like, somebody's got to solve it. And then like Homer Simpson, I was like, well, I'm somebody.

[Unknown Speaker]

And then that's how Rumble started to problem with YouTube, you know?

[Dave Rubin]

Exactly.

[Unknown Speaker]

Censoring videos. And I'm sure you dealt with that as someone that was on YouTube.

[Dave Rubin]

We used to get demoted. We had a bigger problem with demonetized than. Than deleted.

[Unknown Speaker]

Okay.

[Dave Rubin]

Which I always thought was interesting because sometimes, you know, they would delete channels or they delete Alex Jones or someone that might be, say, more controversial than me, but what they would do with me all the time was they would just demonetize us. Which you might think, okay, well, that's not censorship, because your videos get there. But there were two things that they were really doing. One is once you're demonetized on YouTube, then you're not fed into the algorithm as much. So. So it's like a secret way of censoring you. That's one part. But the other part is, you know, at some point you got to make money. And if you start realizing, boy, I'm doing all these great videos on all these awesome topics, but I can't make a dime, you might start changing topics. So they were. That was their, like, creepier way of censoring people. I think I do have to give YouTube credit, though, even though obviously I'm a Rumble guy and locals and everything else. But my show's crushing it on YouTube right now, and I will give YouTube credit. They seem to have moved past that. And you may have seen the article a couple days before the election where they did. New York Times did this big piece about all the crazy right wingers on YouTube. And then they asked YouTube for a statement at the end, and YouTube said, We're not deleting the videos and we're not demonetizing them. Well, but that also shows you that the culture has shifted. YouTube is less afraid of the cancel machine now. So they're kind of doing what's right because capitalism is a beautiful thing.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, they have to play that balance with their sponsors. Like, right now, Twitch is hurting. Have you seen this?

[Dave Rubin]

I'm not on Twitch. I should be on Twitch. I used to. I don't want to brag, but I used to be assistant manager at Electronics. You know it as GameStop. A long time ago. I was a pretty good gamer, but I know that there's been some wacky stuff going on over there. Twitch.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, I've heard revenue is down 60% on streamers this month.

[Dave Rubin]

Wow.

[Unknown Speaker]

The sponsors are just not wanting to fund Twitch because.

[Dave Rubin]

Because people are saying mean things and.

[Unknown Speaker]

I haven't looked into it fully, but there was this one streamer talking about the Israel Palestine war. He said the wrong thing and a bunch of sponsors didn't like that and they banned the guy. And now it's kind of.

[Dave Rubin]

You know, it's one of the reasons that no matter what you do or putting aside what your political opinions are, are on Middle east or anything else, you. If you're running a business and you're a creator, you have to diversify. You should have a subscription model and you should have ads, and you should have pre roll, and you should do merch and do as much as you can so that if three of your five things are not. Are taken out, which would be an awful lot, you're. You still exist to some extent. And then build new things. That really is the answer.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. Because a lot of creators put all their eggs in one platform and then they get banned or demonetized. Then what's next?

[Dave Rubin]

I mean, you're just at the mercy of people who can just shut you off like that. You know, you mentioned the January 6th thing. I mean, Parler had 23 million unique viewers, unique users, which was a ton at that point. There was as much crazy January 6th incitement happening on Facebook. There was on Parler. The reason Parler got taken down was big tech saw it as the threat. They were like, oh, shit, there's a new guy on the block. And they seem to like Trump. So, you know, January 6th happens, and then they were on Amazon AWS, and that's how they blew them up. I don't know if they click a button or it's a swipe or whatever it is, but they just blew up their servers and that was it. So you have to do some things to protect yourself.

[Unknown Speaker]

Absolutely. Took them down from the App Store, took down their site and everything, right?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. I mean, AWS, virtually everything on the Internet is run by AWS. Rumble does have a cloud service now, which is B2B. And there are some others, obviously. Racks, streamers, a couple others.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

But you got to do whatever you can to protect yourself when you're doing this.

[Unknown Speaker]

Absolutely. Do you want Alex Jones to regain control of Infowars?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, it's his. It's his. I mean, I'm not even fully aware of exactly what the insanity of the lawsuit is fully about. I mean, I know it has to do with the Sandy Hook incident and all that, but, like, the Onion was going to buy it and then at last second, didn't it since. No, it's his property. He created it. Whether you like the guy, whether you don't like the guy. I was very happy that I defended him from the beginning. Probably should have done it even louder, but everybody was afraid we were all going to get taken out. But I did pretty early on defend him and I'm glad he's back on. And again, it's every. There are plenty of people, Pac man and some of these other guys, like, I don't agree with them. They. Some of them say shitty stuff about me. All right, say your shitty stuff. Be online and is what it is.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, well, some people just do it for views. I feel like. Oh, you know.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

Let's be honest.

[Dave Rubin]

Well, you know, the weird thing about the game as it relates to that is like, if you could go on my channel and I. I talk about CNN hosts all the time and I talk about mainstream hosts all the time, but I never talk virtually never talk about, like, the lefty versions of me or, my God, this guy on YouTube said this. Like, to me, that's such child stuff, like, let them have their corner of the Internet. It's not great. Most people mature out of it, actually. Or, you know, you had Pac man on and it's like, I think if you sit down with most of these people, their ideas are pretty thin and people wake up pretty quickly. So I'm not interested in, like, just doing that. But I know that for a lot of these guys, if they talk about me, it. It makes the money. Just. It's just as simple as that. It's not much more complex than.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, you're one of those names.

[Dave Rubin]

I don't think they think I'm as evil as they would purport to, as the channel might imply.

[Unknown Speaker]

You know, you're one of those names. You're like Logan Paul, where if someone makes a bad video about you, 100k views guaranteed.

[Dave Rubin]

It's just what you so funny. Because I'm. To me, I'm not controversial, I guess. I'm controversial in that we live in a strange world, but if someone was to take the totality of my opinions and the way I live my life and my career, you might say this guy would have been. I would have been fairly mainstream, kind of whatever, milquetoast. If this was 1986 or something, pretty crazy.

[Unknown Speaker]

I don't think you're that controversial.

[Dave Rubin]

I don't think I am, but whatever. Let them have their corner of the Internet.

[Unknown Speaker]

It's all relative, though, right?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

What do you think of all these people leaving X?

[Dave Rubin]

It's not going to work. I mean, the Blue sky thing is not going to work. They've tried other versions of this. Even on the right. They tried versions of this during the old regime. You know, they had Parlor and they had. What was the other one that Jason Miller created? What was that called? The Jason Miller Twitter alternative. Not Parlor, was it. What the hell was it? Well, then Trump had Truth Social, but then there was the one getter. Getter. You know, there have been versions of this that they've tried on the right, and it never really worked. True Social has parts of it working because Trump is there. He's back on Twitter now, too. The left, the problem is they can't really create things because at least as the left stands now, they don't really believe in free speech. So I'm seeing the same screenshots that I'm sure you're seeing these people getting banned and kicked off for this and that. And it's all going to be the worst sorts of people fighting. And the truth is, as I just said, the culture has so shifted. X is where the action is right now. If you want to be in the game, X is the place. And the irony is, all Elon did was make it even. He didn't make it more right. His politics, maybe you might think, are now more right because of the Trump thing, but all he did was say, hey, we're going to not shadow ban as much. We're going to make the playing field more equal. You know how many times a day I could open up my Twitter feed and see people posting Nazi memes at me and horrible things that they say about me and everything else. So you either block them or you mute them or you ignore them or don't open the freaking mentions.

[Unknown Speaker]

Right?

[Dave Rubin]

But I would much rather be in a place where the action is and be a part of that than just go to my own little nothing and argue with, you know, not the brightest people in the world.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, Yeah. I don't Even argue on Twitter. It's not worth it.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, no, it's not. It used to be fun to do that sort of thing. And every now and again I'll get into one. It's. But it's pretty rare. More often than not I'm about to do it and then I'm like, ah, what's like literally what is the point? What is the point? But years ago, you know, and all these social media things, they all kind of like they have these waves where at one time, you know, at one time Twitter, when Twitter first started and hashtags were big, they used to have these hashtag games and it would be like hashtag a political sitcom and you had to combine like a word from an old school sitcom with like a current day politician or just like some silly little game. And that's what Twitter was. And then it more now it's become hyper political obviously and right in the middle of the culture wars. But I would joke just rather be where the action is, where people are fighting it out and duking it out and where free speech is respected than anywhere else.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, Twitter's hot right now. They're unbeatable. What's your stance on Tick Tock? Because I have mixed one on this. I'd love to hear your opinion.

[Dave Rubin]

So I. We are. My show is on TikTok, but I said to my social media guy, he wanted to do it. I did not want to do it because of what's going on with China and everything else. And I was like, I'm not putting it on my phone and I'm certainly not asking an employee of mine to put it on his phone. He said he wanted to do it. We're doing quite well on there and I'm just kind of letting it be on that. But I don't even have it. I've literally never even scrolled once on TikTok, so I can't totally speak to everything that's going on there.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, I think a lot of apps just spy on you, not just TikTok. You know what I mean?

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, no, everything does. I mean, literally, I bought a freaking outdoor swivel chair that I bought just by going on my computer to a website. And then my Instagram feed was blown up on my phone, which I don't even think is somehow connected to my computer. I don't connect them.

[Unknown Speaker]

Are you logged on Instagram on your computer?

[Dave Rubin]

No. No.

[Unknown Speaker]

Wow.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. So I don't even know what that. But then I suddenly started getting all these ads for outdoor swivel Chairs. So it's like, I know there's some way with some email or some logged in, some, like there's some connection. But the point, the point is that none of us really know what all these touch points are, and we're just deep in that thing and we just are.

[Unknown Speaker]

We are. But I saw Charlie Kirk on Patrick David show talk about Tik Tok and how he got hundreds of millions of views there, and it really impacted, like, people's perception.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, I think that that's absolutely true. You know, the other thing is it's a little hard to tell how much of the traffic is real. It's hard to tell how much of the traffic is real in general, but much less when it's coming out of China and if they want to push things a certain way and everything else. So it's like you just got to decide how far down that rabbit hole of thought you want to go and how much you want to invest in all of those things. And, and if you're Charlie, it's, of course it's great. I like Charlie a lot. It's. It's great to be getting those views if they're legit, but also if that means you're opening up your phone to spyware and you're Charlie, well, you may not want all those conversations public. So, you know.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, I mean, they were spying on Tucker. Right. Signal.

[Dave Rubin]

I mean, all of these things. At this point, I think you have to basically assume that whatever you're doing or sharing to some extent, maybe not your name is associated with anything, but it's the data more than anything else. I'm not super concerned about them spying on specific people. You know, there was the Tucker thing. So it's not that it doesn't exist.

[Unknown Speaker]

And Tulsi was on a watch list.

[Dave Rubin]

And Tulsi was on a watch list. And I've had strange things happen. So I'm not saying that none of that exists, but it's more to me the bigger the meta issue is the. That they're gathering data on everybody. And then we, We. They know us more than we know ourselves. You know, we, we can all say we have certain behaviors and we like this or that, except they know what we're actually clicking. They know what we're actually looking at. And if you sat down in a focus group, you might say something very different and think you're telling the truth rather than what your actual behavior is on these things.

[Unknown Speaker]

And speaking of data, you saw what happened with 23andMe.

[Dave Rubin]

Well, it's happened did it happen again just in the last couple days or.

[Unknown Speaker]

No, just in the past.

[Dave Rubin]

Just in general.

[Unknown Speaker]

The whole board resigned and everything.

[Dave Rubin]

There's a whole slew of problems there because, like, what kind of data did they just get? And they've now connected people over generations and like, who knows what the right freaking bad actor could do with all of that as it relates to bank accounts and, and medical records and just.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, blackrock's involved.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. There's a lot of weird.

[Unknown Speaker]

I don't have much faith in them.

[Dave Rubin]

You don't have much faith in blackrock? That's a little, you know, Starmer, the new. Well, he's not so new, but a couple months in UK Prime Minister, he's big. He just tweeted like how much he loves blackrock.

[Unknown Speaker]

Oh, really?

[Dave Rubin]

He was getting owned on Twitter.

[Unknown Speaker]

Really?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

For not supporting BlackRock?

[Dave Rubin]

No, for supporting. He was like, we need to integrate BlackRock more into whatever.

[Unknown Speaker]

People are waking up.

[Dave Rubin]

People were not happy.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, some of these companies are so powerful, it's like one of the side effects of capitalism. But like, the pharma companies are just. They have so much control now.

[Dave Rubin]

I would say it's a, it's. It's an unintended consequence or something like that of capitalism. I would always err on the side of more freedom. So to me, it's like if these companies are doing nefarious things, if they're doing, you know, if they're buying too much land or if the pharma companies are obviously doing terrible things related to Covid, I would want just whatever you can do to free the market to lower taxes and lower regulations so that more competition can get in there to deal with it, rather than having the government come in and try to deal with it, because the government's not really good at anything interesting.

[Unknown Speaker]

So you don't want the government to intervene on the pharma stuff?

[Dave Rubin]

No. Well, I would like the government agencies to be reformed, which we are going to do. So he's going in. Not so RFK for sure is going to go in and he's not going in to make the government bigger, for more control over the industries. He's going to try to hack away at the ridiculous protections they have and things like that. So in some sense he's using the government to deregulate and detangle us from the pharma companies. There are basic things that the government should do. Like, for example, I actually am firmly for this, even though I don't like governmental solutions to most things. When during COVID you'd be watching Meet the Press, and they'd be talking about the efficacy of MRNA vaccines and how great they are. And then it would literally be like. And now a word from our sponsor. Here's Pfizer. And it's like, wait, what? You mean the thing you were just talking about for half hours, also paying for it. So, like, that type of thing. There's ways, I think, that the government could make that sort of thing illegal. Yeah, Maybe some other stuff with prescription drugs, which, you know, it's illegal to promote on commercials in most of Europe, but it's not here.

[Unknown Speaker]

Right.

[Dave Rubin]

So. But all of that comes down to, do we have a competent government? We really haven't for quite some time. We might be on the horizon.

[Unknown Speaker]

Absolutely. So you're a fan of the Doge movement?

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, yeah. They're going to go in and blow this thing apart, and I can't imagine two better people to do it. I mean, Elon's literally trying to get life to go interstellar. And then also he's buying Twitter to free our speech, and he's going to crush 300 government agencies and save $2 trillion. And then a whole bunch of us are going to be like, boy, I can speak freely. We're going to go to Mars. And, oh, the lefties who all think that the Earth is going to end in 12 years, it's like, dude, stop fighting with the guy who's trying to get us to other planets. If you. I don't think the Earth is going to end in 12 years. I know it's not going to. But if you guys even believe it, you might not be arguing with the guy who's trying to send us to Mars.

[Unknown Speaker]

And he's number one in Diablo. Just hit number one yesterday.

[Dave Rubin]

Someone just told me that an hour ago this. So he's literally. What does that mean? He's the number one.

[Unknown Speaker]

He beat the game in the quickest time ever recorded. An hour, 52 minutes.

[Dave Rubin]

That is absolutely insane.

[Unknown Speaker]

How does he balance all this?

[Dave Rubin]

I have no. You know, I've met him a couple times, and the guy, he's everywhere at once. Like, the thing about him that I couldn't get over more than anything else was like, he was so hyper present when we met a few times. He's just there. He's just there. But then he's also, like, looking at a meme and laughing and talking business and talking about space and talking about homeless people over there. When we were in San Francisco, like a thousand things at once. I don't I don't know. Did he lodge neuralink in there? And he's.

[Unknown Speaker]

He might have the neuralink in there.

[Dave Rubin]

Like the beginning of Green Goblin, you know.

[Unknown Speaker]

Would you ever get a neuralink?

[Dave Rubin]

You know, I'm a big sci Fi guy. My whole worldview has probably been shaped by dystopian movies, whether it's Minority Reporter, Total Recall or Scanner Darkly or I could go Matrix. The laundry list of things I love the idea of the future and the horizon that we're going into and all of that stuff. I'm going to be, let's say, a little hesitant to directly connect myself. You know, we're. We're basically there already. And, you know, there are now transhumans that are putting things in their bodies and all. Oh, yeah. There are people that are putting chips in their bodies so that you literally can walk up to your garage door and it'll open, the lights turn on and you're. Oh, yeah, this stuff exists.

[Unknown Speaker]

Wow.

[Dave Rubin]

For sure. Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

I know. Dogs get chips, so. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

No, there are humans that are doing it. There's a guy, you should talk to him. His name is Zoltan Istvan.

[Unknown Speaker]

Okay.

[Dave Rubin]

There's a name for a transhumanist.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

And, yeah, he's put some chips in and. Yeah, and we'll just have. You know, we're going to have more and more of that. I mean, you saw the video, I'm sure, with the neuralink and paraplegic playing chess. I mean, there's just unbelievable things on the.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, I did see Bill Gates wants to microchip a lot of people, Right.

[Dave Rubin]

He's going to microchip the hell out of us and buy all the farmland. And he is an evil. I mean, you know, it's so interesting because Elon is portrayed as evil and he's good, and Bill Gates is portrayed as good and he's evil. It's like, man, everything is upside down.

[Unknown Speaker]

I know. I remember as a kid really looking up to him, to be honest. I saw him in the Guinness Book of World Record Books, like from Microsoft being the richest man. And I was like, I want to be him one day.

[Dave Rubin]

All he did was create an operating system that brought viruses to us. And now. And now he's trying to supposedly stop viruses. It really makes you wonder, I mean, think about that. Why did Apple and Mac take off after, you know, IBM and then PCs in general once it became ubiquitous? They were running the Show for the 80s when personal computers became powerful into the 90s, into the 2000s, Mac Book took off because it was Basically, the virus less solution they had streamlined some other things and it looked pretty and Steve Jobs knew how to package it. But every time you opened up Windows, this is before you, right?

[Unknown Speaker]

Like, no, I caught a little bit.

[Dave Rubin]

But you'd open up Windows, you'd go to freaking paint, and a thousand viruses would show up, and then they'd sell you the antivirus software and then that would get connected with viruses. So. And this is the guy who's trying to stop the viruses now. Something. Something's rotten in Stink Town.

[Unknown Speaker]

Such a good point. Because I've had an iPhone for a while in the MacBook. No viruses at all. Nothing.

[Dave Rubin]

Nothing.

[Unknown Speaker]

It's. It's like impossible. I've never had.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

And PC. Yeah, you're right. Those pop ups were never ending.

[Dave Rubin]

Never ending.

[Unknown Speaker]

Even with the Norton antivirus, I would still get virus.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, it would. Yeah. And then you'd get a virus on Norton Antivirus, and then you'd have to get Symatec antivirus. And who was the guy that got McAfee?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, they killed him off. Right. He knew a lot.

[Dave Rubin]

He went to the jungle and that was that.

[Unknown Speaker]

Got to be careful with these conspiracies, right? Yeah. Go off the deep end pretty easily with those.

[Dave Rubin]

We talk basketball for a little bit. I don't. I don't want to. I don't want to, you know, jump on your.

[Unknown Speaker]

I know you're in. You're in Miami. So are you a Heat fan?

[Dave Rubin]

I'm in Miami. So I grew up in New York and then lived in LA for eight years, and now I'm in Miami. When I was in New York, I was in Long island, where, you know, technically you'd think I'd be a Knicks fan, but MSG channel, you had to pay extra on cable, so we didn't have that. But we would get the Meadowlands channel for free. The New Jersey Nets at the time. New Jersey Nets. So I grew up sort of as a Nets fan, but my favorite player of all time was Clyde the Glide Drexler up in Portland. So I was a huge Blazers fan, even though I lived in New York. And then, of course, he ended up winning the championship with Elijah Wan and the Rockets. And for my. For my birthday a couple years ago, one of my agents, I look at my phone and he sent me Clyde the Glide's contact. And now we text every now and again.

[Unknown Speaker]

No way.

[Dave Rubin]

It's like, that's as good as it gets.

[Unknown Speaker]

Full circle moment.

[Dave Rubin]

And my friend Phoenix here can attest. I. I've got a pretty sweet. Finger roll 48. I can't do all the things I used to do, but I still can finger all.

[Unknown Speaker]

Who wins one on one, me or you?

[Dave Rubin]

You're six six. I haven't seen you play. I can still. I have a torn ACL on my left knee, but I do prp. You know about that?

[Unknown Speaker]

No.

[Dave Rubin]

Prp, they take your blood and they spin it in a centrifuge and then they inject your own plasma back in.

[Unknown Speaker]

I've heard of this. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So it can't. It can't replace something that's not there, but it can, like really strengthen everything around it. So I play with three braces, like a rap.

[Unknown Speaker]

Damn.

[Dave Rubin]

Play with the. Wrap the sleeve and then I have like the metal thing, you know, because acl, you can't go like this. But I'm in good shape. I can. I can really shoot still and I can run and I can play and I got stamina. But I'm not 6 6, so I'd have to, you know, what's your game like?

[Unknown Speaker]

I'm a power forward, layups, little mid range.

[Dave Rubin]

I was more of a two guard.

[Unknown Speaker]

Oh, yeah. It'd be an interesting matchup.

[Dave Rubin]

All right. Out to Miami. I got a couple great games. I play three times a week, three hours. I got a good crew of guys that are basically couple guys in their young 20s, but mostly mid-30s into early 60s. And I got to tell you, playing with guys in their 60s, it's fun because these guys, they can't do what they used to do, obviously. Right. But they're on the court for the love of the game.

[Unknown Speaker]

Love it.

[Dave Rubin]

So they. So the joy on the court is just off the charts. And then you also see when you can't, you know, it's like watching a player age out. Like Jordan in his later years was probably the best jump shooter in the league, even though he was known as a slasher before that. So when you see people that can't do things over the, you know, they lose the physical ability over the years, but then you can just start doing different things. You can start doing little trick shots a little bit differently. Or you see these guys, they've been playing together for 40 years and they're running like a triangle offense and, you know, and all the young kids are just trying to run through everybody or freaking do it. Do the James Harden. I'm going to dribble, dribble, dribble, chuck a 50 footer. So it's an absolute joy playing with people in, in various age groups. And I'M still young enough to be able to. I can't really guard the 22 year old who's super fast, but like, I'm good enough that I can be on a court with, with any of these guys and hold your own.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, I love that. That's cool.

[Dave Rubin]

We'll get you out to Miami and.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, we'll play for sure. We'll film that. Who's your, who's your team now? Is it still the Nets or.

[Dave Rubin]

You know, I don't, I don't watch professional sports anymore.

[Unknown Speaker]

Wow.

[Dave Rubin]

I basically got burned out during the BLM thing. I could not. I was already, you know, because my life is so political and what I do is so political that already, even before BLM, SportsCenter was doing politics every night or it was like, who did this player murder? Or who beat that woman? Or. And it was just every night and. And I grew up, I wanted to be a sports center anchor. I grew up in the heyday of SportsCenter. When I was in college. It was with Keith Olbermann, who's now a leftist maniac, and, and Craig Kilbourne. Do you remember Craig Kilburn? Craig Kilbourne. He ended up having the Late show after, after Letterman.

[Unknown Speaker]

Okay.

[Dave Rubin]

I was funny as hell. He was the one that really, to me, made SportsCenter funny when it really started becoming almost like a comedy show instead of just straight dry sports. He was the guy you should, you should check some old clips him. And that's really what I wanted to do more than anything else. But then as time went on, it just started becoming a political show. I was just like, I'm sick of hearing about racism when I'm trying to watch basketball highlights. So that kind of just turned me off. I watch old games. I literally. If you go to my YouTube search history and you'd see what I'm doing during Cardio. I watch 80s and 90s NBA.

[Unknown Speaker]

Those are classics.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

Even though they're blurry. Those are classics.

[Dave Rubin]

And they weren't blurry back then. People think, people your age think that they were blurry. You understand that they were not blurry for us.

[Unknown Speaker]

Wait, so how is it.

[Dave Rubin]

I don't know. I don't know.

[Unknown Speaker]

Mandela effect.

[Dave Rubin]

I don't know. I was playing one of my guys, my social media guy, Brock, he bust out on PlayStation 5. He busted out NBA 2K, then whatever the newest one is, right. And so I wanted to play with my old School Blazers 91 team. So we go back and then now you know that they like skin it so it looks like you're watching it on TV in that age, you know?

[Unknown Speaker]

Really? Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So they make it blurry when you're playing. And I'm like, it was not blurry. We watched things that looked like, you know, it wasn't. We didn't have hd, plasma, giant screens, but it was not blurry.

[Unknown Speaker]

I think your brain back then couldn't comprehend what today looks like. You know what I mean?

[Dave Rubin]

Well, that might be true that it's gotten so much better, but it was not blurry the way they've somehow blurred everything. It just was not that way. I promise.

[Unknown Speaker]

I feel that though that BLM BLM stuff was nuts. All the players were wearing it.

[Dave Rubin]

I was like, I just couldn't take it. I was just like, you know what? I'm not interested in giving these guys my money. I'm not interested in watching anymore. I love the. You know, I, I'm. I'm such a fan that, like, I've watched the 92 finals where, you know, that was Jordan, the famous shrug and he beats. He beats Clyde, which was sad for me. But I've watched. I could give you basically every shot of that six game series. I've watched it so many times and I just love it. You know, it's just like something. It, I don't know, it connects me to a certain time in my life or something.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

And basketball was very different than it is now. I also just. Professional basketball, I just think has become so bizarrely one on one and all.

[Unknown Speaker]

The dribbling and like deep three pointers. They take 60 threes a game now.

[Dave Rubin]

Well, Steph, who revolutionized the game in some sense, he did a little damage there too, because then everybody was. Wait, how many did you say the.

[Unknown Speaker]

Celtics on opening night took? 61 three pointers.

[Dave Rubin]

God. Out of how many shots? Probably. That's probably more than probably.

[Unknown Speaker]

Almost way more than half. Yeah, it was almost all their shots.

[Dave Rubin]

Like, that's just not. And this is. You get older and then you start like, in my day, everything is better. But like, you'll see it too. Like one day you'll be there because they only had a four pointer and you'll be like, we had three pointers.

[Unknown Speaker]

No, when I played. Because I played growing up as a center, you didn't have to have a jump shot as a center growing up. You just had to make layups and get rebounds. Yeah, that's it.

[Dave Rubin]

I remember when, when I was growing up playing and my uncle, who was a pretty good player, he went to Duke, he didn't make the team, but was always practicing with the Duke guys and we used to play all time and he grew up in a time before the three point line. So I grew up in shooting threes and he could never understand it. He just, he couldn't, like it couldn't work in his brain. Why would you ever shoot a three? Why are you shooting out there? It just doesn't matter. Learn how to shoot a jumper. And then of course the mid range jumper did get decimated. I mean, who shoots a mid range jumper?

[Unknown Speaker]

It's gone now. Maybe like Kyrie Irving. There's not many players these days.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, it's just. But you know things. It doesn't mean it's always changing for the worse. So I don't watch enough to know and I know there's some super skilled guys and my guys, you know, I see what's his name on the Spurs.

[Unknown Speaker]

Oh, Wemby.

[Dave Rubin]

Like I'm watching some of these highlights or Giannis, like obviously there are guys doing awesome, awesome things. I just, I just don't have the interest in that way.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, I'll say this about Braun because I, I like him as a player, but off the court is so hard to like him, man.

[Dave Rubin]

Like oh my gosh, the book that he's never read.

[Unknown Speaker]

Dude, when he made that post back in Kamala, I was like, this might be the final straw for me, to be honest.

[Dave Rubin]

I'll tell you something funny about A couple weeks ago. I was with my sister in law and she wanted, she was looking at a house maybe to buy in Miami. And we're in, parked in front of the house and it was a narrow street and there's a blue Lamborghini behind us, honking, honking, honking. We didn't realize it was there. Honking, honking, honking. And then we kind of move out of the way and it rolls up and it's LeBron James and he gives us the evil eye.

[Unknown Speaker]

No way.

[Dave Rubin]

He gave me the evil eye. I got the stink eye from LeBron James.

[Unknown Speaker]

What a story. Yeah, dude, I wanted him to pass Jordan, but just off the court, man, wait for points. Just in terms of goat status.

[Dave Rubin]

I don't know that anyone can ever pass Jordan. Well, I think it's 6 for 6 in finals. I just don't know how you beat that. Everything else. And if you think about what Jordan did, takes out Magic in 91. Take who takes out Clyde in 92, takes out Barkley in 93. Who won MVP that year. Then he has the two. Well, he has the off year in 94. And then they. He does lose to The Magic in 95. Then he takes out Kemp and Peyton in 96, and then takes out Stockton and Malone those last two years. It's like he took out everybody. And he took out Ewing, who had pretty great Knicks teams in the Eastern Conference finals. He took out Reggie. He took. He assassinated everybody. So to me, even if LeBron's numbers, which will probably overall be better. Right.

[Unknown Speaker]

I mean, he's already got more points.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh, he has more points.

[Unknown Speaker]

He's number one scorer all time right now. He just became that last year, I believe.

[Dave Rubin]

Wow. I didn't even know that. So, you know, look, stats are stats, so you can't. You can't argue with stats. But I think if you pure. How many. What's. What's LeBron's finals record? It's like, what, like six?

[Unknown Speaker]

He's got. Does he have three or four or.

[Dave Rubin]

Maybe.

[Unknown Speaker]

I think he has four.

[Dave Rubin]

So four and six, that's pretty damn impressive, whatever it is. But the fact that Jordan was 6 for 6, to me, that is the thing. And he just assassinated the guys. I mean, that Shrug game, that game one of the 92 finals, again, I'm a Clyde fan, so I literally was crying. I was 16 years old and I just was watching. I was watching him shred my favorite player. Like. And there's just. And he could not be stopped.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. And he retired at his peak. Imagine if he kept playing.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. You know, there's a lot of conspiracies around why that happened. And the gambling thing and his dad, and there was a lot of stuff there. But he. Well, first off, not only could he have continued those two years, but even when he came back to the Wizards, had he gone to a good team, he. That was his one mistake, I think, in his playing days is that he could have gone to, like, the Sacramento Kings or some. You know, they were awesome at the time. That was when they were playing the Lakers and Kobe and Shaq and everything. They had Bibby. And had he gone there and been like, I'll be a sixth man, or he could have been a starter there, too. They had a solid team. But, like, had he just been like, I'll just be on a great team, but I don't have to take 30 shots a game, he could have played at least another five years, and he probably would have won a couple other championships. Instead he's like, I'm going to go to a shitty Wizards team that had nobody. Juwan Howard, maybe. I don't I don't even remember who was there. And. And I'll score 40 a couple times, but. So I think that was his one mistake.

[Unknown Speaker]

That is a big mistake. People wish he never came back at all because of those years. Right? The wizard years. There's a whole documentary about it.

[Dave Rubin]

I mean, yeah, I remember watching it and, and it was kind of like. It was just sort of like, what's the point? Because he was so associated with winning. It was just win, win, win, crush everybody. And now it was like all you were tuning in for was could Jordan score 45 again? And he did do it every now and again, but then he had games where he didn't. And you were just like, oh, you lost by 20 and you scored 16. What was the point?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, but it's hard.

[Dave Rubin]

But look, we should only be so lucky that we will be the pinnacle of success and then want to keep going with it.

[Unknown Speaker]

Absolutely. You said you were a big gamer.

[Dave Rubin]

Earlier, back in the day. I was, I was. You know, I grew up on Nintendo.

[Unknown Speaker]

Okay.

[Dave Rubin]

Eight bit Nintendo, nes and then I. My prime years were Sega Genesis and then PS1 and that. That was my college years. Just stoned every night playing.

[Unknown Speaker]

You were a stoner?

[Dave Rubin]

Oh my God. College. I smoked more weed from 1994 to 1998 than, than probably freaking Snoop Dogg. That's who I was going for. I was gonna say Martha Stewart, but probably Snoop Dogg. And then when I got out of college, I was doing standup and I needed a day gig and I was assistant manager at electronics boutique, which is GameStop now in Broadway. Broadway Mall, Hicksville, Long Island. Moved a lot of red Pokemon in 98.

[Unknown Speaker]

Wow. Humble beginnings.

[Dave Rubin]

Nobody moved more Pokemon. Yeah, yeah.

[Unknown Speaker]

Like the Game Boy game or which one?

[Dave Rubin]

It was Game Boy. It was Game Boy color, I think was. It was when Game Boy.

[Unknown Speaker]

The one with the battery, right?

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, the one with the battery. And they came out with a red. I. It was a gold one and a red one. And you know, the thing is once you go into the, into the business of something, you love it, turn it turns it on you pretty quickly, you know.

[Unknown Speaker]

So I ruined the feel of games.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, yeah. Now I play. You know, my, my guys that work for me, a lot of them are younger, you know, the game that I'm into, I just don't have time. I have two, two year olds, I'm busy at work, so I don't have time. But if I have a few minutes, the game that I'm digging now on PS5, they rebooted Contra. You Remember the old school Contra?

[Unknown Speaker]

Contra. No, I didn't play that.

[Dave Rubin]

Contra was awesome. Just 2D scroller. I'm not really good at 3D. I like going one way. I'll go that way.

[Unknown Speaker]

Left and right, up and down, left, right, up, down.

[Dave Rubin]

That's my thing. And Contra was a sick game that for any of your fans that remember it, there was an amazing cheat code. It was the cheat code of all time. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right. BA selection.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's where it's from.

[Dave Rubin]

That was, that was. Yeah, that's the meme. It was to get 30 guys on Contra and then they added that to a couple other games by Konami, I think Life Force and a few others. But they updated it now and they have a new. It's a PS5 version of it where they basically just kind of reskin the game. So the music's updated, the skin is updated, it's you know, some new bosses and stuff and it's just enough. I could play it for 10 minutes, put it down. But I tried playing 2k with my guys and they're just mauling.

[Unknown Speaker]

Oh, I get wrecked into.

[Dave Rubin]

I can't shoot. I can't shoot. I can't do it.

[Unknown Speaker]

That game's hard, man. There's a learning curve on that one. I like games where you could just get in there and dominate.

[Dave Rubin]

You remember NBA Jam?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

So I have.

[Unknown Speaker]

I was a little too young, but I saw it.

[Dave Rubin]

I have the, the arcade version of that house. That's.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's your game? Yeah, yeah. Just three buttons and a joystick.

[Dave Rubin]

Three buttons, joystick. And I can still beat my 20 year old social media guy. So that's good.

[Unknown Speaker]

Nice.

[Dave Rubin]

That's basically my main marker in life.

[Unknown Speaker]

Nice.

[Dave Rubin]

And I still beat my young employees at video.

[Unknown Speaker]

You're competitive. I love it. To play.

[Dave Rubin]

What do you play?

[Unknown Speaker]

I play Fortnite and chess. I was a big FPS first person shooter gamer growing up. So I was really good at those games. So I got really good hand eye coordination.

[Dave Rubin]

What was, what was like the first first person shooter was that. Well, like a Doom, I guess was probably like the precursor.

[Unknown Speaker]

I played combat arms. A lot of people played Call of.

[Dave Rubin]

Duty golden eyes before you. Right? Golden eyes that I think most people think that was like the, the first one that was like the standard of excellence that then probably sp.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. Then Call of Duty just took off and Grand Theft Auto.

[Dave Rubin]

I just, I. I remember one time I tried. So my, my buddy and I, who I grew up with his kid I guess had PS2 or PS3. We hadn't played video games in years. You know, we're like mid-30s now. We're like, all right, we're gonna get a Star wars game. We love Star wars before they wrecked Star wars. And we got one of the battlefronts or something, you know, where you're in the whole world and you're running 3D and we open up the game, and it's the two of us, and we could not get out of the room, whatever room we were in, to literally start the game. We. And we were laughing hysterically like it was one of the. It was 10 minutes of just. First it was frustration, then it was, like, kind of anger. And it ended in 10 minutes of buckled on the floor, hysterical having that. We spent so much of our childhood playing with these games, these buttons, masters of everything. This guy beat Super Mario Brothers in nine minutes.

[Unknown Speaker]

Damn.

[Dave Rubin]

We could not get out of the room.

[Unknown Speaker]

Games are hard these days. And I remember back then, if you got stuck somewhere, you couldn't just look it up on how to beat it. You didn't know how to figure it out.

[Dave Rubin]

Not only that, but you also couldn't save back then, right? So no matter how far you would get in a game, if you just kept dying at that same boss, you had to redo it again and again and again. Actually, one of my. This. Someone could find this. Maybe. Probably my best video game moment is that Adventure of Link, which was Zelda 2. So there was the original Legend of Zelda, and then there was Adventure of Link, which most people say is the hardest of all of the Zelda games, including all the new ones on Wii and everything else somehow. Oh, you're from Jersey. I was in Jersey with my grandma, lived in Jersey. And there was a store called Kaldor, and it was like, just a. It wasn't a video game store. It was just like a department store kind of thing. And me and my brother went into Caldor, and my grandma took us there, and there was a box that we saw in the back of the video game area. And it looked like. It sounds like I'm making this up, but it's completely true. We saw, like, gold. Like, it had the golden box. And we were like, could that be? Because Adventure of Link was not supposed to come out for a couple more weeks. Somehow it was at this Caldor. We got it. It was not supposed to come out for a couple of weeks. And we beat it before it came out. And I sent a picture to Nintendo Power Magazine of me and my brother beating It. And we were in, I think, the second episode, the second issue of Nintendo Power magazine.

[Unknown Speaker]

Wow.

[Dave Rubin]

And I think I might have been the first commercial user to beat that game ever, because we got it before it was out.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's a flex right there. You should put that in your Twitter.

[Dave Rubin]

That should be in my Twitter bio. What am I doing with my life?

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, I never played that game, but a lot of people played Zelda.

[Dave Rubin]

Well, I know everybody loved Breath of the Wild or Call of the Breath.

[Unknown Speaker]

Or is that the first one?

[Dave Rubin]

That was the Wii one.

[Unknown Speaker]

Oh, the Wii one. Okay. What'd you think of the Wii? I thought it was ahead of its time.

[Dave Rubin]

You mean the original Wii with the.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah, the one sticks and the sensor.

[Dave Rubin]

You know, my nephews and nieces have it, and, like, it's. It's just fun. I liked it because it was like, I can't really get into the deep games anymore. Like, I'm not. I'm not doing Call of Duty, but, like, I can strap on that thing and play tennis and do that. Yeah. It's funny because my. My nephew now is about 7, and he's. He's really into video games suddenly. And he had this. My sister, I guess, got him some, like, knockoff kind of portable thing that has all the old games on it. You know, one of these things that has, like, a thousand games.

[Unknown Speaker]

I've seen that.

[Dave Rubin]

You know, they've got, like, Nintendo and.

[Unknown Speaker]

Gen. Yeah, I get TikTok ads for that.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, it's that thing. But I was watching him play on it, and it's like, you know, they're not all configured right because of the buttons were different on all the systems. And I was like, the screen's not right. So a fan had bought me a Wii, not a Wii switch, a couple of years ago. And I just. As I said, I just don't have time. But We've got the PS5 in my studio. So I said to my nephew this, like, a month ago. I was like, ilan, would you. Would you hold on to this thing for me? I'm just. I can't hold it right now. Could you hang on this? The joy that I saw in this kid's face, like, you've never seen happiness like that ever. And now he's been to my house a few times since, and he's like, uncle David, Uncle David, can I. Can I hold on to it? And I'm like, yeah, you got to hold on to it for a little bit. And it'll just be like our running thing forever.

[Unknown Speaker]

I love It.

[Dave Rubin]

The one mistake that I made was I was still logged in with my credit card and did buy about 20 games on that till I realized, but what are you going to do?

[Unknown Speaker]

Oh man, that was me with iPhone games, Clash of Clans and stuff when my mom. Yeah, I'm glad the narrative on video games has changed because I have a lot of good memories from video games. And there was a lot of shame.

[Dave Rubin]

Too, but now shame, like, like, oh, you're spending too much time on this. You're not getting out.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. But now it's more accepted because you can make a living off of it. You could stream it, you know.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. The interesting thing for me is growing up in those games, which, as I said, you couldn't really save them. You could just, you would just play like I'd play, you know, an NBA game a couple times with my friends and then we'd still go outside like you. There was one game, you're not gonna remember this game. There was a game on SEGA Genesis called Herzog Zui. It was a split screen strategy game. So, you know, you had to build bases and increase your spear of power so you make more money so you can buy more weapons. Blah, blah. We would play that literally all night long. Like sometimes, you know, we'd start at 9 and wake up at, you know, 9am and just all night long doing that. But beyond that you could, you would play for like an hour and then we would just jump on our bikes and go outside. So something has shifted with the addictive nature, I think, of the games.

[Unknown Speaker]

Oh yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

And everything else that, that, you know, again, as a father of two year olds, like I'm going to have to be very aware of that sort of thing. Like the things that you grew up with, the tech that was in place and the trickery that was in place to just keep you there all the time instead of playing ball or whatever else. Like it's, it's real.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, these games probably have done so many studies on the brain and how to like keep you trapped there. Like the social media platforms.

[Dave Rubin]

Oh. I mean the pleasure centers and just like the endless clicking and then we have endless scrolling with this thing. Like we just have no idea what all of this has done.

[Unknown Speaker]

Plus the online component of like you're voice chatting now with people.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. So that's got to be a whole other. Like I had none of that. So that's got to be a whole other element. I had never even seen that till a different nephew of mine during COVID and I went into the basement When I was at my brother's house and he, I, oh, they were playing Fortnite and. And I'm. He's got the headset on and I. They're all screaming and going crazy and like, you really realize, wow, in my day, these kids at least would have been in the same room, and now they're not even. That was also a Covid thing. But, like, at least in the same room, you're going to break it up every now and again. You're going to go upstairs to get your prime and Takis or whatever, where now it's just like, it's so ice. It's. It feels social to some extent, but it's really isolating, actually.

[Unknown Speaker]

That's true. Yeah. I've gone through my phase where I played a lot, but, yeah, you got to touch.

[Dave Rubin]

How much do you play now?

[Unknown Speaker]

Only weekends and a few hours a day. Yeah, I got it under control. But, yeah, with the podcast, I'm so busy. Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

Trust me, this is better. Yeah, this is better. You're building something and creating something, and then. And then one day you will have some time and you'll have some kids and you'll love introducing them to it. But, like, at some point, it's like, how old are you?

[Unknown Speaker]

27.

[Dave Rubin]

27.

[Unknown Speaker]

Getting married next year. Oh, one. Kids around 30.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah. Oh, so you're. You want kids around there, so you're on your way down. Your way.

[Unknown Speaker]

Well, I asked, but I want to give you your flowers. You set the way for guys like me to come up in the space. You've been at this for a while.

[Dave Rubin]

So it's weird to become the veteran.

[Unknown Speaker]

You're the veteran.

[Dave Rubin]

It is funny. Something happened in the last couple of years where now people say that to me or they bring me on shows and they're like, he needs no introduction. I'm like, what? Like what? Like there's something. But I guess. I guess, you know, Bill Maher said to me once, because I asked him about the longevity of his career, because the guy has been, you know, he started stand up in the late 70s and he's. He's as popular now as he's ever been. And he said to me that one of the things that he's most proud of is just that he's still here, because there are a lot of guys that do a lot of different things that are amazingly talented. You know, there's. There's sports versions of it. You know, a basketball player, Junior Ryder should have been the next Michael Jordan became nothing. Or Harold Minor. There's a million of those guys who would be a current. One of them is gonna be a current guy that probably should be, I.

[Unknown Speaker]

Guess, Derrick Rose, if you didn't get injured.

[Dave Rubin]

Yeah, Derek Rose, but that was more injury related. But. But even that. That's part of it. Like, there are people that are supposed to do awesome things that never get to. And then you find that in whether it's doing stand up or this or video games or whatever. There are guys that just that are good, that have long careers. Sometimes there are guys that are awesome that have long careers or. And there's like every version of it. So when Bill said that to me, and now people say what you said to me, which I really do appreciate. It's like I've been around and I think I'm at the top of my game right now. So it's like, let's see how long we can run this thing.

[Unknown Speaker]

I love it. Well, Dave, where can people keep up with you, man?

[Dave Rubin]

You want to meet me in the. In the universe where we play Contra? Is that a video game? That will be a video game one day. Porta Potty. You're gonna strap on the.

[Unknown Speaker]

There's people that box.

[Dave Rubin]

The quest. Yeah. Oh, man.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah. Have you seen that? They box in the cars, the telephone booths, the Porta Potties.

[Dave Rubin]

I got a quest. And then we just got it just to test it. And I did beat Saber a little bit, which was actually kind of fun. And then I was just like, I gotta be in the real world. I'm on this thing enough. I gotta be in the real world. But I've thoroughly enjoyed this. And we gotta get. We gotta get you to Miami.

[Unknown Speaker]

Yeah.

[Dave Rubin]

And we'll have a three point contest because it sounds like you're more.

[Unknown Speaker]

You might win that.

[Dave Rubin]

You're a mid. No, that's why. That's why I'm offering. I'm not stupid. I'm not. We're not gonna have a post up contest.

[Unknown Speaker]

All right, well, it's been fun, man. We'll link your stuff below.

[Dave Rubin]

All right, awesome.

[Unknown Speaker]

Thanks, guys. Peace.