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Tim Miller
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E
Hey everybody, I'm Cameron Caskey. I'm Tim Miller and this is Fypod. The bulwarks show. Trying to get to the bottom of this whole Gen Z thing. Tim, it seems like Trump is losing a lot of popularity this week.
Cameron Caskey
You know, Cam, I was at a moment of clarity. Maybe, you know, it's kind of similar to maybe what da Vinci was doing when he was painting the Mona Lisa. When I was posting this weekend, I was saying it is rather fortuitous that the Trumpers brought the word retarded back right at the moment that they spearheaded the most retarded economic collapse in human history. Maybe like even worse than your boys at Enron. Like, it is just really, really, really fucking stupid what they have done. And. And there doesn't seem to be any way out out of it. So I think we're stuck with it. I don't know.
E
You saw they were like all the MAGA people who I follow just to see what the hell is going on over there. They were tweeting about like, ooh, that one African country, Lesotho. They. They caved. And everybody was like, ooh, we got him. And it's like, oh my God. We got one of the poorest countries in the entire world to come to the negotiating table. Wow. Well done, Donald. But I saw one thing that I wanted to ask you about. This guy Bill Ackman was tweeting. I just figured out why Howard Lutnick is indifferent to the stock market and the economy crashing. He and Kanter are long bonds. He profits when our economy implodes. It's a bad idea to pick a secretary of commerce whose firm is levered long fixed income. It's an irreconcilable conflict of interest. And everybody was like, ooh, Trump just lost one of his best friends. So this is like a billionaire Trump donor.
Cameron Caskey
Yeah, we're gonna do a lot of translation for people on who these fucking stupid, crazy Trump supporters are that like we all have to care about now because they got us into this hellhole. But it's good news for you, cam. Actually, I'm about to explain to you ackman, but now I think about it, I'm like, sucks for me. I'm doing a college fund right now for my child that's going down. Sucks for people that are close to retirement. 24 years old. Not bad though. You don't have a ton of market exposure, so a little stock market.
E
I can't lose that much money because I don't really have any money.
Cameron Caskey
Okay, look at the bright side of things. All right? Anyway, Bill ackman is not the type of guy to look on the bright side of things. All right? So here's this guy. He got famous. So this is all projection, right? He's saying that the secretary of commerce is like wanting the economy to do bad so he can make money. Because that's how bill ackman has made money in the past. This dude got rich shorting some multi level marketing schemes. It's probably pretty smart. Good on him. And then he got rich again, shorting the market during COVID which is about the grossest thing you can do. He went on cnbc talking about how we should shut down everything. This is a big thing in 2020. I know all the. All the republic, all the red pilled guys now said we should have never let any. Anyone shut anything down. And we should have had lollipop parties where we all gave each other Covid and you know, etc. But no, Bill ackman was like, shut everything down. Shut everything down. While he's on cnbc saying shut everything down. He's betting against the market. And he ended up.
E
Well, thank God none of our members of congress on either side of the aisle Were doing anything like that.
Cameron Caskey
So anyway, he makes, I think 2 billion. I don that I'm pulling that number. So that might not be exactly right, but he made a lot of money on that short. And then he has this like, red pill turn around October 7th. We're not going to talk about bibi on this podcast because this red pill turn around then and he ends up being a big trump supporter. And now this guy. This is a nice circle back to, you know, my retarded tweet. Because this guy has to like convince himself that there's some like 3D, 4D, 5D chess at play. And like this secretary of commerce is doing this because he's long bonds and the president's trying to lower interest rates and crash the economy so that he can renegotiate our debt when like really all that's happening is that Trump is a fucking 70 IQ idiot that bankrupted everything he ever did and Howard Lutnick is a suck up that wants the idiot to like him. And that's it. That's all, that's all that's happening here. That's nothing more complicated than that.
E
So we're, we're sort of balancing. Trump knew what the tariffs were and his purpose of trying to tank the economy with, but also he kind of didn't know what the tariffs are because I'm actually okay accepting both of those truths. I think there's veracity to both of them.
Cameron Caskey
Yeah, I don't, I mean, I think, I don't think that he fully understands what tariffs are. So like, I don't think he really understands how the economy works. And this was evidenced in part by the truth social post he sent talking about how it was going to be good that fentanyl was going to be tariffed at the border to make fentanyl really expensive, which is like not, we don't, they don't actually pay taxes on illegal drugs. But so that isn't how things would work. So I think that he has this general idea that like tariffs are great and that will help his people. Working class men like screw in more screws on iPhones and like have muscle.
E
Get more factory jobs where any attempt they take to unionize will get them fucking Boeinged. And Boeing is a verb for murdered.
Cameron Caskey
Tell me about that.
E
The Boeing whistleblower that are whistleblowers that mysteriously happens to accidentally commit whistleblowers.
Cameron Caskey
Okay, Right. I was thinking that somebody died in a Boeing plant and I was like, that doesn't sound right. Maybe a coal plant or maybe a.
E
Piece fell off of a Boeing plane.
Cameron Caskey
And fell on someone's.
E
Fell on them like a piano and a Looney Tunes.
Cameron Caskey
Yeah, that's what I was imagining. That's how, that's how you're referencing.
E
Yeah, well, like I said, you know, Gen Z is going to really struggle from this depression. I mean, we were sort of in a position where as we were entering our early 20s, everything was getting more expensive. It's harder to afford the cost of living in pretty much every way. But the bright side is, like I said, I can't lose that much money on the stock market if I didn't have any money in the stock market, period.
Cameron Caskey
I've got even greater news for you. If we enter a recession, all the prices are going to go down. Oil prices will go down. What if there's a housing collapse? Think about how cheap the house might be on the back end. Now you're now none of your friends are probably going to have a job, so I don't know where they're going to get the money from, but it'll be good for like the Nepo baby. Gen Zsa.
E
This brings to mind the this meme that I saw. I've seen it a couple times, but it's like whenever a Gen Zer says to me, okay Boomer, my new response is okay renter. And I'm in a very similar position myself because I do these short term rentals because I just don't feel enough security to sign a long term lease. So I'm constantly moving around like a nomad. Anyway, that's personal stuff.
Cameron Caskey
Hey, Borg plus YouTube members give. Give Kim a little, you know, little emoji. I don't know how that works. You can. People can tip. I don't understand. People give us Money on YouTube and I don't even understand why they do it or for what for. But we appreciate you.
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E
Thank you all. I guess our next subject for today, other than we're all, which you can see on several other bulwark programs with people talking about it, who have ever invested money in their entire lives, unlike me, is you had yet another viral moment. You had two great. Three great viral moments. And I would say the past two weeks, you had that shit that I didn't watch from the MSNBC studio. You had you fucking roasting Dave Rubin for taking Russia money on Piers Morgan, which was so funny. I watched that like, three times. Fucking hilarious. Dave Rubin, very nice guy, by the way. But, you know, as Little Red Riding Hood so astutely points out at the end of into the woods, the musical by Stephen Sondheim, nice is different than good. And a lot of Republicans are really, really good at being nice. But, you know, guys like Dave Rubin are useful idiots for Russia making stupid money for stupid content. But then you had this viral takedown of Aiden Ross that my Hollywood entertainment manager texted me with the caption, like, go off, Tim.
Cameron Caskey
Gonna play that we can play. Hold on. Before we play it, I want to just mention why this is so important that we bring this up, because it's a little embarrassing. I went viral, but I received several texts from people that are like, you don't even know what he streams on. Like, I said something wrong. I used the wrong. We're gonna get to it on the back end. Let's play. We don't need to play me ranting. People can go watch the video of me ranting. It's right here on this YouTube page. But for the people who missed it, let's watch Aiden Ross be sad.
Aiden Ross
Guys, I'm gonna be honest with you. The. I don't know how many of you guys are invested in crypto or stocks. What the fuck is going on with our. With our country, guys? Why am I poor? Like, what is going on in the world right now? Why the is this going on? Can somebody please explain what's going on? Why are we all losing? Why are we all negative right now? Like, does anybody know why?
Cameron Caskey
All right, so he's sad. All right, so he's sad. But before we explain what he said and we roast him more, Cameron, I was. I guess I called him a twitch streamer, which I guess he's not. I guess he's a kick streamer. I have to admit, I don't know the difference. I don't. The only video game I play is. Is NBA 2K, and I don't. I don't watch other people play video games.
E
You know about him with NBA 2K?
Cameron Caskey
I know nothing. I. All I know about Aiden Ross is that he is a friend of Baron Trump's, that he is very stupid, that he can't read. I've seen the meme of how he can't read and that he gave Donald Trump one of those fucking ugly Elon Musk trucks. And, and, and that he streams things and that's all I know about him.
E
Okay, so tell me. Here's Aiden Ross101 for any curious listeners. Aiden Ross is one of the most popular streamers in the world. He tops the charts for streaming. People watch him like crazy. And he, much like myself before I moved to Parkland, is from Boca Raton, Florida. So. And he was born in the same year as me. In many ways we are kindred spirits.
Cameron Caskey
Kind of like a yin and yang. So just really quick on the stream, I want to do like really one on one, like for our Boomer listeners. And by the way, if you want to be part of Boomer Mailbag, email us Bulwark podcast@the bullock.com with your questions from a Boomer. But like, because it's, this is the thing that makes me feel the oldest. So like, people just watch him playing video games. Like that's how this works is like people watch people play video games. That's the basics.
E
People watch other people play video games for hours at a time and they watch it for the commentary. So somebody like Hasan Piker will stream talking about why progressives who Harris is too far to the right of should turn out and vote for Kamala Harris. And he's also playing a video game. So Adin Ross is a streamer. People watch him all sorts of games, sometimes sponsored content, sometimes Grand Theft Auto. Just for fun. I, I watch certain Hassan Piker highlights, but I, I've never like tuned into the stream for hours at a time. I've met Hassan, He's a very nice guy, was supportive of us when we were doing our second March for our lives. It was a huge failure. And anyway, so Aiden Ross is a really interesting case. He is a streamer who would go live for hours and hours and hours at a time and very organically built a large audience. Now this started with him doing what you like to do, which is playing NBA 2K. He played a lot of NBA 2K and he got pretty good at it. So he went live on Twitch. This was years ago. This was before 2020.
Cameron Caskey
So it was Twitch originally. So I wasn't totally wrong.
E
No. So he built his audience on Twitch. He joined another streaming platform called Kick, which is basically Twitch with a lot, with much fewer rules in terms of content moderation. Got it. So he's able to say more inflammatory shit that he would get in trouble for on Twitch. But he ended up and I don't know how becoming friends with Bronny James, LeBron James son, who is on the Lakers with him. And I think underperforming, I don't know. But what happened was after spending enough time playing 2K, building an audience, LeBron James called into the Aiden Ross stream. So Aiden Ross got a phone call from LeBron James live and his audience doubles. But after a certain amount of time, LeBron's fault. I don't know if I want to assign the blame to LeBron. I don't think he knew exactly the situation. Because one thing that's important to note is that Aiden Ross didn't start as a red pilled MAGA guy. Aiden Ross started as a very affable, fun streamer who was just kind of a hoot to watch. I watched some early Aiden Ross videos and it was just this guy hamming it up. I watched a debate from not very long ago between him and Hasan Piker and he was just so friendly. And I get it. I get why people were watching that stuff because Aiden is extremely charismatic.
Cameron Caskey
Why did we not bring up with Jack Casciarella on the wonderful weekend podcast, which everyone should listen to, that his hero LeBron James maybe was like the butterfly flap calling into Aiden Ross might have been the butterfly flapping its wings that ruined our country.
E
Yeah, Jack from this weekend's show, which was probably my favorite episode of this show so far, was just in this very room sitting in this chair for like three and a half hours last night while we were mind melding. And it's really funny because half of Gen Z culture I'm so tapped into and he has no idea what the fuck is going on. But then shit like streamers and people on Twitter and things like that that I just don't touch because I don't give a shit. He's like, I can't believe you've never heard of this person before. So it's really funny. We're a little yin and yang too, in terms of how plugged in we are to this silly generation. Anyway, Ain Ross is streaming, LeBron blows him up. And then he starts expanding beyond just video games. He's doing live streams with famous rappers who started to see the explosive popularity of Twitch and say, oh, this is somewhere where I can elevate my career to new audiences. So he had these really big rappers on streamed with them. Ended up getting dumped by his girlfriend and he started having girls on the show for like blind dates. And you started doing this like almost Jerry Springerian shit where he would Set people up on his stream, have them meet each other. It was funny stuff. But then shit started to get weird when he started promoting online gambling and he had a very young audience. His audience was specifically like 12 year old kids. And a lot of people started roasting him for it and he was losing fans and he was getting cooked by the online community. And this kind of harkens back to what Steve Bannon's co host, Natalie Winters, sort of when she showed up, when she tipped her hand to us and said, part of why I got red pilled was because people didn't like me. When Aiden Ross was getting a lot of shit for what he was posting, he started to go red pill. And he contemplated quitting streaming because people were giving him so much shit for the gambling thing and things like that. And suddenly he meets somebody who reinvigorates his desire to stream content. Andrew Tate. And Aiden Ross becomes one of the primary people who built up Andrew Tate's very, very dominant presence on platforms like Twitch. Suddenly, Aiden is red pilled. Aiden is making videos that are anti LGBT plus. He's making videos that are just more and more MAGA by the day. And suddenly, a few years later, after he organically built this audience making just regular fun content, he is doing an interview with Trump where he's sucking Trump's dick. He gave Trump a gift live on his stream. He gave Trump a watch that was more expensive than the campaign contribution you're allowed to make on a presidential campaign. So he was breaking campaign finance laws. And there's this guy named Alex Bruzewitz. He's somebody that I've been friendly with in the past. He's Trump's Gen Z whisperer. He was the guy telling Trump to go on Nelk Boys full send. He was the guy telling Trump to do Jake Paul. He implemented, did this very strong strategy that the Harris campaign, they went on like, call her daddy or whatever, but the Harris campaign largely failed to do. He was putting Trump on the platforms the young people wanted to see him on that other candidates would not have gone on. So Aiden Ross goes from NBA 2K to stroking Trump's dick live in front of everybody. And now here we are, okay, and.
Cameron Caskey
Now, and now he's crying because his, his stocks are going down, because he didn't actually fucking know anything about economics, actually, because he can barely read. And like, that's the core Trump base. I just want to throw this out there. I don't want this to be the Joe Rogan podcast where we're working through conspiracy Theories on the fly. But it all. It does sound kind of Russian to me. This is going to be a very resistance. This is going to be a very resistance conspiracy. But if you go back to 2016, the Facebook pages seem so quaint right now, but the fucking Facebook places that the Russians were running, it was the same game, actually. They built up these Facebook pages with like cat memes or like, whatever, I don't know, silly videos and stuff. And then one day, like the page that the boomers and in Iowa were reading, were following, that were coming into their newsfeed, like switched on the dime into like white replacement theory. And so I'm not saying that that's what happened to Aidan, but I'm just saying that it's interesting that like, the trajectory was the same, like building up a mainstream audience, doing mainstream stuff and then on the. On then kind of quickly flipping to doing red pill stuff. Very well could have happened organically with Aiden, but just throw it out there. That was the same.
E
There's also the fact that, like the big tech guys, I think all became more MAGA with time. You know, one of the things Trump said, One of the things Trump said in his interview with Aiden Ross was I got a call from Mark Zuckerberg who said I did great. And it's like, yeah, Zuck and all those other guys, like, they were getting maga pilled the same way people like in Ross were. And the truth is they were always like this. There was just this brief period of time our guest, my ex girlfriend, Ellie Schnick, came on and talked about this. I think these guys have all been like this all along. There was just a small window where the move was to be performatively woke. And that's why Elon Musk was tweeting pro gay stuff about Tesla. And then once everybody saw that, that was just something we were all imposing upon each other, they were like, oh, I can be a piece of shit again. Great.
Cameron Caskey
Yeah. I do wonder if these dudes, like, it is funny to laugh at them. Let's actually watch Aiden Ross one more time, guys.
Aiden Ross
You want to be honest with you, the I don't know how many of you guys are invested in crypto or stocks. What the fuck is going on with our country guys? Why am I poor? Like, what is going on in the world right now? Why the is this going on? Can somebody please explain what's going on? Why are we all losing? Why are we all negative right now? Like, does anybody know why?
Cameron Caskey
It's fun. It's funny to laugh at him, not know anything and lose money and not understand why he's losing money. It's not just the stock market, actually. Eth is crashing. Bitcoin is crashing. You know, because here's the thing. When you invest in like fake currencies, it actually, when the economy starts to go bad, it's not good for your fake currencies because people have less funny money to invest in stupid shit.
E
And isn't the whole. Wasn't the whole premise with bitcoin and stuff like that that like this was the currency that was going to keep you safe when shit like this happened to the economy?
Cameron Caskey
That was the premise. Oops, sorry, Aiden.
E
Ch, ch, ch.
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Cameron Caskey
I just have one question because I asked my brother, do you have any. Do you have any buddies that are like, that are crypto that like, are. That are long in the market in crypto? Because my brother does and I asked him like, what the text chain's like for his friends right now. Like his like crypto like day trading text chain bros. And he's like, the vibes are really bad, but no one's blaming Trump yet. So that's like. That is going to be my. An interesting marker for me when I hear from him that people start bitching about Trump and his crypto bro, day trading bro, text chain. But I don't know what, what you make of that.
E
My closest friend who's a big crypto guy is Anthony Scaramucci Jr. Former, former. No, no, no, no. Anthony Scaramucci senior former Trump White House official and current liberal bro who's just on Gavin Newsom's podcast. Anthony Scaramucci is one of my best friend's fathers and he's like a fun guy. I love talking to him. And he is Mr. Fucking Bitcoin. He runs a firm called Skybridge Capital. And I was at their 20th anniversary party and they were giving out cookies that said Skybridge and a new addition is that the B In Skybridge now is the bitcoin logo. So Scaramucci is a crypto bro, but I assure you he blames Donald Trump. Scaramucci has made a point to blame Donald Trump for shit on every platform he possibly can in the past few years. And it's interesting. Like, I saw certain congresspeople and influencers quote, tweeting Bill Ackman's tweet about how Trump destroyed the economy and saying, like this, you're part of why this is happening. You contributed to this. So maybe shut the fuck up. And I'm like, no, I don't want these people to shut the fuck up. I actually think that the Trump allies who are talking shit about him ought to speak as loudly as possible. But I don't have a lot of back to the.
Cameron Caskey
Back to the hands off thing. Sorry, I just wanted to. We're going to use it. My brother will now use my brother's crypto bro tax chain as the stand in for how things are going in the younger millennial. I'm an elder millennial, so that's in the younger millennial class. Anyway, the hands off takes. I did want your take on it just broadly as a successful protest veteran.
E
Yeah, I. I don't. This is not a decadent thing for me to do. I do not take any pleasure in this. But I confess, I saw nothing on social media about the hands off protests until they happened. I did not see any. And I follow all political people, all sorts of activists and influencers, and I look at this, I look at the Internet, mostly Instagram. I don't look that much at Twitter and Blue sky unless I'm, like, getting ready for an episode of this show. But I didn't see shit about the hands off protest. So when my stepmom was posting from it, I said, oh, it's great that this is happening. And suddenly I see that they're happening everywhere. And I say, how the fuck did this make it past me? Because I see most of the stuff that's going on in the political world, but I missed the hands off protests or I would have been at one. And one of the things my stepmom texted me was like, hey, we had the hands off protest in Florida today. You know, it's important, especially for those things to happen in places like Florida. And that's where my family lives. Where was Gen Z? We didn't see them. So I put out a tweet in a blue sky asking if people saw Gen Z at the protests. And the results were very mixed. And part of me is wondering, was there some sort of effort and this is the tinfoil hat conspiracy thing, Was there some sort of effort by these platforms to make sure young people were not seeing things about these protests? Because after March for Our Lives, Black Lives Matter, War on Gaza, like we do know how to show up and protest. But here's what I think.
Cameron Caskey
I've got a conspiracy. It's not a conspiracy. I've got to reply to your conspiracy. I think it was epistemic closure. There's like these epistemically closed networks now and I think that the hands off protests, like Maddow talked about it a lot. Like Maddow's audience is like really old. You know, it just is like I, I, it's not nothing against Rachel or the old people that watch it, it's just that's the demo. It's not like it wasn't really that long ago, 10, 15 years ago where people like of all age groups were kind of consuming similar shit. Like I watched, you know, whatever, like Thursday night NBC with my parents growing up, like every age group watching because there's nothing fucking else to do, right? And, and we have these closed loops now. And I think what happened was it was like these resistance, you know, you know, kind of college educated parents and grandparents that like, were really driving a lot of this and that it was being posted a lot onto social media and it's being posted in their like little social media algorithms, is even being posted on TikTok, but in like, you know, the TikTok algorithm that serves that audience. And I just think the crossover wasn't that big. And I think that you have to be intentional now to get into younger people's feeds. And I just don't think that that was happening. I mean, maybe they tried, but they weren't using the right spokespeople or the people that had the right audiences or platforms. I don't know. What do you make of that counter theory from the conspiracy?
E
Well, this kind of goes back to like what I was saying about the Harris campaign not going on enough a traditional media the way that Trump was doing it. Like the way for the Democratic Party to get to young people like that is to send messengers on behalf of the party's interests to platforms that are reaching young people. Because, you know, at the end of the day, I can go on MSNBC and talk about certain things, I can go on Don lemon live at 5 and talk about certain things, but you know, an effort that I'm trying to make in order to represent My values and also plug this show, but also represent my values is work with content creators who are reaching, reaching young people. But you know, I think maybe you.
Cameron Caskey
Got to play video games. What's your video game of choice?
E
I don't play video games.
Cameron Caskey
None.
E
No.
Cameron Caskey
Zero video games.
E
I lack the self, the self control to only play a little bit of video games. So if I ever get into a video game, I play it for too long and I can't stop myself.
Cameron Caskey
Do you have a past video game that you were really good at? Like in your past?
E
I mean Minecraft, which I saw the movie this weekend. No comment. I loved Minecraft. I loved Skyrim. I've. I've loved plenty of video games.
Cameron Caskey
So why don't you do a throwback? Why don't you do a throwback stream like a lot of really young kids watch play Minecraft. I've got a, my buddy's kid who's like 10 would watch you and so boom, we're getting down to the 10 year old demo. Now. If you start playing Minecraft on, on.
E
Twitch, I can't afford the type of computer and the type of equipment that you would need to do Twitch streaming.
Cameron Caskey
We could find one of the big liberal donors. Okay, who is supporting, who is supporting. Hands off. To fund you a Minecraft computer.
E
The other thing is like I should not. I can survive in front of a hot mic for 90 minutes, but if I'm in front of a hot mic for more than 90 minutes, I'm going to say something that is going to get everybody I've ever met blacklisted from everything.
Cameron Caskey
But I think we're just spitballing ideas. We're spitballing ideas. I'm just spitballing ideas.
E
Okay, we'll figure it out. We've all got some stuff cooking that I think the FYpod audience is going to be very excited about. We're all casting and scheming behind the scenes and there's some really exciting stuff coming. And with that I kind of digress.
Cameron Caskey
Really quick with that. I want to shout out, just to be very clear, hell yeah, slay to the people that showed up to the hands off protests over the weekend. There's some really like big ones and great ones and like, we're just trying. We got to crack this nut to get more teens out there next time because let me tell you, more protests are coming and are going to be needed.
E
And you know, not to throw us a party or anything but like, you know, more FY pods will make this happen. So if Anybody is considering doing sort of a generation gap, you know, rye tongue in cheek comedy show on an otherwise sort of never trump centrist platform. Do it. We're having a great time. One thing we missed this week, Tim, that was so fun on the last episode is I think we finally gotten comfortable enough with each other to bicker the way that I think we always kind of knew we had the capacity to do so on the Jack episode. We were like, shitting on each other enough in a way. That's like. That's what FYPOD is about. Like, the thing that works about FYPOD is us, like, shitting on each other. So did you guys hear?
Cameron Caskey
Did you see. Did you hear the Redditor on the bulwark Reddit? We have a fan Reddit. I don't know if you knew that. They thought that. They were like, I think Tim is starting to hate Cam. I was like, no, bro. Like, no, bro. This is how. This is how I show love. Nagging is how I show love.
E
We started this to get to the point where we were fighting each other like that. Well, thank you, everybody for listening. Very great stuff coming this weekend and we look forward to seeing you all soon. And again, show up to this.
Cameron Caskey
I forgot to put up the fucking flamingo. Sebastian. Cam, where were you? The pinto beans are up. What a failure.
E
Everybody go register to vote. Thank you very much.
Cameron Caskey
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FYPod Episode 12: "Go MAGA, Go Broke" – Detailed Summary
Release Date: April 7, 2025
Hosts: Tim Miller and Cameron Casky
Podcast: FYPod by The Bulwark
In Episode 12 of FYPod, titled "Go MAGA, Go Broke," hosts Tim Miller and Cameron Casky delve into the surprising political shift of Generation Z toward Trump in the 2024 elections. They explore the underlying factors driving this trend and discuss what it might take to realign young voters with alternative political narratives.
Cameron Casky opens the discussion by highlighting a moment of clarity regarding Trump's declining popularity among certain demographics, particularly within Gen Z. He draws a parallel between Trump's rhetoric and the economic downturns, stating:
"It is rather fortuitous that the Trumpers brought the word 'retarded' back right at the moment that they spearheaded the most retarded economic collapse in human history."
[01:06]
Cameron criticizes the economic strategies associated with Trump's leadership, comparing the situation to corporate failures like Enron, emphasizing the perceived incompetence and lasting negative impact.
Tim Miller adds to the conversation by examining the chaotic support base of Trump, particularly focusing on influential figures like Bill Ackman. He questions the appropriateness of Ackman's potential role in the administration due to conflicts of interest:
"It's a bad idea to pick a secretary of commerce whose firm is levered long fixed income. It's an irreconcilable conflict of interest."
[01:43]
Cameron Casky delves deeper into Bill Ackman’s influence, scrutinizing his financial maneuvers and their implications on the economy. He discusses Ackman’s history of shorting markets and its ethical ramifications:
"He profited when our economy implodes... He made a lot of money on that short."
[03:07]
Cameron highlights Ackman’s abrupt political shift and his support for Trump, suggesting that Ackman’s actions are less about strategic governance and more about personal financial gain:
"...Trump is a fucking 70 IQ idiot that bankrupted everything he ever did..."
[04:12]
One of the episode's focal points is the transformation of Aiden Ross, a prominent streamer, from a mainstream content creator to a staunch MAGA supporter.
Tim Miller recounts Ross’s rise on platforms like Twitch and Kick, noting his transition to more controversial and politically charged content. He outlines Ross’s collaborations with figures like Andrew Tate and his overt support for Trump, including violating campaign finance laws by gifting Trump expensive items live on stream:
"Aiden Ross becomes one of the primary people who built up Andrew Tate's very, very dominant presence on platforms like Twitch."
[15:14]
Cameron Casky criticizes Ross’s lack of understanding in economics and his susceptibility to radicalization, drawing a comparison to Russian disinformation tactics:
"...building up these Facebook pages with cat memes or like, whatever... and then... switching to white replacement theory."
[18:31]
This segment underscores the vulnerability of Gen Z content creators to extremist ideologies and the broader implications for political discourse.
The hosts discuss the recent 'Hands Off' protests, examining why Gen Z participation seemed muted despite significant activity. Tim Miller speculates on the reasons behind the low visibility of young protesters:
"I think that the crossover wasn't that big. And I think that you have to be intentional now to get into younger people's feeds."
[25:52]
Cameron Casky offers a theory of "epistemic closure," suggesting that closed information networks and algorithmic filtering on platforms like TikTok prevent effective dissemination of protest-related content to Gen Z:
"...they weren't using the right spokespeople or the people that had the right audiences or platforms."
[25:52]
Ed (presumably Ed Torrence) adds that political campaigns have failed to engage Gen Z effectively through targeted content creators, unlike Trump’s strategy of leveraging popular platforms and personalities.
The conversation shifts to the economic struggles faced by Gen Z, including rising costs of living and the precarious nature of their investments in volatile markets like cryptocurrency.
Cameron Casky reflects on personal financial strategies amidst economic uncertainty:
"I'm doing a college fund right now for my child that's going down... a little stock market."
[03:07]
Ed discusses the precariousness of crypto investments, highlighting the risks associated with volatile assets when the economy falters:
"Why are we all losing? Why are we all negative right now?"
[21:05]
The hosts debate the premise of cryptocurrencies as a safety net during economic downturns, with Cameron pointing out the inherent instability:
"When you invest in like fake currencies, it actually, when the economy starts to go bad, it's not good for your fake currencies."
[21:29]
As the episode wraps up, Tim Miller and Cameron Casky reflect on the challenges ahead in engaging Gen Z politically and economically. They emphasize the importance of understanding and addressing the unique pressures faced by young voters to realign their political affiliations.
Cameron Casky underscores the necessity of bridging the information gap and creating more intentional strategies to reach Gen Z:
"...we have to crack this nut to get more teens out there next time because more protests are coming and are going to be needed."
[29:35]
Ed encourages listeners to engage more actively in political processes and highlights upcoming content aimed at empowering Gen Z:
"More FYpod will make this happen. So if anybody is considering doing sort of a generation gap... do it."
[29:35]
Cameron Casky on economic collapse:
"It is just really, really, really fucking stupid what they have done."
[01:06]
Tim Miller on Bill Ackman’s conflict of interest:
"It's an irreconcilable conflict of interest."
[01:43]
Cameron Casky on Aiden Ross’s transformation:
"Aiden Ross becomes one of the primary people who built up Andrew Tate's very, very dominant presence on platforms like Twitch."
[15:14]
Cameron Casky on epistemic closure:
"...they weren't using the right spokespeople or the people that had the right audiences or platforms."
[25:52]
Cameron Casky on crypto volatility:
"When you invest in like fake currencies, it actually, when the economy starts to go bad, it's not good for your fake currencies."
[21:29]
Episode 12 of FYPod provides a piercing analysis of Generation Z's unexpected political leanings, the influential figures shaping these trends, and the broader socio-economic challenges faced by young voters. Through candid conversations and critical insights, Tim Miller and Cameron Casky offer listeners a comprehensive understanding of the current political landscape influencing America’s youth.
Note: This summary excludes all advertisement segments and focuses solely on the substantive content discussed between the hosts. Notable quotes have been included with proper attribution and timestamps for reference.