20: Governor Vows to Make Trump's Life Hell

Summary

FYPod Episode 20: "Governor Vows to Make Trump's Life Hell"

Release Date: April 29, 2025
Host: Tim Miller & Cameron Caskey
Produced by: The Bulwark

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1. Introduction: Launching a New Segment

In Episode 20 of FYPod, hosts Tim Miller and Cameron Caskey introduce a heartfelt new segment titled "Gen Z Life Advice to Boomers". This segment aims to bridge the generational gap by sharing insights and advice from the perspective of Generation Z.

Notable Quote:

• Cameron Caskey [01:50]: "I get so much advice from my elders in my life. I wanted to return the favor and offer some honestly, not just to boomers, but also to our Gen X and millennial listeners."

2. Gen Z Life Advice to Boomers

Cameron shares a personal story about her late grandfather, emphasizing the importance of documenting family histories and reflecting on personal losses. She encourages listeners to journal about their loved ones, highlighting how these records can provide invaluable perspectives on one’s upbringing and family dynamics.

Notable Quotes:

• Cameron Caskey [02:02]: "Write stuff down about your kids and grandkids. Take a journal, Google Doc, whatever it is."
• Cameron Caskey [02:53]: "It's more valuable than gold."

Tim responds with a mix of humor and introspection, admitting his own struggles with maintaining a child’s journal, thereby reinforcing the segment’s message.

Notable Quotes:

• Tim Miller [04:21]: "I haven't written anything in my child's journal in, like, four years. So now I feel bad."

3. Political Analysis: JB Pritzker’s Speech in New Hampshire

The conversation shifts to political commentary, focusing on Illinois Governor JB Pritzker’s recent speech in New Hampshire. Pritzker calls for mass protests and mobilization against Republicans, vowing to "castigate them on the soapbox."

Notable Quotes:

• JB Pritzker [05:51]: "Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption..."
• Tim Miller [06:17]: "And then punish them at the ballot box cam. What do you think?"

Cameron expresses her nervousness about critiquing Pritzker’s appearance, particularly his physique, while also appreciating his energy and authenticity.

Notable Quotes:

• Cameron Caskey [06:40]: "I think Pritzker's cool. I think the whole, like, rich guy, but I'll pay my taxes thing works with people who don't look very far into things."
• Tim Miller [07:25]: "Yeah, he seems like a good guy, brings good energy to the table."

4. Immigration Raid in Colorado: Military Involvement Raises Concerns

A significant portion of the episode delves into a controversial immigration raid in Colorado, where over 100 immigrants were arrested at an underground nightclub. The involvement of active-duty military personnel as both patrons and armed security raises questions about the military’s role in civilian law enforcement.

Notable Quotes:

• Cameron Caskey [12:36]: "More than a dozen active duty military members were either patrons or working as armed security."
• Tim Miller [17:06]: "The active duty military thing makes this all very complicated for Trump..."

The hosts critique the Trump administration's handling of immigration, suggesting that the portrayal of immigrants as uniformly dangerous is oversimplified and propagandistic.

Notable Quotes:

• Tim Miller [18:45]: "Why are you trying to scare everybody... it's about appearances. It's terrifying."

5. Trump’s Image Strategy: Manipulating Public Perception

The discussion transitions to former President Trump’s strategy of showcasing intimidating images of alleged gang members on the White House lawn. Tim and Cameron analyze this tactic as an attempt to cultivate fear rather than inspire hope, drawing parallels to historical propaganda methods.

Notable Quotes:

• Cameron Caskey [19:15]: "That's like feudal lords, like, putting severed heads up on their castle walls."
• Tim Miller [19:25]: "It’s about appearances. It’s terrifying."

They criticize the superficial nature of Republican image management, arguing that it prioritizes surface-level intimidation over substantive policy discussions.

6. Media Literacy Among Gen Z: The Myth of the Digital Native

In the final segment, Tim and Cameron tackle the pressing issue of media literacy among Generation Z. They highlight studies revealing that despite being the most online generation, Gen Z struggles significantly with discerning fact from fiction. Examples include the disbelief in historical figures like Helen Keller and reliance on unverified sources such as social media comments for fact-checking.

Notable Quotes:

• Tim Miller [23:21]: "Multiple studies have shown that... Gen Z has a serious media literacy problem."
• Cameron Caskey [25:26]: "Only three of the 3,400 kids got the picture Russia, which really elucidates the myth of the digital native."

The hosts advocate for enhanced media literacy education, suggesting that traditional history lessons are insufficient in preparing young people to navigate the complexities of modern information consumption.

Notable Quotes:

• Cameron Caskey [29:08]: "We should be teaching media literacy to kids in school instead of fucking Lord of the Flies."
• Tim Miller [30:16]: "I totally agree with you on that."

7. Conclusion: Reflecting on Gen Z’s Challenges and Prospects

As the episode wraps up, Tim and Cameron reflect on the challenges facing Generation Z, from political manipulation to misinformation. They emphasize the need for proactive measures in education and personal practices to foster a more informed and resilient younger generation.

Notable Quotes:

• Cameron Caskey [30:28]: "What do they need to know?"
• Tim Miller [30:39]: "I appreciate you, Cameron. Everybody else, we'll see you all later."

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Key Takeaways:

• Generational Bridge: The introduction of "Gen Z Life Advice to Boomers" highlights the importance of intergenerational understanding and support.
• Political Scrutiny: The episode provides a critical analysis of political figures like JB Pritzker and former President Trump, focusing on their strategies and impacts on public perception.
• Military Involvement in Civilian Affairs: The discussion on the Colorado immigration raid underscores concerns about the military’s role in law enforcement and the complexities it introduces.
• Media Literacy Concerns: A significant emphasis is placed on the need for improved media literacy among Gen Z to combat misinformation and digital manipulation.

Audience Engagement: Listeners are encouraged to comment on what they believe is missing from current U.S. History education, fostering a community dialogue on enhancing educational practices to better prepare future generations.

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Stay Tuned: FYPod continues to explore the intricate dynamics of Gen Z's political and social landscape. The hosts invite listeners to tune in weekly for more insights and discussions on America's youngest voters.

Transcript

[Cameron Caskey]

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[Tim Miller]

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[Cameron Caskey]

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[Tim Miller]

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[Cameron Caskey]

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[Tim Miller]

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[Cameron Caskey]

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[Tim Miller]

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[Cameron Caskey]

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[Tim Miller]

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[Cameron Caskey]

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[Tim Miller]

Hey, I'm Tim Miller.

[Cameron Caskey]

I'm Cameron Caskey and this is FYpod, our Gen Z show here at the Bulwark, where Gen Z expert Cameron Caskey talks about things like Ross Perot and Foghorn Leghorn and all the stuff my generation cares about. So we've got a crazy week, We've got a lot of crazy topics, but I want to start with a new segment, a brand new segment, fresh, called Gen Z Life Advice to Boomers.

[Tim Miller]

Okay, great.

[Cameron Caskey]

I get so much advice from my elders in my life. I wanted to return the favor and offer some honestly, not just to boomers, but also to our Gen X and millennial listeners. You ready for this?

[Tim Miller]

Fire away. Let's hear it.

[Cameron Caskey]

Write stuff down about your kids and grandkids. Take a journal, Google Doc, whatever it is. I've been losing sleep at night thinking about my grandfather who died in October. And I have been, as I put it to my therapist, trying to reconcile the tragedy of his loss with the miracle of his existence. And it's been really challenging for me because he gave us so much to be grateful for. And I lay in bed and I try to reflect on all the things that I'm so grateful for. And I just find myself getting pissed that cancer killed him early because it's hard not to have this kind of cosmic anger at the world for taking the best people out of it so early while guys like Trump are still doing just fine and seem to be, well, I mean, allegedly.

[Tim Miller]

Full steam ahead.

[Cameron Caskey]

Fine.

[Tim Miller]

So I was just does have the hand mark.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah. Before our. Before our grandfather died, he gave us this large book that was hundreds of pages of journal entries about the kids and the grandkids. Long journal entries, paragraphs and paragraphs that gave me a new perspective on my childhood. He was writing about all the crazy shit we were doing. The good stuff, the bad stuff. When I was seven years old, somebody asked me why I don't like Sarah Palin. And I said, it's because I'm allergic to nuts. 7, 2008. And it's just this invaluable thing, and it's made, you know, processing our loss of him so much more kind of beautiful because we have this relic of the old times, and we get this look into his soul through the way that he saw us. So, Tim, you've got your beautiful daughter Toulouse. Our listeners, you've got families. Write shit down about them. It's more valuable than gold.

[Tim Miller]

Cameron, you know, you're just full of surprises. I never know when you say we're going to have a new segment with whether it's gonna be something completely unserious and sarcastic or whether you're gonna tug at my heartstrings and make me get verklempt.

[Cameron Caskey]

I wish you could have met my grandpa Tim. He would've been like, wow, how is this clever, smart man wasting his time on a podcast with my grandson? And you would have been like, man, how does Cam come from this guy?

[Tim Miller]

I doubt it on both counts. I doubt it on both counts. You're giving me two mixed feelings inside my body right now. One is kind of a sweet, emotional, wistful feeling about you and your relationship with your grandfather. And then another one is like, fuck, I haven't written anything in my child's journal in, like, four years. So now I feel bad. I'm getting guilt and wistfulness, sweet and sour.

[Cameron Caskey]

You seem to mention her pretty frequently, so maybe one day she can listen to 1000 hours of bullwitching.

[Tim Miller]

I do. Well, hopefully the AI, hopefully before the AI becomes sentient and takes over our society, you know, and puts in place a kind of an evil Elon Musk Marc Andreessen hybrid with, like, a cone head before that. Hopefully what I could do is go through my 100,000 hours of podcasts and, like, just grab the parts where I say to loose and put them into, like, a, you know, a nice little package for her that feels like a doable thing for LLM. Well, get on that, Sam Hultman.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah, I mean, we'll run out of Water before we have enough to support AI doing that. But anyway, you sent me an article. We're done with the feelings, done with that gay bullshit. We're going to get into the real stuff.

[Tim Miller]

JB Pritzker, he's kind of a jolly man. And he was in New Hampshire, which is where you go if you're thinking about running for president. He spoke to 800 woke libs, I'm sure some of our viewers. Hello, we're in the building. And he had this to say.

[Cameron Caskey]

Never before in my life have I called for mass protests, for mobilization, for disruption, but I am now. These Republicans cannot know a moment of peace. They have to understand that we will fight their cruelty with every megaphone and microphone that we have. We must castigate them on the soapbox.

[Tim Miller]

And then punish them at the ballot box cam. What do you think? What do you think about jb? Like, are people, like, just kind of people do like a jolly fat guy? Like, do you think that there's some ironic JB Pritzker memes online that I see? I don't know who's behind that, whether that's Whether that's youth or not, but do you have any thoughts about it?

[Cameron Caskey]

You know, I'm just nervous woke is gonna get mad at me for talking about how he's fat. Because the thing is, when I talk about how Pritzker's fat, I mean it in a good way. I'm like, yeah, no, like, you know, jolly fat JB Pritzker, fun fat guy. You know, maybe he'll be able to out fat Donald Trump when He reruns in 28. 28. 2028. Excuse me. I think Pritzker's cool. I think the whole, like, rich guy, but I'll pay my taxes thing works with people who don't look very far into things. And he's got vim and he's got vibes. He's got energy. I see it. I don't know if I'm going to, like, you know, announce that I pre endorse JB Pritzker for President 2028. But he's, you know, he's seems like a good guy, brings good energy to the table.

[Tim Miller]

I agree with that. He seems like he's telling us what he really thinks, too, which I like about him. The thing that I wonder, do you have any buddies that have moved to Illinois?

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah, that's a. That's a tough one, isn't it?

[Tim Miller]

You're a global. You're a global youth. You know, you've got friends that have moved a lot of places. Louisiana, New York, Miami, I'm sure. Probably internationally. Do you know anybody that's moved to Illino?

[Cameron Caskey]

No, I. I know one guy who went there, but that was for college. And our former guest, Katabu, lives in Illinois.

[Tim Miller]

Oh, Cat Abu just moved to Illinois. That's true.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah. She's running for Congress out there, and I don't know anybody. It seems as though a lot of people are moving out, but I don't know if that's because the state is being run poorly or because it is a fucking frost hell. You had some tweet about that recently where you were like, everybody's moving away from where it's cold.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, probably because it's a frost hell. Who would want to live in the fucking Windy City? Like, not me. Why would I move there? You could live anywhere in the world, you know, if you're a person of means, why would you move there? And some. And if you're a business that's trying to attract people, why would you start a business there? I do. I do get that, though. Hey, I'm coming to Chicago one night only, May 28th. If you're watching this, you want to see us live, go to the bulwark.com events. But. And so the Chicago people might not want to come after they hear this take, but I don't. I don't know that there's a ton appealing about moving there. Unless, like, you're, like, kind of a hefty guy from the Midwest, you know, if you're, like, you know, you went to Purdue and, you know, you ate a lot of carbs and you like the cold, you like to shovel, that might make sense to move to Illinois. So I think that part of it's that. But it's. I don't know. It makes it a tough case to, like, say I should run the whole country when, like, you know, your state isn't exactly knocking it out of the park. You know, maybe that doesn't matter in this day and age, but I guess if I was gonna do one negative thing about jb, that's the thing that would. That would hang over it for me.

[Cameron Caskey]

Well, I'm sure there's some politics to this that I don't understand, but, yeah, it's like, you want to move to this fucking subarctic Great Lakes nightmare when, like, we're about to go to war with Canada for the Great Lakes anyway, and all of them are gonna be renamed the Lake of America. Like, I'm not in on that. I don't know why somebody would want to live there. And I hate to be the lib in the room, but I think this speaks to a greater issue that we're going to be seeing in the coming years and decades, which is climate migration. Because the weather is getting more aggro, as some might say. It's getting more. It's acting more like a top in many areas. And I don't, I don't think people are going to want to see that. I mean, you had all, you had this. All these stories about, like, this huge migration to Florida for people who didn't want to pay taxes. And now the insurance rates are going crazy because the hurricanes are ripping Florida to shit every year. My dad's moving out of Florida, by the way.

[Tim Miller]

Where's he going?

[Cameron Caskey]

He. Well, we're not entirely sure right now, but they're looking in, like, North Carolina. I think they looked at one place in Tennessee. It's just so expensive.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. Prices are high. I'm still, I'm still trying to get over the weather imagery you laid out there. Well, anyway, I guess my Pritzker thought I. I have this tendency to start with the negative. I should focus on the positive. I like to, you know, compliment. Sandwiches are a healthy way to deal with people. Be like, you do a great job with this. Work on that. But also, this was good. I should have complimented sandwiched J.B. pritzker, but that was a good speech in New Hampshire. It was a good speech. The energy is right. The fuck these assholes thing is right. Go investigate. The Trump Cabinet is right. I like all that. I also just wish, you know, Illinois was a little bit more dynamic economically. Okay. You ended up. You got to pick a news item. You tell me your news item first, and then we'll talk about Gen Z's struggles to read.

[Cameron Caskey]

I did pick a news item, and I wrote it down on my legal pad. So over 100 immigrants.

[Tim Miller]

Can we get a closer look at that legal pad? I want to see your handwriting.

[Cameron Caskey]

Well, here's the funny part. I actually have three different topics all on one page, which is I'm trying to write a fantasy novel right now. And I've got maps on it. I'm trying to figure out my. And then I have notes about the revenue model for the theater that I work at, because I'm trying to figure out our development budget and how much money we want to spend on new works and developing projects that already have producers attached. And then I have notes about the FYpod episodes. So three different things. Renaissance in the Sense that I'm pulling from that period in history from a fantasy novel. So over 100 immigrants have been arrested in a raid of an underground nightclub in Tim's home state of Colorado. And the interesting thing here, other than the administration continuing to go fucking crazy on immigrants, is running security and involved with alleged crimes that were happening at this underground nightclub, including, as the DEA tells us, guns, prostitution, drug trafficking. The. The people running security at this club were active duty military. Kind of. Kind of weird, right? That's. I don't think that's what they were supposed to be doing. The active duty military.

[Tim Miller]

More than a dozen active duty military members were either patrons or working as armed security. Seeing they're on both sides of the deal there.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah, that's. That's pretty interesting. You'd think that they would have. They would have picked one, but, you know, maybe one of the armed security guys would see their buddy from the military coming in and be like, hey, hey, Jack, what are you doing here? And Jack would have been like, what are you doing here with a gun? But the. In the really interesting thing here, other than the fact that supposedly there's a pink cocaine right now, which I never got to try during my drug years, but the gangs that were allegedly hanging out at this underground club, according to the CNN article I read, allegedly were Trende Aragua, Mississippi, 13. Which brings to mind that Tim says, Ms. When he's talking about going on MSNBC. This is not MSNBC. This is whatever the fuck Ms. Stands for and the Hell's Angels. And I was just like, okay, what are these. What are these gangs doing, like, hanging out with each other? Don't gangs famously, like, not post up like buddies? Like, is there just some sort of fucking ceasefire when they go to the underground nightclub where they let bygones be bygones? Or are they just like, is this like a unified collective gang hangout where they just chat about what it's like to be in violent gangs together?

[Tim Miller]

I have a lot of observations about this. I am with you exactly on. Like, I don't believe you when you tell me this is a hangout for Trend Aragua and Ms. 13. Like, well, and the Hell's Angels. That makes no sense. And I believe you, Cameron. I don't believe the government when it comes to this. I was arguing with some fucking moron named my cousin Vinnie over on Piers Morgan earlier today, and he kept being like, what, do you think the government is lying to us about these guys being gang members? I was like, yes, yes, I do, Vinnie. I think the government is lying. I think the government is lying in this case. And my second thought, I quickly googled the etymology of MS.13 because I was curious myself. And it is so much gayer than you think it would. They're named after the M. Comes from the street in San Salvador. Lamar. The S. Slight. Yeah, the S. Wait, no, hold on. We also have. It also is a little bit from the marabouta, which is a fierce type of ant. And then salvatrucha, a combination of words, Salvadoran and trucha, a word for being alert. So basically they are an alert ant. That's pretty fucking weak. That's the best thing you got. You know, it couldn't have been like a honey badger or some animal, an ocelot, you know, some cool animal.

[Cameron Caskey]

I don't. I don't know how. I don't know how much fear honey badger would inspire either. I know.

[Tim Miller]

What about a fierce type of ant?

[Cameron Caskey]

Do you remember the honey badger video that went viral on YouTube? Honey badger don't care.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, of course. Yeah.

[Cameron Caskey]

I was like, fucking 2008. It must have been. Jesus Christ.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. Why were your parents letting you watch YouTube at that in that year?

[Cameron Caskey]

Why did John McCain show you that video? Did you work with McCain?

[Tim Miller]

I did.

[Cameron Caskey]

Rip King.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah. You know, you had to. God love John McCain. You had to. When you worked for him doing press, you had to carry a lint roller and, like, brush off his shoulders for him because since he was in a torture prison, he couldn't raise his arms off to, like, dust off his own dandruff. Really? What a fucking American. Like, that's an American with balls. Not the same.

[Cameron Caskey]

So the torture prison gave him dandruff, including.

[Tim Miller]

No. Well, I think the dandruff came from being an old man. Like, quite old.

[Cameron Caskey]

Okay.

[Tim Miller]

The torture prison, you know, you're holding your arms back, like, a lot. And so. So there was some kind of tendon. I'm not a doctor, but there's some kind of tendon injury that prevented him from raising his arms up enough to, like, brush off his own shoulders. He was in that kind of pain his whole life. What a. What a fucking American. What a fucking American.

[Cameron Caskey]

I was just going to say, I imagine he had trouble dancing to the YMCA song, which Trump would never have an issue at that. Trump didn't mention in his Truth social post about this when he was talking about what a tremendous victory this was against the migrants. He didn't mention the active duty military guys there. I wonder what that was about. Because we should be celebrating the fact that we were arresting alleged criminals. But when I looked at his boast about this operation, there was no mention that our own military guys were hanging out.

[Tim Miller]

You know, the military thing makes this all very complicated for Trump because there's another story simultaneously, it's happening. This is in California. I forget which base it was. It was a naval base in California where a woman got deported over the weekend and her husband was obviously active military. Since she got deported from the base and people came in and seized her. Like, ICE came in and seized her and took her away and immediately deported her. And it's like, you know, it's easy for these assholes to like, paint a picture that's like, oh, these are the worst people. They're all drug dealers, they're all ruining the country. It complicates the picture when one of the people you're deporting is married to an active duty military personnel. It complicates the picture when 100 of the people that you're deporting were being essentially protected by active duty military personnel. You know, it, it complicates the picture when you're deporting children of, you know, those who are serving the country or people that were DACA and then served the country. You know, and so, like, this is why they're fucking lame ass propaganda they think is going to work. Why they have, like, the pictures of the scary guys on the White House because, like, that's the only way that this fucking UN American immigration regime is possibly going to succeed is by convincing people that it's only the. It's only the scary people that are there on the lawn of the White House today with their little lawn.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah. Can you, can you talk? No, I saw the picture. But just for those in our audience who aren't familiar, basically Trump put a bunch of pictures of alleged gang members who I guess are intimidating, looking out on the White House lawn. Yeah, he just posted them up.

[Tim Miller]

Very gauche. Yeah, yeah, Ghost is a great word for it. Just to be like, you know, I don't know, to get attention. Like, see, we got rid of these scary guys. Aren't you guys happy with us?

[Cameron Caskey]

That's like feudal lords, like, putting severed heads up on their castle walls.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, on the stakes, like on the way to the. That is on the way to the Capitol.

[Cameron Caskey]

Game of Thrones ass on Trump's part. And it's just, like, pathetic. It's like, it's, it's. He, he. They're so desperate for people to be like, yes, fascism, that they're out here posting these pictures of God knows who and God knows what any of them might have done. You know, there are some scary looking dudes I know who aren't involved with any, who, as far as I know, are not involved with any gang activity. I lived with a guy named Chris. He, he, if Trump had put a picture of Chris up on the, on, on the White House lawn, people would have been like, oh, thank God that guy's not out on the streets. He could have beat the. Out of me. This is me. Like, Chris is six, five, hundreds of pounds of muscle, looks like Jason Momoa. And this is not a real American flag behind us, by the way. This is Photoshop. But it's just like it's, you know what it is? It's the Republicans obsession with image. Republicans love exploiting the way that people can be moved by the way something looks. You know, this guy looks scary. You know, this, this businessman looks like he could make us money. It's, it's what, you know, Trump Tower, everything's gold. It's all gilded. Like, it's, it's all about appearances. It's not about reading or looking further into it or finding the information. It's about what things look like on the surface. And that is very terrifying.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, my friend DC Big John looks even scarier than your friend the Sebastian.

[Cameron Caskey]

Can you throw up a picture of D.C. big John?

[Tim Miller]

Oh, yeah. You find him, D.C. big John. He's such a sweetheart at heart, you know, they all are. Always. Here's the thing, as a former Republican obsessed with image, can I tell you one other thing that bothers me about the White House lawn thing is like, again, and you'd think this is something that people in the Trump White House would care about, but obviously they're too busy, like trying to do the Game of Thrones shit, as you called it. It's like, you know, what if you're a person that is like, what if you're a school, you know, what if it's a group of school kids from Kansas and this is their one weekend to come to D.C. on a trip, you know, like you want to take your fucking picture outside the White House with these little kids.

[Cameron Caskey]

We aren't in Kansas anymore, baby.

[Tim Miller]

And it's like, this should be a place of purity. And I know it's been made impure deeply by Trump and, you know, probably Bill Clinton too, but mostly Trump. It's been made impure, but like, you know, the kids on a school trip to D.C. should be able to get their picture taken in front of the White House and not have like some rapist on a yard sign behind him because, like Trump is trying to scare everybody. Like, the whole thing is obviously there are bigger issues at play with his immigration, you know, regime than that. But it still is annoying, still bothering.

[Cameron Caskey]

That's the Trump regime as a whole. It's not about inspiring hope, it's about cultivating fear. And they're very good at it because like I said, it all really needs to be a surface level. So to all of you watching this, just remember you don't necessarily need to take everything our military and intelligence says. We don't need to necessarily think that that's the truth. I don't want to turn everybody into a tinfoil hat conspiracy theorist, but these people do lie, famously, quite often. Allen Dulles, first civilian director of the CIA, that's another Gen Z thing we talk about on the show all the time is he told quite a lot of lies. And you know, when documents become declassified many years later, we learn about how many things our military and our intelligence does that were rather unsavory. But I don't know if that's going to happen for the Trump administration because I don't know what of the atrocious things they're doing they're actually documenting. So who knows if we'll ever know the full truth of all of the Trump administration's crimes and violations of our system. But not good. Not good. Here on FYpod, we're not happy with.

[Tim Miller]

This thinking about things that aren't good. Our final topic. Multiple studies have shown that the most online generation, yours is also the worst at discerning fact from fiction on the Internet. So I wanted to give a bunch of examples of this, including the fact that many Gen Z's did not believe that Helen Keller was real for a long time. And then another one is that the Gen Zsa like to get their fact checking through the comment section on their social media apps. They tend to feel comfortable relying on aggregate trust to see what has the Most upvotes on TikTok or Reddit. Or they'll rely on Yelp reviews or Amazon reviews. This is alarming to me for one reason, one main reason. And then we can laugh about Helen Keller and that is that there was. I had this eight years ago when I was a nubile 31, 33 year old, however the fuck old I was doing these interviews when people are like, after Trump won the first time, after Trump won the first time, when I would, you know, go on somebody's podcast. And they'd be like, what do you think about this Trump thing? Do you think it might end? And I was like, well, there are two things that give me hope. One is hopefully some crisis will happen and so people will realize that we can't be so stupid to put somebody like this in charge given, you know, how serious of a job it is. And then Covid happened and like, people, people turned on the Democrats for wanting you to wear a mask. And then the other thing I thought was, like, eventually the people who can, who are like, getting tricked by Trump's propaganda will die off. We're not rooting for that. We obviously, we love our grandparents, as you mentioned at the beginning of the pod, but that eventually we'll get to a point where people will come up into the electorate who are more native to these online tricks and gimmicks. And so they will be less likely to be, you know, swayed by propaganda. And so, you know, these things won't work as well in the future. Those were two theories I had. Both of those have turned out to be totally wrong. It sounds like.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah. Just to get more specific, in this article that you sent, Great article. A video about the 2016 Democratic primary voter fraud being caught on tape was shown to 3,446 high school kids. Now, it turns out this footage of ballots being stuffed in this rigged Democratic primary election was from our near future Russia. And this is something that could have easily been Googled, but Stanford researchers studying young people media literacy showed it to these kids. And only three of the 3,400 kids got the picture Russia. So that brings to mind only 3, 3 out of 3400 were aware that this was Russia, which really elucidates the myth of the digital native. Now this is something that a guy named Joel Breakstone elucidates.

[Tim Miller]

Look at you.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah. This Joel Breakstone called it the myth of the digital native. Which Breakstone as a fantasy novelist or aspiring fantasy novelist sounds like the name of, like a fictional Viking, Joel Breakstone. Now, yeah, people think that since we grew up using the Internet that we'd be more savvy. And let's keep in mind that boomers, silent generations, if they have a phone, Gen X, every generation right now has a serious media literacy problem. It's not just Gen Z, but, you know, our parents didn't really know how to get ahead of the media literacy issue. They didn't really raise us with an awareness that this was going to be such a problem. But parents your age, parents soon to come can really focus on making sure their kids know how to discern the difference. Now it says three fifths of Gen Z between ages 13 and 26 say they get news from social media. Now keep in mind, this is the ones who are willing to admit that, and this is the ones who even read the news at all, which isn't everyone. But it's important to note that there's a difference between getting your news from social media and getting your news on social media. Because we get our news on social media. We see journalists post on Twitter, Blue sky, whatever, links to their articles. But then you get people who get their news from like selfie video people on Tick Tock. Oh yeah. So finding your news on social media very different than getting your news from some on social media.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, I mean, the selfie video people are very concerning. I don't know one thing. I was talking to Jonathan Roush last week who had some thoughts about this Atlantic writer Brookings guy. And he, he was. I'm just going from memory here, so please fact check me, guys understand the difference between fact and fiction here, but I think he was talking about Finland, some Scandinavian country where they start to teach like at age 7, you know, identifying the difference between truth and fiction and. And then they start to do it in like multiple languages. So the Finnish kids can now understand the difference between truth and fiction in two languages better than like our adults can in one. Anyway, maybe that's an urban legend, but it's a good idea, I think. I. To me, it's like in fourth grade, I'm trying to think what I was learning in social studies class. But maybe just like instead, maybe like instead of teaching people about World War I, we should just take that year off the plate and just replace it with showing students for a full year, like TikTok videos of real things versus TikTok videos of fake things until they can pass a test where they get like 8 out of 10. Right. Maybe that would be a useful. Like just a full year of that might be helpful.

[Cameron Caskey]

I mean, respectfully, we don't have enough time left in the episode for me to pop off about the way we're taught United States history because there's a lot of pretty key details to our history that were conveniently left out in my AP US History class. I left high school when I dropped out thinking that when World War II started, the Nazis, these bad guys were doing these concentration camps and, and America saw it and was like, oh, we're going to get involved. And I was like, Hell, yeah, America. We saw the bad guys and we got right on it. And then later, I learned that our intelligence agencies did really, everything they could to keep the truth of the concentration camps away from our president. And we turned away Jews that were trying to flee to America. And I didn't learn these things. So, yeah, we should be teaching media literacy to kids in school instead of fucking Lord of the Flies. Oh, my God, the commenters are gonna be so mad at me for that. Let me tell you, our commenters, whenever they love me, it's for the wrong reason, and whenever they hate me, it's for the wrong reason. They're so rarely on, but I think.

[Tim Miller]

People are gonna love that. I totally agree. I totally agree with you on that. False.

[Cameron Caskey]

Well, for our algorithm sake, I have to ask our audience, please comment below what you think is really missing from our teenagers US History classes. What do they need to know?

[Tim Miller]

I want to know more about that as well. All right, Cameron Caskey, you really slayed on today's podcast.

[Cameron Caskey]

Thanks, Tim Miller. You did, too, man. This is just another great fucking Monday episode on the books.

[Tim Miller]

We have a great guest coming Saturday, and I'm going to leave right now and go write a note to my daughter. I appreciate you, Cameron. Everybody else, we'll see you all later.