6: The Fascist Stuff That the Fascists Are Doing

Summary

FYPod Episode 6: "The Fascist Stuff That the Fascists Are Doing" – Detailed Summary

Release Date: March 18, 2025

In the sixth episode of FYPod, hosted by Tim Miller and Cameron Caskey from The Bulwark, the duo delves deep into the unsettling resurgence of fascist tactics under the Trump administration and explores the alarming shifts within Generation Z's political landscape. Titled "The Fascist Stuff That the Fascists Are Doing," this episode provides a comprehensive analysis of the current political climate, its impact on young voters, and the broader implications for American democracy.

---

1. Resurgence of Fascist Tactics under Trump

The episode begins with Miller and Caskey examining the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, drawing parallels to historical fascist regimes. They express deep concern over the deportation of individuals without due process, highlighting instances where authorities label innocent people as gang members based solely on tattoos.

• Cameron Caskey ([02:23]):
  "We're seeing hundreds of men deported. No due process, no hearings. They're allegedly identifying people's tattoos as gang tattoos, even if they aren't."

• Tim Miller ([02:57]):
  "If I had said Trump's administration would have started disappearing peaceful protesters, people would say it was inflammatory."

The hosts draw a direct comparison to the Japanese internment camps, emphasizing the historical gravity of such actions and questioning the reluctance to label current policies as fascist.

2. Impact on Protests and Student Movements

Caskey discusses the chilling effect these authoritarian measures have on protests, particularly among students and young activists. He references the disappearance of Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident, to illustrate the intimidation tactics employed against protesters.

• Cameron Caskey ([04:35]):
  "Mahmoud Khalil getting disappeared is a message to protesters that you do not have a First Amendment under Trump."

Miller further questions the lack of intense backlash from campuses, suggesting that fear and governmental suppression are stifling potential uprisings.

• Tim Miller ([07:14]):
  "It's type of like, why aren't people doing more things or why aren't people doing things the way I would like them to do?"

3. Media Portrayal and Narrative Control

The conversation shifts to the role of media conglomerates in shaping public perception. Caskey criticizes how media outlets selectively portray movements like March for Our Lives, presenting them in a sanitized manner that overlooks internal dissent and extremist elements.

• Cameron Caskey ([11:10]):
  "Media conglomerates are not on the side of the student protesters that had something to say about Israel. They only looked for the worst."

He contrasts this with the current media treatment of pro-Hamas sentiments among protesters, suggesting a biased narrative that undermines genuine activism.

4. Decline in Gen Z’s Literacy and Cognitive Skills

A significant portion of the episode is dedicated to discussing the decline in literacy and cognitive abilities among Generation Z. Referencing a study by the Financial Times, Miller highlights alarming trends such as decreased reading habits and poorer performance in science and mathematics among British teenagers.

• Tim Miller ([18:29]):
  "FT basically has a study that's out here that says teenagers, their science, reading and maths scores all down."

Caskey attributes this decline to the pervasive influence of social media and the lackluster high school curricula, which often mandate the study of dense and unengaging literature.

• Cameron Caskey ([20:41]):
  "Victor Hugo's Les Miserable was an absolute fucking bore to get through."

5. Role of Social Media and Education

Both hosts agree that social media plays a pivotal role in diminishing attention spans and reducing the propensity to engage in deep reading. Caskey reflects on his personal struggle with reading post-high school, attributing it to the monotonous and compulsory reading assignments that soured his relationship with literature.

• Cameron Caskey ([21:10]):
  "I had to read Catcher in the Rye when I was 15, and I had a really hard time with it."

Miller shares his own challenges with maintaining focus during lengthy reading sessions, underscoring the generational shift in information consumption.

• Tim Miller ([22:09]):
  "I find myself after like four pages wanting to see what's happening on Instagram. And that's a bad habit."

6. Influence of Tech Companies and Dark Money

Caskey transitions to a discussion on the insidious influence of tech moguls like Peter Thiel, accusing them of orchestrating a move towards techno feudalism. He warns of a future where venture capitalists undermine democratic institutions for their gain, using dark money to manipulate political outcomes.

• Cameron Caskey ([15:38]):
  "Peter Thiel has literally said that this is going to happen and installed his own vice president."

Miller teases a future discussion on Thiel's impact, indicating the depth of concern surrounding his influence.

7. Generational Perspectives on Intelligence and Adaptation

The hosts reflect on whether Generation Z is genuinely less intelligent or simply adapting to an information-saturated environment differently. They acknowledge a personal decline in cognitive focus but also recognize that access to information has never been greater, potentially fostering higher intelligence in some segments.

• Cameron Caskey ([25:21]):
  "The intelligent young people... are getting more intelligent because there's more access to information about the world."

• Tim Miller ([26:27]):
  "My ability to focus has deteriorated significantly."

8. Concluding Thoughts and Future Directions

As the episode wraps up, Caskey and Miller emphasize the urgency of recognizing and combating the emerging threats to American democracy and the intellectual well-being of younger generations. They tease upcoming interviews and topics, promising to continue unraveling the complex interplay between politics, technology, and societal change.

• Cameron Caskey ([26:38]):
  "Tune in Saturday for an exclusive interview that's going to be very exciting."

---

Key Takeaways:

• Authoritarian Measures: The Trump administration's use of outdated laws to suppress dissent mirrors tactics from historical fascist regimes.

• Impact on Youth Protests: Fear and governmental overreach are stifling active and effective student movements against oppressive policies.

• Media Bias: Media outlets are selectively promoting narratives that sanitize genuine activism while demonizing dissenting voices.

• Cognitive Decline in Gen Z: There is a noticeable decrease in literacy and cognitive skills among young people, largely attributed to social media and uninspiring educational content.

• Techno Feudalism: Influential tech figures are manipulating political landscapes, posing a threat to democratic institutions through dark money and strategic appointments.

• Generational Adaptation: While there is a perceived decline in attention spans, increased access to information may foster higher intelligence in certain demographics.

This episode of FYPod serves as a critical examination of the current state of American politics, the influence of technology and media, and the pressing challenges facing Generation Z. Miller and Caskey's candid discussion offers listeners a sobering perspective on the trajectory of both the nation and its youngest voters.

Transcript

[Cameron Caskey]

Con la ultima moda piesas comodas y lijeras mescal y combina lo nuevo de tus marcas favoritas y crese acomoda natupre suesto como las polos de San Jones Bay conun pantalon en al godon own simple sweatery jeans de hay and ay en quentre albolso de lis claiborne que siam pras querido y and convenient paranochas mas calidas elige pyras ligeras y frescas de ambrel tia tu familia y des cubre en lo nuevo de primavera. JCPenney Valle La Pena. Check engine light on.

[Tim Miller]

Take the guesswork out of your check.

[Cameron Caskey]

Engine light with O'Reilly Variscan. It's free. Ask for O'Reilly Variscan today. Oh, oh, oh.

[Tim Miller]

O'Reilly Auto Parts.

[Cameron Caskey]

Hey everyone, I'm Cameron Caskey. I'm Tim Miller and this is the FY Pod. We're trying to get to the bottom of Gen Z, right? As we are also at the bottom of the barrel for the country. So this week we've got some exciting topics. Tim and I are going to talk about the fascist stuff that the fascists are doing. We're going to talk about Gen Z getting dumber and less literate and it'll be a great time. Just so you all know, we are splitting our episodes in half. So our interview segment's gonna be coming out on the weekends and this is gonna be just a shorter me and Tim going over the news.

[Tim Miller]

That's good, right? I just, I feel like the weekends people need some weekend content. I feel like I need some weekend content. Then we can let it loose. You know, we can go Joe Rogan length if we want to with your 23 year old buddies.

[Cameron Caskey]

And I'm always comparing us to Joe Rogan, so I just think that we.

[Tim Miller]

Can vibe out a little bit more on the weekends. You feel less necessary to have to discuss the Alien Enemies act in a type five, you know.

[Cameron Caskey]

Well, I thought the Alien Enemies act was a Marvel thing until I learned about it this week. And it turns out there's something that's actually called the Alien Enemies Act. You know, I used to think that there was proof of aliens until Trump became president and I said, you know what? If there was proof that there were aliens, he would have probably tweeted it by now.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, that's where I'm at too.

[Cameron Caskey]

Unlike the Epstein list that he's that clearly all of his friends are on. But this week we are seeing hundreds of men deported. No due process, no hearings. Not quite clear how the White House is determining that they are part of these gangs that they say they're part of. They're allegedly identifying people's tattoos as gang tattoos, even if they aren't. And we've invoked the Alien enemies Act of 1798, a year that Trump is desperately trying to drag us back to, which was last used for the Japanese internment camps. Tim, how are you feeling about this?

[Tim Miller]

I was anti Japanese internment camp. You know, it's funny, I saw my man Michael Shearer was asking, said he asked Trump where he was at on the Japanese internment camp during the campaign in 2015. And Trump basically said, like, well, you know, I don't know. Hard to give me a view. Hard to give a view on that. If I was at the time, if I was there at the time, maybe I would have been for it. So he was, he was kind of a soft pro on the Japanese internment camps in the 2016 campaign. And we've kind of evolved into using it as a model now. Man, I did a fucking big ass rant with this, about, about Bill, about this with Bill Kristol today. Like the idea that they took a gay Venezuelan like tattoo artist and they fucking put him with no due process, put him on a plane with a bunch of gangsters, said he's trend and like now sent him to a El Salvador and penal colony that looks like it's out of fucking a dystopian robocop, like futuristic hellscape. It is very maddening to me and upsetting to me. And so I've already kind of yelled about that today. So I'm kind of curious where like your level of rage is. And if you kind of look at that story and what we're doing with Maku Khalil and some of the other examples that are out there.

[Cameron Caskey]

Check engine light on. Take the guesswork out of your Check engine light with O'Reilly Berescan. It's free. Ask for O'Reilly Berescan.

[Tim Miller]

Auto Parts.

[Cameron Caskey]

Sure. Here's what's annoying me. So we've also got Mahmoud Khalil, a lawful permanent resident who got disappeared by a dude in an Avengers T shirt. He is.

[Tim Miller]

That video is so insane. The dude in the inventor's T shirt. Can you imagine a fat guy in an Avengers T shirt coming to your house and being like, you have to get in this van? Like, that's what happened.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah. Like an unmarked vehicle. And here's what I'm confused by. Here's what's kind of bothering me in obviously the world of conservatives, but also the world of liberals who see eye to eye with me on a lot of things. I don't understand why everybody is so trepidatious to talk about how similar this is to prior fascist regimes. What they're doing with immigrants, what they're doing with free speech. It all kind of reminds me of our old enemies, the Nazis. And I'm wondering why everybody's like, oh no, it's not the Nazis. You know, what do we need to get everybody to say this is a Nazi esque fascist regime? It's almost like they're going up there and doing Hitler salutes. Wait a second. They are two of the President's biggest and most prolific puppeteers, Elon Musk and Steve Bannon. Other than Roy Cohn, the infamous Roy Cohn, for whom Jeremy Strong very much deserved an Oscar, they're Trump's puppeteers. They're the people who pull his strings and they are doing Hitler salutes. So sure, there aren't, you know, I mean, they're sort, there aren't full blown Auschwitz esque concentration camps quite yet. But you know, all the stuff that led up to those camps is happening on like fast forward right now. So I'm wondering why everybody's like, no, we can't call it that.

[Tim Miller]

I can field that one for you. I think part of it is that people are worried that it's not effective that people tone out, tune out Nazi stuff and that like it feels like overwrought or hyperventilating and so looking for other ways to, to express similar point. I take, I mean, I take your point. I kind of thought the way the Bill Burr handled it was funny. I think handling it with a little bit of dark humor is pretty good. He was just like, I mean, he accidentally did two seagulls. You know, I kind of liked the way that he handled it, but I don't know, man. My question that is similar to that in the category of why aren't people doing more things or why aren't people doing things the way I would like them to do? I don't understand why, like we've seen there were some protests of Tom Holman in New York. There have been a couple of college protests about the ongoing effort in Gaza, and there have been some protests about what's happening with ice. But like, I don't know, man, school is open, right? Like it's March 17th. Like college is open. Like, why aren't people why aren't the campuses freaking the fuck out about the fact that they're, like, deporting professors, deporting other campus protesters? They're disappearing these people. I mean, it is. It seems like the type of thing that would yield, you know, kind of a lefty uprising. And that feels a little. I don't know, you know, it just feels like it's not like the intensity isn't there on this. What do you make of that?

[Cameron Caskey]

I think under the Biden administration, even though they were sort of doing this kind of inflammatory speak about the protesters, there was still this idea that if you were protesting, you wouldn't get necessarily disappeared. But under the Trump regime, I don't understand why somebody would feel compelled to protest like that.

[Tim Miller]

I think people are scared.

[Cameron Caskey]

They're disappearing people. I think there's two major factors. Number one, we are. Any day now, the cops can just fire on people. Under Trump, there's no rules anymore. You could say that that's inflammatory, whatever. If I had said Trump's administration would have started disappearing peaceful protesters. If I had said that three weeks ago, people would say it was inflammatory. So say whatever you will, but if I were a student protester right now, I would feel scared for my safety. I mean, the NYPD was already roughing these kids up for, like, breaking a window at some library earlier last year. And of course, the government is going to call every protester that has anything to say about the state of Israel pro Hamas. That's the first thing they're going to say. They're going to say they're pro Hamas. It's something that my community is really a big fan of. If anybody has any questions about Netanyahu, who, by the way, hundreds of thousands of people were protesting in the state of Israel before October 7th. Any questions you have about Netanyahu, any questions you have about his criminal investigations, it's pro Hamas. Any. Anything you have to say about the United States spending all this money in Israel, it's pro Hamas. You're anti Semitic. The hundreds of thousands of Israeli people who are protesting Netanyahu, turns out they were also anti Semitic.

[Tim Miller]

I mean, it seems like Mahmoud Khalil was, like, pretty close to being pro Hamas. From what I mean, like, that many of the CUAD campus protests that you are orgy he was organizing, like, were cheering. What happened?

[Cameron Caskey]

Okay, October, here. Here is my message to everybody talking about the anti Semitism at the campus protests. I've seen videos of students saying abhorrent things. And if I were a Jewish student at one of These schools, I would totally feel unsafe. But let's be clear about one thing. If you took a recorder, if you took a secret camera to the campus protests and you were looking for anti Semitism, you would find less antisemitism at the campus protests than you would at any given Big Ten frat house. I guarantee you at these southern state schools, you are going to hear much worse shit about the Jews than you are from any Columbia kids.

[Tim Miller]

So that's the southern schools, but I hear you on that. I will say this, though. You famously, maybe not for some of the viewers who are new to FYpod, but, you know, created March for Our Lives in your bedroom, your childhood bedroom. And so, you know, you organize these things. You are familiar, you are familiar with them. If you, if you had it, a big March for Our Lives protest, you had like, you know, I don't know, 20 people holding up signs that, that were like, you know, shoot Rick Scott. Like, death to Rick Scott. Kill Rick Scott. Like, you probably would have been like, guys, maybe we should, like, chill out on some. Some of the signs. You know, like, you do have some. As an organizer, you do have some kind of responsibility.

[Cameron Caskey]

Totally. I think that. I think that March for Our Lives had a very different situation going for it, which is the big media conglomerates decided that we were a money maker for them, so they were on our side. Right? The media conglomerates that are owned by people who are not bleeding heart activists who want the world to be a better place, they're owned by people who want to make money. They saw March for Our Lives as a valuable part of. Of the media narrative in 2018. So they boosted us and they supported us, and they only showed the best of what we were doing. They weren't looking for inflammatory language, of which there was plenty and stuff that we disavowed. They were looking for a way to characterize us as a form of hope, or as some people call it, hopium, so the American people could feel like we still had a voice. These media conglomerates are not on the side of the student protesters that had something to say about Israel. So they only looked for the worst. March for Our Lives. We had a boost in the media. They wanted us to be the best kids in the world. They wanted us to be their little poster boys. They don't want to show student protesters talking about Israel who are totally supportive of the safety and health of the Jewish people. They want to show the people who they can use to string up this narrative of pro Hamas, like those hundreds of thousands of Israelis who are protesting Netanyahu, I call bullshit. I think that this is all part of a media thing. And look back to what I was saying. Mahmoud Khalil getting disappeared is a message to protesters that you do not have a First Amendment under Trump, not unlike, by the way, the fascist regimes that I get called inflammatory for comparing him to. The other thing that I think is preventing campus protests against Trump and Elon is there's too much shit to protest. Right? I think that people like Bernie Sanders and Tim Waltz and Ro Khanna even, who are going out and doing these rallies in town halls, they have found one message, which is stand up against oligarchy. And that's where we can then go on to talk about different things and expand the breadth of the issues that we're discussing. But in general, if I was a student protester right now, and I had like, a menu of shit to protest, I mean, there's the deportations, there's the disappearing of people who are protected by the First Amendment, because as many people know, whether or not you're on Mahmoud Khalil's side, the speech that's the most important to defend is the speech you hate the most. It's called free speech. So if I were a student right now, I would know which of the fucking things to be protesting.

[Tim Miller]

I think both those things make sense. I think people are a little scared, and I think that there is also they're just overwhelmed by what protest and kind of feeling confused, waiting to find their footing, waiting to find something to galvanize around. Like something really horrible is going to happen, have to happen, I think, to galvanize around. I keep thinking, like, was this thing horrible enough? Is sending maybe innocent Venezuelans to fucking El Salvador and death camps horrible enough? Maybe not. It needs something to be even more horrible. The thing, the other thing about this I wanted to pick your brain on, because I do think that your generation is just like. Each successive generation is just a little bit more global than the last one. Just like, because of ability to travel, you know, ability to communicate across countries, like, everything has just gotten easier over time. Like, go summer abroad was still like a kind of a big deal when I was in college. And it's. I kind of feel like people with resources, like upper middle class and upper class, like young folks, just, like, go abroad all the time now. And so I bring that up, and I also think campuses are more diverse and have more people from other countries now. I bring that up because, like, the people who are being targeted first here, I guess the very first row is the pro Hamas protesters. The next group is basically anybody on a visa, right? Like, people who are on a student visa, work visa. And I think that, like, you and your friends, like, probably know a lot more people on visas, and, like, it's got to, like, create some fear that has to add to the fear and the chilling effect of all this, right? Like, if you look at what happened over this weekend, a lot of people got targeted in airports who, like, really didn't do anything. Like they had passed marijuana crimes or whatever. Like, they. And I think that's got to be fucking scary to people. So, I don't know. I'm wondering if you're hearing any chatter about that.

[Cameron Caskey]

There's no freedom under this administration. If you think that you're safe, you might be safe for now, you're not going to be safe for long. And I think that there's messaging missing from the Democrats right now while we are all understandably eating each other alive. You know, I haven't seen leaders in the Democratic Party saying Peter Thiel and a cabal of venture capitalist fascists decided that the American experiment is over. America loses, and it's time now to use dark money to dismantle these United States and hand them over to tech companies in something called techno feudalism. I mean, Thiel has literally said that this is going to happen and installed his own vice president. So while we're all terrified of protesting, while we're all terrified of using our First Amendment and of people who are here legally getting deported, the tech companies love this. They love that we are all too scared to ask questions about what's going on. I mean, not that many people really know about Peter Thiel. Not that many people know about Peter Thiel's agenda, which he wears on his sleeve kind of like a red armband. And we are now entering a phase where venture capitalist fascists are using crypto to fuck us all over, while we are all targeting each other because Chuck Schumer kind of let Trump win. So while everybody's scared, while everybody isn't protesting, the VC guys are laughing up their fucking sleeves and nobody's calling it up.

[Tim Miller]

So your. So your truth is just like Tim wants to talk about anything he wants to talk about. And I'm just gonna fucking. I'm just gonna fucking rant about Peter Thiel and how he wants to steal Twink's blood for his, like, weird vampiric techno feudalist cult that he's running of, like, mus. Of like, hgh blonde post twinks that work for him at Palantir. And, like, I'm just going to rant about that. I don't care if we're going to talk if. I don't care if we were supposed to talk about visas. I don't care if we're supposed to talk about the lady in Wisconsin who is. Has been detained in Texas even though she is married to an American citizen who voted for Trump. We're not going to talk about that. We're just going to fucking rant about Peter Thiel today. Is that basically what you came prepared to do?

[Cameron Caskey]

Well, we do this once a week, every week. There's a lot of news and we're trying to keep this less than 30. So while I really don't know much about visas other than these people who are getting deported are not getting a fair trial, they are not getting treated by the United States government the way that we're supposed to treat people. I am going to go on tangents because I have ADHD and I need to cover the shit that happened this week.

[Tim Miller]

Perfect.

[Cameron Caskey]

Including techno feudalism.

[Tim Miller]

This is. We'll have much more to talk about Peter Thiel. He's gonna be on a future app. I also want to fight with you about Tim Wallace on a future app, but your ADHD has transitioned us nicely into the other big topic of the day. I don't know if people read the ft. It's very serious news outlet. You know, I don't know if our audience are FT people, but FT basically has a study that's out here that says teenagers, their science, reading and maths. They're British. They say maths plural instead of just math. Their math scores all down. Numeracy and literacy down. Trouble learning new things up. Difficulty thinking and concentrating up. Decline of reading almost every day. Way down. Hardly ever read. Way up. Way up. 50% of teenagers hardly ever read. That's pretty concerning. I mean, I think if the techno feudalists are going to take over, this is a pretty ripe audience for that. I don't know. Why don't your friends read?

[Cameron Caskey]

It is the Republican dream. This is what Republicans in America want and it's what they have wanted. Everybody getting dumber, everybody learning less, and everybody being less engaged with the world around them. So we could be isolated, so we can ask less questions and so we can all work in an Amazon warehouse one day. This is what they want. Now. I personally think social media is the number one contributor to young people reading less. It's interesting because we spent so much time indoors during the pandemic you think we would have cracked open a fucking book here and there, but we're reading less. One thing that I want to briefly point out that I think makes us read less is the curriculum in high schools. I think that the books that they have us read in high school are so fucking boring and laborious that reading isn't that fun to us after our high school curriculum. Like before high school, I used to read for leisure pretty much every day. I kind of always carried a book with me. But then the shit that we had to read for class in high school made me fucking hate reading. And I didn't pick up books again for like five years.

[Tim Miller]

Like, what were some of the. What were some of the terrible books that made you read in high school?

[Cameron Caskey]

I don't even necessarily think they're terrible books. I just think they aren't books that are good for developing positive skills as a reader. Because reading is like exercising. You have to do it to get better at it. You have to get your reading muscles exercised. So stuff like Victor Hugo's Les Miserable, which I read sophomore year, was an absolute fucking bore to get through. Stuff like Catcher in the Rye, a book that I read when I was 22, and I said, Catcher in the.

[Tim Miller]

Rye is pretty readable.

[Cameron Caskey]

Not at the age that I read it, and mind you, I have ADHD and stuff, but I'm a pretty good reader at this point. And I read Catcher in the rye when I'm 22, and I said, no wonder. This is one of the great American novels. But When I was 15, I had a really hard time with it. Holden Caulfield's inner monologue happened to be exactly like mine and exactly like the inner monologue I have today, where everybody's a phony and victim of everything. But I wasn't able to connect that at that age. So listen, I do think social media is the biggest culprit here for why we aren't reading. I think that us not reading is going to make us even more susceptible to the misinformation campaigns and stuff, like getting your news from the Andrew Tates of the world on TikTok. But I will add, I think that high school curriculums. I mean, this doesn't matter because the public school system is getting dismantled. So, you know, it's about to be all charter schools that are making you read Mein Kampf in a positive way. But I do think we would benefit from students being given better and more fun and engaging shit to read.

[Tim Miller]

Producer Sebastian said he loved the abridged version of Les Mis, but, you know, gays. Yeah, there's some bad books. I had to read some bad ones. Stein. I mean, you know, some of this stuff is tough. As a high school student, I guess I will say, like, because I, like, as a tweener, as a geriatric millennial, like, I lived before phones for a little while in high school, and so I can now see how much worse my reading is. I find myself trying to read the Deluge right now, which is like 800 and something pages. I have no idea why I took on this project, but I find myself after like four pages, you know, wanting to see what's happening on Instagram. And that's, that's, that's a bad habit. But I do wonder, since, like, you are. You guys were of this, like, you probably don't even know. Do you notice your brain power declining, I guess, is my question being broken by social media or do you not even notice it?

[Cameron Caskey]

I think I noticed my brain power declining. The worse the news gets. I think that that genuinely makes us worse at thinking because we have to process a certain amount of things that are really tough to process. So when Trump won, I think my mind dulled itself a little bit because the harder I thought, the more upset I got when Covid happened. My anxiety is so bad. My anxiety as a person. And this is why I'm sort of a hard touchstone for stuff like this, because whether or not Gen Z was going to shit, I would still have these mental health issues. But my anxiety is so bad that I sort of condition myself to think less about certain things. It doesn't work, but I try. So I think that part of the reason we're getting smooth brained is the truth and information are kind of the wild west right now, and these social media algorithms are programming us to think one sentence at a time, which is why many of the articles I cite when I'm talking about the news, I actually haven't read. I just read the title of the article and it's a serious problem and it's only getting worse. And that's really all I have to say about the matter.

[Tim Miller]

I have one more question, so you'll have to come up with one more thing to say about the matter. Because, like, this is. This is a very big topic of conversation among the millennial dads. Like, not only are we aware that we're making ourselves dumber through social media, that we've seen a decline in our own focus and brain power, but that we notice that younger people are even stupider and have less attention span than we do. And so I'm wondering, I just, my question is like a boiling frogs question. Like, do you guys discuss this? Like, do you feel like you're dumber or do you look at us and say like these old fucks like think we're dumber, but we're actually smarter because our brains, like we've just like pinky in the brained ourselves by getting so much information from the Internet beginning at age 7.

[Cameron Caskey]

I think the pendulum is just swinging farther. I think that the young people who are intelligent are getting more intelligent because there's more access to information and we're able to. I say we as if I'm one of the intelligent ones. I don't identify. I think I'm right in between. I think I'm a. I think I'm the median.

[Tim Miller]

Right. The meaty part of the bell curve that's right where you want to be.

[Cameron Caskey]

The, the intelligent young people who I know are in my opinion, just as, I mean more intelligent than they were would have been in previous generations because there's more access to information about the world. And I think the dumber ones are dumb.

[Tim Miller]

Real smart ones, like the balls of the world.

[Cameron Caskey]

Yeah, the Doge. The Doge kids who are flying to California to turn on more water and failing spectacularly. But I do think we do talk about it in the circles of people I'm in that are my age. We talk about how we're getting a little more smooth brained and how we're all kind of worse at processing information, but we don't talk about it in a very constructive way. We talk about it in this doomer esque like, yeah, we're dumber now. It sucks. Oh well, change the subject way I have those conversations plenty is like, hey, have you noticed that we are all getting worse at thinking with time? Like, I truly believe my brain power had a higher capacity when I was 15 than it does now. And I'm not proud to admit that, but it is what it is.

[Tim Miller]

Yeah, I don't know if my brain power had a higher capacity, but I certainly was able to focus on things longer. Like, there's no doubt about it that my ability to focus has deteriorated significantly.

[Cameron Caskey]

And with that, all we can say is tune in Saturday for an exclusive interview that's going to be very exciting. And then next week Tim and I are going to be talking about whatever terrible giant fascist thing happens in the next seven days.

[Tim Miller]

So fun. See you then.