THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 134 — Batman Goes Shopping? He-Man and the Masters of the Culture War?

Summary

Podcast Summary: Human Events Daily with Jack Posobiec

Episode: THOUGHTCRIME Ep. 134 — Batman Goes Shopping? He-Man and the Masters of the Culture War?

Date: July 4, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this irreverent and wide-ranging roundtable, Jack Posobiec and crew dive into American pop culture, gender dynamics in childhood play, the cultural significance of gas stations, media nostalgia, and the broader “culture war” around masculinity and identity. With a mix of wit and earnestness, the panel uses the recent He-Man movie, Toy Story, and even the preferences of European tourists as launch points for thought-provoking (and at times controversial) discussions on boys’ development, internet anonymity, and the meaning of comfort in modern living.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. American Gas Station Culture and Global Perceptions

• Panelists open by riffing about Wawa, Buc-ee’s, and the surprising trend of foreign tourists (especially Europeans and Japanese) exploring American gas station chains.
• There’s banter about whether regional chains like Wawa get the same cult status abroad as Buc-ee’s or 7-Eleven:
  • “The fact that you've got your 250 Wawa shirt, it does get me thinking about the share of American patriotic pride that is being generated by high-quality gas stations at this point.” — Jack (01:13)

2. Cheesesteaks, Culinary Preferences, and Fast Food Confessions

• A humorous exchange about the fidelity of Philly cheesesteaks, especially for tourists, morphs into panelists debating if there’s any real difference between “authentic” versions and fast-food takes:
  • “Cheesesteaks are a basic enough sandwich. I don't think it matters too much where you get one.” — A (04:15)
  • Admission of a preference for Arby’s-style roast beef sandwiches over restaurant cuts. (05:29)

3. Sports, National Identity, and Social Disorder

• A brief, provocative tangent: Would Mexican fans riot in the U.S. if Mexico won the World Cup? References to celebrations/riots by immigrant communities in Europe.
• Discussing the athletic advantages linked to regional populations (e.g., Kenyan distance runners, Ecuadorian soccer players from highland regions). (07:00–08:36)

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4. He-Man, Masculinity, and the Psychology of Toys

He-Man Nostalgia vs. New Generation

• The group compares the original ‘80s He-Man cartoon and toys to the new 2026 film, highlighting generational divides in pop culture exposure.
• Notable quote on the new film’s messaging:
  • “This is a film...where it’s a depiction of masculinity in such a way that you just don’t find anywhere else in the mainstream of entertainment. You just put a sword in a young boy’s hand and have him hold it up and say, I have the power. That actually speaks to something that's very, very positive for young kids.” — Jack (20:27)

Discussing the “Batman Goes Shopping” Meme & Gendered Play Patterns

• The Lego “Batman Goes Shopping” meme is dissected: Boys role-play as their characters (immersing in Batman’s world/theme), while girls are more likely to make the character join their own activities (e.g., Batman bakes cookies).
  • “The boy tries to become the character. The girl wants the character to become her.” — A (22:33)
• Examples from panelists’ homes: Boys focus on role-playing heroic, story-driven arcs; girls lateralize characters into daily life scenarios.

Toy Story’s Tea Party Scene: Media Portrayal of Gendered Play

• Buzz Lightyear’s breakdown as Mrs. Nesbit in Toy Story is cited as an archetype: girls putting “boy toys” into domestic/feminine situations (28:56).
• “She put him in the longhouse.” — Panelist, joking that the “longhouse”/domestic order subsumes male figures (30:18).

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5. Masculinity, Feminism, and Boys’ Development

The Need for All-Male Spaces

• Repeated calls that boys need spaces, toys, and media frames just for them, unimpeded by feminization:
  • “Dudes specifically really need implicitly all male spaces... Boys are going to want a thing that is just the guy thing.” — A (38:28)
• Critique of the “longhouse” (a metaphor for female-dominated, consensus-driven society) and how media like He-Man acted as a “repudiation” of it for boys historically.

Culture War in Media: She-Ra, Ghostbusters, and Forced Gender Parity

• Panelists argue the decline of He-Man in the ‘80s began when “She-Ra” was introduced, diluting the male-hero focus and turning off boys (34:39).
• Broad critique: “Diabolical” for cultural institutions to always insert women into male spaces/programming.
  • “If you champion him [a male], he gets fully formed, he's unstoppable. If you don’t, he will become a weak man.” — D (37:09)
  • “Women are crying out across America: Don’t make a She-Ra movie… we have to be strong enough to say no.” — A (39:51)

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6. Nostalgia, Market Failure, and Modern Streaming

• New He-Man film’s box office disappointment attributed to unclear marketing and not embracing its “movie for boys” identity.
  • “I would argue that's because they didn't lean into this type of marketing.... In the marketing, they kind of played up some of these other aspects.” — B (40:49)
• Nostalgia-driven audiences (males, 40+) didn’t translate to kids seeing the movie (only 4% under 12) (43:45).
• Streaming and the new economics of IP ownership (Amazon, MGM) as potential saviors for franchises that fail theatrically. (44:46)

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7. Internet Anonymity, Parental Controls, and Digital Censorship

Bipartisan Push to Regulate Kids’ Internet Access

• Discussion of new U.S. legislation requiring ID for app downloads to protect children from porn and addictive content.
  • Concern over loss of anonymity and slippery slope to broader government control.
    • “Giving away Internet anonymity would be a very, very foolish move to do.” — B (51:27)
    • “If you have the ability to say something, you should be able to say it anonymously, period.” — A (55:16)
• Meta’s (Facebook) support interpreted as an attempt to shift liability away from social platforms to app stores/hardware.

Parental Tools vs. Government Overreach

• Debate about the effectiveness of technical solutions (e.g., router-level, ISP-level content filters) vs. legislative action.
• Worries that state/federal legislative overreach will have chilling effects on speech, especially for right-wing anonymity.
  • “The law of unintended consequences... they’re betraying certain principles that we shouldn’t betray.” — D (62:56)
• Nostalgic defense of the “almost fully anonymous internet” of the early 2010s (63:04).

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8. European “Decadence,” Air Conditioning, and Comfort as Culture War

• Satirical debate on Europe’s refusal to widely adopt air conditioning, even amid killer heat waves.
  • “The left itself is allowing the world to split into a political axis of pro air conditioning and anti air conditioning… Air conditioning should exist and is awesome and we should put it in everything.” — A (69:08)
• The morality of comfort: American enthusiasm for AC as “God’s temperature system” vs. ascetic European attitudes.
• Personal thermostat “confessions” from the panel (ranging from 71° to 79°F) (70:03–71:04).
• Amusing speculation: Should ascetic A/C fasting become a Christian Lenten tradition? (75:23)
• “You can't squash the religious impulse. If you remove God, it will just manifest in other ways. In secular religion...the rituals of atonement are harsh, sometimes to the point of death.” — Sarah Salviander, quoted by A (74:03)

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Masculinity in Media:
  “There’s something about... a big muscle-bound guy who in a very positive way is just wailing on bad guys. And there’s something about that where you just put a sword in a young boy’s hand and have him hold it up and say, ‘I have the power.’” — Jack (20:27)

• On Gendered Play:
  “The boy tries to become the character. The girl wants the character to become her... The girl’s gonna take Batman and she’s gonna make Batman do girl stuff. Batman will go shopping, he will bake cookies.” — A (22:33)

• On “The Longhouse” Society:
  “It was a repudiation of the Longhouse back then. And today, the situation’s only gotten worse because the Longhouse... is like literally everywhere you go.” — B (26:45)

• On All-Male Spaces:
  “Boys need spaces, toys, and media frames just for them, unimpeded by feminization.” — A (38:28)

• On Air Conditioning & Europe:
  “Apparently in some countries they are actually... shutting...down air conditioning because they all believe in climate change.... They’re all dying because they’re refusing to allow people to use air conditioning.” — B (69:10) “The left itself is allowing the world to split into a political axis of pro air conditioning and anti air conditioning.” — A (69:39)

• On Religious Atonement & Secular Culture:
  “If you remove God, it will just manifest in other ways. In secular religion, there is abundant guilt and atonement, but little love and forgiveness... You are the human sacrifice for the sins of humankind.” — (Sarah Salviander, quoted by A at 74:03)

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Significant Timestamps

• 01:13 — American gas station culture and patriotic pride.
• 04:15–05:29 — Cheesesteak authenticity and fast-food confessions.
• 09:07–10:52 — He-Man vs. Toy Story; kids’ reaction to masculinity in media.
• 20:27 & 22:33 — Discussion on He-Man’s messaging and the Batman shop meme.
• 28:56–30:18 — Toy Story’s Mrs. Nesbit scene & gendered play in media.
• 34:39–39:51 — All-male spaces, She-Ra, feminism’s impact on boys.
• 43:45–44:49 — He-Man’s box office fail, nostalgia, and streaming economics.
• 47:09–55:16 — Internet anonymity, ID verification debate.
• 63:04–64:41 — On the "good old days" of an anonymous internet.
• 69:08–75:23 — Cultural politics of air conditioning and American vs. European values.
• 74:03 — Quoting Sarah Salviander on the secular “atonement” impulse.

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Conclusion

The episode delivers a sharp, sometimes satirical look at the battles over masculinity, kids’ media, the evolution of play, internet controls, and even air conditioning, blending cultural criticism with pop nostalgia. The panel ultimately champions traditional, unapologetically male spaces and ideals while warning against overbearing cultural and governmental longhouse dynamics—whether in toys, movies, or the temperature in your living room.

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For more, follow Human Events Daily and Jack Posobiec for weekly “thoughtcrime” roundtables on politics, culture, and parenting in a changing America.

Transcript

[A]

From the age of Big Brother.

[B]

If they want to get you, they'll get you.

[A]

DNSA specifically targets the communications of everyone they're collecting.

[B]

Your communications. All right, guys, we're here. Another thought. Crime Thursday is upon us. What's up, gang?

[C]

What's up?

[D]

What's up? What's up, Jack?

[A]

Crimes are flitting through my mind all the time.

[B]

All right, we got. We got Russ, we got Andrew, we got Blake, we got Poso here. I've got my. My Philadelphia background, also with my Wawa250 shirt. Look at this. We got Philly skyline, we got Wawa250. Just pick this up. It's gonna be a hot commodity. I'm gonna pass this on to my children. At one point when, you know it's interesting, they steal it from me probably a week from now.

[D]

You know what's interesting, Jack, is that we've got the Buc ee's fan. You know, all this. Europeans coming over, discovering Buc EE's. We've got bass pro shots. I have seen zero foreign love for Wawa. What's that about?

[A]

Are they playing any games in Philadelphia?

[B]

They did, actually. They. They just had a game in Philadelphia last week.

[C]

Shoot.

[B]

What was it? I think it was like, Brazil or something. And I think it's because there weren't any European teams that were playing in Philadelphia, though. So Freddie came across Pennsylvania, but he was, like, going across the northern tier to get to New York. So he wasn't anywhere in, like, what I refer to as the Wawa Republic, if you will, which begins in. Actually in North Jersey and then goes all the way down to about Richmond. Although Philadelphia is, of course, the capital.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

I. I think in general, even. Even if the Europeans haven't discovered Wawa, I am. The fact that you've got your 250 Wawa shirt, it does get me thinking about the share of American patriotic pride that is being generated by high quality gas stations at this point. Because Buc EE's is a thing that we're genuinely celebrating and bragging about as Europeans encounter it. And I know a lot of people were getting a kick. The Japanese got here and they went to 711 in America and they were thinking, oh, it's so amazing to have this authentic product of Japan here In America, the 7 11.

[D]

And.

[C]

And then we've got that. We've got the cult following of, like, Kirkland, the Costco brand.

[A]

Oh, is that. Are they discovering Kirkland now?

[C]

Just.

[B]

Just like Kirkland is the whole thing now. Yeah.

[C]

Which is also really Funny.

[A]

Is that one of those things where we just think of Costco as normal, decent products and then there's probably Europeans or Chinese people who get Kirkland exported to their country and they charge it at a three times markup. They used to do that with Pabst Blue Ribbon.

[B]

I just, I literally just pulled this up to fact check and I found, I did find a Tick Tock. That is that. That loves the Wawa. I just found it.

[C]

Oh, there you go.

[D]

I got one, Jack. Although that's got decent engagement, admittedly.

[B]

No, it does. Well, and this is this of course, because we're not. We're not really big on. On the. Dude, this, this one on Tick tock. I just. It's 500, 000 views.

[D]

Yeah, yeah, no, it's not bad.

[B]

I love the Tick Tock.

[D]

Wait, hold on. This whole. The whole point of this is that you get Philly cheesesteak at a Wawa. Do you agree with. I mean, I don't know. Do you agree with that, Jack?

[B]

Yeah, so that's, that's kind of like, look, you know, I appreciate it, but, but, but so this is a French guy who went, I guess to, to Philadelphia who said they were recommended. He got a little mixed up. He got a little mixed up, right? He's French, you know, we're not gonna hold to him. But he said that he wanted the cheesesteak. And then someone had mentioned Wawa. So he got mixed up and thought that he meant that he should get a cheesesteak at Wawa, which, I mean, guys, like, let's, let's be serious.

[D]

You could do a whole lot better

[C]

sushi at a gas station at that point.

[A]

Don't even interrupt.

[B]

Yeah, kind of just let him believe

[A]

he got the famous sandwich. He can tell us. I was at the world.

[B]

He seemed very happy.

[C]

You know what?

[A]

I got the Wawa cheesesteak. And also he seemed. This is going to be a controversial take of mine. Cheesesteaks are a basic enough sandwich. I don't think it matters too much where you get one.

[B]

Dude. I got. Actually, no, no, I, I actually agree that I think like for a lot of like the overweight foodies out there, they do this whole like, oh, you've got to go to the one in North Philly that's in like a hole in the wall that's served out of a bucket. But that's the per. And they're like, no, no, that's the red bucket. You have to go to South Philly for the one out of the blue bucket. And you're like, if you're. If you're getting an authentic Philly cheesesteak anywhere in the city or like, like South Jersey or there's a lot of Philly crossover, you're going to be fine. You're going to be absolutely fine. They're all good. What you don't want to get is something where people call it a Philly cheesesteak, and it's not. It's just very obviously not a Philly cheesesteak where they, like, layer, like, I've seen people know, say that they're going to give me a filthy cheesesteak and I get something that has, like, roast beef on it. And I'm like, what is this? Like, this is not a cheesesteak in any way, shape or form. So it's like, as long as you actually understand what you're supposed to be making, you're fine, you know, speaking.

[A]

I think this is a total out of left field. But it's a thought crime that just came to me because you said that. I have a real thought crime for you that is very culinary. When it comes to roast beef, I prefer fast food roast beef, like, Arby's style roast beef over what you'd likely get at a nice restaurant with, like, the thicker pieces of beef. Like, I actually really like the weird thin slices of beef that are standard in fast food sandwiches. So much so that when I was most recently in South Dakota for a blast from the past, I went to the Hardee's that I went to as a kid, and I got one of them, and it was delicious.

[C]

There you go.

[A]

It's way better than restaurant roast beef.

[D]

Jack, I have a. I have a. I have a. I have a bigger question for the group here. It's off the topic list, but say Mexico won the World Cup. Do you think that they would riot and burn down our cities in celebration?

[B]

You mean the Mexicans that live here

[D]

illegally and legally, The Moroccans in the Netherlands? I think it. Some of them are like, third generation, and they're still rioting. They're still burning down that country.

[B]

All of Cal, all of California would be engulfed,

[A]

I think. I think they would probably celebrate. I don't think. Riot. I don't think. Have they done that? Do Mexicans really, like, riot or Hispanic areas riot over sports stuff? New York? They're not animals.

[D]

I mean. Well, I don't know. I think.

[A]

I think they'll be fine. I don't. It will be interesting. I. I think Mexico is underrated here because this game that they're playing today. And if they win it, their next one, they're both played in Mexico City, and Mexico City is higher up than Denver. It's like seven, 500ft in the air. That is, you have like one third less oxygen in every breath than you would normally. I just think a lot of these players, they're going to go to Mexico City and they're going to be super tired, and then Mexico will slip one goal past them and get the win.

[C]

It's going to. It's Ecuador that's playing against me.

[A]

True. So it's about this. Almost all or a lot of the Ecuador players, over half of them are from one small part of Ecuador that only has 3% of the people. So it'd be like if all of America's players came from, like, Alabama or something. And because it's the only part of Ecuador that has, like a high black population. So they're all really athletic there, but they're not from the highlands, so. And they play in Europe. So other than when they play national team games in Quito, they're not actually playing at a high altitude the way Mexico is.

[B]

I'm trying to think of something. Wasn't there another, like some kind of sport where it's like all the Olympians that have won or from like a certain, you know, one square of Europe or something like that? Do you remember, you know what I'm talking about at all?

[A]

I'm not sure about that. I do know that runners who are really good. Kenya has great long distance runners, but it's even more specific than that. It's from like one tribe in one small part of Kenya.

[B]

All God tier runners where I'm being assaulted. I'm getting assaulted by.

[D]

Whoa.

[B]

By. By a Phillies fan here

[A]

going on.

[B]

They're going to burn the city down over here, too. We got an Eagles fan over here.

[C]

Another.

[B]

All right, well, well, guys, guys, if. If I can. If I can. You know, I know this is on our subject list, and these guys were not planning to be here today, but they got in. I have a question. What did you guys. We guys, we watched the Toy Story and he man this weekend.

[D]

Right, right, right, right.

[B]

Which movie did you guys like better?

[D]

He man.

[C]

He man.

[B]

Why?

[D]

Because it's better.

[B]

Because it's man style. Because it's man style.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

And what does he man say?

[D]

I have the power.

[B]

Oh, I have the power. And AJ Are you grabbing stuff that's like swords and saying I have the power? Yes, yes. You like that?

[C]

Yes.

[B]

Like. Like sticks or anything?

[A]

Yes.

[B]

All right, get out of here. Okay. Thank you. Good work, guys.

[A]

He's got the power.

[B]

Oh, I get out, too. Oh, all right. I will soon.

[D]

Wait. The question, though, is, Jack, does Europe have enough power to run its ac?

[B]

Oh, o.

[D]

All right.

[B]

Why? I don't know if you want.

[A]

That was quite the pivot. That was the most aggressive pivot I ever heard Andrew pull off.

[B]

See, I was going.

[D]

I'm not even mad at. Just impressed.

[B]

But. But if you want to deal back to the ac, we can do that as well. Because I want to know, guys, I mean, we're getting hit with a heat wave. I don't know, Russ. I feel like we should hit the he man thing because they just said it.

[C]

Yeah, let's hit the.

[A]

Yeah, all right. Yeah, we'll have to do he man first. We'll get to the AC question.

[B]

He just said it. He just said it.

[A]

So I. I respect the pivot. That was an all timer pivot.

[C]

It was. It was a good try.

[A]

That was worthy of power, of grace.

[B]

We'll get there.

[A]

We will get there. Did I say that right? I never watched he man as a kid. That Full confession. I think this is one of those things where tiny differences in age make a huge difference. So, Jack, I know that you're what, a couple years older than me, and I guess this must mean you're a vastly bigger he man fan than I am. I never saw He Man.

[B]

I would honestly say. I would honestly say, like, you're right on the age question. That being said, though, I was, you know, I was familiar with the he man toys as a kid. I did not really watch the he man show as a kid.

[D]

I actually think you have to be older than Jack and I to. To have appreciated He Man.

[A]

It's like the cartoon.

[B]

My brother or he man was Gen X, and I am not Gen X.

[D]

Yeah, my brother is, like, five years older than me, and he watched he Man. So that's kind of like if you're.

[A]

I don't even think I saw that,

[D]

but I had the toys. I had the toys.

[A]

I never saw the toys either.

[D]

I think they were like leftover toys.

[A]

I think the only way I heard of he man was I would read. I went through that phase as a kid where I read Dave Barry books, like, Dave Barry humor books. And he has columns. He wrote about his son playing with he man toys and explaining, this is He Man. This is Men at Arms. This is these other guys.

[B]

Funny enough.

[A]

And I remember reading that and not being sure if this was real or Just something Dave Barry was making up.

[B]

Actually. Funny enough is Tom Wolfe also brings up He Man a lot in Bonfire the Vanities. Like, is he referring to himself as. Yeah, yeah. It's because. Well, the phrase Master of the Universe. And it's like the main character referred the. The guy who's like. He's like a bond trader. He's like, I'm a Master of the Universe. Like, he man. Like my kids toys. I'm a Master of the universe.

[A]

That's what. That's literally what it actually comes from.

[C]

That's funny.

[B]

That's what Masters the Universe comes from. Yes. It's a He man reference. And he says something about, like, kids, we should.

[D]

We should play some of the clips because I feel like if you're in the. Explain what. We have no idea what he man is.

[C]

Yeah, let's. Clip 6 is probably a good place to start.

[B]

This is a new movie. All right. Oh, no, there's the old. There's the old one. Okay. And the Masters of the Universe. AJ Madam Prince of Eternia, defender of the secrets of Castle Greyskull. This is Cringer, my fearless friend. Fabulous secret powers were revealed to me the day I held aloft my magic sword and said, by the power of Grayson, Go. Cringer became the mighty Battle cat, and I became he man, the most powerful man in the universe. Only three others share this secret. Our friends the Sorceress and Orko. Together, we defend Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.

[A]

Yeah, I'm looking. I literally dug out the PDF of Bonfire of the Vanities while we watched that clip. And it says, the Masters of the Universe were a set of lurid, rapacious plastic dolls that Sherman McCoy's otherwise perfect daughter liked to play with. They looked like Norse gods who lifted weights. And they had names such as Drakon, aor, Mangle, Red and Blue Tong. They were unusually vulgar, even for plastic toys. And yet one day, in a bit of euphoria, he had picked up the telephone and taken an order for zero coupon bonds that had brought him a $50,000 commission. And just like that, the phrase bubbled into his head. I am a Master of the Universe.

[B]

Yeah. And so, like, McCoy is saying that, like, throughout the novel.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, it does. But I just love that description of the choice. Are those actually even he man characters? Dracon, Blue Tong? Are those.

[B]

I think. No, I think that might be, like, you know, and then this is, like, classic Tom Wolf. That might be, like, what McCoy's daughter called them, but that's not what they're actually called.

[A]

Apparently, blue tongue is a viral disease that ruminant species can get. Oh, I think they want to make a dog out of that.

[B]

So that was the original He Man. All right. That was the original he man, everybody. You know, you're probably more familiar with that. And then there's the new movie, which just came out, like, a week or two ago. I'm gonna try to get this back on track here. And do we want to play that trailer as well?

[C]

Yeah, let's do it.

[B]

All right, let's do it. So that was 80, the 1980s show, and this is the new film, which just dropped. 1983. It just dropped a month ago, give or take. I know most of you don't remember me, but I know all of you. Even though I was stuck light years away on Earth, Lotus battle pad replaces the lions. I never stopped trying to get back home. Everything changed since you left Saka. Skeletor attacked my family. And he destroyed our world. Probably some of the better CGFs. It's all my thoughts. Like the mirror, I know how it feels to fail. Take the sword and when you fall, that's your a chance to stand tall. I have the power.

[A]

The universe shall quicken my shadow.

[B]

This is my home. I'm gonna fight for it. But I can't do it without you. Somebody wants to brawl. I need every man, woman, or whatever that is.

[D]

You may have the power,

[A]

but you're

[D]

too scared to use it.

[B]

Trust me, I know how to use it.

[D]

You tell everyone that you're from another planet. It just makes you sound a little very crazy.

[A]

Okay, Jack, I'm gonna. I'm gonna say a few things, being brutally honest here. First of all, I saw that trailer in theaters a few months ago, and it is the first time I ever saw a movie and immediately Googled on my phone. Yes, I pulled up my phone and Google during the previews. Did they make this movie using AI because it looks very AI.

[C]

The trailers did not do this movie any help.

[A]

Like, also, it's a little weird to me because it's. It seems like they're saying this is the rise of he man. So it's his origin story. But it seems like.

[B]

Yeah, it's like an or. It's like a prequel.

[D]

Like.

[B]

Like it's an origin story, like a reboot.

[A]

But at the start, he's already like. He's like X he Man. He has amnesia and he's working as an accountant in New York or something.

[C]

He gets teleported from yeah, Grayskull to Earth. And then he grows up on Earth.

[D]

What's the thought?

[C]

Trying to figure out where the.

[B]

So, so here's, here's the thought crime. This, this I want to bring up as a thought crime. And I've written and I'm not even going to like get into reviewing like whether it's a good movie or like it. The movie's got issues. Like I'm not even gonna say that it's like the perfect movie or something. Music is actually really cool. If you hear that guitar. The reason that it actually sounds like Queen is because it's literally Brian May. They got him back to do the, the soundtrack and he has new original songs for the film. But the thought crime here is that my kids loved this thing. You saw them just running in and talking about it. They've been obsessed with it ever since they watch it, especially the little one. And, and what struck me was this is a film and more specifically the character of he man where it's a depiction of masculinity in such a way that you just don't find anywhere else in the mainstream of entertainment. In children's entertainment. You don't find anything anywhere where you've just got a big muscle bound guy who in a very positive way is just wailing on, on bad guys. And there's something about that where you just put a sword in a young boy's hand and have him hold it up and say, I have the power. That actually speaks to something that's very, very positive for young kids. And so I, at first I like wasn't super into it, but then when I saw the reaction that they had to it, it made me appreciate it more because I was kind of thinking about it in contrast of all the other things that are out there in media today, that this is something for young boys that they could look to and say, you know what? I want to be a hero just like he man. I can be just like he man. And look, if you're, you know, someone who's got a young girl right now, there's everything, it's everything is all female coded or feminine coded. Whereas he man is like the one thing where it's just like, yeah, I'm a dude who's got the power of the cosmos, the power of the sword. And you know what? I'm going to use it. And by the way, the fact that it's a white guy doing that, they didn't like, you know, they did re swap man at arms, but they did not. But it's interesting. I mean, and they did not gender swap or race swap or do any of that nonsense. It's, it's. It's something where I said, you know what? This is actually good for young boys to see and that we should take them to see it. And Blake, if you wanted to tie this in, there's something in the psychology of specifically the toys of the series, which I'm sure they're going to try to sell a lot of toys to kids like mine that. That actually is at play here.

[A]

Yeah. So that's what we were thinking of linking it to here because he man infamously was originally created to basically sell toys. In fact, I think the toys existed and then they made the show and then now the show. It all loops around. But it turned into a thing that I guess is pretty old, but I only learned of it yesterday. And it's the. We were debating what to call this, the. The Batman to Barbie pipeline, the Batman shopping idea. But it's literally how kids engage with toys, which is pretty funny because I

[B]

was reading that versus Barbie. Yeah, it's like reading the psychologies.

[A]

Yeah, well, it's reading the excerpt here from the. That book where it's his daughter playing with the toys. And we should wonder how is she playing with the toys? So it's. It's this take that someone had. Let me bring it up here. Just a classic text.

[B]

Classic 4chan green text, by the way.

[A]

Yes. So what happens is this is all. Someone else brought it up, but it's the Batman shop.

[B]

I can't believe you never saw this before, by the way.

[A]

Yeah. So here's what someone alleged on. On 4chan ages ago, Lego did a study when they created the Lego friends line for girls where they discovered that when a boy plays with a toy of a character, it's totally different from how it is with a girl. The boy tries to become the character. The girl wants the character to become her. So the example he gives you give a boy a Batman toy. He wants to know what is Batman's origin, what is Batman's idea, how does Batman act and behave? And he'll play with Batman with Batman doing Batman things. So he'll, you know, he'll be motivated. I have to get revenge for my parents, but I can't kill anybody because Batman's not allowed to do that. He's going to talk like this all the time, all of that. The girl, on the other hand, is going to take Batman and she's going to make Batman do girl stuff. Batman will go shopping he will bake cookies. He will go to the prom. He'll go to the bat prom. And there's. There's exceptions, he says, but the data says this is what's going on there. And then this leads into. This is arguably the reason that Star wars and so many other things have gone downhill after Kathleen Kennedy and similar people have taken over. Because when they're handed a property, they think, how can I make this property more like me?

[D]

True.

[A]

As opposed to how do I steward this property in a way that makes sense with it? So does Star wars do stuff that makes sense Star wars terms or are they just turning Star wars into Rey has to go to the prom.

[C]

That's what they're doing. That's what they're doing. It's actually kind of funny.

[D]

I can vouch for this by the way. My, my children, my, my son, specifically with Star wars. Ever since I took him to go see Mandalorian, which Jack is still upset at me about, but like, he's obsessed with mando Mandalorian toys.

[B]

We should hold ourselves to the same standard.

[D]

I didn't actually, you know, call anybody to, to do anything. So there's that.

[B]

Somebody isn't watching the episodes he's on.

[D]

I digress. No, no, no. I saw the chat. I knew exactly. But I just, you know, listen, my son wanted to go. I had a great time with him. Anyways, he's. He is. He's doing all the mando things. He's not making mando do. Do whatever, you know, he thinks he should do. It just seems like he, he's. And, and the other part that really resonates here is where you learn everything about him. He knows, like, mando facts, like about the character, about his weapons that are pretty obscure. And he's kind of done that all on his own. Like, I haven't been leading him down any path or anything. So I can say lived experience totally matches this description.

[B]

So actually, so that's exactly what my boys are doing. Just real quick with, with he man is they're doing the exact same thing. It's like, you know, okay, who is mom and dad? Okay, got it. And what's the deal with the cat? The cat change. The tiger changes to battle cat when he has the power. Okay, cool. And they, they want to learn all those things about him. But then it's also that I think the deeper thing that they were talking about here is like. So it's, it's like a role playing in the sense that, hey, I can be he man. I can Be whatever, you know, Star wars character you just made up. I can be Batman in this situation. And it's sort of like giving that actual empowerment. Whereas with Lego, when they did. Because Blake, in the, the thing you read, they talked about the LEGO Friends line and the LEGO Friends line, this is very similar to Barbie where it's like they make personalized characters that you can go in and then customize, which is totally separate from like every other LEGO set that's ever been made before. And this was how, this was the psychology that allowed LEGO to finally open up the, the female market. The, the market to young girls that, you know, that they found that girls wanted that kind of toy more, whereas boys wanted to do role playing. And so rather than we've, you know, we've all seen this trope with like, the girls will have like the, you know, every Toy Story they talk about it. We're like the, the girl will have the toys go. The action toys go to like a tea party. Right? You know, that's because that's what girls do. Whereas boys want to fight and, and play with, with the toys and view themselves as the toys. There was actually that cool series, the Toys that Make Us. Do you guys ever see that on Netflix?

[C]

No.

[B]

Or, or I think it was YouTube maybe, that talks about how the toys were made. And one piece, I wrote this up for Human Events that when the toys were first made, to Blake's point, that they let them play with, they just let kids play with the toys. And some of the boys were going back and forth saying, I have the power. No, I have the power back. And that's where they got the line from, was just actual kids playing in, in like a focus group. And one of the things that they, they dug through and realized was that when you're a young boy, but you're constantly surrounded in areas where women have like total authority, right? You're at home and mom's the boss. You know, for most of the day. You go to school then and you know, the teaching staff is mostly female and so they feel powerless. But now, now when I have this, I get to be he man and he man has all of the power. So it's actually, it was a repudiation of the Longhouse back then. Whereas, like today, the system has only gotten worse. The situation has only gotten worse because the Longhouse of the female run, consensus driven world is like literally everywhere you go. And you know, we might disagree on this, but I actually took the first part of the movie as actually sort of showing that because in the film when it starts out that's kind of the joke is that he man actually works in an HR department and he has this like, he has this like feminist girl boss director and he gets fired. It doesn't go very well.

[A]

So speaking of how girls play with toys, I think there's kind of funny old proof of this which is clearly based on probably what an early Pixar animators own kids were doing. But the original Toy Story, back before there was four and five and all these other and the gay Buzz Lightyear movies, we had the original Toy Story, which is amazing. And you may remember there's a scene where Buzz ends up in the hands of Sid's little sister and Woody goes to rescue him. And let's show how they portrayed her playing with them. Let's do clip 16.

[B]

Hey Buzz, are you okay?

[C]

Gone.

[B]

I called it.

[D]

It's all gone.

[B]

Oh, it's gone.

[D]

Bye bye. Who's here?

[B]

What happened to you?

[D]

One minute you're defending the whole galaxy

[B]

and suddenly you find yourself sucking down

[D]

Darjeeling with Marie Antoinette and her little sister.

[A]

I think you've had enough tea for today.

[B]

Let's get you out of here. Buzz. Don't you get it? You see the hat? I am Mrs. Nesbit. Snap out of it, Buzz. I, I, I'm, I'm sorry.

[D]

I, you're right.

[B]

I am just a little depressed, that's all.

[D]

I, I, I can get through this.

[B]

Oh, I'm a champ. I can't even fly out of a window. But the hat looked good.

[A]

Tell me the hat look good.

[D]

The apron is a bit much.

[B]

Out the window by Furious. Come on, this way. Years of academy training waste.

[A]

Oh, I love the original. I AM Mrs. NASBET Telling me the hat looks.

[B]

Yeah, that's exactly the point, right? That's the point that like the little girl made. Buzz Lightyear, who's a, you know, an action spaceman, secret agent kind of character into.

[A]

She put him in the long house. She put him in the long system. There's a natural, the counterpoint here though, that I'm saying. So, okay, girls will do this with boy toys. Do you see the opposite?

[D]

Like will.

[A]

Will boys, if put into this situation, like where they only have Barbies to interact with, will they, will they play house or will they make her the girlfriend of Batman? I don't. Do your boys ever play with girl coded toys in any capacity, Jack?

[B]

No, no, that might be the issue. There's been times where like we're like, they've gone over like Tanya will Have girlfriends or something who have daughters. And if we're like, arrange a play date, like, they will just march right past the girl toys and pick up like a ball or something else. Like, they just. It's like they don't even exist.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Which is good. But it does strike me, if we're gonna engage with the thought crime here, there might be an issue there if they're saying boys will get into the headspace of the toy. Well, yeah, if the toy is awesome, but if the toy is domestic.

[C]

So my parents actually took it a step further and use essentially this thought process as why, growing up, we weren't allowed to watch Star Wars. We weren't allowed to watch Batman or Superman, which is hilarious because I'm a giant nerd. There was. We essentially. We'd watch Animal Planet, Discovery Channel, the History Channel. But then there was this animated show called Rescue Heroes, which is essentially. They just made police officers, firemen, lifeguards, doctors, like, all these heroes. And so the whole show is literally just them. Like, oh, we have a wildfire. We have to go save the people. And literally you had like, essentially a he man style toys, but it was Billy Blazes the fireman. And he had like a mustache and everything.

[A]

And would they, like, all team up with each other? So the paramedic just shows up to help.

[C]

It was literally like Avengers or Justice League, but like, for, like, first responders.

[A]

Did they have one guy who had, like a really niche skill? Like, they'd have the Coast Guard guy who's good at water. Just desert rescue or something.

[C]

The Coast Guard guide actually had a pet dolphin that helped him on Rescue.

[A]

That's a. That's actually pretty awesome.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

And then literally you had these toys where you would have like a ship or there was like a big aircraft carrier. It was literally the Avengers and Justice League.

[D]

But for first, I feel like the

[A]

real fantasy here is various public safety departments envisioning what they would do with an unlimited budget. Like have a giant aircraft carrier for water rescues. Angelo. I'm glad we have dads.

[D]

Wayne.

[A]

And Angelo does point out that boys do exactly one thing if they get their hands on a Barbie doll. I think saying that you can imagine it's dredging up childhood memories of myself.

[B]

Yeah, yeah, we all know what that is.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Don't give Barbies weird stuff.

[B]

Don't give Barbies your boys. And. And yet positive depictions of masculinity are good for young boys. And I think that we should support those. And that's why I'm saying just, you know, Put, put a sword in your young kid's hand. I mean, if you're a boy or if you have boys or, you know, grandsons that you'll see that kids, young boys will automatically. They'd be walking down the street and they pick up a stick and suddenly that stick turns into a sword and they're on an adventure. And teach them that they have the power. And this is key. Do not ever let anyone tell them they don't.

[A]

Exactly. I say even a bigger picture thing there a thing that bothers me. You'll have these adults who will say, this is a great kids show because it engages with. With more nuance or whatever. We made a character and their parents are divorced and they have a messed up home life. And I'm really wondering if that should be basically considered very bad behavior for anyone who's under the age of 11 or 12 or something. Because I feel like we actually benefit if you give kids zero irony. Be an awesome superhero. And they're on a team of other awesome superheroes who do heroic good stuff and they beat the bad guys. You don't want all these weird moral layers and ambiguities going on because then they'll just, they'll just be messed up in the head. And you want them to be superheroes.

[B]

Yeah. And oh, by the way, I should also add, and since I appreciate you guys indulging this topic, because I do think it's important for parenting, it's not just about he man, but where did the original he man kind of fall off? Like, why was something that was so popular that controlled like the entire, you know, kid space, kid dumb until, you know, the late 80s. And I. I argue that it was when they introduced he Man's sister, she Ra, and they went all in on she Ra and she Ra became the twin sister of he Man. And then suddenly it wasn't just he has the power, it's that she has the power too. And were there some girls that brought it? I'm. I'm sure. But, you know, what did it do? I think it turned off a lot of the boys and it was something that kind of like, you know, made it so that this. The franchise just did not continue through the 90s and never really took off again in the way that it had before. And I think it was because they messed up the psychology.

[D]

The deprogramming of feminism in our culture is something that's worth thinking about and studying. I recently became aware of the fact that when the original suffragettes were kind of pushing their propaganda Guess who their main opponent was? It was actually women. Women. So they would do these votes across the country. And you know, in Massachusetts for example, they, they did some vote on women suffrage and it was like 94 to 6. The women were against it. So it's very interesting when you think about this was like 150 year project, maybe even longer really back to the 1840s. It has been so long in the making, so deeply ingrained in the psyche of the culture that you kind of can't really. It's hard to understand for each person where the programming begins and ends. So we've all been totally propagandized about this stuff. And I. It is a weird phenomena when it comes to the male psyche. And I totally agree with you on this Jack. Men, if you celebrate them and push them and champion them, they will go from boys to men. They will become fully formed human adults with strength, power and authority. If you don't, if women swarm, they will shrink back. It's. I don't know if you want to call that that is a weakness of the, of the sex. I don't know. But there is a thing that if you, if you cut off a man's development early, he will not fully form. He will become a weak man, he will become a shrinking violet. He will do all the things that we don't want men to do. But if you champion him and he gets fully formed, he's unstoppable. And so I, you see this in the workplace. One of the things that I keep thinking about and Blake, Blake was the one who actually brought this to my attention was the Helen Andrews piece where she's talking about the great awokening that the, the females are starting to over populate in corporate spaces. They're becoming the majority in corporate spaces. I think we can't underestimate how disastrous this can be because there is something about men. You see this at university now. It's what 62% of degrees go to women now at this point like which is obscene. When men used to dominate, used to be like 80, 20. It's like invading locusts. I, I mean no disrespect to the women, but you got to champion men or they will shrink back. But once they become fully formed, once they become powerful, they'll become the protectors of your civilization. So I totally agree Jack. We need to encourage young men to watch he man. I think it's great, it's great programming, it's great for the development of young boys minds. But there is something about women. They'll just keep coming. They'll just keep coming and men will shrink back. And maybe it is a weakness of the male sex, but you gotta promote them, you gotta champion them.

[B]

Totally agree.

[A]

Yeah, I think that's all great. I think the biggest picture thing of all is it illustrates the importance of dudes specifically really need implicitly all male spaces. And some of that is actual organizations. I think the Boy Scouts clearly went into a tailspin when they started letting girls in. I don't think that's surprising, but it's.

[D]

Even with things.

[A]

It's like you said with the he man thing, guys are going to want a thing that is just the guy thing. I think it's really messed with the military that we've let women into it. I think in an existential way, it's just guys. This probably goes back to the step when the original proto Indo Europeans were expanding with their horse warrior legions to conquer the entirety of Europe and India and the Middle east and all of that. But they got to have their, their group of dudes. You got to have dudes Rock club.

[D]

This is why I think it's. I think it's diabolical that women always want to invade male spaces. It's completely diabolical because we so fundamentally need those spaces. We need those shows, we need those programmings, we need those, those experiences as young people. And so they all get attacked.

[A]

That's what they're doing though. Every single one, all biological. There women have the biological need to push against this. And they are testing if we have the resolve to say no. And deep down I think they want us to say no. But are we going to be strong enough to do it?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

Are we going to be strong enough to say no? We're not going to greenlight the she Ra movie. Women are crying out. Women are crying out across America. Don't make a she Ra movie. Don't let it happen. But they're saying the opposite. And we have to be strong enough

[D]

to remember when they did that Ghostbusters with all women.

[C]

Oh, that was terrible.

[A]

Yeah, See, they didn't actually want to make my head Ghostbusters. They were saying, I want to make chick Ghostbusters. Crying out for a man to say no. That that's not necessary.

[B]

Kind of like the new Supergirl movie, which we haven't even talked about.

[A]

But just again, we're not even going to dignify that with an extended discussion.

[C]

I will say, having watched both, I'm glad that he man is out there, that, that they can go that There is an opinion, like, how did it do.

[D]

It's already been out for like a month. How did it do, Jack?

[A]

It didn't do great.

[B]

No, he man did not do well. And I.

[C]

It definitely did better than Supergirl, to be fair.

[B]

It depends. Supergirl. But it did not do that well. And I would argue that's because they didn't lean into this type of marketing and doing it this way, you know, saying, hey, this is a movie for boys. And it's unapologetically a movie for boys. Because in the marketing, they kind of played up, you know, some of these other aspects. And I think that. I think that people maybe got the wrong take on it. Or they saw him sitting at a desk with pronouns, and they didn't think that it was like a. Like a satire. It was making fun of the pronouns.

[C]

The first hour is pretty female coded.

[A]

And, well, and they do this. I think that I didn't care for looking at that trailer. They throw in the, you know, they throw the little I know how to use it joke and a few similar things. Like, they actually. They dilute what could be a boy adventure with a handful of bits of. Call it Joss Whedon esque humor, you know, to make it flippant and light. And this is totally. It appeals to millennials.

[D]

Look at this.

[A]

I. I think it's a big misfire. It reminds me of when they made. When they made the Power Rangers movie about a decade ago. And I saw it, and I just thought I saw. Because I was a huge Power Rangers nut as a kid. And I thought the way to do that movie would have been you go 10 out of 10. It's cartoonish. Everyone's making weird Japanese hand gestures as they talk, just like in the show. And they're all super earnest. All the kids are do gooders, just like they are in the show. And you just give it a bigger budget and it'd be really entertaining. And instead they did that where they made it. Oh, the kids are. They're now like bad boys and girls. They meet in detention and one of them, like, she's. She feels. She's, like, disgraced because she shared, I think, nude photos of a friend, like, to. To hurt her, and then that friend killed herself or something. They added all this darkness and I'm like, this is a Power Ranger.

[B]

That was in Power Rangers.

[A]

Yeah, they had this in Power Rangers. And it just totally messed up.

[C]

Well, I mean, we did go through a phase of the same time. It was the same time that we had revenge porn In Power Rangers four Stick.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

Josh Trank, where it was like every superhero movie.

[A]

Darker and edgier. It was so bad. It was, it was that.

[B]

It was that a lot of that.

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

We need to, we have too much irony in our society.

[B]

We're.

[A]

We need to take the irony out and tell kids they should be awesome because awesome people.

[C]

Yeah. We need corn. Corny is okay. Yeah, it's okay to be corny.

[D]

Reminds me, it reminds me of what my pastor used to say. He would just like. Because we always like present those like, oh, he was a drug dealer and he went to prison and now he gave his life to Jesus and he's like, I want to make a church. I want to like, like support and preach to a church that has a lot of boring testimonies. Like, you know, like, we don't need everybody to be their life story to be, you know, something you could turn into a novel. Okay. So like, let's just keep it straight. Here's what's interesting though. Blake, you are right about this. Demographic failure is what they say. Audience data from Variety revealed the movie heavily relied on nostalgia, attracting an audience that was 66 male. Not a bad thing actually. But here's the bad thing. And 40 over the age of 45, it completely failed to capture younger crowds with children under 12 making up only 4% of the audience. So something to Jack's point that could have been so good for young people didn't get to any young people anyway.

[A]

45, they're really, they're just dragging this like, hey, well this, I mean, what is this?

[D]

Wasn't it the first trailer?

[C]

They kept bouncing between the 1983 he man and the new. Like they kept kind of interspersing the scenes. So that was, it was very much. Yeah, they were going after the nostalgia.

[D]

But get this. MGM studios may still greenlight a sequel because it is a considered a core IP asset and can drive prime video streaming subscriptions and long term ecosystems.

[B]

MGM's owned by Amazon.

[C]

I can see this. I could see this movie becoming a streaming hit. I could absolutely see this movie becoming a streaming hit. Because especially if you have the ability to forward and rewind, you can forward through the first hour of this film and just, and kids will just literally just enjoy the action part.

[B]

Yeah, my, my, my five year old, to your point, he'll be like, he'll be like, daddy, I don't want to watch the talking parts.

[C]

Yeah, exactly. Well, and that's, and that's the biggest thing is like, give me the.

[B]

I just Want to watch the he man parts.

[C]

That first hour is very like two different movies for sure.

[D]

Yeah, yeah. And Amazon does own if they turn into a stream.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So Amazon owns mgm. So something to be said. And you know, obviously Disney has been, you know, Andrew, this is more your lane lane of. Of country. But something I know Disney has been experimenting with this as well is sort of like the in the theater plus on streaming, either simultaneous release or you do like a couple, you know, a couple weeks in theater and then you go to streaming. Because if you have a streaming service that's owned by the studio, which used to be separate. So it used to be separate income streams. Now it's the same company owns both. And so you can make your money back or you can do other things that make your money back with the streaming service. So that, that overall piece there of, you know, the box office isn't always going to be the end all be all. And of course Warner Brothers with D.C. their event, they just got bought out. You know, they're tied up in the big Paramount merger. So that's not totally. You know, it's not totally. The ink is not dried on that. I'm actually told by a guy who I know on the HBO side that they haven't fully vested etc or whatever. But you know, it's, it's. We're just changing the. The marketplace is basically what I'm saying.

[C]

There is a extra credit scene for he man that shows she Ra and it's high, it's heavily implied that it's gonna be Sydney Sweeney. So if, if they're gonna actually make money off of a movie, that would be the best way to do it is to have her be the. Be sheer.

[B]

Why not?

[D]

Well.

[A]

Oh my gosh. All right. We need to.

[D]

Speaking of, we need to move on

[A]

to the next which will, you know, while our mind is in the gutter, we may as well keep it there because we need to have a debate over ID verification because Congress is. They're not lurching into action on birthright citizenship. They're not lurching into action on a lot of things. But Democrats and Republicans have finally come together to say that we should restrict the Internet more. And we were actually having a big debate about this in our pre show chat. So we thought why not bring it

[B]

on air Segue here I guess is that this is. It's also about kids in a sense because there's an act that is going through Congress right now talking about, you know, and you look at the, that the headline of it. You know, you'd think this would be something that, that everyone would support that, that a lot of parents would support about banning children from accessing pornography online. This is obviously something that we can all agree is good. This is something that Charlie talked about at length, including, I believe, on this program and certainly obviously on the main show. And this is something that we all want to do. A lot of states have been adding these age verifications on at the state level for these websites. However, what this new bill is doing and. Oh gosh, that just passed the house, I believe. And Blake, if you have the name of it, you could help me.

[A]

It has just that lovely name, the Kids Internet and Digital Safety act, which, yeah, I've been around the block enough to say, like that's a name very quickly think of the children.

[D]

So, so that all sounds good, sponsoring this stuff.

[B]

What are the problems with it? And yet, let's see if it's pushed by Meta.

[A]

It's. I don't know. I think the main, the person they bother to name in this write up about it is Senator Marsha Blackburn, who is a Republican. But I mean, it actually passed with bipartisan support. I just, you know, if you look at the details, it says that companies have to have ways to limit addictive features in their apps for kids. You need to have policies in place to protect children from sexual exploitation. A Senate version, which would be even tougher, would add a duty of care on social media companies for young people. Which, that strikes me as something that would be really dangerous because you're essentially creating this unlimited ambit for the government to come in and say, oh, this company, it wasn't following its duty of care towards children. We can blow it to smithereens. And all I can think of is that would be so easy to blow up Twitter, for example, X and say, oh, you were allowing kids to get access to inappropriate content because it was racist, because it was pornographic, because it was any number of things. Better blow it to smithereens. And that's why I'm always wary of any online safety bill.

[D]

Personally, I don't understand why the, why we don't just do something. I don't. But. Well, okay, go ahead.

[C]

So.

[B]

So you're asking why is matter behind it? It says meta. Just real quick, Meta is behind it because this puts the onus on the App Store and the Play Store and gives immunity to what they refer to as like the social media providers. So Facebook, etc. Those guys would have protections, whereas they're saying the onus is now on the, it's like it's at the phone level basically.

[C]

Well, and that's a lot of that also has to be because like Facebook has already done a bunch to, to limit access to, to like Facebook and to Instagram with kids. Like you've got, you now have parental controls, you now have time controls.

[D]

Well, they're, they're limiting liability. It's all about limit liability. Right. And I, I don't understand why. So I would love the option. So I sign up for Internet at my house. Right. I pay the Internet service provider a monthly fee. I would love the, the, the option to opt in to a, any of these porn websites are disallowed in your house. And if you want to like go in the back end and like they get one of them wrong or something. But if somebody created like a database that, hey, these what these websites are unavailable at your house, I would opt into that for the sake of my family, for the sake of the Internet, for the sake of the country. I think a lot of families would. That seems to be. If you're just dealing with porn, that's one thing these guys. This thing is too broad, broad sweeping and I think it opens the Pandora's box of censorship and you know, potentially creating criminal liability or civil liability on stuff that should be the parents domain. That's my, my first instinct here.

[B]

Yeah. So I mean I'm sure there's, I'm sure there's like apps or VPNs that already do that. And you're absolutely right. There should be something that is done at the service provider level. The issue that I see with it, of course though, from a privacy standpoint though, and this is what I've seen a lot of pushback online is people are saying, well wait a minute, you know, is this going to create some giant government database where you, where the government can then see every single person who's associated with a certain username online. And I'm, I'm a huge support. So if, if that's true, I'm totally opposed to something like that because I think, look, the MAGA movement would not exist without Internet anonymity. We've all lived in a world where we have seen people canceled over anonymous writings that have later then been, you know, attributed to them or just, you know, regular writings that have attributed to them that are totally, just totally normal opinions, you know, as we keep meaning to cover it but like the opinions of a normal person 30 years ago. And I think that we live in a time that, where we're totally controlled by the Longhouse. We're totally controlled by our institutions, are controlled by our enemies. We had debanking going on up until like five minutes ago of conservatives. And so, you know, giving away Internet anonymity would be a very, very foolish move to do. Unlike the grand chessboard.

[C]

I don't think, I don't think we are. I don't think you need anonymity all the time though. Like, I don't, I don't think that there is a reason to like, yeah, sure. Is it nice to sometimes be able to like not like be able to kind of COVID your thing yourself. But I don't think anonymity, especially on the Internet is anything more than a smokescreen because everybody has an iPhone, everybody uses their face id. Everybody. Or not just Russ, not just an iPhone.

[D]

But think about it. So listen, I think your heart's in the right place. But think about it in terms of politics, right? How many amazing conservative right wing maga accounts existed simply because they were able to be anonymous and tell the truth online? If they would have, their identities would have been docs, then they would have lost their jobs. They would have been, you know, we're in this unique position where we're able to be say, say and do and think what we, what we want freely and not be fired for it. Not be sent to the HR team where that's just not the case for a lot of people. They have, they have to protect their identities. I remember when this debate became front and center, I was like, it was like Jordan Peterson vs. Cerno is the way I remember it. Do you remember this? Post office Jordan Peterson was raging against the Anon accounts and it was like, well, you know,

[B]

I'm going to hold him to this. Jordan Peterson 1.0 in 2017 went on Joe Rogan and was celebrating anons online and was saying that like these, these accounts are great. I love it. They're so good. They, they say things that no one else can can say. You need to be anonymous in a time like this. Like the guide literally was like preaching Solzhenitsyn who obviously, you know, lived in the Soviet Union. So at a time, at a place where the anonymity was necessary or you could, you could die. And then all of a sudden Jordan Peterson like totally flipped on that during like Covid.

[A]

Okay, I will say what totally happens is there are people who are broadly in favor of anonymity or they turn against it and crash out over it because anonymous people fights with them online and they can't Handle it, which I think is kind of little lame and pathetic. I think there's also just 100%. I've seen people who think, oh, people who are anonymous basically shouldn't be allowed to have takes. I've seen that. I think Richard Hanani has argued that. And then there's also just how to put it, like, some people just can't handle anonymous people existing. And I think it's actually a very important right, that if you have the ability to say something, you should be able to say it anonymously, period. And another thing I would add is if you've been around online enough, you've seen sometimes journalists or activists will be feuding with someone, and they're clearly trying to goad somebody into giving them their identity just so they can go and mess with their life and mess around with them. I mean, it's happened with all of the lunatic conspiracy theorists around, Charlie. They want to probe into everyone's personal life. I've seen them do this to random people pushing back against them online. You have to have their ability to be anonymous because it is one of the fundamental tools that an ordinary person has to resist those who want to act tyrannically against them. Sometimes that's government. Sometimes that's just organizations and companies. Sometimes it's just people who have more social power than you.

[C]

But are we really saying that the government doesn't already have a list of people with their handles and they can't find out? They can't find.

[A]

They have a lot, but it's a pain in the butt for them. And there's weird bureaucratic obstacles that if you tear them down, will make it a lot easier for them, for sure. Weaponize.

[C]

But look at prison.

[D]

Prism was.

[C]

Was a thing and was taking on our. Taking all of our data for years before it ever got whistleblown. So. So saying that the government doesn't already.

[D]

You know, I will say, though, it's like, this is where I get really torn up on the Palantir debate. You know, because they're trying to build databases and get the different agencies to talk to each other so that the government is, you know, know, like, for example, the Social Security Administration knows what the. Well, well, welfare and Medicaid know, et cetera, et cetera. I support that because I want to get rid of illegals off the rolls. I want to get them off the. I want to detect fraud. But yeah, there is a. There is a point where you're kind of like, I do want to be able to be left alone and not Surveilled all the time. If I want to be, you know, and there needs to be, there needs to be a line.

[B]

So, yeah, I mean, I guess I'm arguing this from a pragmatic perspective, whereas obviously I want to protect Internet anonymity online as much as possible. Having been a guy who had Palantir access and not Prism access, but access to other things. It's it like the, the, the user in the intelligence community doesn't have the ability to just like look up anything like that. Like, there are still, as Blake says, there are all these like hoops you have to jump through. There are bureaucratic protections, etc. You can't just like blanket go after people the way that you could potentially if you were like say a bad actor at Apple or Google. And we certainly know that there are lots of bad actors at Google, probably Apple as well. And certainly if you look at their founder's ex and the way that she spends her money, the widow. And when you don't want to make it easy for these companies to be able to do that, number one. But number two, to Andrew's point, that this is where libertarianism fails, and I think we've talked about this a number of times, is that they keep saying like, oh, we shouldn't give the government this power, we shouldn't give the government this power. And then along comes someone who just gives the government that power and then suddenly they have it. And now you're stuck in a corner arguing that they shouldn't have it, but they're never going to give up said power. So the only actual viable option left to you is to take over the government. Because you have to control the sword, right? You must. It's going back to he man, right? You have to be the one who picks up the sword and says, this is mine now. And then you must defend it. Because just because power can be wielded in an abusive way doesn't mean that you should just like sit in the corner and argue like, oh, well, we shouldn't do anything that's going to give ourselves power because eventually they will find a way to get power and come after you. And we've certainly all experienced that. We've all seen that throughout the Biden era, no question, Merrick Garland. And it is where you just need to fight back. You just need to be able to fight back.

[D]

Well, isn't this law though, Jack? Isn't this law like if you, if you're trying to look at porn or something like that, you have to put in like an id, isn't that part of this law?

[B]

I think that's the state law that's

[D]

currently where the state law like that. I know, yeah.

[B]

This is a law that says if you, I guess want to download apps, you have to, you have to put in government id.

[D]

See that? That's very uncomfortable.

[A]

Yeah, I kind of, I think there's eccentric ways to go about this that would make it better too. So for example, one of the ideas I've liked for, for adult websites for pornographic ones is you'd have the requirement that you have to pay for it even if it's 10 cents. You have to actually go and input a credit card into it. You know, maybe you, maybe you go and get one of those prepaid ones if you want to get around it. But I think one, a lot of people will finally be attacked with shame when they're realizing I am pain for this dirty product. And two, it's just, it's a useless, annoying to get over well, so you're increasing the commitment needed to get it.

[C]

And that's essentially what the states are relying on by having you put in your government ID because you have to essentially take a picture of your id. And so it is that.

[D]

Yeah, listen, I'm all for good ideas to like reduce porn consumption, especially amongst young people, but like when you get into the point where you have to put an idea and there's just something about that that feels again like counter could have as Americans again I, I think there should be massive, massive tools to fight back against this stuff. But like having to put your ID in to download an app, I don't know, like that just, it just feels like there's against the spirit of the Internet.

[B]

Well, one of the arguments, I was just pulling up some stuff about it was, was they were pointing out that one of the reasons that meta maybe for this so much is that this actually to your point earlier, takes the liability away from meta and takes the liability away in the way that the state laws are actually are actually much stricter. So the state laws are stricter, but obviously a state law couldn't countermand a national law. So that's why meta and probably a bunch of the other tech companies are sitting there saying, hey, the way that we can beat these state laws is by passing this national law, which is actually just going to be a thin veneer of regulation that isn't going to really prevent anyone from seeing this kind of stuff. But it gets a liability off our back.

[D]

Yeah, but here's the thing. Tech savvy kids are going to find a way around that, by the way. And the other thing that comes to mind is where are they going to go to get this stuff if they're not going, you know, on normal, the normal Internet, Are they going to like 4chan chats? Are they going to Reddit chats? Like, where are they going to go? Some sort of dark web corners where maybe they're, you know, I don't know. I, there, there's, there's just like a thousand bad things that can happen if you do, if you, if you start doing this. But again, I, I support it in, in spirit, but I just think like so many other things that conservatives end up doing from a legislative standpoint, the law of unintended consequences and they're betraying certain principles that we shouldn't betray. I don't know, you're here. Whatever Blake thinks.

[A]

I mean, my big take generally it's, you know, we think of ways to negotiate this. And my big take is basically that an almost fully anonymous Internet had essentially zero downsides. Everything we've done to curtail that has been because of panic attacks people had that. Was the Internet bad in 2014? Because that's how long ago you have to go back to basically totally unfettered, super anonymous, super free Internet. That's when Reddit still had subreddits that were.

[B]

And why did they take it away? They took it away.

[A]

Lives got mad because they thought it was. Oh yeah, they took it away because

[B]

Trump won because of the Anons in 2016, because Gamergate and then, and then, you know, sort of the online sphere in 2016 that it morphed into. That became the MAGA supporters that eventually, you know, and it's like those people kept getting unmasked and it's like, oh, it turns out that they were actually like people who are quite professional or quite intelligent that for whatever reason had been, you know, pushed out of their companies or pushed out of the academy or whatever it was, that that's why it became such a threat. And so we all praise Elon for, you know, for returning us to some semblance of that and allowing that to happen again. There aren't issues with X. One of which, by the way, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I think it's a huge mistake that pornography is allowed on X. I, I continue to say that that's a huge mistake. I think that Elon should take steps to, to correct that. I don't think that it, it should be Something that's allowed to be shared at all on access.

[A]

I think it's bad. Although I would note they had it was allowed on their back again during the super liberal free speech times as well. And I will say for how much mud is injected everywhere in life, I will say I never ever accidentally run into smut on.

[D]

I don't ever see it on X.

[A]

So they are pretty good at keeping

[B]

one problem with X. No, I'll just say it. One of the big problems is if you're using the advanced search tools that to where you're searching, like every tweet that a lot of these pornographers then will target, like trending topics or like city names that are trending and then put that in the description of the tweet. So if you're using an advanced Twitter search tool, which I use all the time, that then those tweets will start coming up so you won't see them. I just typically on like your actual algorithm, but if you're using advanced search or if you're just typed in like a, you know, you're searching for something like boom, you're just hit with it and you're like, what the heck is this?

[A]

I just on balance think that the ultra, you know, the liberalized Internet in the classical sense was basically a great thing. And it's only been downhill when it's been restricted in any way. And it's been. It's just annoyingly easy for the left to say this is for the kids. And they get the right on board with stuff that inevitably doesn't really protect kids much and does open the door to a bunch of other things. And even it's just. How often does this happen where they say, okay, we're worried about kids getting groomed on the Internet? I know that's a reasonable fear to think about, but actually how often does that happen versus, let's say the most mundane thing in the world? What would save more kids if we said we're gonna have this strict Internet control regime to stop groomers? Or actually you're not allowed to raise a kid with like, with like your mom's boyfriend, he's not allowed to live in the same house as you? I bet that would stop a lot more child abuse than any of this.

[D]

Yeah, I just want to, I just want to say it again. I would love if they just dealt with it at the Internet service provider level, like every house, like here's your Cox or here's your whatever Internet service. And they just said, do you want to opt in for the. For your children to ban these certain website. Yeah, it's great.

[C]

That's still gonna. I mean take something from Congress because no company is going to actually do that. Like like.

[D]

Well I mean there's already probably like third party culture. We live in groups that, that, that have it.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Parental controls aren't like a. A new thing like parental controls exist for like I have it for Roku for example. We have like a Roku house and you know I have it set up that like my kids can.

[D]

It just mean it'd be easier download and purchase and you get it at the source. You get it at the source because like right now it's like if I want to put parental controls I got to deal with like this streamer. This streamer. This like laptop whatever. Like we're not really at that phase yet, but sort of makes you wonder like you other. It's like whack a mole right now as opposed to just like hey, you can you know, opt into something simple. I. I think that would be a simpler solution. I think what you know, how, how decentralized it is and how different each platform is. You also have to learn each new thing that your kid can get and get access to in order to do it. I think it's a huge, huge problem and I think most parents are confused. How do you.

[C]

Andrew, it sounds like you need a

[D]

tech guy but if I, if I'm feeling like that Russian like how many

[B]

says how many of his parents his services.

[C]

I'm already my parents tech guy.

[B]

I don't need to be so I'm just. Hey, whoa, whoa. This opportunity man, like like pitch. Shoot your shot, man.

[D]

This is. It shouldn't be this hard. It shouldn't be this hard as a parent as that's all I'm saying. So. All right.

[A]

I want to make sure we've been going a while.

[D]

We don't.

[A]

We said we double back to this and I think we need to double back to it. We've got to double back to the AC question should real quick. Europeans have rights given that they have been granted freedom and they use it to deny themselves air conditioning like absolute psychopaths.

[B]

No, we need to shut down European governments until we can understand what the hell is going on. Because apparently in some countries they are actually I think it was the UK where they were shutting. There's a massive heat wave going on in Europe. Temperatures are like over 100 degrees Fahrenheit because that's. That's God's temperature system. We're not going to use anything else.

[D]

It's more granular.

[B]

It is more granular and we are going to use it, which is based off of water, which is the. The source of all life and. And as opposed to any other systems that.

[D]

They're all dying, Jack. They're all dying.

[B]

They're all dying because they're refusing to allow people to use air conditioning because they all believe in climate change. Blake, is this actually true?

[A]

Yes. It seems that the Europeans, who have largely abandoned Christianity and abandoned their great civilized, civilizing mission that uplifted the entire planet, they have now embraced the culture of decay, the culture of assisted suicide, and the culture of just overheating yourself

[C]

to death headed the way of the heathen.

[A]

I actually think this is a really. This is actually a profoundly important thing because the left itself is allowing the world to split into a political axis of pro air conditioning and anti air conditioning. And there are fewer. There are very few issues I think we can get a 9010 advantage on, and I think we can get that on. Air conditioning should exist and is awesome and we should put it in everything.

[C]

Now here. I gotta ask a question, Jack. What do you keep your thermostat at? Well,

[B]

you know, as a guy who has a European wife, this is constantly an issue in my household because, of course, Tanya Tay is, you know, not super, you know, not a super big fan of air conditioning to begin with. So we. We currently ride around like 71, 72.

[C]

Okay, Andrew, so that's.

[B]

Which represents a compromise to be sure.

[D]

Sep 74.

[A]

Okay, Blake, you answer first. No, no, no, no, no.

[C]

I'm asking.

[A]

This is going to make me sound truly demented. Most of the time when I am at home, if. If I'm not trying to go to sleep, I keep it at like 79.

[C]

Jiminy Christmas. Okay? We float between 73 and 75. I turn it on.

[A]

What's weird, what I will say is when my air conditioner is running in my apartment, it. Like wherever I am, for whatever reason, I can feel it actively blowing on me, it seems. And it always makes it feel way too cold, such that even in, like, if I'm in a T shirt, I keep a longer sleeve. Kind of like a woolen thing that I had from when I lived in D.C. and I just keep it on my computer because sometimes if the ac. The AC starts running colder, like late at night before I go to bed, I will just put that on because it is uncomfortably cold to be in a T shirt. So I just. I don't want that during the Afternoon. I say, screw this. I'm just setting it to 79 so it's not running that often.

[C]

I want. Would rather. I would rather put a sweatshirt on than turn the heat up, like, turn the AC up any higher or. Or especially with the winter here in Arizona, I'll. I'll open windows and just turn the AC off or like the air off. But I would rather put a sweatshirt on, put a beanie on, put sweats on, than I would turn that thing.

[A]

So this is. I don't want to be a European.

[B]

That was me when I was at. When I was at Gitmo. So we had these barracks that were basically like corrugated steel, you know, kind of like. Like temporary barracks that people were living in. And so you're in Cuba, right? So the middle of the summer. That's exactly what I did, man. I just cranked that A.C. like, as low as it would go, and I put, like, all my sweats on, like, all my PT sweats. And then when I would go out to, like, you know, it's like a Saturday, so I'm not on duty or whatever, and. And I would go out to the. The defect to go get. To go get food. I would forget that it's hot outside. So I'd feel like all my sweats on, and then I take one step

[A]

outside, like, oh, no, I've been a horrible decision.

[B]

That's like run change.

[C]

That's how it happens. Like in Arizona, It'll be like 110 outside. It's like frigid cold. Then all of a sudden, you walk outside, you're, oh, crap, never mind.

[A]

Yeah. This is why I feel like I've adapted to the desert here, which is. Yeah, 79 is kind of warm, but it's also about 25 to 35 degrees cooler than it is outside. And I think that's what you need, is you need. You need that element of distinction. But I'll be. I'll be honest. I find it a little annoying when it's hyper AC. So if I go to a store and it's 115 degree outside, and then they're AC it down to 61 degrees or something, it's annoying because, among other things, it means I have to wear long sleeves outside because I'm gonna be going into the deep freeze anytime I go to a store. It just.

[D]

The contrast gets a little annoying about Arizona. Arizona, it's like you're too hot outside and you're too cold inside, because Everybody runs the AC at like 65 in Arizona. It's upset 74. That's comfortable. You don't have to wear sweatshirts and all the stuff inside. And then outside you get, well, acclimated.

[C]

I mean, hey, here's the thing about

[D]

is crazy, but at least we're not dying in mass. Like that's true. Like there in Europe.

[C]

That's true.

[B]

Well, could I look before we close out? Because I know we're getting to time. I've got to read this take from Sarah Salviander on X. It's so perfect where she just. She writes about the heat wave. She talks about in Europe. She talks about how in France, apparently already a third thousand people, like a thousand people have died because of excess heat. And she writes, and yet they're still. They're still not allowing ac. And she writes, you can't squatch the religious impulse. If you remove God, it will just manifest in other ways. In secular religion, there is an abundant guilt and atonement, but little love and forgiveness. The rituals of atonement are harsh, sometimes to the point of death. Mercy. You deserve no mercy. The earth will not take the punishment for your sins as Christ did. You will. You are the human sacrifice for the sins of humankind.

[A]

So that gets me thinking a funny thing, which would be we're used to in Christianity, we'll have Lenten fast. So, Jack, you know, we. We can't have meat on Fridays. Actually, I'm a fan of the total meat fast during Lent because that's what it traditionally was. We're used to fasting from certain foods or certain conduct. Would it actually be a sound religious fast to just fast from AC for a period of time?

[D]

Not in Arizona.

[A]

What if we did anyway? I mean, the desert. The earliest Christian monks, they went and they lived in the desert. They were just chilling out there. John the Baptist, he went and he went and lived in the desert.

[B]

That would be like. For that would. Because Ramat on the east coast is like, it's cold during Lent. So would I have to fast from heating?

[A]

I think that would be a very traditional. That would be a very traditional way of. I would do it.

[B]

I would do. I wouldn't do it for my kids, but I would do it.

[A]

I kind of want to try this now. Turn off. I could turn off the AC in my apartment.

[B]

That's actually.

[A]

This could be a fun experiment. This could be a fun experiment. Yeah, I turn off my AC in my apartment and I see if I die, you know, that's.

[B]

That is on live stream. Oh, you have to live stream.

[C]

You would have to live.

[A]

I'M not sure I want to. I. I'm not sure I want to live stream.

[C]

The stream just ends because his whole

[B]

be like, hey, has anyone checked on Blake today? He didn't show for work.

[A]

Honestly, the scariest thing I'm thinking of is how much, like, horrifying, like, bacterial growth would happen if it was, like, if I was in a place that was 110 degrees and also reasonably humid.

[B]

Wait, well, you turn the circulation. No one's saying you can't have circulation.

[D]

Yeah, you can still have deodorant, Blake.

[B]

And deodorant. Yes.

[D]

Sorry.

[B]

Oh, my gosh.

[D]

On that note, he's got me thinking with bacteria. Yeah.

[B]

Deodorant, fast.

[D]

Take us home, Jack.

[B]

That's actually a sacrifice for everyone around Blake.

[D]

Yeah, exactly. That'd be a heck of a punishment.

[B]

A lynch sacrifice.

[A]

You guys could just keep telling me about your dreams. You guys, all. You guys are all dreaming of this to happen. The. The AC list. Full man musk. Blake unleashed on the world. Oh, gosh, that's really weird to say.

[B]

The sacrifice.

[A]

Yeah. See, Jack's kids are on board with it now. They're.

[B]

Jack. Jack. All right, Jack. Jack, what do you think about this? So Mr. Blake, he's still here. He's half listening. Mr. Blake says, what if we do for Lent next year? Now he's saying air conditioning because he lives in Arizona, it's very hot. But for us during Lent, it's cold. What if we did no heat in our house for all of Lent?

[A]

Do you want to try that?

[B]

You think Mama would like that? Yes. Yeah, that'll work really well.

[A]

Yeah, that'll go for it.

[B]

All right, good. You can be the one to tell her.

[A]

We're going to build our spiritual discipline. We're going to get closer to God and the Holy Spirit going to sacrifice for spiritual discipline.

[D]

All right, Jack.

[C]

Fair enough.

[D]

Take us home, brother.

[B]

Ladies and gentlemen, go out there and commit more thought. Crime is death.