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Dave Smith
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Michael Malice
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Dave Smith
Hey guys. Today's show is sponsored by Yo Delta, the longtime Delta 8 spot sponsor of this podcast and the Gas Digital Network. If you are interested in getting stoned and you're living in a state where Delta 8 is legal and you're over the age of 21, go check out yo delta.com they have gummies and vapes for all of your getting stoned needs. And make sure to use the promo code GAS that will get you 25 off your entire order. Yo delta.com promo code GAS let's start the show. What's up? What's up everybody? Welcome to a brand new episode of Part of the Problem. I am very excited for for today's show because one of my dear friends is back on the show and we I just did. You're welcome a few days ago but we talked about comedy and other things like that and so I have not actually sat down and picked brain of Michael Malice about this year's election. We're under a week until election day so I figured this was the perfect time. Of course everybody listening already knows who Michael Malice is, but if you are the if you don't just know you're alone, you're the only One, you're kind of a loser, but you're basically.
Michael Malice
You're the Tom woods of the audience.
Dave Smith
You're the Tom woods of this audience. I also, by the way, just recorded a new Tom Wood show episode yesterday that should be out soon also. Does that kind of election.
Michael Malice
Does that count as your community service?
Dave Smith
It's. I was five years. I got to do it. I got to do it four times a year for five years. And then I get. And then it's. My record is Sponge. So I'm fine. Of course. Michael is a very successful author. He's written books on North Korea, on the new right wing in America, on the history of communism, Dear Reader, the New Right and the White Pill. All three really fantastic. And particularly, I think. I think the New Right is going to be very relevant to the conversation we have today. And the White Pill, to. To some degree, not so much on the Korea stuff. Maybe we'll fit in some Korea stuff. But anyway, he's also host of youf're welcome, his phenomenal podcast. Michael Malice. How are you, sir?
Michael Malice
I'm. I'm actually beyond giddy, and I'll tell you why. And there's a little bit of sidebar, but, like, I actually shed a tear last night of Joy, because there was this band. Do you like music? Is there, like, some music that means a lot to you? The same way that it means to me. Like, some bands that are like, this band is like, holy shit. It's like something sacred almost.
Dave Smith
Sure, sure.
Michael Malice
Yeah. Yeah. So there was this band that no one had heard of called Insta. Right. The album came out in 2002. I absolutely love their album. They're so obscure that I wore their T shirt on Rogan, thinking people would be like, oh, cool. Not one person, not one.
Dave Smith
No one got it.
Michael Malice
I'm not even kidding. Not one comment was like, oh, Insta. That band. They came out of an earlier band called Allison's Halo. Who are this 90s dream pop band, which is even genre most people have even heard of. Point being, they came up on my ipod randomly and I googled them, and they're playing here Saturday. Like, this 90s Arizona Dreampop Band is just playing at this barbecue place here on Saturday. And this music has meant so much to me over the years that I'm absolutely fucking giddy. And I'm bringing Winston Marshall from. Formerly of Mumford and Sons, and no one knows who these people are, and I'm bringing the CDs for them to sign, and I have the shirt and they're Going to be really freaked out.
Dave Smith
But how big is the venue that they're playing?
Michael Malice
It's, it's, I mean, it's literally going to be like it's a barbecue joint. Do you know what I mean? It's not big.
Dave Smith
That's just.
Michael Malice
But I'm so happy.
Dave Smith
Well, there's something that just is amazing to me about a band who's still doing it, but they hadn't, they weren't.
Michael Malice
Together for like, they haven't performed like 20 years. I don't understand what's going on.
Dave Smith
Yeah, they're performing at a barbecue joint. I'm not saying they've never taken any vacation days. I'm just saying that there's something amazing about like all these years later when there's no more dream, there's no more like maybe this turns into arenas somehow. Yes, impressive. A 20 year old playing in a barbecue joint isn't impressive because he's like, oh, maybe one day I'll be, you know, playing big venues. But there's something about at the end, like I feel this way in comedy too, where sometimes you'll see a comic who's like in their 60s and it just never happened for them and they're still getting up on a spot and there's just something about that. You're like, oh, it's just this really in a weird way. And I'm not saying a lot of times those are sad stories, but it really proves that you're doing it for the love of the game on some level. Because, you know, there's no upside that.
Michael Malice
That that happened here in a dark way. In Austin, I went to a club, I'm not going to say the name. And there was a woman there and it was one of those. The hook of this night was it's like a Gong Show. So the hosts have a gong and then people in the audience have like a lighter. And if all three people with the lighter hold it up, they get kicked off the stage. And I was using that lighter very comedically. I was in front and center and some of the comics were just really like, like genuinely like, I'm confused why you're on stage bad. Like you're not even the funny one of your friends. I'm sure you've seen them. I'm sure everyone here has seen those type of comics. And I was messing with this one lady, was a very nice lady and I was talking to her after and she's like early 40s and she moved here from New York to like make it happen in comedy. But it was the most generic, like, I'm neurotic, I can't get laid stuff. And I'm. And I'm talking to her and I'm being very friendly, but it's just like, what are you doing that's special? Like, this band that no one's heard of, Alison's Halo, they did something very, like, niche. Like, it was a unique kind of music, but it's like you're just doing like C level Chelsea Handler stuff. Like, what is your path and why does this matter to you? Why do you want to be a dime store Chelsea Handler?
Dave Smith
Yeah. Why does it matter to you? Because if you don't know the answer to that question, why would it matter to me?
Michael Malice
Right.
Dave Smith
Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, you got to have something that's. That separates you. Yeah. Well, speaking of people who have something that separates them, this Donald Trump fella seems to be. That's a transition right back into. What are you. I'm very interested to kind of get your thoughts here. And of course, you like, like me, are an anarchist who believes in stateless society. You've also. Where we're also pretty much seem to see eye to eye in general. You've been very. I wouldn't say you're a critic of voting, but a skeptic of voting. Sure.
Michael Malice
Yeah. That's better.
Dave Smith
You wrote a piece in, what was it, in the Observer?
Michael Malice
The Guardian.
Dave Smith
I was in the Guardian. It was. And that's right. A piece about, like, kind of why you don't vote does this. So anyway, you just have a kind of a different lens that you analyze these things through than. Than your average, you know, person who's talking in this space. And I'm curious because I haven't really picked your brain about it and you could go anywhere you want with this. But what do you think about this? You know, we're coming down to the last week. This election cycle, in many ways has been very different than anything we've ever lived through. It does, to some degree, feels like a logical continuation of where we've been going. But assassination attempts, a candidate being forced to drop out a couple of months before the election, a candidate who didn't win a primary and doesn't seem to have a mind at all being the Democratic nominee. What. What are you, you know, the mischievous Michael Malice? What are you thinking as you watch all of this?
Michael Malice
By the way, let's also point out that the president, for the first time in history, has been forced to. Not by. Not run again. And the corporate press has just stopped. Never even pretended to ask why. It's never like, we. Everyone kind of knows or can guess, but no one's like, okay, what were the steps that led you to this decision, Mr. President? Like what? Like, talk to us. This is history. No curiosity at all. It's just like, okay. Like, it's Even if you can understand why, okay, I'm a senior old freak. Okay. One day you're like, God's going to have to tear me off this Oval Office himself. The next day he's like, yeah, I'm just going to tweet out that I'm not running again. What changed? No curiosity at all. So, I mean, when people talk about truth to power and that the media is interested in finding and informing the voters and the populace, zero evidence. It's all the evidence to the contrary. That's number one. Number two is something that's personal to me and I know to you. I was the guy who got Vivek to look into Ross Ulbricht, and Vivek was the one who got Trump to be like, okay, I'm publicly declare this at the Libertarian Convention the day one. I'm freeing Ross. So I have a vested interest because you and I both know when it comes to politics, take whatever wins you can get. So if I have a little, like, with North Korea, we can shoehorn it in. If I had a little bit to do with getting people to stop thinking about it as a big punchline and be like, wait a minute, this is a nightmare. Which has now happened. Like, no one looks at that as, like, look at these wacky people. They're like, look at these people forced to do wacky things. If Ross gets out of jail, as far as day one things, I'll take it. I'm very cons. I don't know about concerned, but I remember vividly, and I'm sure you do, and most people watching this as well, 2022, and all the polls were like, it was Republican red wave. All the swing states were going Republican. You know, people are just saying all these weird, like, Rhode Island's going to elect a Republican congressman, so on and so forth. And I was at election night on the Blaze, as were you as well. You phoned in and that's not what ended up happening. And then I know the mousetraps going off people's heads. Yeah. When Trump wasn't on the ballot. Well, he kind of was. Some of those were proxy candidates, you know, like Trump candidates. And they all, I think, to a one where there were swing states Lost. So that could be what we're seeing again. I believe that Kamala Harris has been sat down and told the results. And I don't know if that means, all right, we've got this in the bag. Who cares? Or like, it's a wrap. I think at this point they have enough information because these people are really smart behind the scenes, not in front of the camera, but behind them, that they've got enough data to crunch, you know, that they could be like, all right, we know how this is going to go and I don't think it's going to be close and I don't know what's going to end up happening. I'm just very concerned, as I'm certain you are, about Tim Waltz. Because of all of them, he, to me is by far the most ominous and terrifying figure.
Dave Smith
Why do you think that?
Michael Malice
Because I think he's. During COVID He sets up snitch line to turn in your neighbors. He had the cops shooting people with. Was it phone bullets or rubber bullets? Whatever. The point is when you have this kind of Soviet having everyone be watching everybody else low trust society, that is much scary to me than someone who is basically a mindless corporate hack and a function of the machine, which is what we have now, which I don't love. But if again, people are like, don't understand choices. Like, I'd rather have the flu than cancer. I don't want to have the flu. I'd rather have her, who is just an idiot who's just doing the puppets being a puppet than someone who's an ideologue who has really malevolent dark sided ideas.
Dave Smith
Yeah. I will say there is also just. And this is fairly. I mean, it might sound kind of superficial, but there is just something about walls that just creeps me out. And I don't. I. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but he's a very strange guy. And there's just something about, like the way he moves, the way he talks, the way he. The way he. Like he shook his wife's hand.
Michael Malice
Yeah.
Dave Smith
On video one. Did you see that?
Michael Malice
Yes.
Dave Smith
Which, like, I. Okay. Like, I can't really make a completely logical argument for why that's the weirdest thing in the world. But it's just one thing. Like human beings, the idea of shaking my wife's hand, like, it's just never. I don't know, it's just so bizarre and strange and like there's something like where you're like, oh, I don't get a read on you. And that kind of freaks me out in a way.
Michael Malice
And it's also when you're a politician, you're. You and I both know this also. We're on shows, you know, you act a certain. So you're going to be even more on when you're in front of a camera. So, like, this is your choice. This isn't like, you got caught. Like, he's back at home. He comes home, he shakes her hand and camera like, oh, that's weird. This is in front of the cameras.
Dave Smith
Yes. Yeah. Like what you think you would have scripted out, you know, things like when Al Gore, like, real aggressively kissed his wife because he was trying to, like, combat the image of Bill Clinton, like, having a sexless marriage or something. So, like, he was trying to let the whole world know, like, I fuck my wife. That's the moment which is. Was bizarre in its own way. But I don't know, it's kind of even more bizarre to let the world know I shake my wife's hand.
Michael Malice
Yeah.
Dave Smith
I greet her like a business partner or. I don't know why it's so weird to me. Do you. Obviously, you have been known for being a bit of a troll and having some hostility toward the corporate media.
Michael Malice
Yeah.
Dave Smith
Donald Trump, obviously, is both of those things, you know, also shares those. Those. Sure. Do you feel like. Is there. I mean, just watching kind of over the. Like, the last few days of coverage, to me, have been really wild to see. I mean, I was talking about this on the last show where it's like, it seems like Donald Trump is setting up his closing pitch, you know, and he's like, okay, I'm going to do Rogan. I'm going to do the Garden. I'm going to kind of do this big show, which is what Trump is really great at doing. Yeah. And the corporate media and the Democrats are like, all right, here's our final act. We're going to call him a Nazi. This probably. This is. We're going. We're pulling the ace out of the hole, you know, and there. And that's just it. And it's kind of. Anyway, I don't know. What do you think?
Michael Malice
You know, it's even funnier, Dave. They've been calling him Hitler for months. And the big reveals that Hitler was a Nazi, Right?
Dave Smith
Yeah.
Michael Malice
Like Scooby Doo. Wait a minute. I was for Hitler until I learned he was a Nazi.
Dave Smith
It really is. So, I mean, you know, look, they both had. The American Nazi party had an event at Madison Square Garden, by the way.
Michael Malice
I gotta tell you this, you and I are both Jewish. It's very rare that I find things offensive. I find it really offensive to divorce Nazism from antisemitism. This was very, and I don't use that term antisemitism, like, ever. It is central to, like, Hitler's ideology. Right. Trump's daughter converted.
Dave Smith
Yeah.
Michael Malice
So if you're going to call someone a Nazi, he loves Ivanka. That's pretty clear. If you lose your kid to maybe that's going to encourage you to be a Nazi, depending your relationship with her. But you're really crossing a line there. And the shamelessness of it is what makes it really despicable. And Doug Emhoff, you know, like, hit him with your best shot, Doug. When he, I don't know if you saw this, he tweeted out, he's like, oh, my God, you know, the rally and all this antisemitism, like, what are you talking. You're a liar. And to hide behind, you know, these terms, racism, antisemitism, sexism, when that actually happens to real people, to me is so despicable and shameless and just straight up evil.
Dave Smith
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Michael Malice
Although, you know, that we talk about it, you know, maybe it was different. Instead of everyone being rounded up and put in the camps, we were rounded up, putting our own homes. So it was kind of decentralized concentration camps that ended up happening.
Dave Smith
Yeah, well, right. And isn't it amazing? It's amazing to me how much that is not even an issue in the presidential candidate memory hold. And part of it is because Trump was. Can't really point to anything to. So I do. And I don't know if this is right or not, but as you brought up the 2022 midterm elections, and I think particularly back then, there was something that was like, very disheartening that it's like, oh, you're telling me, like, all the Democrats aren't being punished in the voters eyes for killing old people. Yeah, but. Right. And like, we had already figured out this was all wrong. Right. Like everyone by 2022, like, there was still Covid all over the place, but no one was doing lockdowns anymore. You know what I mean? Like, it was we had figured out this didn't make sense and. But then I will say the one. So, like, the one thing that I would, I would look to is that I did go like, oh, you know, the Republicans really sucked on it too.
Michael Malice
And not the nursing homes, though. That's one.
Dave Smith
Well, sure, but I'm just making the point. Desantis did take a purple state and win by 20 points.
Michael Malice
Yeah.
Dave Smith
And I believe Kristi Noem was reelected in South Dakota. And so it at least like, gave me a little bit of like, well, maybe if the Republicans had actually been good on it and then they could run on that rather than also trying to memory hole it, you know, so, like, there's some of that dynamic with Donald Trump too, that he just wasn't that good in 2020. I should say he was very bad in 2020. And so he can't really run on that. But. But nonetheless, it's just crazy that we went through such a crazy thing and then just a couple years later, there's a presidential election and it's not like it's not even in the top five.
Michael Malice
I'm shocked that the Democrats aren't. Or maybe they are because I don't see any ads. I'm not in a position to see ads, but I'm shocked that they're not like 20, 20 riots across America, plague and people dying. This is all under Donald Trump. Do you want to go back to that? Like, for Normie people, I think that would be a very strong selling point. And I don't think they're using that as a cudgel, which even though it's a little bit, A little bit a lot dishonest, it still works as a technique and they're not using it. That's very odd to me. Like, I think in Normie terms, those riots were much. Which happened under Trump, were much more of concern than January 6th, which they are using.
Dave Smith
Yeah, they're using January 6th to death. And it does seem. I agree with you. I mean, it seems like the Democrats are almost kind of happy to take the deal to just memory hole. Covid. They're like, all right, yeah, we'll do that. Let's not bring it up at all because maybe they think that could go bad. But the January 6th stuff is there's something really bizarre and it's a major theme in America these days where. And this changed in the last decade, where the corporate media seems to be married, like wedded to propaganda that doesn't even work, that even look, for whatever I remember, I was there, Saddam Hussein's has, had, has weapons of mass destruction. However you feel about how egregious of a lie it was and what a disaster the resulting policy was that worked on people like immediately after 9, 11 to tell people, hey, this funny Arab looking dictator guy has some nuclear weapons. Got a whole lot of people in this country being like, well, we got to go see about that.
Michael Malice
Sorry.
Dave Smith
Then I guess we got to do this.
Michael Malice
Is that Kurt Metzger? Is that, is that the Kurt voice?
Dave Smith
They, they. Once you get Kurt Metzger to support a war, the war is going to happen, you know, and he goes, we got to bomb them. But whereas this January 6th stuff just doesn't seem to resonate with anybody for very good reason. And it just doesn't. And yet they just keep going to it. They keep going to the. Well, Joe Biden keeps bringing up Charlottesville still like it's there. It's very weird how divorced they are from, like, whether this propaganda is even effective or not.
Michael Malice
I don't know that they have a good feedback loop anymore. I think any feedback loop they would have something like Twitter or these other resources have been so co opted by people who just despise even people who are ostensibly on the left, who aren't leftist and like Kamala Harris is going to save America and bring joy to everybody. So I think that's the issue. I think their world is getting smaller and smaller and they're blowing smoke up each other's asses. And I think it's also like when I was in business, I was a business major and we learned about the challenger explosion. And how is an example of groupthink where everyone's like looking over each other's shoulder and no one want to say anything, be that guy to be like, if we don't do this, it's going to be really bad. You know what I mean? So I feel like it seems in these organizations, from what little I can see from the outside, they seem to have developed this kind of bunker mentality where they know they're clearly losing ground. Hillary's explicit about it, John Kerry's explicit about it, that we can't control the narrative anymore. And when you're in retreat, I think you're more interested in doing triage than trying to put out feelers and see what works. But it seems to be like kind of a. A bit of a death spiral, because I think it's very clear and this is, this is a big transition year and I'm making a prediction that's not a bold one at all. It's very obvious one, in retrospect, that back in the day it was very useful to have presidential debates because it's not sound bites. It's both two or sometimes three, with Ross Perot candidates speaking at length about various issues. And you really get to know who they are and what they think. So you're not going to have any other opportunity for that. Now, podcasts like, why am I in this very stilted format when you have ABC News being on the side of the Democratic candidate, why do that when I can go? And the thing is, these podcasts, they're not adversarial, but you get to know the person at length. You've had people on, I've had people on. When we disagreed with them. We're not playing gotcha and the audience gets to know them. It's like, okay, this is his view. This is the host's view. It's not as aggressive as, let's suppose Meet the Press, but I think it serves a better purpose because instead of playing Gotcha, it's like, okay, let me know what this person is really going to do and what they really think and let them speak their minds. So it's, it's really lost its efficacy, I think, because of the Internet. You don't need to have that debate on one of the four networks. And I think going forward, you know, the Democrats are going to play catch up, and that's definitely going to be the way forward in 2024 and so on.
Dave Smith
Yeah, I think it's such a great point.
Michael Malice
And did you see what she did to Rogan?
Dave Smith
Oh, yeah, I actually, I talked to Joe about it briefly, but, yeah, that I, I had that info, like, a bit earlier than when it was out on Twitter, but that, yes, she wanted him to travel to her. And, and they, I think they said an hour. An hour, you know, but, you know, Brett Baier was supposed to get an hour, and then they cut it down to, like, 20 minutes at the last minute. So who knows what they even would have done? And I, I'll tell you, I was not sure until. Until the episode came out. Remember, literally as soon as the Trump episode came out, I just looked at it on YouTube and saw he did three hours. And I was like, great. Because I thought maybe he would. I knew he was coming to the studio, but I thought they also might try to do like, oh, we'll do an hour.
Michael Malice
It's happened to. It's happened to me. There's a prominent congressman whose name I won't mention. His PR lady reached out to me and she's like, hey, we'd love to have him on the show. I'm like, great. It's an hour we record Monday or Tuesday. And she goes, okay, how about half an hour on Thursday? I didn't reply. So they still think they're in a position and it was friendly. I don't do hostile interviews at all. Sure. They still don't understand who's got the audience and who's got the clout. It's very few of these shows, unless you're Trump. Very few of these shows are excited to see someone talk to Matt Gaetz. And that's no disrespect to Matt Gaetz, but people know politicians are rehearsed and pl. And you're not going to have that fun, engaging conversation with who knows what's gonna happen with most politicians. Trump's a wild card. He's the Charlie Kelly of politics. So you're like, okay, what the fuck is this guy gonna talk about next? That was part of your act. Like, all right, what next? China. Okay, let's talk about China for 20 minutes.
Dave Smith
Well, yeah, that's him. And it's something he's really benefited from. No, I did think. I thought it was so. And, like, don't get. I had no influence in this. Like, Rogan told me it had been done, but I was just so glad that he, like, stuck to his guns on that, because it's like, yeah, don't. Because then she didn't really do the Joe Rogan experience. Right? Joe Rogan experience is going to Austin, sitting in his studio and doing three hours with him. And if you don't do that chair.
Michael Malice
That you and I both farted in.
Dave Smith
Yes, that same one that I. That I intentionally farted. I pushed it out. It wasn't even. It didn't come out on its own.
Michael Malice
It was a turtle.
Dave Smith
But that's. But look, I mean, to your point, I did think that there was. And of course, there's. There's benefits to kind of grilling and interviews and there's benefits to friendly conversations. But I did think in a weird way, you know, when the moment on the Rogan podcast when he asked him about the 2020 election, and that gets brought up every single time he's interviewed by any corporate media journalist, but that moment actually exposed him a lot more on Rogan's podcast, because they're having a friendly conversation. Joe is clearly not asking it in a bad faith way. He's not asking it the way Dana Bash from CNN is asking the question question. But he's just going, hey, so you think that, like, but why do you really believe that? And Trump really didn't have an answer. Like, he kind of just went like, ah, we. Believe me, believe me, there's a lot of evidence, or whatever. And you're like, oh, okay. And like, so even just that, just that little example, it can actually be like, if your goal is to get Trump, sometimes it's better off to be honest about it and, like, be a decent person and then expose it.
Michael Malice
I saw a clip of an interview with Destiny, a debate between Destiny and Ben Shapiro, or discussion, whatever it was. And they were talking about the 2020. And Ben obviously has a lot of big differences from Trump, to put it mildly. And Ben's Destiny's like, Trump had all the evidence. He knows he lost. And Ben's like, you don't know that he knows that. And if you ask me, I would say he doesn't know that because I think it's very. I would bet a lot of money that he cannot wrap his head that he really lost to Joe Biden. Like, that's all it comes down to. And when your brain tells you something and you're at that level of narcissism and delusion and power, it's really hard to get reality to come in because this is the person who had no political experience who's like, oh, yeah, I'm just going to come down the elevator and escalator and be president. It's like, oh, okay. And he did it. So he has. You have to have at that level in both a positive, negative way, a bit of a screw loose to be delusional enough to think you could pull something off that you actually did.
Dave Smith
Yeah, you know, I was just. I was on Piers Morgan a couple days ago with Destiny and Mehdi Hasan. Oh, God, yeah.
Michael Malice
I hope your beeper didn't go off.
Dave Smith
I didn't. Evidently, it was right after that, but I hadn't seen that yet. But anyway, I mean, it was a shit show. It was ridiculous. But there was this one point that they were both of them. And it's funny because I think a lot of guys like that, they have. They kind of like, sometimes they'll present like a long argument with certainty, but like, as soon as you examine any one little individual part of it, you were like, oh, this all. So, but anyway, one of the arguments, I found this kind of fascinating, particularly from Mehdi Hasan, because he is, if you know him at all, if you know his foreign policy views, he's, you know, a big critic of Israel, you know, argues that a genocide against the Palestinians is happening. Very anti war, like, progressive kind of worldview. But. So I know he's a big critic on war. I don't know that much about him, but I know that. And bad faith. Oh, unbelievably bad faith are rolling once the cameras are run. Now, before the show, I actually had an interesting conversation with him and he was talking about how he used to read anti war.com back when Justin Raimondo was running the site and stuff. And I was like, oh, that's cool. You know, and like, we had an interesting. But so anyway, so they, they're making an argument at one point and it was about General Kelly. And, you know, he had said the stuff like Trump praised Hitler to him or something like that. And, you know, Again, which is like, whatever.
Michael Malice
It's.
Dave Smith
Yeah. A couple weeks before the election, you happen to decide right now you needed to tell us in the Vegas terms without being specific about what he said. But anyway. But they were arguing at one point where they were like, well, I forget the exact thing, but they were like, well, 11, you know, generals said that Trump did this, and he denies it. So who are you going to trust? Trump? Like, you know, and. And I was sitting there and I was like, like, well. And they asked me. I went, I don't know. I don't know who's telling the truth. I don't know.
Michael Malice
In 51 intelligence agents tell us that Humper let the fuck.
Dave Smith
They were almost making this argument. And he told me, I mean, Maddie said, straight up, he goes, that's. That's insane. He goes, that's insane that you're going to trust Trump over 11 generals. And I was like, it's not a law of logic that 11 people can't lie.
Michael Malice
Like, especially if they have a vested interest. When you. Hitler's about to be elected, wouldn't you lie? Wouldn't that be the right thing to do?
Dave Smith
Yeah, like, are. And I. But I turned to Mehdi Hassan and I was like, are you really telling me you think it's beyond the realm of possibility that you could get a group of people together in dc?
Michael Malice
What about Colin Powell on the floor of the. What was that the un?
Dave Smith
Yes. Well, that's why that was the one I brought up. I didn't bring up the 51 intelligence people because I just thought, attack him from his position, too. So I just go, I go, how'd we get in Iraq? Because a whole bunch of people in D.C. lied. Right?
Michael Malice
Yeah.
Dave Smith
So, like. And especially one guy who's come in who has clearly pissed off all of dc, however you feel about everyone involved here, he's clearly pissed a lot of people off. But anyway, it is just like, there's something to me that is. It's always been an interesting thing about Donald Trump that people get.
Michael Malice
So didn't. I'm sorry, didn't he praise Hitler in the sense of I need generals? Like Hitler had meaning generals who are loyal to him. So that statement is true, anyway.
Dave Smith
Yeah, that seems to be, like, what it was. But then Trump denies it altogether. I mean, who the hell knows? But, like, yeah, I believe he.
Michael Malice
Because I would have no problem with him, in his stupid Trump way saying, I need generals who are loyal to me. Like Hitler's generals are loyal to him.
Dave Smith
Yes.
Michael Malice
And because the military lied to him and the corporate press praised it, which is one of the most unconstitutional things in a recent American history. The whole premise of having a civilian commander in chief is that the military is subjugated to the will of the people. And that was thrown out the window, was at Syria, I believe. And then they're like, oh, great, yeah, we lied. We'll just lie to the president and brag about it.
Dave Smith
And this was. Now that, that was one incident where they were bragging about lying about the number of troops. But if you can recall the four Trump years, every other week the New York Times was running a piece with, you know, unnamed source in the executive branch says this. Unnamed source in the Pentagon says this. And so, yes, my initial take was that, that if Donald Trump was praising Hitler's generals is how they put it, it's like, I think he was probably saying, it sure would be nice to have a government that was loyal to me.
Michael Malice
Yes.
Dave Smith
And like, you know what I mean? So anyway, it's not. But I just on the grant, just on the logic of it, you'd be like this idea that it's impossible that more people were lying.
Michael Malice
I think they're lying to the audience because it's trust the experts. And it's just like, just, you know what, you've said that you and I have talked about this before when you were an Essie cup show on cnn and she's getting information from like the NSA and you're some asshole comic and it's like, what do you expect her to believe?
Dave Smith
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Michael Malice
And by the way, I'm sure those, those 11 generals would tell Mehdi we need to have more support of Israel. Is he going to believe them then?
Dave Smith
Well, that's, that's my thing. That's why I was going ahead and go. You, according to your worldview, the people you're talking about are currently conducting a genocide. I mean literally, like, like according to all reporting, Israel couldn't do what it's doing in Gaza with, I mean, they're not only just getting our weapons and money, but real time intelligence and all of that stuff. So I don't know. So they're, they're involved in a genocide, but they're above lying. I like, I just don't like walk me through this worldview and how this all comes together. Do you? Like, I certainly at this point am like, I'm very much rooting for Donald Trump to win, you know, like with all, for all of his flaws. I do think that I just, I think it's better for the country if Kamala Harris loses and at least a message is sent to the elite that you can't get away with this. You got to do a little bit better. Do you, do you feel that way or do you, do you think there's, it's preferable one way or the other or do you.
Michael Malice
I'm very, I care about Ross. I'm very scared that a lot of these MAGA people think Trump's going to come in and Santa Claus, everything he, even if he's at everything that they think he is, the institutional bandwidth, for lack of a better term against him is immense. Now the question I have, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts, is I think tds, the fever has broken. I don't think a second Trump term will be as ridiculously over the top anti Trump. He had two scoops of ice cream reporting as it was in the first term. I think it'll be much more reporting on the issues. He seems to have toned it down a little. I think the rise of alternative facets of media is also going to temper their. Their possibilities. But I gotta tell you, the fact that Ryan is on cnn, Gradusky. The fact that I think.
Dave Smith
Not anymore.
Michael Malice
Oh, they can't. They fired him.
Dave Smith
I believe he got canned over the pager thing.
Michael Malice
Oh, wow.
Dave Smith
I could be wrong about that. Double check me. But I thought I saw that at least that.
Michael Malice
Okay, well, the fact that Ryan could be on cnn.
Dave Smith
Yes, yes, he was on CNN and he was schooling people for a while there.
Michael Malice
So the fact that I think it was Washington Post who's looking for more conservative writers. These people have dwindling audiences and at a certain point, hating Trump is not a personality. And I think that's happened already. The fact that here's. I've used this example before. If it was a year ago and we were talking, I said, mark Zuckerberg is going to go on TV and praise Trump and have no pushback, we would have sounded crazy, right? And he did, and that was exactly what happened. And a lot of people are supporting Trump and they're not having their careers ruined. Whereas back in the day, even just saying he kind of sucks means you're a Trump supporter and you have to get fired and be completely read out of polite society. So I am hopeful that if he gets elected, like a Tulsi would be Secretary of State or someone like that, that RFK could get in there and be a bit of a wrecking ball. I'm glad Mitch McConnell is on his way out. So. And if the Department of Education being on the table, these are things where I see there being a possibility Vivek and Elon trying to cut down the federal budget, these are things that I am hopeful for. But at the same time, last time he was in. And I know there's going to be all these excuses, blah, blah, blah, and he doesn't get them again, there's going to be excuses again. I understand, I understand. I'm just saying there were all these things that were promised. Auditing the Fed, he could have done that with a stroke of pen. He didn't do that. So there's so many things that could be done that did, that could have been done that weren't. So I'm curious, I'm very hopeful for a revenge tour that he goes after these agencies who tried to kill him and take away his house and throw him in jail. That is what I'm most hope for and I'm ecstatic. One of the people say the best thing about Trump is that he exposed the corporate press. No, I think the best thing about Trump is he exposed how fucked up the legal system is and that it's not this objective justice with a blindfold thing. That Calvin House is another great example that prosecutors are often villains, that cops do fucked up things, including sitting on their hands while your neighborhood's being burnt down and then arresting you for trying to fix it. If you thought, if you would, 10 years ago, if we would have said conservatives would be receptive to this opinion, let alone have it as their opinion, we would have been laughed out of. It's like ridiculous, like saying, oh, yeah, in 10 years the Democrats are going to be pro life. It's like, okay, but here we are.
Dave Smith
No, and there's no question that there's also just like, there's a, there's a freedom to openly support Donald Trump now. Yeah. That you didn't used to have. And like, in 2016, if a podcast or a comedian came out and was like, I'm pro Trump, you'd really be kind of taking your career in your hands. That's not the truth. That's not the case anymore. I think there's a lot of reasons for that. But I gotta say, I think one of the major, one of the primary reasons is that, you know, it's. Was that your quote or were you quoting someone else when you were saying the river versus the dam? That's me, Trump. That. So you were like, and how does it go exactly? They thought he was the river, rather.
Michael Malice
He was the dam.
Dave Smith
Right. So there's something where this was kind of the argument that the corporate media and I think a lot of progressives bought into. This argument was essentially that like, like everything was fine until this crazy guy got here and now everything's all crazy because of him. And whereas I think the more correct assessment of the situation was like, no, something was building. There was this tidal wave. Trump was the one who figured out how to capitalize on it and put this wave behind him and ride it. I think the Joe Biden administration proved you correct and them wrong. I think there was something where this was Joe Biden's pitch in 2020, which got. You got to understand, in the year 2020, there was a compelling pitch here. Now, of course, he was just staying in his basement, he wasn't making the pitch, but he could also plausibly say, well, that's the safe thing to do. Yeah, yeah, responsible thing to do is to stay in my basement. I'm not going to go be a super spreader like Donald Trump. This was the talking point. If you Remember as Trump was campaigning all the way down into the fall of 2020 and Joe Biden was like, listen, I've been here for 5,000 years. Just put, put me in, I'm as old, we'll go back to normal. And that he literally said back to normal. And man, did back to normal sound appealing in the year 2020? Like, yes, we don't have to be crazy like this anymore. However, then to have almost four years since then and you're like, oh, the crazy didn't go away. No, Donald Trump went away. But we're still living in this new world. And I think there's something even like for, for someone like me.
Michael Malice
Can I say something?
Dave Smith
Sure, sure, go ahead.
Michael Malice
Just one sentence. We're going to go back to normal. And now here's the they them who's in charge of our nukes stealing our suitcases, you know, Back to normal.
Dave Smith
Yeah, yeah, like, but then there's, listen, it's a painful thing for people to, to recognize. It's a painful thing for me to recognize sometimes and I consider myself fairly red pilled but that, that it's like, hey, just even something, bro. Like, you know, the 1990s, they're never coming back. They're never coming back. Sorry, Kennedy, it's not happening. It's a wait. But you know, like for at least a generation, conservatives were trying to get back to the 1950s. It's like, it's a painful thing to realize that that's never actually going to happen.
Michael Malice
That's like they're trying to go back to like an imaginary 1950s though.
Dave Smith
Well, yes, that's true. We all kind of are when we think about the past because that's the way memory works. But we're never going back to a pre Trump world. We're never going back to a pre Covid world. We're never like, none of that is real. We're in a new world now and we got to map out this territory. But I do think that there's just something, whether it's even the, you know, that the transgender stuff, the foreign policy, the vaccine mandates, the inflation, the immigration, just everything. It's like, oh, Trump left and, and all the problems are still here. All of the conditions of why a Trump like figure rose are still here. And now as Trump's running again, they're trying to do the boogeyman thing again. But it's just like he's a president now. He's not just Donald Trump. He's part of the history of America. He was the commander in Chief for four years. And it just doesn't seem. It doesn't seem to be effective in the way that it was even in 2016 or 2020 or 2022. Right, right.
Michael Malice
Yeah. Because ABC News, this is. I tweeted this out. People probably might have seen it. They had a poll and two. They had two polls, like two weeks apart, something like that, whatever. And they had her in the lead in the national popular vote, which is certainly plausible, but the way they scored, the pollution. They were claiming that Kamala's voters are more enthusiastic than Trump's voters. And I'm like, I have seen. And I'm like, I've seen. I could be wrong. I've seen no evidence. That's all to the contrary. Everyone replied to me is like, here's the receipts there. It's completely the other way. And I have seen, other than Beyonce and Oprah, people like that, I've seen no giddiness for Kamala. There was no giddiness for Biden. There was excitement for Hillary. Some people were like, first woman president. She's a badass. She's tough. You know, like, this is. There was excitement for her. Like, people. I know people hate her more than anything, but there were. No one is excited for this broad even. Again, I remind people this is why I gave Trump, like, 80% chance of winning months ago. She's from California. She had Hollywood, her back, and she couldn't even make Iowa. Like, that is a uniquely terrible candidate. When you can't, as the senator and Attorney general former of California, you can't handle the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, that's on you.
Dave Smith
Yeah. And just for people who don't remember or didn't. Weren't aware, I mean, it's not as if, like, her, she raised huge money.
Michael Malice
Yeah.
Dave Smith
The establishment loved her. She got much of Hillary Clinton's campaign staff. She. She, I think, was first. I think she outraised Joe Biden in the first month that she was running like, and still couldn't make it to Iowa with all, like, the media apparatus and the big money all behind her. It was kind of like, I mean, look, even Nikki Haley made it through to. Oh, yeah, whatever. I mean, she made it through five of the campaigns, but it was. So if you think about Nikki Haley, if you remember from this year, like, the candidate who the media wanted, who the big money was all going to and was just still getting blown out in every single primary. Harris was 10 times worse than that. Couldn't even make it through the first caucus. You know what I Mean, like, she just was a complete disaster. And so, yeah, there does. Right? There's something there. Not a very strong candidate.
Michael Malice
You know, it's even funnier. It's even funnier is that we're so trained. We. I mean, we as people concern media of certain archetypes that. There's two black women archetypes that Kamala Harris could have leaned into and really gotten some traction. One is this Oprah figure. If she's just, like, healing like earth mother, you know, I'm from the suburbs. I can work together, bring everyone together. That's a Persona that people can wrap their head around. That would have a lot of political traction. Nope. Then there's the sassy black woman who don't need no man. Like, I think Stacey Abrams leads into that a little bit, right? Where you have this kind of attitude, shaking your head kind of thing where, like, it's kind of a joke. But that is some. That's a character that everyone knows. If she leans to that, then, you know, people like Colbert and Jimmy Kim will have something to work with because they would pretend it's effective. And like, oh, my God, you know, this badass black lady girl boss is putting the old white man his place. Like, we know that story. It's every Netflix show. And she's not leading into that either. It's just like, these are two layups that you're a complete phony anyway. Put in one of these hats and you'll get somewhere more than now.
Dave Smith
Yeah, it's. You know, it's. I think there's a similar dynamic to what you mentioned at the top of the show about the corporate media just kind of their. Their audience getting so small and being in their own feedback loop where they're not able to get the market information to adjust, so they're not even, like, kind of in the game anymore. There's something like that in the political class also, because it's been. It's been really interesting to me to watch their inability to grapple with the new dynamics, the new reality. And so even things like, okay, traditionally in politics, the way it always works, and me and you are both old enough that, like, we remember a time in politics when it was the traditional world where the. The Internet was not the factor. It wasn't a factor at all at a time. And one of the things. So what you would do is this is how politics works. You would have a stump speech, and you would give this speech everywhere you went. And they were all the advice, all the smart. And by the way, this is big money. By the way, there are people who make millions of dollars a year advising these campaigns, consultants and campaign managers. And they'd be like, it's message discipline, it's repetition. You know, you gotta like say this over and over and over again if you want everyone to get it. But now we're like in a completely different dynamic where the fact that come out. So basically they got some, some, some market research at the very beginning of when she got in as the nominee and they go, look, people don't really know you. Like you've been the vice president here, but people don't really know you. So she decided every single thing I do I'm going to repeat. I was raised in a middle class family. But now because there's the Internet, what happens is now you get all these video compilations spliced of her just saying the same thing over and over and over again. And it's like, haha, she's got nothing to say. She can't say anything. She got. And now it's become literally a joke. Like Saturday Night Live even was. Was doing it by the way, to the point of it being a little more acceptable nowadays to make fun of her. But there's just something where you're like, oh, you're not adjusting to the new reality. Meanwhile, it does seem to me like the Trump campaign is at least attempting to. They recognize that. They're like, okay, I mean he went on with Andrew Schultz, with Patrick David, with Theo Vaughn, with Rogan. Obviously.
Michael Malice
Tim.
Dave Smith
Tim. There's like, like just a ton of them.
Michael Malice
Yeah, J.D. vance was on Tim Dillon.
Dave Smith
Yeah, yeah, and that's right. And, and you know, and there's something to. Right, there's something where they're like, oh, okay, we get. And like why wouldn't you, you know, like if you just look at this and you're like, oh well, like CNN is doing like, well, you know why? You know, thousands.
Michael Malice
I had. Let me break this down a little bit because this is something that I, I found very interesting. I had Dolph Ziggler, a nickname on my show. He's a wrestler for 20 years, WWE. And I grew up with WWF when it was called WF. And how it worked is Vince McMahon constructed this reality where nothing outside this reality was acknowledged. So there was another organization called nwa and all the midwits like to correct me, go, don't you mean NWO? No, in the 80s it was called NWA. Look it up. And if a wrestler was poached from there to wwf, they weren't like oh, he. He was the former world champ of NWA they just pretended he came out of nowhere. And it worked. Because if you only had four channels and NWA was much smaller, more regional, you could get away with assuming that most people who are just only watching this Saturday afternoon aren't reading the wrestling magazines are going, you know, they're watching on tbs, whatever the hell it was. So they're not going to know this other guy, corporate media, for a long time. Cbs, cnn, cbs, fox, all these things. They basically wanted to pretend podcasts and the Internet don't exist, or that if these things happen on podcasts or the Internet, we're going to give you the clip that matters. But you're not going over there. This is where adult conversation happens. That's more of like a playground sideshow. And as that has shifted, it's really bizarre because they still are acting like you can't change the channel. CNN's YouTube channel and your YouTube channel. Like, when I self publish books on Amazon, my page is right next to Barack Obama's page. They look, if the book's done professionally, you're not going to see a difference. I can compete with them as you can or anybody else watching this can. But there's. They still have this gatekeeper mentality. And it's really hard to keep a gate when the gate just gets shorter and shorter. And now it's like 6 inches tall and it's like, okay, like, who are you keeping out the Smurfs? Like. And yeah, the other thing is, since their audience, the average age of these audiences for these networks is like, deceased. Like, their audiences don't watch podcasts or, you know, go on the Internet. So there's some plausibility for that, but it's really the just getting more and more detached from reality.
Dave Smith
Yeah, 100. That's exactly right. 100%. And I gotta say, one of the major reasons why I really hope Trump wins is.
Michael Malice
Wait, I gotta say one more thing. I'm sorry. So this is why they can go on and say, Joe Rogan is saying horse paced. It took horse paced. Whereas if they had any shame and intelligence, they'd be like, wait a minute. Everyone seeing this clip can go see what Joe Rogan actually said. And he said nothing of the kind. And this is going to be hugely bad for our reputation because we're so clearly distorting what he's saying or trying to say. But they don't think like that. They're still in this WWF in the 1980s mindset. Sorry, go ahead.
Dave Smith
That's Right. No, that's right. And then to even go like, oh, and our CNN doctor is going to have to go on Joe Rogan because his publisher is going to insist that he does so he can sell his book. And then he's going to have no defense when Joe Rogan calls him out for his whole network. Lying. Yeah, it's like, there's no, like, foresight for any of this stuff. But anyway, this is, this is one of the major reasons why I do hope Trump wins is that I do think, you know, like, look, if the corporate media is down and is being beat up right now, but this is like, you know, if you hate the corporate media as much as me and you do, you're not like, all right, you got them. It's like, no, dude, hit him with a shovel now. Now that they're down, hit him with. And if Donald Trump wins, the narrative is going to write itself that he got to the presidency because he was, he was willing to do the new media. And I do think that this is going to be like a monumental shift. This is like the corporate media is dead, the future looks bad for them, but this is going to be like the bullet to the head, man. That's just an analogy.
Michael Malice
In Arizona right now, Ruben Gallegos is using clips from my podcast against Carrie Lake. Like, this is how low America sun.
Dave Smith
Is a sad state of affairs. It's so bad, it's so bad that that's an improvement over the old system. That's how bad things are. That me and you are better at this than they are is wild. Hey, folks, it's your favorite host of Part of the Problem, Dave Smith here. And let me tell you, I've started my holiday shopping early this year. Why? Because I want to give something that's not just a gift, but a memory that lasts a lifetime. I mean, who wants another fruitcake, right? I'm gonna give my wife a. And don't tell her, she's not listening. I'm gonna give her a hand painted portrait of a photo of our entire family. Because that's what they do at paint your life. They turn any picture you have into a beautiful hand painted portrait. Isn't that just the best? That's a gift that's meaningful, that someone's actually going to remember. So if you're struggling this year for like, I want to give a really great gift, but you don't know what to do. Do what I'm doing and go to paint your life. You can get your holiday shopping done early this year with Paint your life and you can give the most memorable, thoughtful gift you've ever given. And there's no risk. If you don't love the final painting, your money is refunded. Guaranteed. Order now to get Paint your life's early bird holiday offer, which is 20 off your painting. That's right. For a limited time, you can get 20 off and free shipping. To get this special offer, all you have to do is text the word problem to the number 87204. That's problem to 87204. You simply text the word problem to 87204. Paint your life. Celebrate the moments that matter most. Message and data rates may apply. See terms for details. Paint your life. Text problem to 87204. All right, let's get back into the show. But I do think that like, like even just with Rogan, particularly because Rogan, I mean, the numbers are, like, ungodly that they're doing, it's going to be over 100 million people end up watching the thing. When it's all said and done and her insisting he come to her and her not doing it like that. That narrative just writes itself that it's like she was unwilling to do it. He cleared his schedule, went there and did it for three hours. And he wins and she loses, and.
Michael Malice
She expects Rogan to kiss the ring. It's like a Hollywood thing. Who's going to go to whose table? Like, you and I are both at a restaurant. We see each other. Who's going to get up to go to the other person's table and she still thinks she's the guy. Not the. She has something he wants more than the other way around. No, no. He's got the leverage.
Dave Smith
No, I saw. It's funny because I did. I saw some of the, the Kamala Harris supporters on Twitter being like, who does he think he is? Yeah, that's the presidential candidate. You're. You're going to make demands of her. Yeah, she's got the thing.
Michael Malice
Not demands. This is the show we do. It's not a demand. It's not like you have to come in and you're going to be attached to lie detector. You have to come in and wear a funny hat. It's not even the hot wing show. It's like the only demand is you do the show like everybody else.
Dave Smith
Yeah, yeah.
Michael Malice
That's the only demand.
Dave Smith
I also do think that it's. You know, I've been saying this for a while now, but I think it's kind of. I think it's crazy that like I was saying this before Trump did Rogan, but isn't it crazy that like, so I do, I think I would say like, I don't know exactly. Let's just say 10 times a year I do one of like the big long shows. So maybe I'll do Rogan a couple times a year, Tucker a couple times, Patrick Bet, David a couple times, Tim Pool a couple times. You know, like, you do like all these shows where it's going to be like, hey, this is going to be for hours and it's going to go out to, you know, millions of people and it's going to be an in depth long show. You're going to have to talk a lot about the issues that you're, you know, interested in. There's going to be follow up questions. There might be some debate, there might be some disagreement. We're going to really get to know how you feel, like in depth, not just like surface level stuff. And that's like expected of me to have my career yet. When you're running for commander in chief and we have this ability, like we're not constrained by the old technology. It doesn't have to come on at a certain hour with commercial interruptions. Like none of that is necessary anymore. It's crazy that it almost took to this point that we would just demand that out of, out of, you know, people who want to be political leaders.
Michael Malice
Yeah. And it's all right. It's also going to be much more interesting questions. And this is the other thing. What's good for them is that there's some number that, like, why these, they do these rallies and shake hands. I think it's like one in four people, if you shake their hand, will vote for you. It's some crazy number. So people, I've seen this expression and I think it's really, really nails it that podcasts are friendship simulator, that people feel like they're hanging out with two people having conversation. It's such a great way as a politician to get people to fall in love with you and feel like they know you and feel safe with you in a position, in position of power. I was just laughing when you were talking because it's to your point. I'm doing trigonometry this week and Winston Marshall and then I'm doing Stossel in a couple weeks. I'm very excited about. I might get a fake, I might get a fake mustache. I don't know. I love him so much. He's so great. And sometimes when people on Twitter better.
Dave Smith
I think over the years, he's gotten.
Michael Malice
Much more of a curmudgeon. It's really kind of. He didn't give a fuck before, and now he really doesn't give a fuck.
Dave Smith
It's so fun.
Michael Malice
It's really great. Yeah, and he's earned it. I mean, you've paid your dues. You paid your dues. Your dues and my dues and Lewis's dues. Everybody's. But it's funny, when people come at me on Twitter, they're like, oh, he's just a Twitter troll. He's never serious. It's like, I sit down several times a year for hours off the cuff, and I feel that's a much. And I write books. I feel that's a much better way to get someone's point of view across than just stupidity on social media with someone trying to. Some rando trying to play Gotcha.
Dave Smith
Oh, yeah. It's so ridiculous. Well, also, like, I mean, your books are deeply serious books. I mean, like, not, like, you know, like, I'm not saying you don't never, like, crack jokes or whatever, but, like, your books are incredibly serious topics. I mean, like, like, that you. That you do not treat glibly. Like, no topics that you are.
Michael Malice
Not.
Dave Smith
That you're treating with, like, real sincerity and being like, no, like, kind of, you know, insisting that your listener, like, actually grapple with the horrors of the world. And so, yeah, it's just such a weird. It's like, I don't know. Like, I've always found stuff like that to be like, you know, where people be like, well, like, how are you gonna, like, joke around like this and then be serious about that? You're like, I don't know, because I'm a human being. Because I don't. Like, I experienced a wide range of emotions.
Michael Malice
We see this also with, like, actors. People can't wrap their head around someone who's a comedic actor. Like, this was a big thing for Tom Hanks. It's like, you're a comic actor now you're going to be serious. Like, how? It's just, like, it's impossible. Like, maybe it's hard that most people have one skill. It's rare to have both. But you can't wrap your head around someone being, like, a douche on Twitter. But then also, when their heads down, they're serious. Like, they can't wrap their heads around it.
Dave Smith
Where's me? Like, wait, wait, wait. So let me get this straight. So you were joking and laughing with your girlfriend earlier Today. But now you're having an argument with her. Like, that's crazy, dude. Who does both of those things. You're like, every human being does both of those things. Like, what do you mean? That's all part of us. If. What do you think? And we're coming up against the end of time here. But this is something I've been kind of thinking about lately. So I saw Donald Trump, I think it was yesterday in some speech where he said something.
Michael Malice
Can I say one more thing? Because people. I just thought when people asked me, are you going to vote? You're going to vote if you're not going to vote. And I'm telling you, if I voted, I would have written in Joe Biden.
Dave Smith
He is, man. You would be the one. They would find the one.
Michael Malice
But that's the thing. You see the results of Austin, they would say Joe Biden won. It'd be like, oh, that.
Dave Smith
Like, that might make it back to Joe Biden. You got one? Yeah, I saw Donald Trump. He was saying, someone asked him about if he loses, like, will you accept the results of the election type generic question. And, you know, he said a very Trumpy an answer. He said. He said, if it was fair. If it's fair, then of course I'll accept it, but if it's not fair, I won't. And then he goes, but, you know, I just saw a poll the other day. It said. And I forget exactly what he said, but it said we had a 93% chance of winning as. And he goes, so those are pretty good odds. I'll take 93. Now. I don't know where he's getting this from. The odds seem to be nowhere near 93% by any reasonable, you know, reading of the poll.
Michael Malice
No, I think there was Nate silver that for one minute, it was like 93 or something crazy.
Dave Smith
Okay. Perhaps Nate Silver also, by the way, I think, had similar odds for. For Hillary Clinton. My only point is that overall, that. That does not seem to be the odds. But regardless, sure. In the event that on election day or a few days after that, it. It is announced that Kamala Harris won. Where, you know, I'm kind of like, where do we go then? And I think at least the most obvious prediction to me seems to be like, well, none of Trump supporters will believe that's real. Which is not necessarily the worst thing. But where do you think America goes if Kamala pulls this off?
Michael Malice
I am very, very scared that Trump, who's no spring chicken and not exactly in the fit of best physical condition, Such as myself, as a sheath underwear model is going to die in his sleep, have a heart attack or a stroke, which is not impossible. I don't wish to find almost anybody, and no one's going to believe that it really happened. And then things are going to get really scary. That's my biggest fear. Not my biggest fear, but it's very, very up there. If Kamala wins, I would like to point something out to people. And it's really funny because when you tell people something to take one step back, to go two steps forward, they can't wrap their head around it. Because I'll ask people, like, okay, if Romney won in 2012, you could never have Trump. Trump would have never been president in the same way that George W. Bush had to be such a disaster. You otherwise wouldn't have gotten nobody like Obama elected. Right. So I would say, can you understand that it's a good thing that in some regards that Obama won in 2012? Because then you've got Trump, who's much more of a positive net than Romney and even more of a net than the damage Obama did. And they could wrap their heads around that to some extent. Some people still say, no, Romney still should have won. I'm like, but then you're not going to get Trump. Nope. It's like, okay. Like, it's just Republicans have to win, and then you have to complain that there's rhinos in Washington. Like, that's your right.
Dave Smith
Right.
Michael Malice
I will bring up another very a woman who I think is better in pretty much every regard than Kamala Harris, which is Hillary Clinton. I think Hillary Clinton is smarter. She's certainly better on her feet. Better sense of humor. She has a dark sense of humor. Behind the scenes, more popular people go to jail for her. People literally have refused to testify against her. Not because out of fear. You just like, again, I'm not saying I'd rather have the flu than cancer. I'm not saying Hillary's great. I'm saying compared between those two, she's a lot better. She fucked up healthcare so bad in 94 that the Republicans got Congress for the first time in 40 years. The speaker of the House lost his seat, and we got a balanced budget and all sorts of other things that were kind of a big positive. And Clinton went to the right of Reagan on social issues. So I don't think it's at all obvious, other than the Supreme Court, that if Kamala Harris comes in and there's a Republican Senate, which seems a certainty, which knows we haven't had A president come in without having the Senate of his own party since, like, I think it was Ford. Like, it's really been a thing that the President comes in with his own Senate.
Dave Smith
Yeah, that's interesting. As you mentioned it. Yeah, Trump did, Obama did, Bush did. Yeah.
Michael Malice
Yes. So she. No, I'm sorry, the first W. Bush did not. So HW didn't have it. So you have to go back to 92, 32 years. Her proposals are DOA. I think her party is not going to rally around her because they're not really rallying around her now. They're not this enthusiastic for her like there was for Hillary or even Biden. Like, we gotta get Trump out. So I think the blowback for the Republican or the anti government side could be huge. But again, this could be just a very, very small silver lining. But I also think it's gonna further divide people between. I think the cynicism is what brought down, like, the Soviet Union. When people are like, okay, this is all bullshit. Like, this woman didn't win any primaries. They shoved her in instead of Biden. Now they pulled her across the finish line. No one likes this bitch. She didn't earn it. Like, this is ridiculous. And I think an increase of that in the long term is a very healthy thing. Because the more people cynical about the system, the less likely they're going to be to get us into war. Because if you're going to send your sons and daughters overseas, you have to believe the President's a good guy and this is in America's best interest and this is an ongoing current threat. But if you think the President's an asshole, it's like, fuck you, we're not doing this. Yeah, and that's a big silver lining.
Dave Smith
No, I mean, it's true. I mean, don't get me wrong. Like, we're involved in two proxy wars right now that are both pretty dangerous. But there is something where. Like the invasion of Iraq. I can't picture that happening in America anymore. And the big part of it is just because no one will believe you. You. No one will believe it.
Michael Malice
But also we have places to talk about it. Here's the Internet. Before, you didn't have the Internet, so you couldn't really get your voice. You sound like it's. It's Justin Raimondo and some randos in the corner. Like it's basically the guy in the subway screaming like you're crazy. But now it's systemic.
Dave Smith
Yeah, no, that's, that's exactly right. And there is something. Win, lose, or whatever. There is something about, like, these alternative platforms being legitimized by the president having to come to try to get reelected by them, that it's like, yeah, those platforms aren't going anywhere, at least short of a real crackdown. Well, my friend has been great to talk to you about this. And we'll watch all the magic unfold in the in the next few days. And look, if, if nothing else, it's going to be quite a show.
Michael Malice
Yes, sir, that's true. Your favorite part of this election season.
Dave Smith
That is my favorite part of this election season. Has been talking to you about it six days out. I am problemed. All right. Thank you guys very much for checking it out. Make sure to go follow and support Michael Malice in all of his wonderful ventures. And we'll catch you guys next time.
Michael Malice
Peace.
Podcast Summary: Part Of The Problem – Episode Featuring Michael Malice
Episode Information:
In this episode of Part Of The Problem, host Dave Smith welcomes author and podcaster Michael Malice for an in-depth discussion as the United States approaches Election Day. Both hosts share a libertarian perspective, focusing on government, foreign policy, and the potential for a truly free nation. The conversation is timely, occurring less than a week before the election, providing listeners with critical insights into the current political landscape.
Early in the episode, Michael Malice shares his enthusiasm for music, particularly his admiration for the obscure band Insta and their 2002 album. This passion leads to a humorous conversation about bringing Winston Marshall, formerly of Mumford and Sons, to their podcast for an autograph signing. Malice expresses his excitement, highlighting the personal significance of music in his life:
Michael Malice [03:54]: "This music has meant so much to me over the years that I'm absolutely fucking giddy."
This segment illustrates the hosts' ability to intertwine personal interests with broader discussions, making the conversation relatable and engaging.
As the election draws near, Dave Smith directs the conversation toward the current political race. He expresses skepticism about the voting process, a sentiment shared by both hosts, given their anarchist leanings towards a stateless society. Malice provides a critical analysis of the election's unique challenges, including assassination attempts, candidate dropouts, and unconventional nominations:
Michael Malice [08:54]: "When people talk about truth to power and that the media is interested in finding and informing the voters and the populace, zero evidence. It's all the evidence to the contrary."
The discussion delves into the unpredictability of the election, with Malice emphasizing concerns about candidates like Tim Waltz, whom he describes as "the most ominous and terrifying figure" due to his authoritarian tendencies during events like COVID-19.
A significant portion of the episode critiques the role of corporate media in shaping public perception. Malice and Smith argue that media outlets often distort narratives to serve political agendas, particularly targeting figures like Donald Trump. They discuss the media's failure to maintain curiosity and accountability, citing instances where significant decisions, such as the president's announcement to not run for re-election, were not adequately explored or questioned:
Michael Malice [15:15]: "Actually, I find that to be evil."
The hosts also highlight the media's tendency to label opponents with extreme terms without substantial evidence, undermining the integrity of political discourse.
Transitioning to the impact of podcasts and alternative media platforms, Malice and Smith emphasize how these mediums have transformed political communication. They argue that podcasts offer a more authentic and in-depth exploration of candidates' views compared to traditional media outlets, which often engage in superficial "Gotcha" moments. Malice points out that podcasts serve as "friendship simulators," allowing listeners to feel a personal connection with hosts and guests:
Michael Malice [58:35]: "Podcasts are friendship simulators, that people feel like they're hanging out with two people having a conversation."
This segment underscores the growing influence of independent media in shaping political narratives and fostering informed discussions among listeners.
As the episode draws to a close, both hosts reflect on the changing dynamics of political engagement and media influence. They express hope that a Trump victory could further expose flaws within the corporate media and the legal system, advocating for a more accountable and transparent governance structure. Malice also touches upon the potential repercussions of Kamala Harris's candidacy, speculating on increased political cynicism and its long-term effects on public trust in the system:
Michael Malice [68:33]: "The more people cynical about the system, the less likely they're going to be to get us into war."
Dave Smith echoes these sentiments, emphasizing the necessity for new strategies in political campaigning that align with contemporary media consumption habits.
Notable Quotes:
Conclusion:
This episode of Part Of The Problem offers listeners a comprehensive analysis of the upcoming election through the critical lenses of Michael Malice and Dave Smith. By intertwining personal anecdotes with sharp political commentary, the hosts provide a nuanced perspective on media influence, candidate viability, and the transformative role of alternative media platforms in contemporary politics. Whether you're a political enthusiast or a casual listener, this episode delivers valuable insights into the complexities of modern electoral processes and media dynamics.