Fake and Gaetz

Summary

Podcast Summary: Red Scare – Episode "Fake and Gaetz"

Episode Information:

• Title: Fake and Gaetz
• Release Date: November 21, 2024
• Hosts: Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova
• Description: Red Scare is a cultural commentary podcast hosted by bohemian layabouts Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova.

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Introduction

In the episode titled "Fake and Gaetz," hosts Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova engage in a candid and often irreverent discussion covering a wide range of topics from personal health struggles to sharp critiques of political figures and societal issues. The conversation is marked by sharp wit, unabashed opinions, and a flirtation with controversial subjects, providing listeners with an unfiltered glimpse into the hosts' perspectives.

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Personal Health and Productivity

ADHD and Medication:

• Anna Khachiyan opens the conversation by discussing her diagnosis with inattentive ADHD and her use of Adderall to manage symptoms, particularly short-term memory loss.
  • Anna Khachiyan [01:04]: “I was actually diagnosed with inattentive ADHD that I take medication to treat... Adderall.”
  • Dasha Nekrasova [02:21]: “Cool. Sounds amazing. Sign me up.”

Impact on Daily Life:

• Anna mentions increased productivity due to the medication but also notes the downside, such as compulsive online chess playing.
  • Anna Khachiyan [01:54]: “I'm more productive. But then I kind of play the online chess compulsively, which isn't great...”

---

Cultural Commentary on Art and Māori Influence

Art Criticism Revival:

• The hosts delve into Dean Kisich Harper’s cover story (though not discussed in detail) and the resurgence of art criticism.
  • Dasha Nekrasova [03:17]: “It reminded me of that Janet Malcolm essay on the Ingrid Cishi takeover of Artforum…”

Maori Culture in New Zealand:

• Anna shares her experiences in New Zealand, critiquing the strong influence of Māori culture and labeling it as "gay race communism."
  • Anna Khachiyan [05:00]: “They had decided to make like a Maori holiday, like a national holiday... it was the late colonization.”
  • Dasha Nekrasova [07:07]: “It's so funny and ironic to see like woke tards ripping up equality bills because isn't that what we were fighting for all along?”

---

Celebrity and Pop Culture Analysis

Mike Tyson’s Recent Fight:

• Dasha discusses Mike Tyson's unexpected resilience and critiques his behavior and appearance.
  • Dasha Nekrasova [08:52]: “Mike Tyson is actually my dream podcast guest because he's such a genius.”
  • Anna Khachiyan [08:14]: “But he didn't get, like, knocked out.”

Ariana Grande’s Appearance:

• The hosts critique Ariana Grande’s recent look, speculating about her use of the weight loss drug Ozempic.
  • Dasha Nekrasova [10:20]: “She looks like a Hasidic old woman and... she's on Ozempic, I guess.”
  • Anna Khachiyan [10:14]: “They're all on Ozempic, I guess.”

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Political Commentary: Trump Administration Appointees

Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard:

• The bulk of the episode focuses on the Trump administration's controversial appointments, particularly Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard.
  • Dasha Nekrasova [25:17]: “I was on Matt Gaetz's Wikipedia today, trying to figure out...”
  • Anna Khachiyan [27:24]: “Tulsi gets accused of being a Russian asset, and Bari Weiss called her an Assad toady.”

Recess Appointments and Senate Dynamics:

• Discussion on how Trump utilizes the recess appointment clause to bypass Senate confirmation, allowing him to place contentious figures in key positions.
  • Anna Khachiyan [26:12]: “Trump signed an executive order banning a family separation...”
  • Dasha Nekrasova [30:00]: "Or the head of the Department of Homeland Security... advisors or consultants."

Critique of Matt Gaetz:

• The hosts vehemently criticize Matt Gaetz, accusing him of being involved in sex trafficking and other immoral behaviors.
  • Anna Khachiyan [82:37]: “Matt Gaetz is a sex trafficking, drug addicted piece of... he is abhorrent.”
  • Dasha Nekrasova [84:17]: “Matt Gaetz is like what liberals think Trump is...”

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Societal and Demographic Issues

Declining Birth Rates and Grandparent Grief:

• The episode explores the emotional and societal impacts of declining birth rates, focusing on the grief experienced by older generations who may never become grandparents.
  • Dasha Nekrasova [106:13]: “Everyone needs grandchildren as a reward for aging.”
  • Anna Khachiyan [122:11]: “That's very... sad. But there is a justice in it.”

Permissive Parenting Styles:

• The hosts critique permissive parenting styles, blaming them for the current generation's reluctance to have children.
  • Dasha Nekrasova [108:19]: “A lot of these people understand that to be a parent is to become the villain in some way...”

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Media and Perception

New York Times Articles:

• Brief mentions of New York Times articles on grandparents and teachers' political affiliations in NYC public schools, with the hosts expressing skepticism and mocking the narratives.
  • Anna Khachiyan [106:09]: “She's insane.”
  • Dasha Nekrasova [111:09]: “How long have we been going?”

Joe Rogan and Media Influence:

• The hosts briefly touch on Joe Rogan's opinions on Trump and media influence over public perception.
  • Dasha Nekrasova [34:42]: “Joe Rogan says he changed his opinion on Trump because he’s a brave man.”

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Educational System Critique

Bias in Education:

• Anna and Dasha discuss the political biases within the education system, referencing philosophers like Zizek and critiquing authoritarian versus permissive teaching styles.
  • Dasha Nekrasova [110:37]: “Zizek's point about the authoritarian father versus the permissive father...”

Impact of Liberal Bias:

• The conversation covers how liberal bias in education has led to generational shifts in values and societal norms.
  • Anna Khachiyan [120:53]: “They’re using what is pro progeny with policies that actually encourage...”

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Concluding Remarks

The episode wraps up with a continued critique of political figures and societal trends, emphasizing the perceived failures of current leadership and educational systems. The hosts blend personal anecdotes with broader cultural critiques, maintaining a tone of sardonic humor throughout.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Anna Khachiyan [01:04]: “I was actually diagnosed with inattentive ADHD that I take medication to treat... Adderall.”
• Dasha Nekrasova [25:17]: “I was on Matt Gaetz's Wikipedia today, trying to figure out...”
• Anna Khachiyan [82:37]: “Matt Gaetz is a sex trafficking, drug addicted piece of... he is abhorrent.”
• Dasha Nekrasova [84:17]: “Matt Gaetz is like what liberals think Trump is...”
• Anna Khachiyan [122:11]: “That's very... sad. But there is a justice in it.”

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Key Themes

1. Political Critique: Harsh criticism of Trump administration appointees, especially Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard, highlighting scandals and perceived immoral behaviors.
2. Cultural Commentary: Discussions on art criticism, Māori influence in New Zealand, and critiques of celebrity appearances.
3. Societal Issues: Exploration of declining birth rates, the emotional impact on older generations, and the role of permissive parenting styles.
4. Media Influence: Skepticism towards mainstream media narratives and the role of figures like Joe Rogan in shaping public opinion.
5. Educational Bias: Critique of political biases within the education system and their impact on generational values.

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Conclusion

"Fake and Gaetz" is a quintessential Red Scare episode, blending personal anecdotes with sharp cultural and political critiques. Anna and Dasha offer an uncompromising look at contemporary issues, peppered with humor and a no-nonsense approach to controversial topics. This episode serves as a potent example of Red Scare's signature style—bold, unfiltered, and provocatively engaging.

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Support the Hosts:

• Patreon: Join the Red Scare Community
• Follow Anna Khachiyan: @annakhachiyan
• Follow Dasha Nekrasova: @nobody_stop_me

Transcript

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That's it.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That's the show. What's up, Anna?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Nothing. Yeah, my week of rest and relaxation. Totally not going too well.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. Even burning the candle in both holes. Yeah. I feel, you know, my short term memory loss is really kicking in.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I know. Do you ever have that thing where you're, like, in your bedroom and you think of something that you have to do and you go to the kitchen or the living room to do it, and then you're, like, standing in this other room and you don't remember why you're there? You've been, like, abducted by aliens.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, I was actually diagnosed with inattentive adhd.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That I take medication to treat.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So I'm trying to beat this thing, but that's one of the symptoms. Yeah. Is being scattered.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

What's the medication?

[Anna Khachiyan]

Adderall.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Oh, okay. I was like, oh, but aren't you already on Adderall? They gave you new Adderall.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I haven't had an Adderall prescription for a while.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Since COVID How's that helping with your short term memory loss?

[Anna Khachiyan]

I'm more productive.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But then I kind of play the online chess compulsively, which isn't great, but if I can keep that at bay.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Then it's smooth.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I'm going to beat this.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Maybe I'll get an Adderall, become even more annoying and.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, my God, that's. That would be interesting. Honestly, it gives you a ton of energy and suppresses your appetite.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Cool. Sounds amazing. Sign me up. I've never consistently taken Adderall. I took it once in my life in, like, 2018. I want to say, when I wrote that one essay about how art will not save us.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You could write another essay.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I could write another essay. I was thinking about that because I was talking to you earlier about the Dean Kisich Harper's cover story that we will not be talking about today. Stay tuned for reasons that will be revealed. He's not coming on the pod. You can breathe a sigh.

[Anna Khachiyan]

A secret.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. But I was thinking, like, wow, art criticism is back, baby. Make art criticism great again. Because it was so good. It was like a very Wolfian piece.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It reminded me of that Janet Malcolm essay on the Ingrid Cishi takeover of Artforum, where she's writing about all these kind of stately and respectable personalities orbiting the magazine at the time, and she just, like, takes them all down in one fell swoop. Because there's a scene where there's, like, a buffet and all these people are, like, rushing over and Stuffing their plates. It's very bad. Sorry, I don't know where I was going with this.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's a great. Everyone should read it. It's a very good diagnostic.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And this is no disrespect to Dean's writing, but he didn't really even have to do anything but describe the current state of the art world in a very neutral and straight faced way. And you were just laughing. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It wasn't snarky, but it was very po. Yeah, like poignant.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. But every single person like mentioned in that piece basically sounds like that Mayori woman.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Maui, Maui.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Maui.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

My bad. Whatever.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Hated that. Couldn't even watch it with sound on for three seconds.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. There was a video of a Maori politician in New Zealand's parliament or whatever. They have like ripping up some bill and doing their like Hawke war dance.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Hawke.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which I hate to see.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, I know. Well, libs love to do this thing where they like provoke you. Yeah. They like showcase some savages and then when they flip around and act as you would expect, everybody has to like bite their tongue and not be disgusted and horrified.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean people might remember I spent some time in New Zealand working and was very. The Maori influence there is major.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's like I was like, wow, this is like gay race communism. They, they're like really actually doing it in like a totally authoritarian like crazy way.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Yeah. You were sending me like photos of their like frescoes and sculptures and they all look like late term abortions. It's so scary.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's like. So it was. Yeah. And it was recently after I was Chrismated into the Byzantine Catholic faith. So I was you know, just on a very different wavelength and I got off the plane and was like, oh, they were like pagan here. And yeah, they like, they. That year they like had decided to give to make like a Maori holiday, like a national holiday. But it's because they were, I realized because it was the. Were colonized super late.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So they haven't had that much time like developing though they developed rapidly but then they became woke and so now the Maori just like have this tons of like political power. And the bill that she was ripping up was like proposed was like. I guess it was like crypto anti Maori because it gave everybody the same rights. It was like an equality bill.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. It's so funny and ironic to see like woke tards ripping up equality bills because isn't that what we were fighting for all along?

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean they're.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Nope.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, I mean they're beyond, like, woke in New Zealand. It really was. So. I mean, I was only in Wellington.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I mean, this. This brings me back to, like, a question that Dean asks in his essay where he's like, well, when an incredibly influential and well funded industry only foregrounds the voices of marginalized people, are they still marginalized?

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, how does that work?

[Anna Khachiyan]

Totally.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

We need some Ma Mai representation in the United States.

[Anna Khachiyan]

They have, like, face tattoos.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. You know, they have, like, the Mike Tyson face tattoo.

[Anna Khachiyan]

They're. They have tribal. I mean, they're. Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Did you watch the fight?

[Anna Khachiyan]

I did not. I watched. I tried, but then they had all these fights before.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And those were kind of boring. And then I zoned out and stopped paying attention. But I heard Tyson lost.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Which was expected.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I wasn't expecting, but he, like, took.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It like a champ. I mean, he's 58 years old. It's crazy.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But he didn't get, like, knocked out. Like, I don't even understand, you know, I guess it's like, who punches who the most is that.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I don't know how that works.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Who's who.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I felt after watching that fight.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, you think he was hard up for money?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That's a good question. I don't know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Because it seems beneath him. I mean, I guess he has, like, brain damage. It's awesome.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Mike Tyson is actually my dream podcast guest.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, my God.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Because he's such a genius.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Now that we didn't get Trump, we're going to Tyson.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That, like, I feel like with the brain damage, he's, like, on another level of genius. He's like the galaxy brain.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's very avant garde, and I think we could have a great conversation, honestly.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Or like, Mike, what's your favorite sex position? Do you like reverse cowgirl?

[Anna Khachiyan]

So you do the pile driver.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

What's up with the face tattoo?

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, do you think Ariana Grande is anorexic? Probably seen those pictures.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. She really, like, speed. Ran her way through all these, like, different races and ages to end up at Judge Judy.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She looks like an old Jewish lady from the Upper west side.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She might be on Ozempic maybe.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You know, they're all on Ozempic, I guess.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which. Yeah, if you're already thin, which she always has been. I also think. Yeah. In her, like, wicked promo tour, she's been dressing very, like, she's still doing the, like. And I. You know, speaking from experience, you know, she's still wearing little bows and stuff.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which. Yeah. Highlights kind of how, like, gaunt and aged you look.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You know, if you dress like. If you were like a pink dress, like a little baby, she.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She looks like a Hasidic old woman and. Or a Hasidic young child. I had this thought because, like, part of a big bobble head. Yeah. Part of my week of rest and relaxation was like, returning more videotapes to, like, Zara and Mango and whatever. And I was like, hanging out in one of these retailers thinking, like, fuck these HIDIC women. All they ever do is shop. Don't they do anything else? And then I was like, wait a minute. All you ever do is shop, you stupid bitch.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, they don't speak English, so, I mean, that gives them a disadvantage in their ability to, you know, function outside of Hasidic society. So they. That's all they can do.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Not. Yeah, they speak the universal language of women, which is shopping.

[Anna Khachiyan]

They go to the Schwitz. Yeah, I've seen. I've seen some horses and they get pregnant, I guess.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

They have kids a ton and then go shopping.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Just like a woman is a riddle, and the answer to that riddle is shopping. No. Ariana Grande, who I don't really pay much attention to or think much about, made me really rethink my pro ana stance because I'm like, oh, this is what people mean when they say, like, anorexics look bad.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Right.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Because when I think of an anorexic, I think of, like, a model. A model. Or like a normally thin woman who people are like, eat a burger or whatever.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, right.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But yeah, it's like that. I think you were talking about it. It's like getting like Botox blindness or whatever where you just, like, don't know where to stop.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I think she's so short too. You know, it's like on a larger frame, it looks better to be thinner.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But her head looks so big on her small body.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That's her real problem. She's a sub human. Because she's under five foot three.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She is like. Yeah. I think quite short.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She's like that one Randy Newman song I really like.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Shakira is like five feet tall.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. That's not surprising.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And she looks, you know, think about. Think of picture Shakira in your mind, you know, like, that's kind of a hot body type.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

To be kind of like. Because you're already like, petite feet.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So you can kind of be slim, thick. Anyway. Oh, did you see Rebecca Hall?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I don't know who the that is. I was like, literally, who. Who the are you? Nobody cares about your Apology.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I did. I did. She's in Biggie. Christina Barcelona. But she said she regrets saying that she regretted working with Woody Allen. Which I was like, let's go, Woody Redemption arc starts now.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

20 Project 2025. We're bringing Woody Allen back. He's going to make his megalopolis. You know, he's going to get to make his magnum opus.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That's a really funny idea.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Molesting is not.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, what would Woody Allen's megalopolis look like? I don't know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But I'm literally here for it. I mean, midnight in Paris.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So good.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I. I hate Woody Allen. You do not. Not because he possibly molested women, but because he's short and Jewish. I'm kidding. I like, actually love Woody Allen. He's my dream, Honestly, my dream guy.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, he'd be great.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Or Soon Yi.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Or both.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Pretty. Pretty interesting. Anything's possible in Trump's America, you know?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No, I like, hate Woody Allen because I like him in spite of himself. Also, how I feel about Bob Dylan. I want to hate them, but I can't.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I don't hate Bob Dylan, but I definitely can think. He's annoying.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. He's like obtuse and obscurantist and only speaks in riddles and doesn't give journalists or interviewers what they want.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's a poet, you know, he's.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

His life is his poetry.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But I'm not even, honestly, a huge fan of his music.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I am. It's so bad, Dasha. I'm so ashamed. I'm such a Dylan head. I've seen him so many times at this point.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Damn, dude. No, I mean, I think I'm missing out.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. No, you're not. You're absolutely not.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Really? Because I used. There was a point where I definitely was like, pretending to like Bob Dylan in my 20s. In my 20s, I was like, for sure, like some guy who's asking me.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I've only seen him, you know, pretty late in the game and the last couple concerts I've been to, it's like him dressed like Ariana Grande.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Looking like a Lolita. Woo.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That's cute. I actually like. Yeah. He had like a late career album or like when I was a child, so he was, you know, only relatively old where he had a song about standing in the doorway and crying. You know that one I love. Yeah. Like, I've tried.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But I never. He's never. He's not on my playlist.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I. I even like his civil rights racial reckoning song about like Hattie Carroll, who was like a cook in a barmaid. It's a true story. Who was killed by some like young newspaper heir whose parents were like plant plantation owners in the deep South. No, it was Maryland. They were from Baltimore.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Why did he kill her?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Because he was. I, I don't know. I mean all history is falsified and I'm sure there's like a right wing spin on this, but he was some 25 year old playboy and brat who just struck her with his cane and she died. And she was like 51 and had a bunch of kids, a single mom and it was like one of these early George Floyd type racial show trials from what I understand. Beautiful song. Love to play it on the treadmill at the gym. That's cool. It's like, you know, Bob Dylan being a decent fucking person or whatever.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, he's not very politically outspoken though, is he?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No, but he's probably, I think he probably, you know, an unbearable libtard.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Maybe he's new, maybe he's neutral. Yeah, I think we're gonna see a lot of people are actually kind of politically neutral.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And they don't really care. And they were on board with being woke because they were made to, you know, they were like tyrannized into it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, that was my thought, like the.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Dean essay, because Caitlin Flanagan pointed this out.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

What?

[Anna Khachiyan]

That so many people were like, like a switch where like. Oh yeah, we never.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, well, she had that great tweet that you retweeted and that I retweeted. That was like in retrospect, like, what did she say? Actually, I might just read the tweet because it was really good.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She was a voice on the. One of the people who spoke in the monoc.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I know. And I was actually surprised by her voice because it was so youthful and sexy. You know what has genuinely surprised me? The number of people I know who turned out to have thought gender affirmative care was a bad idea all along and now feel free to say it. Yeah, that was my 2 cents with the Dean thing because I feel like I can freely say this and he probably knows this already. And the last couple of weeks, the last month have been very rewarding because I was like, you know what? I'm not going to hold my tongue anymore. And I'm just going to be honest with everyone around me on a personal and public level. And he's always been a very frustrating guy for me. Not because he sucks and he's untalented, but exactly the opposite because he's like a good writer and a good critic, and those don't always go hand in hand and he has them both. But he's always, like, historically been a little slippery and evasive and won't tell the whole truth. And now the mask is off and he's like, you know what? It's actually really stupid that, like, when you privilege the self over expression and self expression, that, like, makes making art redundant.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. And that the purpose of art. I mean, we should really.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Well, reel it back. I'm like, so excited about this piece, but. And also, like, wall text sucks. And you should just look at the work and trust yourself to be able to interpret it, to have an experience of it.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

There's been like an all around, like.

[Anna Khachiyan]

If it doesn't provoke an experience in you because it's so banal and, like, tedious than having to look at wall text, like, contextualize it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's just a disaster.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And I'm like, I hate you people. You're such parasites. You've, like, infiltrated museums and galleries and inserted yourself between the artist and the audience to write your gay little wall blurbs and press releases because you need a job. Fuck you. I'm like the Vivek Ramaswamy of the downtown New York art scene. Under my watch, the swamp is getting drained.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You're like the live painter guy at the Trump Valley who's been maligned in the art world.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Scott Lobido.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Who Matthieu calls Scott Baio, not ironically, but because he doesn't know. And I don't have the heart to tell him.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He does kind of seem like Scott Baio. Yeah. It seems really plausible. Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He's like a dumb wop.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Who'S like, I got a message for the world right here. I just flipped the bird the way that he did at the. At the Trump rally.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But it's true. It feels good. Everybody's, like, free to speak openly and honestly for once.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Though I have to, like, question a gesture like the Rebecca hall regret over her previous regret. Like, it's such a transparent play because it implies that she didn't really. She believe the original regret in the first place.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, she said. I read the. Obviously the article and she said that she, you know, she. I mean, she was very, like, reasonable, you know, she said, I don't want to be like an activist.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And I shouldn't weigh in on call, you know?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I was like. Yep.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

We're like in the American era of glossness and perestroika. But it's like, okay, there's been an overall, like, thawing effect.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But I don't blame, you know, it's like, not at people. It takes, it's hard to have convictions. I know most people don't. Most people are hedging their bets. Most people live with like, you know, a feeling of like, precarity and fear and they want, you know, not only to be a good person, but to like, you know, do the thing that seems like viable and socially acceptable.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That was one of the best things that Susan Sontag ever said in Notes on Camp where she's like, you know, all ideology is fundamentally self serving. It has to be. It's such a simple premise, but it's true. But still, it bears repeating that it doesn't matter if you defend something when it's no longer risky or costly to defend it. It really matters if you did it back when it still was.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, I wish that was true.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

What?

[Anna Khachiyan]

That it, you know, I mean, it matters in a moral way, but not, you know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Of course, if you're, I mean, looking at the Trump's cabinet picks.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Oh, yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

We can talk about reading about these people in politics. You know, they're all like weird liars and scoundrels.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Like you. But that's, that's like how they ended up in politics.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So, like people, you know, do what's sort of. Sometimes people take a risk.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Some people are more antifragile than others, but everyone's kind of like hedging their bats in there. And I feel, I feel like people are coming out on the side of common sense.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And I feel like also like people who were right all along and brave in saying it and are now vindicated, of course, feel a certain amount of bitterness and resentment because at the time they were vilified. But you also have to accept the fact that those who are courageous to speak up at an inconvenient moment are always going to be in the minority. That's just like, how it goes.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, totally.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But yeah, we can. I guess we're back to classic Red Scare Forum, which is like roasting New York Times and New York magazine articles.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I read a lot of time and I really did. I took some Adderall. So I really, like, I've got really excited. Some notes.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And it's just like, you know, you know how it is with those kind of like, legacy publications where basically like their whole MO is absolving their readers of guilt for being like, selfish and clueless. But what Was I gonna say. I guess we could talk about the. I mean, I actually, like, have nothing to say about Trump's Cabinet pics.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Really.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, I was on Matt Gaetz's Wikipedia today, trying to figure out, like, I've only. I only know Matt Gaetz as, like, a fixture on Twitter. He's this guy that, like, people historically, like, dunk on. And I remember him chiefly from the rumor mill that he was keeping, like, a. A gay sex slave in his house who turned out to be, like, his adopted son and. Or brother.

[Anna Khachiyan]

What? What?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's under investigation by the House Ethics Committee.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Which is dicey, I read, because apparently they have. They no longer have jurisdiction over it because he resigned from the House to take up his post as, like, the presumptive nominee for Attorney General or whatever.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. Right. Well, okay, so, first of all, all, most of these positions, the Senate still controls the process of someone becoming the head of a State Department. So it's not. I was under the impression that this was. You know, I was like, let's go. I was like, I think it's, like, a fun and zany mix of people.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You know, there's been. I haven't really been online lately, but there's been like, a whole heated discourse about Trump's admin picks.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, Fuentes says that the Jews let Trump win so that they could.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

They let everyone win, bro.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, they let him win so that he could destroy Iran, and that's why he wants to appoint Marco Rubio as the Secretary of State.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I mean, the main criticisms I'm seeing of all these various different people is that they're, like, Zionists and. Or neocons. So Trump isn't really bringing in this sea change that we're all hoping for.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Tulsi's really not.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Tulsi gets accused of being a Russian asset, and Bari Weiss called her an Assad toadie on Rogan. But then once he sort of probed her, she couldn't really describe what she. Like. Everyone has these vague criticisms of which I get. Like, Assad toady is fun to say.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Personally, I don't even really know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Tulsi Gabbard is the Ivy Wolk of politics. People just love to hate her.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. But it's unclear. You know, she's. Yeah. Is not vehemently pro Ukraine.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which. Neither is Marco Rubio. He's extremely pro Israel. He does want to destroy Iran.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But. And he's very anti China. Pro Israel, anti China. Kind of neutral on Ukraine.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I don't really care what foreign policy positions these people have. I like that they're overwhelmingly young, and I like that the appointments so far have really made the libs fume. Well, it's like Tulsi Gabbard, Tom Homan, Marco Rubio, Matt Gates. People were saying that Matt Gates was basically a kind of symbolic hire because he's not going to get the position.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He might, but whatever.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I like. I can't make any sense of that. That's not my jurisdiction.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well. Well, yeah. Trump said that he was going to imp. Like, utilize or invoke like, something called a recess appointment clause, which, because he doesn't have, like, ultimate executive power over these appointments, but when the Senate is in recess, the recess appointees still can, like, wield control of their departments for, like, up to a year.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Okay.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But also, even being appointed. Appointed to have these apartments just means you advise the President. So. Yeah. You are powerful.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But, like, the borders are, for example, which is one of the only positions that doesn't require, like, a Senate confirmation. He doesn't actually have a lot of, like, legal power.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. We say borders are, like. It's a official role. It should be renamed. Borders are what? It's just like, the head of the Department of Homeland Security. Right. Or.

[Anna Khachiyan]

No.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Or the head of the.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's not any. It's none of those. He has to work with the Department of Home Security and ICE and all these other organizations.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

So they're just basically, like, advisors or consultants. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And he actually doesn't have. I mean, he will have power because.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

By virtue of where he is sort.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Of in the hierarchy, but he doesn't have actual, like, executive power. He has to work with these other organizations. And, like. Yeah, the article. I. This is. Yeah. You could. If you took Adderall. I, like, read some New York Times article that said that he was the architect of the family separation policy.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Right.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which then linked to, like, an Atlantic piece investigating the way that some kids were being separated from their parents because their parents were getting arrested.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

For being criminals.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yes.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which, yeah. Was obviously, like, not ideal and had all these, like, human repercussions.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Well, that's what he said to Trump. Aoc. During that hearing.

[Anna Khachiyan]

What.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Where she was doing the kind of anime eyes.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Kids in cages.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Millennial theater. Kid Waterworks performance. And he was like. What did he say? He was like, you know, like, if I commit a crime or I'm arrested for a dui, or I'm apprehended for domestic violence, they're gonna separate me from my children. If you're a U.S. citizen and you're drunk driving and you have a child in the car, you will be separated.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. And it was never, like, a official mandate.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It was a consequence of, like, a zero tolerance policy that the Trump administration implemented. But Tom Holman was hired by Barack Obama and worked in the prior administration.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I remember that. I remember back in the day, leftists were always melting down about him on Twitter because he was the director of ICE at the time.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

So these are basically political professionals who get appointed by every president.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And Trump, here it is. In 2018, he signed an executive order banning a family separation, which Tom Homan.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Also echoed in that interview where that bitch was like, well, what do you say to people who complain that this will lead to more family separations? It's easy, simple. We're just going to deport the whole family.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Which seems fair and merciful.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. The Times article said that Trump's issued the executive order, but the Biden administration implemented it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which doesn't make a difference. Like, Trump signed an executive order. What do you want from it? What else do you want from it? But, yeah, obviously, if they do mass deportations, it's going to be a mess.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And you kind of do want a guy like Tom Holman.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Not to be a total Barack Obama, but, yeah, you kind of want some. A guy in there who's going to.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Do, you know, the authoritarian father.

[Anna Khachiyan]

My mom was like, how do you think? How are they going to, you know, how are they going to catch and deport these people? I was like, it's not my problem. Like, someone else has to take care of it. Someone else has to have. That's the point of having elected officials.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I was. I was looking for this Charlie Kirk tweet that was just, like, a list of all the Trump appointees so far. And I came across this, like, Joe Rogan clip where he explains why he changed his opinion on Trump and came to like him. And he's like, well, you know, as a busy guy, you can only pay attention to so much. You can only do so many deep dives. And I didn't want to really look into it, and I didn't really think the grab him by the guy was such a good idea. Rogan said this for the nation. Yeah. And then I realized you need a guy who is completely crazy to expose how corrupt the whole system is. And that's. This is also why I find Joe Rogan to be such a frustrating figure, because, like Joe, you're obviously lying.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Like, you think he's toeing the line.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, like, if you didn't like Trump back then, it was either because you were propagandized by the anti Trump propaganda or you secretly did like him, but you were incentivized to keep your mouth shut due to social pressure.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, like 26. That's true. But also, like in 2016, like Trump, I didn't foresee him winning.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No, I didn't either. But I'm, I'm saying this as somebody who's like, guilty as charged, because I bet if you go back to those early episodes of Red Scare where we're talking about Trump, we're probably pretty like, lukewarm and fair weather. And, you know, in my case, I will admit that it was just purely out of social cowardice because I didn't want to face any, like, reprisal or repercussion. Even though, like, low key. Deep down, I always really liked him, I think.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, I obviously have liked him, but I've was still thought that I still believed kind of in.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Legacy Institute. Like, I didn't. It just seemed kind of silly, you know, he seemed silly and like, it wasn't. Well, yeah. But politically viable and it was, you know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, the other like, annoying and dishonest thing Joe Rogan says, though, I don't know if he even understands it when he calls Trump a crazy guy. Like, Trump actually is not crazy at all.

[Anna Khachiyan]

No, like at all. That's the part that seems disingenuous.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Like, yeah, you don't need a. A madman to expose the rot of the system. You need a brave man. And that's not that. That's not be being like, positive toward Trump even. Like, it doesn't matter what his reasons are for being brave.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, what was the Sontag quote? Oh, ideology.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Self serving. Yeah, something like that.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's become, you know, what he is now, which is different from what he used to be. Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But it's actually, like, bad to have a crazy guy who lays bare the inner workings of the system because by virtue of being, like, insane and delirious and demented, he is fundamentally weak and vulnerable.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Like a crazy person. Yeah, yeah, sure. No, Trump is strong. Rogan said he didn't go to the bathroom. He came to his studio. They recorded for three hours without stopping. And Trump took no breaks, didn't go to the bathroom before or after. Well, incredible. And Don Jr. Said sometimes he doesn't sleep and that he. Yeah, he's like, he's an amazing guy.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, people were saying that, like, oh. Like a guy like Trump really obviates all of RFK Jr's health and wellness advice because. Yeah. He's a guy who, like, okay, he doesn't smoke or drink, which are major. Two major factors. But like, he doesn't sleep, he eats McDonald's, he doesn't drink water.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Against the advice of like the entire medical community for many decades. And he's almost 80 and, like, looks great and is full of energy. And I disagree with that because I think he's just like the exception that proves the rule. Like, he's.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's very clearly just something else going.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

On biologically, physiologically, an exceptional individual. It's also very. He is. He is. Yeah. Like, I'm not even talking about, like, like intellectually.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, we saw him in the.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Flesh, philosophically or whatever. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He was glowing like an angel. Yeah, I gotta say, he was. Yeah, he was amazing. He was incredible.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And the thing that I will reiterate is that he had one of the best handshakes ever, because it was very warm and dry, but not overly aggressive. Like, we all know about the weak and limp wristed handshake which all, like, business gurus warn you against and tell you to work upon. But I've always found, like, overly aggressive handshakes to be like, even weaker than weak handshakes because they're like, cope and compensation off putting. Yeah. It's like when you meet some kind of like political operative or political consultant guy and he shakes your hand really heartily and looks into your eyes and you're like, I'm a woman, dude. You don't have to go through all this rigmarole. You can just do like normal handshake. You don't have to crush my fingers.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's actually aristocratic to have a weak hand. That's why I just, like, flop my, like, weak wrist into someone's hand. It's actually a power move.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Just like clean, direct, straightforward, no frills.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I go in with a hug. I like, that's my power move, is when someone's like, apprehensive about whether or not we should hug.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Me too. I always do. And it's always a surprise.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Let's go, dude.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

They don't see it coming. Okay. And I'm just like, I just love to hug it out. Like, really you. But blah, blah, blah. What was the talking? Oh, yeah. The Charlie Kirk Joe Rogan experience.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Oh, friend of the pod. So, Rab Amari, my favorite guy. Yeah, he tweeted, I'm naughtily liking Some of these Trump nominations simply because they throw establishment types into conniptions. Look, if the respectable people, people had done a decent job over the past four years or two generations, I joined them as it is. Why not try Gates and Gabbard? Fuck you. So Rab, he's such a Count Chocula.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh my God.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I'm naughtily liking these pics.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Ew. Dude, how are you as a man going to tell me you're feeling Naughty?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Come on, it's not even the holiday season yet.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Tulsi is interesting because she was appointed as Director of National Security, which is. Yeah, it's very. I don't think she will end up being.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

After being like banned and investigated up the ass.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I think that's. That one feels like a troll, but a very good one.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I think Matt Gaetz feels like a troll, but it's like hard to say.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. In one of the articles I read, it said that Hillary Clinton suggested that Russians were grooming a Democrat to run as a third party candidate and help Trump win re election. This was in 2019 when Tulsi was a guest on Red Scare podcast when she was running as a Democrat. It was widely assumed that Clinton was referring to Gabbard who accused Clinton of trying to destroy her reputation. I mean I've. It's like a fun like workplace comedy kind of the. The way that he's appointing these like.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

The Officer V because.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, like RFK Jr. Is eating the McDonald's on the jet and like Pete Hegseth who he appointed as the head of the Department of Defense.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I was trying to figure out if I think that guy is hot or not.

[Anna Khachiyan]

No, I don't think so.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I don't either.

[Anna Khachiyan]

A lot of ugly. A lot of gripers like meaning frog and not the Nick Fuentes.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, yeah. No, Hegseth is like, he's like the male equivalent of Kellyanne Conway where she's like a weird broken mirror simulacra of a hot woman. Like if you kind of blur your eyes, you're like, oh, like Pam Anderson.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And then you open them and you're like, ugh.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean I love a man in uniform, but like he's here as Maori tattoos. He does.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He has a bunch of like weird insane tattoos.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Military. Interesting. He. He's very vocally against females in combat.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, right.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But then you have lady veteran Hindu Tulsi Gabbard. You've got Brendan Carr, who is the FCC chair, who's going to go after Big Tech and punish the woke media.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But then you also have, you know, Elon, who kind of is big tech and with Indian Vivac and then RFK Jr. You know, and he has to eat the McDonald's. Susie Wiles, his campaign manager, his chief of staff, is the first woman to ever be appointed to that position.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Wow.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Okay. So kind of. We might be. We might be kind of. Remember that video of Trump where he's like, we're kind of conservative. We might be kind of liberal. When you. When he laid out his common sense.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I have to clear my throat because I have, like, Barrett's esophagus from, like, drinking too much wine and smoking too many cigarettes.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You want some biotins?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Sure. My hot take is that this is the most liberal administration of all time.

[Anna Khachiyan]

There's a.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It's a bunch of liberal people with liberal views doing their thing. I'm doing the cancer. Spray my mouth.

[Anna Khachiyan]

There's some conservative. It's a real. It's, you know, it's a real mix. Yeah, but what really.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It's really diverse. It's. It's a really diverse cabinet that looks like America minus the black people. Marco Rubio's Latino.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Marco Rubio's from. Was born of pre. Pre Castro Cuban immigrants. And he's got a lot of wacky. I like, kind of didn't even read about his South American.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Policy. Because.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I don't care.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I don't care. I don't care about South America.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

There's like, some jeets. Some people larping as jeets. There was a rumor that that guy Cash Patel, who I only learned about, like, three days ago, was going to be.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That's an auspicious name.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I was going to be the FBI director. No, but, like, lowkey. His name. His name is K. Patel. Kash Patel. Nominative determinism strikes again.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Damn. You mean being born Indian.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Indians will be called, like, check Kashir Patel. People. People really hate when I'm racist against the page.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But do them.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No, they love it. They love when I do the Indian voice and I'm like, ladies, show bobs and vagine.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I think it. There's like an acceptable amount of, you know, not even. I wouldn't even say anti Indian sentiment, but it's like I want to honestly come out and say if I've ever said anything, if I've ever towed the line on Stop Asian. Hate that. Yeah. It's because I was scared. But I've always thought that was extremely. Made no sense. Was like this perverted Black lives matter that made even less sense. Because the main perpetrators of violence against Asians are blacks.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It's so insane. I. I'm in a group chat where we were discussing the Dean essay and somebody sent like a wall text from some art opening that's called Breathe Toward Climate and Social Justice. And this is the first sentence. The confluence of cataclysmic events that mark the year 2020, among them the global COVID 19 pandemic and ensuing economic crisis, the rise in anti Asian hate crimes and the murder of George Floyd, which gave powerful momentum to Black Lives Matter and other social justice movements, created a rupture. I love how like Stop Asian Hate is above George Floyd in the hierarchy.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That's insane.

[Anna Khachiyan]

The anti Asian hate crimes because they tried to say it was because Trump said kung flu virus that that was causing Haitian guys to push old Asian ladies on the subway trail. They really. I was really shocked with how much steam they got out of Stop Asian Hate, honestly. Because they're so high iq.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And industrious. They really milk that for.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

For everything they could. Damn.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That was an amazing moment in hindsight.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. I know. There was a fun. When I was reading the New York Times article about recess appointees, it did this like, annoying some. They'll. Sometimes libs do this thing where they like will talk about how the Constitution's antiquated, you know. But I also went on some like Constitution website. This is what. Yeah. Can you tell? I took Adderall. So the New York Times said in the early days of the country when travel was by horse, the Senate was regularly out of session for months at a time. And that's when they wrote the exception into the Constitution. It's the seem like it's like this new. This like old, old timey thing that Trump's like exploiting when like.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, it's when they were on recess milking their mulatto house slaves. That's when the sausage got made.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, not I that's. But that's one of the things that's great about America is that it was like we have this amazing document that these guys wrote and then all these like weird weasels and rascals get to like use it for their like, means and ends.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. They're like subversion and subterfuge.

[Anna Khachiyan]

They're making moves against each other. Washington D.C. and the. I mean, the Tulsi troll is good.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Because you do really get all the like intelligence people are upset. Yeah. Because she doesn't have any experience.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Not like the old guy who worked for the Obama did you see that video of Biden wandering off into the. The.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No, he's like, he's back on his.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, he's giving, he's giving a press conference for.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And then literally like the Biden renaissance was short lived.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And he went to some conference with the. What's the president of China's name? Xiao Jing Ping.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Where he was, he was standing in a very, you know, bad position amongst all these.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, he made America look very weak, very unprecedented. But he's doing his thing though.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Susie Wilds, there's not a lot of info on. She's unlike Matt Gates.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Is a classy and discreet person.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Who's sort of done the right thing.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She's like Paula Dean, but more classy and discreet.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And I would, Yeah, I would love to see, honestly, a documentary about Susie Wilds.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Me too.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Hello, Martha. Because she's worked. Yeah, she's worked on a ton of political.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She is like the Martha Stewart of the White House. And it's nice to see all the classic, most annoying libert. Objections get vacated where they're like, yeah, like Trump hates women, he's anti women. But like actually he doesn't really care. He looks and loves and respects women.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Carolyn with a K. Leave it. Speaking of young people, who's that youngest press secretary in history?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

How old is she?

[Anna Khachiyan]

27. And she's cute blonde. She studied under the other cute blonde.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That worked after Kayleigh Mc.

[Anna Khachiyan]

After Sarah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That's cute. There's like a Legally Blonde department in the White House.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She's cute. She's Catholic. She seems like, you know, we'll see. We'll see. I should be me just for a little bit.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I just want to be the press secretary for like a week.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

A little bit. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Just let me, let me get up there. Let me get on the. If I took Adderall and read a press dossier.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I fully and wholeheartedly agree with this. I think Dalsha Nekrosova should be the press secretary. But I do have to countersignal you for a minute and say that the biggest power move ever would be to appoint Glenn Greenwald as press secretary. That would be so funny. And such a troll would be incredible.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I would love that.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He's like catty and gay and like. So all of these political dignitaries are shaking hands with literally Hitler.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's pwning people left and right. You know, he would. He, he had a good tweet where he said if liberals want to accuse Tulsi of being a Russian agent and Gates of being a sex trafficker. Both very grave crimes. It's probably worth asking why the Biden DOJ never indicted them for that. And why do Dem swoon every four years of incredibly accused of rape Hyphenated phrase Bill Clinton.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I was just on the subreddit because I'm back on my self harm tip and there was like some excerpt from an article somebody posted about how Monica Lewinsky's legal team said that she told them that Clinton he pulled a really trump move because some lady was accusing him of sexual assault and he told Monica that she's not his type because she's small breasted.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Mm, nice.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Game.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's using game.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

More cushion for the potion. But it's true. Yeah. Okay, look, I don't. I was like again on Matt Gaetz's Wikipedia trying to like make sense of his sex trafficking allegations. They tried to smear him for being gay, which is false. They tried to smear him for being a body shamer, which is true. And then there's this ongoing allegation that he had sex with a 17 year old and one of his girlfriends or prosthes testified that he did indeed have sex with a 17 year old at a house party.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I bet.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But that he actually didn't know she was 17 and was under the impression that she was over 18.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Okay. The age of consent in Florida is 18.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's 16 in Nevada.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

As it should be for Nevada. Not for me.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean it's not. No. You know, it's like it's a 17 year old. It's.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I'm not endorsing this. I don't approve of this.

[Anna Khachiyan]

No. I think it's hair. I think it's like just abhorrent behavior is not becoming of a statesman. But Washington D.C. is a nasty place.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And they're doing nasty ass stuff over there. And all these like. Yeah. People in politics have already. They're already like soulless.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So of course they're having orgies and stuff. They're trying to, you know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Uh huh.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Something's really broken and wrong with you if you're trying to like come up in Polish.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I've said this before and I'll say it again. It's so hard for me to imagine that people are having like Eyes Wide Shut type sex parties. They're not with like child prostitutes because it seems like so much energy and effort. It's like murdering somebody. Like there's just so much like cleanup involved. Like why would you even do that? The liberal orthodoxy is that the frontal lobe doesn't develop until you're 25. And they keep shifting the goalpost so now it's like 38. So I'm technically.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She was just a kid.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

A kid?

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, she was just a 38 year old kid.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And there's this idea that like women, especially young women, can't consent to anything that happens to them because they're perfect and angelic and totally innocent. And of course teenage girls think they know exactly what they're doing and they know what they want. And the problem with that, of course, is that they've bitten off more than they can chew and. And they feel like they're perfectly in control.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, some like.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I'm just, I'm saying like I remember myself at 14 years old, Anna. I'm just saying when I first became sexually active at too young in age and I thought I had these men wrapped around my finger and knew what I was doing and of course I didn't.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I know, but the thing is, it's like, it's ridiculous that you can like. Yeah. Watch like a video of like a low IQ 18 year old.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Ruining her life.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But like a high IQ 17 year old who goes to some. She wasn't a prostitute by the way. She was like. She went to high school. She went to high school in Washington.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And was at some fucking party and fucked.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You know, and she probably was like smart enough, you know, but there is just. I'm not even doing like an HBD thing. I'm just being real right now. Like there is when you were 14, I bet you were really smart. I was extremely smart and precocious when I. I'm smarter than I am now. Truly brain damage.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Same. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So I was like. Yeah, I was, I did know what I was doing, but a lot of girls don't. Yeah, a lot of girls aren't that smart. A lot of girls get themselves into bad situations and they shouldn't be. You know, they're not, not victims because they're not smart. But you can't say that every single 17 year old.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No, of course not.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You know, it's a spectrum. Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I remember already at that age being like disillusioned about human nature.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean if you're testifying at a house like ethics committee investigation, you are probably pretty high IQ and probably knew what you were doing, you know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Right.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's always like, this is just like me too. It's like. And also I. There was someone else on the cabinet picks who was accused, had Some sex crime, vague accusation. You know, the New York Times loves to like mention but post me too. It really is like people just. It has had the adverse effect that I attempted to because I feel like now people just don't take sex crime accusations as crazy.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, it like literally just eroded the credibility of women. It's like Black Lives Matter, where like the fact that a slogan like Black Lives Matter even ever existed suggests very strongly that black lives don't matter in reality. And the very fact that like a slogan like Believe women ever existed suggests that you shouldn't believe women ever. The mere existence of such slogans, like the fact that people think to come up with them.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. It's very like productive and patronizing and it's not.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It's like saying the quiet part loud.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That's not what Making America Great again is about.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You know, it's about like taking initiative.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like even like the Black Lives Matter stuff. It's like. Sorry, Steve Saylor mode. The vast majority of murders of black people are committed by other black people.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well. Right. It's just that black lives do matter, but they. The way of addressing that.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Is not by defunding the police and that. I mean, it feels even like crazy to say now. And I feel like it's going to become increasingly crazy, you know, in like 10 years.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Oops.

[Anna Khachiyan]

To what to think that we. That there was like a strong initiative to defund the police to protect black lives when all it's done is take.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Actually ruin and endanger black lives.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, yeah. I mean it's like having, you know, doing the Ukraine war and killing all the people bodied men in Ukraine. To what end?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, the what?

[Anna Khachiyan]

When RFK announced his Democratic presidential bid, I think in his speech he said. I really was endeared to him when he said, like, if we're going to like sacrifice all of these lives.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

For this war, we should at least know why. And that's the thing is, it's like, it's very unclear.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Why this war is being waged and why so many people to make them.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like a dead or colony of black rock or whatever.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, but it's crazy.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I think like also history will look back upon this time and be like, oh, that's crazy. That if you expressed any objections to the Ukraine war and the massive amounts of money we were throwing at Zelensky that you were like billed as a Russian agent.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And like a pro Putin saboteur.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I know. Yeah. The New York Times called Trump the Russia. Russian state media Darling. They were so condescending. And you would think she's Samoan, American, Hindu. She's doing yoga.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She's a vet. I always forget what the is people's problem.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Tulsi is not actually Indian at all.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Is she not? She's a Hindu convert.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, I think so.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Cool.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She's like LARPing as a G aloha dude.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Like, I think the tall. The Tulsi nomination, though, I think it's implausible, is the one I'm most excited about because it's a very interesting department.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Because she's been our guest.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She's a friend of us. But also it's the most, like, revelatory of, like, how all of these, like, identity politics markers that these people claim to hold dear.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Extremely hollow.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And all it takes is, like, for you to criticize the Ukraine war, for them to call you a Russian. Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Also, I'm not. I'm not really a fan of, like, vibes based psychoanalysis, but I've never met a man who wasn't into Tulsi.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She's gorgeous.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, she's the male favorite because she has that low, soothing voice. It's not shrill or scolding. She has that big ass. Here's a comment. Yeah, no, I was just gonna say, like, the moment. The moment that I, like, truly knew Nick Fuentes, She's a surfer. Was when he was talking about. He was like, answering some, like, pay pig question about whether he would Kamala Harris or Tulsi Gabbard. And he was like, yeah, obviously Kamala. Tulsi's like a Russian and has those ice pick scars. And I was like. He said ice pick scars? Boop. You gay? No straight man knows what ice pick scars are.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I don't even know ice pick scars.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

They're like enlarged pores that look like somebody took like a chisel to your face. That come from having, like, childhood acne.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Right, right.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Which is like, such a gay thing to know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's extremely gay and Right. Like, Kamala is maybe more. Yeah, she's more like. She's beautiful like a Hollywood star. Like, she's very, like, painted and like, you know, well lit and, like, produced and like. But she's definitely not.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It is funny that her name is Kamala because she really do be looking like Joe Camel and she sucked her.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Way to the top. You know, she does. She's not devoid of sex appeal. But anyway, this is the New York Times. But while she has become a darling of Russia's state media, no evidence has emerged that she has ever collaborated with the country's intelligence agencies. She simply seems to share the Kremlin's worldviews. According to analysts and former officials in Russia, the reaction to her appointment has been gleeful. Like, the. Still, the level of, like, Russia gay.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Fear mongering is so. It's like, if you're like, a boomer reading this, like, you are, like, oh, no.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

They've appointed a Russian asset.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Asset.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Asset.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Anything to keep yourself from engaging in a searching and fearless moral inventory.

[Anna Khachiyan]

They're all Russian assets. So then. Yeah, Pete Heg, Seth, he's kind of a BAP Type of guy. He wrote a book called the War on Warriors behind the Betrayal of the Men who Keep Us Free, which I assume is a kind of a war. The war on masculinity. And he said. Yeah. That women shouldn't serve in combat.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. But even that, like, guess who else said that?

[Anna Khachiyan]

Who?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

By proxy. Fran Lebowitz.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, it's so true.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It's, like, so obvious and true.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I mean, when you make these. When you, like, issue these, like, blanket pronouncements like women shouldn't serve in combat, that's like a gross generalization that encompasses. Permits its own exceptions. So there are going to be always, like, a handful of strong, tough women who do end up serving, like Tulsi Gabbard. Well, not that she necessarily saw combat, but she did.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She was a con. She's a combat veteran. She was a military medic.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Okay.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And she is a combat veteran. And. But Paxet doesn't think so. But he's also kind of right.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You know, like he says, I mean.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You have to ask yourself, like, having.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Women in the military just makes things more complicated, and having things being complicated causes more casualties.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, of course. Because it introduces a lot of unwanted and unnecessary sexual intrigue and tension into an institution like the military.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And he says, it hasn't made us more effective. It hasn't made us more lethal.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And it hasn't. It's only complicated things. And it should. Yeah, it's just. It does just make sense. It's. It is. It's common sense, folks. And obviously, people don't like him because he's in the military.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Like a, you know, murderer kills. Has killed people before.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He has a high body count.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, but someone has to do it. That's the thing that these limbs don't get, is like, someone has to do a. The tough job.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I know. I know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Of being.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And it's not for. I'm like, Dying to meet, like, a real military veteran who's killed people and asking him what his body count is. But it's like a literal, not metaphorical statement.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Right.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Doing my Norm McDonald.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, a lot of vets I know don't even like to be thanked for their service.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Some of them have a road chip on. Chip on their shoulder.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But you really have to ask yourself, like, do you, as a woman, really want to serve in combat? No.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Tulsi, I mean. Oh, yeah. Tulsi is obviously extremely special.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Athletic, whatever. High tea.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, she's also the rare woman who's able to put the principle of the matter over her personal needs and desires.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean. Yeah, she doesn't seem like she has wild hormonal fluctuation that caused her to be mentally impaired. She seems highly competent, for sure. Tulsi and rfk, I think. Yeah. The people who are pissed about Tulsi noted. And the RFK nomination has, like, forced the New York Times into publishing, like, pro seed oil articles. And they wrote one about how he was going to go after big food.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Big obesity. It's like redundant big obesity.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But they. In that article, they talked about how he. He erroneously claimed that in Canada, Froot Loops only have so.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Oh, yeah, I saw that. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And then actually this isn't true because they have the same amount of ingredients. Except in the US we have like, all this food coloring and these other.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Artificial dyes and like, you know, estrogens. Sorry, I'm gonna clarify my previous remarks. But Tulsi, she's like a rare woman who can see, like, past herself to the principle of the matter, versus most women who confuse their feelings for principles. Like, that's how I would put it.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, do you really? Do you think so?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, absolutely.

[Anna Khachiyan]

What if she's on her period? She's in her luteal phase. Because I feel like I'm, you know, a relatively sound mind some of the time.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, I know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Just hormonal due to biological circumstances.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And I don't know, like, she. She might be pretty low estrogen, I guess, but it's hard to say.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Maybe she's like both. High estrogen, high testosterone. I said this on Twitter, but, like, female morality is like, what serves me now, and male morality is like, the principle of the matter. And that sounds like a very anti woman misogynistic thing to say, but it's not at all. Because what serves me now is often a very useful and productive way of looking at the world.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, it's super sound. And I wouldn't even say that. That's. I mean, that's spiritually true, but a lot of men don't operate on that.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, of course, A lot of. A lot of men just operate according to female morality. Especially now. I mean, female morality in, like, the symbolic, metaphoric sense.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Which, of course, you know, complicates my argument here because it implies that there's, like, a kernel of truth that's based in, like, everyday noticing and observation.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Nietzsche said that, and I. I guess this was something they said in the 19th century, but that women aren't capable of friendship.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, I don't think that's true.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But Nietzsche said that you should ask yourself, like, who among the men you know, are even capable of friendship? Meaning friendship in like, you know, the kind of, like, archaic Grecian sense of, you know, like a sort of like, platonic building together, you know, like. Yeah, like friendship. But he was super prescient and Right. That, like, most men now are basically women, so they also. Their morality is also functioning on a. But archetypally. Yeah. Like a masculine preference towards objectivity.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Whereas women are more subjective. But you're also right that. That, like.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, that's the best argument against something like women in combat. It's not even because they're women and they're, like, subject to, like, the whims and vicissitudes of their hormones or whatever. It's because you're introducing a different foreign thing.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, maybe they're into, like, an.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Established default mode, so it's going to cause friction and conflict.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And maybe there is, like, a way to use women, like, for women to be in the military, as, like, psychics or oracles or something. You know, like. Or, you know, there is. Yeah. Which we have when actresses go on USO tour.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, exactly.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which they don't do so much anymore. Which we should think about Bringing you back, Mr. Trump, like, singing and dancing for the soldier. But no, there's probably, you know, like, I don't know, women might be good, like drone operators potentially, or something. Or like, the way women are good. Like, good at film editing. Maybe there's like a military equivalent of something that's kind of, like, nonlinear and.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Requires a kind of, like, female creative capacity or something. But they don't need to be in the army or Navy or. Like. Yeah, they don't need to be in the. Like, they don't be a troop.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. It seems crazy because they have their own troop.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, they have a womb and we're below, you know, replacement rate or Whatever it's called. So it's like women are more precious and we should protect their wombs so they can't go in the. Go to the army anymore because we need them to impregnate.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, okay, so when I was. When I was looking up Joe. What's his name? Joe Hegseth.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Joe Rogan. Oh, Paul Pete.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Hegseth Pete. And trying to determine whether I thought he was hot or not, I was thinking like, well, okay, he sort of reminds me of, but is not nearly as hot as Joe Kent, who's like a Republican politician who's had like a number of failed races. I don't know. He was like a darling of right wing Twitter for a minute. He's really hot. Look him up. And he had a wife. Joe Kent.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Okay.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

With a K. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I want you to look up Joe.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

K. Let's see, hold on. Joe Kent.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I want you to Google. Caroline, leave it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I will also.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And get. I want to get your take.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

So he's the widower of this woman named Shannon mariekent, who was a Navy sailor who was deployed to Syria as a cryptologic technician and killed in the 2019 Manbidge bombing. So it's like this young, beautiful woman who left behind two toddlers because she was deployed on a mission. Which is crazy. Like, why would you ever go on a combat mission when you have two children at home?

[Anna Khachiyan]

That's crazy.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

This one's Jocat. He's like super hot.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's handsome. He's a little too handsome.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He's a little too button nosed. He's like Robert Forester and Jackie Brown.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Totally. And he just lost to this.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

This lady in the house, I guess. Okay, so look up Caitlyn, leave it. Caitlyn also with a kid.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Caitlyn Lee.

[Anna Khachiyan]

L E A V I T T.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Hey. Hello.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, sorry. Caroline, leave it. Sorry. Oh, my God, I'm so.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Does Caitlyn leave it. She's hot.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Caroline, leave it. Sorry. Caitlyn leave it. Is hot. She looks like Riley Reid, but she's. That's just her LinkedIn. I don't know who that. I don't know who she is. She's. Sorry. Sorry for doxing you, Caitlyn. I meant Caroline with a K. Caroline, leave it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

As her.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Youngest press secretary.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Damn.

[Anna Khachiyan]

27.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She out here looking like Taylor Swift's mom.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, come on. She, you know, she's a type.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But she's. I really wanted to be shady towards her.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Because I'm vying for take her job.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But I really couldn't law in solidarity. She's just clean, you know, there's nothing. Yeah, she's.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She's like a madewell or J. Crew girl.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, there's no like politico, like everything you need, you know, she's so young that she hasn't, you know, done anything despicable. And she's Catholic, so she's, she's cradle cast, so she's got high social. Social conformity.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Whatever happened to Madison Cawthorn?

[Anna Khachiyan]

Who's that?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He was like that hot paraplegic guy.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, my God. What did happen with the eye? No, there's another. I think the eye patch guy's hot too.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Who's that?

[Anna Khachiyan]

There's like an eyepatch guy.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And Matt Gates, on the other hand, again, I don't want to counter signal the Trump administration and I want to trust God's plan here. But like, he freaks me out because he looks like Jack Nicholson.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's freaky. He. I mean, he's obviously a really bad guy. Like, he's so like, you can tell by looking at him.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But like, you know, when they do like the Chad Jack thing where they like facetune.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

The person to look more like masculine. Like, that's what like Matt Gates looks like. And I don't like it. I don't like his like heavily cocked eyebrows. It's jowly chin filler.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He has facial filler.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I want to look up his chart, which is really. I bet he has Scorpio up in there. Maybe Gemini. Matt Gates, Astrology.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, I don't think he's a sex trafficker. I do think I'm so right.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I've gotten so good at this.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, my God, he's a score.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

May 7, 1982, Taurus. But Scorpio Moon.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Okay.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

His dominance are Libra, Scorpio, Gemini.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Okay.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

When you know, you know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But he's a Taurus. Interesting. He just, you know, he seems like a real awper. He. Yeah. And you can. He's a man with filler in his face. And the other night I was watching Killing of a Sacred Deer with Nicole Kidman.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And like a decade ago. And you could. The thing about the filler is that it makes your face like heavy.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Makes your face look like heavy and scary.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Laura Loomer.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, Laura. See, I want to throw up.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

So bad.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But the beautiful. But you know, she's. She's not trying to look like she doesn't have filler.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But Matt Gaetz, really, he looks. His face, he looks Up. And the cocked eyebrows is a really bad sign. It's a mischievous look.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

The cocked eyebrows is a very Scorpio sign. I was getting like astrological physiognomy. Yeah. And they talk about that. So possibly also a Taurus sign.

[Anna Khachiyan]

A lot of so many Leos.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That makes like lions.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I mean all Leo men have like the mane of golden hair.

[Anna Khachiyan]

A lot of them do. Yeah. No, they have a lionish quality. I've often found that to be true. Oh yeah. My notes on Mac, it's say post. Me too. It's not exactly even scandalous to have sex pest accusations leveraged against you, especially if you're powerful or divisive. But the look of Gates kind of tells me all I need to know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He definitely that 17 year old? He's been extremely indiscreet. Yeah, well, he and messy. He's a Nepo baby. His dad was some senator.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like. Yeah, he was a major political player. His grandpa was too.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He grew up in Florida. He's some Floridian creep. Born and bred for the streets of dc. He's doing what needs to be dumb. He's dumb, indiscreet and oh, the Ben Dominic. What's his name?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Friend of the pod. He loves us. Ben Dominic. I don't know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Meghan McCain's husband. Yes, he said. I thought. I thought the prose was very actually impressive.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Read the quote.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He said. I realize that we are occasionally given to hyperbole about the untoward nature of politicians, but let me be clear. Matt Gaetz is a sex trafficking, drug addicted piece of. He is abhorrent. His eyes are permanently rimmed with the red stings of chemical boosters. In person, he smells like overexposed Axe body spray and stale Astro Glide. The fact that he boasted on the floor to multiple colleagues in the House of Representatives of his methods of crushing Viagra and high test Red Bull to maintain his erection through his orgiastic evenings is perhaps the least offensive of his many crimes against womanhood and Christian faith. The man has less principles than your average fentanyl addicted hobo. He likes them underage and he's not ashamed about it. Matt Gaetz isn't just your average extreme Florida MAGA man. He's a hypocritical ass with the worst Botox money can buy, pursuing an ever thinner nose and higher cheekbones at every opportunity. Like a real house. I've gone mad for fillers. Every Republican in Washington has an opinion about Matt Gaetz and 99% of those opinions are keep Matt Gaetz away From my wife, daughter, friend, and anyone I care about.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Okay. A Celia Banks got his ass.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, I think that's true.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, that's.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I think that's probably not even hyperbolic.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I mean, he literally looks to me like Jack Nicholson playing Jack Nicholson. It's like a mashup of, like, the Shining and Seven Easy Pieces.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, I know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Or he's like a huge piece of.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's a freak. He should be an actor.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, he looks like an actor.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He needs to wall.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He would be. I mean, yeah, he would be a great character actor.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Caroline Leavitt's very. You know, she looks very polished and actorly, too. Yeah, she's always got like, you know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

This is from the Matt Gates Wikipedia. Gates opposes abortion. On July 23, 2022, he gave a speech at the Student Action Summit gathering in Tampa, Florida, in which he said that overweight or unattractive women were unlikely to become pregnant and mocked them for supporting abortion rights, saying, they're like 5, 2, 350 pounds, and they're like, give me my abortions or I'll get up in March and protest. Olivia Juliana, a Texas teenager, tweeted a post mocking Gates, who responded with a photo of her that, according to npr, implied his comments had touched a nerve. She used the incident to raise over $2 million for abortion funds. In January 2018, Gates defended a statement by Trump that reportedly said Haiti and African nations were shithole countries, saying that Haiti was covered by sheet metal and garbage and in disgusting condition. He also argued that providing for flights and hotel rooms for people that you're dating who are of legal age is not a crime.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, it's not a. It's not. You should know. He's a lawyer, and he's going to be the Attorney General.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Matt Gates is like what liberals think Trump is. He. He's the real. Grab him by the pussy guy.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He is. I know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He's like David Carradine. He's like the type of guy who would kill a hooker and inter her in the hotel drywall.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I'm sure he had. And. But Ann Coulter had a great quote, tweet, pick me quote tweet, where she said, but he's good on immigration of the Meghan McCain's husband.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, yeah, you know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And Coulter has been popping off.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, maybe I'm doing a Joe Rogan thing with my instinctual distaste for Matt Gaetz, like, just based on physiognomy alone.

[Anna Khachiyan]

No, no, no, it's. I think your instincts are correct.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He's like, so Scary. He's like, if a gay guy was a straight guy, like, I understand why the gay rumors are proliferating.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, my God. That is. I mean, he's probably bisexual.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. They're like, we're remaking American Psychic.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean. Yeah, he's got a really. He's got a bad look about him, but never. I'm never. Cut that.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I'm gonna cut it. I'm gonna cut it.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Please, please cut that. That's not good. It will be. That's already gonna be a clip. I can.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I know, I know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Shouldn't have said that. But, hey, sorry for being honest.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I said that thing about how, like, kids today are too fat and molest and people really seem to like that.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Sure.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No one ever came for me over that one.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. Who else? Oh, Stephen. Stephen Chung.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Who? Stephen Miller, director of communications.

[Anna Khachiyan]

We emailed him.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Oh, right.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, that's why. That's why.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Marcus Epstein, director of communications.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Lee Zeldin out of epa. He just kind of throw in loyalists out there.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Which is fun. It is. Yeah. It is like a fun workplace comedy to watch them roll in. And I know liberals are like, no.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You can't staff your cabinet with loyalists after they've been doing it for, like, mad long.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, it also is just not like an official staffing. It's like a nom. It's. That's what I also didn't realize. Like, I was, you know, elated being like, let's go. RFK Jr. Is, like, going to ban birth control and make everyone, like, hot.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And stuff and make everyone nut again.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Using. At the sperm count of, like, we're getting the fucking. But it's not that he has to be approved by Senate.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

We just, you know, who know. I don't know. But maybe if we get to do this recess thing.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, we're going on recess.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. Maybe if a house is out on horseback, we have to return. That's what it means to be conservative.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

We have to return to being a liberal Democrat.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, so true.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I just think that these people.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Pro.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Whoa.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Damn. That's gonna be tough. I'm gonna have to work on my speech impediment when I'm the press secretary.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

They should make Marcus Epstein the press secretary.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Glenn would be really good. Yeah, that would be really fun. Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

There's been just like, hot white girl supremacy in the press secretary role for a while.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Not Sarah Huckleberry, even.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like. Even like Jen Psaki. She was the press secretary. Right. She's not hot, but she's hot enough for politics. The big natural. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Pretty.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

She's pretty. We need to get a gay guy up in there who is better at communicating than gay guys.

[Anna Khachiyan]

They love it. He's like sending voice memos.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

There's like two things gay guys do well, and it's bareback sex and three communication.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Voice memo.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You know it's a gay guy texting you when they sent the voice message. Yeah. It's like Paul Koopa or Patrick Sandberg being. So sorry to do this to you, but.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That'S exactly who I'm thinking about.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

So I was at Chateau last night.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So your phone like goes blank. You have to like reopen it and scroll through it again to listen to all of it. He was like, tap your phone to keep it on. It's so long.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Salome is not going to like this, but this is how I know she's a man. Because she'd be sending those voice memos.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, so, so true. But I like getting her voice. Honestly, hers are Maddie.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I like to get a voice memo from Patrick Sandberg. I like getting voice memos.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I like it too. Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I don't actually mind the voice memo. Sometimes Maddie and I do. It was a little insider friendship tidbit where we will send each other voiceovers. Us laughing, so we know that we're laughing for real and something someone said. And it's nice. Yeah, it's nice to hear your friend laughing.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, it's cute. Yeah. You know when somebody hits you with the LOL or the LMAO that they have no respect for you and are just humoring you.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. Send me a voice memo of you laughing if it's for real. Let me see what else I have. I am.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

We like literally haven't gotten to any of the articles we were going to talk about, but whatever. What articles? Well, you sent me those two articles about.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I'm shocked right now.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

The gr. The boomer and Gen X people who are grieving the fact that they're never going to be grandparents. And then the other one about what to do if your NYC public school teacher is a Trump supporter, which is Dominican. Yeah, yeah. Like the. The graphic they use. Like, you don't even have to read the article, which was. It's like an advice column authored by Emily Gould. And like the image is like some white blonde Sandra Lee ass woman with like a MAGA hat and a Trump poster while like a brown student cowers. It's just in the hallway and it's like, you know that the child is white and the teacher is Brown.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Mm. We've seen the maps. Yeah, we know that. We know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Here's why Donald Trump is the best candidate for presidency.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. Waking up to the news last Wednesday that Trump won the election was brutal enough. I know that as a parent, it was difficult for me to go through the motions to answer my kids questions and get through drop off without bursting into tears once or twice. I'm so sorry your daughter had to deal with this added burden. Most teachers handled the situation with appropriateness and grace. It's the school's fault. And if you can find the energy to take it up with them, I think you definitely should. I thought we didn't like Karen's. Damn, that's crazy though.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

The teacher didn't say anything directly about how she voted. My daughter says she's a known Trump supporter at the school, so I can only assume her intention was in some way to promote his ideas. When my daughter and many of the other students voiced their objections and said they found the exercise upsetting, the teacher said it was her lesson and she would teach class the way she wanted. They had to do the assignment. One brave student got up and left the room to go to the principal's office and was not required to go back to the class. I'm not totally sure how to tell my daughter that she needs to respect and listen to this teacher after she acted with so little empathy toward her students. First of all, this sounds like fake news or at least like extreme dramatization.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She's a known Trump supporter.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So she's insane.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

So she's like a speculated Trump supporter.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's so Soviet.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But even if, but even if everything about this question is real and Emily Gould herself didn't personally author it, like it's actually not only a good lesson in confronting diverse viewpoints, but also in managing crazy people. It really is.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I know, like if you assume the.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Story is true, which it's not, like the. That sort of behavior is inappropriate because it's wrong to bring politics into non political classes, not because the political views of the person are wrong.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, her kids 14.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So like, I mean, when I, I was indoctrinated into, you know, a liberal value system by, at my school, like my history and I took like AP Psychology and stuff. I took like, you know, and those. I had some like male feminist teachers. I've tweeted about this before.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Isn't it. I know, I love that tweet. Isn't it insane that we took AP courses and we were once both so smart and precocious?

[Anna Khachiyan]

I know. I can't believe it. Now we can barely get it together. I know, I know, it's nuts.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But there's so many of being adulting, you know, there's so many other things you have to do.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I was like such a good student and such a model citizen. Commuted from my parents house, took so many AP courses that I had like tons of credits when I entered freshman year of college. So I didn't have to take any of the intro classes, which was amazing.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, I think I did AP statistics.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Like some crazy ass like AP Calculus, whatever.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Like not. Definitely not. But I literally. I never learned math.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

At all.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That's fine.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I learned very basic math and then I found I like gamed the system into taking like AP Statistics because the softest math that like then alleviates. You have like a math carter and community college transfer into your private women's college. Like I was like, I never, I just never really did it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Well, Dasha, as you know, that's how I really got into aids. Because I was trying to avoid taking a hard science like physics or chemistry. And they were teaching a course that was like the spread of AIDS and gay identity. And I was sold. I'm going to learn about venereal diseases.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, oh, this is my passion.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Nicolo Saldo.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I'm the Anthony Fauci of like South Brunswick.

[Anna Khachiyan]

No, I mean, yeah. And then I liked like sociology, which had like a static kind of vibe a little bit. You know, I was like the numbers, whatever. But I really just never ever. And because I went to a charter school, I didn't learn this hard sciences at all. But it's such a waste of time to teach someone like basic biology. For what?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. That you're not even. I'm like, it's all fake. I'm like Pete Hegseth. But for education where I'm like, women don't need to learn about math or science. We already kind of know how to like get a deal and track our ovulation.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Unless you really. Yeah. Like have a knack for it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. It seems like unless you're Jewish or Iranian, you're an Indian girl, all sorts.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Of people, we need them in the hard, hard maths.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But like Goa'uld's advice is to like take it up with the school. Which seems like bizarre and unbelievable that they would have like an open Trump supporter among their employees. I'd be ready for them to counter by asking how you'd feel if Kamala Harris had won and your daughter's English teacher had taken time to let the students watch her victory speech. Don't let yourself get sidetracked by the fact that this comparison isn't just apples and oranges. It's apples and convicted felons.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Oh, oh.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

This is why your husband went to the Ukraine to avoid you.

[Anna Khachiyan]

It's nuts.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You didn't expect.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Gotta get a grip, man.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It's insane. Well, remember we talked about her before because she was like on the brink of divorcing her husband, Keith Gessen.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She wrote that horrible piece about the affair.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, yeah, it's.

[Anna Khachiyan]

She's a monster.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You didn't expect these kind of lessons to be on your daughter's ninth grade curriculum, but unfortunately they are. The great thing happening here though is that she knows without a doubt that she has you to help her make sense of these experiences. The fact that your daughter came home and came straight to you with this means she trusts you implicitly to guide her through the difficult situations. Take a moment here to congratulate yourself on being a good parent. Then use that confi. Emily Gould. Emily Gould. Then use that confidence to gather the strength and momentum you'll need to get through the next four years. Take your moment to congratulate yourself on being a good Democrat the next 12 years.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Honestly, you're gonna want to brace yourself.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I wish it were true.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Me too.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I wish it were true that there was this like Dominican MAGA teacher who was like shoving Trump dogma down her students throats and that forced them to learn a powerful lesson about again, managing the deranged and delusional. I mean, I had teachers like this growing up. I've told this story before, but my fourth grade social studies teacher who was like a crunchy Birkenstock, Grateful Dead ass chain smoking lady called Mrs. Brehlove who said, I vividly remember this, well, you're too young to vote, but tell your parents to vote for Clinton. And I remember even then having had no, like, I had no political opinions. I didn't know what a Democrat was, what a Republican was, like what liberal or conservative meant. But even then I felt this like inarticulated sense of injustice, like who the fuck are you telling us to sway and manipulate our parents? And it's also so dangerous because she could assume in a classroom that was like very diverse because it was a Middlesex County, New Jersey filled with legal immigrants, that a lot of those parents were conservative and would have a problem with it. Sure, it's like insane.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, in high school definitely, like, yeah, my teachers are very openly but it was George W. Bush. It was a rap war. It was like, you know, it was different. It was, it seemed very like common sense and normal to be liberal and like. Yeah. And then when I went to Berkeley Community College and Howard Zinn and like, then it was like really shoved down my throat. But even in high school, it was always, you know, there was always a very implicit liberal bias.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, always.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That I never even really questioned.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And the implication, like the whole point of education is that you should question that bias even if it turns out to be right.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I know, but you. It's too much to ask. I know public school teachers, you know, it's. But it's impossible. Not, you know, if they are teaching like history or something or AP Psychology.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Remember that tweet that you sent me that was like some music nerd spurging out and being like, Eli Kessler, get away from that woman. She's a monster and a wastewide and she's like a radical right wing conservative and your legacy is in danger. And one of the fun facts about Eli, because he was always like an ornery and cantankerous conservative, was that he protested Howard Zinn coming to Boston when he was in high school.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That's so funny. That's so cute.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like being like a Ben Shapiro ass. 17 or 18 year old.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, well, Riley was. When I was prepping for the pod, I was like, oh. I was like, I was like, it's a lot of information taking in right now. And I was like, I was like, I want to Mike Huckabee. Who cares? He was like, he was like, I voted for my cocky because he was like an evangelical. Mike Huckabee was a. Is the.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He's like the family guy guy. He's a big fat funny looking. But he's dude a big fat funny looking family.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's the tentative ambassador to Israel appointee in the Trump administration because he's an evangelical Christian who are very, very huge. A huge base. Huge, beautiful, Huge, beautiful base for Trump is the evangelicals and they are all Zionists because they believe that Christ in the second coming of Christ will literally be raptured. But then it's something. It's so crazy. It's like the will be returned to earth, but we need the Jews to control Israel because the old covenant is still good. And so they need the Jews to have Israel when Christ comes back. And then when he does, the Christians will go to hell heaven and then there will be a seven day judgment period. And that's Mike Hugaby's like religion. So I'm. That he'd be a great ambassador to Israel. That's all I have to say. It's really smart.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

They should really punish Nick Fuentes for, like, desperately vying for a job in the Trump administration and failing by hiring him but making him the ambassador to Israel.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, he would love that, but he's, you know, I don't know. I have. I do have such an attachment to Fuendas. And it's not because I, like, agree with really anything, you know, I don't. It's. But it is this, like, he feels like almost like David Letterman to me. I find it so, like, comforting to like, tune. I like that it's like, oh, you know, the streaming is so effective.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That it's like, oh, Fuentaz is on. Like, put him on and it's just kind of like nice ambient.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

There's something. And he is so. He's good at what he does. He's not.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

He's quick and funny. We can't deny it.

[Anna Khachiyan]

He's a talk show host. He's not like a politician. He's obviously not. Because he's not.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I know.

[Anna Khachiyan]

If we, if we still lived in.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

The golden age of broadcasting, he would just be like a really excellent late night talk show host.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, I know, but he's very funny.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

To me when he, like, homosexually lashes out at like, J.D. vance or Matt Gates, and I'm like, you're like, on the same spectrum of men.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Gates is kind of the only cabinet nominee he likes because he thinks the rest of them are Zionists.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But Gates, he's actually pretty on board with.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. A man after his own heart. Who would, like, bury a hooker in some motel drywall.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But he's, you know, he's just a kid. He's still refining his craft, you know, and he'll come around. Yeah, he'll get on Team Juice. They. They all do in the end. But he's obviously talented.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. That we can't take away from him.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You know, but he's doing his thing.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

How long have we been going?

[Anna Khachiyan]

We can wrap it up almost at the two hour mark.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Oh, cool, cool, cool.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Let me see. Oh, RFK Junior's cousin threw him under the bus.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Very disrespectful.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Should we talk about the grandparents article? Did you read it?

[Anna Khachiyan]

I did, yeah. It was sad.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It was sad.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, there's like a New York Times article called the Unspoken Grief of Never Becoming a Grandparent. A growing number of Americans are choosing not to have children. Their parents are grappling with what that means for them.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And yeah, there are boomers and Gen Xers who, like, selfishly also had kids who they laid in their lives. So then now they don't get to be.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And their kids are all, like, in their 20s and 30s, so there's obviously clearly still time for their kids to, like, do what they did and have a kid later in life, which they probably will. But, like, they're too selfish to even see the writing on the wall.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, they might are. Yeah. Statistically, isn't like, 50% of women will be childless.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Here's a statistic from the article. A little more than half of adults 50 and older had at least one grandchild in 2021, down from nearly 60% in 2014. Among falling birth rates, more U.S. adults say they're unlikely to ever have children for a variety of reasons. Chief among them, they just don't want to. And there's this one interview subject who kind of gets to the heart of the matter where he says, like, that's the best and worst thing about having kids. You watch them make their own decisions different from your own. And that's like the problem in a nutshell, because the parents didn't really place any expectations on their children and they thought they were coming from a good place by encouraging their kids to, quote, make their own decisions. But of course, like, the more likely reality is that they were just, like, selfish and checked out and leading their own lives and didn't even think to think about the future and what it would look like.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, yeah, I think that's true. But charitably, I also think a lot of them. Yeah. Kind of did buy into very, like, permissive parenting style.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Like, or feminist myth where they were.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You know, they wanted their kid. They, like, didn't. They were self denying.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Almost in a way, in wanting to place expectations on their children to fulfill their desires. But it's actually very normal to. Yeah. Want progeny and want your children to reproduce and to encourage them and enable them to do so. They've also, like. Yeah, it's not. It's their fault.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That people are reproducing.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, on one hand, I have a lot of sympathy for these people and their sense of grief and loss, but on the other hand, it's very hard to have sympathy for them because they did this to themselves.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Exactly. Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It's like the famous. It's not famous at all. It's an obscure Grateful Dead song. When Jerry Garcia is like, Ain't nobody messing with you but you. Althea, the best song about a sensitive young man ever written.

[Anna Khachiyan]

If your kids don't want to have kids.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Look inward.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. It reminded me actually of Zizek's point about like the old school authoritarian father versus the permissive postmodern father. He has this bit where he's like, you're a kid of about like 8 or 10 years old and you have this grandma who you don't want to visit because she's boring and senile and her house has the old person and smell and the authoritarian father is like, I don't really care about your feelings. You don't really have a choice in the matter. You're going to go visit your grandma because it's the right thing to do and it's your duty. And like, meanwhile, the permissive father is like, he'll never give you a direct order and he'll say something like, you go visit your grandmother, but only if you want to. And his point is like, well, you know, you, the kid are not an idiot. And you can see the writing on the wall and what that means. And like the. Beneath the apparent. The appearance of free will is a much harsher order, which is like, you're gonna go see your grandma and you're gonna like it. And it's obviously not the lack of freedom, but the guise of freedom that makes people like short circuit.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And like break down from like analysis paralysis.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

And it feels like a lot of these people from like boomer Gen X generations wanted to be liked. They wanted to be hip, they wanted to be seen as open minded and their kid's friend. And part of the.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, one of the women in the article who. Her kids at 42.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Says that she. Yeah. Once she had children she realized that, you know, it was this incredible joy in her life. And then she really wanted to be like a cool grandmother, but she's like aging out of that possibility and she doesn't actually really have anyone to blame for herself.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And she has all these like Velveteen Rabbit and like Dr. Seuss books and that she wants to like share with her like non existent grandchild. And it's like really sad because her.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Kid'S like autistic because she had him too old and he won't be able to pair bond with someone to have successful relationships. And it's not just their fault. Obviously there's like tons of, you know.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Factors.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But like what all these people understand, at least subconsciously, is that to be a parent is to become the villain in some way. Like, your kid will hate you and rebel against you. What they don't fully appreciate is that your kid is going to hate you and rebel against you no matter what. So you may as well just, like, lay down the law and have a firm hand.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. Give them a chance.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You know?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And they. They never wanted to, like, assume this role of being an authority figure, because in their mind, it meant that they would be an authoritarian figure. And the funny thing about that Zizek bit, which you can find on YouTube, is that he's using it as, like, an allegory or metaphor for how politics functions. I mean, and why a more conservative, Whether it's a actually conservative or more socialist approach is better than authoritarian. Yeah. It's like, whatever side of the Cartesian plane, the top part, the authoritarian part. So he's making, like, a political allegory or a metaphor. But actually the meaning of that lesson is, like, totally literal and not metaphorical. You can strip it of all of its allegorical and metaphorical content. Because it's, like, literally about, like, parenting.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Well, it does have, like. I mean, what did. I saw something that was like, every demographic basically gained points with Trump.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Except for amongst. Well, amongst non whites to a smaller degree, but amongst, like, white people over 65. They, like, hate Trump.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Because he reminds them of a more successful version of themselves. It's like covert narcissism.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And they have this like. Yeah, like, boomer era framework.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Where they still, you know, their idea of, like, social justice and what it means to be, like, revolutionary or whatever. Trump just, like, rubs them the wrong way.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And doesn't align with their worldview, which is extremely, like, sheltered.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Even though he could actually stand to be more of what they think he is, they experienced the sense of grief and loss. Even if they understood at an intellectual level that their children do not owe them a family legacy, said Claire Bidwell says a therapist based in Los Angeles and the author of Conscious Grieving. It doesn't help that our society tends to paint grandchildren as a reward for aging. But that's literally what being part of a family means. It means that you owe these people who you didn't choose something.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Like, literally. And also, the reward for aging is having grandchildren.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You rear these children so that they'll give you grandchildren.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Because it's not society painting it that way. It's literally just observable, accurate reality.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And I mean, that's, you know, when people talk about being pro life, you know, and get Sort of smeared as these people who want to strip rights away from women. It's like what it actually means to be pro life is to be like pro. Progeny, pro, you know, like pro. Literally life. Like say yes to life.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. It's not, it's not a negative value taking abortion away from women who want it. It's a positive value, like incentivizing, encouraging women to have children, making it possible.

[Anna Khachiyan]

For them to have children, which. Yeah, clearly we failed as a society in that regard.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Ms. Bidwell Smith said it was important for parents like Ms. Perry to give themselves permission to acknowledge to and sit with their grief. For some, that is difficult. They may see themselves, they may tell themselves they should go, they should simply get over it because there are far more serious types of loss in the world. It's like, what are they talking about? Like, what's a more serious form of loss than, like, not having grandchildren? Like climate change or the plight of the indigenous peoples. Other stuff that doesn't concern you.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, losing a child.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah, but like, that. They're not talking about that. They're talking about like abstract global phenomena. And by the way, I'm not.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That's. I hate this therapy speak. It's like, I know there's.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You have to give yourself permission and sit with your grief. And like, again, in the immortal words of your father, you people permit yourselves too much. That's like literally all it comes down like, you should stop being so self indulgent and overthinking all the time and just like bite the bullet and do it.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, at that point, it's too late. When they can't, they don't have the choice to do it. Unfortunately, there's nothing.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

No, I know. And by the way, I'm not telling people the barrel of a gun that they should and must have children and grandchildren, but if you choose not to, then that has to be a conscious choice and you have to be prepared to accept the consequences. The regret, the feeling of failure that might arise in the future and that you didn't bank on.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But these people did choose to have kids. Yeah, they just reared them incorrectly, so their children no longer want to procreate. So they're being deprived of like. Yeah. A very, like, fundamental and universal human experience of having a family because they. Yeah, it's very, it's, you know, it's, it's very. Just unfortunately. It is sad. It's sad, but there is, like a justice in it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

That, like, I think people just didn't account for.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. I Mean, my instinctive feeling about it was always like, okay, if you're relatively young and smart and attractive and healthy and able bodied, you kind of owe it to yourself and to society to have children. But I'm also going to play my own devil's advocate and say that all this hysteria over birth rates is probably overplayed because nature does have a way of healing itself.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You mean it's good that people aren't programming?

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I don't know if it's good. It's just like a reality, a fact of life, and, like, the world will adjust and adapt.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, I believe in divine providence. You know, I don't think there's like, a single hair on our head that God hasn't accounted for. So if there's less people, then it must be for a reason.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

But I think, yeah, unfortunately, a lot of people are just extremely ill equipped, which includes their, like, the bad parenting they were subjected to. And, well, boomers especially. That's why it's so especially frustrating is because these boomers who, like, didn't have kids until their 40s came, were. Came of age in a time where it was extremely viable for them to buy property. They were in a very.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

They lived in assets.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

They came, enriched themselves.

[Anna Khachiyan]

The same reality that their kids are now up against, where it does feel like, basically impossible for them to even meet someone, let alone, like, start a family.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

So in that way, once again, it's really on them because they, like, had everything going for them and they are the ones who squandered it.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah.

[Anna Khachiyan]

And I thought that this article was really like, like, the death of the wasp. Yeah, like, because I think so many wasps honestly fell into this trap, Right. Where they had this kind of like, white man's burden, permissive, liberal parenting style. Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

It's like the Ivan Ilyich thing. Like, there's always a watershed moment, and at some point, too much tolerance yields intolerance.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That sounds so gay and annoying.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

I sound like Jordan Peterson.

[Anna Khachiyan]

I mean, it's true.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

But one of the best lines Jordan Peterson had, which I'm gonna, like, butcher now, was he was like, you know, like, if you are a regular, normal person who has no evidence that you're exceptional, you should stop trying to buck the trend and just do as most normal, regular people have done throughout time and history. And even if you are a secret genius and you suspect that about yourself, you should probably do it anyway.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. And it'll serve you. Probably.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. But, yeah, we can. It just like, I'm just Thinking about how like the New York Times has like assumed the original business of the Catholic Church, which is like selling indulgences. They sell indulgences to liberals for a.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Low, low price though.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. Where they're like, oh, like you should be kind to yourself right now and sit with your sense of personal disappointment.

[Anna Khachiyan]

There's no larger indictment to be made of any choices that you've made or the direction in which you steered society. It's just, you can take a moment and just. Yeah. Like, yeah, it's this very like therapy, non speak, very unaffective, very vague to just tell people to like live, sit with like the way that they feel. Which I guess someone has to do because at that point, you know, at this, like, it's not like they can force their children to procreate.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Yeah. And they're like, oh, you should just sit there and be self indulgent and flagellate yourself and that'll yield some greater like compassion and empathy and whatever. And that's not what you're supposed to do. You have to just like accept your decisions and move on.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah. You have to live with being a grandchildless and just look that mortality head on.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

You have to get into gambling and gardening.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Totally. Yeah. Get a nice hobby.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Antiquing dogs.

[Anna Khachiyan]

You have pets.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

Selective breeding.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Exactly.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

That's true. Anyway, glad we're back.

[Anna Khachiyan]

Yeah, we're so back.

[Dasha Nekrasova]

See.