Trump's war with escalators, Tylenol, Antifa and more

Summary

The Find Out Podcast

Episode: Trump’s war with escalators, Tylenol, Antifa and more
Date: September 25, 2025
Hosts: Find Out Podcast crew (A, B, C, D, E—first names not specified in transcript, pseudonyms/nicknames used throughout)

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Episode Overview

This episode delivers the trademark irreverent, no-bullshit perspective on American politics during Trump’s second term, focusing on:

• The viral “Trump escalator” incident at the U.N. and MAGA outrage
• The Broadway-worthy drama over Jimmy Kimmel’s return to late night after a MAGA-induced hiatus
• The bizarre Tylenol-autism conspiracies promoted by Trump and RFK Jr.
• A spirited debate over “voting with your dollar” in response to corporate culture wars
• Trump’s symbolic designation of Antifa as a terrorist organization and the real-world implications
• Extended discussion on masculinity, trauma, and how Republican culture shapes American men

The episode is equal parts sharp political analysis, leftie exasperation, and unfiltered venting—punctuated with banter and self-deprecating humor.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Trump’s UN Escalator Meltdown

[00:22 – 03:00]

• Trump’s planned grand entrance at the UN was derailed when the escalator stopped—initially blamed on the UN, but actually due to his own advance team.
• MAGA influencers claim it's an “assassination attempt” or “covert op.”
  • C (01:11): “Asking Donald Trump to walk up those stairs. That’s an assassination attempt.”
• The hosts lampoon right-wing overreactions and Trump’s attempts to spin the debacle into a win.
• [02:05] D reads Trump’s own “positive spin” on the disrupted speech and teleprompter.

2. MAGA Snowflakery & Free Speech Hypocrisy

[03:42 – 05:10]

• Reflection on how MAGA supporters endlessly shift the goalposts and have abandoned any sincere free speech principle when convenient.
  • E (04:31): “They were the biggest free speech people forever. And then the second Trump is like, no, no, let’s just 180 this shit. They’re like, yeah, 180 that shit. It’s fine.”

3. Musk Family Revelations & the Cycle of Trauma

[05:16 – 11:33]

• The group discusses recent reporting on Elon Musk’s father’s history of abuse and trauma.
  • C (05:39): “Apparently... Elon's father... is a child molester.”
  • D (07:32): “Trauma inflicts trauma and trauma never stops self-replicating. This guy is... paying it forward maybe a little bit.”
• The trauma conversation pivots to Trump’s upbringing and how untreated trauma among men reinforces toxic masculinity in politics.
• E (08:25): “That spiders out into why a lot of Republican men care so much about identifying with the Republican Party... they relate to Trump and Musk because, like, they’re suffering through it just like they are.”

4. Masculinity, Therapy, and Blue vs. Red Culture

[09:01 – 14:01]

• Discussion of the stigma around therapy, societal expectations of men, and the way right-wing media weaponizes “alpha” tropes.
  • B (11:33): “The idea of masculinity is taking everything that's ever hurt them, putting it in a bottle and then dying at 55.”
  • D (12:32): “You can be a straight, white, Christian male gun owner and be a Democrat. In fact, there used to be a whole lot of those people.”
• The battle over redefining masculinity and the challenge of breaking cycles in red America.

5. Politics as Culture: Obama/Trump Swing Voters

[14:01 – 17:44]

• Hosts analyze the phenomenon of Obama-Trump voters, positing that these “pro-disruptor” voters are always searching for change agents, regardless of ideology.
• E (16:31): “All they give a shit about is the change agent... whoever's going, well, this shit really sucks, they’re like, that one.”

6. Disney/Kimmel Cancel, Boycotts, and Corporate Culture Wars

[18:04 – 34:47]

• The crew splits over whether liberals should “reward” Disney for ultimately reinstating Jimmy Kimmel.
  • D (18:06): “Every Democrat should resubscribe to Disney, Hulu, and ESPN and make it vocally clear why.”
  • B (19:59): “They don’t get a reward for doing the right thing to fix the thing they never should have done.”
  • E (20:39): “If you behave the right way, we’re with you. If you behave the wrong way, we're against you... they will understand as a business.”
• The debate is nuanced, with arguments about economic incentives, performative allyship, and the risk of enabling further right-wing pressure.
• C (24:04): Details on actual neo-Nazi protests outside Disney, illustrating the real-world consequences of culture wars.

7. Tylenol and Autism: Disinformation from Trump & RFK Jr.

[35:00 – 49:35]

• Trump and RFK Jr. peddle the claim that Tylenol causes autism, a theory with zero scientific evidence.
• Hosts dissect the cynical manipulation of scientific studies, the harm of “blaming mothers,” and the cruelty of RFK’s framing.
  • A (38:32): “[RFK is] actually the one I hate the most, the worst, because he is a narcissist, and he’s been… he has lied in every job.”
  • C (40:17): “It’s all of the women now who may be denied access to care... fevers can really affect a fetus... the cost-benefit [of Tylenol] is better for the fetus.”
• All decry the emotional harm done to women and the stigmatization of neurodivergent children.
  • A (42:17): “This decision is so anti-woman. It’s just infuriating.”
• Broader point: The right is engineering distrust of experts as a feature, not a bug.

8. Disinformation, DEI, and Right-Wing Narrative Capture

[49:35 – 53:31]

• On the success of right-wing media narratives in driving black youth to oppose DEI and the framing of “normalcy.”
  • E (53:04): “…I literally had young Black kids arguing with me that DEI was bad for them. …You have been lied to aggressively. It's insane.”

9. Antifa as “Terrorists”: Trump’s Symbolic Order

[53:48 – 67:30]

• Trump designates “Antifa” a terrorist organization, despite it lacking any structure or leadership.
  • C (54:35): “I run an organization that is called Veterans Fighting Fascism. So like, I'm on the list guys, for real.”
• Discussion of police militarization, rural MAGA panic, and the dangerous real-world consequences of this rhetoric.
  • C (55:50): “The messaging is enough that it is going to change the mindset of too many cops.”
  • B (56:16): “In my small town... my small town had people waiting at the McDonald's with AR-15s because they had heard ... that there were busloads of Antifa coming.”
• Hosts reflect on the farcical nature of the order, the precedent it establishes, and the First Amendment nightmare it represents.
  • D (63:15): “Even the Communist Party during the red scare was not labeled a domestic terrorist organization. …You either have a free society or you have Nazi Germany and there's really not a lot in between.”

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• Trump Escalator Debacle:
  • C (01:11): “Asking Donald Trump to walk up those stairs. That's an assassination attempt.”
• Musk Family Trauma:
  • D (07:32): “Trauma inflicts trauma, and trauma never stops self-replicating.”
• Masculinity and Therapy:
  • B (11:33): “The idea of masculinity is taking everything that's ever hurt them, putting it in a bottle and then dying at 55.”
  • E (11:13): “For me personally, I am not at all comfortable with talking about my feelings… But because I know its value, I do it anyway. …That is, to me, a more masculine perspective than just sucking it up.”
• Tylenol Autism Disinformation:
  • E (36:45): “They're using correlational studies, small correlational studies, and big studies have just like, this is the area. Like, this is the world I come from...”
  • A (38:32): “But the thing that infuriates me the most … they have signaled to millions of women... that their child is neurodivergent because it's their fault. And that's wrong for many, many reasons.”
• Rewarding Disney?
  • D (18:06): “Every Democrat ... should resubscribe to Disney, Hulu, and ESPN...”
  • B (21:29): “I'm not going to motivate them for doing the right thing. You don't get a pat on the back.”
• Antifa Panic in Rural America:
  • B (56:16): “My small town had people waiting at the McDonald’s with AR-15s because they had heard ... that there were busloads of antifa coming to ruin the town.”
• Fascism, Free Speech, and Individual Rights:
  • D (63:15): “You either have a free society or you have Nazi Germany and there’s really not a lot in between.”

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Timestamps for Major Segments

• 00:22: Trump escalator malfunction at the UN
• 03:42: MAGA hypocrisy on free speech, Kimmel’s return, and “cancel culture”
• 05:16: Elon Musk’s family trauma revelations
• 09:01: “Hurt people, hurt people”—trauma, masculinity & therapy
• 14:01: Obama-Trump “swing voters” and the politics of disruption
• 18:04: Boycotts, Disney, and return of Jimmy Kimmel—a divided response
• 24:04: Neo-Nazis at Disney World and executive pushbacks
• 35:00: Trump & RFK Jr. claim Tylenol causes autism—debunking, and the social cost
• 49:35: DEI backlash and right-wing narrative capture
• 53:48: Antifa designated as terrorists—a deep dive on policy, risk, and American fascism
• 67:30: Merch talk and wrap-up

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Tone and Style

The hosts’ language is conversational, sharp, and loaded with sarcasm, direct exasperation, and self-aware humor. While left-leaning and unapologetically critical of MAGA America, they embrace complicated issues, often breaking for banter or confessions. The mood oscillates between gallows humor and genuine frustration—but the main throughline is honest, real talk that refuses both cynicism and complacency.

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Takeaway for New Listeners

If you want the satirical, unvarnished, and fiercely passionate progressive take on today’s culture war absurdities—with no echo chamber and no bullshit—Find Out Podcast is an audio safe haven. This week’s episode is a tour through what animates and enrages the American left in the Trump 2.0 era, with just enough dark humor to keep you sane.

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[End of Summary]

Transcript

[A]

Foreign. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Find out podcast. Had to do a little pause there because somebody was typing.

[B]

I don't know who that was.

[A]

There is. There is so much. There is so much news to cover. Crazy news. But we have to start with maybe the most disturbing event of foreign policy that we've seen in decades. And it is the fact that it looks like the United nations turned off the escalator right before Donald Trump got on it. And the White House and conservative mega lost their absolute minds yesterday over it. Do you think we can recover from such a. From such a slight. Which, by the way, it wasn't the U.N. it turned out it was one of his idiot advance people who tripped the. The stop button, which is important, but didn't stop Caroline Levitt and all of the, like the MAGA influencer world basically screaming like they just started World War iii.

[B]

It was clearly.

[C]

I don't know why. I don't know why anyone's treating this like a joke. Asking Donald Trump to walk up those stairs. That's an assassination attempt. They were trying. Someone on his team was trying to. To bring the end to his presidency charges.

[B]

Right now there's a.

[A]

A covert op. Huh. Okay.

[D]

I think it's exactly the opposite. I think RFK keeps yelling at him about eating all the Big Macs. I think RFK was under the escalator and he flipped the switch to force Trump to walk up the stairs. And next he's going to have to swim in the Potomac. So I think it was actually. He's out there.

[A]

The laptop. The laptop fell. The laptop fell onto the button. Clacking.

[D]

The clacking underneath the escalator.

[A]

Yeah. Well, we have to. We have to joke because everything else is not. Not great. And it's like his speech yesterday was just bonkers crazy.

[D]

This is what they said.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

The teleprompter was broken and the escalator came to a sudden halt as we were riding up to the podium. Both of these events probably made the speech more interesting than it would have other bet this is what Trump said than it would have been otherwise. So he's. He's spinning it positively. So good for him. Really Thinking on his feedback a lot.

[B]

About how Joe Biden needed a teleprompter and he didn't need a Trump. A teleprompter.

[D]

So, like, why did you almost speak coherently?

[B]

I mean, he can never speak coherently, but why?

[D]

You almost said Trump a prompter.

[A]

Trump a prompter. Trump a prompter. Wow.

[B]

Which also was broken because of his team, by the way.

[E]

Really?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

They, they fucked it up somehow.

[D]

I believe that.

[A]

I mean, I've run. You don't.

[D]

I don't even need any more information. I already, I already believe that more than I believe any other.

[A]

Well, but he only hires the best people, guys, so I don't understand like how you could suggest.

[D]

And most qualified Stephen Miller with a thumb drive underneath the teleprompter, trying to plug it into the USB port. He's got it upside down and he's trying it 17 times. He's like, fucking antifa.

[A]

Did you guys see. We didn't talk about this, but did you guys see that the Kristi Noem's number two at DHS is a 28 year old and someone asked her if like she really felt she was qualified to be the number two at a, what is it, 60, 70, 80,000 person agency. And her answer was essentially, well, who's qualified for anything anyways? And it's like lots of people. Lots of people.

[D]

That's kind of question only somebody who doesn't understand how anything works could say. You're like, I could do that job. Like you sit at a computer and you clack, right? I'm like, oh man.

[A]

Like, oh, it's bad. Well, we got a 23 year old ahead of anti terrorism, I believe. So, you know, we're, we're in a good spot. Well, let's, let's. The biggest story right now, and we're recording this on Wednesdays, is the fact that Jimmy Kimmel came back last night, looked like no restrictions, and I thought gave a pretty swinging, pretty good opening. You know, he did say like, you know, I'm sorry if my, you know, my, my words were misconstrued or you thought I was suggesting stuff. But the stuff on Trump was dead on, which was basically like he was fine with hundreds of Americans losing their jobs because Donald Trump can't take a joke. And I think both the escalator and the Kimball thing is we just come back to the same point that MAGA are the biggest snowflakes on earth.

[E]

Yep.

[A]

They just are. Yep.

[E]

They'll go with him on anything too. Like they were the biggest free speech people forever. And then the second Trump is like, no, no, let's just 180 this shit. They're like, yeah, 180 that shit. It's fine. It's fucking so it's just so painful. And the most painful part is they don't see it. Like, they just don't see the hypocrisy in it like I, I, I, I always mention this one MAGA friend of mine. It's always the same with him. Like, it's always like the goalposts just move this much, this much, that much. Like it's, pick a side.

[C]

You know, has Elon Musk come out and, and said, like, we need to legalize comedy, you know?

[A]

That was a good impression.

[D]

That was a really good impression.

[E]

That was pretty good.

[D]

He sounded better than him, but it was like, that's what he aspires to sound like, right?

[C]

Totally, totally. Just I saw a, a headline. The New Yorker magazine, I believe, or the New York Times Magazine. Has anyone heard about Elon Musk's father?

[D]

Yes, yes.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

It's always the ones you most suspect.

[C]

Yeah, yeah.

[A]

Tell the audience what, what, what happened?

[C]

So there are many family, family members, children who have reported to other family members and to doctors that Elon Musk's father, the man in South Africa, is a child molester. Oh. And then he's been molesting his children and his grandchildren.

[D]

Stepchildren.

[C]

Children. Yeah. So that is an issue that apparently Elon Musk has been involved in. He, it is unclear from what I read if he's like paying for legal, legal fees or, or what his involvement is, but apparently I believe it's New York Times Magazine got a hold of like family letters and all sorts of estab, all sorts of information that establishes that this has been a known problem in the family for like decades. And you know, I, I think that, that, you know, there, there's no allegations about Elon Musk being victim that, that I have read at least, but I think that it creates a realm of possibility that might explain why he is the way he is.

[D]

Yeah, that's, that, that's 100 in line with what I read too. And I think, I mean, to be very clear, it appears that he is trying to help the victims. And he, he, I think he very much does not like. What's his name? Errol Musk, I believe is his name. He doesn't like his dad and he's trying to, I think, support the family, but also sever ties with, with his dad, but he can't because it's all this legal stuff. So it's unfortunate. I think the thing that is relevant for me anyway is why is it that, like, it's, it's, it's just, it's like trauma inflicts trauma and trauma never stops. Self replicating.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

This guy is. If he's trying to help his family, he's not helping America. You know, he's paying forward maybe a little bit of all of it because we're catching a lot of misery from people who I think have been suffering from misery. And I think Trump is really no different. When you look at the, how he treats his kids and how his, you know, all of the rumors about his dad and the relationship with his dad and his mom and how he treats his wives. These are not the people that we.

[A]

Want.

[D]

In charge of everything.

[E]

Yeah.

[D]

Especially when they're not disclosing, they're not being, you know, emotionally honest about the, about where they came from and how it informed their upbringing. We just have to find out later because some gets leaked out to the press and then we realize, oh, maybe we should unpack a little bit of this together before we all start.

[B]

Hey. Well, at the Pentagon they can't, they can't release anything that's not pre approved.

[E]

Yeah, that's true.

[B]

Because that makes so much sense.

[E]

All this stems to like, repression for me. Like, that's to like anybody with dads like that are abusive in any way, shape or form, always, especially men, feel sort of forced to repress that shit down. And that really spiders out into why a lot of Republican men care so much about identifying with the Republican Party because they're doing the same shit like they relate to Trump and Musk because, like, they're suffering through it just like they are. And they're like, look at these guys. They're tough, just like me. I don't have to deal with it. It's like, can you go to a therapist? That'd be cool.

[B]

I promise you, it's not that bad.

[C]

I don't know if you guys have heard this yet, but Mudvayne came out with a song called Hurt People, Hurt People. And it, it's, you should, if you aren't familiar with it, I, I recommend just going in blind. Watch it on YouTube. Listen to it on YouTube. The, the song is very, very clear about the message that it's trying to communicate and says it all in the, in the title.

[D]

And yet Republicans, I think, would read that as hurt people. Hurt people. Democrats, Democrats. Right, exactly. No, it's just a really important command. So we're going to say it twice. Whereas Democrats are like, oh, I need to talk to my therap. This song, it's really fascinating and that's why we are different.

[A]

I mean, it is interesting though, to go into the masculinity stuff, right, because the Elon obviously was like, I, I, I'm sure his childhood Was not great. It was wealthy, but it wasn't great. And now he like rich, you mentioned, like he has. He basically, he said his son was dead because they became tran. Or they were. They are trans. Like he is perpetrating and that's right. It's like my, you know, my mom always used to tell me she was a teacher. She was like, you know, I could just by looking at my class and the family, you can kind of predict the future without it even happening. And these cycles sadly continue. And like, you know, we're not going to solve these problems in this country until we really start addressing that stuff. And part of it is what you said, Zach, which is like, you know, making it so that there is no stigma around therapy or asking for help or talking to your friends. Because in that, in that. I think in like blue worlds, there, there's problems still, but there's more of that, right? More being open. But in that world, in the MAGA world, you know, the Andrew Tates of the world and all these people are just telling you to just buck up, fucker. And you, you know, you, you need to be the big, big tough alpha. And all it does is make everybody miserable because the person doing it isn't happy. And then you're just an asshole to everybody else. And so, like, we gotta have this conversation.

[B]

Alpha is a fucking prick.

[E]

I also look at it like, like I, for me personally, I am not at all comfortable with talking about my feelings with anybody, like at all. It's a really uncomfortable thing for me. But because I know its value, I do it anyway. Like, that is to me a more masculine perspective than just sucking it up. And yeah, it's like, I don't want to talk about this, but it's helpful, so I'll do it. You know, there's. That's.

[B]

The idea of masculinity is taking everything that's ever hurt them, putting it in a bottle and then dying at 55.

[E]

That's a bar right there.

[A]

Clip of the week.

[D]

Clip of the week. No, that I mean is spot on. And I think the thing that's so frustrating for me is like, my dad is awesome. My grandpas were both awesome. Most of my uncles are awesome. I have plenty of male role. I should let me. In case any of them are listening. All of my uncles are awesome.

[E]

I was gonna say, I think you.

[B]

Should leave it where they have to.

[A]

I'm not ready to get family hate letter to us.

[D]

I have a lot of uncles. So now they, they, they have to, they have to Try to figure out, are they one of the good ones? But they live in this world where they, they. They truly don't believe because they haven't been exposed to the idea that there is no alternative. And it's like the kid in Texas that I talked to who said, I've never melt met an adult male Democrat.

[E]

Scary.

[D]

It's like, where the. Do you start with that? Okay, so an adult. Adult men can be Democrats. You don't have to be gay to be a Democrat. Like, you can be a straight, white, Christian male gun owner and be a Democrat. In fact, there used to be a whole lot of those people. It wasn't until the culture wars flipped it. But the whole, like, emotional vulnerability thing, like, they live in this, this charade where, like, their dad is miserable and sad and pretending to be strong, and then he pays both of those things forward to his kids so that they feel like they have to keep up this false bravado while also being miserable inside. And they don't know that there's another way to exist because they don't have a single role model that shows them that there's another way to exist. And it's like, how do you crack that? I mean, Barack Obama's out there. There are a lot of athletes out there who are strong, straight, you know, religious men who are great positive forces for masculinity, but they just think it's all like, what, a media lie or a liberal lie? I don't, I don't, I don't know. I haven't figured out how to crack it. If we, I think maybe we could get more listeners. I don't know.

[A]

Well, it's a big. Yeah, it's, It's a big. It's a big problem. And the reason we haven't solved it is because it's so big. Right? Like, and, and a lot of it. And we talk a lot about this. It's like, you know, culture is how you have to start with culture. You can't start with politics because it's just like, it's a dead end.

[B]

There is a grade, and that's how they get them.

[A]

Right, Right.

[B]

Like.

[A]

Right. But like, there are.

[B]

From the back end.

[A]

Yeah, there are a. There were a not insignificant number of Obama and Trump voters.

[E]

Oh, yeah, right.

[A]

So, like, I know a lot of people who voted for Obama twice and Trump three times now. Politically, it is completely insane, right? It is completely insane. They are diametrically opposed and they're in their approaches to both domestic and foreign policy. It makes no sense. But if you look at it from a cultural perspective, you know, Obama was coming off like eight, this miserable war that no one agreed with and the economy was in the tank and then comes out this like, dynamic youngish. I think he, I think he was in his late 40s when he became president. My age, basically, which is terrifying. And, you know, but like, he was calm, he was confident. And then we went with a psychopath. But like, you know, I think that that's, there was a cultural shift. A lot of racism came up. Sure. And then that's where a lot of this spun out. But it's not like it's impossible. I mean, James Talarico is somebody rich. He checks a lot of the boxes that you just said and is in Texas. Graham Platner in Maine checks a lot of those boxes too. And so it'll be really interesting. Rob's Iowa. Yep. Right. Is he the one that's in the wheelchair? Disabled?

[B]

No, I don't think so.

[A]

Okay. There's, there's a, there's a couple of really good candidates in Iowa. It's gonna be really interesting to see if, like, you know, we always talk about candidate quality and it seems like Democrats are recruiting well, some not so great, like, well, but some really good.

[D]

We're not the only ones who looked at the 2024 and said, maybe this group of people should stand up and do anything. Because, I mean, we all felt that people were like, oh my God, it's so refreshing to hear a bearded white guy be a feminist or be liberal.

[A]

Let's not focus on the beard thing. Oh, looks not there yet.

[D]

Sweet baby faced white guy. You'll get there. It migrates from your head down to your face. So as soon as you start balding, then that's when you know your beard's going to come in. No, I mean, and you know, so now suddenly we've got all of these, these men coming out of the woodwork going, can I, can I talk again? Because I think like, there was a minute there where it felt like, like just shut up and listen was kind of the message from everybody. And we've listened 100%. I've learned a lot in the last 10 years. But we also just, it's a numbers game. We have to win elections and so just fucking do anything.

[E]

I mean, I think there's also the element, like going back to the Obama and Trump voters voting for. They voted for Obama and then also for Trump. That is going to be a group that swings our way this time around because they're Pro. That group I just call pro Disruptors. That's what they. All they give a shit about is the change agent. Exactly. Like, because they look around and they're like, the only thing that persists with them is their dissatisfied with all of the time. So whoever's going, well, this shit really sucks and they're not empowered like that one. And then as, as long as we have people who are actually becoming anti establishment and powerful, which we're clearly seeing is a trend, those people will swing back 100%.

[A]

Yeah, I mean, I think we're, we're looking at a good next year, but there's obviously a lot of work to do. I, you know, I feel really good about the Virginia race this year. I don't feel so great about the New Jersey race right now. So we need to be paying attention. The polls aren't great. There was a debate the other night that was okay. In New Jersey is.

[E]

It's turning pretty conservative, you know?

[A]

Right.

[E]

New Jersey is interesting too. Like, because I grew up in an area in northern Jersey that was like, during the Bush era was very, very red. And then when Trump came around, it turned very blue. So, like, it's a very strange state where, like, they looked at Bush and love it and they looked at Trump, went, no, fuck this guy.

[A]

Right.

[E]

The shift was huge. So I don't know what the hell is going on.

[A]

So if you're a Democrat in New Jersey, pay attention and make sure you're voting. But really just let's general vote.

[E]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Well, moving on. There's so many ridiculous things to talk about, but let's go to. Let's see. This. This episode is just gonna be a.

[D]

Hot take to kick off the let's do it take to kick off the Kimmel conversation.

[A]

All right.

[D]

I don't know if it's a prove me wrong or hot take, but I think the hot take is this. And don't, don't, don't kill me. Listeners, I see your comments in support of Jimmy Kimmel. Every single Democrat in the United States should resubscribe to Disney, Hulu, and ESPN and make it vocally clear why they're. They're resubscribe. If you canceled resubscribe and do it because they reinstated Jimmy Kimmel. That is. That is my take. I'm not surprised Luke disagrees.

[E]

I agree. So we'll see how this goes.

[A]

Oh, we're gonna have a split. We're gonna have a split crew today because I do not agree. Luke, the floor is yours.

[B]

We didn't get Chris's take.

[A]

Are we all talking first? Before you talk? We all have.

[B]

We all have to say what we think.

[C]

All right, I'm gonna be totally honest that I value the season finale of Alien Earth more than I do the First Amendment. So I did not cancel. So, dude, I would be deeply to tell anyone to cancel Hulu right now.

[D]

I deeply appreciate that response.

[A]

I will. I will be honest, too. I did not. But I will tell you why. Because I. I get it through, like, I got it through a deal through Spotify. They just, like, gave it to me as part of the membership. So I actually don't know how to cancel it because I'm not actually paying for it.

[D]

It's only a coincidence. The oldest guy on the podcast, you guys. It's only a coincidence.

[B]

Don't worry, listeners. One of us has.

[A]

By the way, I canceled months ago. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. First of all. No, no, I'm with you, Luke. I just don't like they. I'm getting any money.

[B]

This man just wants to watch his Disney.

[D]

He emotionally canceled his Hulu subscription. But. But he didn't. Technically.

[A]

I didn't turn it on. I didn't turn it on. We didn't watch it. Oh, okay.

[D]

All right, let's.

[E]

Let's hear it.

[A]

Yeah, I'll back you up, Luke. Go. Go ahead.

[B]

I think they didn't learn their lesson enough. They don't get a reward for doing the right thing.

[A]

Like, I. I don't know why we.

[B]

Expect that of them. It's my opinion they can lose a few more billion dollars. I'm gonna sail the high seas for everything I have to watch that's Disney or Hulu for the next four years, if not forever. I do that for most things at this point. But I'm definitely not thinking that they should get their money back just because they did the right thing to fix the thing they never should have done. I mean, they literally made a show called Andor, which is a Star wars show, which is, like, literally about the rise of fascism and how much blood and sweat it takes to fight fascism. And then the second the fascists walk.

[A]

Over, they go, okay, see that?

[B]

I'll do what you want.

[A]

Fuck that.

[B]

They don't get a dime of my money.

[E]

That's. I understand that perspective. Like, but I'll tell you why I'm with Rich on this one. Because I think if you look at it and go, all right, if I'm a. If I'm a CEO of a company and I go, I'm going to lose these People anyway, they're not going to come back. That's the problem that they're looking at and going, well, then what's the benefit of me bringing them back? I need to have an upside to my, my next decision. So if we're making it clear, like, hey, if you behave the right way, we're with you. If you behave the wrong way, we're against you and our actions are inexplicably tied to those behaviors, then they will understand as a business like, oh shit, we actually have to move with the tide and we have a benefit if we do that. But if you take away that benefit, they go, well fuck it, what do I care if they're just going to leave me no matter what and I never come back?

[B]

I think they should look at it as we lost the chunk that we did. I mean, if they had gone on to like fully cancel Kimmel, they'd have lost.

[D]

And that's why they didn't, because they didn't want to lose more money.

[A]

Right, right.

[B]

But I'm not going to motivate them for doing the right thing. You don't get a pat on the back.

[A]

Yeah, so, so I think I agree. I understand the position, Zach. My, my take is I want to stop them before they do this stupid shit in the first place.

[E]

I think this does, I think them seeing it come back makes them think about it twice in the next time.

[A]

Well, right, because now what they can do is, you know, Bob Iger is the one that made this decision.

[E]

Yeah, of course.

[A]

Of Disney. You know, he pulled the plug like Trump wanted him to or, or what's his face, that bozo at the FCC. And then he lost $4 billion in market cap brings him back and like, so he kind of, he was able to throw Trump a bone when he wanted it briefly. And then he gets to be like, oh, I brought kibble back to me. That's like. Because Market Cap can go straight back up. Right. So like I, I'm not sure that Disney has learned their lesson or another company wouldn't look because Sinclair is still not allowing Sinclair, which is a incredibly right wing company that literally like owns a lot of, of ABC and CBS stations. In fact they used to have, they used to have. Because I saw this when I was in Maine at my parents house. The CBS affiliate in Portland is owned by Sinclair. And they would run these two to three minute like they called them like talking point things. And it was with must reads, with Boris Epstein. Epstein, whatever his name is, who is.

[B]

Literally a different name.

[A]

Yeah, but there's a lot.

[D]

Epstein.

[A]

There's a Y in his last name. Yeah. But anyways. And then he ended up, I think he ended up getting changed. I think he got indicted for something or was in. Under investigation because he was a Trump lackey. But they pumped that into everybody's house before they watched Wheel of Fortune. At seven o', clock. You had to hear a right wing two to three minute spiel, which you didn't even realize was a right wing spiel because it just said it was like at the top of the hour, here's this like, guy. So, like we haven't actually, I don't, I don't think we've solved this problem and especially with Sinclair and there was a smaller TV group that's also not showing it. Like, if you just let them back, then Sinclair gets what they want as well. That's my problem. Yeah. I'm also not going to judge anybody who like, has Hulu because, look, there's not a lot of joy in the world right now. So, like, if you want to watch Alien, whatever, now that it's back, I'm not dying on that hill. But I just don't think that I, I would prefer that people stay away and I promise I'll go figure out how to detach my.

[D]

Yeah, I have a question for you.

[C]

Guys because I, so I, when I was like deep, deep, deep in the research, I was tracking like swastika flying neo Nazis who were outside of Disney like one at least once a week for like months. Did that make it into the mainstream news at all?

[E]

I don't know.

[B]

No.

[A]

So I knew, I knew there was a fight with, with Disney and DeSantis, but I didn't know about Neo Nazis.

[E]

Yes.

[C]

So, so I think that there's like, the PR team at Disney is, is probably has a different perspective on culture war issues than most Americans. Because when it's that when it's in your face when they're physically outside, you know, Disney World or Land, whatever's in Florida, I think that like has a psychological effect on the employees and even executives, especially because it is so offensive. This part of this was like the allegation that Disney was grooming children into. Oh, right, you know, into, you know, LGBTQ and, and all that.

[A]

Right.

[C]

So Disney has been fighting for years, I suspect what seems like based on this poll right here, a very quiet but high stakes fight against both very important and powerful figures like Ron DeSantis, who did lose his Disney fight. I don't know if people know that.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

But, but they've also had literal neo Nazis standing outside their offices and their entrances to their parks, like, very often for years. And, and that, I think probably has an effect on people there.

[E]

How do I think it happened with Disney? Like, isn't it like, because they had like, princesses be black, who should, like, they wanted them to be white. Like, is that, is that the origin of all this?

[D]

One of them, yeah, Little Mermaid was black and they lost their shit. Everybody's so pissed about Snow White. They're like, it said it's white as the driven snow. And yeah, they, they, they lost their.

[A]

Imagine caring about that.

[C]

From Ron DeSantis to a Libs of Tick Tock.

[E]

Right?

[A]

Yes.

[C]

Higher right chick to, to literal neo Nazis.

[A]

I think, I think you're right. I just, I don't. I'm sure there are plenty of Disney people who are outraged that they may. I don't think Bob Iger gives a shit about that. I think Bob Iger cares about green.

[E]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

And even Michael Eisner, who is like the God of Disney after Disney was like, why do they do this? Where is leadership? Like, he, he came out pretty hard because I, you know, I think that, I'm sure he was representing a lot of the employees because I don't know why you would do that if, like everybody was against it and you're just like, you have all that stock. It's probably a lot at risk. But like, he, he was the guy that I was, I was a little surprised to go against Disney on this, but I agree. I mean, they're in Orlando, Florida guys. Like, it's not exactly like the, you know, bluest place on earth. So there's like some bad down there.

[D]

So. Yeah, let me, let me circle back now and, and defend my position because the, the reason why.

[A]

Right, that.

[B]

Oh, yeah, that.

[D]

You guys, come on. Jesus Christ. We're not talking about Snow White right now or Orlando. Nobody wants to talk about Orlando.

[A]

So actually there is one listener on our show, I guarantee you now is going. Who's from that area that is going to give me. I guarantee it.

[D]

Like when you get on the stage and you're like, who's. I'm from Orlando. Who's from Orlando? And there's like one person.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[D]

They're not going to listen to us anymore because I trashed Orlando.

[E]

That's garbage.

[D]

We can't, like one business can't fix capitalism and can't fix late stage capitalism. When we say vote with your dollar. Not supporting Disney for doing the right Thing is like people staying home and being like help like Kamala Harris loved genocide or whatever. And just being a non voter, you, you, you have to vote because it's the system, it's how the system works. And so if we don't, if we, if everybody just says no, you guys, you up once, we're never gonna give you our dollars again. Like Zach said, what do they have to lose? They, they are legally obligated to make shareholders money. Like it is, it is actually publicly owned company to maximize profits for shareholders, which is a whole separate episode. But until we change that, if they, if they just say no, we're going to stand by our values and lose money because the Democrats won't pay for us. And now the Republicans are pissed at us because we're getting all woke. But we're going to stick with our values. So nobody's giving us money. They're going to replace the CEO and then they're going to go probably hard. Right? Because the right does a much better job of voting with their dollar than the left does. We stick with our principles and we kind of don't pull the levers that we need to pull. And so I don't like this is a business transaction for ABC or for, for Disney. They don't give a shit. They want to do the thing that makes them the most money or that loses them the least money. And so use your money to make sure that the, the correct side is giving them the most money so that they do what we want them to do. Like it's, it's just a transactional.

[A]

My problem with this one is that this was such a gross overreach by the federal government and Disney just fucking came.

[B]

It's not a whoopsie.

[A]

They just came up, see, right.

[B]

This was a clear cheap goddamn suit.

[A]

Right? As, as Ian Rosenberg told us yesterday, the first or the other day, the first amendment attorney we had on, you know, it's not. Disney has the right to do whatever they want. Well, depending on what the contracts are. But this was the fcc, which they now say they didn't. Which is bullshit. They leaned on, on because they knew.

[D]

They were gonna lose.

[A]

Right. They. Right. And well, we didn't do that. This is such a stark violation and this was such a line that was crossed. Yeah, I just don't, I just don't.

[B]

Easiest smack it out the park for Disney if you flip the script. And they said, yeah, you fcc. You know that what the response from the left on the Internet would have been. Hell yeah, somebody's sticking up And I.

[A]

Actually think that there is, there are.

[B]

You want to reward something, reward that.

[A]

There are more people. And we saw that with the backlash there were more people on our side on this. It was like a 70, 30. Like, I mean we even had Ted Cruz agreeing with us and talking about Matt Walsh.

[D]

Matt Walsh was. Wait, was he, did he.

[B]

No way.

[A]

No way. Really?

[E]

I don't, he, I don't know the.

[D]

Broad attack on free speech. He told, he said, are you, are you kidding me? Get rid of Pam Bondi now. He, he is, he was staunchly on the side of free speech.

[A]

Well, so the wrong side, that when.

[B]

We win in 28 that somebody will fucking come back.

[C]

Right?

[D]

They're not done.

[A]

Well if they broke the law, they.

[D]

Actually should be worried about that.

[A]

Yeah, but I guess that's my point is like I actually think there was, as Luke was saying, there's. I think there was more upside of fighting this than capitulated.

[E]

Because the problem with the capitulation, we're missing a piece. They're missing a critical piece of this. Which is the whole reason Bob Iger did it was the FUBO acquisition. That's the whole thing. The whole reason this, the whole reason this happened was because Disney is in the position right now that we're trying to acquire FUBA for like I think the deal is like it's billions of dollars and the only way for this to go through is for Trump to rob or that's it. He's leveraging.

[A]

I didn't know that but that makes total sense. But, but you know, but like again I understand that but this is like this is now going to happen again because it worked like short term and.

[C]

Now it was also related to. This is sincl. I think Tegna which are trying to merge from, from below.

[E]

Yes.

[C]

Also pulled the show. So Nextar having something like it was Nextar.

[D]

Nexar and Tegnar are trying to merge and, and they need FCC to actually change to destroy the anti monopoly rule.

[E]

Yes.

[D]

That allows them to go over 39% saturation and it would push them up to like I want to say 80% saturation because they're both massive. Sinclair is the other big right wing behemoth that owns tons of stations. So it would ultimately be Nexstar and Sinclair both of which are I think both Texas owned but they're both extremely conservative owners of small, mostly small market stations. And so yeah, Tegna actually doesn't have a. Like they have, they have not issued a statement and Tegna didn't pull Kimmel from their station. So Techna and nexstar are not necessarily politically aligned, but I think out of business reasons. They need to or they. That's why they want the merger.

[A]

Yep. Right. But, but so that merger will probably result in higher prices for the consumers in those areas. Which is. No, but I just, I think it just points to it. This is where I think people, why like the Zorans and the Platners are doing so well right now. It's like this, like people are making like, like decisions that will affect all of us for the rest of our lives. Meaning trampling over the First Amendment.

[E]

Yeah.

[A]

For an acquisition. And like we've got. There has to be. This is where I get into like.

[B]

I'm never going to reward that.

[A]

I'm never, I'm never going to reward it and I'm never. And there needs to be more oversight. Like they're creating monopolies. And like this is, this is again like Donald Trump uses these culture wars to keep his, you know, white, non, college educated base in check.

[E]

Sure.

[A]

But is again doing something to screw them because he's really the one that's, that's beholden to corporations of billionaires.

[E]

I understand all that and like I'm ideologically aligned with you guys and all this stuff, but I think the piece that we have to accept is that's not the world we live in. And we have to operate within the world that we live in. And like ideal world. You guys are right. 100. We should not, you know, give money to companies we don't agree with. But the truth of the matter is if we take that position right this second, it's not, it's not a good position for us to take. It's not going to win us anymore back.

[B]

They're not going to, I mean they're, they got their ass smacked a little bit.

[A]

Right.

[E]

I mean, that's okay.

[A]

The belt.

[B]

Came to ask for a second.

[E]

Yeah. I think like, you know, I'll get.

[B]

Their 4% back and it'll be fine and they learn their lesson that they shouldn't do this shit again.

[E]

Right. And I, I think like they don't.

[B]

Need like a boost of people coming out to support them and. No, like, you did the right thing and we should all subscribe.

[A]

No, no, no, no.

[E]

Definitely not that. But I, I do think because we live in unprecedented times, we have to pick our battles very wisely. And I think like this is one where it's like if we can tell huge corporations, hey, if you go with us, there's actually benefit in the back end, then we have more traction when we actually get power. And that's sort of where I align with Rich the most, is like, I'll take the traction in the future by giving him a little bit of fucking leeway right now.

[A]

Well, let's move on to some of the other crazy stuff. And listeners, if you want to write in and tell us how Zach and Rich were wrong, please feel free to do that so that we can.

[D]

I am.

[C]

I do agree the economic incentive argument is solid.

[E]

Hey, all right.

[A]

Also, you can tell Chris why he's wrong. So let's go on to something insane, infuriating, and that is that Donald Trump and RFK Jr. This week. This week. Monday.

[B]

Yeah, I think it's only Wednesday.

[A]

Monday. It's only Wednesday. You'll get this tomorrow. Sorry, guys. But came out and said they sort of danced around it because they can't really say what they want to say. But they blame Tylenol for not acetaminophen because, well, Trump can't say acetaminophen, but specifically Tylenol, which now I've learned they're saying Tylenol because he can't say acetaminophen. Sure is to blame for the rise. For the rise of autism cases in the country. There is next to zero scientific evidence to back up this claim. In fact, when you look at the White House fact sheets, they are very careful about what they actually say in writing because they say it may or there is a chance. They use these words.

[B]

Studies that they used for fucking evidence doesn't have the word autism anywhere in it.

[E]

Right. They don't know what they're doing. They're using correlational studies, small correlational studies, and big studies have just like, this is the area. Like, this is the world I come from. I worked in pharmaceutical advertising forever, and I had to read these studies all the time. This is where Republicans have. Have such a leg up because they understand how to take these very, very complicated things and distill them down to like, here's a simplest sound bite in the world. And I can just be like, hey, there was a study from Harvard that said this and blow it up into this is the answer. And it's like, if you just take two minutes of critical thinking and research, you could disprove this whole thing in two seconds. They just don't do it. And it's painful because they're too dumb. I mean, that's just the bottom line. They're just too fucking stupid.

[A]

The frustrating part about it is. You're right. Like, everyone kept forwarding that, like, Harvard study. It's like, well, the Harvard study was a study of studies, and then when there were bigger studies that went to try to prove out. Because that's how the scientific method works. Right? You usually start small to prove, to get a theory working, and then you span, and generally, like, when you expand it, those findings in those smaller ones don't always pan out. That's why you hear these things. Like, you know, like, scientists have cured Alzheimer's in mice. It's like, yeah, in this little, teeny, far less complex brain. That's a good start. Right? But, like, you don't.

[B]

Are those the transgender.

[A]

Transgender mice? Yes, those are the special transgender mice.

[B]

I believe that. That was nine months ago.

[A]

That's crazy. But anyways. But, like, here's like, the thing about this. First of all, anybody that knows anything, like, every doctor came out, every, like, science researcher, all these people were putting out videos and. And statements that were like, no, but the thing that infuriates me the most about this, and I did a video on TikTok, but TikTok suppresses any videos that talk about autism or vaccines.

[E]

They sure do.

[A]

What a platform is. What they have signaled to millions of women in this country is that their child is neurodivergent because it's their fault. And that's wrong for many, many reasons. First of all, there's nothing wrong with neurodivergence. It is a different way of thinking. And almost every scientist agrees that that happens in the early stages, in utero, and it's mostly genetic. There are likely environmental factors, so there's that. But like, all of these women and I saw people talking about it, like, even though they know it was a lie, like, this thing was not, it still hurts.

[E]

Yeah, of course it hurts.

[A]

Of course. For you to like, to. To be. To be basically blamed, which is what RFK is doing. That fucking asshole. Like, he's actually the one I hate the most, the worst, because he is a narcissist, and he has been. He has lied in every job. And he's also not a meta. He's an environmental lawyer. He's not a medical expert.

[B]

Most of his expertise is how to heat up a fucking spoon.

[A]

I wish I was. I wish he actually has more experience doing that than anything medical, which is true, he does. But I want to be senator for one day, and I want it to be when he testifies, because I want to ask him this. Ten years ago, you testified in a spousal support case that you could not pay your ex wife not child support, but alimony because a worm ate your brain. And you have, you have, your brain, you had so much brain damage that you could not support paying her and yourself. And then he becomes the Health and Human Services secretary, which means he's in the presidential line of succession. So what I want to know is were you lying then or were you lying now? And the answer is yes. Right? It's yes. It's yes. It's always yes with that guy. Because he's a narcissist. If you look up narcissist, his face is in the dictionary, I swear. But Eddie's, and he is not well. And I mean, who works out in jeans guys? I mean, come on.

[B]

I mean, he's got a. I saw he had a nicotine pouch in when they were, they were doing that fucking speech.

[A]

Yeah, the, the mahog guy is fucking ripping, ripping zins. But, but it's, but it's the, it's the emotional damage that does to people who are already in a challenging situation. And the thing is they don't care. They just don't care. It's. They don't.

[C]

It's not just retrospective of, of the damage that it's doing to women who have had children who may be neurogenic, divergent. It's all of the women now who, who may be denied access to care, Tylenol and other products who will have to live with pain. And there are studies to tough it. I'm not making any conclusions here. Right. But fevers can, can really affect a fetus. Yes, in many dangerous ways. You control a fever, a fever. For a mother with Tylenol, there's a lot of science saying that, that the cost benefit.

[A]

This. Yes.

[C]

Is better for the fetus. You take Tylenol, reduce the fever, reduce the body heat, reduce possible potentially deadly impacts on, on the fetus. And, and what the pro life is talking about right now is torturing women and killing children. That is what this Maha is stood for.

[A]

Well, and Ed, I mean this, this one is so frustrating for me, but this is the thing I've seen the last few days. All men, by the way. All men saying, well, what's the big deal? Don't. Just don't take Tylenol. And it's like you, you are what you. First of all, first of all, shut, Shut the fuck up. Just shut the fuck up. Second of all, go ask your wife who had two kids, go say that to her and see what she says because you know this whole like, the woman should have to, the woman should have to suffer to have the baby and then when the baby comes, she has to do all the child care and all the cooking. This is what these people think, right? It's like, like, shut the, just shut the up. Like. And it was the dudes, oh, well, what, you know, they have to have a fever a couple times. I'm like, well then you have a fever, then you don't take anything if it's no such a big deal.

[B]

Yeah, why don't you have the fever?

[A]

And we all know what a man cold is, right? Like, men generally are softer about illness already.

[B]

When I get sea, I fall apart.

[A]

But like it's that, like it's, this decision is so anti woman. It's just infuriating. And like that, that side has. They just like, they just like, I don't see what the big deal is. What's the big deal? Like, well, you don't know. Just go Google it and find out. Just take the two minutes instead of being spoon fed from the brain eat worm. And the guy who eats McDonald's 65 times a day who like said you should inject bleach. You want to believe them over literally all doctors and all scientists minus a couple crazy ones.

[E]

And the stupidest part of it is they're only doing this because they like promised they were going to the bottom of autism. And then they looked at it and went, oh, there's no way we're going to be able to do this.

[B]

And they just, generally speaking, scientific studies don't have a release date of, of the solution, generally speaking.

[A]

Also, also the, what, six or seven presidents before just chose not to figure it out. And they get, they figured it out in six months.

[B]

We got a stable G. I bet Donald Trump was in the lab with the microscope. He's got a, I mean, oh yes, white lab coat. I'm sure he was in there.

[A]

Imagine showing that guy DNA. What he would do, he would just be like, oh, is that just the stains from my lunch? Is that just what I, you know, the other part was, I thought it was vaccines, guys.

[E]

Right?

[A]

So is that off now? That's.

[B]

No, See, that's the interesting thing about that whole fucking press read is that he tiptoed around saying that like, and the Amish folks, they don't have vaccines and they don't have autism.

[A]

Sure, Donald.

[B]

They just have that kid who really likes to count the marbles, you know, they definitely don't have anything there. Jesus Christ. But he was like, well, I can't say, but like it was such a. I know. Dog whistle.

[A]

So is it. So it is. It is vaccines and Tylenol, right?

[E]

Yep. The deadly.

[B]

Whatever else they decide.

[A]

Also, what a idiot to call Tylenol. I mean, isn't Bear gonna just file a multi billion dollar lawsuit? Because they're definitely gonna lose. They're definitely gonna lose sales, right? Their sales are going to get screwed. People, even people who don't believe it are like, some people will just be like, well, I'm just not going to do it. Right. Even though there's, there is no reason to not. So like they're going to the, the I could try this case and probably win because there is nothing. What do you. Like they said this the next day this happened and there was nothing else. Like they're going to sue for billions and then guess who gets to pay for that.

[C]

I think what's also worth mentioning is, is that the whole rfk like war on autism thing is, is like also just really awful and cruel. Like his whole reason for doing this is because he believes that people who have autism are, are incapable of anything. He said like a giant drain on the family. Like you said that standing right next to Elon Musk, who's the richest person on the planet and, and has like neurodivergence. Doesn't mean that you're a drain on society.

[A]

No, but also how is that the measure of a light? First of all, this pro life party, right? So this pro life party now, it's all about paying taxes, which at least they're saying the quiet part out loud. But like this notion that in order for life to be valuable that it has to pay taxes where it has to like the most important thing in.

[B]

Life, people's work based on their monetary success.

[A]

I saw, I saw some really amazing videos of doctors. This one guy, I can't remember his name but like he was. And he has an autistic child too, but he was like, first of all, the aspirin thing is bull. Or Tylenol thing is like there's not any conclusive evidence. It's not even close to it. But he's also like, we've got to get away from this notion that these like to be a, a valuable person, you must contribute to capitalism.

[E]

Right?

[A]

And I know that's how our system works, but that doesn't mean a person that can't do that isn't valuable, doesn't bring joy to people, doesn't like enjoy their life. And like why as a society, the richest country on Earth, we can have all of these things. Like, I don't understand why we have to other people. Because that is. Chris, you're right. That's the other damaging thing about this, is that they are calling this something that you can catch, right? Rather than just being a part of who you are. And there's nothing wrong with that. And I'll be honest. Like. And this is. You know, I think people will appreciate this joke, but, like, every fucking engineering and developing development team on Earth, you got. There's a lot of people in there that are neurodivergent. Like, there are. Bill Gates has talked about his neurodivergence, right?

[E]

Absolutely.

[A]

And, like, what a better program would be, would be, well, let's spend money figuring out how to, like, make everybody live their best life, right? Like, maybe that is contributing. Maybe that is working a job, and we have workforce trainings for that. Or maybe there's other ways. Like, there's just, like, you know, like, Nordic countries, right, Are always the happiest countries on Earth. They're also socialists and. But because they ensure health care, pensions, like, we take care of people. Like, that is the way to have a healthy, successful society. Not for this fucking idiot that literally says he had a brain worm, which he didn't. But, like, he's used that, like, because there is no. Really no such thing of that. Unless he was, like, swimming in some river in the.

[B]

He has swam in rivers like that.

[A]

That's true. That's true. He did go in Rock Creek park, which is gross. Gross.

[E]

With his kids or whatever.

[A]

But it's just. It's just like. And this is part of that masculinity thing, too, because we are all told the only way that you are a successful M male in this country is that you make a lot of money, you have a bunch of babies, and then you die of, like, alcoholism or something at 65. People are like, bravo, life well lived. You're like, what?

[E]

That's the other part is, like, they don't like it because, like, it's not normal. Like, the other element of that type of archetype, right, like, is they want, like, a normal person. That's what it means to be normal. You go, what is normal exactly? I mean, like, you have to look at. Like, I look at people who are neurodivergent as the opposite. Like, they have fucking superpowers, dude. Like, some of them, nobody can do. I am, too. It's amazing to see what some of them. Look at this. It's incredible. Why are we not bottling this up and selling it. It's, it's, it's a fucking value system.

[A]

If you, if you find the right, right jobs and the right neurotypes like that. It is absolutely true. It's not that way for everybody. But it is. But it is. But you're. No, but you're 100, right? And like, why, like, and honestly, like, everyone's like, well, the rise of autism in the 90s. I'm like, no, no, no. The rise of testing awareness. Not this fucking. Oh, there was like mercury and the vaccines in the late 80s. Like, go fucking Google this. My God, it is this.

[C]

Like.

[A]

And it's also Jen fucking McCarthy.

[B]

I don't, I don't ever get to this Google part. I just get. Go fuck yourself.

[A]

First of all, the first, the first uses of the term autism, I believe is in, that was in the 1910s. Tylenol was developed in the 1950s.

[E]

Right. So that adds up.

[A]

You know, also, I have seen some very funny memes that mostly neurodivergent people post, so I feel like it's okay to say it, but like, they're like, you know, this boomer says like, oh, we didn't have autism. And then it's like, here's dad with his train collection, like, just like over all the little pieces and it's like, yeah, no, like we, we. Autism is genetic. We have always had it. Like, it's, it's great that it's coming out, but like othering it, like, it should be celebrated. It should not be like cast to the side. And I think that's the problem.

[C]

So there, there are so many people with great tiktoks walking into their parents houses like these maga parents and, and being like, here's my mom who's arguing with me about autism not being real. And here's her spoon set. Walk into another room. And here are her special spoons. Wounds that you can't touch.

[A]

Don't touch them. Do not touch them. No, it's, but it's just like, let's just all understand each other a little bit better, right? Like, it's not that hard.

[B]

The challenge is gonna happen. No, my, my prediction, my prediction is that inside a year and a half, the pro lifers are going to lee. Are going to link birth control use.

[E]

That's interesting.

[A]

That's actually, I'm glad you said it now because now I'm like, I, I.

[B]

You could call in. Not in 18 months. You tell me if it came true.

[C]

Yep.

[E]

Yeah, I could see that 100. Because what I was going to say, it fits in perfectly to this is that the, the epicenter of all of this is creating a distrust of experts. That's really what this all is. And that started. But like that I, the analogy I always go back to with that is I'm like, what if you were doing the exact same thing with planes? Would you fly in a plane if the people running the fucking like building the planes were your experts in quotations? Or would you feel supremely fucking uncomfortable with the type of people that you're going to listen to in medicine and applying that to going into a fucking steel tube in the sky? I think you change your mind a bit and go, maybe I'll trust the real experts this time. So I don't careen into the ocean.

[B]

They end up doing that, though.

[A]

Well, the fucking thing that I hate the most about these, there was somebody who passed away recently who did actually weaponize airplanes, right? Because Mr. Charlie Kirk has that quote that says, you know, if I have a black pilot, if I have a black pilot, I'm gonna think to myself, I hope he's qualified. So it's interesting, Zach, because it's insane as exactly as you said. But they do like, they even find ways to weave their racism into something that is actually, you know, is insane.

[E]

And that's like, I never understand that argument. Like, do they think that like DEI programs have been like, hey, anybody can come in and do these highly specialized.

[A]

Stuff like this, that's they think, how possible.

[B]

Well, I don't even know that because.

[A]

They don't do any research. Right.

[B]

The smart ones don't think that. The smart ones just know that. The dumb will think, yeah, yeah.

[A]

Like once again, and I were I. Full disclosure, I did, I did have a client, the office of DEI at Michigan. So like, I got insight into a lot of this stuff. They're not anymore, but basically because their president was a coward and got rid of DEI and because he wanted the job at University of Florida and then they deemed him not MAGA enough and so he got no job. So not sad about that. I can say that now that I'm not under contract. All DEI is, is making sure that everybody has the same opportunity. That's. That's literally it. That's literally it. And also businesses that employ DEI practices have better revenues because guess what? Yes, fuckwads. Like, diversity of thought is very valuable and diversity of experience is very valuable. And you've got just, just let's like imagine the four of us like trying to solve. I Don't know. I don't know what it would be because anything I could think of is hilarious. Like, if we were trying to, like, you know, figure out, like, autism before Trump's people could. I think we've already got it figured out.

[B]

There is no.

[A]

So there we go. But, but, like, having some doctors in the midst or like, people, you know, who've come from the community, we've. Anyways, it's just ridiculous.

[C]

It's all just so stupid.

[E]

And it's permeated so far. Like, I, I, I did that debate thing with, like, high school kids six months ago for that, you know, my old podcast co host, who's very Republican, and I literally had young black kids arguing with me that DEI was bad for them. And I'm like, I am so sorry that this happened to you. Like, it's fucking ins. Like, they, they literally felt offended at dei and I was like, okay, you know, this is a minefield. I'm going to walk away from. But you have been lied to aggressively. It's insane.

[A]

Yeah. Also, you don't have to take, you don't have to be in a program if you don't want to. But, like, nobody's forcing the shit on you. So for our last topic, President Trump this week designated the four of us as terrorists. Guys.

[C]

Oh, yeah, Domestic terrorists.

[B]

Also important note for the, for the people who say they love veterans so much, also designated, like, a lot of our grandparents, domestic terrorisms.

[A]

True. You mean all that served in World War II?

[B]

Everybody that served in World War II.

[A]

So before. Okay, so for anyone who missed it because there was a lot of crazy shit this week, Donald Trump is designated antifa, which is short for anti fascist, as a terrorist organization. Even though there is no organizational structure. There is no, there has never been a single person, I don't think, actually.

[B]

I'm the president of Antifa.

[A]

You all. Breaking news, folks.

[B]

To be sure Chris has the account.

[C]

I run an organization that is called Veterans Fighting Fascism. So, like, I'm on the list, guys, for real. Like, it's not a joke.

[E]

Congratulations, you're in there.

[A]

Oh, I wish I had my sound up. I could do that right now.

[D]

No, no, no, no, no, no.

[C]

Don't do it. Yeah, so I mean, this, this could potentially have real repercussions. What the order was, was like three paragraphs. It was very soft language, like their Tywin all, you know, written declarations. But it did basically tell law enforcement, federal law enforcement at least, and the agencies, the various agencies, like the irs, to look for antifa. And if you're a cop, if you're the average cop, you fear in antifa. I've, I've spoken at, at the Global Intelligence forum for the NYPD and I was there talking to them about unlawful militias and how they're not actually aligned with cops and they actually kill a lot of cops. And that's a historical fact. And every response was but what about antifa? But what about antifa? So though the order itself is not really doesn't have any legal weight, the messaging is enough that it is going to change the mindset of too many cops. Not just federal cops who the order is four, but all cops around the country who are going to start being like that's a terrorist. I'm going to treat this, this American, this person who has constitutional rights. I'm going to treat them like a terrorist. And, and that is gonna have real nasty effects for people.

[B]

Crazy because like in some parts of the country it was already bad. Like I'm from a super, super small town and in 2020 when the BLM riots were going on and there was like some protests in a city, like a slightly bigger city that was about 30 minutes away, my small town had people waiting at the McDonald's with AR15s because they had heard through Facebook that was there were busloads of antifa coming to ruin the town. People literally boarded up the business windows in the downtown of my little city. Literally 2, 000 people live in that town. Wow.

[C]

Nobody ever showed up full of antifa thing. Yeah, it spread like wildfire.

[B]

There were people waiting in the McDonald's drive through or like parking lot in the back of a pickup truck with AR15s. This, the school parking lot was full of cops that were waiting also with firearms. The whole city, the whole town was just on edge. It was ridiculous.

[A]

Why did they decide to defend McDonald's of all places?

[B]

Well, McDonald's was on like, like we were. I'm like, I don't want to give.

[A]

Anything away but like very major highway and oh, it's a high point.

[B]

It was high point. And the direction was towards the city that the antifa was supposedly coming from. They were going to get him on the way in, you know.

[A]

Does, does the McDonald's also double as city hall? No. Okay, Just curious.

[B]

So this is double as snacks for them though?

[C]

Yeah, this sounds very goofy, but what Luke is saying is a very important point because this is what the Fox News audience believes and, and that is like a third of the country, if not more. Like they hear and they See news stories, it's not just Facebook posts. They see news stories about like, intelligence was leaked from a police officer. They, you know, some intelligence analysts said there's buses full of antifa. And the, the funniest thing for me personally is the reason why there's. There's like a famous bunch of images in Coeur d'. Alene. A bunch of these patriot front U haul Nazis getting like, you know, their hands tied behind their back and stripped of their masks and everything. It's because of the buses full of antifa idea that somebody saw a bunch of people loading back in, loading up into a U haul in a conservative area and they called the cops. And that is the one time that cops have intercepted the U haul when it was full of these guys as it was like driving.

[A]

So they thought it was. They thought it was Nazi or they thought it was antifa and it was actually Nazi.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. So they got a bunch of Nazis.

[A]

Oh, my God. That's in Idaho, right? Is that the. And it's like a known white supremacist area, which is why antifa would go there. That seems like a bad. It's like.

[C]

Well, it's like a blue city in a sea of red.

[A]

Oh, it is a blue.

[C]

Or at least like there are blue parts of it. I. I don't. I don't know about the whole thing. The reason why the Nazis were going there is because there was a pride event. Like a pride in the park event or something. So. Yeah, so my organization was.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[C]

We got.

[A]

How dare those people. How dare those people be who they are.

[B]

How dare they.

[A]

That's ridiculous. Well, congratulations everybody for being labeled terrorists this week. I kind of thought that most Americans were anti fasc, though we are learning that that number is a lot smaller than we thought.

[D]

So you guys.

[A]

Right?

[D]

Absolutely. I'm the president and CEO.

[B]

No, that's me.

[A]

You.

[D]

This is all make believe. We all get to be president and CEO. My child was a Nick.

[A]

I'm a Spartacus. I'm Spartacus moment. Is that what it is? I Spartacus.

[C]

I am the CEO.

[A]

Yes, Chris. I think Chris does win. This is real Spartacus.

[D]

The thing that's so funny to me that everyone just like glanced over, I think New York Times, somebody mentioned it and it was like, why are we not talking about this? He did this exact thing in 2020. Like, he literally said antifa. I'm designating antifa a major terrorist organization in 2020. And everyone was like, like, what are you talking about? And then. And then and then just like five years went by and now he's like an executive order.

[C]

So it's, it's different from just the tweet.

[D]

So he sent a press release. Press release and a tweet.

[A]

Take the truth social post and stick it on the White House letterhead.

[D]

On the letter.

[C]

If you read. Yes, if you read it. It is Trump's language. It is pretty. I mean it's not all caps lock, but it's.

[A]

Do you know, I want the next president to do is I want them to take all of the actual physical pieces of paper that are executive orders. I want them to go out onto that horrible new paved area where they got rid of the Rose Garden. And I just want them to light every single one of them on fire. Just light them on like we talk about like Trump is the king of performative bullshit. I want performative action from whoever the Democrat is and just light that shit on fire and like double finger it and then walk back into the. The West Wing.

[B]

Because I, I have no interest in a Democratic candidate in 28 who says they're just gonna like not be angry about what happened.

[A]

I don't think that.

[D]

Don't worry.

[B]

No, don't worry.

[D]

It's business as usual again. Yeah.

[B]

That we'll all be a brunch again.

[E]

Off.

[A]

You know, like just status quo. Guys. Let's get fired up to bring.

[D]

Everything was really great there, you know, during COVID and inflation. Let's just go back to that Gen 6, you know. Yeah. Not change anything. I think what's like there's so much to unpack with the antifa stuff. But the des. The like the domestic terrorist organization. George W. Bush would have loved to declare some domestic terrorist organizations during the war on terror. The KKK is not a domestic terrorist organization. It never was. They were lynching black people and they were never designated as anything other than a hate group.

[B]

Designated leaders in chapters.

[D]

They had presidents. Sorry, grand wizards, nerds.

[A]

You know whose dad went to one of those rallies once?

[B]

I know whose dad went to one of those rallies, Luke. Donald Trump.

[A]

That's right. Fred Trump went to a KKK rally once and not.

[D]

It was just a coincidence. He was there for the cookies and punch.

[A]

Yeah. He was looking for a. He was looking for a. Well, he was looking for a ghost costume for Halloween. Right. That's what he was doing. Oh my God. I just gotta cut these holes out.

[D]

Is this the spirit of Halloween?

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Why is it pointy? Anyways? So he was there. Yeah. We can. You can figure out why he was there.

[D]

Even, even the Communist Party during the red scare was not labeled a domestic terrorist organization. Because it's not a thing. It doesn't exist. It's not a thing. It will never exist unless Congress passes a law that says you can designate a domestic terrorist organization. And if they were trying, were to try to do that, it would, and this is why it hasn't happened. It would flagrantly violate the First Amendment because assembly, petition and speech and religion are all covered and they all commingle, which is why, like, it's all or nothing. You either have a free society or you have Nazi Germany and there's really not a lot in between. And for, you know, I think most Americans agree that free society is still arguably better, well, than the alternative.

[A]

I mean, I feel like we've got enough police forces to handle this that they don't need a piece of paper saying, go get these guys. You know, between the FBI and police and sheriffs and range marshals and, you know, ATF and all of these, these fucking groups, like, if someone is doing something bad, just go, just, just punish the criminal. You know, Donald Trump. Oh, oh, we're supposed to get these terrorists now. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Like, it's just silly.

[B]

Donald Trump defunded. So they don't have the money anymore.

[C]

We, we should, I mean, we're all joking about this, but we, we should hope that, that the executive order fulfills what Trump wants to do, because this actually could get way fucking worse.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

Marco Rubio has, has shown that he is willing to engage in, you know, just straight up corruption to, to, to enrich the Trumps. Right. Marco Rubio has sold his soul. The Secretary of State, the State Department, they do have powers that, that could designate anti fascist organizations, of which there are like, loosely organized people, as an international terrorist organization. And that would give President Trump the powers of, of war effectively, and that would give the FBI an international nexus for Americans. Right? So an example would be members of my team just went to Portugal to be at a cyber conference to learn new skills, to network with people internationally because there's a global rise of fascism. Right. This is a very professional, nerdy conference. But, but that type of activity could be enough for the State Department to say, I don't want members of this team coming back into the United States. We're going to take away their passports, we're going to brand them as, as, as affiliated or providing material support to a terrorist organization. So as funny as this, like, executive order may feel, we're Nine months into the presidency. We're eight months into the presidency, plus four days as we're recording this.

[D]

Like.

[C]

Like there's a lot of room for acceleration in a way that. That really could affect Americans in pretty horrible ways.

[D]

You still have to commit a crime to be a criminal. And Congress passes laws that make things crimes. And so I think even if it definitely. If you're talking about anything overseas, obviously that's a whole different thing. There is a law that allows the President to designate. Designate a foreign terrorist organization. And first of all, don't support foreign terrorist organizations. Like everybody. That's.

[A]

That's probably important.

[D]

Yeah, that's probably level one. Like, fascism is an ideology. Anti fascism is an ideology. I don't like. I don't. I've never said, like, I am an anti fascist. Like, that's just a. I don't really care about the label. What I care about is I'm an American, and Americans believe in American values, which are not in line with fascist ideology for me.

[B]

Is that like, by saying that antifa is their enemy, they're admitting what they are. That's what I feel is most.

[D]

You know, what's anti. Anti fascist?

[A]

Yeah, what's the anti. Anti fascist?

[D]

What's that?

[A]

What's that rhyme with?

[B]

I'll tell you. Fascist.

[A]

Well, guys, I think we have. I think we've covered this one. I was. I was trying to find a good pivot to the rap, but, you know, Chris was talking about the rise of. Rise of fascism, and I was talking about, you know, there's been a rise in. Find out merchandise in the online store pretty good lately. We've got a five. This is the most popular. Oh, we got three going right now. So.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And we're all different. So we have the faces shirt, which is the most popular. Luke, I believe, is modeling the least popular. No, I thought Rich.

[C]

Four.

[D]

Oh, is this four? If I. If I have two. And my.

[A]

You got. You got a shirt.

[B]

Oh, oh.

[A]

If. For those who are listening, Rich has his mug, his hoodie, and his black find out Newton shirt.

[D]

So I didn't tell the guys.

[C]

I didn't tell the guys this, but I. I just put in the request to have the five faces in the tree put on the hoodies. I think. I think by next week, I'm pretty certain that a few days after people hear this episode, it's getting a little chilly. It's fall, and we're adding to the store. We're putting our most popular designs on black pullover hoodies, which are super super comfortable. Made in America, printed by well paid union artisans. And yeah, I'm pretty excited about that.

[B]

I wish it was getting chilly here. It's hot.

[D]

It's.

[A]

I know today in New York, I mean, today it's like a sweaty disaster, which is. I actually ran over here and I'm glad you can't see. Most of the shirts probably don't look great, but you can buy these shirts and [e-mail] the other thing that you can do, since we are seeing that mainstream media is not going to save us, is that you can support the Find out podcast with a subscription on Substack, which [e-mail] help us keep the lights on and continuing to get bigger and bigger. I think that's it, guys. I think we covered it. This is a long one today. We're at an hour 10. Managed to make it through without my glasses, which I left at home, even though I can't really see anything that's going on. Thank you. Well, this is the normal Lexus how I normally look because I don't wear them out.

[D]

I think you have a face for podcasting.

[E]

It's very nice.

[A]

Oh, I just tried to make it.

[B]

Podcasts are audio.

[A]

What's that?

[B]

But podcasts are audio.

[A]

That is. Well. But half of our audience watches.

[E]

That's true.

[A]

Because you know what? This isn't an ugly crew. This is a good crew.

[D]

You know, I'm pretty bad.

[C]

If you only listen to audio and you want to know what Tim looks like, there's the Five Faces hoodie coming next week.

[D]

Spitting image. It looks. That is how he looks exactly.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, I. I was trying to. God, I'm trying to make my jokes. My. My.

[D]

Buttons. Tim. God damn it.

[C]

Got it.

[A]

All right, everybody. Have a great, great weekend. Everybody buy that merch. Subscribe, take a walk outside. Don't think about politics all the time. We will see you next week. All right, bye, everybody. Smack it in there.