How is this not Toppling the Government?

Summary

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The PoliticsGirl Podcast

Episode: “How is this not Toppling the Government?”

Host: Leigh McGowan
Guest: Joanna Johnson (unlearn16)
Release Date: February 3, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this urgent and deeply candid conversation, host Leigh McGowan (aka PoliticsGirl) is joined by high school teacher, author, and social commentary heavyweight Joanna Johnson (unlearn16) to wrestle with the current state of American democracy amid government overreach, media control, and new revelations from the Epstein files. The discussion highlights the overwhelming flood of crises, the cyclical nature of abuse and corruption among elites, the erosion of justice and rule of law, and the role of community as both bulwark and hope against fascist encroachment. Together, they invite listeners to see clearly, engage locally, and resist despair—even as chaos looms.

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Key Discussion Points

The Overwhelm and "Flood the Zone" Tactics

• Leigh McGowan recounts personal exhaustion:
  Felt so “freaking depressed” by a relentless news cycle she “went back to bed” ([00:45-01:12]).

• Tactic of overwhelming the public:
  “The Trump administration's plan to flood the zone with so many terrible things that we can't manage is proving to be very effective.” ([01:10])

Social Media Echo Chambers and Distortion

• Joanna on vitriol vs. real life support:
  The internet, especially X (formerly Twitter), amplifies hate; in person, it's different.
  “The vitriol gets…drowned out.” ([03:31])
  The “delusion is still the minority… stupidity… is chosen. That's not the majority of Canadians. It sure as heck isn't the majority of Americans.” ([04:41])

• Highlighting the good vs. the rage:
  If we highlighted positivity as much as outrage, “we would feel a lot lighter.” ([05:25])

Media Takeover and Manufactured Hopelessness

• Consolidation of media as control:
  “They don't want us to highlight all the good things… They want us to feel like we are a lost cause.” ([06:11])
  Referencing manipulation around high-profile cases, media spin, and manufactured despair.

The Epstein Files as Societal Mirror

• Joanna: None of this is new:
  The Epstein revelations are horrific, but such abuse has always existed, “culturally, socially, we have turned a blind eye… all under the auspice that we're getting better.” ([07:37-11:04])

• America’s dirty history:
  Leigh: “The third president of the US… raped a 14-year-old girl and had six children with her. Like, this is the history of our country.” ([11:04])

• Power, abuse, and cycles of decadence:
  Leigh cites Rich Cohen: “As power wanes and imperial dreams fade, the lust for conquest turns inward... There is nothing I want that I can't have, and there is nothing I can do that I can't get away with.” ([12:13])

Rule of Law, Elites, and Justice Denied

• Different law for the rich and powerful:
  “The notion that the law applies to different people at different times… Not to the insidious level that we’re, you know, obviously this, but that still is it.” ([13:47])

• Healthcare as an example of foundational inequity:
  “Only if you make a lot of money in the richest country on earth do you get healthcare, do you deserve to live, honestly.” ([16:25])

• Tipping point and visibility:
  Joanna: “It's a tipping point, putting it all in our face like this and having to have these discussions rather than it being hidden and… protected by a really good speech.” ([16:30])

Systemic Corruption and Collapse

• Leigh: “How do we trust anything now?”
  “If you are super rich… you're buying governments, you're buying your own justice system… that's the thing that's making people feel like, hold on, like, what world am I living in?” ([21:27])

• Epstein Files specifics: DOJ redacting names from messages like “I loved that torture video” and “do you want me to try and do her, or just torture her?” ([22:54])

• Status quo means complicity:
  Joanna: Admitting systemic rot means “we gotta tear it all down… it will feel like chaos… that’s why empires fall.” ([26:24])

• Historical parallels:
  “Same with the JFK assassination. Why wasn't it pushed?… Because… you go straight to the government, you start asking those hard questions. It all has to fall. It all has to come down.” ([28:05])

• Democratic Party’s incapacity to resist:
  “If they actually oppose this, they tear down the system.” ([31:34])

Signs and Checkboxes of Fascism

• Leigh’s "state of the union" checklist:
  Mass detention centers outpacing Nazi-era camps
  Media consolidation and censorship
  Law enforcement as a political weapon (ICE parallels, Justice Dept. loyalty to president)
  Cultural crackdown (Kennedy Center closure, targeting comedians and artists)
  Demonization and threat against protestors ([32:12-36:05])

Structural Flaws and Constitutional Failures

• Joanna: U.S. Constitution’s limitations:
  “The Constitution is just paper. And because it’s just paper and people aren’t willing… I am waiting for a commander, a general… to say, ‘I will not just follow orders.’ Because that’s where we’re at.” ([38:56])

• Washington’s warnings fulfilled:
  “Party allegiance is so much more important and your career as a politician is so much more important than ever… The system is done. You have proven him right.” ([40:49])

The Last Stand: Community & Personal Responsibility

• Connection is resistance:
  “Community. It becomes essential to stand up and get to know and have connection… this kind of manipulation… no longer works because… We don’t believe you anymore.” ([44:07])

• Hope via solidarity:
  “Why have I not got socked in the mouth anywhere? I’ll tell you why. …They are not powerful in the real world. They are the minority.” ([49:10])

• On protest and speaking up:
  “Out of 100 people in the room, 85 think the way you do. They’re just too scared to say it. So say it first. Watch them all stand behind you…” ([52:09])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On purposeful engagement with difficult topics:
  “We purposely are putting ourselves in harm's way. …Because when we talk about that, we think – and I think this is true – we are doing something important about shedding light on it. But… when you’re going to shed light in it, you have to live in it. …it's a heavy block to be carrying around.”
  —Joanna Johnson ([04:41])

• On the role of transparency:
  “What we are now seeing… isn't new. …Trump isn't the problem. He's the symptom… What he unfortunately was able to do is recognize something he could tap into and then he could manipulate for his own gain.”
  —Joanna Johnson ([07:37])

• On the justice system’s complicity:
  “You are buying a system where you can do whatever you want and get away with any allegation, provided you are at the high enough level.”
  —Leigh McGowan ([21:27])

• On systemic risk of rebellion:
  “To say the words, ‘We gotta tear it all down,’ it's absolutely terrifying. …To admit that means we gotta tear it all down.”
  —Joanna Johnson ([26:24])

• On why elites avoid true reckoning:
  “Because if you push those things to their finality, you have to tear down the system.”
  —Joanna Johnson ([28:05])

• On the tension of current politics:
  “Trump was the catalyst to this because he was incapable of playing the game that everyone before him was capable of playing.”
  —Leigh McGowan ([31:32])

• On digital resistance:
  “We are very lucky that these are very, very stupid people trying to manipulate and wield the same ideas and the same strategical points that they did in the 1930s, because they don’t work on us anymore.”
  —Joanna Johnson ([44:49])

• On the real balance of power:
  “They are not powerful in the real world. They are the minority. …all we have to understand is where that power lies… the more ICE they put on the roads, the more we will prove it to ourselves.”
  —Joanna Johnson ([49:10])

• Quoting Star Wars by way of hope:
  “Squeeze tighter, guys. Try to crack down harder. Every time you send out more, we realize you're losing. We realize that your arguments and your ideas are flawed and they don't carry weight. …You need them because it's wrong. You need them because the majority of Americans don't agree. So keep it up.”
  —Joanna Johnson ([52:11])

• Leigh’s closing call:
  “The Constitution only matters when people stand up for it. Otherwise, it's just a piece of paper that our institutions are not the guardrails we thought they were. But we the people are. So we have to get out of our echo chambers and into our communities.”
  —Leigh McGowan ([54:45])

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Important Timestamps

• 00:00-01:12 — Opening remarks; the struggle of processing the news cycle
• 03:31-05:25 — Social media echo chambers and the amplification of hate
• 06:11-07:37 — Media control and the dangers of manufactured despair
• 07:37-13:47 — The normalization of elite abuse and the current relevance of the Epstein case
• 16:25-17:35 — Healthcare and structural inequalities as symptom of broader problems
• 21:27-26:24 — DOJ complicity, suppressed evidence, and the feeling of betrayal
• 26:24-31:34 — Collapse, chaos, and the risk of systemic overhaul
• 32:12-36:05 — Leigh’s inventory of recent government actions aligning with fascist history
• 38:56-44:07 — Constitutional fragility and longing for principled leadership
• 44:07-49:10 — Community over digital manipulation; survival and resistance
• 52:11-54:12 — Joanna’s rousing call for vocal resistance; standing with the majority
• 54:45- — Closing motivation and call to action

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Tone & Takeaways

The conversation is raw, funny in flashes, but harrowingly urgent. Both Leigh and Joanna drop incisive cultural references, historical context, and personal honesty, creating an atmosphere of commiseration and “let’s get real.” Despite the bleakness, the episode ends with a call: chaos is coming—but community, solidarity, and clarity in speaking uncomfortable truths are how to remake the future. The majority’s silence is the oppressor’s power; it’s time to break it.

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How to Follow & Support

• Joanna Johnson:
  TikTok, Instagram: @unlearn16
  Podcast: unlearn16 class in session
  Book: That’s Not What This Book Is About (website, Amazon, audiobook)
• PoliticsGirl Membership:
  politicsgirl.com — support independent information and community action

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[For a deeper dive, see the full Paris Review article by Rich Cohen, as referenced by Leigh in the conversation.]

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Transcript

[Joanna Johnson]

Squeeze tighter, guys. Try to crack down harder. Every time you send out more, we realize you're losing. We realize that your arguments and your ideas are flawed and they don't carry weight. Because if they carried weight, you wouldn't need those tiny little men with their face covered every single place that people go. You wouldn't need them. You need them because it's wrong. You need them because the majority of Americans don't agree. So keep it up.

[Lee McGowan]

Hello and welcome to the Politics Girl podcast.

I'm your host, Lee McGowan.

Let's get into it. Well, I had to take almost all of Wednesday off last week because I was so freaking depressed I went back to bed. I try to find solutions. I try to be hopeful. But I have been overwhelmed lately. And since I work through every weekend, Wednesday is that day I can stop for a. A second. And it turns out sometimes when you stop, you drop. The Trump administration's plan to flood the zone with so many terrible things that we can't manage is proving to be very effective.

So my job of being informed so.

I can sort through all of it to bring you the most essential things.

Has become a tiny bit overwhelming, especially.

With this most recent Epstein drop.

So today, instead of just focusing on.

What'S going on factually, I invited my friend Joanna Johnson, who most people know as unlearn16, to talk about the news extemporaneously, to have a good conversation, and honestly, to get some good old fashioned forest for the trees perspective on what we're living through from someone not in this country, but well aware of what's going on.

On top of having well over 4.

Million followers online, Joanna is a high school teacher and author whose influence extends far beyond the classroom. She's known for using her humor and her sarcasm to expand people's knowledge on everything from history to prejudice. She tackles misinformation and inequality through short form videos, live streams, and Q and A sessions. But she's also the host of the extremely popular podcast unlearn 16 class in session. And finally, like little old me, she is a fellow Canadian who knows far too much about America.

So without further ado, please welcome my guest teacher, social media superstar and author.

Of the critically acclaimed book that Is not what this Book Is About, Joanna Johnson.

Welcome back, Joanna.

[Joanna Johnson]

How you doing down there? How's everything going, guys? If you don't laugh, if your head will explode. I think.

[Lee McGowan]

I think that is entirely possible. I think my head almost exploded this week. I was just saying in the introduction that, like, I literally took to my bed on Wednesday. I was like, I can't.

[Joanna Johnson]

It's a lot.

[Lee McGowan]

It's too much. I went to a meeting, I came home, and I was like, nope. And I, like, literally got back into bed, like, a little scared, you know, Squirrel. It was terrible. So thanks for coming because I really want to talk to you. It's obviously been a very terrible first month of the year, and I wanted your humor and perspective. And I also want to know, like, literally, does it ever feel like you're going crazy up there or do you still have enough distance from this horror that you can watch it rather than live it? Because when I read things on X or any sort of MAGA propaganda, I genuinely feel like I'm losing my mind because there seems to be so many people who are living willingly in delusion, right? And then also making their decisions and forming their worldview from that place. And that makes me feel like I'm going crazy.

[Joanna Johnson]

I think there's a couple of things that are true. I think first and foremost, you got to be real, real care about sitting in those echo chambers. So, for example, when I post on TikTok, I get a different response than when I post on Instagram, than when I post on X. And when I post on X, the vitriol that I know that I'm going to face is. Is a tidal wave. Now, it's very hard, I think, for humans to keep that in perspective because it feels so overwhelming and so aggressive and so angry. But if I really take the reach, I On those three different platforms and I averaged out, not even averaged out, and I looked at a percentage of all of the incredible comments and all the vitriol. The vitriol gets. It gets drown out. We just, you and I have this very interesting aspect of our personality where we're purposefully. As I watch you on, sitting across from that idiot every five seconds on what show is it. Every time I watch it, I'm just like, cnn. Yeah, what's the name of the show? But isn't it a.

[Lee McGowan]

It's called News Night.

[Joanna Johnson]

It's News Night with Abby Phillips sitting across from that. Not Abby, but the idiot. We purposely are putting ourselves in harm's way. You're purposefully searching out people and ideas that are horrific, that are damaging, that are delusional at times, that are all of those things. And we're gravitating to that. That's. That's what we're. We're talking about that. Because when we talk about that, we think. And I. And I think this is True, we are doing something important about shedding light on it, but when you're going to shed light in it, you have to live in it. When you're going to live in it, it's a heavy block to be carrying around. So first and foremost, I want to say the delusion is still the minority. I still believe that the stupidity, and I use the word purposefully because people are choosing it. It's not ignorance. It's chosen. That's not the majority of Canadians. It sure as heck isn't the majority of Americans. A lot of people will say, joanna, your stuff's so anti American. I'm like, it is. It isn't. It's anti stupid. And if you feel personally attacked, well, then that's a different conversation. But it's not because you're American, because I know, look at all these incredible people doing incredible things in this world. And if we were to highlight them at the same rate as we highlight idiots, we would feel a lot different, right? We would. We would feel a lot lighter and. And maybe we should do that more.

[Lee McGowan]

Well, that's why they. It's. That's why the powers that be are taking over all the media, right? They're taking over all the media, all the social media, all the local news networks, because they don't want us to highlight all the good things that are happening. They don't want us to, Mr. Rogers style, look for the helpers, right? They want us to feel like we are a lost cause. We may as well just give up. We may as well just fall in line. You know, I mean, I look at what's going on. I mean, it's everything from our government justifying what happened to Alex Preddy down here, as if we didn't all see him get executed by our government. The absolute nightmare that is the Epstein Files, Melania's horrendous movie that's now being referred to as the number one documentary of. I'm like, come on, right? Like all these moments, I genuinely feel like, like you said, I might drown because I'm sitting in it. But I think a lot of people are sitting in it right now. Like, you can't get away from it even if you tried, if you are even remotely aware, right? Like, there's obviously people that have gotten away with it because they're not even complete. They're not aware at all. They've chosen to not know. But you study history, right? You're watching America from the outside. So, I mean, what are you thinking? Because I know that this Epstein stuff is really getting to me. And I texted you last night before we had this conversation, and I was like, listen, if I crash out over this Epstein stuff, it's because I'm feeling so overwhelmed with the information that's coming out that I actually don't know what to do with myself. And you said, that's fine. You know, that's fine. Go ahead, Lee.

[Joanna Johnson]

Crash out. Here's what I think. And this is. It's. It's positive. It's going to be very odd how. How this is how I'm going to spin this into something positive. What we're seeing has been true for a very long time. I want to be really clear. What we are now seeing, what's gone on and what we are seeing by people's cell phone and. And people pushing the DOJ to release files and this on this media platform and that media platform, no matter how much they try to control it, what we're seeing isn't new. And I've said this time and time again that Trump isn't the problem. He's the symptom that Trump, unfortunately, as many people want to sort of weave this into. He's done all this. No, he hasn't. No, he hasn't. What he unfortunately was able to do is recognize something he could tap into and then he could manipulate for his own gain. But it already existed. We want to pretend as though all of that didn't exist before it did. The Epstein stuff has ex. Guys, what's gone on in this. In this file, and the more things that I see, the more forever, for absolutely ever. And guess what? This is the first time we're seeing it with our own eyes. Apparently, the rest of the community, including both sides of the aisle, didn't want to believe the victims. Heaven forbid. All of this documented evidence, we don't believe it. We're seeing it for the first time. It doesn't mean it just happened. It's been happening forever. And we've turned culturally, socially, we have turned a blind eye to it all under the auspice that we're getting better. And we are. Don't get me wrong, I see progress. But let's not negate the reality of what's always been just under the surface. And right now, we're having the very painful realization, and it feels like it's happening all at once. And I do think it's the power of what we're sitting on right here. I think that we're seeing it all at once. And it is the necessary tipping point. The moment that has to happen for us to finally go. That was always happening. I ignored it. I didn't listen to that story. And by the way, you can talk about Epstein all you want. We all know that every family out there has that story. We never talk about that uncle that doesn't come to dinner anymore, the cousin that we don't. Whatever. And what do we say? Well, that's personal family business. Well, I, I remove them from my vicinity or. Oh, you didn't go to the police. Oh, you didn't put them on blast because you didn't want your family to. This, this is this huge event that we as a culture have been fostering for quite some time. Every single time, something happened within your, within your. The four walls of your house or extended family. And you didn't go right to the police and right to the media because you thought you could handle it better and you didn't want anybody knowing your business. Here it is. This is it.

[Lee McGowan]

Yeah, it's just America's business. Now, I heard someone say the other day that, you know, like, let's not pretend this is new, you know, the third president of the United States, you know, raped a 14 year old girl and had six children with her. Like, this is the history of our country, you know, but it also seems, and I'm going to steal this from a writer called Rich Cohen, who writes for the Paris Review. He wrote a whole article about this. And, and I'm going to read a couple of things to you because I thought it was so fascinating. And when I found this article, and I will attach this in the, the notes of this episode because really, go and read this article. It's just Incredible. It's from 20 20. He wrote this, by the way. So six years ago he wrote this and he was asking like, how did Epstein get here? Like, if you look back at Epstein's background, you're like, how was he given all these opportunities? How was he, how did he even get to this high flying position? And he was saying that like, look, Epstein was this outsider, this up from nothing, in from nowhere striver who made himself a service worker for the ultra rich. He was the evil man in the big house with access to still more powerful people in bigger houses. He was the gateway. He was the plane filled with girls. He was the private island. He knew the secrets of the men who run the show and a knowledge that both protects and endangered him. And then he wrote, what causes a person, usually a man, to crave sex with what Nabokov would call a nymphet. A girl that has basically not reached physical maturity yet. Is it a mental illness? Is it something that could be attributed to, like, childhood trauma? Is it a chemical imbalance? Is it about power? Is it about dominance? Is it about self loathing? And he said, maybe it's more simple than that. Maybe it really is just evil. And if so, Cohen writes, it is the kind of evil that seems to characterize a certain class at a certain time. The most powerful people in the moment of decadence. Ancient Rome, dynastic China, Vienna between the wars, where once dominant societies at the end of an age, as power wanes and imperial dreams fade, the lust for conquest turns inward. And, and it manifests according to lavish conspiracy theories in the velvet rooms of secret societies where this taste for arcane ritual and human sacrifice is rooted in a maddeningly arrogant belief. There is nothing I want that I can't have, and there is nothing I can do that I can't get away with. And I was like, yeah, this has been happening for generations, like every single time. It's a, it's a cycle and this is where we end up.

[Joanna Johnson]

It's interesting because I guess he alludes to the fact it's, it's at the end of a society, but I don't, I, I think it exists all the way through. So I do disagree a little bit there. I think it exists all the way through, but I definitely think it's connected to a very old, very boring cliche that says power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. That the more we can get away with and the more there is no check on who I am or what I do or anything like that, the more people will push that envelope further and further and further and, and I don't think that's just about a certain time in society because like I said, I think it's been happening the entire. And not just in American culture. I think it's true across cultural lines. I think this push for doing something nobody else can do yet I want to like something as stupid as. And I was talking about this today because obviously a lot of students, this is the only thing they want to speak about. And we, we, we were talking about the rule of law and what the rule of law meant and, and why how it's been so shredded and, and torn apart and why this isn't toppling the government instantaneously. And I said, I think I have a very scary idea is because the notion that the law applies to different people at different times, the notion that I can skip the line and get into a restaurant. The notion that I can get out of a ticket, I could have more money and power in order to grant me access to places where other people can't go. Not to the insidious level that we're, you know, obviously this, but. But that still is it. The more that there's this promise, and I think this is the promise of the United States. This idea of the American dream is wild because it's not one of equality. It's one of the I can work hard and get more. And it's not just how many things I can have in my house. It's about the access and the freedom I can purchase. And when that's our goal and when that becomes woven into, like this very odd sort of fable creation of a nation. And in Canada, to a similar extent, when that can be woven in, then we're sitting at a pretty horrific spot. I mean, I use healthcare as an example. The wildness that it takes to say, only if you make a lot of money in the richest country on earth.

[Lee McGowan]

Do you get healthcare, do you deserve to live honestly.

[Joanna Johnson]

And that's not just like, that's a foundational. As foundational it is to Canada, as everybody gets it, but it's a foundational thing where you have to work for that, you know, any sort of basic decency in this world, you have to work for because that requires your labor, that requires grit and determination, and only people who have an inherent value deserve it. If that's your foundation, then of course this is exactly where we're supposed to be right now. But I do think, and I know it's a lot of negativity, but I do think it's a tipping point, putting it all in our face like this and having to have these discussions rather than it being hidden and, you know, kept over and protected by a really good speech. You know, the fact that it's all on the news every night on our TikTok feeds, on our podcasts, there it is. Now we're really having to face it. And I think there's something painfully powerful about that.

[Lee McGowan]

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[Joanna Johnson]

There it is. Now we're really having to face it. And I think there's something painfully powerful about that.

[Lee McGowan]

And I think that's why so many people are feeling demoralized and exhausted. And, you know, it's, it's funny, I listen to some black creators being like, why are white women keep talking about how exhausted they are? Like, get in line. We've been exhausted for 200 years, right? We're like, oh my God, is this for real? They're like, yeah, it's for real. We've been telling you it's for real for forever, you know, but I think, I think that it's the justice thing that is really getting people. Because you think, like, wait a second, how do we trust anything now? Like, clearly justice has a price, right? If you are super rich, like you were saying, it's not that you're just buying houses or planes or yachts. You're buying governments, you're buying your own justice system. You're buying a system where you can do whatever you want and get away with any allegation, provided you are at the high enough level, right? And I think that's the thing that's making people feel like, hold on, like, what world am I living in? Because everything is shifting underneath them. And I'm, I'm watching, you know, Todd Blanche go on TV and talk about the Epstein files. And he's the assistant Attorney General, second in command under Pam Bondi. He's the one that move moved Ghislaine Maxwell to her minimum security prison and got her a freaking puppy. And he said, we, you know, we've released this, whatever, 3.5 million pages of stuff. Here's our transparency, but we're holding back, you know, 200,000 pages that they're calling privileged files, right? And he's like, we're not going to show anyone death or physical abuse or injury or child porn. And you're like, so you have, you.

[Joanna Johnson]

Know, all this evidence.

[Lee McGowan]

Death, physical abuse, injury, and child porn. Like, we are looking at, you know, what you have released. And I'm like, just on the top of my head, like, the files had just released, which are apparently excluding those terrible things like death and child porn. There's one thing that says a message to Epstein where Epstein messaged somebody and said, I loved that torture video. And the DOJ redacted the person's name that he was sending it to. Then he messaged another person and said, do you want me to try and do her or just torture her? And the DOJ redacted the recipient of that email. Then someone messaged Epstein, giving him permission to kill someone. And the DOJ redacted the sender, right? So I think people are going like, hold on a second. How are they getting away with this? Because these emails are not lying. These are emails that they have in evidence. So people are like, I just need to see more evidence. You're like, those. That is evidence. Like, they are telling you what happened. They're just not telling you who did it. And that's the problem. The actual government is covering up for these people. And then you look at the people whose names we can see, and you're like, pretty much every top official in the American government right now is associated with this, right? Like, that is horrifying. And I think it's also horrifying for people, Joanna, like, because if you think of yourself as kind of a sane person that follows the rule of law and is paying attention and is aware, you're like, Jesus, were the QAnon people right? Like, is this what's happening? Like, they were right. They were just blaming it on the wrong people. And then you're like, actually, yes, because when you look at these files, the head of 4chan, which is where the QAnon conspiracy started, is in the files, and he's talking back and forth with Epstein about, you know, how they should start a story, which they did about QAnon, which led to Pizzagate, about all these satanic pedophilic elites doing stuff, except they chose the wrong people. So if you look into it, you go, well, this is all bullshit, except it's a false flag. You know what I mean? And I think it's so deep and so overreaching that I think people are coming to the conclusion that like, oh my God, was all this real in the first place? And you're like, yeah, it really was real. Because once you start looking at it, it seems so obvious and so plau and like this sick and deviant behavior was a way of being in the club. Like, if you do it, then no one will ever talk. It's like frat hazing to an extreme. You know, you do this terrible thing and I do this terrible thing and we both know we did it. So now we know we're safe with each other, right? Yeah, we are bonded with each other because we all know what it took to be in this club. Right. Which then goes, okay, well, that's why some of these people are probably behaving like, you're like, what happened to your personality? How did you take a 180, Lindsey Graham? How did you take a 180 this person? And I think it's because they're all taking care of each other. I mean, I was talking about Melania earlier. I mean, like, they chose Brett Ratner to do the Melania. That guy hasn't worked since 2017. Right. Because he's a massive sexual assaulter. But all of a sudden, here he is. Yeah. And he's in every single Epstein photo. So it's just the whole thing just feels like our response to this is absolutely fucking inadequate. These are unimaginable crimes. Every single one of our top law enforcement officers is covering up for it. And I think the more that unravels, the more people are feeling like, well.

[Joanna Johnson]

I think there, there is. There it is. Right. I think knowing that it. It's been going on forever, whether it's celebrity, whether it's government, whether it's law enforcement, judicial, what it doesn't really seem to matter now. What do we do? And I'll tell you what. Now the reason why everybody's kind of putting on the brakes a little bit is because it's going to be chaos. Because all of the structures that you assumed existed to hold up the rule of law, to hold up democracy, to hold up the legal system, to hold up a kind of norm based society, those rules have not been in play. They're not in play now. I'm not sure if they've ever been in play. And so to admit that, to admit that means we gotta tear it all down. And to say the words, we gotta tear it all down. It's absolutely terrifying. And it will. It will feel like chaos. It will. And that's why empires fall. That's the pattern, right? That's the pattern. I just finished talking about, and I know this is a bit of an odd diversion, but I just finished Talking about the 2000 election between Gore and Bush and how Gore didn't push it any further. Right? How Gore decided to concede. I'll tell you why he decided to concede. And it's the same reason that nobody pushed the JFK assassination any further, because if you push those things to their finality, you have to tear down the system. You would have to admit in the Gore Bush election that there was irrevocable damage done to the electoral system that made that particular election fraudulent. And if you make that particular election fraudulent, how do I know the rest of them haven't been? How can I ever trust the system again? And if I can't trust the system again, it doesn't matter who won or who lost, because the whole thing's going to collapse. So Gore walks away. That's complicit in building up and keeping a system. Same with the JFK assassination. Why wasn't it pushed? I'll tell you why it wasn't pushed. Because any rational person that looked at any of that would have gone straight to the demo. It would have gone straight to the government. You go straight to the government, you start asking those hard questions. It all has to fall. It all has to come down. And we're at a part right now where, you know, we're willing to. I don't know if we're willing. We're being forced.

[Lee McGowan]

There we go.

[Joanna Johnson]

We're being shoved into a place where we have to acknowledge what's going on. We have to acknowledge the injustice. We have to acknowledge all of the things that Canadian and Americans have said about the rest of the world. We have to acknowledge the inherent flaws in our own house. And we have to figure out how we're going to now. And I do think tear down and rebuild is probably the most significant thing, because I think if anybody would admit to anything, it's that money gives you power, and a certain amount of money gives you so much power that democracy can't breathe in the same space. The ideas of democracy can exist in the same space. And again, it's been happening forever. There's no question this government in this moment isn't indicative of anything. It's just coming to a head now. And to be honest, I'm going to say something completely out of pocket. You ready? I think it's because of Trump. His insanity and his complete disregard for the system is what's going to bring down the system, because it made us all look. Because he didn't have a nice speech about it, Lee. He couldn't. He couldn't give the nice speech. He couldn't. He couldn't massage it away. He couldn't. So what does he do? He goes on Twitter, spells crap wrong and. And invades other countries. Everybody talks about Venezuela and says the.

[Lee McGowan]

Quiet part out loud. He says the quiet part.

[Joanna Johnson]

But everybody's been doing the quiet part.

[Lee McGowan]

To vote again.

[Joanna Johnson]

But everybody's been doing the quiet part.

[Lee McGowan]

He'll say, you just have to vote for me this one time and you'll never have to vote again. Right. And you're like, he's telling us what he's doing. Right. Like, you know, I. And it's exactly what the Heritage foundation did with Project 2025. They were like, here is the entire blueprint of what we're going to do. And people like me were screaming at people like, this is real and you have to watch it. And now they're systematically going through it. I mean, I think looking around, that is exactly what's happening. Trump was the catalyst to this because he was incapable of playing the game that everyone before him was capable of playing. And I think it explains why Democratic leadership seems incapable of being an opposition party right now. Because if they actually oppose this, they tear down the system.

[Joanna Johnson]

That's right. That's right.

[Lee McGowan]

Right. They are successful within the system as it exists, but if they pull at the threads and the system falls apart, they are no longer powerful the way they are now, and they're not willing to do that. Now. There's a handful of people who are like, this is outrageous and we cannot do this. But there's other people who are just complicit in this rise of fascism because they're like, I'll still have power, and that's where everything matters. You know, I used to say, do they know something we don't know? Like, is the world gonna explode? And they all have a place on the spaceship, you know, like, that's what it felt like. Like, people were behaving so erratically that I thought, what do they know that we don't know? Right. But then I look around at the.

Country right now, and I think we.

Can make a very solid argument. You're a history teacher. That the US isn't just descending into fascism. Right. It we're here. Like, I'm going to go through some of the most recent news article things that have come out in the black literally the last week to make this argument. And then I'd love you to take what I've said as a teacher and see what you can extrapolate from that so that we can learn something from it. Does that work for you? All right, so the US Is currently holding three times as many people in immigrant detention centers as they were in Nazi concentration and work camps in the spring of 1939, right before World War II began. The DHS has bought or is building at least 17 new warehouses to convert into high capacity detention facilities. Local officials all around the country are unaware of the plans that these people are going to take for these spaces, many of which are planning to hold over 10,000 beds each. The government is taking over all of our media, traditional and social. Trump got Colbert canceled. He tried to get Jimmy Kimmel off the air. And we know that dictators hate fricking comedians that make fun of them. He's had to. He's had his friends buy CBS and Paramount. He's trying to get rid of abc. He wants his people to buy cnn. The government is setting the stage to interfere with elections. They raided the Fulton county offices last week. They took all the original documents and the private voter information, despite the fact that they weren't legally allowed to do that by the courts. Right. The Trump administration is currently suing 20 states for their voter rolls. They tried to shake down Minnesota for their voter rolls in exchange for taking ICE out of their cities. That's a full blackmail operation. California and Oregon just won federal court cases not to have to hand over their private voter rolls, but that will probably be appealed. Then we have ice. Right. ICE officers themselves, to me, are a combination of slave catchers and the ss. Like the Brown Shirts. Not necessarily the Gestapo. I think those guys were better trained, the Gestapo. But these are guys on the streets. I do. I mean, more than the Brown Shirts. Okay, more than the Brown Shirts. But they're on the streets. They're brutalizing people. They're killing people. They're there as an intimidation and control force. Right. These are violently untrained men loyal only to the leader, and they are allowed to behave above the law. Then we have the Justice Department. So you've got Todd Blanche, Pam Bondi, all these guys, they just came out and said, if you're going to work for the Justice Department, you're going to work under the president's priority, you will be loyal to execute the president's priority or you will leave. And even hardcore Republican constitutionalists are like, hold on, no, the Justice Department is supposed to be loyal to the Constitution, but that is not what they're saying, right? They are saying Lestat et moi, like the state is me. Anything the president says is what the law needs to follow, and that is not a legal justice system. And then even like basic little things like Trump closing the Kennedy center, right? He's now going to close it for at least two years since he put his name on it, and no one will apparently perform there. I think it's partially to save face, but also because fascists hate art, right? They have to control art and education and win the culture. And they're doing that through social media, which they are also buying. And then Trump just put this insane monologue on True Social over the weekend, labeling all protesters as paid lunatics, agitators, insurrectionists. And he warned of a full retaliation, which he blamed all on poorly run Democratic cities. He claims that he's going to aggressively crack down on these blue cities regardless of consent. And he's talking about the Insurrection Act. So to me, that is pretty much a checklist of what we would see in a fascist takeover. Thoughts from a history professor I shall now listen. We are so excited because we just.

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[Joanna Johnson]

Professor I shall now listen Fix it. I. I have a horrible piece of news. It's always been that the reality is, is that the United States Constitution has always been written in a way that is first and foremost, whether we believe it or not, to protect the institutions on which it is premised. And there are flaws in the Constitution. There are flaws in the way it's written and there's flaws in the pretense of checks and balances in a system that obviously right now has none. Has none. The fact that nobody's establishing that check is the reality that the Constitution only matters when Men and women are willing to actually stand up for it, that the Constitution is just paper. And because it's just paper and people aren't willing. I am waiting for a commander, a general, somebody in your military to say, I will not just follow orders. Because that's where we're at. We're at a place where you're. They're giving orders that are in direct opposition to the Constitution. You are not there. Sure, the, the president's the commander in chief, but, but your duty is to the Constitution. And if your duty is to the Constitution, you have to, at some point, as a member of the military, say, I'm not following orders. That's it. That's where I draw the line. And this is the difference between now and 1933.

[Lee McGowan]

This.

This.

[Joanna Johnson]

You can burn books all you want. You can try to get Larry Ellison to take over TikTok. You can try to do this, you can try to do that. We already have this. There's a power that exists in the Internet, in, in our connectivity, in our ability to be here and be on this platform and be able to engage and, and what, however you think, it's getting strangled. And you can't say this word, and you can't say that word. Cool. Say a different word. There's still access point and there's still far more people that don't want to go down this road any further. But what we should be recognizing is there's a flaw in the writing. There is. There is a flaw. I, I remember seeing comedians, you know, joke about, heaven help me, it might even have been Joe Rogan joking about the fact that, like, Jefferson's alive and he's like, what? You guys didn't change anything. What have you been doing this whole time? You don't just leave it and not add anything else. The fact that Americans can't come to constitutional amendments anymore and they can't actually have an agreement about what the. That's the flaw. There's the crack in the armor. All of this is symptomatic of the fact that Democrats and Republicans have proven Washington right, that your party allegiance is so much more important and your career as a politician is so much more important than ever. Coming to a commonality, and we can't do that anymore. The system is done. You have proven him right. The creation of the two party system and the you against me vernacular and the inability to actually come to any rational thought about underlying principles of freedom and democracy and all of those things, and it's just going to now be lie after Lie after lie after lie. And who can lie better and who can create the next AI piece of footage? I'm also going to say to you this. The media that they're trying oh, so desperately to control is going to be moot anyways. Want to know why? Because I saw an AI video with people who have passed that was so real. I'm pretty. I'm like, well, I could watch a movie with that Robin Williams in it, I'm pretty sure, and not know the difference. At that point, this becomes useless. You know what becomes essential? Community. It becomes essential to stand up and get to know and have connection to people in real life. And this kind of manipulation that they're trying to wield no longer works because most. You've pushed it too far, you idiots. We don't believe you anymore. We don't. I don't. I get calls from my bank and I'm like, nope, don't believe it's my bank. I get an email from my insurance company, nope, I don't believe it's you. I don't believe anything. So what I have to do is then go and completely separately go and contact that particular agency or that bank in order to find out what's real. As soon as we start doing that, we've negated the control they think they have.

[Lee McGowan]

Have.

[Joanna Johnson]

They don't have it anymore. And again, it's going to feel horrible to us. And what's going to feel horrible is the chaos we have to live in for a time. That's what's going to feel horrible. It's going to feel horrible that the structures we thought were there to protect us, the guardrails we thought were up, the. The institutions we thought were there to provide guidance, that's not them. It's you. It's every single person. And when every single person can recognize the incredible power that they wield, this doesn't work. It just doesn't. And all the book burnings of the 1930s and the propaganda pieces that worked when people were limited, when people hadn't traveled the world, when they didn't know other cultures, when they didn't know other languages, when they didn't see video feeds, when they didn't, that only worked in a time. And we are very lucky that these are very, very stupid people trying to manipulate and wield the same ideas and the same strategical points that they did in the 1930s, because they don't work on us anymore. Not a lot of us. Now, I will say this. The driving force has and will always be Fear. What are you afraid of? And when you talk to people, not the horrible people that are, you know, the small fraction of people that are absolute lunatics, I'm going to put over to the side. I mean, the people that felt like they had no choice but to vote for him because they felt the shift. I mean, the people that their plant got closed down, they don't know where their next job is and they wanted to believe him when he said he was bringing back manufacturing. I mean, the people who, you know, they don't have health care and they think it must be this democratic plot in order for them not to have access. And if they've just followed him, that fear, that's the fear he's tapping into, and that's the fear that we still need to reach out and solve and have conversations about and support those people. Because it's the rational fear that my family doesn't have enough to eat. My mom is sick and I can't get her to the hospital. I don't have a job past next week because the company has upped and decided to go somewhere else. That is rational fear. The solutions are irrational and the solutions are ridiculous. But if you're that man or woman, you're willing to try to believe anything somebody is going to give you as a solution, that's not the same solution as yesterday, because yesterday's solution didn't work. And that's where the Democrats have failed. Because they're not willing to offer serious change in a time that demands it. Serious change. And I. And maybe they don't know. Maybe they don't know. They don't know what to do. They don't know what to offer. They don't know what that next step is supposed to do.

[Lee McGowan]

Oh, I think they know. I think they know. I think they know. I think they've chosen not to. I think they like. And I'm talking about leadership. I'm not talking about every Democrat. I know, a lot of wonderful Democrats. But leadership themselves, they know that they're part of a machine that works for them. They're part of a machine that has made them rich. They're part of a machine that's made them powerful. The currency in this country is money and power. It's not the community. You're talking about where the actual power of the future might come from. Because we won't believe anything that comes down from the heights. But it's also, I think, why all these guys are in bed with Big Tech, right? Because Big Tech is the one thing that they didn't have in the 30s where we're ahead of them in the game as far as communication. But big tech is kind of coming in as well. And it's why Palantir, you know, is involved. It's why Alex Karp wants us all to be chipped. You know, it's why Peter Thiel thinks that they should just, you know, scan an area where a crime went and you could see what human beings were there during that time. And then you can sort of preemptively see which one of us might have committed the crime. But it puts us all in sort of the same basket. Larry Ellison just bought Tick Tock and CBS and Paramount and he said the people will behave when they know that we're monitoring everything they do. You know, Amazon is helping with our ring cameras and with Alexa. Meta is helping by collecting all of our data. Apple and Google are helping by listening to us with their phones. It's kind of the thing that concerns me is that like say we turn into sort of an East Germany or Mother Russia situation, except you can't even like have your secret meeting or your neighbor has to turn you in now your phone can turn you in. And I find that problematic for the future we're going into because I think the big tech guys are like, they're all on board for this because they know that they are the chosen ones in this new world order that they are trying to hilarious.

[Joanna Johnson]

Create a robot and then pretend that you're in charge. You know what's funny about that is that the people, they've never seen Terminator. The people, the people that you're talking about aren't the outliers. I think what we really need to get across here is that. But in the Soviet Union or East Germany or these places where we've conceptualized, there are these tiny little meetings going on all the time of these minority population. What we need to start understanding is we're not the minority. We've been convinced we're the minority. Social media might push it so that we've been convinced we're the minority. But go out and talk to people. Do you know how many people I meet on a daily basis that are like, I believe what you stand for and they give me their opinion. They give me their opinion. Why have I not got socked in the mouth anywhere? I'll tell you why. Two reasons. Number one, they're cowards. Number two, the only way they function is in a big group of like minded individuals so they feel powerful or behind a pseudonym on a Keyboard on a platform where they can say whatever the heck they think they can say and feel powerful. They are not powerful in the real world. They are the minority. They are painfully stupid. And we just need to recognize how much power we have and stop being manipulated by the fact that the loudest microphone is getting all the attention. Because the loudest people are usually idiots and they're saying idiot things to get the most clicks or to get the most interaction or to get whatever kind of rage bait they were going on in. But if you step out into this world and your. Your neighbor needs help, do they help you? And, and there's people, you know, shoveling people out down the way, or, or there's people taking groceries to another house. All of those things are happening in exponential kind of ways. Then these evil, horrific things are going on. We need to understand who is more powerful. And I'm just. It's. It's not them. It's not them. All we have to understand is where that power lies. And, and the funny part is the more ice they put on the roads, the more we will prove it to ourselves. The more you try to squeeze that hand tight, the more people will slip through your. I feel like I have a Star wars quote right there. I think it was like the more he tries to squeeze, the more. The more galaxies or the more worlds will slip through his fingers. I think it was a Princess Leia quote. I can't remember what it was. I'll come back. Somebody in the comments will know it. Somebody will know it.

[Lee McGowan]

My original girl of the resistance.

[Joanna Johnson]

This is, this is what I'm saying. Squeeze tighter, guys. Try to crack down harder. Every time you send out more, we realize you're losing. We realize that your arguments and your ideas are flawed and they don't carry weight. Because if they carried weight, you wouldn't need those tiny little men with their face covered every single place that people go. You wouldn't need them. You need them because it's wrong. You need them because the majority of Americans don't agree. So keep it up. It's going to be chaos. It's going to be painful, and it's also going to be dangerous. And I, and I don't. I don't advocate and I don't. I don't ever tell anybody what they should be doing, because I think protesting and being on those streets, I would never tell anybody that it's not horrifically dangerous. But why do you think those protests are getting bigger? Even in the light? They don't win that. But that Means that more people have to do more with what they have. They have to risk more with what they can do. They have to speak up louder when they can speak up. They have to not be afraid of being that person in the room. Because I guarantee, I guarantee, out of 100 people in the room, 85 think the way you do. They're just too scared to say it. So say it first. Watch. Watch them all stand behind you and then watch the other 15 cower in their boots at the other side of the room until they all learn a little bit better about what side of history they want to be on.

[Lee McGowan]

I love you. You're my little. You're my little simpatico brain creature. I love you. Listen, thank you so much for joining us today. Tell people how they can follow your work moving forward, how they can buy your book, how they can listen to your amazing work that you put out online for all.

[Joanna Johnson]

You guys are very sweet. I'm on TikTok. I'm on Instagram, unlearn16. If you want to come fight on Twitter, unlearn16 tweet. I do have a podcast, unlearn16 classes in session. And my book, that's not what this book Is, is about. You can get on my website. You can get it on Amazon. Heaven help me. Don't come after me in the comments. It is what it is. It's how people can have access. It's also available on audiobook, wherever you buy those as well.

[Lee McGowan]

Well, thank you so much for joining us, Joanna. I'm absolutely crazy about you. And thank you for teaching all the children of the future that this can be better than it is.

[Joanna Johnson]

Thank you so much.

[Lee McGowan]

So that was Joanna Johnson reminding us.

That the Constitution only matters when people stand up for it. Otherwise, it's just a piece of paper that our institutions are not the guardrails.

We thought they were.

But we the people are. So we have to get out of our echo chambers and into our communities. We need to do more in real life, make more connections, risk standing up and speaking out. Not because it's not dangerous, but because in that risk, we will find our allies that we are in the majority, not the minority. No matter what these despicable humans in power want us to believe that there was a flaw in our founding documents. And as those foundations built on that flaw crumble, we have to deal with the chaos to come out the other side. I want to thank Joanna for joining us today and you for caring enough about this country to be here now. Go out in the world Express your displeasure and make some friends until next week. PG out.

Before you go, I don't know if.

You'Ve noticed, but left wing and progressive creators like myself who share the truth and facts are being drowned out by right wing propaganda and lies. The mainstream media is barely hanging on and it's becoming harder and harder to find anything that isn't billionaire backed propaganda at this point. So if you respect what I'm trying to do here, if you learn something from my podcast and rants, if you would like to get this podcast ad free delivered directly to your inbox along with my kitchen rants, then please consider becoming a member of Politics Girl Premium by going to politicsgirl.com and signing up. If you are already a premium member of this podcast, thank you so much for your support. And if you're not a member, please consider becoming a patron of my work. If you want real knowledge in a world of lies, it's essential to support those of us out here still trying to bring it to you. There's a link to sign up in the bio of this episode, but also on politicsgirl.com and as always, please like and share these podcasts so we can grow our audience because the more people who have access to this kind of of information, the better. As always, thank you for your time and support.

The Politics Girl Podcast is written and.

Performed by me, Lee McGowan and produced and edited by Happy Warrior Entertainment. All rights reserved.