The Insurgents
Ep. 288: Wet Hot American Summer ft. LucidFoxx
(upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Hello, hello everyone. It's Rob. How's it going? How are you doing? Listen, I'm going to level with you. All right? I'm going to level with you. Come here. Come a little bit closer. No, no, it's too close. Too close. Back up a bit. I got to have a little bit of space. That's too far. Okay. Good. That's a good distance. I'm going to level with you. I don't know what that was. I'm sorry. I'm going to level with you folks. Jordan's not here. He's hosting TYT tonight. It's a solo episode. I'm talking to Lucid Fox. Friend of the show. Multi-time guest. Twitch streamer. Extraordinary. Lucid Fox. It's really hot. It's getting very late. I'm tired. And honestly, I'm a little cranky. So I don't have a big intro to do for you. Okay? Sometimes I try to do fun little bits or, you know, interesting little fun intros here. I have nothing. I have nothing for you. What I do have are a couple of plugs. Okay? Plug number one. Please subscribe to the podcast if you're not already. Get access to all our bonus content. We put out two episodes of this show per week. If you want to get access to both episodes, you got to subscribe. Become one of our wonderful, beloved paid interns. Subscribe over at InsurgencePod.com. Okay? That's plug number one. Plug number two. We're trying to get serious about YouTube content. We're posting the episodes over on YouTube. We're doing react videos and some other stuff over there. We're trying to make YouTube a thing. So please, if you can, subscribe over on YouTube as well. And I'm going to give you the address in just one little moment. In just one little moment, I'm going to give you the address. This is something that I probably should have had ready to go when I started doing this. But it's YouTube.com/TheInsurgence. I really needed to click around on the website to figure that out. Those are the two plugs. Please subscribe to the podcast InsurgencePod.com. Subscribe over on YouTube as well. Completely free of charge. Cost you nothing at all. YouTube.com/TheInsurgence. That's all. I'm going to go and play Red Dead Redemption 2 now. All right, okay, this is a good little talk. And my friend, Lucid Fox, will be joining the show right after this. And now we are joined by a multi-time guest, a friend of the show, and my own personal friend. Let's say it. That's right. Let's come out. There it is. It's all out there. Get it up in the open. Yeah. Lucid Fox. Hey. Hello, Lucid. Hello. How are you doing? What's up? You know, it is almost into the week. Excited. Can't wait to get out into the world and enjoy it. Really drink it in. I love that. That sounds fantastic. So, Lucid, we got plenty of stuff to get into. I tried to structure this convo with some culture war stuff up front. Excellent. You know, because that's always fun to get into. I don't know why it is exactly, but how Star Wars has become this big flash point of the character and the reactionary YouTube critics. Rob. All right. I think you don't understand. Maybe it's because you've been a Star Trek fan in most of your life, but like Star Wars, I need to be able to see myself reflected in the face of a white male protagonist. If I can't do that, you got a problem. Not just the protagonist, but quite literally. You know, you span the newest show, Acolyte, and the white male to be found. How am I supposed to, you know, resonate with that? I don't know. I know. It's just incomprehensible. It's weird because you could maybe, if you had that feeling, you could maybe, if you had a sort of sense of empathy, you might be able to sort of realize how people from other cultures and different backgrounds have felt watching all these big pop culture phenomenon over the years, and maybe have like a small modicum of sympathy for the fact that there hasn't been this same level of representation, but these people just can't quite grab it though. It is wild to really think like that's, I mean, that's just it, isn't it? Like the idea of like the gamer gators slash, you know, just culture war, addict movement kind of writ large, as these guys don't, like they completely lack empathy, you know? Yeah. If they don't, they don't have any understanding of like other people. Like there's so many, I don't know, there's so many cool like ideas, you know, within what's going on in Acolyte. Even if you don't like necessarily kind of get in that, like that, we get, that's my one of the big thing is like, how much of a nerd are you to really know enough about expanded universe stuff to get mad at Acolyte, because it's not even, this is not like Skywalker story stuff. Like you have to be a big, weirdo like nerd to really be like, well, actually, they got the birthday wrong of my favorite guy, you know? Yeah, I was just going to mention Coyote Mundi is like, do you really care about that really? Like, come on, like, are you actually, and like, listen, I know, I know Star Wars stuff. I know Coyote Mundi is a delightful guy, you know, but like, do you really, are you really getting up in arms about this? Like, it's not that big of a deal. Right. Is that, yeah, is that going to make or break how you kind of like see, like all of these things are just so fluid and who like, who cares at the end of the day if, if Canon is just like set in stone or not, like, as things get, like larger, like those things always break apart anyways, you know? Well, there's the thing I've been watching the show, I think I'm, I watched three episodes of it. I don't totally love it. You know, I've been in, I've been watching it and getting through it, but at the same time, it's like, when I have that reaction of not really loving, I just kind of go, huh? And I just kind of move on. I was saying this morning, I think it's interesting, but I also think that it's not, it's not going to be an Andor or anything like that, you know what I mean? Like, Andor was a show where I was like, Oh, we are doing something very structurally different. Yeah. A lot of like Star Wars, you know, like, and that's actually quite an anomaly because maybe it came a little before, like the, the ideation and weaponization of culture war on the conservative side of things. But like, Andor is very much a, Hey, I don't know, man, like here's some Marxist, like, you know, side characters and everything that are going to explain to you, like impropriety of the prison system and it's just like, Oh, okay, all right. Sure. How did these like weird YouTube reactionary culture critics react to end or do they were they into that? That's from the end, or you would describe it as being woke by having a real reaction to it at all. Yeah. Being honest. I mean, maybe, maybe that was more like at that point, because right now it's just kind of like a frothing mob of people, right before that started with people like the quartering and whatnot, that would regularly get mad at Marvel movies and everything. And they were kind of like the, the progenitors of this like newer like culture movement, you know, and now you have all these little like bottomed like particles, right? Like, yeah, rums and all these freaks that are kind of like wandering around, just saying, who knows whatever, just so that they can, you know, get their seven year like beta game, like funded a little more and Kickstarter, but like, you know, I think, I think that really started with the, you know, quartering, the golden gods or whatever, like all the, all those weird, like just kind of culture critics on YouTube. And I honestly don't know. I don't know what their like response was to and or maybe they just thought it was like the boys. They just thought it was a fine show because they didn't like want to read any of the subtext. Yeah, exactly. That's also the craziest thing to me is the boys reaction. It's like, wait a second. I can't believe this. Yeah. Show woke. It's like brother two seasons ago. There was a full on Nazi that was just like, and this is how we fool everyone. Yeah. I mean, even like the, like the, you get one or two episodes of Homelander. It's like, oh yeah. I get the satire here. This is not like it's not that subtle, you know, it's like it's pretty open. Okay. This is, this is played pretty, pretty straight. It's pretty close to, uh, these people fascinate me, you know, like I, I enjoy talking about pop culture and even sometimes I have things that I have criticism of or whatever, but like, I also can't really imagine making that your entire personality, just like every single day of your life and your job and your career as well. It's like you've trapped yourself in this prison of your own design watching stuff that makes you angry and then you're just yelling about it online. And this is all these people do. It seems like there's her entire personalities and their entire lives just revolve around getting mad about stuff that Disney or whatever is doing and, and making other people mad about it. I don't know. Just, yeah. Doesn't seem like that fulfilling to me. Yeah. It doesn't at all. And I don't, again, I don't even understand the audience that appeals to it because there's a lot of folks are like, well, back in the day, you know, we used to have this and this like, well, no, back in the day, you had the hate code and you didn't get any of this shit. So like what, what golden like time are you really like trying to grasp at like the late 90s where I guess like it did exist and things like Eastern turn and everything else where maybe you get like some off color, like transphobia and everything, like, like there really wasn't like that big of a window outside of like maybe the late 90s and early 2000s where you really where this was really the norm, you know, so maybe they are like older millennials remembering like their, their, you know, adolescents. But this really hasn't, you know, like, like off color, like shock humor, you know, leading into like slurs and everything as just never really been that big of a, you know, pot to kind of like leech out of, you know, yeah, and as people always often point out, like people were talking about this when, when Seinfeld was doing his whole like, yeah, is kind of like anti woke thing, which is hilarious because it's Jerry Seinfeld, the most like G rated like, yeah, yeah, observational humor guy, yeah, like his stand up is like the crudest thing you could imagine, he's just like, and what's the deal with, you know, yeah, yeah, but that's people were pointing out like there's plenty of shows now that are that push boundaries and are offensive, you know, yeah, that doesn't mean that like just because things have evolved over time, it doesn't mean that like, and there's you're just not allowed to ever push anyone's buttons or make fun of anybody, like if you're funny, you can actually do that, you know, absolutely, yeah, that's, that's the entire thing. And I just, yeah, it's, it's very strange to me, like the ideation that like, you know, and like the other thing, like Jerry Seinfeld saying like, you know, comedies like that or whatever, it's like, what an incredible thing to do just a week before this absolute dumpster fire of a movie that he directed came out, you know, it's just like front loading the, and comedy is dead, it's like, yeah, I guess I'd say that too, if I was about to drop like a real dozer, you know, yeah, I'm sorry, your pop tarts movie didn't really, that wasn't the thing that you were hoping it wasn't Citizen Kane, that's strange. Seinfeld is just an interesting character because like, I still, you know, I love Seinfeld, like the show, you know, yeah, even people were doing the whole discourse about Jerry, like, Oh, he's, he's the weak, like he's not funny, but it's like, yeah, he is funny, like he's, he's obviously funny guy, you know, I don't know, but it's just weird seeing people like Jerry Seinfeld, you know, fully embrace like a, a genocidal, like murderous, murderous apartheid state and a US backed, you know, mass murder ethnic cleansing campaign. Yeah, and it's just, you know, it's just weird, like, people like, people like that that you never would have in the past imagined that they, they kind of keep politics completely separate from their whole persona, but then it's like, now we're going to dive right into this. And, and friends, we're going to cry with Barry Weiss on the, on the Barry Lewis podcast. Like silly, like people or whatever, and then like full-throatedly, you know, or like Brett Galman, you know, just like, well, actually, I'm more than just the silly conspiracy guy and stranger things. I also love lavish vacations Israel and also think that, you know, these people deserve it. These all these dead kids are Hamas actually, okay, wow, really escalated there. Yeah, yeah. I don't know. It's a, it's a weird time for the culture, but, you know, I do always enjoyed having these conversations and talking about this. I just, I, to go back to what I was saying, I just, I just find these, these, like, these folks that just spend each and every day obsessing over this stuff to just be kind of like sad, sad characters. It's a sad state of affairs for them. But I hope those clicks are, are going well. How, you got the heat bulb down there right now? It is, it's tough. I actually, so I, I normally go on a couple, you know, walks and jogs over the course of the day, but I, I went out like an hour and a half ago and it was still almost 90 degrees outside, you know, as the sun's like setting, you know? Yeah. Yeah. It seems like it's just breaking, but this is like, I'm trying to see if I can tough it out this summer without AC and it's, it's, uh, it's pushing me to my limits. Yeah. But, um, it's, it's kind of scary at the same time and, you know, it's like, it's not like there hasn't been heat waves in the past, but seeing around the world some of these, like really extreme temperatures and like you're seeing what's, you know, in Saudi Arabia and India, and you know that like, eventually there's going to be a situation in the US or Canada that where it gets to that extreme level and it's like, you know, it's just kind of a matter of time, whether it's this summer or next summer or whatever, you know, this kind of moment is coming and it's like, it's kind of scary to think about. Well, I mean, you know, you talk about, yeah, you talk about like Saudi Arabia, like, you know, you have nearly two million people finishing like the hash, right? And hundreds of them already like dying during this like massive heat wave, right? Yeah. Um, you talk about just the, just the idea in general, like this summer is already on track to be the hottest summer in like 2000 years. And that was last summer. Like that was, that was the, the record break, we were last year. So it's like we're doing that again, um, and yeah, like, you know, we, we, we continue to talk about places like Europe where they are not, uh, prepared, uh, similarly, like places in the United States as well, not prepared at all for like these type of temperatures. I mean, yesterday, and I believe today as well, that it was hotter in Vermont than it was in Miami, you know, and it's like that's, that's such a strange idea, you know, like hotter in Vermont than it is in like Dallas, Texas, like what, what's happening? You know, like these places are not equipped or even close, not even built for this type of heat. You know, we're getting AC like these are, these are places that are built in a very specific manner to, uh, to, to insulate, you know, so that, uh, when the, when the winter comes, like it's going to be like more and more overall. So it's, um, I don't know, it's, it's a very, yeah, it's a very worrisome time. I guess to start like really like conceptualizing what climate change is going to continue to ramp up to, you know, like how, how this is going to, you know, already put a, put a strain on our already like crumbling like infrastructure in many places, um, and just start displacing more people overall. And it's, it's interesting as well, because you mentioned Europe and the big conversation about climate that's taking place in Europe right now is not about the possible dangers of the future of climate change. It's about, oh, bleeding stone and just been vandalized in it. The British are taking care of the ancient like in, not, not the like and come on, the like, the like, damn it, this morning I was like, I've got bad news for if you're worried about those like and let me tell you about some, uh, multiple species that ain't going to exist in about 10 years. That's your. I mean, but it's, it's incredible. I think, I think it's just an incredible microcosm about how these like, how this conversation kind of plays out, you know, it's like, and that becomes the focus and bipartisan. You have like here's Dharma and the labor party, you know, this is a disgrace and stuff. And you have these, these like psycho, you know, American reaction here, you guys like Matt Walsh just being like death penalty, death penalty to the stone and, uh, vandal it. Yeah, admit, that's of course, of course, yeah, and these people are taking like, I don't know. It's one of the, like, it's a, it's a softer like form of activism because they are quite lit. They're not defacing anything permanently. Yeah. Taking like cornstarch mixtures to, you know, and a scatter across these even tailors jet, you know, they're just putting like very temporary washable stuff. It's quite literally just to get people having this exact conversation for those, some of those people have this conversation, like, so like Matt Walsh, he's like, oh, I mean, I guess we should kill him. Yeah. These conversations don't seem to be leading anywhere productive, but I'm wondering what you think about that kind of activism, like, because I've, I've seen a lot of criticism and people that are that find it obnoxious or self register annoying and I kind of get that. But I feel like it's coming from a sense of frustration, you know, I mean, again, like I'm so, I'm not out there, like, you know, like plastering cornstarch or anything, but, more to the point, I think there's this idea, right, that like, it is not, you know, it is not taking down like oil sites, it's not doing this or that and it's like, well, but I believe if I, if I remember correctly, I believe the, the group stop oil now or whatever it's called some, some transfiguration of that, they do, they do lock ins at oil refineries. They do all those things as well. Those just aren't talked about. So like, what do you want, you know, like, they are also and they're prosecuted for that kind of activism as well. Yes, absolutely. They are committing their bodies to those acts as well, but those don't get pressed. So the reason they're doing this is the first place is so that people will pay attention to their group in general, so they can have like a stronger message, like, if you're, if you're angry about it, congratulations, like, you know, you're, you're at least paying attention to what they're doing, you know, yeah, so I don't, I think these are all facets of trying to raise awareness, you know, for these things that are happening. And I heard, I had that question as well, like, somebody was like, well, do you think, you know, we need to raise any more awareness? And I was like, well, obviously if, you know, we've, we've just resigned ourselves to, you know, no change whatsoever, no, no carbon neutrality within the next like decade, like we just know we're just going to keep on the same path. Yeah, I guess, I guess some groups do still need to do these things. I don't know. Yeah, like I said, I think it's, it's clearly coming from a place of frustration. And I think the, the extreme kind of reaction against this kind of activism, you know, whatever you might think of it, it just speaks to the way that like, you know, we have, we have one kind of acceptable form of political, political activism that takes place in this culture, which is just voting, you just vote for the guys that are going to do the good things, or you can do them, or you can go to the climate march, you know, you can, you have a one scheduled special little day where you have your signs and stuff like that. And you're in your designated area. Yeah, exactly. And it's like, I think that's the, where the sense of frustration is coming in is that, you know, this, this has been an issue now for being talked about in politics for over 30 years. And the emissions have just gone up and up and up. We don't really see any sign of moving away from that. And when you have kind of like liberal or progressive parties or politicians that are campaigning on this stuff, nothing is really being done about it. So it's like, I do understand to an extent that people at a certain point are just starting to try to get creative with the ways that they can, they can meaningfully impact this like, I, yeah, I, I'm, you know, I don't, I don't know what else we still like, you know, you can, you can say like, well, I mean, there are some more like, you know, wild things to get up to, and it's like, well, I look forward to people doing that as well. Yeah. Should they, should they feel so inclined? Great. Let's, let's give this ball rolling, baby. Yeah, exactly. Like, but right now we have these folks that are trying to at least agitate with a, with a message that is, is very clear, very concise, they have, you know, an excellent like, sort of like documentation, everything like that, they, you know, everything is very clear to put out there to the public, you know, across all forms of social media. So yeah, I'm not going to yell out about it. I'd like to, yeah, my goals aligned with theirs. I would also like for us to stop using fossil fuel, you know, yeah, maybe do something that would be nice. Yeah, that's the thing. I don't think it's, it's really useful to kind of have this, this big criticism of this kind of stuff. I really understand where this, this sense of frustration is coming from, like this U.S. election that's coming up is a good example of that, right, where I think, like, you know, people say like, oh, there's no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats. And as I've talked about a couple of times, I don't think that's true. There's small, there's certain differences in some areas and climate is one of them. But like, even when you look at the party that's supposed to be good on climate and campaigns on this, and Biden has pledged, like what, like 200 something billion dollars over like a 10 year period, and you know, they're not taking it seriously. And this is, you know, they're expecting young people to show up to vote for them. And this is their future that's on the line. And you know, they're bragging about these investments that they're doing, which again, not nothing. They're probably better than what the other guys are going to do. But it's like, you know, we're going to start making some EV batteries. We're going to give tax credits for electric vehicles. Are we meaningfully doing anything to like actually reduce the emissions that we're putting out? Well, no. Are we expanding drilling? Are we going to lock? Yes. Are we going to lock larger, you know, companies like BYD out of the market because, you know, they're they're interested in line with ours because they are, you know, part of a country that while being our greatest trade ally, we also see as rivals. Sure. So actually, like that's the thing that I think about. It's like, are we going to be serious about EVs? If you're going to tell me things like EVs, the future. Fantastic. All right. The YD has an entry model at $10,000. Yeah. Let's bring that over. Let's bring that over. Let's bring that over. Let's start mass production. Elon, obviously, does not have the factory space. Guess who does? All right. Let's start ramping up production and get let's cut the amount of gas vehicles by half over the next 10 years. Oh, no, we don't want to do that because, you know, our we're not going to enrich like shareholders enough. Yeah. And it's going to make everyone so angry all the the suburban dwelling, you know, Nikki Haley voters are going to be really upset by that. So we can't do that because then we're not going to win. Then the other guys are going to win and they're not going to do anything at all. So this is how it make this is called triangulation. You know, it makes sense. When you think about it, it's so maddening, you know, it's like, yeah, do we actually care about these things? Again, you know, Janet Yellen herself complaining about the saturation of the the solar market by China. And it's just like, do we or do we not care about alternative energy? Because if we do, you know, if we want to do these things, if we want to commit to climate, we have to be a, you know, global force in this, like we have to work with whoever it takes to to make for a better tomorrow, like we're all protecting this world. We're all affected by climate change, you know, yeah. And so if we're not serious and which it doesn't seem like we are, then, you know, just just say that instead, you know, don't don't don't hand it to me with this idea of like, hey, at least we're going to take it seriously. And you know, Elon Musk more government subsidies so that he can continue to deliver like, you know, under expectation year after year. Yeah. I just love this idea that it's like, oh, China's cheating. They're cheating by flooding the market with these cheap products and I'm like, isn't this the entire purpose of this whole economic system that we have that there is going to be competition and then that's going to drive prices down and consumers are going to be able to get good products for decent prices because of this competition. They're like, no, no, no. This is not not like that though, you know, same thing. Same thing we did in Japan back in the 80s, man. I like that. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, you guys are making these electronics a little too good. All right. Yeah. A little too quickly. You shame if we, you know, instituted some, uh, some new trade restrictions that results in you losing like a whole fucking decade, you know, like, yeah, we don't, we don't care for that, man. Like, again, like we, we talk about a similar thing, right with China, like, and this isn't for me. This is from, you know, the head, uh, uh, over at TSMC saying, you know, these, uh, Chinese semiconductor factories do not have long until they're just out producing like Taiwan, you know, because they, they have, it's not, it's not a secret. They have the advantage in everything. We have the advantage in people and because they had, they had the advantage in people just overall, they're going to have the advantage in people that are getting degrees. And because they have that, they're going to have the advantage in people that are constructing these semiconductors. Like, again, like they, we can't, we can't beat that. The United States outside of, you know, that, that ideation of saber-addling and trying to use whatever soft power we have left, you know, in that area of the world, we can't stop that, you know? And so we have to pretend at this point that Taiwan is going to get taken over by, you know, Xi Jinping, because the alternative is the thing that I think we very much realized is, oh, Taiwan is going to, you know, eventually going to beg China to be part of their, uh, production. You know, they, they are going to get outpaced. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that's, I think that's kind of one of the things that fascinates me a lot about China because we live in this society in the West where we've been talking about climate change for so long. Yeah. And we've had so many meetings and symposiums and, and, and we, we talk and endlessly and endlessly about this thing, but we haven't actually meaningfully done anything at all. And you know, you look over there and, and see a society where they're actually genuinely engaging in this transition and are pretty honest about the fact that like, it's not going to happen overnight. We need to continue using fossil fuels so we can keep the lights on for people. But they're actually doing, they're actually doing tangible things to take steps to transition into this new future. And rather than like looking at that and like maybe there's something we can learn from from that. Maybe we can work together on, on this kind of creating this kind of future instead. Like you pointed out, we're angling to now turn Taiwan basically into the next Ukraine, basically like a flashpoint of a US proxy war. And it's like, okay, that's, that's the solution. That's the solution, which again, I know will be great for the weapons manufacturers and it's great for business, but like, that's actually not, that's actually going to be bad for this, this existential, uh, globe threatening, uh, crisis that we're kind of heading towards starting World War three, rather than just saying like, hey, let's work together on fixing this issue. But this is what our leadership is into, I guess some of the greatest like, like, like single contributors to, uh, you know, carbon emissions over the past couple of years have been us enabling, uh, Ray Theon, north of Grumman, all Boeing, all these weapons manufacturers into the, the tons of weapons they're committing to places like Ukraine, places like, uh, Israel right now, you know, uh, and that, uh, in turn, just, uh, you know, just, just throws more and more, uh, carbon in the atmosphere, you know, like we are war, war is, you know, the military industrial complex, one of the biggest contributors to, uh, you know, where we find ourselves the climate change right now. Yeah. And that's, that's what I'm sorry, but I don't, it's not Republican or Democrat, the United States system is geared towards that. We are on the side of climate change. All right. Does not matter who's, uh, who's in the office as it turns out. Yeah. And we are not against climate change. We are on the side for that. Yeah. The almost trillion dollar annual US military budget, which Joe Brandon just sent just signed, you know, it's completely dwarfs, whatever, whatever climate pledges that they are making. So it's really difficult, I think to make this case to people, young people or whoever that actually cares about this, you got to vote for us because of we, how much we care about this issue when you're like objectively making the problem worse and in numerous ways that we can, we can point out. Yeah. It's, I don't know. Yeah. It's, it's hard, it's hard not to get cynical when looking at things like that and just saying like, you know, again, yeah, what is, what is a couple of billion dollars in the face of trillions that we just expend annually to counteract all that, you know? Yeah. It's, it's hard not to be cynical about it. Um, but like on the subject of like this election coming up, like, isn't it weird to you that this you, that there's a US election coming up in like four months? Like does it, does it feel like it's almost like half way through, right? Yeah. Like, I don't know. It's just the fact that I'm kind of being, and I'm thinking back on like, you know, 2020 and earlier and how completely like absorbed in every single narrative of that and thinking about the democratic primary and being so fixated on that, like that was the whole launch of this podcast was to, was to talk about that. And now we are sitting here like four months away from this, from this big rematch, the heavyweight championship rematch between these two titans of the American politics. And it's like, it just feels like a complete afterthought. Like it's crazy. Yeah. It's all, it's all just vibes, man. There's not, you know, I've been lamenting on it for the past couple of months now. Like a pot, no pla, well, I mean, platform proposes on Donald Trump's side where he's just like, Oh, uh, what if we just, uh, kill everybody that disagrees with me? Yeah. You know, but like Biden's side is like, I don't know, but what if we just kill half of the summer? Like, can we? It's fun to comment down, I don't know what do you, what's your, which one's your favorite of Neapolitan? Do you like chocolate or do you want like strawberry, you know, like, like I'm not joking. I, I sit sat down because somebody, you know, came to me, uh, today and they were like, Hey, listen, it can't be that bad. Right. Like what's, what's your main, like, you know, problem with, uh, you know, Biden heading into selection. I was like, well, I'd love to tell you, but as we look right here and just, you just open up his, uh, you know, his campaign website. There's quite literally nothing on there, man. It is a, Hey, would you like to donate? Fantastic. And then you scroll down, you're like, well, I'll find the policy part here in a second. No, it's just the, the closest thing that you'll get in, in that respect is a frequently asked question. So when you click on that, the first page of that is, Oh, how do I donate? Hey, that's it. Yeah. This guy is quite literally just like, I'm not Trump. Any other questions? I mean, yeah, a couple, man, what are you going to do over the next four years? What's the plan, brother? Yeah. I don't think that's unreasonable to want to have answers to these questions. Yeah. Yeah. God, it's, it's maddening. It's like my, my problem is what I mean, again, we can talk about my issues all like I'm looking at this from a, from the pundit point of view at the end of the day, right? Like, I obviously have my own concerns with his, you know, want in disregard for the Palestinian people and the, the lack of his political will to even move towards, you know, any, any form of ceasefire, like obviously stopping funding weapons, like anything, you know, towards like helping those folks, but there can't be a match now. So that's. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He canceled that meeting. And I want you to think about that. That was a very angry, like time for him. Yeah. Okay. And if they don't, they don't watch themselves, he's not going to send BB, uh, his nightly texts where he wishes him a good night. So they better. Yeah. All right. They're getting paid. You better. You better watch it, pal. Um, but like, you know, like that, that aside, I'm looking at how does he win this election? Because you and I, you know, uh, are opposed to that. But general American public, let's be honest, they, you know, any, any, any current ward, they don't really care about. It's not, you know, unless, you know, there's a side and take up and then we'll, you know, this one, they'll say themselves complicate, whatever. They're worried about the economy, you know, they're worried about why they're not in the same, uh, in a better place than there were four years ago, uh, and as much as Biden's talking about these things, it's not manifesting for them. And I think that's reflecting a lot, especially in these swing states, right? These people are just not doing better and there's no amount of, you know, belly aching from Biden about like, Oh, well, I wish things were better and I wish target didn't charge you so much for, you know, just to bag a coffee or whatever, but like none of that matters at the end of the day. They're going to get in the ballot box in November and, you know, or they're just not because they're pissed off and they don't care for how things look during his presidency. So like he has the ability to like turn these things around right now and we are getting into July now and still looking, I think the, the latest, you know, set of swing state polls that I saw still have him like underwater and, you know, six swing states. And it's like, yeah, what, what are you doing, man? Well, and according to that, that Axios piece the other day, um, you know, they're just, there's just this total refusal, uh, according to these reports, like from this like inner circle to engage with any of this criticism. And they're really just counting on not Trump and democracy is on the ballot and January six basically to just scare people into showing up and you know, it's maybe that will be enough for some people. I imagine it will probably, but it's hard to believe that it's going to be enough, you know. Yeah. And I mean, again, like you've got, you know, so I, I heard some of the other day, it was just like, well, don't they know that Trump's a felon? And I'm like, I think they do and I think they don't care. Yeah. Yeah. You're telling me this guy's corrupt and like kind of an nasty guy. What is the first time hearing this? Yeah. That was the entirety of the, the anti campaign against him in 2016. Yeah. He was Captain Planet villain. Why would you vote for that guy? And now he's a felon. Do you think that's that far of a stretch that people have already voted for him? I, you know, and again, this is, even with, you know, you mentioned Nikki Haley voters, those people, let's be honest, are going to vote for Trump at the end of the course. They're not going to vote for Biden. They've gone this far. All right. They've been a lifelong Republican. They want to mar that with voting for Biden. Why? What has he done for them? You know, he's still Democrat at the end of the day. Yeah. Like they, they too, like the Republicans are going to vote Republican, man. I don't know what to tell you. If we like just looking at the system in the United States, I think the most, one of the most important things and one of the most clarifying things is how many on a, on a representative level, right outside of the American public for a second, how many representatives have become Democrats in the past, like 15 years, you know, probably Chris. That's it. And Florida and, and you really outside of that, people either become independent or they move over to the Republican party, Republicans just do not think like that. You're a loser. If you become a Democrat, okay, if you vote Democrat. So I'm sorry, but like these Nikki Haley voters too, or just they've made their bed and they're fine with the fact that Trump is a felon, they don't care. You know, and that's not going to, that's not going to work out well for Biden who still thinks. Yeah. That like has to be telling, being told by advisors, yeah, you'd be fine and worry about it. Champ. We're going to listen. We got it. It starts up in September. Okay. We're pumping 20 million it, you know, okay. Just relax and have an ice cream, sir. We got this under control. Yeah. I guess it's just like, you know, you think about the way that, that like I said, it's just, it feels like a total afterthought. I think that was the thing that was really exciting for a few years was, you know, as someone that, that kind of pays attention to this stuff, to see two cases of these big progressive movements taking place within this electoral system with the Bernie movement and with the Jeremy Corbyn movement. And it was like it, this, this, to me was like kind of the test where it's like, okay, like this is what we're told to work within this system. And you, you run for something and you try and like build, build power that way and you build a constituency. And just, I think it's been one of the most, you know, depressing and it's just filled me with so much cynicism to see the ways that the like power structures in both of these places just came together to ensure that none of that shit would ever happen. And now you're looking, now it's like the UK, they're cruising towards this massive labor majority where they've abandoned every single like progressive principle. You got Biden in the White House and they're just talking about, you know, we're not Trump. No one's even talking really about like health care or anything like that anymore. Yeah. That's just why you're not Trump, why would you, you know, so it's just, it's, it's depressing and it's, it's really hard to still have a lot of confidence that this is an avenue that you can use wherever you are and whatever Western liberal democracy you live in. Canada is just hopeless, so I don't even bother even imagining. I don't have any hope at all of anything good happening ever here. But, you know, but it's just, it's really hard to have hope that you can use these kinds of like structures to make these kinds of big bold changes because we have now this like kind of multiple years of evidence of the fact that like, even if you do do all those things, you sit still, you're still going up against this like almost like undefeatable glass ceiling of these incredibly powerful and influential people in both politics and the media that can just like basically just crushed whatever you're, whatever you're trying to do. You know, it's not. Yeah. Well, so it's not going directly to your point about that. Like, I've got no, you know, full love for Jamal Bowman. I think he's a little more progressive than most in the US House of Representatives. And that, you know, is kind of the best you can hope for in this country, you know, like as a contribute iron dome funding, yes, like it is a, it is pretty much a fact of life within the United States that most of our elected representatives are going to be Zionists or at least like friendly towards Zionist ideals because alternative now that he's facing next week is that you get 30 million the most ever spent in a house campaign, a democratic primary. We're not even at the generals, right? Most spent in a Democrat on Democrat primary against him, you know, a pack pouring over 20 million other own money, you know, through an affiliated organization against him. And that's, and this is what happens, you know, this is what happens when you do all the things right, you go in there as a fucking punchy progressive, it's just going to stick it to the system. They just say, oh, okay, no, actually, no, we don't think so, you know, and that's this. This is how these things work, you know, and real quick, just talking about like these past couple of years with the idea of Corbin and Bernie, I know that Lula this week was bemoaning just the idea, maybe not being cynical so much, but just kind of a little downtrodden and downbeat because he was speaking of the idea of that pink wave like 10, 15 years ago, you know, down in South America. And now I'm sorry, but you just have fascism on the rise in multiple like South American countries and like, how does one like, stimmy these things? Because it's seeming more and more like, just hoping that you get the, like, you know, the dream of a Yenday, right, just hoping that you get the right people and do the right channels like everybody wants you to do it. Just seemingly again, again, just ends in those systems being corrupted and tossing those ideas out, you know, even even Boric, like in Chile, like years ago, it was, yeah, it was this idea that he was going to come in, Constitution was changing, finally, we were going to make some headway and now, you know, all but dead in the water and, you know, he is also just kind of holding the US ideals the end of the day. Yeah, it's just you mentioned the stuff about, you know, Jamal Bowman and APAC and all this stuff and those challenges that these progressive Congress people are facing, they're going after Cory Bush as well, trying to primary her, which is just funny, this whole idea of like democracies on the ballot, folks, you got to vote for the Democrats to save democracy. If we lose no more democracy, but it's like, you put it, you start flailing it out like that. It's like, this doesn't seem like a very democratic system when a lobbying arm of a foreign country can just decide to spend tens of millions of dollars to ensure that that certain progressive or whoever whatever politician can lose, you know, like that doesn't strike me as an incredibly democratic system to begin with, to say nothing of what's going to happen if Trump wins or whatever. Sure. And that's the thing, I just, you know, and I was kind of talking about that today as well, I saw the new John Oliver come out and I watched it today, I don't think John Oliver bothers me all that much. If anything, I think he's kind of around a little bit more to the ideas, you know, that one, as far as he can go, at least on HBO, even John Stewart's been going pretty hard lately as well. Yeah, just, you know, John Stewart's also, yeah, John Stewart go talking about like the idea of United States imperialism, how we uphold it. He's a tanky now, tanky John Stewart, according to some of the finest minds around. Yeah, but John Oliver really like assessing the situation and understand to get like, I've heard a lot and, and I was very dismissive of it and will continue to be. I've heard a lot about Project 2025 when Trump gets in, he's going to ensuit Project 2025. And it's like, it does sound bad, you know, his problem that is not me, the individual voter. Yeah. If we're being real honest, I feel like there's somebody who can try to hear my vote. If we're being, you know, 100 with each other, I feel like the Democratic Party should probably take this seriously. What do you want them to do? It's a Republican-controlled house. Yeah, it sure is, man. I don't know. Maybe they should get some political will together. It's a very razor thin Republican-controlled house. I bet they can, if there's really that many Republicans that do not like the idea of Donald Trump and, and that, you know, they, they are up in arms, you know, just ready to lock hand Democrats and have a happy sunset that we can figure something out exists, right? Like there's got to be a way for the Democratic Party to push against these things. Yeah. Because when they do control the house, it don't seem to be able to do all that much with that. There's all kinds of these issues and problems in the parliamentarian and the Joe mansions and Christian cinemas of the world pop up to ensure that they can't actually do anything to deliver anything to people that are going to maybe inspire them to get out and not only you vote, but like go and knock on doors and go call people on the phone about supporting this party. Like that's, that's how you, that's how you push back against things like the project 2025 is by inspiring people, which is the opposite of what they're doing currently. Yeah, but there's also something that John Oliver very, you know, very easily, like, uh, ascertains it again, like the real gem of this, you know, episode that he did this week is doesn't stop at project 2025. This is just the playbook for the Republican party from now on when they get someone in power. Their idea is to rob enough power that they can just govern autonomously. Okay. That is it. That's the end game for them. It was like with the federal society all those years ago when they set up and direct response to Roe versus Wade and eventually caught the dog or caught the, caught the car, caught the car with a Roe versus Wade, they'll do the exact same thing if they have a chance to put somebody in it. This is not a Donald Trump situation. Even somebody like a Mitt Romney is going to follow that playbook, you know, like they're not going to be like, no, I don't want more power, you know, yeah, so that's it. So you're telling me, democracy is just always on the ballot now and Democrats just can't improve at all. Oh, yeah, and again, that doesn't strike me as a very democratic system to begin with when it's like, you gotta vote every four years to ensure that you don't become a authoritarian dictatorship. That's our choice now and nothing can ever get better. Is that, is that it? You know? Cool. Yeah. You know, like I just, I don't know, I don't, I don't understand, you know, why nothing can be done and why it's levied upon me again, the voter to really like sort out the hard questions here. I just, you know, like there's some, some people with some sort of institutional power that might be able to do something about this. Someone, someone should do something about some of this stuff. I don't know. I think you're right. God, we're going to press a note to leave it on. Is there anything else? Uh, sort of positive. What's Carl up to? How's Carl doing? Carl the dog? He's, you know, he's wandering around. He's being a guy or whatever. I don't know. I love Carl. I love positive news. Like with this, with this heat, uh, dome and everything, I have been, uh, outfitting all the, you know, getting involved in the community, outfitting all the community fridges with eight or eight and water and stuff. That's nice. Yeah. Making sure that folks, you know, have, have some ways to cool off and everything. So. Well, that's fantastic. It always feels good. Yeah. Well, Lucid, thank you for, thank you for joining the show again. As always, it's a, it's a pleasure to talk to you. Always nice to be here. What is it? Lucid Fox dot. Lucid it. Twitch dot TV slash Lucid Fox, which Twitch dot TV slash Lucid Fox Lucid Fox on the socials and, uh, you know, we do, uh, do our podcast, uh, mancon out there, uh, in the ether on YouTube. So nice. Yeah. And for more man content as well. So. Which is what that stands for, I believe. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. That's exactly. You got it. Good. One. Thanks, Lucid. I'll talk to you. I'll talk to you soon. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. [MUSIC PLAYING]