EVERY SPOKEN WORD
150 min read · 30,226 words- 0:00 – 4:18
Mothership comedy club: building the “perfect environment” for standup
- JRJoe Rogan
(drum music plays) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
- NANarrator
The Joe Rogan Experience.
Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays) Let's fucking go. Oh, we're live.
- DSDave Smith
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Hello, Dave Smith.
- DSDave Smith
Hello, sir.
- JRJoe Rogan
Good to see you, my brother.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah, it's great to be back.
- JRJoe Rogan
Fun times last night.
- DSDave Smith
Unbelievable, man.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, that was your first, uh, voyage aboard the mothership.
- DSDave Smith
Yes, it sure was.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DSDave Smith
If you're gonna get abducted by aliens at a comedy club, it's the one to, to be at.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, imagine? Imagine if they showed up there?
- DSDave Smith
I imagine if they were gonna pick a comedy club to start abducting people-
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DSDave Smith
... it would be yours.
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, they would know that we, we'd be open.
- DSDave Smith
(laughs) That's, that's true.
- JRJoe Rogan
You know, Joe Probst would probably, like, charge them. (laughs)
- DSDave Smith
(laughs) Whereas you would gre- you would welcome them in.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, I'd put them on the guest list.
- DSDave Smith
It is. I know, I just, I feel like I'm just saying the same thing everyone does, but the club is really amazing, man. You did an incredible job.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's pretty dope. Well, it wasn't me. I mean, it was sort of, but it was a lot of people, and, uh, a lot of it, R- Richard Weiss, the, uh, architect and designer. He's the fucking man. He did an incredible job. The whole thing's just very bizarre, you know?
- DSDave Smith
But-
- JRJoe Rogan
If it wasn't mine, I'd really be able to appreciate it.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah, I'm sure (laughs) that's true.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DSDave Smith
But it's cool to see something, you know, like, uh, there's something cool about having a concept in your head and then seeing it manifest into reality.
- 4:18 – 7:13
Green room culture, open mics, and “safe space” comedy vs. offended audiences
- JRJoe Rogan
That fucking green room, like the hang in the green room, it's like one of the greatest things of all time.
- DSDave Smith
It's just excellent, man. It's, it's set up, like you can just tell it was designed by a comedian. You know what I mean? Or at least, like, there was a, that perspective was taken into account.
- JRJoe Rogan
And tonight, uh, after the show, we'll go to the bar, because the bar becomes like a speakeasy at 11:00 PM. It's a private club from 11:00 PM on.
- DSDave Smith
Ooh.
- JRJoe Rogan
So it's open to the public until 11:00, and then after the shows, the comics and the staff all come down and hang.
- DSDave Smith
I'm in.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's the best, dude.
- DSDave Smith
Hell yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
We just, like, cre- created what I thought would be the perfect environment to develop comedy. So there's two nights of open mics, which I think is very important. And, uh, you know, Bill Burr and I were talking about this, uh, when he was in town, and he was like, "That's something that a lot of these clubs just forgot. They just wanna fill the place every night and make a lot of money." But you gotta have a farm team. You gotta have guys coming up. You gotta have, you know, places where women can go on stage, where men can go on stage, where anybody can go on stage, where you can just fucking ... Just, you don't have to have any experience. You don't have to have nothing. You just have to have a dream and some ideas and a sense that you think you could be funny, and you can get up.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah, and when, you know, one of the things that's cool about it, and I think a lot of this is, like, because it's your club, that there's just, um, there's this kind of like a, uh, there's just this thing in you where you're like, you can be fearless here.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
You know this is like, uh, to borrow a phra- like a safe space-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
... to be a comedian.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
Like, go for it. And it's almost because it's, because it's your club and, you know, the crowd knows that, they know that, like, they're coming for comedy here.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
And it's just great 'cause that's one of the things that's, uh, especially in cities across America now, like in terms of like regular showcase clubs. It's different when you go out and, like, headline 'cause that's kind of like your crowd coming.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DSDave Smith
But just random, like, spots and stuff, that's a lot of comics that's kind of in the back of their mind. Like, "Oh man, is there gonna be someone here who's looking to get offended at something I'm saying?"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
And that's, that, that's a real thing.
- JRJoe Rogan
There are, there are, I've seen it.... -ed. I've seen it at clubs. It's fucking bizarre, where someone will start a premise and then someone will yell out, "Bullshit! Fuck that!"
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Like, they'll, they'll yell out, like, to, like, virtue. They're like, "I have my flag of virtue. I will hold it up in this, this crowd of people that are trying to enjoy something that's obviously not real."
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's called standup comedy. You know what it is.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah. (laughs) I, I remember I, I had a bit about this on, I, uh... In my hour, uh, that I put out in 2017 and it was just, like, right when Donald Trump, you know, like, first came into office. But I remember, like, working out stuff at s- clubs in New York City and if you started a premise about Donald Trump, you could feel the tension in the room where people are being like, "You better not like him."
- JRJoe Rogan
(sighs) Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
"Like, you better get to the point where you're against him."
- 7:13 – 9:54
Trump-era brain break: protests, performative politics, and ‘worst president ever’ signs
- JRJoe Rogan
Dude, I was there when he got elected and, um, me and my friend, Cam Hanes... Were you there, Jamie? We were walking down the street, and Jamie too. We were walking down the street (laughs) and there was an anti-Trump protest. And I was watching this guy and this guy, this fucking stereotypical, liberal, progressive white guy was walking down the street. And he was, he was chanting out, "Donald Trump, KKK, uh, racist, sexist, anti-gay. Donald Trump." And then he saw this Black couple walking towards him and he starts going, "Black lives matter! Black lives matter!" Just, like, on cue.
- DSDave Smith
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
He's like, he got up, "Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, that part. Black lives matter." He just starts, and I'm like, "This is adorable. These people are adorable."
- DSDave Smith
It's, yeah, it is really... It's something bonk- He really... D- Donald Trump, um, he broke a lot of brains.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
I don't know. There's a, it's a really weird impact that he had on people, where he just got them so angry that they could no longer think straight. I remem- I was living in the Upper West Side of Manhattan at the time, um, when, when he first got elected and I remember seeing, like, some of those, like, protests. I remember (laughs) seeing, you know, like, I remember the, a couple with their little girl, like, maybe she was, like, 12 or something like that and she was holding up a "Worst President Ever" sign.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DSDave Smith
And you're like, okay, first off, he's had the job for two months.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DSDave Smith
Uh, second off, this is very disrespectful to all of the horrible presidents before him. Like, L- LBJ slaughtered, like, two million Vietnamese. He doesn't even get, like, a shot at contention here?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right, right.
- DSDave Smith
You're already giving it to Trump?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DSDave Smith
Like, give him time. He'll do some bad things-
- JRJoe Rogan
He was probably involved in the Kennedy-
- DSDave Smith
... but-
- JRJoe Rogan
... assassination as well.
- DSDave Smith
sigh ] Almost certainly.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, probably.
- DSDave Smith
But you don't wanna talk about that.
- JRJoe Rogan
Seems, seems like he didn't like JFK. It seems like maybe he liked the CIA. (laughs)
- DSDave Smith
It seem, seems that way, but you don't wanna talk about it too much, Joe. You could lose your Fox News gig that way.
- JRJoe Rogan
Ah! You know what I love about LBJ? He used to take a shit with the reporters, like, standing there-
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
... with the stall opened.
- DSDave Smith
(laughs) Yeah, he was a wild dude.
- JRJoe Rogan
"Just, just take a shit. Come on, come on, let's talk." He would just sit there and fucking (grunting noise) grunt one out while-
- DSDave Smith
It's the, it's the strangest, but yet most alpha thing to possibly do.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
To just comfortably shit-
- 9:54 – 14:50
Biden’s age, Kamala as insulation, and DEI/representation vs. meritocracy
- JRJoe Rogan
The fact that he's running again is so wild. When you watch him talk, the fact that there's no leadership that can find a solution to this, 'cause there really is no solution. I mean, we've bantered about it, you and I, and a lot of other people have as well. Like, what are they gonna do? Like, what is, what is the- uh, other than Biden dying, like, very soon and then someone stepping up in a big way that makes sense.
- DSDave Smith
Which is not, which is not beyond the realm of possibility. He's older than the average life expectancy, I believe, already.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DSDave Smith
Not saying he will die, but that, that is possible. Um, I'm sure there are a lot of people, like, in the Democratic establishment who have been... Like, I, I could just imagine there's a boardroom with, like, very powerful people meeting where they're like, "Okay, we're getting him out. What's the plan?" Like, "How do we do this?" And I think they just cannot come up with one. I, I think-
- JRJoe Rogan
I can't come up with one.
- DSDave Smith
Well, the-
- JRJoe Rogan
I mean, I'm not a political strategist, but, uh, you know, I know the landscape.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
I know who's out there.
- DSDave Smith
He's perhaps brilliantly insulated himself by making Kamala Harris his vice president.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's not a bad move.
- DSDave Smith
Because they're like, they're like, "Well, we can't have her." So-
- JRJoe Rogan
It's like with Dan Quayle, with Bush.
- DSDave Smith
"What do you want?"
- JRJoe Rogan
"Yeah, you think Bush is dumb?"
- DSDave Smith
"You want this guy?"
- JRJoe Rogan
"Look at this fucking guy."
- DSDave Smith
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, it's amazing. It's a good move. I mean, it's kind, it's kind of a bitch move though. You know what it's kinda like? It's kinda like those, uh, headliner comics who bring terrible openers?
- DSDave Smith
(laughs) Yeah, that's the... (laughs) That's what it is.
- JRJoe Rogan
You know? It's like-
- DSDave Smith
It's like, yeah, you really wanna do an hour after Kamala Harris?
- JRJoe Rogan
Hey. (laughs)
- DSDave Smith
Like, all right. The crowd's dead, but all right.
- JRJoe Rogan
Time is like time. It just passes and, but time is something that we're all aware of.
- DSDave Smith
Dude, but I gotta say.
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DSDave Smith
I don't understand the joke 'cause, uh, sometimes you'll see it and you're like, all right, you're doing a thing here. Like, this isn't real. You're, like, is this... Are you, like... Is this a strategy of some sort to just say nothing and, like, sound as dumb as possible? 'Cause you can't be this dumb.
- JRJoe Rogan
I think it's panic. I think it's-
- DSDave Smith
Maybe.
- 14:50 – 19:06
Root causes in distressed communities: family breakdown, welfare incentives, and the drug war
- JRJoe Rogan
Who's the expert? Fix my brain. Yeah. It's, it's interesting because it's like, it's, um, very similar in some ways to affirmative action. Right? And affirmative action, in my, um, in my opinion is y- you're addressing a problem without addressing the root of the problem. The root of the problem is why are so many people of color disenfranchised? Why are so many people who grow up in neighborhoods where there's rampant crime and violence, and why haven't they fixed those fucking neighborhoods? They're dumping so much money into all these problems overseas. We have systemic problems in America that never get addressed.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Until those ... And this is like generations it takes to fix these problems. Generat- it's like a long term strategy. But I've always said this, if you wanna make America the best, what would be the best way to do that? Well, you want less losers. Right? So what's the best way to have fewer losers? To give more people opportunities. So where, who are the people that have the least opportunities? The people who are in the most fucked places. Those are, you could fix that. There's ways you could, you could dump tons of money and resources into inner cities, into these problem areas, with law enforcement, with, with community centers. Places where people could go where they, they have, uh, like things to do and people can train them in, in, in whether it's athletics or a b- different jobs and different thing, and g- and show them and mentor them. That's all-
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's not like prohibitively impossible. You're not saying like, they all deserve their own nuclear power plant. You're, you're-
- DSDave Smith
Right.
- JRJoe Rogan
You know what I'm saying? It's like, what you're, what you're saying is ph- totally doable. And that's the way to fix all these problems of disparity, because people that grow up in wealthy communities where everyone is sort of trying to achieve things, there's a vibe of those places. And so many of those people from those places wind up succeeding.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah, I think it's, uh, a lot of it, I think, also is that there's a very kind of like shallow narrative about what it is that keeps people in these areas down.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DSDave Smith
And so it's kind of like, you know, um, w- i- it's j- just all, well, it's racism or it's systemic racism, just these kind of terms that don't, aren't specific.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DSDave Smith
It's like wait, what, what is actually happening here?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DSDave Smith
And so much of the problem is that like, like the kind of culture and family units have just been destroyed. Like, they've been decimated. And then it's like, you could, you can pump money into like the public schools there, which we do. We spend a lot of money on public schools, and they're still crappy schools and the, the results are still bad. And if you're not like, you know, even back in, um ... And there's a lot of like, um, uh, like Walter Williams and Thomas Sowell, who are both like two-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DSDave Smith
... uh, Black conservative, really brilliant thinkers. They, they both wrote a lot about this, how like in the '40s, even d- during, there was, you know, segregation in the South, and there was like a whole bunch of horrible policies. But even back then, you know, um, you could walk around Harlem with no threat of like violence or anything like that, and family units were together. I believe the Black legitimacy rate was higher than the white legitimacy rate at the time. And there were a lot of policies that came in that really destroyed, like, the, the, the family unit. And-
- JRJoe Rogan
Like what policies?
- DSDave Smith
Well-... the rise of the welfare state was a really big one. Uh, it kind of subsidized single parenthood, which is- it's- people respond to incentives, even though it seems like-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DSDave Smith
... that's an ugly thing to think. But if you subsid- if you pay people for having children out of wedlock, you do get more of it than you otherwise would have. And the other major one to me was the, um, the war on drugs-
- JRJoe Rogan
(coughs)
- DSDave Smith
... which I just think was absolutely devastating to these, these neighborhoods. It's, you know, when just like with prohibition of alcohol, where we, I think was still the highest, uh, homicide rate in American history was u- under prohibition of alcohol. And, um, and then when, once they legalized alcohol again, it drastically reduced in the next few years. The same thing with the prohibition of drugs. You create these black markets. You create a lot of, like, violent crime.
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DSDave Smith
And that's what's really destroying these, these neighborhoods, is like the violent gang culture. And it's all built and funded around drugs that would- the black markets for which would not exist if we just called the whole thing off.
- 19:06 – 27:24
Legalize vs. prohibit: fentanyl, cartels, and the politics of ending the drug war
- JRJoe Rogan
It's just calling the whole thing off is so scary politically 'cause if you were a guy like, uh, Joe Biden that said, "I'm gonna legalize all drugs," you know, people would fucking turn on you. They'd freak the fuck out.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah. The- well- the- getting the political will up to do it is something. But I mean, you even see it, even with this, you know, we got like 100,000 ODs a year now. And so much of it is driven by the fact that people are getting fentanyl in shit-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- DSDave Smith
... that they don't even know it- that's not supposed to have fentanyl in it-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
... 'cause it's in black markets. And Joe Biden is absolutely... I mean, it's hard to, like, hate him so much now 'cause he's so old and senile. It's hard to even hold him responsible. But his career, he was like probably the, the worst person on this issue. Joe Biden since the '80s was pushing ramp ups in the war on drugs. He, he challenged Ronald Reagan from the right, uh, partnered up with Strom Thurmond, uh, and was, was criticizing Reagan for being too soft on drugs. And then he was the one who authored, uh, the crime bill-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
... that Bill Clinton signed into law.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
He's just, he's got a, he's got a lot of death and destruction on his old hands.
- JRJoe Rogan
(smacks lips) Yeah, that crime bill. Oof. The whole just war on drugs thing is such a strange issue because logically everyone knows that when you legalize things, and certainly when you decriminalize things, you get a, a, a g- giant drop in violent crime. You get-
- DSDave Smith
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
... a giant drop in addiction. It's, it's so counterintuitive, but people are so terrified because drugs have been so devastating. Like the i- 'cause I think that if we did legalize all drugs and it happened quickly, you're going to have more overdoses. You're going to have more deaths. You're going to have more addicts. You're just going to because there's gonna be more access.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah, but, you know, I don't-
- JRJoe Rogan
But when do people-
- DSDave Smith
Well-
- JRJoe Rogan
When does it balance out?
- DSDave Smith
Well, I don't know. I think th- there will be more access for sure. But I don't... I think so many of the overdoses now are because people become addicted to pain pills or become addicted to, to, uh-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DSDave Smith
... heroin and get fentanyl in it.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- DSDave Smith
And you wouldn't have that if, if drugs were legal.
- JRJoe Rogan
I-
- DSDave Smith
So you wouldn't have... You would have st- Like, there's not a problem with people smoking cigarettes and finding out there was fentanyl in their cigarettes.
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DSDave Smith
You know what I mean?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DSDave Smith
Because it's not... But there would be (laughs) if, or, or there could be if it was on the black market and you were just getting it from some gang member, you know?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
Um, so it would reduce... Uh, I think it would reduce de- uh, overdoses in that sense. Um, there's no question it's a trade-off. There's no good perfect solution where there's not any costs.
- 27:24 – 36:07
RFK Jr. as outsider: Ukraine skepticism, COVID credibility shift, and ‘The Real Anthony Fauci’
- JRJoe Rogan
Well, the f- the fascinating thing is they will not allow, um... For the primaries, they're not gonna allow debates.
- DSDave Smith
Oh, they don't wanna let RFK on a stage with Biden.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, isn't that interesting?
- DSDave Smith
RFK will rip that old man up.
- JRJoe Rogan
And then, imagine if his voice was good.
- DSDave Smith
It's really a shame.
- JRJoe Rogan
It is a shame that he-
- DSDave Smith
It's really... The job really, the job is really a speaking tour.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
And it's a, it's a real issue that he has, he has issues speaking, but if you get-
- JRJoe Rogan
He did have surgery recently, and it's better than it was before.
- DSDave Smith
Is it, is it better?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
But he's, uh, he's an interesting guy on a lot o- in a lot of ways, and I know people will say, um... You know, 'cause he was a, like, a vaccine skeptic way before the COVID vaccine.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- DSDave Smith
He's been a skeptic of vaccines in general. And a lot of people say that's like, "Oh, you know, this is a conspiracy theory," or, "It's too far." But, you know, that argument after COVID is really much weaker-
- JRJoe Rogan
Much weaker.
- DSDave Smith
... than it used to be, because people are actually like, "Yeah, I'm listening now."
- JRJoe Rogan
Yes.
- DSDave Smith
"Now I'm actually kinda listening-"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
"... to that guy." And-
- JRJoe Rogan
It seems like there's a playbook.
- DSDave Smith
And-
- JRJoe Rogan
And you guys have been following this playbook forever.
- DSDave Smith
Yes. And I got... His speech, um, h- his announcement speech last week, what... He spoke for over an hour, and, I mean, it was really fantastic. I, I'm... I don't agree with everything the guy says, but the m- the major theme of his speech was that there is this unholy, uh, alliance of big business and big government, and they're working together to screw over the American people. And, like, uh, damned if anyone can argue that that's not true.
- JRJoe Rogan
No one can argue that.
- DSDave Smith
That that's just so obviously the case, you know? And he went through this whole thing. He's really... Uh, he was really great on the stuff, on the war in Ukraine and being skeptical about, like, "What the hell are we doing here?" Um, really, really great on the COVID stuff. And he's a Kennedy, and he's not just like one of these, like, you know, like, peripheral Kennedys, like I married a third cousin type Kennedy. Like, he's, he's Bobby Kennedy's kid.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
There's something powerful about that even still, I think.
- 36:07 – 39:54
Lockdowns, mandates, and the ‘misinformation’ reversal: social damage and accountability debates
- DSDave Smith
Yeah. For sure. I mean, it's, it's really like, it's something to look back on it now a few years later and just like how crazy it was that we did this.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
Like the lockdowns, that you were just like, people were at home watching TV to find out from their governor holding a daily press conference telling you what you're allowed to do today.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
That was reality. And if you think about it from like a mental health point of view, what could be worse?... than to just be like, "Okay, listen. I want you to stay home. I don't want you to see your friends. I don't want you to go out to a game. I want you to stay home and be terrified of a floating abstraction that can come get you-"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
"... at any point." And on top of that, you're probably also gonna be terrified about, like, your economic security, your financial future, like, all of this stuff.' It's, like, the worst thing you could do for people. So yeah, like you said, for people who are, like, on the edge already, you know? Like pre-
- JRJoe Rogan
Mm-hmm.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah. That's really bad.
- JRJoe Rogan
And there was a lot of, like, old celebrities who were really terrified of it.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
Who were just calling everybody a fucking moron for not taking it. "You're, you fucking idiots. You're gonna ruin it all for everyone. Fuck your freedom."
- DSDave Smith
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
All that stuff. You remember that?
- DSDave Smith
Yep.
- JRJoe Rogan
That's d- all that shit is wild. It's so wild to see now.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah. And I do think, like, I'm not... My personal view is that I think, like, um, I think for the people at the very top, like, I really do think there should be criminal charges. I think we should have Nuremberg-type trials for what people did. I think it's, I think it's one of the greatest crimes perpetrated on the American people by the government.
- JRJoe Rogan
Especially if we funded the research that caused it in the first place.
- DSDave Smith
Which we did. I mean, they, they can argue, "No, we were funding other gain-of-function research at that same lab." But come on, man. We were funding the lab where this virus almost certainly came from. So the, but I, just saying that at the top level, I think people should be prosecuted. They should go, uh, Fauci should be prosecuted, clearly, at least for lying to Congress, if nothing else. Um-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah. He out-and-out lied.
- DSDave Smith
Straight up lied.
- JRJoe Rogan
And now that's proven.
- DSDave Smith
Yes. Um, but then, like, for other people, like, you can't... I'm not saying everyone who supported the lockdown should, like, go to jail or something. We have to forgive people. Um, but I do think there should be some process where, like, some type of reconciliation. Um, but I don't, I don't think people should forget. Like, I don't think people... Like, the thing you were just saying about Arnold Schwarzenegger and stuff like that-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
... and all that. Don't forget what, what these guys were willing to jump on board with.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
Like, and how much further would they have gone?
- JRJoe Rogan
Right.
- DSDave Smith
You know what I mean? Like, what, like, they pushed it pretty far, and these guys were completely on board. Like, is it really that unthinkable to say, if they were like, "Hey, we're gonna round up the unvaccinated-"
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- 39:54 – 1:01:05
Permanent emergency powers: NDAA detention, drone killings, and ‘who watches the watchmen?’
- JRJoe Rogan
And when you eliminate that freedom of speech and you allow that government overreach and control, it never goes away.
- DSDave Smith
Yes.
- JRJoe Rogan
It never goes away.
- DSDave Smith
The-
- JRJoe Rogan
And the fact that people don't recognize that and they can't just make these logical s- thoughts about the future, like, "If we do this, what happens if someone gets in power and they're evil and they already have these new controls that we put in place?" Like, that was during the NDAA. Remember?
- DSDave Smith
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
When Obama was like, "We would never, you know, detain people for no reason." You know, like, yeah, you wouldn't.
- DSDave Smith
As he signed it into law.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah, but it, just, just saying that you don't, you would never use it, then don't have it.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
You should need a fucking warrant. There should be, like, a reason why someone gets detained. There shouldn't be an indefinite detention.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah, for-
- JRJoe Rogan
Indefinite.
- DSDave Smith
If, if people don't know the reference, in the, in the-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
... NDAA Act, uh, I forget which year it was, um, 2011 I think? Um, there was this provision that said that under the auspice of the war on terror that, uh, the government can detain an American citizen and hold them indefinitely with no charges if they decide that you are in some way connected to some type-
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
... of group. And Obama signed it into law, but he put a signing statement on the bill and said, "I do not plan on invoking this, this privilege, and I, we do not plan on detaining anyone." But you're like, but that's not enough to veto the bill?
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
Like that, like, "Oh yes, this bill does technically repeal the Bill of Rights, but I'm still gonna sign it."
- JRJoe Rogan
(laughs)
- DSDave Smith
"But you just don't worry about that. Just don't-"
- JRJoe Rogan
It should be illegal. It should be illegal to go against the, the, the ideas that founded this country.
- DSDave Smith
Well, the thing is, what's weird is that it is illegal. I mean, like, the Constitution is the supreme law of the land.
- JRJoe Rogan
Yeah.
- DSDave Smith
This is what they all hold their hands up to and take an oath to swear to protect and defend. Um, but the thing is that it doesn't really matter. Like, the thing about laws is that they're just words written on a piece of paper. So it doesn't really matter what's technically legal or illegal. What matters is what people can get away with doing. Like, Obama murdered American citizens with no charges, two of them at least. Um, that is illegal. That i- that is very clearly illegal.
- JRJoe Rogan
This was, you're talking about drone strikes-
- DSDave Smith
Yes, it was-
- JRJoe Rogan
... and suspected terrorists.
- DSDave Smith
Well, there was, it was Anwar Awlaki and his, his son. Now, with the son, who was like 14 or 15, they came back and killed him a few weeks after they killed the father. Now, I believe they claim he was not the target of the drone strike, like that he was just collateral damage. Still, I would argue should be illegal. Um, but I, also, most people don't buy that because it's just, like, seems very obvious that they were trying to take him out. But the Anwar Awlaki guy certainly had been radicalized and I think had sworn allegian- uh, allegis- uh, allegiance to Al-Qaeda. Um, but he's still an American citizen.And the rules are, if you're an American citizen, are you have to be charged with a crime, and then you get a lawyer in a suit, and a judge in a robe, and 12 d- people who are like (laughs) pooled randomly-
- 1:01:05 – 1:20:41
Ukraine war deep dive: NATO expansion warnings, red lines, and the ‘Nyet Means Nyet’ cable
- JRJoe Rogan
And what's happening now is very spooky.
- DSDave Smith
Mm-hmm.
- JRJoe Rogan
It's really spooky because so many people are dying, and they're trying to put a positive spin on it. It's like, what is the end game here?
- DSDave Smith
(laughs)
- JRJoe Rogan
How does this end?
- DSDave Smith
Well, you know-
- JRJoe Rogan
How is there not negotiations? And when Trump says that he... it would've never happened when he was in office, and he would be able to stop it now, like people listen to that and like, that's dangerous too. That's dangerous to, to, to, to have this one solution. Like if... He's gonna fix it. He's gonna fix it. Hey, what if he can't? What if he can't?
- DSDave Smith
Yeah.
- JRJoe Rogan
What if this is a thing that's just like Eisenhower warned everyone about? What if this is a thing? What if, what... There's a fucking whole business, just like we're in the business of telling jokes. You know, people who make pies are in the business of pie-making, and people who make war are in the business of war-making. And once that machine gets moving, I mean, it's like a tank with no brakes.
- DSDave Smith
It's certainly very hard to stop it, and we haven't figured out-
- JRJoe Rogan
It seems like it's hard to stop it.
- DSDave Smith
We haven't figured out how to yet. And, you know, Donald Trump can say that, and I would say I think his rhetoric has been much better on this than Joe Biden's, and at least he's talking about negotiating.
- JRJoe Rogan
Do you think he could stop it? You think, do you think there's a way to somehow or anoth- Does the president have that kind of power where the president could go in and say, "I wanna meet with Putin. I wanna, uh, organize a negotiation. I wanna end this right now."
- DSDave Smith
He could say it-
- JRJoe Rogan
And then-
- DSDave Smith
You know, and then see what... I don't know. You know, I, I don't-
- JRJoe Rogan
He would have to get NATO to pull their arms back.
- DSDave Smith
Well, the... I mean, the president c- could certainly u- has a lot of leverage there. You know what I mean? Like, there's a-
- JRJoe Rogan
How much power do you think they really genuinely have?
- DSDave Smith
That's an interesting question. I don't know exactly.
- JRJoe Rogan
I think that's what Putin's-
- DSDave Smith
I-
- JRJoe Rogan
... point was about getting into office.
- DSDave Smith
Yeah, I think, I think that's, that's what he was saying, and it does seem like there's a lot of truth to that. I also... One of the things that makes me, um, skeptical about how great Trump would be on this is that Trump wasn't very good on this issue while he was in. I mean, Trump was the one who sent the weapons into Ukraine. Uh, this is... You know, when he got impeached, it was famously over, um... The Ukrainegate thing was, he said, um, he was, uh, they said it was a quid pro quo where he was holding up the weapons, putting pressure on Zelenskyy to investigate the Bidens. But the part of that story that doesn't get talked about that much is that then he caved and he gave them the weapons, and this was a major pr- this was a major, uh, reason, I think, why this war ended up happening. And what they said at the time was that they were sending in the weapons to, um, to deter the Russians.
- JRJoe Rogan
Hmm.
- DSDave Smith
And so either, either they're really bad at deterrents or it actually was a provocation, um, 'cause it certainly didn't deter Vladimir Putin from going in. Um, and I think that... And Trump also got us out of the INF Treaty. Um, he also like... It was just... He was not good on this. He was... In fact, I think he was trying to prove how much he wasn't a Russian agent.
- JRJoe Rogan
Oh, interesting.
- DSDave Smith
You know what I mean? That he was kind of like being more hawkish toward Russia-
- JRJoe Rogan
Interesting.
- DSDave Smith
... um, to show you what a Russian agent I'm not.
Episode duration: 3:19:50
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Transcript of episode cSaHiF1oqg4
