Joe Rogan Experience #1977 - Dave Smith

Dave Smith is a stand-up comedian, Libertarian political commentator, and podcaster. He's the host of the "Part of the Problem" podcast, as well as a co-host of the "Legion of Skanks” podcast.www.comicdavesmith.com

Joe RoganhostDave Smithguest

Jun 27, 20243h 19mWatch on YouTube ↗

EVERY SPOKEN WORD

150 min read · 30,226 words

0:00 – 3:46
Mothership debut & building a comedian-first club
1. JRJoe Rogan
  (drum music plays) Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.
2. NANarrator
  The Joe Rogan Experience.
3. Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night. All day. (rock music plays) Let's fucking go. Oh, we're live.
4. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
5. JRJoe Rogan
  Hello, Dave Smith.
6. DSDave Smith
  Hello, sir.
7. JRJoe Rogan
  Good to see you, my brother.
8. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, it's great to be back.
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Fun times last night.
10. DSDave Smith
  Unbelievable, man.
11. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, that was your first, uh, voyage aboard the mothership.
12. DSDave Smith
  Yes, it sure was.
13. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
14. DSDave Smith
  If you're gonna get abducted by aliens at a comedy club, it's the one to, to be at.
15. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, imagine? Imagine if they showed up there?
16. DSDave Smith
  I imagine if they were gonna pick a comedy club to start abducting people-
17. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
18. DSDave Smith
  ... it would be yours.
19. JRJoe Rogan
  Well, they would know that we, we'd be open.
20. DSDave Smith
  (laughs) That's, that's true.
21. JRJoe Rogan
  You know, Joe Probst would probably, like, charge them. (laughs)
22. DSDave Smith
  (laughs) Whereas you would gre- you would welcome them in.
23. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, I'd put them on the guest list.
24. 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.
25. 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?
26. DSDave Smith
  But-
27. JRJoe Rogan
  If it wasn't mine, I'd really be able to appreciate it.
28. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, I'm sure (laughs) that's true.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
30. 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.
3:46 – 7:13
Standup pressure, green rooms, and modern crowd hostility
1. JRJoe Rogan
  It's weird when you hear stories like that, like someone, like, losing it, yelling at people and shit. I've heard, like, weird stories about people. You know?
2. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  I think the pressure of standup, like the constant performance, it's like, it's like running an engine at very hot, at high RPMs for many, many miles. Like, things blow.
4. DSDave Smith
  And we're all kind of crazy people to begin with.
5. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
6. DSDave Smith
  So some people have that more on, in check than others. But yeah, I don't wanna name any names, but I've seen a f- I've seen a couple hot ones-
7. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
8. DSDave Smith
  ... through my day. Yeah.
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah. Yeah. It's, they're the most fun people though.
10. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
11. JRJoe Rogan
  That fucking green room, like the hang in the green room, it's like one of the greatest things of all time.
12. 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.
13. 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.
14. DSDave Smith
  Ooh.
15. 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.
16. DSDave Smith
  I'm in.
17. JRJoe Rogan
  It's the best, dude.
18. DSDave Smith
  Hell yeah.
19. 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.
20. 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.
21. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
22. DSDave Smith
  You know this is like, uh, to borrow a phra- like a safe space-
23. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
24. DSDave Smith
  ... to be a comedian.
25. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
26. 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.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
28. 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.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
30. 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?"
7:13 – 9:54
Trump-era brain break, protests, and a detour into LBJ lore
1. 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.
2. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
3. 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."
4. DSDave Smith
  It's, yeah, it is really... It's something bonk- He really... D- Donald Trump, um, he broke a lot of brains.
5. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
6. 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.
7. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
8. DSDave Smith
  And you're like, okay, first off, he's had the job for two months.
9. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
10. 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?
11. JRJoe Rogan
  Right, right.
12. DSDave Smith
  You're already giving it to Trump?
13. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
14. DSDave Smith
  Like, give him time. He'll do some bad things-
15. JRJoe Rogan
  He was probably involved in the Kennedy-
16. DSDave Smith
  ... but-
17. JRJoe Rogan
  ... assassination as well.
18. DSDave Smith
  sigh ] Almost certainly.
19. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, probably.
20. DSDave Smith
  But you don't wanna talk about that.
21. JRJoe Rogan
  Seems, seems like he didn't like JFK. It seems like maybe he liked the CIA. (laughs)
22. 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.
23. JRJoe Rogan
  Ah! You know what I love about LBJ? He used to take a shit with the reporters, like, standing there-
24. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
25. JRJoe Rogan
  ... with the stall opened.
26. DSDave Smith
  (laughs) Yeah, he was a wild dude.
27. 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-
28. DSDave Smith
  It's the, it's the strangest, but yet most alpha thing to possibly do.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
30. DSDave Smith
  To just comfortably shit-
9:54 – 16:50
Biden, Kamala, and the limits of representation politics
1. 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.
2. DSDave Smith
  Which is not, which is not beyond the realm of possibility. He's older than the average life expectancy, I believe, already.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm-hmm.
4. 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-
5. JRJoe Rogan
  I can't come up with one.
6. DSDave Smith
  Well, the-
7. JRJoe Rogan
  I mean, I'm not a political strategist, but, uh, you know, I know the landscape.
8. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
9. JRJoe Rogan
  I know who's out there.
10. DSDave Smith
  He's perhaps brilliantly insulated himself by making Kamala Harris his vice president.
11. JRJoe Rogan
  It's not a bad move.
12. DSDave Smith
  Because they're like, they're like, "Well, we can't have her." So-
13. JRJoe Rogan
  It's like with Dan Quayle, with Bush.
14. DSDave Smith
  "What do you want?"
15. JRJoe Rogan
  "Yeah, you think Bush is dumb?"
16. DSDave Smith
  "You want this guy?"
17. JRJoe Rogan
  "Look at this fucking guy."
18. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
19. 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?
20. DSDave Smith
  (laughs) Yeah, that's the... (laughs) That's what it is.
21. JRJoe Rogan
  You know? It's like-
22. DSDave Smith
  It's like, yeah, you really wanna do an hour after Kamala Harris?
23. JRJoe Rogan
  Hey. (laughs)
24. DSDave Smith
  Like, all right. The crowd's dead, but all right.
25. JRJoe Rogan
  Time is like time. It just passes and, but time is something that we're all aware of.
26. DSDave Smith
  Dude, but I gotta say.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
28. 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.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  I think it's panic. I think it's-
30. DSDave Smith
  Maybe.
16:50 – 21:38
Root causes: welfare incentives, war on drugs, and cartel consequences
1. 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.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm-hmm.
3. 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.
4. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm-hmm.
5. DSDave Smith
  It's like wait, what, what is actually happening here?
6. JRJoe Rogan
  Right.
7. 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-
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm-hmm.
9. 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-
10. JRJoe Rogan
  Like what policies?
11. 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-
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm-hmm.
13. 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-
14. JRJoe Rogan
  (coughs)
15. 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.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm-hmm.
17. 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.
18. 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.
19. 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-
20. JRJoe Rogan
  Yes.
21. DSDave Smith
  ... that they don't even know it- that's not supposed to have fentanyl in it-
22. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
23. 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-
24. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
25. DSDave Smith
  ... that Bill Clinton signed into law.
26. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
27. DSDave Smith
  He's just, he's got a, he's got a lot of death and destruction on his old hands.
28. 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-
29. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
30. 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.
21:38 – 27:24
Marijuana black markets, cartel grow ops, and calling prohibition off
1. DSDave Smith
  And already even I think when they, um... And I don't have this, like, numbers right at the top of my head, uh, on the front of my head. But, um, the, the weed trade from Mexico, that used to be the big thing.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm-hmm.
3. DSDave Smith
  And I think that's all but gone now because like-
4. JRJoe Rogan
  Not necessarily. It's not. Um, apparently because there's so many states where marijuana is still illegal.
5. DSDave Smith
  Right.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  Um, most of the illegal weed is actually being grown on state land by the cartels.
7. DSDave Smith
  Is that right? Yeah.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, there's a guy named John Norris. He wrote a book called Hidden War, and he came on the podcast to discuss it. He actually was a game warden and, you know, wanted to have a job, like, you know, checking fishing licenses and stuff, doing game warden stuff. And, uh, he detailed it in the book how they found this creek that had been diverted and dried up, and they were trying to fi- They thought maybe a farmer had done this or something, some obstruction. And they traced it to this grow op that was in the middle of the forest. And his unit became like a tactical unit 'cause they were having gunfights with cartel members. Instead of it being like game warden, now it became like a DEA-type situation-
9. DSDave Smith
  Right.
10. JRJoe Rogan
  ... where you're running into these public land grow ops where these guys, they take this area, and they level it, and they, they grow weed there. And these guys were camping there, and you know, they had guns, and it's wild shit, man. It's-
11. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
12. JRJoe Rogan
  The, the whole book is incredible, and the stories.
13. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, it's very interesting.
14. JRJoe Rogan
  So that's 90%, he was saying, of all the illegal marijuana that's being sold in America is coming out of these places.
15. DSDave Smith
  Really?
16. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
17. DSDave Smith
  Yeah. Well, there's... I mean, this is why... Again, this is why I think you just gotta call the whole thing off at a certain point.
18. JRJoe Rogan
  I-
19. DSDave Smith
  It's been a failure. I mean, we've been doing it for, what is it, 40-something years or so?
20. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
21. DSDave Smith
  I mean, it's like... It's... Or maybe more than that. Is it 50 years now?
22. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, I think it's since 1970.
23. DSDave Smith
  Right. 1970-
24. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
25. DSDave Smith
  Was it '72 or something like that it started?
26. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
27. DSDave Smith
  You know?
28. JRJoe Rogan
  50-plus years.
29. DSDave Smith
  Yeah. I mean, it's like, okay, so we fought a war, and the drugs won.
30. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
27:24 – 35:54
RFK Jr., Fauci, and the post-COVID collapse of "expert consensus"
1. JRJoe Rogan
  Well, the f- the fascinating thing is they will not allow, um... For the primaries, they're not gonna allow debates.
2. DSDave Smith
  Oh, they don't wanna let RFK on a stage with Biden.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, isn't that interesting?
4. DSDave Smith
  RFK will rip that old man up.
5. JRJoe Rogan
  And then, imagine if his voice was good.
6. DSDave Smith
  It's really a shame.
7. JRJoe Rogan
  It is a shame that he-
8. DSDave Smith
  It's really... The job really, the job is really a speaking tour.
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
10. DSDave Smith
  And it's a, it's a real issue that he has, he has issues speaking, but if you get-
11. JRJoe Rogan
  He did have surgery recently, and it's better than it was before.
12. DSDave Smith
  Is it, is it better?
13. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
14. 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.
15. JRJoe Rogan
  Yes.
16. 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-
17. JRJoe Rogan
  Much weaker.
18. DSDave Smith
  ... than it used to be, because people are actually like, "Yeah, I'm listening now."
19. JRJoe Rogan
  Yes.
20. DSDave Smith
  "Now I'm actually kinda listening-"
21. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
22. DSDave Smith
  "... to that guy." And-
23. JRJoe Rogan
  It seems like there's a playbook.
24. DSDave Smith
  And-
25. JRJoe Rogan
  And you guys have been following this playbook forever.
26. 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.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  No one can argue that.
28. 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.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
30. DSDave Smith
  There's something powerful about that even still, I think.
35:54 – 39:54
Lockdowns, mandates, and the case for accountability & reconciliation
1. DSDave Smith
  I know a lot of people who, um, whose mental health really deteriorated during the lockdowns as well.
2. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, yeah.
3. DSDave Smith
  You know? And it's a lot-
4. JRJoe Rogan
  Without a doubt. There's a lot of people that were already r- struggling-
5. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
6. JRJoe Rogan
  ... before the pandemic, and that pushed them over the edge.
7. 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.
8. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
9. 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.
10. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
11. 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-"
12. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
13. 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-
14. JRJoe Rogan
  Mm-hmm.
15. DSDave Smith
  Yeah. That's really bad.
16. JRJoe Rogan
  And there was a lot of, like, old celebrities who were really terrified of it.
17. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
18. 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."
19. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
20. JRJoe Rogan
  All that stuff. You remember that?
21. DSDave Smith
  Yep.
22. JRJoe Rogan
  That's d- all that shit is wild. It's so wild to see now.
23. 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.
24. JRJoe Rogan
  Especially if we funded the research that caused it in the first place.
25. 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-
26. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah. He out-and-out lied.
27. DSDave Smith
  Straight up lied.
28. JRJoe Rogan
  And now that's proven.
29. 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-
30. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
39:54 – 48:16
Civil liberties after crises: NDAA detention, drone killings, and Obama’s record
1. JRJoe Rogan
  And when you eliminate that freedom of speech and you allow that government overreach and control, it never goes away.
2. DSDave Smith
  Yes.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  It never goes away.
4. DSDave Smith
  The-
5. 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?
6. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
7. JRJoe Rogan
  When Obama was like, "We would never, you know, detain people for no reason." You know, like, yeah, you wouldn't.
8. DSDave Smith
  As he signed it into law.
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, but it, just, just saying that you don't, you would never use it, then don't have it.
10. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
11. 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.
12. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, for-
13. JRJoe Rogan
  Indefinite.
14. DSDave Smith
  If, if people don't know the reference, in the, in the-
15. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
16. 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-
17. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
18. 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?
19. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
20. DSDave Smith
  Like that, like, "Oh yes, this bill does technically repeal the Bill of Rights, but I'm still gonna sign it."
21. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
22. DSDave Smith
  "But you just don't worry about that. Just don't-"
23. JRJoe Rogan
  It should be illegal. It should be illegal to go against the, the, the ideas that founded this country.
24. 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.
25. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
26. 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.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  This was, you're talking about drone strikes-
28. DSDave Smith
  Yes, it was-
29. JRJoe Rogan
  ... and suspected terrorists.
30. 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-
48:16 – 1:01:05
The hidden machinery: presidents vs the permanent security state
1. JRJoe Rogan
  Because I, I'm, I'm m- on ... I'm more of like a believer in what Putin has said about this, when he talks about how he's been through three different presidents and they all have these plans.
2. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
3. JRJoe Rogan
  And, and he goes, "When they get into office and people that are dressed in a suit like mine come in and sit them down and tell them how everything works." If you think about-... how much access to the real understanding of how the government works is ever gonna be given to a junior senator who's running for president? I bet very little. I bet very little. I bet there's no speeches, I bet there's no conversation about it. I think once you get in, once you're in the Pentagon, once you're in the Oval Office, once you're meeting with these people and you realize, like, "Holy shit," and then you realize this machine behind you that's pushing all the buttons and, and you're a spokesperson for this machine. You're gonna-
4. DSDave Smith
  Yeah, and I think, I think this might be why they hated Trump so much-
5. JRJoe Rogan
  He didn't change much.
6. DSDave Smith
  ... because I think that speech just didn't work on him.
7. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, he's like-
8. DSDave Smith
  Like- (laughs)
9. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
10. DSDave Smith
  ... dude, there's this story, and I don't know if this is true or not, but it sounds so true. I think it was in Bob Woodward's book, I, I can't remember where it was, but I... This may not be true, but it just sounds so true, that I guess after Trump won the election and he goes to, uh, Camp David, um, I think this is still while he was, um, uh, president-elect. It might've been right after he got in, I'm not sure. But I guess he goes and he's, like, at this, like, CIA, like, thing, and they said that he came in (laughs) and there's, like, a wall for, like, um, like, agents who died in the line of duty.
11. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
12. DSDave Smith
  And they said Trump just walks in and stands right in front of it, which is, like, crazy disrespectful to do. (laughs) And they said he just starts talking to the room about how tremendous his victory was. Like, he just gets there-
13. JRJoe Rogan
  Jeez.
14. DSDave Smith
  ... and he's like, "Everyone said we were gonna lose, but we won big, and we won by..." (laughs) And it just sounds...
15. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
16. DSDave Smith
  Like, I don't know if that really happened, but it so sounds like that really happened.
17. JRJoe Rogan
  (laughs)
18. DSDave Smith
  And you can just imagine all these CIA agents just like, "We gotta get rid of this guy." Um-
19. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
20. DSDave Smith
  But, like what you said about the stuff, like the speech they give, who knows? It's a real interesting thing to, to think about.
21. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah.
22. DSDave Smith
  And-
23. JRJoe Rogan
  I, I would love-
24. DSDave Smith
  Great-
25. JRJoe Rogan
  ... to talk to Trump about that speech.
26. DSDave Smith
  It's a great Bill Hicks, uh, a great-
27. JRJoe Rogan
  Yeah, yeah, yeah.
28. DSDave Smith
  ... Bill Hicks bit.
29. JRJoe Rogan
  The bit about showing the Kennedy assassination-
30. DSDave Smith
  I-
1:01:05 – 1:20:41
Ukraine war deep dive: NATO expansion, red lines, and leaked cables
1. JRJoe Rogan
  And what's happening now is very spooky.
2. DSDave Smith
  Mm-hmm.
3. 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?
4. DSDave Smith
  (laughs)
5. JRJoe Rogan
  How does this end?
6. DSDave Smith
  Well, you know-
7. 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?
8. DSDave Smith
  Yeah.
9. 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.
10. DSDave Smith
  It's certainly very hard to stop it, and we haven't figured out-
11. JRJoe Rogan
  It seems like it's hard to stop it.
12. 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.
13. 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."
14. DSDave Smith
  He could say it-
15. JRJoe Rogan
  And then-
16. DSDave Smith
  You know, and then see what... I don't know. You know, I, I don't-
17. JRJoe Rogan
  He would have to get NATO to pull their arms back.
18. 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-
19. JRJoe Rogan
  How much power do you think they really genuinely have?
20. DSDave Smith
  That's an interesting question. I don't know exactly.
21. JRJoe Rogan
  I think that's what Putin's-
22. DSDave Smith
  I-
23. JRJoe Rogan
  ... point was about getting into office.
24. 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.
25. JRJoe Rogan
  Hmm.
26. 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.
27. JRJoe Rogan
  Oh, interesting.
28. DSDave Smith
  You know what I mean? That he was kind of like being more hawkish toward Russia-
29. JRJoe Rogan
  Interesting.
30. DSDave Smith
  ... um, to show you what a Russian agent I'm not.