Why Does Mainstream Media Suck So Much? - Dave Smith

1. 0:00 – 3:36

   The Mainstream Media in 2024

   1. CWChris Williamson0:00

      Busy few weeks for you.

   2. DSDave Smith0:01

      (laughs) Yeah, it has been. I'm tired.

   3. CWChris Williamson0:04

      Yeah. What do you make of the media's performance this year? What's your assessment of them?

   4. DSDave Smith0:10

      Um... Man, it's like, I, the- the answer's obvious, but I'm trying to find the words to (laughs) to really g- I mean, it's- it's not... You know, I- I view the- the corporate media apparatus in, not just the United States of America, but in- in most Western countries, as essentially state pr- propaganda. They might as well be state media. There's essentially no difference there. Their job is to cover for powerful people and to spin the narrative that those powerful people wish for the plebs to believe. So, I think that's always been true. Like, that's not... Th- there's nothing drastically different in- in this, uh, last year, as opposed to, you know, 50 years ago or something like that. And if you look at the way, you know, the media lied the United States into Vietnam or something like that, or... You know, this is always what they've been in the business of doing. What's striking to me about the last year is how profoundly stupid the propaganda has become, and kind of their inability to adjust to the new facts on the ground. So, you- you know, something like... J- just- just for one example that, which I guess I care about 'cause he's a good- a friend of mine, but... So, Tony Hinchcliffe, when he speaks at the- at the Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden. If you are at all plugged into, like, social media or this world of internet shows that we're a part of, you just kinda know, this- this video has gone viral. I mean, there's, you know, you... Th- the video of Tony doing his insult comic routine is, you'll see one clip on Twitter that's got three million, another has seven million, another has 600,000, another has th- Now, CNN at the same time is getting, like, 200,000 views on their- their daytime show. And this show is telling you that a speaker made a comment at a Trump rally, but everyone who's seen that is also seeing the actual thing. Like, they can literally see that you're lying to m- So, like, you gotta step it up here, guys. You gotta adjust. And they just didn't adjust. They... And- and the lies... It's not, it's not that they're lying. That's nothing new. But the lies like, "Joe Biden is sharp as a tack," and, "Kamala Harris is a phenomenon of joy." And, you know, like, they're, they were just so blatant that it w- You know, it's like, well, of course n- nobody's gonna be fooled by this, or next to nobody. So, I think the best thing that's come of- of this election and- and the fallout since is that even the corporate media has finally had to admit that they're not the mainstream anymore. And that, to me, has been really fascinating watching them. They're like, "Well, I guess the real action is over here with Joe Rogan and with all these internet shows and not with us," which- which has been true for a while. You could just look at the numbers. It's- it- it has been true for... But to see them finally have to grapple with that has... That has been glorious.

   5. CWChris Williamson3:20

      The best clicks that the mainstream media now get are commenting on what independent media is doing.

   6. DSDave Smith3:25

      Yeah. And- and- and for good reason, man. Like, you know, there- there's been a lot of, uh, um, d- discussion about this lately and, you know, I had, uh, um, Sam Harris

2. 3:36 – 12:15

   Being Called Out By Sam Harris

   1. DSDave Smith3:36

      called me out. Uh-

   2. CWChris Williamson3:38

      Oh, you've- you've been making friends? Him and-

   3. DSDave Smith3:40

      I-

   4. CWChris Williamson3:40

      ... Chris Cuomo, you've been making friends.

   5. DSDave Smith3:41

      Yes, yes. That's right, (laughs) yes. My dear friends, Chris Cuomo and Sam Harris. And you know, what he said was that... You know, he was like, "Listen, you know, th- Joe Rogan has some comedian, Dave Smith, on to break down the history of Ukraine or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or something like that, and I'm sorry, but that's not... What are we looking at this guy like he's the next Henry Kissinger or something like that?" And th- To be clear, I get his point. (laughs) Like, he's not entirely wrong. Sure, it is kind of ridiculous that we don't have serious credible institutions and we don't... You know, like... Okay, there's a fair point to that. But if you're just being honest and not, as Sam Harris is, trying to rationalize away why he's not wrong for getting all of the major stories wrong over the last few years, th- the truth is that... Look, conversa... Like, shows like this and shows like Joe Rogan's show and shows like a- a whole bunch of these- these internet shows, there's just... What's going on I- is just levels more intelligent and thoughtful and interesting than anything that's happening at CNN or ABC News or any... It's like it is the dumbest th... I mean, I just was listening, um, to, uh... I don't know if you saw this, but there's a clip. One of the... I can't remember her name, but she's one of the CNN ladies and, um, she's, uh, she's- she's being interviewed about what went wrong in this election and I'm listening to it, and it's just, like, the dumbest take. Like, there's not one thoughtful moment. There's not one thing where you go, "Oh, okay, tha..." And- and I'm somebody personally who's like, I really enjoy reading, like, brilliant left-wingers, brilliant right-wingers, br... You know, libertarians, diff... All types of different views there. If you're thoughtful and interesting, I think there's something that can be gained from their work. I, you know, I am certainly not a left-winger, but I think Noam Chomsky is, like, like, must-read stuff. Like, you're missing the game if you haven't read Noam Chomsky. You... I promise you, you will benefit from reading him. And, like... So, I'm just saying, if you're just objectively looking at this, I'm sorry, Tucker Carlson and Glenn Greenwald sitting down and having a discussion is just lightyears more intelligent (laughter) and thoughtful than anything that you'll ever catch out of any of these corporate media outlets. And so, like, for them to all look around like, "Well, this is ridiculous that we're relying on- on Joe Rogan and Dave Smit-" Like, yeah. Okay. It is. But it's also for a reason.

   6. CWChris Williamson6:18

      Well, look, it's the best that we've got. Y- y- you're right. The-

   7. DSDave Smith6:21

      Right.

   8. CWChris Williamson6:21

      The fact that the mainstream media is totally bereft of any honesty or useful or interesting insight, uh, is not good. Uh, and yeah, it is a damning indictment of our media landscape that we have to turn to you and Rogan for, like, accurate analysis and- and insight, or at least something which is original, or at least something which is said because you believe it, as opposed to because it's what you think is socially acceptable, or will toe the party line, or will get the outcome that you want. That's not to say that people don't have their own... e- everybody is pushed by biases that they're conscious and unconscious of. But yeah, damning indictment, indeed, and yet who do you propose that we speak to? It's the same conversation, I have this all the time around masculinity. People, uh, will happily point the finger at a number of, uh, role models that are often held up for men, uh, and say, "We don't like them." I'm like, "Okay, who do you suggest instead?" And there's no one. So it's like, right, okay, identifying a problem without proposing a solution seems, uh, uh, unuseful. And yes, uh, should (laughs) we be turning to, uh, Dave Smith and Joe Rogan to be, like, the fucking harbingers of truth in 2024? Uh, alas, here we are.

   9. DSDave Smith7:30

      Yeah, well that's- that's exactly right, you know? And if, uh, if- if the c- institutions had done a better job, none of this would exist. I mean, i- if you think about this, the head start that they had on all of us, not to mention the fact that these are mo- I mean even... Listen, you know, like, uh, Joe Rogan has some money in the bank, but he doesn't have anything like the resources that CNN has. He doesn't have a multi-billion dollar operation, you know what I mean? Joe Rogan's, like, a- a few guys. That's his whole operation.

   10. CWChris Williamson8:02

       Yep.

   11. DSDave Smith8:02

       And so the... it should say something that he's not only caught them, but has lapped them several times over, and, you know, that's- that's kind of unfortunately where we are, and I- I get your point on the masculinity issue. I think it's, like, the perfect, uh, comparison, where, okay, you- you may not like Andrew Tate or someone like that, but I don't know, for these young... for- for a- a 20-year-old young man who's had nothing his entire life except... He's probably grown up without a father, was probably thrown on, you know, Ritalin or Adderall or something like that when he was a kid. Every- every teacher has been a woman, every, uh, um, you know, college professor or any influence in his life has had nothing to say except that masculinity is toxic and that somehow if you wanna get up and run around... like, from the- from the first grade, if you wanna get up and run around, that's worse than someone who wants to sit and listen, and... Like, I'll tell you, as some- I have a- a son and a daughter, and it is... I mean, I... When my daughter was... I- I remember when she was, like, a year and a half old and she would sit on my lap and she would stare into my eyes and we'd play, like, patty cake and she'd, like, touch my face and f- because it's so sweet, and my son, from the time he was a year and a half old, like, if you tried to put him on your lap, he was diving off head first, you know, to go sprint into the wall and then fall down and then-

   12. CWChris Williamson9:27

       (laughs)

   13. DSDave Smith9:27

       ... you know, either- either start crying or crack up laughing or whichever one it's gonna be. But, so it's like, oh yeah, from the very beginning, we're instilling in these kids that masculinity is bad and femininity is good, so of course they're gonna look for somebody who could be a ro- so, again, to your point, it's like, okay, so if you don't like this guy, well then provide something. Uh, you know, the... usually, right, and this is true throughout history, is that usually when... I- I- I wouldn't say usually, always, when far ra- when- when far right or far left radical groups actually take over or get a strong foothold, it's because the establishment has failed on every level, and you could... you pick the historical example, that's always the case. And if the establishment is doing a great job... Listen, if we had peace and prosperity and d- you know what I mean, like a healthy society, there's no way you would see the- the far left and the far right gaining as much traction as they are today. Why do you think it is that it's all either the Bernie Sanders wing or the right wing populist wing that has any traction amongst voters? 'Cause the establishment has failed.

   14. CWChris Williamson10:37

       Is it people unhappy with the current situation, so throwing out the current order and trying to move as far away from what they see as moderate or reasonable or right now as is possible? Is that the sort of thesis here?

   15. DSDave Smith10:51

       I mean, I think so. I think- I think that's a- a- a large part of it, for sure. And I think that, you know, w- f- certainly with, like, young kids on- on the left, um, they're embracing socialism because they s- view that as the opposite of what we have right now. And as far as, like, the kind of right wing populist, uh, movement, I don't even think... You know, it- it's been fairly incoherent in terms of theory. It's not really clear, and- and, ooh, I think we're gonna see a lot more of that emerge now. It's already kind of started to with, like, Vivek Ramaswamy, um, and his kind of push against big government right wing populism and more for, like, "Well, no, that's actually not the best theory, guys. Let's not go in that direction." But I think the- the truth is that Donald Trump's drain the swamp message is really what resonated with voters, that it's really like, "We know this whole thing is corrupt, and we oppose that." And that's enough to unify a lot of people. That was enough to get me to vote for Donald Trump, and I don't like a lot of things about Donald Trump. But I'm- I'm pretty unified in looking at Kamala Harris and going, "I'm against that."

   16. CWChris Williamson12:01

       Yeah. 69% of Americans have absolutely no or very little trust in the corporate media. 31% of Americans are retarded, as you-

   17. DSDave Smith12:11

       (laughs)

   18. CWChris Williamson12:11

       ... (laughs) s- cited not long ago. Uh, what do you

3. 12:15 – 20:40

   Is The Media Trying to Regain Our Trust?

   1. CWChris Williamson12:15

      think happens moving forward with, uh, uh, sort of trust in media? Are the- are the media gonna learn anything from this? Do you think that they're going to pivot or change?

   2. DSDave Smith12:24

      Well, I mean, I don't think so, and I- I don't see how they can. And I'm not, like, the best at predicting the future, I've gotten things wrong, uh, in- in that regard. But even just looking at, like, the postmortems over the last few weeks, uh, none of them... Even the ones... Like, there's kind of a split between, within the corporate media, between the real loons who are like, "No, it was sexism and racism, and that's all that we're gonna say about this." You know? And then there's, like, the ones who are, I- I guess, uh, only have one foot off the cliff, who are like, "Well, maybe, you know, there are certain things we could've done better. Maybe the transing the kids thing was a little bit too far," or something like that. But even with those guys, th- just none of them... And in- in some ways, it- it's just because they're so strongly incentivized not to admit this, even to themselves, but none of them can really have an honest postmortem. None of them can really go like, "Oh, I guess what happened is that we just consistently lie through our teeth and we've gotten every single issue wrong, every single one of them on the side of power." Like, there's not one... Of all of the- the issues, you know, if- if you were to just say, "In the 21st century, what has the corporate media gotten completely wrong?" And you could list off, like, these humongous th-, you know, like from the war in Iraq to the financial recession, you know, um, COVID, and, uh, uh, you know, uh, Russiagate, and all this stuff. Isn't it convenient that they always get it wrong on the side of the CIA? (laughs) That's so bizarre. You know, and none of them can admit that. And none of them can admit that, "Oh, we were lying when we said this is a great economy. Actually, we've totally gutted this economy and- and rigged it against any honest working-class person." And I mean, like, e- you know, it's like, uh, that was one of the major ones that was just unbelievable to watch them pretend this is a really great economy, and when it's- it's terrible for working people. It's the, one of the worst economies, uh, the worst, I think, in my lifetime. And so again, it's just you look at them, okay, they have no ability to actually grapple with what got them here and why they've lost all their credibility, and then on top of that, you know, and- and this was the thing that I think s- a lot of people got wrong, 'cause I- I even saw a lot of people who I kind of agree with and respect saying that Kamala Harris made a huge mistake by not going on Joe Rogan's podcast when she was invited on. But I think you've got it all wrong if you're looking at it like that. Th- c- that was a wise move on Kamala Harris's part. That w- there's no way that would've gone good for her. There's no way it wouldn't have been a disaster for her, because Kamala Harris is not built to be able to speak openly and unguarded for three hours. Her whole thing is she's gotta say talking points, because otherwise you might find out that she has nothing. She doesn't, she's not interested in any policy. She doesn't have a deep thought on a single issue. And so they've constru- th- there's a new game in town now, and what, uh, it's an amazing precedent that's been set over this last election, where now you have to, if you wanna be president of the United States, you have to go and sit for an unedited, three-hour-long, in-depth conversation, and Trump had to do m- uh, a bunch of them. And i- it's just simply the f- the case that what the corporate media does, what the progressive establishment Democrats do, isn't built for that. Like, it- it- it just can't be done. There- there is nobody, if you're... Let's say, if you're on the side of, um, transing the kids or whatever, you don't do well in a long-form conversation. You rely on shutting down your opponent by calling them a bigot and then having censorship and having the power and having the control. You're, y- y- you can't, 'cause there's just no defending it. The, it's not like th- there's not one single person out there who's a good defender of it. It doesn't exist.

   3. CWChris Williamson16:24

      Yeah. The, you may not have noticed this, the other day was Transgender Day of Remembrance. Uh, not to be confused with Trans Day of Visibility, which is in March, or Trans Day of Action, which is in June. Uh, last week was the last day of Transgender Awareness Week. Uh, Transparent Day was earlier this month as well. Uh, California legislature has declared August to be Trans History Month. Uh, Pronouns Day, Pronouns Day is in October. Also in October is Genderfluid Visibility Week. Uh, Nonbinary People's Day and Nonbinary Awareness Week, both in July. October, designated as LGBTQ History Month, which was initially Lesbian and Gay History Month, and of course LGBTQ Pride Month, formerly Gay and Lesbian Pride Month, is in June. So I assume that you've been, uh, celebrating appropriately.

   4. DSDave Smith17:12

      (laughs) Yes, I was. I, uh, I don't eat until sundown on all of those days.

   5. CWChris Williamson17:16

      (laughs)

   6. DSDave Smith17:16

      Whatever-

   7. CWChris Williamson17:17

      (laughs)

   8. DSDave Smith17:17

      ... whatever it is you're supposed to do, I'm- I can't believe you have all those memorized, Chris. Jeez.

   9. CWChris Williamson17:23

      Look, I, they're on my calendar. I, I, that's-

   10. DSDave Smith17:25

       (laughs)

   11. CWChris Williamson17:25

       I'm, uh, being a good, uh, contributing member of society. But yeah, this, um, this idea of sort of the media landscape and, and its changing, uh, it really did feel like... And there was a couple of breakthrough moments when independent media went mainstream, so the CNN horse dewormer thing with Joe-

   12. DSDave Smith17:42

       Yeah.

   13. CWChris Williamson17:42

       ... uh, (laughs) uh, the- the one-two punch of the N-word video as well shortly after that. Uh, and then, uh, a lot of the stuff around COVID, lab leak hypothesis, vaccine skepticism, stuff like that. Uh, and then it kind of, you know, it came back down a little bit, I think, that sort of independent crossing over into the mainstream. We saw, uh, Mr. Huberman have his little, uh, eruption earlier this year, uh, and then the election has just thrust it so much, I think, into the public zeitgeist, because so many people are invested in the outcome of the election. So many clicks and so many eyeballs are bothered by it, and it just garners all of that attention. So yeah, you know, it w- really wouldn't surprise me if, within the next four years, we get to the stage where there's more than 50% of the population... Maybe not more than 50 'cause I, I- I- I- I often overestimate...... how not normal the normies are. And I- I- I fail flat on my face. A significant portion of people say, "We don't want MSNBC or CNN to host the presidential debate. We want it to happen on a piece of independent media. We want fucking Rogan and Glenn to do it, or D- Douglas Murray and fucking Cenk Uygur." I don't know. Like, you know what I mean? Like, we want that. Uh, and it... I feel like we're on a trajectory where that doesn't seem as ridiculous as it might have done only five years ago.

   14. DSDave Smith19:05

       Yeah. Well, i- in a way, what seems ridiculous now would be to have it on one of the networks. I mean, it just doesn't make any sense. And I... You know, I- I know so many like, um... Yeah, I- I was gonna say blue check journalists, but that's not a thing anymore. But if you remember back in the day on- on old Twitter-

   15. CWChris Williamson19:23

       Mm-hmm.

   16. DSDave Smith19:23

       ... that used to be a thing when it was the journalist with the blue check, and that's how you knew they were like an official journalist. But I remember all of them for years, just like deriding, uh, Twitter and- and podcasts. And it'd be like, "Oh, Twitter isn't real life." And, "Oh, the podcast bros are upset. Does that even really matter?" And I remember always looking at this and being like, "Guys, it's- it's as much real life as the New York Times is real life. Why isn't it any... It- it's a show." What we're doing right now is a show. There's two people, there's cameras, there's a microphone. Who cares whether it's on the internet or it's on SX or something like that? It's like the... What matters is how many people are watching. And there's just way more pe- there's just no... Listen, if Elon Musk and Joe Rogan decided they wanted to host the next presidential, uh, debates, we all know that that would get not more views than if Jake Tapper were to host it, but like by orders of magnitude more viewers on it. So why... It's just the more you look at it on paper, you're just kind of like, "Oh yeah, it would make no sense to go in that direction and all the sense in the world to go in this direction." And all things being equal, that's probably what you're going to get.

4. 20:40 – 26:58

   Should We Salvage Mainstream Media?

   1. CWChris Williamson20:40

      Just to try and play a bit of devil's advocate for-

   2. DSDave Smith20:43

      Sure.

   3. CWChris Williamson20:43

      ... sort of the other, the other direction. Is there... Because for all the... I love and I'm a part and will happily contribute to the degeneracy of the independent media space. Uh, there is a bit of me that thinks, well, I never went through formal media training. I'm not held to any particular, uh, standards, uh, fairness and biasness, all the rest of this stuff, even if the media has totally disregarded those, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Um, is there a place or is there a way, a case to be made of how we could salvage that other side of the fence, the more sort of corporate legacy media thing? Because I'd, I'd... Again, I would benefit massively if everyone just fucking discarded them and came over to our side. But there is a bit of me that thinks, well, you know, they've split tested a lot of how media works for a long time. They have the money behind them. It just seems like they're pointing in the wrong direction. And if we could just adjust the direction a bit, uh, m- maybe we could have two really fantastic worlds that- that presented the public with information.

   4. DSDave Smith21:46

      I, I'm not against that in theory, but I- I do think that institutions in general, you... There's a line you can cross of being so corrupt and so evil that you essentially lose the right to exist. You lose your legitimacy. And so I think, you know, if in, in 1990, someone was arguing that, you know, we just need to point the Soviet Union in the right direction, and then... You know what I mean?

   5. CWChris Williamson22:16

      (laughs)

   6. DSDave Smith22:17

      'Cause it's important, it's important to have these, these big institutions or something like that. I think you would go like, "Well, no, they've lost their right to exist."

   7. CWChris Williamson22:26

      Too far gone.

   8. DSDave Smith22:26

      And I- I think the corporate media is well beyond that point. And by, and by the way, I don't like... Uh, from my perspective, I- I'm not flippantly making that comparison. I think it's a well-earned comparison. I mean, the- the corporate media has lied the American people into war after war after war over the last 25 years. That is... I mean, millions of innocent people have been slaughtered over these conflicts, which were... They- they weren't mistakes or things they got wrong. They were blatant lies. And may-... Some people in the corporate media may have just been parroting these lies and not known that these were lies. But all- all you got to look at, right, to understand, because I love talking about this, but all you got to look at is you go, uh, ge- Four-star General Wesley Clark, who's on tape on Democracy Now saying that in 2001, he saw the plans that were not only to go topple, uh, the government of Iraq, but also Libya and Syria. And I think, um... I forget the other. I think Lebanon was in there. And there's a whole list of countries ending in Iran, that we were going to go topple all of these governments. And then years later, well, two years later when we went into, to the war in Iraq, they said, "Oh, it's weapons of mass destruction, and he was in bed with, uh, with Osama bin Laden." And then when we went to topple Gaddafi, they said, "He's about to go genocidal against his own people." And then when we went to topple Assad, they said, "Oh, he's going genocidal against his own people," and that... They make up the lies to justify the plan that was already the plan from well before any of this- this nonsense was going on. And as a result of those wars, if you add them all up, it's in the millions of innocent people, trillions of dollars wasted, the whole region destabilized. Like, if that's not enough to say, yeah, you've lost your legitimacy, you've lost your right to exist, especially when your role was supposedly to inform the public and the role... 'Cause again, this is why I make the comparison to the Soviet Union. In theory, your role was to help the working class. Your role was to be the champion of the people, and you've been the greatest enemy of the people. Well, then I'm sorry, there's no righting that ship. The- the correct answer is to abolish that institution.

   9. CWChris Williamson24:36

      Well, they're committing such seppuku, I think, that people are s- losing faith in them. You know, like, think about the last five years or so. Uh, I f- I find myself being very sort of non-conspiratorial, very, like, hopeful about institutions. I still think universities got a strong place to play, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And for me, right, canary in the coal mine who's got fucking lungs of steel to withstand this stuff, I'm like, "Yeah, they suck." Like, "They absolutely suck." And, uh, I d- I just... It's been faceplant after fa- faceplant after faceplant, and, um, yeah, when it crosses over... Y- I've got this rule, uh, the parental clout gauge. So, uh, a story hasn't reached real mainstream significance when it's on the front page of the New York Times, when it's trending on Twitter. It's when your dad messages you about it on Facebook Messenger. Like, that's-

   10. DSDave Smith25:27

       Mm-hmm.

   11. CWChris Williamson25:27

       ... when it's really broken through. Uh, like, he sent me a message not long ago saying, "I see your friend, Mr. Rogan, is in the news again." I'm like, "Holy fuck." Like, "This has-"

   12. DSDave Smith25:37

       No.

   13. CWChris Williamson25:37

       ... "really, really broken through." He... Another one, a couple of year- uh, 18 months ago, uh, "That Andrew Tait..." Spelled T-A-I-T. Uh, "That Andrew Tait's a nasty piece of work, isn't he?" And I'm like... (laughs)

   14. DSDave Smith25:49

       (laughs)

   15. CWChris Williamson25:49

       I go, "Fucking, wow, Tait. You've really, you've really reached global domination 'cause you've managed to get my dad in the North East of England." Um, but yeah. And I, I would s- I would get the sense that even he is like, "Yeah, this, uh, this something doesn't really feel right that much"-

   16. DSDave Smith26:04

       Yeah.

   17. CWChris Williamson26:04

       ... "anymore." Uh, so yeah. I... Maybe they're not gonna learn, and I don't know, maybe Substack and the Free Press and, and live streams and all the rest of it, maybe that's gonna be the next sort of media landscape. But I feel like there's a lot of stepping up to be done there in terms of sort of the volume. Uh, another point that I'm sure you've heard t- talked about before, I'd love to get your take on, uh, the boring stories that get covered. You know, there is still a place for, like, meteorological insights and, and surveys on, like, really, really boring stuff that the press kind of still has a holdover. And you... Hopefully, they're not fucking about with what's happening with the weather or whatever, but maybe they are. Uh, uh, but with that, like, you know, who's gonna come in and s- who's gonna fill that hole? Who's gonna fill that vacuum? Um, so yeah. There's a lot of, uh, a lot of changes to be made. Another, uh, trend

5. 26:58 – 36:40

   Why Journalists Are Leaving X for Bluesky

   1. CWChris Williamson26:58

      that we've been seeing recently is X-it, this, uh, departure of journalists and users from X. What do you think of this and the move to Blue Sky and sort of the social media landscape and how that's gonna get partitioned?

   2. DSDave Smith27:13

      Yeah. Well, I mean, I think there's this, um... Which I think... You know, if you, if you think back to, uh, like, around 2016, 2017, when there w- w- you know when i- when- whenever it was that, like, the, uh... You remember the, the Ben Shapiro and Jordan Peterson and, like, the, the kind of, like, owning college kids-

   3. CWChris Williamson27:34

      Mm-hmm.

   4. DSDave Smith27:34

      ... video first started?

   5. CWChris Williamson27:35

      Destroys.

   6. DSDave Smith27:35

      Yes. Y- you know, it used to be, like, the, um, that Snoop, uh, Dog song would come on-

   7. CWChris Williamson27:40

      (laughs)

   8. DSDave Smith27:40

      ... in their classes and they'd be smoking. Um-

   9. CWChris Williamson27:43

      Yep.

   10. DSDave Smith27:43

       ... but back th- and, and one of the things that w- I actually think for the time, I think, it was really necessary and kind of a, a great thing. I, I think y- you gotta move out of that realm of just owning 20-year-olds at, at, at a certain point. But, like, uh... But there was something about it where you would just see... It was like a window for the rest of us who weren't at, at universities to be like, "Wow, there has been this tremendous, uh, atrophy," where no one, no one's pushing back on any of these ideas, and so they haven't strengthened them. And then, the first time they're confronted with someone pushing back on it, like, they literally have nothing. They have nothing, r- like, you know. It w- it would be as simple as, like, some 19-year-old would be like, "You know, I was born a man, but I identify as a woman." And, like, Ben Shapiro would be like, "How come you're not a tree?" And they'd be like, "Bah!" You know, like, "Oh, my God, he owns her or him or whatever." And there's just this, this dynamic where there's, there's been a, a tremendous weakening. And that, you know, it's, it's just like, it's like anything else. It's like, if you haven't been to the gym in years and you're, and you're weak and your muscles have, uh, have all gone through atrophy, well, the only answer is you gotta start lifting heavy things again. You gotta pick up heavy stuff and put it back down, and that's the way you'll recover and get stronger. And so that's kind of, like, where we have to go going forward, no matter who, um, uh, no matter what side we're talking about. Um, I'm sorry, remind me of your question. I kind of, uh, uh, spaced on that. Where... I had something

   11. CWChris Williamson29:14

       Exit.

   12. DSDave Smith29:14

       ... ago.

   13. CWChris Williamson29:14

       Going to Blue Sky.

   14. DSDave Smith29:15

       Yeah, s- s- I'm sorry. So, any... So, just with all these people leaving, it just... It seems like that to me again. It's like, yeah, after Elon Musk came in and bought Twitter and kinda was like, "No, this isn't gonna be a controlled environment," you've seen that the... A lot of these people, they rely on that. They rely on the fact that their, their opposition is gonna be censored or kicked off, and they can't actually compete in the marketplace of ideas. And so, if those people wanna remove themselves from the conversation, fine, but it's... That's not gonna change the dynamic, I don't think. I mean, that's not gonna change which shows have big audiences, which accounts have big audiences. And if, if they wanna go there... You know, I've saw... What was it? One of the, the pollsters who got this election all wrong was like, "I'm leaving and going to Blue Sky." It's like, "What? To, to go get things wrong by yourself?" Okay.

   15. CWChris Williamson30:05

       (laughs)

   16. DSDave Smith30:06

       Like, have s- have fun, you know?

   17. CWChris Williamson30:09

       (laughs) Yeah, it's, it's weird, man, 'cause, uh, y- if you just say the headline, uh, "Richest man in the world buys social media website and then endorses candidate and pushes him to 200 million people," like, just that headline is like... Fuck, like, that... I don't know. That s- that, that sounds like a lot. But on the flip side of it, so...Many people on the left were happy with the finger being pressed on the scale when it was going in the other direction. And the question now is, well, okay, is the sense that people have of Twitter becoming very right-leaning a- a- and the suppression of people on the left and all the rest of it, is that it? Or is this just a move back to balance? And what you're doing is, it's like going from cold water to lukewarm water that feels really hot. Because you were just so used to having this situation before. And it's like, "Well, (sighs) I don't know. The, the people that were getting suppressed or having their accounts deleted for misgendering people or misnaming people or w- w- all of that stuff, restrictions, all of the stuff that came out, they, they stuck about for the most part." Yeah, there was Gab and Truth Social, but everybody kind of still played in the pool. Uh, and it does feel a little bit like, well, I don't know, i- if as soon as a loss occurs, everyone's like Cartman, like, "Screw you guys, I'm going home, uh, to Bluesky or wherever else." Uh, I don't know. Uh, but I- the fracturing and the fragmenting and this sort of, um, siloing of different groups in different social medias, I wonder what that does, because it's gonna make your own echo chamber and your own bias even worse. The algorithm already does that. Your followers already do that. Uh, you don't even have the offset now of outrage, uh, stuff that comes in, apart from, I guess, maybe things from other platforms put across onto yours. But then when you see the replies of that, everybody agrees with me. So I wonder whether the, uh, myopia on both sides is going to increase more given that people are going to cross-pollinate, uh, the misunderstanding that everybody has of everybody else's views also going to increase more because you never get to see a reasonable take, you never have a discussion that brings that, that, uh, volume down. Although maybe you weren't having that before in any case.

   18. DSDave Smith32:15

       Yeah.

   19. CWChris Williamson32:15

       I don't know.

   20. DSDave Smith32:16

       No, I mean, it's, uh, it's ... I agree with all of what you're saying. And, you know, just to the, to the first part there, you know, I ... Sure, I- I could see looking at it on paper and going, "Hey, the richest man in the world bought this platform. He throws his, his capital and his influence behind a political candidate," and I could understand people having an aversion to that. But the truth is that that is just the way of politics, whether you like that or not. I mean, over, well over 100 years, so what was it, 1912 when Woodrow Wilson ran for president, um, he was funded by the big bankers. And then he got in there and signed the Federal Reserve Act into law, right? It's like the most blatant example of like th- they're gonna give you money to win this race, and then you're gonna get in there and give them control over the nation's credit supply, which still is the craziest freaking thing in the world that is just kind of accepted now as that's just how modern nation-states operate, I guess. But that private banking interests get to print, out of thin air, money. They get to create money and then lend it to the big banks at next to no interest so that they can take that money and lend it out at interest to the American people or the, the British people or whatever government. We all have central banks. Um, it's like the, the most blatant scam in the world. And, and this goes on all the time. And so if Elon Musk was doing that so that Donald Trump could pass Policy X that would give Elon Musk billions more dollars, I would certainly be opposed to that. I- it's a little bit different if he's just doing it because he believes in the candidate. And by the way, I mean, you know, if you're talking about giving Donald Trump a whole bunch of money in order to get a policy that you want, I think Miriam Adelson would be the one to look at, not Elon Musk and s- obviously, uh, George, now Alex Soros, uh, do the same thing for, for Democrats. So yeah. I mean, that's the game, um, for better or for worse. But ... And mostly for worse. But to your point, I really do, like in, in ... Deep in my soul, I totally feel the same way as you, and I feel like everybody should be on these platforms together 'cause we gotta share a country, so we might as well all be having this argument together. The thing of it is, is that th- it's not like we were having that. That, that wasn't the dynamic. But if anybody from, say, the... I, I mean, look, I've ... You know, I debated Chris Cuomo. I'd debate anybody else from the corporate media if they wanna do it. If they wanna come engage in this conversation in a good faith manner, okay, let's do it. And I'm, I ... It's not just me. I know th- I speak for you when I say that and lots of other people, that we'd be like more than happy to ha- So if they wanna do it, that's fine. But there also, in any type of relationship, like there has to be standards. And just unifying for the sake of unifying is never a positive th- in human inter-social, you know, relationships. And like, it, it's, uh ... (laughs) If, if your wife was like, "If you hit me, I'm leaving you," and you hit her, like that's a reasonable standard (laughs) for her to have. And like, be like, "No, sorry, you have to not do that in order for us to be together." And so my thing is kind of like after, like, all the years of censorship and all of the years of like COVID tyranny and all of this other stuff, it's like, "Okay, hey, if you wanna come be a part of this conversation where I'm arguing that you got all of that wrong and that it was evil what you did, then fine, come prove me wrong. But if you don't wanna do that and you'd rather leave, fine." But the standard is gonna be that neither side gets censored. At least that's how I'd like to see it. I've never been ... And I don't know anybody, anyone who was like a critic of the COVID insanity who was saying that the people pushing lockdowns should be censored or that the people who were pushing the vaccine should be censored. All of them were saying, "Let's have this debate." So I do see an asymmetry here where there's one side that's quite happy to have the debate and the other side that relies on censorship. So if that side now has lost the ability to censor and their response to that is like, "Well, I'm leaving," but it's like th-

   21. CWChris Williamson36:27

       Mm-hmm.

   22. DSDave Smith36:27

       ... like the husband, the husband being like, "Well, if I can't hit you, then I'm leaving," well, like ...

   23. CWChris Williamson36:32

       (laughs)

   24. DSDave Smith36:32

       Well, okay then. Well then, okay, the door is right there. You know? I don't know what to say.

   25. CWChris Williamson36:37

       Yeah. This, uh, MSNBC

6. 36:40 – 48:18

   How Does Mainstream Media Get So Many Things So Wrong?

   1. CWChris Williamson36:40

      story with Lake and Reilly, have you been tracking this?

   2. DSDave Smith36:42

      I s- I saw that Rogan tweeted out the, uh, the headline of it, but I have not read the, uh, the article.

   3. CWChris Williamson36:47

      B- basically, the, the, the fact that this person was a illegal immigrant, they, it's, he was an immigrant, uh, in the headline of the story. Uh, all of the pressure and all of the attention is placed on how he never stood a chance, and how unfair it was that he was prosecuted and persecuted in the manner that he was. A person who killed somebody else, not only somebody else, but an American citizen, not only killed somebody else who was an American citizen, but did it as an illegal immigrant, and all of this stuff has just been buried, buried, buried. Uh, New York Times, with that Fruit Loops fact check thing about RFK, it's like, "The difference between the American version and the Canadian version." It's not that different except for the red 40 and the yellow three and the BHT lining inside of the bag. And, uh, this fucking, uh, The View, with this dragon believer thing about Rogan. So for all of my whimsical British sentimentality about, "You know, Dave, maybe they're not too far gone. Maybe we can..." I'm like, guys, I'm, I fucking, uh, this is, I- I can't burden, I can't bear this burden anymore. I cannot shoulder this weight. Uh, just continual, nothing learned. Nothing fucking learned at all. And, um, you know what it feels like? It feels, it feels boomery. It feels like someone who just does not have their finger on the pulse of what is going on. And that's where I'm like, are you this fucking dull? Are you this, this uninformed about everything? 'Cause your only job is to be informed.

   4. DSDave Smith38:19

      Yeah.

   5. CWChris Williamson38:19

      And, uh, apparently... So, which makes me think that it has to be complicity. It has to be, uh, uh, some degree of cowardice or coordination or, or, uh, compliance, as opposed to ignorance. And I'm like, you, you can't be this stupid.

   6. DSDave Smith38:37

      Well, and also, I mean, I think a lot of it is just being stuck in your ways. You know, that old saying, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks." Like, there's a lot of wisdom to that. I don't know about you, like, I feel it the older I get. I mean, I remember being, like, 20, and it's almost like everything's a possibility. You don't even know who you're going to become as a person. But the older you get, you're kinda like, "Yeah, I know, I know who I am." And we're not changing that at this point. Like, sorry-

   7. CWChris Williamson39:02

      (laughs)

   8. DSDave Smith39:03

      ... we're far, we're far past that. I mean, I could tinker around the edges a little bit, but you know, and, and to, to, I mean, the New York Times one was the, I could... I saw someone actually, I first saw it because someone posted, like, just a screenshot of the text. And I read it, and then I was like, I gotta go pull up this article. There's no way. There's just no way that this was actually the, uh... But he got that wrong. Like, they literally say, "He got that wrong." And then the next sentence is how he got it right. It's just unbe... But I think so many of these guys, it's just like, this is what they've been doing forever. And there's, this is what I was saying before, it's, it's really, it's stunning. But the inability to grapple with this new situation, and that the facts on the ground have changed, and you're just going to pretend that it's the same old world. And, and particularly when, when the, the disparity in audience is so large. You know, like, it's, it's like, okay-

   9. CWChris Williamson39:56

      You're not even winning.

   10. DSDave Smith39:57

       Yeah.

   11. CWChris Williamson39:57

       You're still doing this thing and you're not even winning.

   12. DSDave Smith39:59

       Yeah, like let's say, let's say you do a show and it gets, like, two million, you know, views an episode, and I do a show and it gets, like, 2,000 views an episode. And you're gonna lie about me. You're gonna say, "Hey, you know, Dave believes all these things that I don't really believe." Well, okay, no, no, morality of that aside, that's a fairly effective strategy because a lot of people are just gonna hear from you and they're not gonna hear when I respond to you. But if I've got two million and you've got 2,000, and your strategy is to lie about me, well, that's a really stupid strategy, because, uh, so many more people are gonna hear the truth. And the, the few who hear you are gonna know that you're lying. And so it's just like that. It's, it's ju- it's right in front of you, where you're like, "What do you think? Are, are you still act..." And, and, you know, I w- I remember in my lifetime when that was the case, when they had a monopoly on information, and they could just lie about people. If they wanted to remove them, they could just tell you, "This guy's-"

   13. CWChris Williamson40:50

       Mm-hmm.

   14. DSDave Smith40:50

       "... a racist. Don't, don't listen to him anymore."

   15. CWChris Williamson40:52

       Well, I, I mean, look, the, uh, Rogan N-word video, uh, was the, my favorite example of that because what the media tries to do, and this is one of my least favorite sort of parts of the internet, is to take, uh, an indiscretion, uh, which may be an error or may be actually, uh, something that they commissioned to do, that they meant to say. Uh, and say, "First off, this is what they meant to say. So there's no such thing as misspeaking."

   16. DSDave Smith41:20

       Right.

   17. CWChris Williamson41:20

       Uh, secondly after that, they say, "This is not one small, isolated perspective or an error. This is indicative of an entire ideology. This is the tip of the iceberg, and below it is just bigotry and sewage and transphobia and racism and white supremacy," and whatever, whatever slime they want to throw at you. But the difference with the Rogan position was, th- the media was saying, "This is the tip of the iceberg." And m- millions, hundreds of millions of people were saying, "I've seen the whole iceberg."

   18. DSDave Smith41:53

       Mm-hmm.

   19. CWChris Williamson41:53

       "I've watched 500, 1,000, multiple thousands of hours of this guy, and I, I don't think that you're right." And that, the ability to take a single, uh, indiscretion, error, vector from somebody who is speaking a lot. Like, inevitably there's going to be errors that come out. Uh, and saying, "Not only did they mean to say it, but... And th- this is indicat- it, it proves that they're the transphobe, bigot, xenophobe, racist," whatever, "that we always knew that they were."

   20. DSDave Smith42:26

       Mm-hmm.

   21. CWChris Williamson42:26

       And it's like, it's such a tired fucking playbook, and it really bores me. And on top of that, it makes me concerned. It makes me tread more carefully, because I think, "Oh, God, like, what if, what if this m- m- minor misspeak, what if the way that I put this particular sentence together is constructed incorrectly, and then construed in a manner that somebody else can u..." I'm like, this is not, it's not fucking cool.

   22. DSDave Smith42:48

       No, 100%, man. And- and just like, the- so to your point about having seen the entire iceberg, I think that's so spot-on, and particularly with something like, uh, The Joe Rogan Experience, where the guy has... You know, I feel like, 'cause I've done Joe's podcast so many times at this point, I feel like his... I think his listeners have that relationship with me, because it's just, when you go there, it's- it's a thing, you talk for three hours, and people really, it's not like doing a sh- a nightly news show, where you come on, and there's this energy of like, "I'm performing the news now." (imitates Joe Rogan) You know, "Hello, everybody, and welcome to the Nightly News on ABC, and our top story..." (babbles) You know? It's- it's not like that. It's not scripted. It's a conversation. Y- people are gonna hear the things that I wanna rant about, that I wanna talk about. You're also gonna see me in a situation where- where Joe just throws something at me that I- I wasn't expecting, and you'll see how my mind works and how I think about things, how I take in new information, and all. And it- you sat there for three hours and really got to know every ... and I've done this show, like, a bunch of times, but Joe's done every single one of them. (laughs) Like, the fans who are fans of Joe Rogan, they listen to him for nine hours a week in their hea- like, they know him. You know, it's, I- I get people all the time, 'cause- 'cause we're good friends, and they'll be like, "Oh, what's Joe Rogan like?" And you're like, "You know what Joe Rogan's like. What are you ... That's what Joe Rogan's like, by the way, for anyone." I don't know how much time you've spent with him, but that's what he's like. He's like exactly what you know. He's exactly the same. There's no act being put on. And so, when people, millions and millions and millions of people who have consumed, like, hundreds and hundreds of hours of his content, you're gonna say, like, "Oh, we gotta cancel this guy." Like, you might as well be telling me I gotta cancel my wife or something like that. Like, what? No! I knew all- all the stuff you're talking about, I already knew, and I knew everything else about it too, so it's just not going to happen. Like, this just is not, it- it's not possible for you to like get in between that very authentic relationship that he has with his- his audience.

   23. CWChris Williamson44:52

       I think what else that does, and it- it can be whichever, uh, media form you like, you know, even Substack to some degree, the sort of frictionlessness that people are able to publish regular-

   24. DSDave Smith45:02

       Mm-hmm.

   25. CWChris Williamson45:02

       ... blogs on, whether it's personal reflections or stuff from science, uh, the, uh, you know, daily vlogs. I- I love the fact that a lot of, uh, vlog editing now seems to be moving down from the whole limbic hijack thing. Sam Sulek and his, like, 45-minute chest and back workout video, which is essentially unedited, right? There's no fluff, there's no, there's no nothing, there's no curation. Um, I think what all of this does is it throws into very harsh light the much more curated, much more perverted, molested world of the person who d- "Joe Rogan's a dragon believer." And you're like, "Fucking what, dude?"

   26. DSDave Smith45:40

       Yeah.

   27. CWChris Williamson45:40

       "Like, you're so either malignant or out of touch. Those are the only two, uh, o- options, and both of those mean that I shouldn't listen to you."

   28. DSDave Smith45:51

       Yeah, and this- this has always been one of the worst things about, you know, which you kinda touched on just now, but one of the worst things about political correctness, or like wokeism as it's called now, is that it does like... Wh- when you set up this system where there's like a, there's like third rails everywhere that you're not allowed to touch, and if you touch them, you're supposed to be ruined now, and that is supposed to define everything about you. W- that is... You know, it's, that might work for really dumb people, but for anybody who's at all intellectually curious, it- it's like you- you need people who get things wrong sometimes. And some of the most interesting thinkers who I've always loved reading, you know, they get certain things very wrong, but that same person might get something else r- right in a way that you're like, "Wow, I never thought about it like that before." There's a lot of, uh, figures like this who are kinda like, you know, very provocative thinkers who might say four things, and one of them you- you kind of agree with, the second one you think is dead wrong, the third one you think is wildly offensive, and the fourth one you think is brilliant and you've never thought of things in that way before. You know? And like, who wants to get rid of that person? Those are the best people (laughs) . Like, those are the ones who are really fun to like read through and kinda, te- you know, stretch your own brain by thinking about what they're thinking about and what you agree and what you don't agree. And I hate, and not just hate, but I like very bitterly resent anyone who ever tries to make me live my life that way, who try to make me be like, "Well, I'm a little bit concerned about talking about this topic, 'cause people might think I'm a bad person." And in fact, eh, part of the reason why tho- those types of people are so important is because when- when it really hits the fan and there's like, totalitarianism is on the rise and everybody's falling in line, well, who is gonna be, who's gonna have the personality type to stand up and be like, "No. I'm against all of this"? It's- it's not the- the conformist conventional thinker, you know? It's the people who are outside of the box. And so yeah, Joe definitely has some views that are outside of the box, and he likes getting into conspiracies and he likes talking about like all this stuff, but at the same time, that's, I think to most people who- who listen at least, that's part of what makes it so fun and interesting.

   29. CWChris Williamson48:17

       What... You've

7. 48:18 – 53:40

   Thoughts on the Libertarian Party

   1. CWChris Williamson48:18

      mentioned, uh, libertarianism a couple of times there as a, uh, card carrying member. What do you make of the... What do you make of the place of the Libertarian Party and that sort of position, uh, at the moment? Because it seems to me like the right is going down and the left is going up, so you've got sort of this split, but I assume, to you, there is more down to be done and less right that would be, that would be useful.

   2. DSDave Smith48:44

      Well, yeah. I mean, I think that, th- the way I look at it is that I think...So, I mean, I'm, uh, I'm a, a Libertarian, forget the party, I'm a, I'm a, a Libertarian in terms of my world view because I, I think that the, um, the greatest struggle in the history of humanity is between tyranny and liberty, and I think that liberty is the o- is the key to a, a moral and prosperous society, and that governments are agents of aggression, and that they bring, uh, they bring nothing but destruction, especially when they're out of control and not reined in, as most current governments in the West are. I- in terms of the party, there's, you know, third party politics in the United States of America is, uh, the, the entire system is rigged against third parties, and so there's, you know, the, the prospects of, like, the Libertarian Party out taking, taking over the Republican Party or something like that is not happening any time soon. I did think that, uh, Angela McArdle, who's the chair of the party, did a phenomenal job this year in really kind of re-imagining the role of this third party that is pro-liberty and was able to get a, a bunch of, uh, may- concessions maybe isn't the right word, but assurances from Donald Trump before he won, and hopefully he comes through on at least some of those. But I think that, I think that what, you know, I, what the country needs is liberty and what, and what the world needs is liberty, but particularly, you know, in the United States of America, which is what I know the most about, I mean, even in Donald Trump's, you know, like, uh, th- this drain the swamp, clean out Washington of corruption, well, I think the Libertarians have a lot to add here in, in, in an understanding that the, the essence of the corruption in Washington DC is that the government is so big. Th- that's really why it is so corrupt. Like, definitionally, that's wh- when you have a government that's spending, and I think we're gonna top, $7 trillion this year, is the biggest, most powerful organization in the history of the world, and they, they get their money through f- the threat of force. I mean, this is, it's not like it's a big company that just has a product that everyone wants to buy. They get their money because they say, "You pay us or we will throw you in jail." And then they print the money, which robs your value from you, or they can borrow the money, which is just a promise to tax you in the future. Well, when you have it, you have an organization that is extracting wealth from the American people and then handing them out to their political cronies, and this is why there's more millionaires in the suburbs of Washingto- uh, Washington DC than there is anywhere else in the world. That's the corruption. That's it right there. And so the only answer to this is drastic cuts in government spending, which I will say with, like, the Doge stuff, I know it's not, like, an official government department, but it does make me excited that that is at least, you know, i- inserting that idea into the consciousness of the American people, that, like, this is what draining the swamp actually looks like.

   3. CWChris Williamson51:55

      Yeah, it must be terrifying if you're one of these, uh, lots-of-skeletons-in-your-closet, middle management bullshit government bureaucrat people. It must be like the specter of an autistic guy and an Indian guy bearing down upon you.

   4. DSDave Smith52:13

      (laughs)

   5. CWChris Williamson52:13

      (laughs) Must be like, "Oh, my fucking god."

   6. DSDave Smith52:18

      Yeah, and especially, like, uh, th- an autistic and an Indian genius, like, they're not even just random guys, you're like, "Oh, man, these guys are really good at getting stuff done too."

   7. CWChris Williamson52:27

      Yeah.

   8. DSDave Smith52:27

      Yeah, I, I think there's a lot of that, and I think, look, I think this really explains why there was such a, an insanely hostile attitude toward Donald Trump since 2016. And, you know, I know, um, uh, Joe's played on his podcast a bunch of times, but a bunch of people love to look at, like, Donald Trump on The View right before he had won the primaries, and, like, he wasn't that guy. He wasn't a guy who everyone had an allergy to and thought was the next Hitler. It wasn't until he started saying, "Drain the swamp," and it actually looked like he was gonna win and maybe even mean it-

   9. CWChris Williamson53:02

      Mm-hmm.

   10. DSDave Smith53:02

       ... and try to do it that all of a sudden you s- you had this hysteria come from DC, and I think you, what you just said explains it perfectly, like, that he just terrified all of these people who, on some level, know that they're parasites and on some level know that they do not perform a useful service that they could voluntarily get money for.

   11. CWChris Williamson53:24

       We saw Elon do this at Twitter, right? He got rid of some absurd percentage, and it was just him and, like, 20 Asian guys-

   12. DSDave Smith53:32

       Mm-hmm.

   13. CWChris Williamson53:32

       ... uh, sleeping (laughs) under the desk. I remember that selfie when he first, he first started, uh, uh, taking over. Yeah, I,

8. 53:40 – 1:01:51

   Pressure on the Republicans to Succeed in Government

   1. CWChris Williamson53:40

      uh, it'll be really interesting, I've been thinking a lot, I had this conversation with, uh, Shapiro a few months ago about, um, what a lot of the right has done for the last m- five years or so has been the sort of rebellious voice of righteousness, you know, you, you're able to push back against overreach and political correctness and victim hood ideology and identity politics, so on and so forth, and now that everything that you could want has happened, you have the much more difficult task, which is to actually fucking deliver change. You have to actually make something happen, and you can't just complain from the sidelines about, "Why is this not happening?" and so on and so forth, and that was a huge part of the failure that Kamala had coming in. It's like, are you a change candidate or do you have legitimacy because you've already been in office? Well, if you go after the record, the record's fucking dogshit, and if you're a change candidate, you need to throw your old boss under the bus. So you don't... It was very difficult, it was a very difficult position for her to play, and you heard this, like, "What would you have done?" or, "What would you wish that Biden had done differently?" or, "What would you have done differently?" and she'd give this, like, s- g- gaffawing 45-minute roundabout of, of, of nothing. Uh, but yeah, I, I really am interested if...... as it may be true, the sort of wokeness will be retracted, not just from the mocking it gets from the other side, but even from the left. They're like, "Look, the fucking first thing of being, o- of doing government is to get in power. We didn't manage to do that. We need to change tack a little bit." And, um, if that means that there are fewer places for, you know, commentariat on the right to push back against, for sort of the sort of news stories that create those myth of martyrdom flags that get planted in the ground, I wonder, I wonder what difference in the dynamic we're going to see, uh, over the next sort of four years. Because that rebellious nature, speaking truth to power thing, you don't really get to do that. You're, you are power. You're fucking in power. Make something happen.

   2. DSDave Smith55:37

      Yeah, no question. I mean, it's, uh, um, it's very easy to criticize something and it's much harder to build something. And particularly if you're talking about, um, you know, draining the swamp, if you're talking about, uh, cutting down on the corruption in Washington DC, you're talking about taking on the most powerful entrenched interests in the history of the world, who are very prepared to fight for what they have. They're not gonna give it up voluntarily and they're not gonna give it up easily. And, you know, you can already see a lot of this happening where, you know, say like Donald Trump might say on the campaign trail, "Oh, we're gonna deport all the illegal immigrants." And even he just, uh, reaffirmed the other day, "We'll use the military to deport all of them." And you're like, okay, that's very easy to say. Try implementing that because you are gonna get resistance on every level, and not just on like, you know, like, local law enforcement in blue areas, um, but activists, the media. Every story of some, y- you know, uh, humanitarian catastrophe that happens along the way is gonna be-

   3. CWChris Williamson56:47

      Mm-hmm.

   4. DSDave Smith56:47

      ... blown out of proportion, so yes.

   5. CWChris Williamson56:48

      Some mistreatment of some poor migrant that's been evicted, uh, and is separated from their child, et cetera, et cetera.

   6. DSDave Smith56:54

      Which ine- which inevitably will happen if you were actually trying to deport every single illegal immigrant. And so then, whereas that might be great campaign rhetoric, then you have to make a whole different calculation when you get in there, which is like, okay, how do we actually accomplish this? And, and this was really the failure of Donald Trump in his first term, is that he didn't have any idea. He had absolutely no plan. I mean, like he may have had some ideas in his head about how we'll do this, but I don't think he ever really understood how deep the swamp was or what they would come after him with. It's like, well, it, they... And they did it to him right away. You know, Donald Trump ran in 2016 on, "Let's have detente with Russia." This was a major theme in his 2016 campaign. He was like, "You know, Vladimir Putin's in Syria 'cause he wants to hunt down ISIS." He goes, "Okay, we also wanna get ISIS. I don't care about overthrowing Bashar al-Assad. Let's get along with Russia. Let's make a deal. Let's kill the terrorists together and then let's get out of the Middle East. We don't need to be there at all." He's like, "Okay. All right, that sounds good. That's a good campaign idea and that would be a great policy if you could implement it." But then you're framed as being a Russian spy. Well, what are you gonna do now? And this is how they c- What are you gonna do now? You're gonna go make a deal with Russia? Because that would've just been proof to the American people that you are in fact a Russian spy. Wait a minute, the whole media is saying you're a, a Russian spy, and now you wanna make a deal with Vladimir Putin? So he couldn't do that. So he had to back off of th- You know, and like there's just, there's a lot of things like that that are... It's much easier to be in my business than it is to be in Donald Trump's business.

   7. CWChris Williamson58:29

      Mm-hmm.

   8. DSDave Smith58:29

      And, and in his business, he actually has to figure out how you can manipulate this machine in a way that you can get things done. And that's no easy task. I'm certainly not gonna sit here and pretend that I have all the answers of how to do that. I don't think the answer is giving Marco Rubio the State Department, but that's just me. We'll see.

   9. CWChris Williamson58:49

      Yeah, yeah. It's, uh, it's funny to think about. I, I, re- I found it really fascinating that, um, even Trump was kind of a bit surprised when he got into office the first time and didn't have anything prepared. You know, who, who are the staff that you're supposed to go through? What's the process that you're supposed to do with this? Even if fucking Hillary had got in, at least she's got evi- Like, you know, the husband can be like, "Hey, you know, this is kind of the way that it works." Um, and then this was the whole, I guess, justified argument behind Project 2025, which is, hey, last time he got in and he had a blank piece of paper. We're just trying to kind of play a, a, a game plan, even though I, I still don't know how much a part of that he was or wasn't. Uh, but this time, you know, you've been in this world for coming up on a decade. You've had on-the-ground experience last time. You had all of the evidence that you've li- You have everything that you need, and if it doesn't get delivered, that will be a big egg on face.

   10. DSDave Smith59:47

       Yeah, for sure. And, and especially this time coming in after this guy has been so burned by this system, uh, in every way you can. I mean, with the exception of Jack Kennedy, no American president has been more burned by the system. Um, and so you got that. Now he also has not only a, a much bigger victory than in 2016, but he actually won the popular vote. And there also has been this incredible cultural shift where it, it seems to me that kind of the, the shock troops on the ground, meaning the people, the kind of useful idiots, the young leftists who would protest Donald Trump, um, the Antifa and Black Bloc and all those types, there just doesn't seem to be the same energy there. Like, uh, maybe they're just tired. I think they've been distracted be- 'cause they've been protesting the war in Gaza for, for the last year and, and I, I think... First of all, I think it's their right to protest. That, I think it's a, an absolute outrage. Um, but I think it's just very tough to, when you've been protesting women and children being slaughtered all year, it's very hard to turn around and now protest Tony Hinchcliffe cracking jokes at Madison Square Garden.

   11. CWChris Williamson1:01:01

       (laughs)

   12. DSDave Smith1:01:01

       It's just kind of, you know, it's, it's hard to get that energy going. But because of that, because... You know, i- in 2016 if Donald Trump had held a big event at Madison Square Garden, there'd have been tens of thousands of protesters outside. There was nothing. Uh, according to the Secret Service, I think there was like 100, uh, who were there. No one showed up to protest. So Don- All I'm, what I'm saying is that Donald Trump is uniquely set up this time to be able to get these things done. So if he can't get them done now, that's, uh, that's a real shame. I don't know that... Maybe, maybe the future will be even better but... Or, or e- even a better opportunity, but at least in my lifetime, I've never seen an opportunity like he has right now. Control of the Congress, control of the Supreme Court, winning the popular vote, not the same resistance behind you. Let's, let's drain some swamps.

   13. CWChris Williamson1:01:49

       Pressure is on. Dave

9. 1:01:51 – 1:02:24

   Where to Find Dave

   1. CWChris Williamson1:01:51

      Smith, ladies and gentlemen. Dave, fucking awesome man. I really appreciate you. I appreciate your work. Where should people go if they want to keep up to date with all the things that you do?

   2. DSDave Smith1:01:58

      Oh, uh, partoftheproblem.com is, uh, that's what my, my, uh, podcast is and all my stuff is there, and then I'm, I'm

   3. NANarrator1:02:05

      (music plays)

   4. DSDave Smith1:02:05

      ... @comicdavesmith on Twitter and, uh, yeah. I'm all over the place. Part of the Problem is my podcast. That's all. Thanks so much for having me, Chris. I really appreciate it.

   5. CWChris Williamson1:02:13

      Appreciate you too. Cheers man. Thank you very much for tuning in. If you enjoyed that episode, there is something else you will absolutely love right here. Go on, give it a tap.

Episode duration: 1:02:24