#2029 - Bill Maher

28:57Zoloft. Right. Oh, this must be. I don't know. I know this is a long time ago. And I don't know why it was in my house. But I had one pill and I remember Zoloft. And I thought, oh, good. I need to sleep. And it the way it made me feel because I don't have an imbalance was horrible. Really? Yes. Like, like I know what it feels like to be doing something I don't want to do. Some people call that work and we're lucky we like our work mostly. But there are things I don't want to do that I do. And I know what it feels like to be doing things I do want to do. When I was on this drug, it was like neither.

29:42Like I just didn't feel anything. It was, it's, it made me feel very sympathetic to the people who suffer from chemical imbalance. Yeah. And mostly it is chemical imbalances. I know I think it was Mike Wallace was suffered for a long time from this. And also maybe it was Dick Cavett, somebody like that who said, you know, I was in therapy for years and years and years. And then they gave me this drug and I was all better. And it was never anything that they were going to fix in therapy. It was just the chemical. They just poured something in the test tube and suddenly it was all good because some of it is just chemical.

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32:42It's authentically American representing uncompromising quality for the rugged, the powerful and the passionate. Tap the banner to learn more or visit buffalotracedustillery .com. That's buffalotracedustillery .com. Distilled, aged and bottled by Buffalo Trace Distillery, 90 proof, Franklin County, Kentucky, Buffalo Trace, American, family -owned, independent and perfectly untamed. Yeah, I don't think they think it's a chemical imbalance anymore. Because I think they've measured serotonin and dopamine levels. There's so many factors. There's so many factors into why someone would be depressed.

33:29Some of it has to be genetic. Just like mental illness. Some of it is absolutely genetic. Some of it is life circumstances. I mean, if you have a shitty job and a shitty life and shitty friends and a shitty house and a shitty neighborhood, you probably feel like shit. I remember when I had all that. And I was depressed. Yeah. But I felt like it was logical depression. There was a reason I was depressed. I was newly in the world as a person out of college. So I was starting life. For the first time, I didn't have the protective guardianship of school. Right. Okay, so that's scary. And I was worried, am I going to be a failure in life?

34:10Here I am trying to be a comedian. Okay, that's a risky proposition. Not many people make it. I was embarrassed to even tell people, you know, what do you do? I'm trying to be a comedian. Okay, that's funny. And I lived in a shit box. And I didn't have any girlfriends. And I had no money. Yeah. I was depressed for a very good reason. No respect. I had nothing that makes people happy. When I got more of those things, I got happier. That's normal. Okay? That's different than the person who has lots of great things. I mean, you read about this all the time among the show business community. And people, I'm sure, all the time say that why is this guy depressed?

34:55He must be on top of the world. Right. And, you know, and no, he had to quit the tour because of mental health issues. He was depressed. People are lining up to see him and fucking arenas. And he's depressed. And it's, yeah, because that doesn't solve the problem when it's a chemical problem. Yeah, and I think also for some people, they worship this idea of success as being the thing that's going to get them out of it. That that's going to make them happy. And then they get success. And then they get accustomed to that success. And they're still unhappy. And then they get really depressed. Like, oh my god, I'm at the top and it sucks.

35:33Right. I mean, if that still doesn't fill the hole in your heart, then where do you go? You got nothing else. Yeah, I always wonder. I mean, I think these things vary very widely. And I think I always wonder, like, what is their life like? What are their friends like? What's their family like? What do they do for activities? What are they eating? Are they sleeping well? Like, what are they doing anything to mitigate it to put themselves on a path? That gives them some sort of a feeling of accomplishment in life, a feeling of like, and I don't mean accomplishment in terms of material possessions, but like you're doing something.

36:08You're getting something done. A reason to get up in the morning. Yeah, something that you really enjoy, it gives you joy, and it gives you happiness and satisfaction. There's a lot of people out there that don't have that. Like you said, we're really lucky that we have jobs that we enjoy. We love what we do. We have like, I mean, there's a reason why when someone says to you, oh, you're going to be a stand -up comedian, good fucking luck. Because most people don't make it. No, they don't. I mean, do you remember the people you did open -mic with? How many of them are still around? I remember everybody.

36:37I was in the club where there was hundreds of guys. Yeah. Mostly guys, some women, but I mean, back in 1980, yeah. And yes, you could name them all. Or like I always like to point out to people when they get into these discussions about the strike and show business and what kind of business this is, and is it different than other businesses? Yes. If you look at the credits of any movie, especially ones that are a few years old, 10 years old, 20 years old, 30 years old, look at the credits as they go by at the end of the movie. Outside of the two or three stars of the movie, you'll see a list of 20 or 30 people who were in that movie.

37:19All of them thought they were going to be stars. They all had parts, not the biggest parts in the movies, but parts. And you look at that list and you do not recognize one of those names. Yeah. They all wanted to be something that this movie that they were in was going to take them to the next level. And it did not. Yeah. It did not. I was just watching an interview. Well, it wasn't really an interview. It was like they caught her at the airport with Bridget Fonda. They were just, well, she just dropped out of show business. And they caught her walking and they said, Do you think you have a deal movie again?

37:56You weren't so many iconic movies, single white female, and there's a name in these movies. She's like, no way. She's like, nope, I like being a civilian now. Yeah. It's too much fun. That's different. That's different. She had a big career. Yeah. And she just, you know, had enough of it. Yeah. And yeah, that's okay. I mean, it's, first of all, show business, especially acting very tough on females as they age. Sure. We just know that. Yeah. I mean, you have to be iconic to be working in your 60s like Meryl Streep. Right. Because, you know, especially if you're the leading lady. Right. They have no problem pairing a 60 year old guy with a 35 year old woman.

38:40Right. That's just the way it is in movies or at least it has been. So, as you get into those upper ages, they're, those parts are not going to be there. And look, that's partly what the audience wants. I mean, you can, you can hate the studios for doing that. But studios are always just reflecting what the audience wants, including the women in the audience. Yeah. You know what's fascinating? The one group that absolutely gets discriminated in Hollywood is gay men. Gay men never play straight men in blockbuster movies. Openly gay men are never like the romantic interest in a blockbuster movie.

39:21You can have an openly gay woman and no one cares. Like who? Oh, you can have one. I don't think it would be a problem. Well, name somebody. Like, who's an openly gay woman? Who is one? Well, Kristen Stewart is now an openly gay woman. Oh, she is? Kristen Stewart? I didn't know she was. The girl from Twilight? Yeah. I didn't know she was something to gay. I mean, I need like, like, the loop. No, she used to date that. Look, I'm, I'm, she used to date, date Robert Pattinson. I didn't know that she was gay. I was 10 years ago. I didn't, I don't follow her romantic re -aractment like, well, like I'm not paying attention to the president.

39:58I'm offended, Joe. No, I mean, she's very, I mean, first of all, she just definitely is. I mean, you've seen pictures of her. She, you could tell that she's walking that side of the street now. She openly announced it on Saturday Night Live. I don't want that, Joe. I don't either. But, but she, I know she did. And of course, it was met with thunderous applause, which should tell you something about the hypocrisy of how brave it is to come out. Well, she wanted to play a brave leading woman. Nobody would have a problem with that. No, but I just parenthetically brave, by the way, is when you say something in people boo.

40:36Or they want to kill you. Yes. Right. Julian Sange's brave. Right. When people cheer rockously, that's somewhat less than brave. Yeah. So, I mean, I guess it does take some courage to come out. But, you know, as I always say, let's live in the year we're living in. And in the year we're living in, it's like, sometimes it's preferable to come out as gay. Yeah. It's rewarded in some circles. I have friends who unfortunately are in the closet who can't come out because they're family. They're worried about the impact of their family, like, grew up in the Midwest, you know, religious family. And, you know, they eat some alive.

41:15They're usually drunk all the time. Like, those guys get it. It's really rough. Yeah, I'm sure. It's rough. I mean, I think this is why gay actors in the past did not come out. I just watched the documentary on Rock Hudson. Did you see that? It was terrific. No, I didn't see it. Okay. Well, obviously this was a different era. You know, it was not even sure. It was unthinkable that Rock Hudson could come out in the, he started in the 50s. Right. The 60s. This was just, we weren't even disgusting homosexuality in those terms. And he was a matinee idol. You know, he was something the women were creaming their jeans over.

41:58So, but nowadays, could a gay man be the romantically, I think there are actors who are gay and are still not out for that very reason? For sure. I'm not going to name names. Yeah. But we don't have to. No, we don't have to. But they exist. They can't move for them. They have to. Right. Keep it under wraps. Right. Yeah. It's, well, we're selling fantasy, especially in a romantic setting, in a romantic movie. I have had multiple people in this podcast that do not believe that gay is just something you're born with. They believe that it's a choice. I've had conversations with people where you're like, have you met Richard Simmons?

42:46Like, you're like, you're crazy? You think that's a fucking choice? Right. The idea that I had one guy who, he compared it to murder. Like you, you might want to kill someone, but you don't do it because it's a sin. I was like, well, but imagine if you were just like, rapidly attracted to women and culturally things were reversed. And for some reason, like women caused reproduction and you don't want more people because we're overpopulated and gay is the only morally right way to pursue sexual activity. Imagine how horrible that would be. It would suck. Well, see, this is why it's so odd to me that gay and trans have wound up in the same grouping, LGBTQ, excuse me, I'm sorry, hate crime, I don't remember all of it.

43:45I think there's a two and an A in there and a plus. Okay. Then that's what I just said. I don't know what the two is. That's two spirit. I saw for, is that what it is? It could be. Oh my God. That's what it is. That's amazing. But what I'm saying is, that is what it is. It is? Oh Jesus. Two spirit. Oh my God. And I'm not sure I could even define two spirit. I didn't even know existed until I saw true dough. True dough rattled off the newest latest list one time. We have to, unlike America, we have to protect our role. Two spirit people. What is it? Um, I don't know. Let's find out what two spirit is.

44:26What does two spirit mean? Two spirit. I think I've heard a OC talk about it too. Oh boy. It's. Okay. Now offensive amongst Native Americans, a person who identifies with any of a variety of gender identities, which are not exclusively those of their biological sex. Yeah. But gender identities, which are not exclusively, how many of them are there? How many gender identities, two spirit? But in that definition, it said transgender. And why do we also need to include it if we have transgender already? Because one person complained, I'm guessing. Well, I believe with Native Americans, that's what they referred to transgender people as.

45:09I think, I think it's the Lakota looked that up. I think it was a, like a protected class in their community because they felt like this person understood both groups. They were biologically male, but they had so many traits of being feminine. They're probably gay men, but they were biologically male that had so many traits of femininity, that they thought they were two spirit. Like this is the type of person that we could come to for guidance because they understand women and they understand men. And so it was thought of that way. The same way. Like they had some like fascinating roles in their culture.

45:45Like one of them was a heyoka, which was the sacred clown. They had a guy who made fun of everything. And if you couldn't make fun of something, it was bullshit. Like if you had the greatest warrior, the biggest chief, the chief's wife, you can make fun of anything. If you couldn't make fun of it, it was bullshit. Like there was something, if you had a hey, don't make fun of that. Everybody's like, well, what is this thing we can't make fun of? Like why can't we make fun of this? Is this a bullshit thing? And it's a good way to detect bullshit. What is this? It's describing what the Lakota have.

46:16And Lakota, there are no pronouns. We don't speak, we don't have she and he and Lakota men will speak differently than women who know their gender based on how they are talking and what words they are using. It's their third gender. And who's the dude in the picture? Two spiritual people. So yeah, it's the Lakota culture. So that's where that term comes from. Well, enjoy it. Lakota, we don't all have to follow. No. Well, also I don't have to remember it. It's too long. You're crazy. But what I was saying was it's odd to me that they grouped them together because in a fundamental way, trans and gay are almost exact opposites because gay is all about I was born this way.

46:55And trans is the way I'm born. Fuck that. Yeah. Jump ball. Right. Let's change that. And that to me seems to be fundamentally different. Well, what scares me about it is what they're doing to children. You know, and I know you have the fucking joke on your show about break out the Dicks. I'll slow. I remember, I remember you said that. I was like, Jesus, Bill. You just went hard. But I'm so glad you're doing that because you just know what else on late night television is ever going to fucking do that on the show. Oh, yeah. But it's terrifying that they're calling it gender affirming care when it's really childhood mutilation before you have the ability to figure out what permanent means.

47:40You're fucking seven years old. You can't get your face tattooed. You can't go to war. You can't get married. There's reasons for all that stuff. You're too young. And this idea that you should be able to make a life -changing choices like hormone blockers, right, which are a not reversible, no matter what the fuck they say. They say it's reversible. No, the changes happen to your body during the puberty. And if you stop those changes, that change is not you can't reverse that. You're going to have a micro penis. You're taking estrogen while your body is developing. You're blocking your testosterone.

48:13If you're doing all that stuff, it's going to have an effect on your body. Now, if you're happy with that effect, you don't care. OK, but how many people aren't and how many people are young and how many detransitioners are there who have horrible stories. And you're a monster and a bigot if you even bring that up, which is fucking insane. I couldn't agree more. They're so cavalier about the medical repercussions. Right. Now, as with all of these things, if this country wasn't so ridiculously polarized, we could come up with some reasonable view on it, which is, is trans a real thing? Of course, are some people born in a body that, for lack of a better term, is doesn't, you know, you're born in the wrong body or your sexuality doesn't match what's in your mind, gender wise?

49:00It does happen. And some of it is trendy. Some of it is just a tick tock challenge that got out of hand. Yeah. Yeah. It's been kind of. OK, it's a social contagion. But even if I was, now this is just me, but I'm allowed my opinion. If I was 100 billion percent convinced, I was born in the wrong body. I still wouldn't do anything to my body because medical considerations come first. But the idea that you can just take some sort of puberty blockers or just snap on, snap off organs without really hurting myself medically and taking years off my life. Right. It's ridiculous. And so I would somehow make it work with whatever, with the equipment I was born with because we're just not that advanced medically to make it work and still be healthy.

49:57Yeah, but the woke perspective is this, they have these terms like gender affirming care. And it sounds so wonderful. Yeah. Gender affirming care. Like body positivity. It sounds like something hugging you. Yes, it's overwhelming. It sounds like something. It's only helping you. Right. They're gender. They're affirming your gender care about you. They're hugging you. This is what it sounds good. This is what Orwell said when you control the language, you control the ideas. Yes. You call it body positivity. You call it gender affirming care and the ideas follow or what people think are ideas. How much heat did you take for the Dixaggio?

50:32A lot. I mean, that whole editorial was basically calling into question, basically what you were saying. And what I mean, the point that I found people who had a hard time arguing with was if this is all real, why is it regional? Why can you go to a dinner party in Los Angeles with like 10 people and half of them have trans kids? Right. And that would never happen in Indiana. Now, maybe some people in Indiana are afraid to come out. That could be true too. I'm sure it is. Just show them. I agree. But it's just ridiculous that it's a regional issue to this degree. So obviously, and I know people who say, oh, yeah, my school, all the kids want to be trans.

51:17It's just not cool to be straight anymore. You know, it's like every generation has to find a way to say to their parents who gave you everything. Fuck you. Right. Whatever you do, I'm going to do different. And for a lot of kids, that now is just gender. My stupid lame parents think that humans are male and female gross. I'm fluid. Okay. But like you say, you know, when you get a little older and you've mutilated your body, you maybe that'll be a decision you're happy with and maybe it won't, but there's no going back. No going back. No going back. Yeah, it's terrifying. It's just terrifying that it's also something that people are making money of.

52:01And this is the one thing I really don't like about Biden is the way, and I know you really hate him. I don't hate him. But the way he just goes along with shit like this, I feel like he doesn't really believe in it. He just, he's just like an old guy who doesn't quite get it, you know, the kids are doing what? Right. But he's like the husband, you know, who doesn't really understand what the kids are into, but he doesn't want to start a big fight about it. So when the wife says, honey, the kids want to cut their dicks off and tear down a statue of Lincoln, he's like, yeah, oh fine, okay, I'm watching the game.

52:41Leave me alone. And so he just goes along with all the woke nonsense because he doesn't want to fight that wing of his party. He can't afford to have a battle on the left. Yeah. So that's my big issue with him. I know you have others. Well, my biggest issue is he lies a lot and he's probably, well, certainly not more than Trump. Oh, please. Come on, man. Well, listen, I think they both lie. I mean, I don't like that more than this guy because I want to just, if you want to talk about Trump, we can talk about Trump, but if you just talk about Biden, I don't think comparing him to Trump doesn't anybody any good.

53:18He's just look at the police situation. He's just running against each other. So it's kind of necessary. It could when, if you want to talk about in terms of an election, but you talk about the terms of the guy who's in the office right now, like why don't I like him? Well, one of the things that I don't like has nothing to do with any of his choices is that he's mentally compromised. I think there's something wrong. And I think it's clear. That's if the other guy isn't. Well, okay, he speaks much clearer. He might be crazy. He is crazy. He's crazy and stupid. Say all those things, but it still doesn't take away from the fact that there's something wrong with Biden.

53:53Like he makes up words. He stumbles through things. It seems like he doesn't know where he is. Half the time. He's very, very old. That's my problem with him. Okay. Well, again, we're living in a world where perfect is not on the menu. These are the choices we're going to have. This is going to be who's running next time. You're going to have a, yes, a dottering old man. Do you definitely think that Biden's going to make it to the 2024 elections because I'm not convinced? Well, who knows? Yeah, he might not. And some might not trump. Right. Both of them could die at any minute. Yeah, absolutely.

54:24When you're like 70, whatever year's old, 78 years old. One is 77, one is 80. Yeah, that's the end of the lot. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you're on E. I mean, right? You might make it to town, but you might die on the side of the road. Yeah, you're on E. There's also blue zones where people live to 100. They don't look like those guys. No, they look better. Yeah, they're thin and active and, you know, Biden's thin. That's trump is not. But he's thin like skeletal thin. Yeah, he's thin like frail. Like frail looks like he's just going to fold down a lot. I'll give you this point. Trump looks a lot and sounds a lot more hearty and robust and healthy.

55:03That's true. He's a city roach. The worst thing he eats the stronger he gets. You cannot kill him. No, I. He's also the only guy that didn't notice of the age. The moment he got it, no, we did. We aged when he was in office. He was fine. You're right. He didn't look like he aged. He just still, he always looks the same. But he's a criminal and he's crazy and he's stupid and crazy and stupid or two different things. When you say crazy, what do you basically? Okay, let me give you an example. Stupid is like Frederick Douglass is alive. Or the stealth bomber is literally invisible. Or nobody knew healthcare was hard to solve.

55:47That's just stupid. He's very stupid. Crazy is like it's important that the crowd at my inauguration was the biggest ever. And I'm going to make an issue of this for the first two weeks of my presidency despite photographic evidence of the contrary. Or I'm going to steal these documents. I don't even know what they are and I don't care. And I'm going to put them next to the toilet at Mar -a -Lago and then I'm going to fight you to take them back or not conceding the election. Those things are crazy or thinking I can somehow charm Kim Jong -un in Korea, although that might be stupid. Sometimes it crosses the line between both.

56:29But he's both stupid and crazy and he's a criminal. He's not being charged in these trials because he's a liar. They purposely didn't do that. Apparently it's okay. It's not illegal to lie to the American people. And of course he did lie and continues to lie. He still hasn't conceded the election which he plainly lost. He's charged with actual crimes. Criminal intent to obscure, to forget what the actual name of the law is, but criminal intent to basically steal the election or to coerce people in the states from, I forget what it is. And then there's one forgery which has to do with the electors scheme.

57:20Criminal intent for - What is the forgery? That's the slate of electors he was putting forward, the fake slate of electors. And then there was the one - Here it is, we can read it. Three counts of solicitation of violation of oath by public officer. So he's trying to get someone to violate their oath. Two counts of conspiracy to commit forgery in the first degree. Two counts of conspiracy to commit false statements and writing. Two counts of false statements and writings. Violation of a Georgia Rico act. Conspiracy to commit impersonating a public officer. Hmm. One of what that is. Conspiracy to commit filing false documents and filing false documents.

58:00Then this is all based on the election results. Well, there's also felony solicitation of violation of oath. Felony solicitation of violation of oath by a public officer. That was what he - When he was talking to Rapsonberger, that's the, I need you to find me 11 ,000 votes. Hmm. There's - There's also one, I mean, there's two - There's two cases about trying to steal the election. One, the national case that Jack Smith is prosecuting, then there's the one in Georgia. Now, they cross paths in a lot. But basically, I mean, yes, he tried every possible way to steal this election. He tried to do it through the courts.

58:39He tried to do it through state legislatures. He tried to do it through intimidating Mike Pence. He tried to do it through the Justice Department. They talked about seizing voting machines. They talked about the - using the army. I mean, you can't really believe that this guy is not worse than Joe Biden. I mean, I agree. Biden is not a great president, and the Hunter Biden stuff is a stinky conspiracy. It's not a conspiracy. It's stinky scandal that stinks to the high heavens. If you think that that in any way compares to what Trump tried to do, you just cannot tell unlike things apart. And you're saying this just based on what happened after the election.

59:21Just that stuff. Yes. That's the criminal part. Yes. If you ever try to steal man his position, like, do you think he really believes they stole the election or you think he's bullshit? It gives a fuck. It doesn't matter. It gives a fuck? Who gives a fuck if he really believes it? But I mean, if he really believes there's evidence that the election was rigged. No, I don't care. No, first of all, that was part of the January 6th Committee's findings. He has multiple people, all the people around him told him that he lost that election, including Bill Barr. And he admitted he had one of his quotes was that they have on record of him saying, I don't want people to know I lost this election.

1:00:03That's kind of crazy. What? He's crazy. That's kind of crazy. I mean, it's insane that you can't let go of the idea that you can't be seen as a loser. There's a certain, there's a, I always said this in the beginning. It all comes back to, he is a clinical case of malignant narcissism. It's not just a quirk. It's actually in the big book of crazy, you know, that, I mean, it's a real thing. And it affects everything he thinks and does. It's why foreign leaders were able to curry favor with him. All they had to do was kiss his ass and they got whatever they wanted. Do I really think that he wants to help brush and puttin?

1:00:43I think puttin had him as soon as he said, Trump is a brilliant man. Good, you got me. It doesn't take that much. He's a dangerous guy. The idea that he could be president again, as opposed to Joe Biden. Again, Joe Biden, not my first choice, not my hundredth choice, but the other guy is a crazy stupid criminal. Do you like anybody on the right that's opposing? Do you like Vivek? I know you had Vivek on your podcast recently. I think it's Vivek. Vivek? That's, I mean, I heard him in his rap, he says Vivek, it rhymes with cake. Okay. Vivek. Well, as I said to him on the podcast, I find you both disarming and alarming.

1:01:29What do you find alarming? Well, he wants to abolish like half the government. Yeah. Some of the government could be abolished. I mean, a lot of the government is a big fucking waste. What do you think is a big waste? Well, I'm not sure the, I wouldn't abolish the Department of Education, but considering how stupid our kids are, there's a lot of answering to do there. I mean, I'm not sure that a national Department of Education has done us any good because kids have just gotten stupider and stupider and stupider. It used to be that they didn't know anything, but they could read about things if they wanted to.

1:02:15Now they can't even read. Now part of that was because of the horrible policies during the pandemic. Yes. But also it's just been going downhill and it starts, of course, at colleges. I mean, that's where this woke rot begins. It all seeps down. What goes on at universities, elite universities in this country is insane. Have you ever seen that Russian defector Yuri Besmanov? He detailed the Soviet Union's plan for the moral decay of the United States by introducing Marxists and Leninism into school, Marxism and Leninism in his school, Marxist and Leninist ideas, and that these would be ingrained in younger people and then they would go into the workforce and then they would slowly but surely ruin the society through this.

1:03:15It's a fascinating conversation because it's in 1984 that he's talking about this. Wow. What a perfect year to talk about. What a perfect year to talk about. Yeah. I think it was 1984. It's in the 80s for sure. But it's a fascinating. You've never seen it? No. You should watch it. I've never heard of this guy. What's his name? Former KGBB name Yuri Alexandrovich Besmanov claimed in 1984 that Russia had a long -term goal of ideologically subverting the US. He described the process as a great brainwashing that is four basic stages. The first stage he said is called demoralization, which would take about 20 years to achieve.

1:03:53It's really fascinating. When you hear him talk, it's fascinating because that's exactly what they did. But I don't know if they did it. I think it's definitely been done. Uh -huh. But did it come from Russia and how did it come from Russia? Well, he explained it. He used example in 1960s hippies coming to the positions of power in the 1980s and government and businesses in America. Besmanov claimed this generation was already contaminated by Marxist -Leninist values. Of course, this claim that many baby boomers are somehow espousing KGB -tainted ideas is hard to believe. But Besmanov's larger point addressed why people who have been gradually demoralized are unable to understand that this has happened to them.

1:04:35Referring to such people, Besmanov said, they are programmed to think and react to certain stimuli and a certain pattern. You cannot change their mind, even if you expose them to authentic information. If you prove that white is black and black is black, you still cannot change the basic perception and logic of behavior. Demoralization is a process that is irreversible. Besmanov actually thought back in 84 at the process of demoralizing America was already completed. It would take another generation and another couple of decades. Here we are, to get the people to think differently and return to their patriotic American values, claim the agent.

1:05:11In what is perhaps the most striking passage in the interview, Besmanov described the state of a demoralized person as mentioned before, exposure to true information does not matter anymore. A person who is demoralized is unable to assess true information. The facts tell nothing to him. Even if I shower him with information, with authentic proof, with documents, with pictures, even if I take him by force to the Soviet Union and show him a concentration camp, he will refuse to believe it until he has a kick in his fan bottom. When a military boot crashes his balls, then he will understand. But not before that.

1:05:45That is the tragedy of a situation of demoralization. I still don't understand how this got from Russia into us. He explains it in the interview. It is a long interview. How would you know? He explains what they did now. It is certainly possible because colleges have become so left -wing. There is no diversity on college campuses. Yeah, none. Especially the elite schools, which turn out the people who then control the military media. They are the ones who go into the places, the organs of government, the organs of media that are most influential in our society.

1:06:26It is coming from, and of course, they teach Marx, Andrew Sullivan wrote a great piece about this about six months ago. Carl Marx is one of the most taught economists in all these elite colleges. And of course, a lot of what Carl Marx was about would never pass muster with anyone whose woke. He was a horrible racist. Very few of his beliefs were something that they would countenance today. Same thing with Shaguvaera. Right. Terrible person. Well, he had to look though. He looks great on a teacher. He's a teacher. He's a teacher. He's a teacher. He's a teacher. Yeah. They think these people are heroes.

1:07:11Yeah. And sadly, because colleges turn out nothing but America hating hysterics these days, ignorant, just a historical students who are not taught any of the things I used to be taught of in school, partly because we had the sin of learning what white people did. I mean, I'm sorry, but John Stuart Mill was white. He had some good ideas. But Shakespeare, it's okay to, you can be anti -racist and still study some great white people. But some of that is just outtray on college campuses these days. But how do you think that happened? That's a great question. I'm sure somebody did write a book or somebody should write a book about that.

1:08:05I mean, obviously it's slow and over time.

1:08:12And yeah, I don't know. I don't know. But we've got in 1984 that saw it coming. Yeah. Yeah. If you listen to, I'll send it to you. You should listen to it. But a lot of the things that happen. It's fascinating. Something like a third of students think people under 25 or something, think communism might be worth another try. Because again, if you don't learn the past, then you don't know. And if you just discount anything old people like us say, what would you know? Well, we were around when communism was around. And we know it's horrible. There was no greater nightmare, visited upon humans than communism.

1:08:53And by the way, the reason Russia is still such a basket case is because the legacy of communism. When you fuck with people's minds the way they did, they're like in Russia today is like a kid who was abused as a child. They're just not going to be whole as an adult for quite a while. Yeah. I just can't understand how the institutions of higher learning wouldn't understand the value of rigorous discourse. The value of even having conservative speakers come in where you could debate with them. When I was a kid, when I was 14 years old, Barney Frank had a debate with a guy from one of those like hard, right America.

1:09:41I forget what it was called. I forget what organization he was in, but it was some sort of tea party type thing. On campus? Yeah. And when I was in high school. And it was fascinating because they allowed these two people to speak and the America first guy or whatever it was, whatever the company, whatever the group he was a part of spoke. And it was kind of clunky. And then Barney Frank was brilliant. It was eloquent. It was funny. It was great. It was awesome. I love him. And you got a great sense of walking out of there. Oh, his ideas make more sense. His ideas were better. And that is discouraged.

1:10:21Now you don't want to platform people with the wrong ideas, which is just like, there's only one way to find out if they're the wrong ideas. You test them. You test them against better ideas. And everybody learns that way. And when I was a kid, people understood that. And it was before the age of echo chambers and social media. And people believed in freedom of speech and rigorous discourse. They believed in debates. I mean, those famous debates that were on television between Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley. I mean, those to this day are fascinating debates. They're really interesting. And the fact that those aired on television, they got an enormous audience back then.

1:11:03It's really, it's a shame that today, anybody who has differing opinions than you, you shun and you never platform them. And the problem is, it just makes them more convinced. They're being silenced and it makes their supporters like every time they arrest Trump, he gets more supporters. More people are more interested in it. They think, oh, they're suppressing people are suppressing. And that's what the danger is with all this stuff. It's a danger of censorship and social media. And you know, there's just so much of it today. There's just so much of this echo chamber idea. And it's so stupid.

1:11:38It's so bad to not have discourse. It's horrible how little gets in. I mean, when I debate, you know, friendly debate, I'm just like with people. Sure. I'm just always amazed at what they has never gotten on their radar. Yeah. I mean, like really obvious things. And I remember the first time I had George Will on, and the first thing I said to him is, you know, reading you all these years has kept my liberalism honest. Because he's such a brilliant writer and thinker. And he's so precise and he's a master of the telling detail. And I don't think he ever wrote a column that didn't make me think.

1:12:23You know, and sometimes change my mind. Like because the way he puts it down is like, how can you argue with that? I didn't know that. And I didn't see it in that perspective. Maybe I don't agree with everything, but at least it made me examine. And people, things today, people don't even want to do that. Right. They don't want that. Well, that's the only one that fed back to them. The echo media, the echo social media echo chambers. It's a real problem because it's really discouraged to go against the grain. It's very discouraged to go against ideology. I mean, MSNBC, for example, now I always made fun of Fox News and they richly deserve it.

1:13:09MSNBC, I felt used to be somewhat different. But MSNBC has become a place that I think lies by omission. I think Fox sometimes just out and out lied, but they do the same thing. They lie by omission. They always have. Like, no matter what Trump did, Tucker Carlson would do a show about some crazy professor. Right. You know, which wasn't not happening too. Right. It just wasn't the story of the day. You know, Japan destroyed by earthquake. Well, that's topic number five. Right. Okay. So MSNBC, I feel like now is in that category and I feel like the reason is their hosts know that they get ratings sometimes taken by the minute.

1:14:08But certainly I think by the 15 minute mark, you know, they know exactly how much the audience is liking or not liking what they're saying. And the audience does not want to hear something that they don't think they already know and they already believe. So are they going to cover that story that might get people to question what they know? Of course not. Because otherwise they'll get fired. Yeah. You know, they had a few people on there who weren't like fully in the tank. Remember that guy Ed Schultz? Yeah. Gone. Yeah. Too reasonable. Well, not hate ink. Who hate ink Matt Taibe's book is basically saying that Rachel Maddo has become Bill O 'Reilly.

1:14:54No, it's basically the same thing. He's basically saying that it's not even there anymore. Rachel Maddo. I believe she's occasionally there. Oh, yeah. I mean, she just interviewed Hillary Clinton. I believe that was MSNBC. Was it? I think she's just got a different position now. She probably got burnt out. Slue and propaganda is hard on the back. You know, always, always dig in. Well, I mean, Rachel Maddo is smart. Very smart. Yeah. Okay. And again, I think it's not that they're unaware of some of these other perspectives. They just don't want to burden their audience with it. Well, she was one of the biggest purveyors of actual real misinformation during the pandemic.

1:15:39Because she was one of the people telling people if you get this shot, you will not get COVID. The virus stops with you and we can go back to normal. They already know everybody was saying that. Well, she was saying it like very openly and in ways that are absolutely incorrect. That's what biking said. Yeah. Get the shot and you'll be okay. Yeah. She was saying it worse than him literally. But she's smarter and younger and also has access to the studies. One of the people in the first Pfizer study died from COVID. One of the people that got the virus died. Two people in the placebo group died.

1:16:18That is literally where they came up with the term 100 % effective. Do you know that? No. Because two is 100 % more than one. I didn't believe that. I said that's bullshit. And then Robert Kennedy Jr. sent me an email with like the actual studies. And I read it and I was like, holy shit. They can do that. Like they can just, that's just a lie. That's not 100%. Right. That's like whatever the percentage is, you get 2000 people. One of them's dead. That's that percentage. Like that's the real percentage. Like this is, it's not 100%. That's crazy. I mean, what about the way they demonized the Ivermectin thing?

1:16:58Yeah. I mean, it's a drug, not a politician. Right. I mean, why that was something like that would ever become politicized? Especially a drug that I believe when it first came out in 2015, was it? I think it won the Nobel Prize. I guess. Okay. I think it wiped out some disease in Africa. Yellow fever. Yellow fever. It's an anti -paracidic, but it shows it stops viral replication and vitro. It does have some sort of an effect and there's, we're actually going to have a debate about it with the scientist and another guy who doesn't believe in it. It's a fascinating thing because it's like getting mad at aspirin.

1:17:37Right. It's like, if it works for you and it plainly works for some people and works on a lot of things, I just don't understand that mentality. Well, you know why they did it, right? Well, I mean, it certainly was important if you wanted to create a monopoly for the vaccine. Well, not just a monopoly, but the Emergency Use Authorization Act. In order to utilize the Emergency Use Authorization, they had to have no other remedies. There was no other effective treatment. And so any effective treatment, specifically one that was, I mean, at the time, COVID or Ivermectin, rather, had been around long enough that it was generic.

1:18:21So no one owned the patent on it. So anyone can manufacture it. It was like seven cents a dose. It's nothing. It costs nothing. Well, we can't have that. We can't have that. And that's also why they tried to discourage and then eventually suppress people from getting monoclonal antibodies. They didn't want any sort of way that you could get over this without taking their medicine. I find it so curious that liberals were always, you know, so skeptical about corporate America. Yeah. Including the pharmaceutical industry, but this thing came along. And suddenly, and it wasn't as if we didn't just have a giant example, the Sackler family, of Purdue pharmaceuticals, right?

1:19:08Makers of oxycontin and other fine poisons. Okay. I mean, they were find what was it eight billion dollars, I think, for selling their hillbilly heroin to people, knowing that they were a hooking people and they wound up killing hundreds of thousands of people. At least. So it's not that we don't know that they're capable of this shit. Right. So for to throw your allotted and then for the media to be the, basically the, the trumpet of government on this issue. So we didn't have a watchdog on government and what they were telling us. We just had somebody who amplified what they said. That's extremely dangerous.

1:19:49Have you read Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s book on Fauci? I read his, the real Anthony Fauci. I think, no, I read a book. I think it's the same stuff. It's, I read it before he came on Club random. It was like a letter to the, I think it was called a letter to liberals or something where he was basically pleading his case. Listen to me. I'm not a cook. It was all the information about, you know, how the vaccine did in other countries and stuff and, you know, the book, it sent, a lot of the book, specifically the beginning of the book centers on the AIDS crisis. Right. And it was a horrible, horrible misuse of medicine with, with AZT and what they did.

1:20:36I mean, AZT was killing people quicker than cancer was. So they stopped using it as a chemotherapy. Yes. I know that. They've never had a chemotherapy that you said that you have to stay on. And this was the first one they did and everybody who took it died, including people that were asymptomatic before they got on it like Arthur Ash. It's spooky shit, man, because if it is true, if he is accurate and he's not getting sued for it, it's a fucking terrifying that they're willing to do that to make that kind of money. Yeah. I mean, I don't know about that. I do know that he has a lot to answer for for the Wuhan lab and the gain of function research.

1:21:13And even if he was well meaning, it was a terrible decision. The terrible. Obama stopped that in 2014. You know, Obama put a halt to that in 2014. He was like, what the fuck are you guys doing? You guys are making viruses worse. Right. Right. And also, you don't have a fucking cure for them. Right. If you're going to work on viruses, shouldn't it be just working on a cure? Well, I'm sure that that was their intent. Was it? I don't know. They didn't do it. I think the intent is to get research money. I think the intent is to get research money and to continue your studies. I really think that's the intent because it doesn't seem like the intent was, let's make sure that we have a cure for this stuff.

1:21:58Well, I would hope that would be what they were trying to do. I would hope too. I mean, I like to hope people are good. No. I mean, other than that, you're saying what they were doing was purposely creating a bio -weapon. I don't say that. I don't use those terms. But I have heard other people use those terms. I think it's a little extreme. I think what they were doing was capitalizing on the money that you get from research. And there's a lot of money that goes into research and Fauci controlled where that money went. That's part of what was going on. I think that's a lot of it. If you're a bio -engineer and this is your occupation, is to genetically engineer viruses, you want to do that.

1:22:38That's what you do. And you want to continue this work and continue this study, whether or not it's good for the world. And that's what Obama thought it wasn't. And then Trump came along and apparently there was so much chaos that Fauci slipped it back in. And Trump disbanded the bio -defense force. It was pennies to have this little small group of people over there who were watching this. He said, oh no, we've got to save the money. It cost us $6 trillion. Yeah. Again, stupid, stupid, crazy criminal. Do you think that if he didn't do that, they would have had a solution to this? I don't know.

1:23:17But I think if we had a little team over there keeping an eye on those people, which we didn't, it might have gone a little better. It could be. Yeah. But Joe, I got to be on stage in one hour. You got to go kick some ass. I could talk to you all day. I could talk to you all day too. I love talking to you. I love listening to you. I love listening to you. Thank you. I know you'd never going to come back to California. Well, I go back to visit and go, who? Right. Doze up, but. Right. But if you do, and you want to call me, I'll always be around. Thank you, sir. All right. Thanks for coming on. Appreciate you very much.

1:23:51Club random. It's available on YouTube. Is it on all the other stuff too? Yeah. Everything. I only watch on YouTube. I'm sure it is. It's great though. I really enjoy it. I'm glad you're doing it. I appreciate that. I'm glad you do it too, like the way you do it. You smoke joints, drink whiskey, have some fun. Oh, yeah. I like it. It's just about fun. Yes. So, and again, I appreciate you paying the way. My pleasure, brother. Have a good time tonight. Thank you. I love Austin. I'm going to keep it weird. All right. Bye, everybody.