BREAKING: Announcement from Ben Meiselas

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0:44Ben Meiselas:We have a major announcement we are making today here at the Midas Touch Network, and I am so proud to be able to share it with you first. My brothers and I are releasing our first book. It's called WTF America, the way out of this hell and back to democracy. WTF America. That is how I feel every morning when I wake up. WTF, how did we get here? How do we get out of here? And how did three brothers, me and my two brothers, with no political backgrounds, with no background in journalism. How did we create the Midas Touch Network, grow the Midas Touch Network into one of the biggest news organizations in the world, champion independent media in general, rally a pro-democracy movement, and continue to fight not just each and every day to make our days better right now, but to fight for future generations.

1:51Ben Meiselas:And one of the things we talk about a lot in this book is you. It's the Midas Mighty. It is the power of the people and how the most important thing that I always tell everybody is listening. You have to listen to what the people are saying. You have to listen to what the people are feeling. You have to understand the pain that people are going through and understand the aspirations that people have, what people want for themselves, their community, for their kids and grandkids, for future generations. It starts with listening, and then you have to deliver, not some political talking points. You have to deliver with action, with empathy, with love.

2:40Ben Meiselas:You have to genuinely care. That's a lot what we talk about in WTF America. And so I'm not going to give away everything in the book, but we talk about how my brothers and I started the Midas Touch Network when we were on a text chain during COVID and we were all at home and we were worried and we just decided maybe if we put together our various skill sets, me as a lawyer and litigator, Brett as a top digital editor, Jordy as a top marketer, maybe we can just get out these messages into the world and we could do our best to see if there are other people out there who are experiencing what we're experiencing.

3:30Ben Meiselas:And we found this incredible community with you, with the Midas Mighty. And we talk about that a lot in this book, WTF America. And then we talk about the growth of the Midas Touch Network. We talk about the future of the Midas Touch Network, but then we talk about what we cover at the Midas Touch Network. And we talk about how did this authoritarian fascist movement arise in the United States? How were the kind of preconditions and precursors kind of all building for generations to allow this authoritarian movement to rise? As you know, at the Midas, I don't mince words. I call the Trump regime a regime.

4:16Ben Meiselas:I make it very clear that this is an authoritarian and repressive regime, and I call it out. And so how did a regime that was filled with disinformation, lies, and hate, how did it metastasize, expand, and take power? And how do we avoid this in the future? Obviously, how do we fight it right now? How do we deal with it right now? But how do we get out of this constant cycle where you'll have a Trump break things and destroy things and be the arsonist? And then when the firefighters come out to put out the fire, the arsonist blames the firefighter as though they are the arsonist. And I talk about the responsibility, and me and my brothers talk a lot about the responsibility of the media.

5:08Ben Meiselas:And that when the fourth estate really revealed their true colors, when the Trump regime came into power, they showed what bootlickers they are and how they kissed the ring and they would all go to Mar-a-Lago. Remember that whole disgusting humiliation parade? That's who they always were. And they always wanted to gamify politics. For them, this coverage is not life or death. It's a job. It's about access. It's about fame. It's about going to the White House correspondence and dressing up and acting all Hollywood. And that's why when we created this, we showed, you know what? We can speak to the people from our living rooms.

5:49Ben Meiselas:We can speak to the people with my dogs barking in the background. Now with the love of my life, other love of my life, my little baby. You could hear a crying in the background, what I'm doing takes, but getting that information out quickly, getting that information out accurately, connecting with the community and building a true movement, an authentic movement rooted in you, rooted in the Midas Mighty. That's a lot what we talk about in WTF America, the way out of this hell and back to democracy. And each of the chapters begin with WTF this, WTF that, WTF this, WTF that. And we talk about how Donald Trump engages in these kind of various scams, how he engages in the schemes, how the way America is being run into the ground is very similar to how Donald Trump bankrupted and ran into the ground, his businesses.

6:50Ben Meiselas:I draw on my background as somebody who was involved in some of the most high stakes litigation. That's what I did before the Midas Touch Network. I was a partner at a law firm and did high stakes litigation. I was in some of the biggest, most culturally significant and high profile mediations and negotiations where real deals were made, not fake deals were made. We talk about how my brothers draw on their marketing experience and Brett draws on his digital editing experience, how you can kind of translate getting out truthful information into modern mediums to get out information quickly. We talk about, give an example of Donald Trump's constant cover-ups, whether it's the Epstein files, whether it is quite literally everything that he covers up.

7:49Ben Meiselas:We talk about in the book how the reflecting pool is, and I've always been saying this, but every day it becomes more and more clear how the reflecting pool is a perfect symbol of kind of all of Donald Trump's fraudulent schemes. Just paint it blue. Just paint it blue and everything will be great. And then when it doesn't, you scapegoat. You blame the vandals and they tore it and I'm gonna prosecute them. And the grievance and the anger and the lies and the constant fraud and how, you know, just this painted blue approach. And then when you screw it up, you find your target. You find who you're gonna scapegoat.

8:31Ben Meiselas:That's what Trump did with COVID. That's what Trump's done his entire life. It's why he winds, Obama did it. Biden did it. This person did it. This person did it. And at the end of the day, we need to be solution-oriented. We need to figure stuff out. We need responsible adults in governance. And so we talk a lot about that as well in WTF America. And what I don't shy away from is talking about leading with values and leading with principles and fighting for marginalized communities and fighting for civil rights, standing up for people, punching back against the bullies, punching up, not punching down, just fighting, fighting for people, fighting for all people to be, you know, to be happy and live thriving lives.

9:22Ben Meiselas:You know, I, of course, you know, there was always early on, there was always people who were like, you know, can, can Ben and Midas Touch be like the next Joe Rogan and Manosphere and all of this stuff. And I've always, I've always rejected that. Remember, just kind of from the very outset. And I talk about how this behavior that I observe from the so-called manosphere of bullying, of mocking people, of lying all the time, you know, I was viewed that as like, that's when I grew up, that's the least alpha behavior out there. I don't know what the hell that even is. And, you know, when I grew up, the bullies weren't the cool people.

10:04Ben Meiselas:It was the people who stood up for people. It was the people who spoke authentically and were truth tellers and who made decisions and who didn't lie. I mean, to me, that right there was always the people I looked up to and I admired. And so WTF America is a broader theme than just Trump did this, Trump did that, Trump did this, Trump did that. As we talk about Trump is a vessel, and we connect this to the international landscape as well. Trump is a vessel that we see played out when Orban was leading Hungary. We see it in Javier Malay in Argentina. We see it in Bukele in El Salvador. We see it in the rise of right-wing, ultra-so-called nationalist parties in Europe.

10:55Ben Meiselas:I mean, this is, you know, Trump is a vessel for this type of destructive thinking. And we talk about the landscape of how we went from, you know, this idea of liberal democracies growing with enlightened thinking internationally to how it's under attack by authoritarian forces right now. And that there are bigger issues even at play than just kind of the day-to-day politics, which need to be addressed. But we need to get out of this loop. We need to reframe the arc towards freedom, to democracy, towards empathy, for advancing human rights, for protecting each other. And I talk about the existential issue of these oligarchs and often these right-wing oligarchs who are out there constantly taking and taking and taking and beating everybody down and can never satiate their greed.

11:56Ben Meiselas:It's always more, more, more, more, more, more, more. And how do we stop that? How do we get out of the cycle? How do we empower people? As my dogs are barking, they may have some ideas as well. So here's the book. WTF America, The Way Out of This Hell and Back to Democracy. I spent a long time writing this with my brothers. I hope you will enjoy it. You could pre-order it right now. Check it out with the pre-order. There's a link in the description below. You can hit the QR code above. Get your pre-order right now. We're grateful for you. WTF America, WTF America, The Way Out of This Hell and back to democracy.