In this episode of Fighting Matters, Steve Kwan (BJJ Mental Models), Jesse Walker (Rough Hands BJJ), and Stephan Kesting (Grapplearts) dive into the chaos of America’s accelerating news cycle. From Charlie Kirk’s assassination to Trump’s authoritarian rhetoric, from RFK Jr.’s war on science to the weaponization of “cancel culture,” the team unpacks why democracy feels like it’s collapsing in real time.

Together, they explore how “flooding the zone” with scandals makes it impossible to process events, why speech and violence aren’t the same but are getting dangerously blurred, and how propaganda is rewriting history before our eyes. Along the way, they connect politics back to the martial arts community, asking whether it’s even possible to “keep politics out of Jiu-Jitsu” when the very freedoms that allow us to train are under threat.

The takeaway: democracy doesn’t collapse in one big moment; it dies fast, in floods of outrage, distraction, and chaos.

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👥 Featuring:

Stephan Kesting — Grapplearts, Essential Wilderness
Steve Kwan — BJJ Mental Models
Jesse Walker — Rough Hands BJJ

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🧠 Topics We Cover:

• The “flood the zone” strategy and why chaos is the point
• Charlie Kirk’s assassination and his canonization into a martyr
• Trump’s public calls to prosecute political enemies
• Stephen Miller’s funeral speech vs. Joseph Goebbels’ rhetoric
• Speech vs. violence — where’s the real line?
• Jimmy Kimmel, the FCC, and government-driven censorship
• Free speech absolutism and its real limits
• The weaponization of propaganda inside martial arts spaces

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📖 Chapters:

00:00 Introduction to Fighting Matters
01:02 Round Robin: The Week’s Most Insane News
06:43 Charlie Kirk’s Assassination & Fallout
15:20 Stephen Miller’s Speech vs. Nazi Parallels
20:14 Capitulation, Propaganda, and Corporate Cowardice
27:02 Speech vs. Violence: Where’s the Line?
33:45 Social Media, Disinformation, and Civil War Rhetoric
40:01 Free Speech Absolutism Debunked
47:35 The Charlie Kirk Memorial as Propaganda Theater
54:35 RFK Jr., Autism, and Attacks on Science
01:01:12 Polio, Vaccines, and the Return of Preventable Diseases
01:05:30 Cognitive Dissonance and the MAGA Movement
01:09:00 Closing Thoughts & Where to Find Us