More Content Talk

The land lords tossed everyone out on their ass a month or so back, and just in time for labor day! Because they care, you see? They love you so much that they have to show some tough love and cause massive homelessness and starvation. That is just how landlords get down. Landlords are the real original gangsters after all. What a hustle! I mean, charge people ridiculously high amounts of rent until they can no longer pay, then increase the rent again so that they have to move out, refurbish your piece of shit property (apartment buildings often contains dangerous toxins like asbestos so even if they look nice, they are just as shitty as a dive motel on the bad side of town), then sell that crappy property with a new fresh coat of paint to idiots moving here from out of town. That surely is the life, as long as you do not have a conscience and, trust me, landlords have no conscience; it's not in the lease agreement for them to have a conscience. They could care less what happens to you, your children or your family. They don't care about you and they make no pretense about caring about you. They want to make money and you cannot make money without screwing people over. The truth hurts the feelings of landlords because it makes them look bad. But who cares how they look? Did they care how you looked sitting outside of your apartment on the street? I don't think so. Of course the surge in the delta variant was increased by the evictions. Of course. What else would happen? But did you know the former head of the CDC and Dr Fauci have both made predictions that a new, perhaps even deadlier mutation of the virus is coming to an empty theater, grocery store, school, church, or home near you? That's right. They said it, not me. Don't kill the messenger. Did you think that your life would just go back to normal after evicting all those people? Well, think again. About 750,000 Americans have been kicked out...so far. But that is just the beginning. According to Goldman Sachs about 3.5 million Americans are behind on rent and more evictions are expected over the next few months. In other words, you have not even begun to feel the blowback from these evictions. But you will. You will. You cannot escape the ramifications for such a heartless act, for siding with business interests instead of people like yourselves. It will come back to haunt you and it will continue to haunt you for a long time in the form of increased crime and the spread of disease. It is rumored that the new variant has a possibility of decreasing vaccine efficacy and Dr. Fauci has not denied this claim. In fact, he said it is a very real possibility. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong. You cannot stop that scientific fact. It is more powerful than your spirituality or your ideological preferences. Deny reality all you want. Go on, be selfish. Let your heart run free. Be more positive. Hell, do whatever you like. All I ask is that you remember this. It does not matter how hard you pray; it does not matter how loud you whine. No matter how many drugs you do or people you sleep with or how many gurus you seek out, you will never escape Murphy's Law.   

Motivational speakers suck. There, I said it. I know you were thinking it so I finally just let it be known. The best part about knowing someone like me is that I am willing to say what you have been told not to say. We are taught, incorrectly, that if a person means well then we should simply allow them to spew insanity on the internet. This is considered "good" behavior. Fuck that. I am not going to sit here and allow someone to lie for profit regardless of what their intentions are. I have already lost everything dear to me. So, I have nothing to lose, nothing at all. I can go there. I am willing to let the truth be known. One of the reasons I started this show was to provide you with that service, so that you too could have a voice in this world full of get rich quick schemes. Motivational speaking is essentially a pompous ass with a youtube channel and a book contract who gets paid to edit together motivational speeches from celebrities. They have nothing to offer other than pretty editing and flowery language. Sure, it makes you feel better for as second, an hour or maybe even a few days, but that feeling does not last long term and there is no evidence that it makes people more productive either. It is not sustainable. What you are experiencing when you get these feel good speeches is nothing more than the placebo effect. Had you taken a sugar pill you would have felt just as good; actually the sugar pill probably would have made you feel better because at least that provides you with a bit of energy from the sugar in the pill. There is no sugar that comes from motivational speeches. There is no substance either. All it is is a bunch of idiots prattling on about how you can be Denzel Washington too if you just work harder or take the right course or read the right book or have your chi aligned just so. That's funny because last I checked you needed to know a millionaire or two or three to even have a chance of becoming Denzel Washington, and, unless you do, that just ain't going to happen. If motivational speakers were sincere in their supposed hunt for optimization of the human species, they would tell you that you should start small and work your way up to the bigger goals. They would tell you that you should be satisfied with the goals that you had already accomplished and that you should try setting more attainable goals initially. This would boost your confidence naturally because it would be you actively doing something instead of them yelling at you to change who you are, as if you are one of their failed human experiments or something. But motivational speakers are not sincere. They want your money. They want to sell you instant gratification in exchange for your instacart funds. But there is no such thing as instant gratification. So, really, they are selling you a big nothing salad with extra bullshit sauce on the side. Hungry? Yeah, I didn't think so. 

I often have people ask me what I think of the usage of the word nigger, and when I mean often, I mean all the goddamn time. This is a frequent occurrence if you are black in the United States of America. It is as if white people come to black people so that we can give them a "getaway with racism free card" so they do not feel bad about their negative thoughts about black people. These white people believe that, as long as they have their friends' permission to be racist that it is just honky dory and all is well or they believe that, as long as they are quoting Tupac or some other rapper, that it is all good in the hood. For a short time, back when I had been convinced by society that I was worthless, I very stupidly agreed with this very immature and ignorant interpretation of free speech rights. Did you know that white people in early American frequently got into duels (a fancy term for a shootout) all because of a simple insult? That's right, you had the right to say as much stupid shit as you wanted back then, and someone also had the right to kill you for it...legally. Back before I knew real history, I did not know just how often hate speech has historically led to violence. Back then I was giving people the benefit of the doubt. I was assuming that the only reason white people wanted to say nigger was because they thought it was funny. I was not asking myself why they thought it was funny or who taught them that it was funny in the first place. I did not know that their desire to say the word nigger was simply a part of the same American "culture" that thinks its cool to fly the rebel confederate flag and that thinks shooting black teenagers dead in the street is no call for alarm. Yeah, that culture. The culture that also thought it was just fine not to hire black people, to just let us slowly starve to death, to "breed us out" as the social darwinists referred to it. This is also the same culture that hates black humor by the way because it's too loud, too expressive, too emotive, too black, you see? It's the same "culture" that does not allow black people to play major roles because it is too "unrealistic" for us to come from happy families, for us to live healthy lives, for us to eat anything other than slave food, for us to be lawyers or doctors or artists. Yes, the culture that convinced you that all black people are high school dropouts with drug problems who deserve to be executed in the street. The same culture that taught you that a dog was more valuable to society than a young black boy. Yes, that "culture", the culture that thought it was just fine to try to kill elected officials, to crucify Mathew Shepard, to intimidate Hatian immigrants, to philosophize about Jewish space lasers. That's right, that culture. The Bill Maher culture. The Joe Rogan culture. The Ben Shapiro culture. The hooded buffoons burning crosses are smarter than black college grads culture. The "hey, it's just a swastika, no big deal" culture. Yeah, that same old stupid ass crackhead culture that has caused destruction everywhere it has gone. No, I don't think white people should go around saying nigger this and nigger that. It's not funny. It's not edgy. It's not even human. It's stupid. But don't you worry. Don't you cry snow flakes. I am not going to censor you. Natural selection will take care of that soon enough. Time is on my side. 

Lying Larry Elder lost big in California recently. I realized I have mentioned this in other episodes, but I had to set one aside just for Carlton...I mean, Larry, Larry because Carlton...I mean Larry is a big fat liar. That's right, I said it. I said it and I'm not ever going to take it back. I am also not going to say it in a nice way either. I am not going to hem and haw like some politicians and pretend that there is any "common ground" with this very common thug. You heard me. I called Larry Elder's lying ass a thug. Thugs like Larry Elder get away with their crimes way too often all because people respect people who walk around in suits and make money. That does not impress me one bit. It does not impress me when I see a black man wearing a suit, throwing his money all over the place and acting like I have to respect him because of that. That does not even impress me when rappers do it, and I actually like rap! I don't like anything about conservatism so you better damn well believe I don't like anything about Larry Elder. There is this common misconception about black people that we will all flock to the magical black savior whenever he runs for office. Get that arrogant dipped in ignorance notion out of your mind right now. Just because you are black does not mean that you will get my vote, and you better believe that is why Elder was chosen. They thought they could get blacks and Latinos to vote for this fool and I am proud to report that they did not even come close. Part of the reason for this is because Latinos actually believe in science far more than the average conservative. For example, Catholic Latinos have been vaccinated at a far higher rate than all other religious ethnic groups; they are second only to atheists in this category. But the GOP mafia assumed that Latinos would just fall in line and vote for them because they are Catholics. How insulting! Latinos responded to this very open insult to their intelligence by voting in favor of keeping Gavin Newsom in office by a whopping 66% to 33%! Black people were not different, voting overwhelmingly to keep Governor Newsom. That should show you that minorities are not stereotypes. We do not vote for candidates simply because they have our skin color. Get that out of your mind. Larry Elder lied about vaccines, he lied about masks, he lied when he stated that minimum wages are bad ideas, he lied when he told Californians he was concerned about them. He's a liar, a damn, dirty liar. That may work in Texas, but it does not work in California. By the way, Larry Elder looks like Carlton from the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I hear he has the same dance moves too. 

The hatred of intellectuals and their factual information is no new thing in American politics. In fact, it is as old as America itself. Ever since the days of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton there have been two warring ideologies at play in American politics: the first is based in science and the other is based in belief. The belief at war with science is that everyday people can just fart their thoughts out into the world and, all of a sudden, with no hard work or talent whatsoever, cure diseases and make efficient policy decisions. We saw this arrogance recently when Lying Larry Elder decided he could be in charge of the most populous state in the union, which also happens to have the most complex constitution by the way, all because he thought mask mandates were a bummer. And did you see the throng of morons who agreed with him? Sure, most of them were not from California, but they were all over social media, spreading this idea that not knowing anything is somehow a qualification for being a successful politician. How stupid do you have to be to think that ignorance equals qualified? The separation of church and state was added to the constitution because the founders knew that the two could not possibly co-exist without tearing each other apart. Well, that line drawn by the founders between belief and science has been immensely blurred, so much so that many Americans I speak to today, regardless of political or spiritual affiliation, are actually convinced that they are smarter than trained professionals. This should be extremely alarming to anyone reading this, not because I am some stuff shirt who enjoys getting on my knees for scientists, but because not all experts are hacks promoting party lines or corporate sponsors. Quite the contrary, most experts get paid a modest salary. They are normal people like you and I. So, what comes next after the denial of science from people on television or people teaching at universities? Which scientific facts will be torn down after all the doctors have been chased away? After all the schools have been restaffed with church going buffoons? Will foolish people be permitted to take other positions of import, like fire chief or head chef? Will it become mandatory for everyone to be an idiot to be employed? Will we have to burn books again? Will we be forced to empty out our libraries? Will the morons begin witch hunts again? This is how proponents of anti-intellectualism behave. They lead with brute force because they lack intelligence. And yet people are applauding it. How much longer are we planning on keeping this charade up? How much of a normal do you think you will get back to if you allow these idiots to start changing policy on a broader scale? Anti-intellectualism is as American as apple pie. But the every man is not as wise as he thinks he is. He believes himself to be smarter than trained individuals only to soothe his own ego. Do you have empathy for that stupidity? You should not. And, if you do, you are part of the problem. 

We often talk about the broken hearts of those who have not been forgiven (the poor hiring managers, the poor billionaires, the poor CEOs, the poor career politicians, the poor arrogant wealth mongers, boo-hoo for them), but we rarely discuss the physical agony of having to forgive. It is a truly humiliating experience. Being forced to swallow your pride when you know damn well that you have done nothing wrong is humbling in all the wrong ways. It teaches us that docility and humility are one and the same, that it is somehow okay to be beaten down over and over again. It is asking too much of a person to always be instructing them to move on from the past, to live in the moment, to forget all of the awful things that people have done, that they still continue to do. This is the mentality that keeps people in abusive relationships, that it is somehow the eternal task of the oppressed to take it in stride. Some days, I just do not have it in me to forgive anymore. I can no longer pretend as if I am a doormat for the world's inhabitants to wipe its filthy shoes on. I cannot live the life of a savior without any of the rewards a savior gets. Saviors have books written about them. They have grand funerals; they are never forgotten. But I will receive no such thing for my forgiveness. I can no longer be punished for being punished. I refuse. I reject that premise outright, no matter what moral system is behind it. It is not up to the victim to be the bigger person. It is up to the abuser to make amends or, in my case, to get lost. Who says I even want to forgive the people who hurt me? The internet? The bible? Other people? Why should I listen to any of these? What sound advice have any of them given to me before? Forgiveness is easy when you behave like a child, when you are immature; this is why many religions elevate child like behavior. They want you to be just like you were when you were five and everything your parents did was amazing, no matter how suspect or awful it really was. What people are asking you to do when they tell you to forgive abusers is to normalize abuse, to make life easier on people who bully, to sit back and take it again and again and again. No, no more. I cannot. I will not. I have had enough of this silly mentality, this very destructive mindset that only ever has moral advice for those who have been wronged and never for those who have done wrong. There are certain things in life I simply cannot forgive. I cannot forgive the education system for making me false promises about a nice new shiny career after I put in the work. I cannot forgive all the lying teachers and administrators who told me I was destined for success if I did the work. I cannot forgive those people, not ever. I cannot forgive all the countless producers, directors and casting directors who, for twenty years, refused to hire me, refused to notice me, refused to let my black ass have a taste of their white theater world. I cannot forgive that. I cannot even think about it without becoming enraged. I cannot forgive the follow your dream promoters: the celebrities, the preachers, the gurus, the spiritualists, the counselors, the therapists, the philosophers, etc. They have wronged me. They led me astray. They almost got me killed. Why would I forgive them? So they can abuse me again? So they can deny me again? So they can lead me on only to disappoint me again? No, not again, not anymore. I am done forgiving the abusers. Let them forgive themselves. Let them know what it is like to be dismissed. It serves them right; this is the bed they have made for themselves and now, they must lie on it...alone, without me in their miserable lives.   

What happens when the people continue begging the oligarchs for sustenance and receive nothing but high-minded moral sentiments and tiresome speeches in return? Cultural radicalization. That's what. The radicalization of a culture is far more serious and interesting than the radicalization of a small fringe portion of society. Gone are the days of far out cults and "set apart" religious ways of life. Gone are the days of inner city gangs sticking to their territory. Gone are the days of the quiet, isolated conspiracy theorists living in their mother's basements. All of that is gone. What is left is the radicalization of popular culture, which means that the crazed fringe has gone mainstream. Make no mistake, when the oligarchs ignore the calls of justice from the middle class, the world goes crazy. The new normal is crazy. If you want to get anything done politically you must act crazy or be ignored. This is the world the oligarchs have built for us, a world where a crazed conspiracy theorist is coddled and allowed to engage in delusion, while the people who behave normally (what used to be considered normal anyway) are called bullies and psychopaths. What a world this is the oligarchs have built for us! They bend over backwards to kiss the ass of those who do not recognize even the most basic scientific facts, but don't you dare even think about higher wages, not for an extended period of time anyway. The oligarchs and the aristocrats have been clear on how they view working people. To them, the working person is a commodity, an accessory, a useless eater...They do not care about us. They do not care if we die. Why? Because they need the idiots (the conspiracy theorists, the science deniers, the gossipers, the quote miners, the religious fanatics, the scam artists, the braggarts, the fans, etc.) much more than they need intelligent people. Intelligent people do not waste money on frivolous luxury items. Intelligent people do not need cookbooks; they do not even need cooking advice because they already know what tastes good. Intelligent people do not need online courses brought to you by overpriced universities because they already have library cards. Intelligent people do not need silly "inspirational movies" about overcoming poverty because intelligent people realize that there is no room for progression for them in the financial system. Intelligent people do not need Amazon, Best Buy, Ford, American Airlines, Hollywood, Info Wars, Crystal, or Gucci; that is all for idiots, all of it, every single last bit of it. Idiots waste money and the entire system is based on wasting money. If you think this corrupt system will ultimately use science to beat the bad guys...well, unfortunately, you do not even understand the system you are living in. And, no, it's not just America; it's everywhere. Stupidity is rewarded. Intelligence is despised. Welcome to the real new normal. 

There is mounting evidence that a solar flare may occur sometime in the near future. The last time the United States of America experienced a solar flare (I believe the year was 1903), communication and transportation were shut down for weeks in various parts of the nation. This will be bad news for businesses everywhere since even grocery stores now operate widely on computers. It will also likely shut down your ability to buy things remotely. Cash will be required if and when this happens and lines will be long in stores. The United States is not prepared for such an event. Our infrastructure has not been updated and there is no chance of that happening anytime soon with dancin' Joe Mansion in congress. The internet will not be able to operate if this occurs and our reliance on each other will need to be increased. Pens will become more than fashion statements and the naughty looks you get from environmentalists when you write something down on a sheet of paper will look even more ridiculous than they already do. The internet is calling this "the internet apocalypse", but I can assure you that apocalypse is not the proper term to use. Apocalypse implies that the world is ending, but that will not happen. No, you will simply be bored for a relatively short time. I lived this way for years. I did not use electronics. I was "off the grid" as they say. What is it like to live that way? You become a bit more artistic, a bit more intellectual. You learn things about yourself. You read more, a lot more. You take an interest in things like cooking and philosophy. Even gardening becomes alluring again. You take an interest in board games because well, you're bored. But being bored is not the end of the world. It peaks our curiosity and makes us try new things. So, do not be afraid that the sky is flaring...if it ever does...it may not. I do not know for sure. But be sure to download plenty of episodes of More Content Talk just in case it does. Then we can be curiously bored together. And remember, it's not the end of the world. It's just the end of big tech profits for a few weeks or so. I think Jeff Bezos Zuckerberg Gates will survive. Didn't you know? They consolidated into one person to optimize efficiency and production. 

Have you ever gone on social media to find something new and interesting only to be disappointed by a litany of quotes you were told were important in high school? Then you, my friend, have been invaded by quote miners. Quote miners post a lot of quotes from dead people, usually writers, but also actors, singers, religious figures, philosophers and politicians. It is a rather morbid activity when you think about it, riffling through the archives of some dead famous person to appear profound is probably the most extreme form of intellectual laziness out there. One wants the veneer of an intellectual when they engage in such activity; they want the appearance of intellectualism without having to put in the actual work of being an intellectual. They desire us all to tell them how wonderfully smart they are for reading books that are available for free at the public library or for next to nothing online. They really believe that we did not read John 3:16 just right yet, that, if we take yet another look at those same words, we will be able to really understand it this time. We are too stupid to have gotten it the first, second or tenth time around in the mind of a quote minder. But this time, now that it is on their social media page, we will surely understand. Quote miners are mostly unoriginal. They have no thoughts of their own or just do not find their own thoughts interesting enough to speak for themselves. Did someone else make them feel this way at some point? Maybe, but quote miners may just feel that they are inadequate in general. Meanwhile, quote mining is become less and less popular, mostly because people often misquote people when they quote mine. If you go on pinterest or twitter enough, you already know what I am talking about. Just how many statements have been attributed to iconic figures without them ever having said such things? We will never know for sure. There have been far too many times that Abraham Lincoln or Thomas Jefferson or Immanuel Kant have been invoked only for researchers to later state that they never said anything of the sort. In this way, quote mining actually works to harm history and education in general. I guess what I am getting at here is, there is no real use for quote mining. The whole reason people go on social media in the first place is to hear something different. They want to know you, not your personal library or, in most cases, lack thereof. Why would you want to get to know someone you must constantly impress with wise words anyway? Is that a genuine relationship, one where you must continuously impress people with your intellectual prowess? Is that friendship now? I hope not. I do not like to perform for people when I am offstage. I do not even care to impress people when I am on stage. I am mostly up there for myself. That is the reason I do this show too. I am not trying to impress you. I am inviting you to get to know me. And, perhaps one day, you will feel comfortable enough to reach out and get to know me. I really hope that happens one day. But I am not going to force it. You don't have to like me. You know, a guy I knew once said, "if you don't feel like quoting a dead person, create something they would've enjoyed". And, oh yeah, that guy I once knew. That was me. I still know him, but he's changed quite a bit, and, dare I say, for the better.   

Before I begin my little diatribe, I would like to communicate to you that I, in no way, am denying that the medical industry has been at fault in the past. Quite the contrary. If you look at my earlier shows, such as "Snake Oil Salesmen" and "The Myth of the Good Old Days", you will find that I have covered the slip ups of the medical industry just as well as any other podcaster or journalist. I have no corporate sponsors. I am not being paid to tell you any of this. Instead, I am speaking to you honestly as someone who was once so swayed by the argument that big pharma is completely evil that I stopped taking my seizure medication. Contrary to what you may hear in the news, no one attacked me after I made this very stupid, arrogant and ignorant decision. No police officers came to my door for a wellness check. No doctors called me to see where I was. I was never sent to a therapist, counselor or specialist. Nor did any "Marxist" intellectuals bang down my door to "reprogram" me. I never lost my job while I was not medicated. My friends did not try to stop me; they respected my wishes. My family offered me advice initially, but soon gave that up when they saw how stubborn I was being. I was entirely free to do as I pleased. Yet I still felt as if big pharma was to blame every time I had a seizure. No matter how many poor decisions I personally made (self-medicating with supplements, trying to pray for healing, aroma therapy, taking fluoride out of my diet, fasting, meditation, etc.) I still always would point the finger at the medical industry. It was their fault and nothing, not even the broken bones and deep cuts from the hundreds of seizures I had during this little experiment, could tell me otherwise. Big pharma is a politically charged term that is meant to communicate an intense distrust of the medical community. Though it is quite true that Big Pharma has some explaining to do about their lobbying in Congress (Big Pharma was essentially bribed to the tune of 76 billion dollars to pass Obama Care for example; I support Obama Care by the way, but facts are facts and Big Pharma certainly cashed in on the passage of that bill big time) as well as their promotion of deadly substances like cigarettes, cocaine and heroin as "cures", the medical industry is also responsible for doing a large amount of good in society. They have cured diseases. They have trained service dogs for the blind. They have helped us appreciate the medical benefits of cannabis (the negative studies on cannabis were performed by the American military, while big pharma has remained pretty objective on the topic). They have helped us beat back vile myths about homosexuality. They have furthered our understanding of the brain. They have shown us that sickness is not demon possession. There are many things this industry has done that are good for society, yet they get nothing but vicious attacks from the very society they help. We must remember that our attacks on industry should never take away from the truth, but add to it. We also must remember that the vast majority of people who work within industries are not plotting against us. They are normal people with families like you and me. Do you really think that your attacks on big pharma will amount to punishment for those actually committing the problems? Or are our various fantasies about hidden cures for cancer and vaccines with chip implants destroying the people who are not in charge, the hardworking people who cure our diseases? And, more importantly, how much longer will the health professionals who are concerned about our well-being continue to put up with our lies about them?