The Tonic Accord

In this short episode, Drew and Alex give their thoughts on the protests, violence and political crackdowns that are taking place in both Cuba and in South Africa. 

Cuba is in a very dire situation. The perfect storm of sanctions reinstated by the Trump administration, electricity shortages, empty grocery shops, a failing economy, a repressive government, and an increasingly bad situation regarding COVID-19, seems to have put the Cuban people over the edge. Over the last few weeks, there have been vast protests around Cuba that started via internet mobilization. Now the government has sent police into the streets to crackdown on the unrest, but many officials think these protests may be different. The Cuba government is in a tough place, in the past they had been able to provide security and stability, in place of open democratic values, but now that contract has been broken. Drew and Alex wonder if this will bring change, will the government respond with compromise or bringing down the hammer? 

 

In South Africa, the Constitutional Court sentenced Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s corrupt ex-president, to 15 months in prison for refusing to appear before an investigation into corruption while he was in office. On July 7th, Mr Zuma was taken into custody. His allies then spread misinformation about the basis for his arrest and encouraged unrest. This led to some of the worst violence since the Apartheid era; trucks were burned, telecommunication towers were destroyed, the largest oil refinery was shut down, and hundreds of people were killed. Drew and Alex discuss how this was fueled by mob violence created by political division and lies. They also talk about how this will just hurt South Africans as many businesses will leave the country.

Between 1830 and 1998, Canadian governments and churches separated more than 150,000 native children from their parents and placed them in mandatory boarding schools. Children were forced by the schools to cut their hair, forget about their cultural heritage and traditions, and were banned from speaking their native languages. There were reports of sexual and physical abuse, and some of the children even committed suicide. Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that this effort amounted to “a cultural genocide." Over the last month, Canadians have discovered hundreds of unmarked graves belonging to children who may have died at the schools due to disease or neglect; some were even been killed. It is estimated that close to 4,100 children vanished from the schools nationwide, but numbers could be even closer to 10,000. In this episode, Drew and Alex discuss this atrocity, what it looks like for a nation like Canada to reconcile with its past, and why the United States needs to do the same. They also discuss recent Catholic Church burnings around Canada that are a reaction to the discovery of these unmarked graves. Is justice served with an eye for an eye?

Eminent Domain is the right given by the constitution for the government to seize private property for public use, with payment of compensation. For example, the government can take someone's private property to make room for a new highway or a bridge, as long as it is defined as being for public use or for the “public good.” In this episode, Drew and Alex break down when this has worked and whether it is the right stance. They look into the interstate highway system during the 1950’s and how eminent domain was used to build highways in urban centers; they also touch on how locations like Dodgers stadium were built under this guise. They also discuss how this process can backfire, how it indirectly hurts minority communities, and where and how this idea can and can’t work.

Conspiracies have become more prominent these days and some are more dangerous than others. This episode from May of 2020 goes over Occam’s Razor and how it can help use logic and common sense to cut through some cooky conspiracy theories. 

 

Occam’s Razor is a philosophical and problem solving method that states that “entities should not be multiplied without necessity.” In simpler terms, this means that the more assumptions one has to make, the less likely the explanation is to be true. In this episode, Drew and Alex discuss popular political conspiracies and discuss how Occam’s Razor can help determine their feasibility. First, they take Occam’s razor to cut into some whacky theories like “Flat Earth” and “Ancient Aliens.” Then, they also relate the theory back to relevant ones such as the many conspiracies surrounding the origins of the Coronavirus in Wuhan, as well as the conspiracies around Bill Gates and vaccinations. Later, the two mention the popularity of political conspiracies by the political party that is out of power and also discuss some Cold War conspiracies that ended up to be true.

It has been almost two weeks since Haiti’s president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated in his residence by armed forces. Usually this amount of time would have given authorities time to solve the assassination, but in this case there are still many questions to answer. In this short episode, Drew and Alex react to this hit job and try to figure out why it happened and who did it. There have been many moving pieces, including a link with a Haitian doctor in Florida. Also, according to the AP, “officers found a hat with the logo of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, 20 boxes of bullets, gun parts, four license plates from the Dominican Republic, two cars and correspondence, among other things, in Sanon’s house in Haiti. Twenty-six former Colombian soldiers are suspected in the killing and 23 have been arrested, along with three Haitians.” Did the DEA do the hit? Was it a drug cartel? Powerful enemies inside Haiti? Or just a successful coup by dissatisfied citizens?

A schism is a division that usually occurs between a group of people that belong to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. In this episode, Drew and Alex discuss what a political schism is, why they may happen, and then they discuss some that have occurred in history. They cover a range of schisms that go back centuries, these include -

The Great Schism of 1054 (or the East-West Schism) which was the break between the western Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. This highlighted the cultural and ethnic tensions between the Western and Eastern Roman Empire. It also paved the way for other religious schisms like the Protestant Reformation. 

 

The 1970’s ideological shift in the GOP in which the libertarian, anti-government/anti-regulation views from people like Frederich Hayek hijacked certain segments of the Republican Party. During this time, the GOP went from a moderate, center right party that believed in the efficacy of government programs, to a “don’t tread on me” based movement that felt all government regulation led to tyranny and that government was destined to fail. This paved the way for neoliberal economic values and a growing cultural conservatism that felt at odds with secular politics. Eventually this led to Newt Gingrich and Ted Cruz who turned politics into a “forever war” with no legislation, just new scapegoats. 

 

The Spanish Civil War which seemed to symbolize the growing clash in Europe between rising nationalism and rising socialism. The war heated up fast, pitting neighbors and families against one another. The wealthier, religious class, supported right-wing nationalism with fascist tendencies, while the peasants and working class aligned more with the socialist republicans. To this day, there are still ghosts that remain in Spain from this bloody time.

The Firehose of Falsehood is every autocrat’s dream and it was crafted by the Soviet Union to sow chaos and division without direct force. According to researchers at the RAND Corporation, it describes a phenomenon where a nation’s leading class flood the news and information cycle with so much misinformation that it doesn’t matter if it is right or wrong, it merely confuses the population and causes chaos. It creates political cynicism and a pure distrust in discourse. “While the bulk of firehose claims are false or misleading or even mutually contradictory, a skilled propagandist may salt the mix with statements that are partly valid, lending apparent plausibility to the rest.” In this episode, Drew and Alex look into how Donald Trump may have used this tactic better than most and it eroded the shared truths that were prevalent in the US. They look into the COVID-19 pandemic, the “Big Lie” and more. They also look into the current situation in Brazil and how this can also relate to the firehose of falsehood. Some questions posed in the episode are - 

Can misinformation be halted?

Will Bolsanaro in Brazil lose popularity? 

Can political discourse be useful anymore?

Is the recent Arizona fraud audit just a dress rehearsal for 2022 and beyond?

The Tonic Accord is off this week following the holiday weekend. However, this “Tonic Rewind” episode remains relevant as not all sources of news and information are created equally and the rise of misinformation is a prevalent issue.

 

From February 2021 - 

With the issues of misinformation and fake news escalating around the world, Drew and Alex decide to have some fun and rank some of their favorite and least favorite news sources. From S tier (the best) to F tier (the worst) they rank publications such as the Economist, Fox News, the Blaze, the Associated Press, BBC, OANN, and more. Will Info Wars make the top tier or fall to the bottom? Which publication will make the S tier?

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has turned 100 and it has been wildly successful in ways that the Soviet Union would have envied. When the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, many pundits thought that China would be next. Instead, the CCP has been flexible, agile, and ruthless; embracing capitalism but locking down freedom of speech and expression. After the G7 summit, President Biden worried that democracies would even be able to compete and keep up with China. In this episode, Drew and Alex focus on Hollywood and China’s growing pressure on Hollywood studios to censor “ideas and themes” that the CCP deems “offensive.” They talk about the recent story where John Cena mentioned that Taiwan was a country and had to relentlessly apologize to China because his new “Fast & Furious” movie was filmed and opening in China. This illustrates a growing trend where China has the size and clout to basically control what Hollywood studios can release. This is because China is now the second biggest consumer of Hollywood films in the world and has kept theaters open, while many in the west were closed due to COVID-19. Not only have critical characters and themes in Hollywood movies been changed to appease the CCP, but Drew and Alex worry that younger kids in the west will grow up with a flawed view of China. Cinema is about entertaining, but it is also about criticism and symbolism; if themes are censored, Hollywood will lose its magic. What can be done? Can Hollywood push back? Or is it too late?

The United States military is about halfway done with withdrawing the last of its 3,500 American troops from Afghanistan. Over the last two decades, the country has been hit by massacres and violence almost daily. A recent index by Georgetown University’s Institute for Women, Peace and Security ranks Afghanistan as the second-worst country to be a woman, just behind Yemen. However, since the US government has helped the Afghan government fight the Taliban, one positive is that Afghan women have gained some more rights and educational opportunities. Unfortunately, with this withdrawal of troops and a lack of mandate from the government in Kabul, the Taliban has taken over 12 regions over the last few months and is circling in on Kabul. General Scott Miller, the US general responsible for the movement of troops out of Afghanistan, worries that the Kabul government could fall in as little as six months after the US leaves. In this episode, Drew and Alex discuss and debate what could happen next. Should the US stay or should it go? Is a viable government even possible in this divided and rural country?