Louder with Crowder - Rhett & Link Are Everything Wrong with YouTube | MASS MONDAY | Louder with Crowder

00:00:00.000 Welcome to another installment of Mass Monday.

00:00:12.000 For people who think that's sacrilegious, wait a minute.

00:00:14.000 Just watch the entire show.

00:00:16.000 And that's even Brendan from the Edit Bay.

00:00:19.000 So he's not a member of the clergy.

00:00:21.000 He was not offended.

00:00:22.000 And the outfit was very cheap.

00:00:24.000 And it's dry ice, I'm guessing.

00:00:26.000 So it's not really smoke stuff.

00:00:27.000 It was a safety hazard.

00:00:28.000 So we would never put a cardinal at risk.

00:00:30.000 Of course.

00:00:31.000 Mostly because we could never find a cardinal to set foot in the studio.

00:00:33.000 Nope.

00:00:34.000 So, uh, this is continuing.

00:00:36.000 AudioAid is here.

00:00:37.000 Gerald A. QuarterBlackGarrett.

00:00:38.000 Continuing on the sort of Rhett and Link saga.

00:00:41.000 Received quite a bit of response letters slash comments.

00:00:45.000 No one actually writes physical letters.

00:00:46.000 They do, but it's mainly just anthrax.

00:00:49.000 Every time I get a physical letter, I open it and I just aim it in the general direction of Brennan and go... Like fairy dust.

00:00:56.000 You just don't appreciate a good gif.

00:01:00.000 More so that I don't like being surprised.

00:01:02.000 It's face powder.

00:01:03.000 It's just face powder.

00:01:04.000 So we're going to get into Rhett and Link a little bit.

00:01:06.000 And I want to be clear, very much appreciate Rhett and Link, what they do.

00:01:11.000 I can appreciate their position that they're stepping out.

00:01:13.000 I do think it takes some courage to talk about their sort of abandoning of faith and their crisis of faith.

00:01:19.000 Doing my best to keep this really as brand friendly as possible.

00:01:23.000 Which brings me to the question, let me ask you, is brand friendly or even sort of mainstream audience friendly Something, the idea of that, something that Christians should value at all. 0.91

00:01:32.000 Is there a biblical prescription as it applies to living your life so that others around you like you?

00:01:37.000 Let me know what you think.

00:01:38.000 Popularity, making sure that you're polite, that people like you because you're nice.

00:01:41.000 Is that something that is a value inherent to the Christian faith?

00:01:45.000 And if so, where does it sort of take precedence over other values?

00:01:50.000 And this, of course, is, we thought it was over after the last Mass Monday, and then Rhett and Link's angry, I believe, lesbian producer. 0.93

00:01:58.000 Link, it's very lesbian. 1.00

00:02:00.000 I don't know.

00:02:00.000 Alleged?

00:02:01.000 It's not relevant, other than the fact that that's probably a huge portion of why she's angry at me.

00:02:05.000 Well, specifically for you.

00:02:06.000 Yes.

00:02:07.000 Had this to say.

00:02:08.000 This is the change my mind meme, and that's Steven Crowder.

00:02:13.000 Or as I like to call him, Steven Piece of Sh** Crowder.

00:02:16.000 He's a podcaster at TCU who sat outside with a sign that said, male privilege is a myth.

00:02:21.000 Change my mind.

00:02:23.000 And the meme is used to convey strong, hot takes on topics that are actually important or completely unimportant.

00:02:29.000 Okay.

00:02:30.000 Let's see a few examples.

00:02:32.000 And I do appreciate Rhett and Link avoiding it.

00:02:34.000 Link with the, I'm uncomfortable, and then Rhett with the laugh.

00:02:37.000 Like, is it okay for me to laugh at it?

00:02:39.000 I'm not gonna be demonetized.

00:02:40.000 Don't worry, you won't.

00:02:41.000 Your views are safe.

00:02:42.000 Which brings us to kind of a point that I wanted to talk about.

00:02:45.000 This is sort of a chant that we hear quite a bit from sort of a mantra, and you were talking about this audio wave, so feel free to chime in at any point.

00:02:52.000 Rhett and Link, they continually talk, and it seems to be a value that is very important to them personally, as well as professionally, and that's the idea of being popular, being brand friendly.

00:03:05.000 Here you go.

00:03:07.000 We know we're kind of the poster boys of the trending page and sort of the, why are these guys always trending?

00:03:15.000 That, that question, because it isn't because our videos get, if you look at the trending page, most videos will have more views than what we, that we've got up there.

00:03:25.000 Right.

00:03:26.000 But I think that it's not a bad speculation.

00:03:29.000 Because we upload at the same time every single day.

00:03:31.000 6 a.m.

00:03:32.000 Eastern time every single day.

00:03:34.000 And you don't really have to be subscribed to know that.

00:03:38.000 It takes off really, really quickly.

00:03:39.000 And I think the algorithm just interprets it as a lot of people are interested in this video, even if it's our Good Mythical More, which is our sort of like second channel show after the show.

00:03:49.000 that may get 200,000 or 300,000 views.

00:03:51.000 A lot of times that video will be lost on that video.

00:03:53.000 And sometimes it will trend before the main episode.

00:03:57.000 So I think it's just based on, it gets thrown into the system

00:03:59.000 and they're like, oh yeah, Redlink, they're brand safe, put them up there.

00:04:02.000 That's the other thing.

00:04:03.000 I think, I don't know, but I think that there's some sort of a white listing 0.53

00:04:08.000 where it's, you have a heightened eligibility to be on the trending page

00:04:15.000 based purely on just brand friendliness.

00:04:19.000 Mm-hmm, you know.

00:04:20.000 Yeah.

00:04:21.000 That's what they care about the most, right?

00:04:23.000 They got to get the brands involved.

00:04:23.000 Yeah.

00:04:25.000 And if they know consistently, I mean, we have 700 episodes.

00:04:28.000 It's what you care about the most.

00:04:30.000 And if you know, especially over that track record, that they can trust that, okay, we're not going to do anything to invite backlash from brands.

00:04:30.000 And we'll get to that in a second.

00:04:42.000 Sure, sure, sure, sure.

00:04:43.000 And now you might hear that in context.

00:04:44.000 Sure sure sure sure sure sure that's what matters for sure sure sure sure advertiser friendly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

00:04:49.000 yeah, yeah, we get it We're all on board and you might hear it at first

00:04:52.000 You sound like a Muppet guy.

00:04:54.000 So, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup, yup.

00:04:56.000 He is a Muppet, I mean, honestly.

00:04:59.000 You might hear them sort of feeling, you know, bemoaning, like, oh, being brand safe.

00:05:03.000 But that's not.

00:05:03.000 Yeah.

00:05:04.000 First off, I appreciate their, I guess, candor.

00:05:07.000 Like, maybe the YouTube trending is actually curated by people.

00:05:12.000 And then we believe there could be, perhaps, a white listing of brand friendly, as though they've never heard of the Vox Apocalypse.

00:05:12.000 Mm-hmm.

00:05:18.000 Right.

00:05:19.000 I mean, come on. 1.00

00:05:19.000 Or yours truly, despite calling me a piece of shit, which I'm OK with. 1.00

00:05:22.000 I'm cool with that. 0.99

00:05:23.000 I think this comes down to, you know, we need to be honest with our audience.

00:05:26.000 Of course, the trending page is not what it used to be.

00:05:28.000 It's not based on most popular, most viewed, most discussed.

00:05:30.000 And of course, there is a whitelist and there is Shadowban. 0.54

00:05:33.000 YouTube has been very clear about that.

00:05:35.000 They've talked about that and mentioning me by name at the Recode conference.

00:05:40.000 I want to make sure that we're very clear on this.

00:05:42.000 If Rhett and Link would like to learn more about that, we have plenty of documentation.

00:05:46.000 Plenty.

00:05:47.000 But to go back to the point that it may originally seem, and this is what I do want to focus on in a biblical perspective, because they sort of tie in their ideas beforehand of how they lived their life into a biblical perspective and why they left, which is just, I would disagree with because I don't think it's a biblical perspective.

00:06:01.000 We're talking about brand friendly and the idea of appealing to a mass audience regardless of what is required to be appealing.

00:06:11.000 But here you go, I think this is another clip just so you have some context echoing again this sort of overall sentiment in their content.

00:06:17.000 at the YouTube live event.

00:06:19.000 And it was the first time we all got together.

00:06:21.000 I said we felt like outsiders because we weren't connecting with the community in the way that a lot of creators were.

00:06:33.000 I also felt I think we sensed that we were misfits because we were so fundamental.

00:06:41.000 What the hell does that mean?

00:06:43.000 And I think that if you had an interaction with us, and I'm, you know what, maybe you remember, but I had this thought that like people can tell that we're different and We would usually say that in a good way.

00:06:59.000 It's like, people can tell that we're different, and that's us being a witness for us having a relationship with Jesus, okay?

00:07:06.000 Jesus.

00:07:07.000 But it was also this, people can tell that we're different because we're uptight.

00:07:13.000 I think we're Judgmental.

00:07:16.000 People think that it's that, oh, they moved to L.A.

00:07:18.000 and they got liberal.

00:07:20.000 You know, they gave up their faith.

00:07:21.000 Yes.

00:07:22.000 You know?

00:07:23.000 Well, you could also blame it on YouTube, because many years before, it's like, I mean, in a very good way, it expanded.

00:07:31.000 Well, I don't blame it on YouTube.

00:07:32.000 I blame it on the people who, um, YouTube gonna YouTube.

00:07:35.000 But I do place the blame squarely on the shoulders, and this is also a biblical principle of personal responsibility and being judged for one's own actions, trying to appeal.

00:07:44.000 To the overlords at YouTube.

00:07:46.000 I know what they're talking about as far as feeling on the outside.

00:07:50.000 I've never once been to a VidCon.

00:07:52.000 I feel like you're as far on the outside as you could possibly be.

00:07:55.000 Yeah, I'm that original Disney cartoon Mickey Mouse with the hobo out in the cold while they're doing the Thanksgiving dinner. 0.97

00:08:01.000 I got lots of views here!

00:08:02.000 Oh, but there's no happy ending.

00:08:03.000 No one lets me in.

00:08:04.000 They just open the door, say, you want to come in?

00:08:04.000 Oh.

00:08:06.000 Take my cash, say thanks, and close it.

00:08:09.000 We won't run the ads that we wrote for you.

00:08:11.000 Right.

00:08:12.000 We'll go back to some more clips a little bit later on.

00:08:12.000 And I think this is important.

00:08:16.000 You've heard the term, probably, argumentum ad populum, or appeal to popularity.

00:08:20.000 First off, before we get to the spiritual, it's an intellectual fallacy.

00:08:22.000 It is, yes.

00:08:24.000 In talking about how this matters, or how this is important, or how maybe people didn't like us because we were uptight and judgmental.

00:08:30.000 Myself?

00:08:32.000 I make judgments?

00:08:32.000 Certainly not uptight.

00:08:34.000 You can see just the...

00:08:36.000 The wardrobe choices that I've made on this program, out of necessity, because we don't have the budget for a sketch.

00:08:42.000 Also, by the way, this shrunk.

00:08:44.000 This shirt shrunk.

00:08:45.000 No, it didn't.

00:08:45.000 No barbell nipples, it just shrunk.

00:08:47.000 You can see it's an XL, maybe we can zoom on it, but I feel great change.

00:08:50.000 I sewed all the XL labels on the large shirts that you asked me to.

00:08:54.000 Did I do it wrong?

00:08:55.000 Yeah, it's like John Edwards, where he gets suits from Armani and sews in JC Penney.

00:08:58.000 Yeah, exactly right. 0.99

00:09:00.000 I just have man breasts. 0.99

00:09:03.000 So is there, outside of the idea intellectually, that really you can't use that as an argument at all, how many people receive you a certain way. 0.89

00:09:10.000 That doesn't necessarily mean that they're right.

00:09:12.000 There can be the majority of any group, any country, any historical class, and they can be wrong.

00:09:18.000 We've seen that time and time again.

00:09:19.000 So YouTube can be wrong, and I would argue They are.

00:09:23.000 Spiritually, is there any biblical basis for this?

00:09:26.000 And I wanted to talk about this.

00:09:27.000 What are the dangers of basing your faith, or even your lifestyle, around appealing to popularity?

00:09:32.000 Yeah, audio wave.

00:09:33.000 Yeah, they also use that same argument when they're talking about the church needing to accept, I believe, gay marriage and things like that.

00:09:39.000 Which I think we have another clip.

00:09:40.000 Yeah, we do, yeah.

00:09:41.000 So their argument on popularity is essentially their worldview.

00:09:45.000 Their worldview is the appeal to authority.

00:09:47.000 Go ahead, what were you going to say?

00:09:48.000 We will go back to that clip and we have some verses here to get into because I think this is something that this sort of I've always said it does a great disservice unfortunately to Christianity when you whitewash it.

00:09:48.000 No, that's all.

00:09:58.000 So a lot of people saying like when if you just say God is just God is love no no God of course loves everyone right as Christians and again this is Mass Monday so for people who are angry atheists I see you in the comment section.

00:10:08.000 Cool.

00:10:09.000 I'm glad you're here.

00:10:10.000 But this isn't necessarily for you.

00:10:11.000 But that's okay.

00:10:13.000 We want to have you around so you can tell us why you think we're wrong.

00:10:15.000 But God loves all of his children.

00:10:17.000 We are all his children.

00:10:18.000 But that does not mean that God is only love.

00:10:21.000 That that's the only value that matters.

00:10:23.000 Discernment matters.

00:10:25.000 Obviously, judgment does matter.

00:10:27.000 And the idea that you should be loved by everyone is, of course, untrue.

00:10:30.000 Well, and they danced around some topics here, going back through the two clips that we played.

00:10:34.000 The first one was dancing around the obvious elephant in the room of, yeah, I don't know really why our videos show up on the trending page as much as they do.

00:10:42.000 I mean, ignorance is bliss, I guess.

00:10:43.000 I wonder why YouTube might feel it useful to have a large channel that basically says Christianity is wrong until they allow LGBTQ pastors I just don't get it. 1.00

00:10:54.000 I don't understand why they're so friendly to us.

00:10:56.000 I'll take a wild guess.

00:10:58.000 In the second video, real quick, he said that they had 1,700 videos of a track record that showed that they were going to be brand friendly.

00:11:08.000 And I don't say this out of anger towards them, but in this conversation that's been started, are you telling me over 1,700 videos you've never taken a stand that was unpopular?

00:11:17.000 You have tried to conform your worldview. 0.97

00:11:19.000 I realized recently, unfortunately, in calling me a piece of s***, they were surprised that 0.97

00:11:22.000 they ended up not being seen as champions of the good guy at that point. 0.97

00:11:26.000 I'm talking about the little guy.

00:11:27.000 What of consequence are you talking about over 1,700 videos that doesn't make someone

00:11:31.000 uncomfortable or mad at you?

00:11:33.000 Hot wings are hot! 0.71

00:11:34.000 I mean, um, I also...

00:11:35.000 Not to say that it's pedestrian or inconsequential.

00:11:39.000 There's a place for that as well.

00:11:41.000 This is my problem that I've always had with the watering down of Christianity.

00:11:44.000 You say God is love.

00:11:46.000 God loves his children, of course.

00:11:48.000 He's all of the stuff.

00:11:49.000 God is all of the things.

00:11:51.000 But it's really easy, and this is why you need an intellectual basis in your faith.

00:11:54.000 It's really easy if you say, well, man, I don't care about all the rest of that stuff.

00:11:56.000 God is love.

00:11:57.000 And then it's easy for atheists. 0.93

00:11:58.000 And at one point, you know, when people really were using the Hitchens, sorry, Christopher Hitchens, not Peter Hitchens.

00:12:03.000 Christopher Hitchens' arguments like, well, God has killed more people than all governments.

00:12:03.000 I'm not your fan.

00:12:07.000 That's absolutely true.

00:12:08.000 If you read the Old Testament, it's an R-rated film.

00:12:10.000 And that's not because God doesn't love, but that's because God is also just.

00:12:14.000 And God understands that certain times in history require certain appropriate levels of punishment.

00:12:20.000 So just whitewashing Christianity with the Rob Bell or even the prosperity gospel, it's too easy to poke holes in.

00:12:27.000 And unfortunately, I think that some of that might have been the basis of a lot of Rhett and Link's faith, because that's a lot of young Christians.

00:12:34.000 And then that's a really easy transfer to sort of moral ambiguity, situational ethics, which is where we see them now.

00:12:42.000 Well, and I think that it comes out of the whole God is love thing.

00:12:44.000 By the way, would you want to serve a God that was unjust, that didn't punish wickedness, that didn't reward doing the things that He asks you to do?

00:12:53.000 And there's a really quick answer to this.

00:12:55.000 No, nobody around the world would.

00:12:56.000 I thought that was going to be a surprise.

00:12:58.000 A really quick answer to this.

00:12:59.000 It depends.

00:13:01.000 Well, think about it this way.

00:13:02.000 He's going to go into a Dom Deloitte.

00:13:03.000 It's impressive.

00:13:04.000 No.

00:13:04.000 I mean, T.S.

00:13:04.000 Lewis made this argument.

00:13:05.000 You don't have to teach a child that stealing their toy is a bad thing, right?

00:13:10.000 You sense injustice, right?

00:13:12.000 When an unjust situation occurs, it offends you, even as a child, as a toddler, before you're taught anything.

00:13:17.000 If someone else steals your toy.

00:13:17.000 You know that that's wrong.

00:13:18.000 Unfortunately, children can steal other people's toys and they don't feel it.

00:13:21.000 That's true.

00:13:23.000 So he took my toy, but you took his toy.

00:13:26.000 Yeah, but I want this one.

00:13:27.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:13:28.000 We're evil little monsters.

00:13:30.000 So I'd like to get into kind of focusing on this idea that is there a biblical basis at all to wanting to please as many people as possible or being as brand friendly as possible.

00:13:41.000 I think we have a couple of verses here.

00:13:43.000 Gerald, if you or AudioAid, if you want to read the first one.

00:13:45.000 AudioAid, go for it.

00:13:45.000 Yeah, so Luke 6 26 woe to you and all people speak well of you for so their fathers did to the false prophets pretty rough stuff Galatians 1 10 for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God or am I trying to please man if I were still trying to please man I would not be a servant of God All right, let me have Gerald read the other one, because he's got buttered radio sex voice.

00:14:06.000 John 15, 18-19.

00:14:06.000 If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.

00:14:09.000 If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

00:14:11.000 But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

00:14:16.000 Right. 0.97

00:14:16.000 And I want to be clear, this doesn't mean that you should, that if you're a douchebag, the Bible's saying, go get him, way to go. 0.97

00:14:22.000 Don't strive to be hated. 0.90

00:14:23.000 Don't strive to be hated, but here's a good example.

00:14:25.000 Christ did not strive to be hated, but Christ was steadfast in what he believed.

00:14:30.000 The Pharisees, Sadducees, the ruling class of the day. 1.00

00:14:33.000 And by the way, while we're talking about this, we'll come back to YouTube.

00:14:36.000 You cannot name me a government or a ruling class more powerful than the companies that are Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, right now.

00:14:45.000 Twitter, I mean, they're kind of like, hey guys, us too?

00:14:47.000 No, Jack Dorsey.

00:14:48.000 But the truth is, and they are, and here's what also matters, they are also enabling, and they are also accessories to other governments outside of the United States.

00:14:57.000 This particularly matters as we'll get into China a little bit.

00:14:59.000 But Jesus offended the ruling class.

00:15:02.000 It wasn't just religious, it wasn't just pious religiosity.

00:15:05.000 It was effectively a socio-political ruling class with a Pharisee status. 0.94

00:15:08.000 He didn't go in and say, ha ha, your robe is funny, it sucks, where'd you get that at? 0.93

00:15:12.000 Gazar Pharisees? 0.96

00:15:15.000 I'm just joking, Nicodemus.

00:15:16.000 You're all right.

00:15:17.000 But when they asked him, and he said, I am, that's about as offensive as you can get when Jesus says, no, this is absolutely what I believe.

00:15:17.000 No, he didn't do that.

00:15:26.000 I'm not going to change it.

00:15:27.000 And inherently, that created a rift.

00:15:30.000 That came with hatred of some, not all.

00:15:33.000 Well, he knew that truth would divide people, and so that's why in one of the verses, we didn't quote this one here, but he says, I didn't come to unite, but to divide.

00:15:40.000 He wasn't saying, like, I've come to be a division among you.

00:15:42.000 He was saying, I came to give you truth, and I know that truth is going to divide you guys, because people are not going to accept it, and it's going to make them very angry.

00:15:49.000 I'm not going to do it in an unloving way, but I am going to be truthful, and I'm going to take a stand.

00:15:53.000 So you're saying that crucifixion was kind of the first demonetization?

00:15:56.000 That really was.

00:16:00.000 Going back to what Gerald said, if you've made that much content and have made nothing that people disagree with or that rubs brands the wrong way, then you don't have any standards.

00:16:11.000 And if there's that much content, is Taco Bell your ultimate morality standard?

00:16:19.000 Whether they're going to monetize your video? 0.75

00:16:20.000 That's a silly way of viewing content.

00:16:23.000 You can just say it.

00:16:23.000 You can just say, look, we want to make money, and so we don't take stands on issues.

00:16:27.000 You can just be very honest with who you are.

00:16:27.000 Yeah.

00:16:27.000 Right?

00:16:30.000 And I want to be clear.

00:16:31.000 Maybe they don't have stands on issues.

00:16:35.000 Maybe they don't have any fundamental worldview that they're willing to stand up for, and so they're fine.

00:16:40.000 I don't know.

00:16:40.000 They're totally brand friendly.

00:16:41.000 We just know that they aren't taking any stands.

00:16:43.000 Well, but they were Christians before they went to L.A., right?

00:16:46.000 But they weren't taking stands openly as Christians.

00:16:47.000 Right, that's what I'm saying.

00:16:48.000 If they were Christians and not taking any stands. 0.94

00:16:50.000 I watched them back then.

00:16:50.000 It was very much the whole Agape, Los Angeles, Christianity, brand of love, which again is more easily transferable.

00:16:56.000 Your rewards points with no blackout dates, it's feel good, God is love, is much more easily transferable to, you know what, I just want to make everyone feel good by not offending anybody.

00:17:07.000 And that also so happens to conveniently land you on the trending page, and land you in the good graces of YouTube.

00:17:12.000 By the way, that's also a logical fallacy, the idea that, well, Taco Bell.

00:17:16.000 This is also something, when you're talking about being brand-friendly, you're talking about appealing to brands that, through the selection process, inherently share one worldview.

00:17:25.000 You want to tell me that Walther, that Smith & Wesson, that, I don't know, take your pick of a litany of these companies, wouldn't want to run ads on YouTube?

00:17:34.000 They're excluded!

00:17:36.000 They're not allowed to!

00:17:37.000 Therefore, brand-friendly is appealing to the brands who are allowed by Wojcicki.

00:17:40.000 Yeah, and Rhett has several Medium articles.

00:17:44.000 One of them is against guns.

00:17:46.000 And he has others that are basically just pure white guilt stuff.

00:17:50.000 White guilt is white-listed.

00:17:54.000 If you speak a certain way, if you're going to speak on issues, it has to be about this.

00:17:59.000 It can't necessarily be monetized on YouTube, but it's within the whole paradigm.

00:18:05.000 And here's something, too, I want to be clear about.

00:18:07.000 It's totally fine if someone has a point of view that we don't share.

00:18:10.000 Certainly.

00:18:10.000 For example, if he's anti-firearm, that's fine.

00:18:13.000 And you can have a discussion about that.

00:18:14.000 But at a certain point when you say, hold on a second, I have spoken out against firearms.

00:18:18.000 I have clearly spoken out against the church for not—or most churches—for not recognizing same-sex marriage or allowing gay people in positions of authority. 0.79

00:18:27.000 By the way, same thing with promiscuous members of the church are not allowed. 0.66

00:18:30.000 If you're cohabitating at my church, if you're cohabitating with your girlfriend, you're

00:18:32.000 not allowed to be a pastor.

00:18:33.000 You're not allowed to be a marriage counselor.

00:18:35.000 It's not allowed.

00:18:36.000 So I want to be really clear, they've taken stands on those issues.

00:18:39.000 Even if you're white? 0.51

00:18:40.000 Right, yes, even if you're white. 0.65

00:18:41.000 Well, don't reveal too much from the secret meetings, okay?

00:18:46.000 The robes, everything.

00:18:47.000 Yes.

00:18:48.000 We'll all show our branding marks afterward that we got in front of Mollick.

00:18:53.000 But he's clearly taken some stands.

00:18:55.000 Is there ever a history when you were a Christian, or an atheist, or agnostic, ever a track record of taking a stand that may not be brand friendly?

00:19:04.000 In other words, it's no risk to say I'm against firearms.

00:19:06.000 It's no risk to say, allow LGBTQAIP in the church. 0.99

00:19:10.000 But I've got to imagine that every single person From far-left Marxist communists to far-right anarchists have some views that are unpopular or not brand-friendly.

00:19:22.000 I can't imagine anyone going through 1,700 videos without something that isn't brand-friendly, whether it's the Pope, whether it's the Imam of Peace, whether it's our channel, whether it's Philip DeFranco, unless it is by design inconsequential.

00:19:37.000 Yeah, and I think it shows a bit of a lack of awareness to the system that they are playing in.

00:19:42.000 It may be that they know exactly what they're doing, or that they may be just a little naive about it, but you can't go through that entire process and say, well, we haven't ever done anything that would make brands not want to be a part of us or see backlash.

00:19:55.000 You need to be honest.

00:19:57.000 What we've done has been so far to the left that nobody cares that we've taken those stances.

00:20:02.000 We haven't taken stances that are conservative, that would get advertisers mad at us.

00:20:07.000 And I would be much happier to see people be honest and say that.

00:20:11.000 Anti-authoritarian, we'll get back to that in a little bit.

00:20:12.000 Even middle-of-the-road conservatives.

00:20:13.000 Calling out China for their human rights violations.

00:20:17.000 You can call out right-to-work states.

00:20:18.000 How about saying Taiwan is a country of its own?

00:20:21.000 But you can't call out China for human rights violations.

00:20:23.000 Yeah, exactly.

00:20:24.000 You can call out Michigan for being the 25th state to go right to work.

00:20:27.000 No problem.

00:20:28.000 Not at all.

00:20:28.000 You have an ad run on there for some kind of a non-profit.

00:20:30.000 That's great.

00:20:30.000 But you cannot say, hey, by the way, who is effectively a propaganda arm of China?

00:20:35.000 And they refuse to actually recognize any kind of sovereignty from Taiwan.

00:20:38.000 So I want to be really clear.

00:20:39.000 It's not just right and left.

00:20:40.000 There also is a component of right and wrong here.

00:20:43.000 And my point is, if we want to talk about common ground, The division that is sowed is often because of YouTube and because of big tech sort of acting as though there's this brand friendly, like, this is the discourse that's allowed in a civil society.

00:20:56.000 But the fact is, hold on a second, Black Rifle Coffee, right, they sponsor this show because they want to go against the grain, because they don't want to sponsor those points of view.

00:21:04.000 But they have to come to us directly because a lot of these companies can't just get in the same YouTube branding

00:21:08.000 program.

00:21:09.000 That is not a fact. That's not an argument for a foundational moral worldview.

00:21:14.000 And I would argue that historically that proves to actually be far more dangerous because

00:21:18.000 there needs to be someone to speak up for people who can't speak for themselves.

00:21:22.000 And I'm not just talking about LGBTQ AIP, but I'm talking about people who are actually oppressed.

00:21:25.000 We can get back to China and we can get back to everyone who's been demonetized, for example, on YouTube.

00:21:29.000 Hey, you have a big channel.

00:21:30.000 What about documentarians who are liberal, who after the Vox Apocalypse can no longer make money?

00:21:35.000 A lot of people need other folks to champion their cause, and that is your duty if you have a platform.

00:21:41.000 We try to do it here.

00:21:42.000 Sometimes we fail.

00:21:43.000 I think we should probably go.

00:21:44.000 Did you want to say something?

00:21:45.000 I was just going to say, it's not just brands in general.

00:21:47.000 It's just the brands that have been chosen by YouTube.

00:21:50.000 Right.

00:21:50.000 So there is a selection process, and that's the issue.

00:21:53.000 But also, it's not just brands.

00:21:55.000 It seems to me that their worldview is shaped a lot by just people who use YouTube.

00:22:00.000 Yes.

00:22:00.000 And I think that's actually the next clip.

00:22:01.000 And this is actually, so here's another clip where, and honestly, like I say, I say this with a heavy heart and, you know, listen, obviously I know I make fun of people a whole lot more.

00:22:10.000 I'm trying to avoid doing that with Rhett and Link just because I would love to obviously speak with them and I'll make fun of them some other day for things that are relatively inconsequential, but I don't want to twist the knife if they feel alienated because of their worldview.

00:22:20.000 So yeah, if you're feeling like you're seeing a different side of me, it's because I'm being good.

00:22:27.000 They couldn't be, this is so sad, more obsessed with what other people think about them.

00:22:31.000 That is the basis because that also determines how they view themselves.

00:22:35.000 If you don't believe me and you don't think this is sad, here's another clip.

00:22:40.000 First thing you do when you wake up?

00:22:43.000 Roll over, pick up my phone, and build my self-image from the YouTube comments.

00:22:48.000 First thing I do when I wake up is...

00:22:51.000 Roll over, see if Rhett's texting me because his self-image is being shattered by YouTube comments.

00:22:57.000 Yep.

00:22:58.000 Every day.

00:22:59.000 Now, let me be really clear here, by the way, because you could lob this criticism at me.

00:23:03.000 When I wake up, and actually I will say when I wake up I try and do my devotionals first, and often make some coffee, try and take some time, and I do pray because that's a big part of what makes me me.

00:23:13.000 But even the first thing I do, when I go into my email or I go into our drive to look at show maps and research, The last thing on my mind is, hey, what did people think about me?

00:23:24.000 In other words, I don't read the comments section.

00:23:26.000 You guys have instructed me.

00:23:27.000 I'm not supposed to because specifically this can happen.

00:23:30.000 What I am doing is going, okay, what inaccuracies, injustices, or need-to-know information do I have to work on today to best serve our audience?

00:23:40.000 It's not how can the audience best serve my ego or determine My moral worldview so that I'm still under the brand-friendly umbrella and make the YouTube trending list.

00:23:48.000 So there's a big difference between wanting to do your job well, wanting to serve your audience well, and wanting to shape-shift in order to, frankly, maximize the pat-on-the-back ego stroke that your audience provides you.

00:24:04.000 Which is why it's sad to me, because that'll always be fleeting.

00:24:07.000 Yeah, it's never going to lead you to a good place.

00:24:09.000 And historically, we've seen that just following after popular opinion, it doesn't normally lead to a more edifying, more loving, more accepting, more truth-centered world or a freer world at all.

00:24:20.000 And so there's this saying in Latin, Vox Populi, Vox Dei.

00:24:23.000 Sorry for saying Vox.

00:24:24.000 I apologize.

00:24:25.000 I hope it doesn't do anything.

00:24:26.000 But basically, I'm Rambo.

00:24:27.000 I know, right?

00:24:28.000 I'm...

00:24:29.000 VOOOOOOORG!

00:24:30.000 I can see you doing that.

00:24:33.000 No.

00:24:34.000 But basically, this concept that the voice of the people is the voice of God, right?

00:24:38.000 And that seems to be where Red and Link might be leaning, right?

00:24:42.000 Because they've talked about how they've, you know, we went through the deconstructing their faith and that's what started all this, obviously.

00:24:47.000 Please don't use that word.

00:24:48.000 No, I'm using their word.

00:24:49.000 I'm quoting.

00:24:50.000 I refuse.

00:24:52.000 They left their faith.

00:24:54.000 And so this has kind of become their worldview in place of that because they've said they haven't gone to anything else.

00:25:00.000 They're not now Buddhists or Taoists or whatever, you know, they're just kind of out there.

00:25:03.000 And so really it's like, well, what's popular?

00:25:06.000 What are the people saying?

00:25:07.000 And I think there's a strong point to be made here.

00:25:09.000 Look, there's nothing wrong with being successful.

00:25:11.000 There's nothing wrong with being rich.

00:25:12.000 Of course not.

00:25:13.000 There's nothing wrong with being popular.

00:25:14.000 There's something wrong with seeking these things as your priority.

00:25:18.000 Anytime you place anything above God, no matter what it is, you can place family above God and that would be a problem.

00:25:23.000 You can do a lot of things.

00:25:25.000 But that's where things get out of whack.

00:25:27.000 And I think that's what we're seeing.

00:25:30.000 I even felt that as a kid.

00:25:31.000 One of my favorite Christmas films of all time is Muppet Christmas Carol.

00:25:33.000 And it's actually, despite the Marley brothers, because I had to fit in the hecklers as the Marley brothers.

00:25:38.000 Despite that, it's actually one of the most accurate renditions of A Christmas Carol that I've seen.

00:25:43.000 But there is a song where Michael Caine says, well he sings, but it's really like Pierce Brosnan.

00:25:49.000 And if you want to know a measure of a man, you simply count his friends.

00:25:55.000 It's that flat.

00:25:57.000 And I was as a kid going, simply count his friends, and as a kid it bothered me.

00:26:01.000 Jesus had few friends and a lot of people who wanted him dead.

00:26:05.000 So you've got to count friends as well as enemies.

00:26:08.000 And some people have more friends and some people have more enemies, and it doesn't mean that they're necessarily morally right or wrong, but you shouldn't... To me, someone saying, that's the metric of a man, how many friends bothered me as a kid.

00:26:19.000 Yeah.

00:26:19.000 Well, and God's standards, the one convenient thing about them is that they don't change.

00:26:25.000 Right.

00:26:25.000 And that the voice of the people is always changing.

00:26:28.000 And so if your standard is always changing, that's exhausting.

00:26:33.000 But God's standard, again, is consistent and it does actually lead to flourishing.

00:26:38.000 It leads to healthy psychology and all the rest.

00:26:40.000 Hold on, that's a really good point.

00:26:42.000 Because we also have a clip specifically from Rhett and Link for that.

00:26:47.000 I find it really interesting that some people are making that argument, and one thing I saw said, it's too late for Rhett and Link, mostly because of this LGBT thing. 1.00

00:26:57.000 Once they've gone there, it's too late for them.

00:27:00.000 And I'm like, can't you see that you guys have lost this argument?

00:27:06.000 History is going to leave you behind, you know?

00:27:09.000 Even the most conservative denominations a hundred years from now.

00:27:14.000 No one except a fringe cult is going to be anti-LGBT in a hundred years.

00:27:21.000 If you just look at history and the way things progress culturally, eventually the church says, okay, we'll incorporate that, too, because if we don't, we're going to die.

00:27:30.000 But I think because the church is being really slow to do that, and it's kind of causing an existential crisis and a

00:27:34.000 crisis of just the way that they see the Bible.

00:27:38.000 The young people are just saying, I'm out. I'm not gonna be a part of this.

00:27:42.000 Well, hold on a second. Maybe if young people are the young people like you, that doesn't cause someone like me to say,

00:27:46.000 I'm out from the Bible, because guess what? It doesn't force me to relook at the Bible at all. The idea of

00:27:50.000 progress, first off, progress changes.

00:27:54.000 You change direction of progress.

00:27:56.000 You can look at times where we were far more left and far more tolerant.

00:28:00.000 A lot of people don't realize this, if you look at fashion throughout the United States.

00:28:04.000 So for example, we think of the 50s as a really conservative era.

00:28:07.000 You can look at that.

00:28:08.000 That was hyper-sexualized.

00:28:09.000 We enhanced the hips and the looks and the breasts. 1.00

00:28:11.000 I don't know what was going on with the pointy cone boots, but whatever.

00:28:13.000 That was weird.

00:28:14.000 And then we had the 60s and the 70s where we changed that, where we actually made men look like women and men wore bell bottoms and tighter tops because it was kind of a feminist revolution. 0.88

00:28:21.000 Then you look at the 80s where it went the other way.

00:28:23.000 We had shoulder pads.

00:28:24.000 And all of a sudden we went to women looking more masculine. 0.67

00:28:27.000 These things change.

00:28:28.000 Standards of modesty change.

00:28:30.000 The idea of LGBTQAAIP changes, as you can see by the acronym.

00:28:34.000 And for the first time in 10 years, a more negative point of view this year than last year.

00:28:38.000 of the LGBTQAAIP movement.

00:28:41.000 So young people aren't just going to tune out because something is popular.

00:28:45.000 Young people may tune out if they hold a worldview that Rhett and Link did,

00:28:50.000 which wasn't theologically and foundationally sound.

00:28:53.000 And keep in mind that this entire movement started with 12 guys on a mountain.

00:28:56.000 So there's... and it wasn't the, like, compromising with the surrounding cultural stuff

00:29:03.000 that ended up making the whole thing grow.

00:29:06.000 So the growth and change and things like that, it's not an issue of compromise.

00:29:11.000 Really, the only way to move forward and to grow is by being faithful.

00:29:14.000 Right.

00:29:14.000 They didn't say, hey, does that hill kind of look like a skull to you?

00:29:17.000 Eh, I'm not sure. 0.99

00:29:19.000 I think you're going to be killed on it. 0.99

00:29:21.000 I think that's going to be great for the religion. 1.00

00:29:23.000 Just picture it.

00:29:24.000 This is going to catch on.

00:29:25.000 This will be a moment.

00:29:26.000 He said, like, in 200 years, a fringe cult won't believe these things.

00:29:31.000 Christianity is 2,000 years. 0.57

00:29:33.000 Right, but you also had a misperception.

00:29:36.000 This is also important, where he was like, in the earlier video, we've talked about this, where he talked about Michael Buckley, the what-the-buck guy.

00:29:43.000 That was his thing, his catchphrase was what-the-buck. 0.83

00:29:48.000 It's not the gay thing, but you don't have to be so gay. 1.00

00:29:52.000 So I do think if you interpreted that you were supposed to hate someone because they were gay, that was not at all a biblical interpretation.

00:30:00.000 And if you're trying to say that won't be in the church a hundred years from now, it's not in the church now.

00:30:05.000 It's not in the church now.

00:30:06.000 There have been bastardizations of it, but it's never been mainstream theology in the church that you are to hate No, but I don't think that he's just saying that.

00:30:15.000 I think he's saying that it will be openly celebrated and accepted as normal and not sin, right?

00:30:21.000 And I think that's the problem.

00:30:24.000 What kind of faith do we have if it just bends to our social will as time goes on, right?

00:30:28.000 We have nothing.

00:30:29.000 We have something that can kind of move around and go, well, at some point, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife is going to probably have to go out of style because you'll just be some random church and you'll die, right?

00:30:40.000 Have you been to Utah?

00:30:42.000 As if that's in style.

00:30:43.000 I know, but this is the thing.

00:30:45.000 Some places.

00:30:46.000 You've got to have an understanding that God's Word is what it is, and you can think what you want about it, but you have to be honest about what it says.

00:30:53.000 So if he says, well, churches are just going to have to change, well, you're not saying churches will have to change.

00:30:58.000 Let's be very clear.

00:30:59.000 You're saying God will have to change.

00:31:00.000 Yes, and I want to be clear, too.

00:31:02.000 This is also why the watering down of the faith, you know, I think someone said this.

00:31:06.000 I can't claim credit for this.

00:31:07.000 Someone said you can't water down medicine and then be surprised when it doesn't work.

00:31:10.000 That's why I think it's really wrong when you have a lot of preachers who go out there and they draw the line at LGBTQAAIP, but they don't go out there and actively speak against, you know, living with someone before you're married.

00:31:21.000 Materialism.

00:31:22.000 You may not be bothered, but it's not a part of the Christian faith.

00:31:25.000 We are not to accept that as something to be esteemed, at the very least.

00:31:29.000 That doesn't mean that we don't accept those people.

00:31:31.000 Doesn't mean that those people aren't welcome in the church.

00:31:33.000 100%! 0.84

00:31:33.000 A heroin addict, and I'm not comparing all gay people to heroin addicts, but a heroin addict, someone who dresses, a cross-dresser, and transsexual, and gay person, and a person who is just living with his girlfriend for seven years, who says, it's just a piece of paper, baby. 0.84

00:31:47.000 They are all welcome in the church. 0.97

00:31:49.000 None of them, none of them are welcome in positions of authority to counsel others.

00:31:54.000 And we need to draw that line before it gets to something that is culturally popular, like the mouvement du jour of the LGBTQAIP.

00:32:03.000 Cut the line off before Jennifer Aniston adopts, what is it, Rachel, and friends decide she wants to have a baby without a dad. 1.00

00:32:09.000 No, no, no, that's wrong!

00:32:12.000 But for some reason it's more acceptable to some Christians because she's attractive.

00:32:15.000 And Jesus actually set the standard for this.

00:32:18.000 He was actually accused or he was heckled essentially because he would be often found around sinners, prostitutes, and people who needed, and he basically made the comment, it's not the well that need a doctor, it's the sick.

00:32:29.000 The people that are sick, those are the people.

00:32:30.000 So you don't shun these people groups from church.

00:32:33.000 You just call sin, sin.

00:32:35.000 That's it.

00:32:35.000 You just say, hey guys, God says that these are the things that we shouldn't be doing to experience life in his system that he designed.

00:32:41.000 fix an issue. And the reason that when people use the term sin, it's become a word that

00:32:45.000 people don't like because it sounds judgy. But let's be clear. Sin is a spiritual illness.

00:32:50.000 It'd be like going to a doctor and a doctor wanting to fix you, but he's worried about

00:32:54.000 actually diagnosing you. So in other words, if a doctor says like, oh, well, we can fix

00:32:58.000 you, but oh my gosh, what do we have to fix? Well, it's, it's something that's like, it's

00:33:03.000 great. It's grown. It's a, it's a, I don't want to talk about it.

00:33:06.000 It's like, do I have cancer?

00:33:07.000 That's not the word I want to use.

00:33:09.000 It's going to make you sad.

00:33:10.000 It's going to make you sad.

00:33:11.000 It's the same thing.

00:33:11.000 So when people say sin, like we need to address the sin, we need to recognize it as Christians so that we can all correct it.

00:33:16.000 And by the way, everyone is called to fix their own sin.

00:33:20.000 Yes, we all have sin.

00:33:21.000 It's not a bad thing, but you need to be able to diagnose the problem.

00:33:25.000 You need to be able to assess the sin so that you can serve the sinner. 0.59

00:33:30.000 Otherwise, they are held bondage to sin for the rest of their life.

00:33:33.000 This is what we've always believed as Christians.

00:33:36.000 And it's remarkable to me that that's become a problem now because people don't like to ever be reminded of the fact that we're all sinners.

00:33:41.000 I mean, I've probably sinned 20 times, not today, on this broadcast.

00:33:44.000 Just on this broadcast, yeah.

00:33:45.000 Well, and look, it goes back to, you know, going back to the popularity and kind of serving the mob.

00:33:50.000 We understand that that's not what we're supposed to do, even if, and we've talked about the monetary side of this, if you're making your show brand friendly so that you can get money, even if it costs you something, the Bible calls us to do what's right, right?

00:34:01.000 And it goes back to the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3.17, and this is just, it's one of my favorite verses because these guys basically are being called to bow down and worship before this king, Nebuchadnezzar, and they say, they're basically like, king, we can't do this.

00:34:16.000 And the king says that he's going to throw them into the fiery furnace and then it picks up in verse 17 It says look if it be so our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace And he will deliver us out of thy hand Oh King, but it then it goes on and says even if he does you're not gonna do it Going to do transgender makeup tutorials. 1.00

00:34:34.000 Exactly.

00:34:34.000 That's exactly what it's saying.

00:34:36.000 If you have a line in the sand, it may cost you something.

00:34:40.000 So Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego are making the point, we're not going to serve you above our God.

00:34:45.000 We're not going to serve money above God.

00:34:46.000 We're not going to serve family above God.

00:34:48.000 We're not going to serve my job above God, whatever it is.

00:34:51.000 And even if it costs us something, we're willing to pay the price.

00:34:53.000 Our God's able to deliver us, but even if he doesn't, we're still not going to serve you.

00:34:57.000 And here's the thing, they may actually believe that this is sort of their, if they've abandoned God, that this is their new God right now.

00:34:57.000 Right.

00:35:03.000 It could be, yeah.

00:35:04.000 That being said, it's also mighty convenient.

00:35:07.000 It is mighty convenient that you work on YouTube and you've happened to abandon the God and the worldview that you thought maybe would hold you back from appeasing your new golden calf in YouTube.

00:35:18.000 Right.

00:35:19.000 Think of it in those terms.

00:35:20.000 Effectively, that is what it is.

00:35:22.000 Like, who do you serve?

00:35:23.000 Well, look at your behaviors.

00:35:24.000 We don't talk about this because of this.

00:35:26.000 We don't talk about that because of this.

00:35:27.000 Well, that's who you serve.

00:35:28.000 You're serving YouTube, telling you those things.

00:35:30.000 And so, what should we be doing?

00:35:31.000 Romans 12.2, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

00:35:36.000 Incredibly simple.

00:35:37.000 Don't be conformed to what this world does because they don't know good from bad.

00:35:41.000 They don't know what they're doing.

00:35:42.000 Yeah.

00:35:43.000 That's basically, that verse is saying, YouTube, they don't know what they're doing.

00:35:47.000 That's pretty obvious.

00:35:48.000 And by the way, while we're talking about this being brand-friendly and this sort of crisis of faith and abandoning it and changing and progressing, let's kind of go over the quantifiable benefits of what it's gotten them.

00:36:01.000 YouTube funded their half-hour scripted show.

00:36:05.000 YouTube paid them to make their show longer.

00:36:07.000 It was an experiment that didn't really work out that well, but I appreciate the creative risk.

00:36:12.000 Keep in mind, though, by the way, this is the same company that sunk millions of dollars into The Young Turks.

00:36:17.000 So let's keep that in context.

00:36:18.000 Sunk money into Rhett and Link and Young Turks.

00:36:20.000 By the way, we're still waiting for our YouTube stimulus check.

00:36:24.000 Yeah, where my money at? 0.65

00:36:27.000 Oh, you got all of a sudden really black. 1.00

00:36:30.000 Is this Church Night at the Apollo?

00:36:32.000 You T.D.

00:36:32.000 Jakes over there?

00:36:35.000 Actually, he's probably significantly whiter than the voice that you just did.

00:36:39.000 They won show of the year.

00:36:40.000 Great.

00:36:41.000 Most recent, the Streamy Awards that are, of course, put on by YouTube.

00:36:44.000 They presented a keynote address at VidCon a couple years back with YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki.

00:36:49.000 So it's paid dividends.

00:36:52.000 It is definitely paid dividends.

00:36:53.000 With this very limited vertical that they've been very clear, it matters to them.

00:36:59.000 Yeah.

00:37:00.000 And if that were as fulfilling as the actual, I guess, sort of fulfilling your purpose in how you were fearfully and wonderfully created by God, then it would be worthwhile.

00:37:11.000 Yeah.

00:37:11.000 I don't think that is the case, and we'll get to a clip afterward that sort of implies that they don't think it's the case.

00:37:18.000 I don't begrudge them for being successful either, and I know you don't either.

00:37:23.000 I don't at all.

00:37:24.000 In light of all of these other things, I think that's why we're bringing this out and saying, well, look, you guys are just bowing down to the authorities.

00:37:30.000 I begrudge it being used as a justification.

00:37:32.000 Right, it is.

00:37:32.000 That's what it is for me.

00:37:33.000 I don't begrudge anyone being successful.

00:37:35.000 I begrudge it when people use it as justification for actions, whether it's a successful government that, or you know what, for example, let's use the wealthiest people in the world list.

00:37:44.000 What is it?

00:37:45.000 I just, now I'm thinking TJ, Jake, something Slims, Carlos Slims.

00:37:48.000 Yeah, the guy in Mexico.

00:37:49.000 He's not the wealthiest guy.

00:37:50.000 He's one of them.

00:37:51.000 And you have a bunch of Saudi, you have a bunch of oil sort of princes from the Middle East.

00:37:56.000 That's not the same as a Jeff Bezos.

00:37:58.000 So when people, when we talk about this, I talk about it often, I don't begrudge Jeff Bezos at all for being wealthy.

00:38:03.000 I have no problem with it because Amazon has improved my life.

00:38:05.000 I do begrudge people who make that wealthiest list if it's ill-gotten gain or if the justification is, well, hey, who are you to criticize them?

00:38:12.000 Look how rich they are.

00:38:13.000 Well, I could also be rich if I simply was born into a royal family that lived on a plot of land that raped the wealth from all of its citizens.

00:38:22.000 I don't begrudge anyone for being successful, and I don't begrudge anyone for making decisions that may be totally out of alignment with my own.

00:38:30.000 I begrudge people using success, their version of success, as a justification.

00:38:35.000 Well, and it is a big contrast between their approach and your approach.

00:38:39.000 I mean, and the reason that you've been able to approach.

00:38:42.000 You think?

00:38:43.000 The reason that you've been able to give the metaphorical middle finger, I don't know if you've given him a literal one.

00:38:47.000 Probably.

00:38:48.000 But the metaphorical middle finger.

00:38:50.000 Where's Cupertino?

00:38:51.000 I can't do it right now.

00:38:53.000 I don't know.

00:38:54.000 I don't know what that's the spiritual is giving the middle finger to evil YouTube.

00:38:58.000 Is that wrong?

00:38:58.000 Yeah, but I'm not entirely sure but the reason you've been able to do that is because you have a higher standard outside of YouTube.

00:39:04.000 It sounds like the way to get success in YouTube is to not have any other standards.

00:39:10.000 Yeah, not have any outside higher authority. 0.88

00:39:12.000 I know people will look at that and say well actually you were demonetized because you made fun of a gay Cuban Mexican guy.

00:39:12.000 I want to be clear.

00:39:18.000 That's not why that's actually not why and if you look at when we were we were obviously criticizing Vox.

00:39:22.000 Oh, there's that word again.

00:39:24.000 Both before and after, and videos that involved the gay gentleman in question who called himself, let's be queer, which is where I came from, and without him in question.

00:39:34.000 So I want to be really clear.

00:39:36.000 That's not why.

00:39:37.000 And even then, at that point, let's assume that that is wrong.

00:39:41.000 You believe that's wrong.

00:39:42.000 Let's assume you believe it's wrong.

00:39:43.000 I am not going to apologize because you believe it's wrong.

00:39:48.000 For example, when I say, hey, People who cohabitate.

00:39:52.000 And I know there are a lot of people out there, and so you're going to feel, I'm not judging you in the sense that I think lesser of you.

00:39:57.000 I probably do far worse things than that on a daily basis.

00:40:00.000 But I am making the judgment that the book I believe, the God I serve, says, you know what?

00:40:06.000 That's not how I want you to live, because that's not what will lead to a fruitful life.

00:40:10.000 I want you to find a wife, because a man who finds a wife finds what is good. 1.00

00:40:14.000 Women, I want you to be tender to your husbands. 1.00

00:40:16.000 Submit to your husbands.

00:40:17.000 Men, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

00:40:20.000 Right, this is what I believe.

00:40:21.000 So when I say I'm not going to apologize because you think it's wrong, I'm not going to apologize because I say I don't think the two guys, and I said this to Dave Rubin, getting hitched up, the civil union, fine, states can do that, I support them doing that.

00:40:35.000 I'm not going to see that as the same as a mom and a dad with kids.

00:40:38.000 It's not the same relationship.

00:40:40.000 You don't have to agree, but I'm not going to apologize because you think it's wrong.

00:40:45.000 Because I don't think it's wrong, and that's what happened with YouTube.

00:40:47.000 I don't think it's wrong.

00:40:49.000 I don't feel convicted by it being wrong.

00:40:51.000 There's nothing in my biblical worldview or compass that tells me it's wrong.

00:40:54.000 And the people primarily who are telling me it's wrong are very often evil.

00:40:58.000 Like right now, Google, we can rattle it off.

00:41:00.000 They have a history of working with Chinese governments to censor information, suppress opposition.

00:41:05.000 NBC, of course, we've criticized.

00:41:07.000 They've been parroting Chinese COVID propaganda points as of late.

00:41:11.000 So when people who actually work with governments that All of their whistleblowers disappear.

00:41:17.000 When an entity, a company, works with governments that deny the sovereignty of a nation who wanted to simply be free, when they decide to acquiesce to them because it's nice and brand friendly, I think that's evil and I won't apologize because an evil worldview, knowingly or not, tells me I'm wrong.

00:41:37.000 Yeah, and even if I disagreed with you completely and everything that you stood for, I would still be for you having a voice and a channel, right?

00:41:43.000 I may not want you to have as big of a reach or I may want to make sure I counter points that are wrong that you're saying or something like that.

00:41:49.000 Feel free to do so.

00:41:51.000 I'd have five people on a channel.

00:41:52.000 We already lost the race to that guy over there.

00:41:53.000 They would be a passionate five people.

00:41:55.000 But what I'm saying is that if you end up kind of building a box for yourself and then you walk in and you close the door on yourself when you allow YouTube and other places like that to control what you say because they're basically the one person saying here is what's acceptable for our society to have as an idea.

00:42:12.000 And you made a point about this, if you have kind of a multinational company and you start making the rules based on other countries, it gets even worse from there.

00:42:18.000 And we saw this even with Facebook in China, with the social score and Facebook being used to be able to help them give people social scores to see if they were supporting the party or not.

00:42:27.000 It's like an episode of Black Mirror, only not an episode of Black Mirror.

00:42:31.000 It really is.

00:42:31.000 It's just called real life, by the way.

00:42:33.000 No Miley Cyrus cameo.

00:42:35.000 The virus as well.

00:42:36.000 Jessica Chastain slash Bryce Dallas Howard.

00:42:39.000 I never can tell them apart.

00:42:41.000 Doesn't show up.

00:42:42.000 Well, and think of it this way.

00:42:45.000 You always try not to say something that's so inflammatory, but think of somebody in Germany kind of at the right time to be able to stand and say, wait a minute, maybe free speech and saying that Jews aren't bad people is not a bad thing. 0.97

00:42:54.000 It's the same principle.

00:42:55.000 It may not be at the same point in the process, but it's the same principle.

00:42:59.000 If you allow one organization to say, you can't talk about that.

00:43:02.000 You can't say these things are good anymore.

00:43:04.000 And you go, no, no, no, that's fine.

00:43:05.000 I'm going to jump right in the middle of this and just make money off your system. 0.99

00:43:05.000 I'm fine. 0.99

00:43:08.000 You become complicit in that system to some degree.

00:43:11.000 We've been saying this the whole time.

00:43:13.000 If tomorrow YouTube changes their policies and it's the complete opposite of what Rhett and Link think, what does that do to Rhett and Link's point of view?

00:43:20.000 What is their worldview like if all of a sudden they change?

00:43:23.000 And I would absolutely, and I hope that people understand that, I would absolutely fight for the right to still be on the platform.

00:43:29.000 Without a burp in my breath that after having broadcast for 45 minutes was trying to find its way.

00:43:33.000 I would support, I'm just, I'm getting too close.

00:43:35.000 No I'm not.

00:43:37.000 It was a Chick-fil-A, which by the way, Chick-fil-A has been slacking lately at their drive-thru because they know

00:43:42.000 there's no competition.

00:43:42.000 It's like Bill Gates coming over just whacking tables over and like...

00:43:47.000 Microsoft.

00:43:48.000 It's the only option.

00:43:48.000 Windows 98.

00:43:49.000 Two things.

00:43:49.000 Remind me to go back to the alt-right point that's in my head because I don't have the best short-term memory right now.

00:43:55.000 YouTube is talking about this.

00:43:56.000 You know, it's a very difficult struggle.

00:43:58.000 To find the balance between sort of international different forms of government.

00:44:02.000 And this is something they've talked about openly.

00:44:04.000 And my worldview on that, my point of view, is you have to go with the laws and principles in the country in which you were founded, the United States.

00:44:14.000 Why?

00:44:14.000 Here's why.

00:44:15.000 And this is the problem of situational ethics, or what's the term that I'm looking for now?

00:44:19.000 They don't use situational ethics.

00:44:22.000 Moral relativism.

00:44:22.000 Moral relativism, yeah.

00:44:23.000 I always learned situational ethics when I was in school and now it's more, I'm sure, the same thing.

00:44:26.000 But moral relativism, if you say, well, we have to strike a balance.

00:44:30.000 Well, if you're trying to strike a balance between different governments who have wildly differing views on human rights, guess what?

00:44:37.000 It will always end up debasing itself to the lowest common denominator.

00:44:40.000 And what does that mean?

00:44:41.000 That means that YouTube, Google, Twitter, Facebook, take your pick, zip tie me and hand me over to the Pakistani government so that I'm beheaded at a soccer game. 0.99

00:44:48.000 Because there are official complaints from the government.

00:44:51.000 I believe the government of Pakistan, the government of Germany, and the government of China for violating hate speech laws.

00:44:51.000 I love Pakistan.

00:44:58.000 So you have to either believe that free speech is absolute and that it's not a right that should ever be trampled on, and you shouldn't even design algorithms behind the scenes to try and change that even social interaction because you want to determine that a country that believes in those values is the one that has made your company valuable or Lowest common denominator.

00:45:18.000 Zip tie everyone who said something offensive on your platforms and hand them over to the sharks.

00:45:22.000 Well, under the laws of the country in which Google was founded is the reason that Google can exist.

00:45:26.000 Yeah, right.

00:45:27.000 And can succeed and has free speech is the reason that they've been able to grow as much as they have.

00:45:31.000 Right.

00:45:32.000 The reason YouTube exists.

00:45:33.000 And I think being truthful, this is something too while we're talking about the idea of, you know, if it's popular.

00:45:39.000 We've also experienced this in just the conservative movement.

00:45:42.000 Yeah.

00:45:44.000 I've never been a member of the Alt, right?

00:45:45.000 I remember this sort of came and went, and at some point I was target numero uno.

00:45:48.000 Listen, I wasn't a pro-Trump guy in the primary.

00:45:51.000 I wasn't pro-Trump, honestly, for the first few months of his presidency, and then there were some turnarounds where I was going, oh my gosh, I'm actually pretty impressed with this guy.

00:45:58.000 I haven't run from it.

00:46:00.000 I've been pretty open about it, and there was a point in time when we weren't doing Pepe memes and weren't just being edgelords online.

00:46:08.000 Some of it wasn't a huge percentage, by the way, of people in the conservative movement, but unfortunately they dominated the conversation quite a bit online and made it very difficult for us to go out and create content.

00:46:17.000 There was a period in time where we thought, you know what?

00:46:20.000 This is the new conservative, and it's not me.

00:46:23.000 We didn't go along with it.

00:46:24.000 And we still haven't gone along with it.

00:46:26.000 And you know what?

00:46:26.000 We're still here standing, and you can look at the ThruLine and see that we have all been, if not consistent, because views do change sometimes, certainly, at the very least, I guess you would say, you know where we stand, and you know why we've changed our point of view.

00:46:42.000 And there are very few point of views that I've honestly changed.

00:46:44.000 What some people see as a bad thing, it means you're inflexible.

00:46:47.000 I don't.

00:46:48.000 No, I mean, of course you're going to learn and grow over time, but you're not going to flip-flop on issues like a politician would just to gain votes or popularity.

00:46:55.000 I want to go back to their process.

00:46:58.000 their process, right? And they're thinking, you know, we didn't just move out.

00:47:02.000 Checking them. Yeah, well, their process, not of, not of deconstructing, because I would never say that, but of

00:47:07.000 leaving, but of leaving the faith.

00:47:10.000 Um...

00:47:11.000 You know, the Bible talks about it when it talks about the peril.

00:47:13.000 It's just, I just hate the term deconstructing.

00:47:14.000 I know, I know.

00:47:15.000 It's like someone nailing, you know, it'd be like some kind of a Roman, right, entering in the, or what am I, what's the term I'm looking for right now? 0.94

00:47:21.000 The people who would have nailed it, not the Roman, not centurion.

00:47:24.000 Am I looking for centurion?

00:47:25.000 Yeah, it's a centurion.

00:47:26.000 Was it centurion or is that a?

00:47:27.000 Soldiers, Roman soldiers.

00:47:28.000 That's an Amex.

00:47:29.000 Roman soldiers.

00:47:30.000 That's a card.

00:47:31.000 Nailing in a cross being like, you know, we're not calling this nailing anymore.

00:47:34.000 We're calling this metal fun time.

00:47:37.000 So there you go.

00:47:37.000 Clank, clank, clank, clank, clank.

00:47:39.000 We're adhering you to the wall of Rome right there, metal fun time.

00:47:42.000 It is just re-wording it something else, a deconstruction.

00:47:45.000 No, you are turning your back on Christ, which makes a father who loves you very, very sad.

00:47:52.000 So I don't want to use that language because I think it diminishes, and I know that you were using it, because it diminishes the magnitude of what it is.

00:47:58.000 Yeah, the old word is apostasy.

00:47:58.000 Right, exactly.

00:48:00.000 Yes, it is.

00:48:01.000 It's just not very, you know, used anymore.

00:48:03.000 Useful.

00:48:04.000 So, really what happened is common, right?

00:48:06.000 In the Bible it talks about the peril of the sower, basically, where seed ends up in good ground, but weeds quickly come up and choke it out, right?

00:48:14.000 And I think what we saw with Rhett and Link more, and I have to guess, I'm not judging, I'm not saying that this is 100% accurate, but it's kind of a story common to man.

00:48:22.000 They went out to someplace else, they went out to Los Angeles to chase after a career, and there's nothing wrong with that.

00:48:28.000 You went out there, you pursued a career, but then you started chasing after something more than you chased after God.

00:48:32.000 You started chasing after what people thought, what people felt, how you felt about how they felt about you, and all of the things that come with that, and you started chasing after something more than God, and you ended up leaving your faith.

00:48:43.000 That's really what I think happened.

00:48:44.000 I wouldn't say more than God, I would say chasing after something other than God.

00:48:47.000 Well, more meaning you spent more time chasing after that than God, because I don't think originally they completely left, but they started putting something above God, whether they meant to or not, and eventually it created such a chasm that they're like, well, wait a minute, maybe I don't really believe this anymore.

00:49:00.000 Maybe that foundation that I thought I had, I didn't really actually have.

00:49:03.000 Well, they would argue that the whole process started when they were back in North Carolina, but didn't start when they were in L.A., but you've made that I don't know that that's true.

00:49:12.000 And I think that's probably true in the sense that these were probably people who eventually, if the right person came around, would abandon their faith anyway.

00:49:19.000 Sure.

00:49:20.000 But they thrust themselves into an environment seeking to be a part of that club that forces one to abandon their faith.

00:49:26.000 Yeah, they moved from North Carolina to L.A.

00:49:28.000 and L.A.

00:49:29.000 didn't take them away.

00:49:30.000 Yeah, and I moved to Los Angeles.

00:49:34.000 You turned out okay.

00:49:35.000 No, I left.

00:49:36.000 Remember, it was a crisis of faith for me in the sense that I remember sleeping out of my car and then sleeping out of Seymour's renovated apartment up on the top floor where I auditioned.

00:49:47.000 I refused to audition for a film.

00:49:49.000 I think it was a Lifetime film.

00:49:50.000 Or basically it was like a gratuitous sex scene.

00:49:52.000 No, no, I wasn't pushing a pregnant woman down a flight of stairs. 0.98

00:49:55.000 That I probably, I would have done just because I'd be like, oh, this is iconic.

00:50:00.000 It's the lifetime scene. 0.99

00:50:02.000 No, it was like a gay scene where I was basically like having fellatio performed in a truck stop. 0.99

00:50:07.000 And it was pretty graphic. 0.98

00:50:08.000 And I said, I just, I don't feel, I don't feel comfortable doing this.

00:50:11.000 And keep in mind, I had just, I think I had auditioned not long earlier for like a scene that would have required me streaking.

00:50:16.000 I was like, fine, I don't care.

00:50:18.000 There's nothing wrong with nudity.

00:50:19.000 It's not titillating.

00:50:20.000 This is not titillating.

00:50:20.000 You auditioned for old school?

00:50:22.000 And my agent at this point said, well, you know what?

00:50:25.000 I don't know if we're going to be able to work together if you refuse to work blue. 0.82

00:50:27.000 I said, this is, it's literally blowing a guy at a truck stop on television.

00:50:32.000 I just don't want to do this.

00:50:33.000 Like, it's not like I'm eliminating everything.

00:50:36.000 I'm pretty lenient, which to my everlasting shame sometimes on this. 1.00

00:50:41.000 Um, and I hate it, and I really reject where I said, I said this, I spoke with my parents, I was like, this is something, what do you do, this was for me, this was a very, and maybe this is why this strikes close to home for the same reason, not that they call me a piece of shit, but what if I were to say, oh that lesbian producer, piece of shit. 1.00

00:50:55.000 Yeah. 0.99

00:50:57.000 Because it's in a press class.

00:50:58.000 It's the same language.

00:50:59.000 It's just that it's okay, it's brand friendly to say it to this guy, even though the truth is it's a minority viewpoint on YouTube by design.

00:50:59.000 Exactly.

00:51:05.000 But this was my not-crisis-of-faith, though you can call it that, was when I had lived in New York and I'd done stand-up and I'd gone to the Just for Laughs festival and I'd done a few films at this point.

00:51:14.000 I'd done Arthur, I'd done a lot of commercials.

00:51:17.000 And I was in Los Angeles and I had this conversation with an agent.

00:51:21.000 There was a point where I realized, hold on a second, everything that I ever thought that I wanted, which was just to either do stand-up or just be a professional actor, I don't know that I can do this.

00:51:29.000 I don't know that I want to do this anymore.

00:51:30.000 I remember telling my dad, I don't know that I'll ever play well with others when the others are these people.

00:51:37.000 In this state, in this industry, I don't know that I can do it.

00:51:42.000 And that's when I went back to stay with my family for a little bit.

00:51:45.000 And I actually said, give me six months, because you have to get a job if you're not going to be in Los Angeles.

00:51:49.000 And I had left a film set.

00:51:51.000 It was called To Save a Life in Oceanside, California.

00:51:53.000 It was a Christian film, but it was the only Christian project I've ever been a part of.

00:51:56.000 Could have gone back to Los Angeles.

00:51:58.000 I had an audition lined up.

00:51:59.000 Instead, I drove back to my family.

00:52:02.000 Because I wanted nothing to do with that industry at that point.

00:52:05.000 And unfortunately, also sometimes working with Christians in the industry, you have a little bit of a blast of cold water.

00:52:09.000 Yeah.

00:52:10.000 And my family said, well, okay, if you're not going to do it, then you better start doing stand-up and, you know, stand-up more.

00:52:14.000 And when you're here, start working.

00:52:16.000 I said, give me six months.

00:52:17.000 Let me try the YouTube thing.

00:52:19.000 I think I can do this.

00:52:19.000 And the second I came out with more conservative leanings, I had my manager drop me as well.

00:52:24.000 And all of these cards just came tumbling down.

00:52:28.000 And thank God, and I mean this, I mean thank God, thank Christ, I don't mean that in the Irish Catholic way, thank Christ that there were some companies that came by.

00:52:35.000 There was PJTV at the time and Fox News and Dennis Miller.

00:52:39.000 At that point, it was Dennis Miller, Michelle Malkin, Andrew Breitbart, and Sean Hannity, Neil Cavuto were the people who kind of took me under their wing and had me on their shows.

00:52:48.000 And Alan Combs, to his credit, who had me on these shows to express my point of view because it was unique enough.

00:52:53.000 And I said, oh, maybe I can do this.

00:52:55.000 But I would have had to accept the fact that everything I'd worked for,

00:53:00.000 I wasn't going to be able to do because I had to face myself and realize,

00:53:02.000 I can't work in this industry at this stage in my life.

00:53:05.000 And you had worked in that industry since you were a kid.

00:53:08.000 12 years old.

00:53:09.000 I spent a lot of time being tutored on set, yeah.

00:53:10.000 Yeah, this wasn't something that you just kind of picked up later in life and said,

00:53:13.000 I'll give this a try.

00:53:14.000 This was like your lifelong aspiration, right?

00:53:16.000 This is what you wanted to do.

00:53:17.000 And I remember kind of early on in our friendship, like there were plenty of opportunities for you to go,

00:53:22.000 this is just not worth it.

00:53:23.000 Like I'm swimming against the grain so much that it would have been very easy for you.

00:53:27.000 Against the current.

00:53:28.000 Against the current, going against the grain.

00:53:29.000 You swim against the grain?

00:53:29.000 I think I can cross those metaphors, mixed metaphors, I guess.

00:53:33.000 So you can, you know.

00:53:34.000 You cross the grains.

00:53:35.000 You turned your leafs and the tree and things.

00:53:38.000 But you very easily.

00:53:39.000 Yeah, no, you could have very easily walked away or said, I'm not going to really participate

00:53:46.000 in conservative media anymore.

00:53:47.000 And I'm just going to have a viewpoint that's much more centered.

00:53:49.000 So I'll get a lot more.

00:53:51.000 Well, that was another thing, too.

00:53:51.000 You know that with conservative media, I had some raw dealings.

00:53:55.000 Even amongst your own!

00:53:56.000 Yes, and I didn't blame the ideals.

00:53:58.000 And I certainly didn't blame the Christian ideals.

00:54:00.000 I understood that this was a byproduct of imperfect interpretation or application by man.

00:54:05.000 And that's what I remember.

00:54:06.000 The last time that I remember crying as a man outside of a death was in a conservative company, which shall remain nameless.

00:54:15.000 I think you guys know where they had me working there full time for a long while and was really

00:54:19.000 angling for a contract.

00:54:20.000 And they said, yeah, I met up with them.

00:54:22.000 At this point I was married.

00:54:23.000 And they said, but you're going to do it for free.

00:54:25.000 You're going to do it for the exposure.

00:54:26.000 We're not going to pay you.

00:54:27.000 And I was at a crepe place with my parents and I remember just sitting there.

00:54:30.000 I had to leave.

00:54:31.000 Crepe place.

00:54:32.000 I don't even eat crepes.

00:54:33.000 This is how I remember it.

00:54:35.000 And I just left and I walked out and I kind of knelt down behind a dumpster. 0.84

00:54:38.000 I remember just like, just that kind of like a bitch, just sobbing, because I had been doing it for five weeks, full time, and I thought I was moving towards something, and it was just pulled off the table. 1.00

00:54:47.000 And I had a good friend at that time, who didn't even go into bat for me, who knew it was wrong. 0.96

00:54:51.000 And I remember my dad just saying, hey, at this point, this was the guy who said, you better start working.

00:54:55.000 Yeah.

00:54:56.000 And I said, give me six months.

00:54:56.000 I'll do the YouTube thing.

00:54:57.000 At this point, it was a flip where he said, hey, You don't need them.

00:55:00.000 Do your own thing.

00:55:01.000 And that was the moment where I got the rights to this show.

00:55:04.000 And I know, listen, it's not like this is some unbelievable hallmark film success case, but I am grateful for what we have, and I'm able to make a living, and everyone here is able to make a living, and it's blessed That's a lot of people, and I consider it very much a blessing to me.

00:55:18.000 And my dad said, you don't need them.

00:55:19.000 You can do this.

00:55:20.000 And he said, and I know, I believe in you.

00:55:22.000 And at that point, I've always tried to draw closer to God.

00:55:26.000 And I'm not very, the reason, I want to be clear too about this, and I want to go back and you guys can wrap up because you make much better points than I do.

00:55:32.000 The reason that we didn't do Mass Monday for a long time, and I've always been very open about my faith.

00:55:36.000 But I didn't feel comfortable doing this kind of a format is because I am not an expert at all.

00:55:43.000 Like I said, I've read through the Bible multiple times because I had a one-year Bible.

00:55:46.000 I've gone to church.

00:55:47.000 I've been a part of a small group.

00:55:48.000 I do a devotional every day.

00:55:49.000 But I love sitting at the feet of experts in anything.

00:55:53.000 That's where you see when I sit down with Daniel Cormier or someone like George St.

00:55:56.000 Pierre on the show and fighting just athletics.

00:55:57.000 I'm like, oh my God, O'Brien Shaw is a strong man.

00:55:59.000 Even though I don't follow a strong man, I'm like, I just want to sit here and listen.

00:56:01.000 Thomas Sowell, I go, I want to sit and absorb everything.

00:56:04.000 That's the same way I am with theology and issues of God.

00:56:07.000 And I know that I'm not an authority.

00:56:09.000 I'm not claiming to be an authority.

00:56:11.000 So I've always been very uncomfortable until someone who works here said, hey, you know what?

00:56:16.000 He was sort of a Christian.

00:56:17.000 We know Smooth Manny, but not really.

00:56:19.000 And said, like, this has helped me.

00:56:21.000 And it's actually good to see very imperfect people taking a stand.

00:56:25.000 And that's all this is.

00:56:26.000 This is very imperfect people who do not claim to be experts at all taking a stand.

00:56:33.000 For what we believe is right, in spite of it maybe not being very popular.

00:56:36.000 Yeah, and really just having a conversation about this, knowing that it could cost us.

00:56:41.000 Knowing that it could be an unpopular opinion to say something like, hey, we just don't think Rhett and Link's story really lines up with reality a lot of times.

00:56:48.000 There could be blowback from that.

00:56:49.000 We understand that. 1.00

00:56:51.000 But at some point there's a... You mean like being called a piece of shit? 1.00

00:56:56.000 And I don't even care! 0.99

00:56:57.000 I just want to know what the memes were they talked about after.

00:56:59.000 I've only seen the clip.

00:57:00.000 You can go watch the video.

00:57:01.000 I will.

00:57:01.000 I just don't want to contribute to the... Don't watch it.

00:57:03.000 And I want to be clear.

00:57:03.000 I have no problem with that.

00:57:05.000 It is well within the right.

00:57:06.000 I saw the right.

00:57:07.000 I bought a ticket anyway. 0.99

00:57:08.000 I have a segment called What a Piece of Sh**. 0.99

00:57:10.000 And we've applied it both to Don Lemon, Brian Stelter, as well as the World Health Organization. 0.98

00:57:15.000 So I am not casting any stones.

00:57:19.000 It's okay if you cast some stones at us.

00:57:21.000 Just back it up. 0.99

00:57:22.000 You should hit me with a boulder. 0.99

00:57:23.000 I know, right? 0.99

00:57:23.000 You should push a button and an Acme anvil. 0.99

00:57:26.000 Just bonk! 0.86

00:57:26.000 I'm fine with that. 0.86

00:57:27.000 And I know you said it on the show, but it was hilarious. 1.00

00:57:29.000 Before the show, she was like, yeah, she called me a piece of shit. 1.00

00:57:31.000 And I was like, oh man. 1.00

00:57:32.000 And he goes, no, no, it's totally fine.

00:57:34.000 I'm just curious why.

00:57:37.000 You weren't curious like, oh, I want to know why. 0.99

00:57:39.000 You're like, I'm just curious, like, which thing she thinks made me a piece of shit that I said. 0.99

00:57:43.000 I just want to know why. 0.99

00:57:48.000 And I think we have, we have what, another?

00:57:49.000 I was trying to, did you have any points you wanted to make there?

00:57:51.000 Yeah, I was just going to say that what you were just talking about is an illustration of why you should stick to your principles.

00:57:56.000 And not just principles broadly, but the truth.

00:57:59.000 And why knowing that you're committed to the truth is the most important thing and not just finding

00:58:06.000 some organization or some company and saying, whatever your loyalties are, those are my loyalties.

00:58:12.000 It's actually having standards outside of some kind of corporate loyalty that makes you good,

00:58:17.000 it makes you good for these platforms or not.

00:58:19.000 And that's much more important.

00:58:21.000 And the truth right now is there's some sort of a tugboat that somehow has come.

00:58:24.000 Tugboat out there.

00:58:25.000 It's come ashore.

00:58:26.000 What is that?

00:58:27.000 I don't think I can hear it.

00:58:28.000 One of those duck things that has the wheels on them. 0.85

00:58:30.000 We're not even near an airport, but then every now and then you just get a... Well no, I mean, the philosophy that you said, Wade, it's not like we're just espousing this because it's good for faith.

00:58:40.000 Think about yourself in this way.

00:58:41.000 Certainly not good for views.

00:58:43.000 Think about this, bucking culture and bucking trends.

00:58:46.000 What if you're in an office where it's acceptable within that office, all the guys to do sexually inappropriate things to women, right?

00:58:53.000 To grab them and to say things, and you're like, oh, well, I'll just go along to get along kind of thing.

00:58:57.000 No, you have to stand up.

00:58:58.000 You have to have a backbone.

00:58:59.000 You have to have principles that apply in all parts of your life.

00:59:02.000 We're not all perfect.

00:59:03.000 We're not always gonna stand up when we should, and hopefully we'll kick our own butt and go, you know what, next time I'm gonna say something, I'm gonna intervene, I'm gonna do the right thing, whatever it is.

00:59:10.000 This applies to every part of your life. 0.91

00:59:12.000 If you have no standards, if you have no spine and no backbone, you will just let anything happen.

00:59:16.000 And we don't want that for anybody.

00:59:18.000 We don't want people to be sexually assaulted at work or harassed at work.

00:59:20.000 We don't want any situation like that.

00:59:22.000 And we also don't want people to kind of curtail their speech because they think that this is the popular thing to say.

00:59:28.000 And this actually brings me back, and it kind of brings me full circle back to the point of view that I have changed.

00:59:32.000 And people, you can go back and you can see this is actually, I think, from our very first show ever that might have been, our very first live show that was, I believe it Virginia Tech.

00:59:40.000 It's either Virginia Tech or SMU compared to U of M or A&M where people ask about, hey,

00:59:46.000 I'm in an industry where everyone is very liberal or people say, you know, I want to

00:59:50.000 go in the entertainment industry.

00:59:51.000 What should I do?

00:59:52.000 And my answer used to be, listen, if you have like Gary Sinise money or Bruckheimer money,

00:59:58.000 let your freak flag fly.

01:00:00.000 And if not, I can understand.

01:00:02.000 Keeping your head down, and hoping to get to a position where you can influence people for the better, so I can understand being silent.

01:00:08.000 If you want to keep your mouth shut, that's okay with me, and I've changed that.

01:00:11.000 I've changed that response, and because at first I thought I was offering an answer, and I thought, well, you know what, I can't sort of copy-paste myself into that situation, because I know that I wouldn't be happy doing that.

01:00:20.000 I know that I wouldn't be able to do it, but some people can.

01:00:22.000 And then I realized that people are going to smell it on you anyway.

01:00:26.000 And that's if it's your political worldview, or if it's your worldview as seen through the lens of faith.

01:00:33.000 People will smell it on you anyway, and I don't believe that anyone whose fundamental principles, and this is why now I say you've got to just be honest about it, be open with it, and you know we've always said, maybe you're not a shark, but you can be a puffer fish, you can be a porcupine, You can be the poison dart frog where they just really wish they hadn't tried to take a bite of you because they feel really sick.

01:00:52.000 I think that anyone whose convictions truly mean anything or define them could not feel good about themselves or happy in putting their head down and keeping quiet as long as it advanced them career-wise until they got to a point where they felt like they could speak up because you never really get to that point because there's always another room on that ladder.

01:01:09.000 And so that is a viewpoint that has changed just because I have seen so many, and you can take a who's who of people who have been successful in this movement and fallen, or some people who've become successful through modifying their worldviews.

01:01:20.000 When you change your fundamental worldview, when you change your principles, your foundational principles, as an appeal to popularity, as a spiritual argument or an intellectual argument, it truly, not only does it not hold water, But it leaves you empty and it leaves you unhappy.

01:01:41.000 And it just takes different people, a different timeline to admit it and figure it out.

01:01:46.000 And that's why we're doing Mass Monday.

01:01:48.000 And that's why we're talking about this and the idea of being brand safe and popular, if that's a part of a Christian worldview, because It's not.

01:01:56.000 It's never been.

01:01:57.000 And you can look at the founder of the feast, Jesus Christ himself, he was never liked by everyone.

01:02:02.000 He was hated by more people than he was loved.

01:02:04.000 And I think at the end of this, when you look at what their worldview is, Rhett and Link, and I would have really welcomed them on the show, and we'd keep it obviously respectful and speak in love, you look at what they've done, how they've benefited, but you also have to look at what it has cost.

01:02:19.000 And I think this is a pretty candid clip right here from Rhett and Link that sort of crystallizes that.

01:02:25.000 Whatever it is that we are right now, I call myself a hopeful agnostic right now, but I don't have the structure, or the community, or the singular sort of well-defined purpose that I did, and that is, that's a problem.

01:02:40.000 I'm not trying to paint, listen, it's not like I'm about to give you some philosophy that I live according to now, that gives me community, purpose, and meaning.

01:02:48.000 I don't have that, okay?

01:02:51.000 I think there's a giant sort of shift that's happening culturally, and I think that we may be arriving at that sometime, but it doesn't exist right now for me.

01:03:00.000 But what does exist is an openness, is this curiosity.

01:03:04.000 I kind of saw Christianity as this boat in a very stormy sea. 0.99

01:03:10.000 It's stable.

01:03:10.000 There's a lot of other people on it.

01:03:12.000 It's got a destination.

01:03:13.000 You're going to get through this.

01:03:14.000 It gives you something to hold on to.

01:03:17.000 It gives you stability.

01:03:18.000 It gives you purpose.

01:03:19.000 It gives you direction and it gives you community.

01:03:23.000 And when I jumped ship, I didn't jump to another boat.

01:03:28.000 I jumped into the water and I pulled my wife and my children.

01:03:34.000 Or you jumped into a boat with holes in it.

01:03:38.000 I jumped into a sea of uncertainty.

01:03:44.000 And that's where I've lived for about six years.

01:03:48.000 But what happened to all that community and the people who caused you to jump ship when you became a part of this cool kid social club at YouTube?

01:03:56.000 The streamies not mean anything?

01:03:58.000 The keynote addresses not mean anything?

01:04:00.000 The lunches with Susan Wojcicki not mean anything?

01:04:02.000 Having 1,700 videos from your own admission, none of which are brand unfriendly, does that not mean anything?

01:04:08.000 How is that a sea of uncertainty and not just another boat?

01:04:12.000 I'm confused.

01:04:14.000 I'll leave you with this.

01:04:15.000 Luke 9, 25.

01:04:16.000 For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses himself?

01:04:22.000 And that's why we've tried to take this on and do our best job possible for a bunch of Bunch of YouTube hacks with this semi-popular podcast.

01:04:33.000 I hope it's been insightful, Lumeninger served you well.

Louder with Crowder - April 14, 2020

Rhett & Link Are Everything Wrong with YouTube | MASS MONDAY | Louder with Crowder

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