DAVID MENZIES ｜ My brief, bad, brutal experience with Ozempic
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Toxicity
3
sentences flagged
Hate speech
11
sentences flagged
Summary
Tonight, I tried Ozempic. Trust me folks, the cure is worse than the curse. It's Wednesday, June 17, 2026, and this is The Ezra Levent show, featuring David Menzies' brief, bad, brutal experience with the drug.
Transcript
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tonight i tried ozempic trust me folks the cure is worse than the curse it's wednesday june 17th
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2026 i'm david menzies and this is the ezra levent show
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Well, folks, just headline this monologue as my brief, bad, brutal experience with Ozempic.
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Here's the backstory. About a decade ago, I was diagnosed with diabetes.
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this meant lifestyle changes such as reading food labels for the first time you know it's shocking
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to see that sugar is injected into almost everything do you know that ketchup is essentially
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a liquefied donut when it comes to its sugar content crazy in any event over the years i did
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make progress i got my blood sugar down no mean feat given that i remain cursed with a sweet tooth
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and i did lose weight via dietary changes and exercise but when it comes to doctors progress
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can't come fast enough it would seem and so it was that my doctor suggested i take that miracle
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drug known as ozempic i know she meant well now the ostensible reason for ozempic is to get
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diabetes under control, but I'd wager most people on the planet are taking Ozempic purely for weight
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loss. In this regard, Ozempic really does work as an appetite killer. Once the injections started,
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I would consume perhaps 25% of what I'd normally eat, and yet I would feel stuffed. I had heard
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anecdotally that Ozempic kills one's desire for booze. In my experience, this proved 100% true.
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While taking Ozempic, it was cold turkey time for me. I smiled thinking how much money I would deny
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our government-run booze monopoly. But those smiles would later turn into grimaces. Here's
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the bad news. In the two months I was on Ozempic, it felt less like I was taking a miracle drug
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and more like I was being poisoned. I do not exaggerate. Simply put, I never felt more
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miserable. The first side effect was horrendous stomach aches. Never have I consumed more Eno
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in a failed attempt to bring tranquility back to my beleaguered belly. Sometimes for hours,
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I would remain in the fetal position, moaning with pain. It was that bad. There was also this
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constant feeling that I had to vomit. That was horrible too. And then there was the nausea.
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I never get seasick, but from the descriptions of seasickness by those who suffer from it,
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it seemed that I too was enduring seasickness, even though I never ventured out to sea.
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i would later learn that these side effects are very common for users of ozempic and there are
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other not so common side effects too this includes gallbladder problems kidney damage thyroid c cell
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tumors and vision changes i would find out later that while ozempic is meant to attack fat it also
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goes on the war path against muscle indeed up to 40 percent of weight loss can come from lean
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muscle mass rather than fat i was not amused by this for there i was busting my butt in the gym
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pumping iron while at the same time a drug inside of me was counteracting all this weightlifting
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i mean give me a break already weightlifting is already becoming increasingly harder for me as
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I age. I don't need my own body conspiring against me thanks to a nefarious foreign agent.
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And another thing, I can tell you that while on Ozempic, I contracted tinnitus. The hearing in
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my right ear is completely gone. Well, that's not completely true. It feels like a tuning fork has
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been shoved into my ear. What few sounds are picked up sounds like shrill bird chirps. It is
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absolutely maddening. And sadly, there is no cure for tinnitus. Now, to be clear, it's very possible
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that contracting tinnitus was a coincidence. I am not saying there's a direct correlation between
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ozempic and hearing loss but folks for me this is the crux of the matter namely what are the
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long-term side effects of ozempic what research will be amassed in the years and even decades
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down the road at this point we don't know do we given that ozempic is so relatively new
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Then again, perhaps the mistake of taking Ozempic is on me.
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Maybe I should have known better when it comes to the risks associated with taking a whiz-bang brand new drug.
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After all, the single biggest reason I did not get the COVID-19 vaccine jab isn't necessarily because I'm anti-vaccine.
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vaccine. Rather, it's because I am anti-experimental vaccine. After all, I'm a 1962 baby
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who dodged a bullet. And the name of that bullet was thalidomide. Thalidomide dates back to the
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late 1950s. It was supposed to be a medical miracle. Instead, it was a disaster. The drug
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was meant to alleviate morning sickness in pregnant women. In that regard, thalidomide
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worked brilliantly, but there was a steep price to be paid. Namely, more than 10,000 babies the
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world over were born with severe birth defects. Perhaps the best written account regarding
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thalidomide is Suffer the Children, the story of thalidomide, which was written by the Insight
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team of the times of london published in 1979 it is a book that will sadden and enrage any reader
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here is a snippet from the book's introduction quote the thalidomide babies whose births
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shocked the world have grown up they were born almost 20 years ago with a terrible range of
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deformities because the thalidomide sedative pill their mothers took during pregnancy
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was not a wonder drug, but a cruel perverter of the growing body in the womb. The thalidomide
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teenagers are coping with life as best anyone can when they lack arms or legs or suffer from
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other serious deficiencies. In Britain, 19-year-old David Bickers, who has no legs and only rudimentary
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digits where arms should be, studies mathematics and electronics and produces his own talking
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magazine for the blind. Terry Wiles, who is barely two feet tall and has no arms or legs and only one
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eye, writes and types his own short stories. Gary Skinner, who has short flippers where his arms
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should be, works as a telephone switchboard operator in the local hospital. Something like
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8,000 thalidomide children are alive in the United States, Germany, Japan, Britain, Ireland,
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Sweden, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Italy, and Spain. Altogether, the pill known internationally
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as thalidomide, claimed victims in 46 countries where it was prescribed by doctors and sold
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across the counter under a variety of trade names on license from the original German inventors,
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Chemie Gerthenel. Mothers who took the pill in the first trimester of pregnancy when limb buds
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of the fetus form, produce children with a wide but distinctive range of deformities.
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Some have no arms, just flippers from the shoulder. Some no legs, just toes from their hips.
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Some have limbless trunks with just a head and a body. Some appear to be physically normal,
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but were injured internally. Most of the children have a normal range of intelligence,
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but a fewer vegetables some are deaf or blind or suffer from epilepsy and other manifestations of
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severe brain damage they are all victims not merely of a drug accident but of the dangerous
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myth invented in germany and exported to a credulous world that thalidomide was better
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than all other tranquilizers because it was non-toxic, had no side effects, and was completely
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safe for pregnant women. None of these statements announced by the drug companies and accepted by
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doctors was true, end quote. Making things immeasurably worse, not only did this drug
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not come as advertised, a second tragedy occurred when news of the deformed thalidomide baby started
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making headlines the world over. And that second tragedy was how governments and social institutions
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not only failed to keep the drug off the market, but didn't act quickly, even when its horrific
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side effects were known. By the way, folks, that list of doddlers would include our home and native
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land. In Canada, thalidomide somehow, someway remained on the market for three months after
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have been withdrawn in Britain and Germany. What a gross dereliction of duty. Thus the question
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arises, how many more babies were born in Canada with terrible deformities during those months when
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it could have been prevented? Please remember this fact when it comes to our healthcare head honchos
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robotically chirping follow the science but here's where things get personal i almost forgot to
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mention a very relevant point regarding thalidomide me that's because my mother became
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pregnant with yours truly back in august 1961 i found out later in life that she suffered from
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horrendous morning sickness. So what did she do? Well, like thousands of other pregnant women
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globally, she got a prescription for thalidomide and there it sat upon her night table. The cap
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never unsealed, not a single tablet ever consumed. Why was it woman's intuition? Was it some hunch
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deep in her gut that she didn't quite trust the drug companies and the doctors and the pharmacists
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that this drug was completely safe and so it was that she never ingested thalidomide it's baffling
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especially because i'm the kind of guy who goes running for an extra strength advil tablet should
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a minor headache come to fruition. And yet I can't help but think, what if? What if my mother
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had taken those tablets? What if I had been born terribly deformed? I don't think I would have
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gone on to become a journalist. I don't think I would be here employed by this wonderful company
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presenting this monologue to you. I don't think I would be married to a beautiful woman who gave me
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two wonderful sons. No, I don't even want to think about what if. Now, while it was my
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grandparents who raised me, I can tell you this much for certain. When my mother decided not to
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consume those insidious tablets, that was the single greatest gift she could ever have bestowed
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upon me. My mother was never really part of my life, and I only found out from a government
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letter that she had died some 15 years ago. But I remain eternally grateful for her foresight.
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Thanks to the global thalidomide disaster and what could have been my personal fate,
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a lesson was learned which is to say i am not open to anything that is experimental being injected
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into my body again i really should have known better when it came to ozempic and consider this
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chilling paragraph from suffer the children quote secrecy cast a long shadow in the
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thalidomide affair first over the discovery of what went wrong medically and legally and then
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over publication of the truth much of the story in this book has laid for 15 years under veils
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of legal censorship it is a story about a cover-up as well as about a drug disaster
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it is less a scientific horror tale though that element is present than a parable about the
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predicament of the individual who is asked to pay the price for progress end quote to be clear
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i am not saying that ozempic is the second coming of thalidomide what i am saying is that nobody
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knows for certain what the long-term side effects of the of this drug will be because it is still
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so relatively new i also want to be clear about something as well if ozampic is working fine for
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you be it controlling diabetes or for weight loss i am genuinely happy for you and i pray that in
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the years to come, no other dire consequences will result from Ozempic use. In the meantime,
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I am done with Ozempic. I'd rather pack on a few extra pounds. Heck, I'd even rather have a shorter
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lifespan than go through life feeling as though I'm on death's doorstep. For me, when it came to
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My name is Billboard Chris, and I am in Madrid, Spain. I don't speak Spanish, but that's okay
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because i've got some people coming out with me today
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who do because it's important we get this message out which is los niños no pueden consentir
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blockadores de la pubertad spain has done nothing really to stop this they're giving
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puberty blockers to 12 year olds they're following up with the opposite sexist hormones
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the sterilizing kids who have come to this incredibly harmful belief that they were born
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in the wrong body, that they are transgender, and the whole thing's a lie. There's no such
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thing as a transgender child. They're called girls and boys. And the affirming message is
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they're beautiful just as they are. So I'm going to be out here having conversations,
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how are you? do you speak English? I'm allowed to record. It's not streaming.
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we're gonna have a problem here if you don't speak English because I don't know how to
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speak Spanish. It's not prohibido. It's not prohibido. I researched the laws before I came
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here. Well, one of our favorite guys is Billboard Chris or Billboard Chris Elston for his full name.
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I don't think legally Billboard is part of his name, but it's how people know him because he's
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got this brilliant but simple approach to dealing with the issue of transgenderism, especially
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in children. He literally stands there with an invitation to talk to people. He has a billboard
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with a very simple and, in fact, sometimes irrefutable statement like, no child is born in
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the wrong body, or children cannot consent to puberty blockers. Really stark statements, and
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he'll stand in the busy town square and i've seen him do it everywhere from davos switzerland the
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heart of the world economic forum to ireland to america of course and here in canada so i was not
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surprised to see that he was in madrid spain and neither was i surprised even though i was
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disappointed to see the police gave him a hassle in madrid joining us now freshly repatriated to
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canada is our friend billboard chris chris great to see you again welcome back um you have the the
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pure simplicity of what you do is i think the source of power you just put a basic statement
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out there and invite the world to engage with you i'm not going to call you low energy in terms of
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like it takes energy to do it but you don't you're not raising the energy of the conversation
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you're responding with compassion and facts it's not like you're not a shouter is what i'm saying
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you absorb energy from critics tell me what happened when you took your trademark uh
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conversation to spain yeah so i went to madrid just for two days including plus two days of
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travel but i was invited by an organization called azte weir which they do things like us
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they've been around for 25 years and they like freedom and they are pro-life and they don't
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think we should be sterilizing children with puberty blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones
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and all these normal things so they also have an international offshoot called citizen go which
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does work all over the world and i've collaborated with them so they were kind enough to invite me
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and to give me a little award and then because i'm all that way in spain i thought let's go out
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on the street so i had some spanish signs made of my message and i went to the main town square
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in madrid called puerta del sol and i was there for probably four minutes i had just recorded a
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one minute intro after setting up my tripod which i set up beside a big pillar so i'd be out of the
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way and this is a huge town square it's 80 yards wide 100 yards long i wasn't near anybody i recorded
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this little intro and as i'm finishing my intro and you can watch this on social media the police
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pull up and right away they told me that what i was doing was prohibido i know what that means
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and i don't speak spanish that's right and i don't speak it much either so we had a language barrier
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but i studied the law before i went and i spoke with a lawyer in spain the night before
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and i know i'm allowed to do this so anyway long story short after 10 or 15 minutes another police
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car pulled up and they seized my phone they seized my tripod they seized my signs they then seized my
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other phone i use an old phone sometimes when i'm talking to people to show them research
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and i had to go to the police station where i was held for almost two hours
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with no communication i was able to get a message out through my apple watch
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to some friends in spain who got me lawyers and the lawyers showed up about 45 minutes later
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and magically i was released with a fine but there's no number on the fine so this whole thing
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is just a bit of a gong show and i'm going to appeal for sure because i don't think police
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should be able to abuse their authority like that i've been reviewing all the legal
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lees regarding this situation and they violated many things in the way they treated me and we
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can't let that stand because i'm just a normal guy who thinks we shouldn't be sterilizing kids
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who have been taught that they're born in the wrong body and i should be able to do that
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Well, I like the fact that you know the law and you study it before you go to each jurisdiction.
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And I've seen you deploy that when police come over.
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They can pretty quickly detect that you're not from wherever you are.
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Like you're a Canadian or they might think you're an American.
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um so you were held for two hours and then 45 minutes for the lawyers to come did you get back
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on the streets did you take did you get back possession of your uh your phone your other
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equipment did you get your billboards back i did i'm missing one of my my lapel mics so
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i don't know they just misplaced it or something but yeah i got out i had tapas with the lawyers
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and then together with the lawyers we went right back to the same spot in the town square well
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that sounds like a very pleasant afternoon if you can handle the stress of it be arrested
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be redeemed have some tapas with the lawyers and then go out on the street i'd say you had a busy
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day i did and you know when these things happen ezra i'm calm up here yeah but your body still
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has a reaction adrenaline yeah the adrenaline my apple watch kept interrupting me telling me that
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my heart rate is abnormally high considering i'm not moving because it was running at about 110 to
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120 because you don't know what these guys are going to do the same thing happened to me in
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brussels right after i'd spoken at the european parliament i went out on the street they did the
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same thing there they did what was called an administrative arrest at first saying i just
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need to pay a fine well the next thing i know at the first police station i'm in handcuffs and then
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i'm taken to another station where i'm put in jail and strip searched oh my god yeah you know i was
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sort of joking about it being a busy day i mean just the arc the the turn of events in that day
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was so incredible but i think authorities um you know in the whole world over i think are turning
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against freedom of speech i think maybe america is still fairly free but i just online i see
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france the uk australia canada all shepherding in more censorship laws either on what you can say
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or you have to prove your ID and identify yourself before going online.
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I really think that the powers that be are hostile to freedom of speech
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especially controversial subjects like transgenderism in children.
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I think that, I mean, I remember back when Twitter was owned by Jack Dorsey
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They censored transgenderism harder than any other subject.
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um they would censor if you dead named someone or misgendered them or said he instead of they
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they would censor you within minutes it's like they more more than they would censor things on
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radical islam or terrorism they were obsessed by your subject speaking of which let me ask you
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how has twitter been treating you since elon musk in in let's say the last year are you is it still
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a free forum for you yeah it's great for me now before elon musk bought the platform there was a
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13 month period where every single one of my posts was deemed adult content so every picture was
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hidden every video and that made it impossible to grow but as soon as elon acquired x i was able to
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get that lifted and it's fine now elon actually subscribes to me he pays me five dollars a month
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come on come on i do the same for him though so it's a wash he subscribes to you you're the
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that's that's such a uh a signal um i mean because of course transgenderism is a topic that
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hits close to home with him and he he speaks about it with some pain um and i won't get into
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i mean he he talks about it publicly that one of his children was caught up in the cult
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um i think he must admire what you're doing yeah and i think his influence has spread to other
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social media platforms as well because what happened a few years ago after he acquired it
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we had what were known as the Twitter files where it was exposed that the U.S. government
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was basically directing these executives within Twitter to censor conservatives accounts and the
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same thing was happening at Facebook and YouTube etc and once all this came out we had Zuckerberg
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start to wake up and now I wouldn't have been able to be on Facebook before I hadn't even tried back
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then because i knew i wouldn't last but now my facebook account is growing rapidly instagram's
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growing rapidly youtube's doing fine so i think in that respect things are better but we have
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all these governments around the world as you have just noted who are trying to clamp down
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on our freedom of speech and if democrats win this next election in a few years it's all just
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going to be repeated again and democrats haven't given up one inch on transgender insanity they're
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determined to die on this hill and we need to make sure that they do die on this hill yeah if i'm not
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mistaken trump just turned 80 and of course he his term expires as president in a couple years
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even though he likes to taunt people with the the prospect of running a third time i don't think
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he's serious about it um you can see they're shifting their public enemy number one title
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to elon musk i mean whether it's in the guise of he shouldn't have all that money or or whatever
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the attacks on him are in the uk they particularly don't like him talking about immigration policy
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and censorship he is i think the most consequential force for freedom of speech in the english world
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and you already described your experience with that on twitter um i think that he will be their
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chief target when trump is gone and no longer in a position to protect him but who knows maybe by
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then he'll be on Mars beyond the reach of some of the sensors last word to you Chris um what are
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your plans I mean I take you I mean you're like the energizer bunny you every week you pop up
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somewhere else tell me what we should expect from you in the weeks and months ahead well I'll be
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I'll be in Vancouver tomorrow on the streets before the Canada Qatar World Cup game and after as well
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but on this weekend I'm hitting I'm heading to the UK for the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship
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conference. It's basically the biggest international conservative conference. Jordan
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Peterson had started it. And so that's a three-day conference where I'll be making a lot of friends
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and doing important networking. And I'll be heading out on the streets as well. And I'm very excited
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about that trip because my 16-year-old daughter is coming with me. So she's going to come to the
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conference and we'll do some stuff together on the street and I'll make sure she's safe.
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But that's going to be a fun week in London. Yeah, well, I've attended that conference before.
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is very interesting some fascinating people unfortunately chris i won't be able to attend
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this year i don't know if you heard the home office has banned me from visiting the uk and
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i don't even want to say the words out loud lest i plant a seed of the idea but i'm delighted that
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you're still allowed for now to travel to the united kingdom but someone who speaks the truth
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and who takes to the streets like yourself uh i'm i i hope that you don't show up on a targeted
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list from the uk because they are banning and censoring and arresting and questioning people
00:29:59.220
in a way that would make your madrid experience look like a walk in the park i totally agree but
00:30:04.840
i do have one trick up my sleeve i'm actually a british citizen as well my dad is from england so
00:30:20.820
Well, I hope that I don't think any of the bad guys are watching this
00:30:23.900
segment, but the fact that you've got British citizenship through your
00:30:41.900
until next time on behalf of all of us at rebel world headquarters and around the world to you
00:30:47.340
at home good night and keep fighting for freedom