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00:01:17.960sense. We've established a pattern on this show, as I'm sure you've noticed, and the pattern goes
00:01:28.400like this. I bring up some kind of current event or cultural issue. I explain the event or issue,
00:01:33.360and then I offer my analysis of said event or issue. And that last step, the analysis is
00:01:38.660typically very important because without it, I would just be reporting on things that are
00:01:42.260happening. And that would make me a reporter or a journalist, which is somehow a species even more
00:01:46.940debased than podcaster. And so to avoid any specious charges of journalism, I like to color
00:01:52.560my recounting of events with my own opinion, as opposed to journalists who come to think of it do
00:01:57.240the exact same thing. However, on rare occasion, there is a circumstance so momentous or bizarre
00:02:02.720or extraordinary that it leaves almost no room for subjective analysis. All I can do in these cases,
00:02:09.760if I'm going to speak of it at all, is simply relay it to you in stupefied amazement. So for
00:02:15.800example, if aliens landed in my backyard or if I went hiking in the woods and I happened to see
00:02:20.080Bigfoot dashed through the trees riding a unicorn or something, all I would be able to do is just
00:02:24.880report the event. And all you'd be able to do is listen and conclude that I'm a schizophrenic
00:02:29.420lunatic, just as you'd always suspected. But the point is, I wouldn't have much of a take to offer.0.77
00:02:34.580The event would speak for itself. And that is the situation that we find ourselves in today,
00:02:40.700Thanks to a now infamous article this week in the Boston Globe.
00:02:44.780Now, this article is not about Bigfoot, although it does feature a number of people who one can assume probably bear a striking resemblance.
00:03:07.680Now, I'll reiterate here that this article is from this week, and this week did occur in the year 2026. We have not entered a time warp that sent us barreling back to 2021. So this is a firestorm over a relaxed mask mandate in the current year AD.
00:03:25.620So already we have a situation that's obviously quite funny, but it gets so much better or so much worse, depending on whether you're cynical enough to find the collapse of Western civilization somewhat amusing, as I do.
00:03:38.420I fear that if I try to summarize the article, you'll be deprived of the Alice in Wonderland journey that those of us who read the entire thing experienced.
00:03:46.920And so we're going to go through this piece by piece.
00:04:51.300Of course, if you're really serious about public health, then another option is to have your lungs surgically removed so that you aren't expelling or breathing in any infected air at all.
00:05:01.100And those are all perfectly valid points, but let's stay on task.
00:05:06.180The new policy was not received with love.
00:05:07.740Just say you're being complicit in a mass disabling event and get it over with, wrote one commenter.0.57
00:05:14.520People like you kill disabled people in the name of your own leisure and convenience, posted another.0.97
00:05:19.960I hope your venue gets firebombed for robbing my fellow immunocompromised people of their Saturday plans0.99
00:05:26.000just to scrape extra revenue from ableists, wrote a third.
00:05:30.220The thread grew to 442 comments, some supportive, but many furious.
00:05:34.340People running the bar were accused of being ableist, eugenicist even,
00:05:38.380for relaxing their signature policy in the face of what commenters consider an ongoing pandemic.
00:05:43.720Greenfield has not reported any COVID cases in more than two months.
00:05:46.500i will say that mass disabling event is a much better band name uh so there's that but that0.64
00:05:53.820aside keep in mind as we continue that the illustrious last-ditch lesbian bar had only1.00
00:05:58.040announced a relaxation of the mask policy for one day of the week and even then masks are optional
00:06:05.180not prohibited so according to the let's be polite and call it strained logic of these let's be
00:06:12.040polite and call them fanatically delusional whack jobs, they're only being potentially exposed to
00:06:16.900deadly COVID fumes on one night of the week, and then only if they choose to go to this bar,
00:06:22.300which they don't have to, and then only if they also are forgoing their own mask and hazmat suit,
00:06:27.180which they don't have to. So it seems that even if we make the astronomical leaps of logic required
00:06:33.160to grant them their underlying premises, you know, that there is a COVID pandemic currently
00:06:38.180happening and that masks are necessary to protect against it. And that COVID aside, there's any
00:06:43.080personal protective equipment in the world that can save you from the hellish primeval diseases1.00
00:06:47.580and afflictions that must cover every square inch of a seedy lesbian bar in Massachusetts.1.00
00:06:53.200There still wouldn't be any reason to be overly upset at this lesbian bar with its slightly0.99
00:06:57.740relaxed mask policy on one day of the week out of seven. And yet these people are upset.
00:07:04.340In fact, they're so upset that they think the bar should be burned down with everyone inside it.
00:07:09.580In the name of public safety, of course.
00:07:12.180Note, too, how the person who makes the firebomb threat isn't even trying to justify it using any kind of, like, tortured self-defense argument.
00:07:20.140Instead, they wish a fiery death on everybody associated with the bar for interfering with, quote, their Saturday plans.
00:07:27.120I mean, at least the other angry commenters have the decency to pretend that the bar is actively eradicating the entire disabled population or whatever.0.99
00:07:36.160This one, on the other hand, is just casually saying that anyone who causes them to have to like shift around their weekend schedule deserves to burn alive.
00:07:44.500Your bed has one job, which is to provide a comfortable place for you to remain unconscious for several hours.
00:07:50.360Nowadays, there are sleep trackers and apps and supplements and elaborate nighttime routines.
00:07:54.720people are monitoring 17 different metrics to determine whether they successfully went
00:07:59.740unconscious for eight hours maybe all that has some value but before you redesign your entire
00:08:04.780life around sleeping you might want to consider the thing you're actually lying in every night
00:08:08.640which is your bedding that's why i like partnering with bowl and branch their bedding makes your bed
00:08:13.680noticeably better without requiring you to develop a new lifestyle around it their sheets are made
00:08:18.360from 100 organic cotton and woven specifically for airflow there's no synthetic cooling technology
00:08:59.740to unlock 15% off. Exclusions apply. Now, the saving grace for the bar is that this commenter
00:09:05.880is we can assume a woman who is, we can assume, morbidly obese and who we can assume wouldn't0.83
00:09:10.840know how to make or deploy a firebomb, even if she had an IKEA instruction manual, and we can0.62
00:09:15.900assume would probably just blow herself up in the process accidentally anyway. So that's the good
00:09:20.280news. Continuing, two days later, Last Ditch posted an apology. We're sorry for our passive
00:09:26.220and dismissive tone of our change to the norms and schedule impacting the most intersectional
00:09:30.860among us. Management wrote on Instagram, we understand everyone faces different intersections
00:09:36.080and we are always working to consider all needs fully. Instead of diffusing the situation,
00:09:41.000the apology seemed to make things worse. The bar had aired. It posted an Instagram card without
00:09:46.040providing alt text for the visually impaired. This set off a fresh round of accusations of
00:09:51.140ableism. This is not an accessible post, wrote one user. It indicates the lack of care or interest
00:09:56.900in disability intersectionality. Now, I don't want to break up the momentum here right as we
00:10:02.600get into the second act, but I'll just clarify a couple of things. First, in case you aren't up
00:10:07.860on the lingo, okay, the phrase everyone faces different intersections is not, as far as I know,
00:10:15.120a reference to a city with a confusing and chaotic street layout. She's not talking about
00:10:21.140Boston or Washington, D.C. Intersections here refers to the places where all of your personal
00:10:26.980victimhood identities meet. And the goal, if you're on the left, is to have an intersection
00:10:32.760that is as busy and frantic and poorly marked and congested and convoluted as possible.
00:10:38.120So your personal victimhood intersection should resemble like a traffic intersection in Nairobi. No traffic lights, no signs, 12 different roads converging at once, pedestrians wandering into the road and getting flattened one after another. That's how you win on the left.
00:10:57.140Now, meanwhile, as a straight white male, my intersection doesn't exist. It's just one straight, well-maintained, well-lit road, everything humming along smoothly. And so in the leftist view, I lose. They all point and laugh at me and say, you're normal and functional and not in a state of constant crippling self-obsession, loser.0.71
00:11:19.140Second, and related, if you're wondering what alt text is, it's a written description of an image which makes the content more accessible for blind people.0.79
00:11:30.720Now, you might be slightly confused by this because you're thinking, or at least I was thinking, if blind people can't see the image, then how can they see the written description of the image?
00:11:40.720Well, the answer to that question is to begin with, how dare you ask for any explanations about the lived experience of disabled folks?0.99
00:11:47.900They don't have to explain themselves to you, you disgusting bigot.1.00
00:11:51.820You should be stabbed in the stomach and thrown into a pit of scorpions.1.00
00:11:56.120Also, the answer is that blind people use screen reading technology that can read the image description.0.99
00:12:02.000Now, if you're next going to ask why the screen reader can't itself just describe the image, well, then I refer you back to the pit of scorpions.0.83
00:12:09.800Now, of course, even if the last-ditch lesbian bar had included alt text, that may have been more accessible for the blind, but it would have done nothing for the Helen Keller-style blind and deaf community.0.61
00:12:23.860Indeed, the alt text just assumes that those who are visually impaired aren't also intersectionally hearing impaired, which itself is an ableist and bigoted and colonialist assumption that is morally tantamount to genocide, if you ask me.
00:12:37.020I mean, at the very least, the bar could have provided the alt text, but then also mailed a description of the text in Braille to everybody in the community.
00:12:48.160Is that so much to ask? That seems like a logical compromise.
00:12:51.920Although that even that raises its own intersectional problems, because what about disabled people who are blind and deaf and also have no arms or legs?
00:13:01.420How are they supposed to hear the text description or feel the Braille?1.00
00:13:05.480what do you want them to do smack their head against the braille dragging their forehead1.00
00:13:11.840across it is that what you want do you think it's funny to imagine a blind and deaf lesbian with no1.00
00:13:18.060arms or legs flailing her head against a piece of braille in order to understand the new masking0.98
00:13:23.020guidelines at the local lesbian bar would you like that okay would that be amusing to you fascist1.00
00:13:28.320this is again why you should be killed with all due respect anyway let's jump forward a few1.00
00:13:34.700paragraphs and continue. Quote, nevertheless, Last Ditch, which opened last year as a bar for0.98
00:13:40.760dykes, transsexuals, gender freaks, workers, and their friends, is struggling. Three housemates1.00
00:13:46.300in their mid-20s opened it together, hoping to fill the void left by two local queer bars that1.00
00:13:51.200had shuddered. One of the trio, Asa Rosario, a drag performer who uses it, its pronouns,
00:13:57.860envisioned a venue where it and its friends could perform. Quick time out here just to say that
00:14:03.920although I'm very firmly on the record as someone who doesn't care about your personal pronouns,
00:14:09.000it is one personal pronoun that I might actually respect. I never thought I'd say that. But if you
00:14:16.400want me to call you it or that or that thing or my God, what is that monstrosity? Then you know
00:14:24.520what? I'm on board. I can do that. I am willing to do that. Continuing, quote, the three were
00:14:31.740intentional about the kinds of values they wanted to bring to the Divey Basement Bar,
00:14:36.080which they decorated with discoveries from Facebook Marketplace and pieces from local
00:14:39.960artists. No one would be turned away from the space for lack of funds. Poor and unhoused people
00:14:45.000are welcome in the space. The police were not. Our mission is to create systems of care and action0.99
00:14:50.980and aid, says Jackie Mattelian, one of the founders. When it first opened, Last Ditch did
00:14:55.960fairly well. Customers fondly remember a raucous opening night with a clothed simulation of a
00:15:01.980lesbian sex act, masks in place, on the dance floor. But over time, foot traffic to the bar
00:15:09.040slowed. More and more visitors said they didn't have the cover fee. The bar let them in anyway.
00:15:13.840The owners fell behind on bills and couldn't pay themselves or the people who worked there.
00:15:17.680So after consulting with the Massachusetts LGBT Chamber of Commerce, they came up with a plan
00:15:21.240to bend one of their rules and hopefully attract more customers.
00:15:25.200But by the time of Last Ditch's monthly community meeting on September 11th,
00:15:28.900only one of the original founders, Mattelian, is still involved.
00:15:33.020The two others step back from the daily operation months before, Mattelian says,
00:15:37.120citing various pressures and health issues, one had enrolled in clown school.
00:15:42.700Now, there's obviously quite a lot going on in these couple of paragraphs.
00:15:45.420I am particularly fascinated by that last sentence.
00:15:49.260And the article doesn't dwell on it or tell us anything else
00:15:53.520It just tells us, oh yeah, they went off to clown school
00:17:06.820In fact, you can go to the website Clowns Without Borders, which is, again, real,
00:17:12.080and find a list of dozens of clown schools all across the country and even the world.
00:17:20.460When's the last time anyone's even seen a clown? There's like thousands of clown schools. I mean,
00:17:25.800we're just churning out millions of clowns. I haven't seen a clown in 35 years.0.94
00:17:32.200Where are all these clowns? That's my question. I've never been one to be, oh, clowns are scary,0.93
00:17:37.600But the fact that we're creating so many clowns and we and no one knows where they are, where they are, that's kind of terrifying.
00:17:46.060What are what are they all doing? Where did they go?
00:17:49.160Now, one of the more prestigious institutions appears to be the Northeast Clown Institute, whose website offers many academic resources for clowns and prospective clowns, including the 2026 Northeast Clown Institute course schedule, which covers topics such as the business of clowning, kids shows, juggling for fun, and where to hide the bodies.
00:18:12.140That last one is not really a listed topic, but I assume they covered it at some point.
00:18:15.680I should also note that the Northeast Clown Institute has a board.
00:18:22.020It has a board of directors with 20, 20 members on their board of directors,
00:18:28.000all with names like Woohoo, Boohoo, Beeboo, Rascal, and Disco.
00:18:34.320Now, helpfully, Disco the Clown also has a video linked on the website
00:18:37.960where he provides a brief lecture on the legal issues of clowning.
00:18:41.780I am here to tell you that clowning is not all fun and games or laughs and giggles.
00:18:45.680Apparently, Disco the Clown is a lawyer. He's been in the practice for 40 years serving clients who either don't know he's a clown or were specifically looking for legal representation that knows how to make a poodle out of a balloon. I don't know.
00:18:58.200I watched his lecture, because I have no life, and I discovered that some of the legal pitfalls clowns face, according to Disco, are the possibility that a balloon breaks and a child chokes on it, or that a child might develop a skin infection from face paint, or that the clown might be accused of, quote, unwanted touching.
00:19:20.480Disco notes that this latter issue may not be covered by insurance.
00:19:24.300Anyway, none of this is directly relevant to the matter at hand,
00:19:26.720but if you were wondering about the intricacies of clown higher education,
00:19:29.520or if you were not wondering at all, now you know.
00:19:32.940We move now to the climactic scene in this saga.
00:19:37.100I mean, the saga of the lesbian bar, not the clown school.
00:19:40.500Distinction is subtle, admittedly.0.58
00:23:52.720Instead, all that was learned, apparently, is that the woman who owns the place0.93
00:23:56.120not only wants to murder the entire disabled community, but is also, of course, racist.
00:24:01.680We're told that Mattelian tried to engender some sympathy from the group by pointing out that the business is going under and she's in debt and she's doing whatever she needs to do to keep her head above water, keep the doors open.
00:24:12.500But as the article reports, her critics were, quote, unmoved.
00:24:16.640They chastised her for centering her feelings and spilling her white tears and forcing black heroes like Noir to, quote, do emotional and physical labor.
00:24:27.980Now, Noir never explains how exactly attending a Zoom call involves physical labor.
00:24:34.700Maybe he or she or whatever has an internet connection that can only be powered by physically running on a wheel like a giant hamster.
00:24:44.440And these are questions that just cannot be answered because they cannot be asked.0.94
00:24:47.880Because asking a black person anything or expecting them to explain or justify any claim they make at any point for any reason is racist.0.99
00:24:55.240and more ethically problematic than the Holocaust, I would even say.0.94
00:25:00.740The article finally ends on a melancholy note0.89
00:25:03.340recounting the very sparsely attended mask-optional Saturday night
00:25:07.820that followed this meeting, and here's what it says.
00:28:19.460You know, we've both lost something through all of this.1.00
00:28:21.960She lost her dreams of having a bustling lesbian bar filled with vibrant and strange and unsightly creatures resembling the Star Wars cantina scene.1.00
00:28:30.700And I lost my dream of ever being able to mock these people more hilariously or effectively than they already mock themselves.1.00
00:28:39.740So we are in the same boat in many ways.
00:28:43.180It almost makes me want to perform a grieving ritual on the dance floor.
00:28:46.560but I fear that would be an act of ableist appropriation.0.96
00:28:49.780So instead, I will just say that the last-ditch lesbian bar0.96
00:28:54.060and its owner and its other owner off in clown school0.99
00:28:57.700and Noir the black lesbian who's maybe or maybe not actually a man0.97
00:29:01.980and for that matter, Disco the Clown, God bless him,0.61
00:29:05.540and everybody else involved in this story at any level