The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #935

00:00:00.000 Hello and welcome to the podcast of Lotus Eaters episode 935. I'm your host Harry joined today

00:00:14.900 by Stelios and a very hydrated Josh. Hello there. And today we're going to be talking about the

00:00:20.780 gayest Star Wars ever. I know high bar to reach but Josh assures me that it has been met. We're 1.00

00:00:27.700 also going to be talking about right-wing derangement syndrome and then I'm going to beg

00:00:31.820 Josh and Stelios to talk me down from the ledge that I've found myself on after looking into

00:00:37.380 Ukraine. Do a flip, jump, jump. No, no, no. You need to talk me down without jumping. I don't know what 1.00

00:00:43.280 you're talking about but I will try to do what you're asking. That's all right because it turns

00:00:48.420 out looking into different parties escalating different parts of the Ukraine conflict right

00:00:52.900 now. You can make a guy a little bit anxious. You can make a guy a little bit worried about

00:00:58.460 nuclear war. That's all I'm thinking right now. Josh, what's a few nukes between friends?

00:01:05.040 I think it would improve things personally. Well, it depends where you send them. But anyway,

00:01:09.320 I think I'll mention as well, we've still got Islander on sale and we are taking that off

00:01:14.900 sale for pre-orders next Monday. So right now is one of the last chances that you might have

00:01:20.720 to pick yourself up a copy before they are all gone. So if you don't want to be fake

00:01:25.920 and gay, get one right now. All right? Otherwise you're going to be cast in the next Star Wars 0.99

00:01:30.900 and no one wants that. Yeah, and it'll be gayer than ever because you'll be in it.

00:01:35.760 It's the gayest Star Wars ever, everyone. It's a strange time to be alive that this is proclaimed 0.97

00:01:42.760 by the creators of the show itself. So yes, here is the Acolyte, which is the new Star Wars

00:01:50.580 TV series produced by Disney, I believe. And yes, you can look at the rating there, 4.3 out of 10,

00:01:59.200 and you can infer something about how good it is in that it's not good. It's bad. I haven't seen it

00:02:05.540 because I have will to live that needs to be preserved. Is there a single man in that poster?

00:02:11.740 Um, yes. You never can tell these days. Blue lightsaber. You can never tell these days.

00:02:17.160 It's the guy from Squid Game. Oh, they gave him the John Boyega treatment. The Chinese John Boyega. 1.00

00:02:23.520 Bong Boyega. What was that? Well, you know, in China, when the original one of the new ones came

00:02:29.960 out, they shrunk John Boyega, the black guy, down as small as possible on the poster. So Chinese 1.00

00:02:34.560 people wouldn't have to. I think they'll be okay with that, that fella. I've stopped watching

00:02:39.440 Star Wars at episode eight. Same. Yeah. Just, I haven't, I just stopped. I couldn't continue.

00:02:45.360 It's just the original trilogy and the prequels and maybe the better ones. I quite enjoyed the

00:02:50.760 first series of Mandalorian as well. As a standalone. But other than that. Didn't watch it. I had too

00:02:57.540 many friends soy facing over the Mandalorian when that first came out. And like a contrarian,

00:03:02.740 I said, well, if you all love it so much, I hate it. And guess what? Then I saw that

00:03:07.680 it went massively downhill in the later series. So I was vindicated yet again.

00:03:12.640 Also, I would be remiss not to give a shout out to the Clone Wars, which I've been assured

00:03:16.820 I haven't seen, but I've been assured that it's very good. And I'm sure there'll be comments

00:03:21.120 saying, Josh, you're an idiot. There we go. See, Sam says it's good. 1.00

00:03:25.860 Samson's already on it. See, I remember if you're talking Clone Wars, I remember the old 2D

00:03:29.720 animated ones that were five minute shorts on Cartoon Network, I think back in the day

00:03:34.080 that filled in the gaps between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Now they

00:03:38.500 were good. They were done by the samurai Jack guy. And also you'd have no idea what's

00:03:42.520 going on in Revenge of the Sith if you hadn't watched that first.

00:03:46.100 Well, there we go. We've given you alternatives. And I found this interesting. This is Rotten

00:03:52.080 Tomatoes. And you can see the critics score and the audience score being a gulf. Critics liked

00:03:58.660 it and the audience did not, which is true of a lot of woke things. This is like the

00:04:03.140 ultimate way of finding out whether your entertainment is woke is the audience hate

00:04:07.300 it. The critics love it. So it's a pretty easy Google before you dedicate hours of your

00:04:13.200 life to find this sort of thing out. There you go. You know now your entertainment is

00:04:17.720 improved. Thank you, Lotus Eaters.

00:04:20.520 At this point, they must know it because every company that has a brand ambassador that tries

00:04:26.960 to do something woke doesn't go that well. So there's a pattern here. Maybe they should

00:04:32.540 start noticing this pattern.

00:04:33.860 They didn't necessarily think of it in woke terms. It was more, we have women. It is the 0.99

00:04:40.660 Star Wars most defined by feminine touch, which is interesting. So an interview happened, this

00:04:47.600 interview here. And I believe the spirit of that Ugandan interviewer was channeled into this

00:04:55.480 interviewer because he basically says, why are you gay? Except in a more polite and socially

00:05:02.080 acceptable way. So I wanted to watch this because it is very revealing. So just to introduce who

00:05:08.580 these people are and why it's important. On the left there is Amandla Stenberg. So her

00:05:18.100 first name is Zulu, which I believe is the Zulu word for power. It's not a miss. It's not,

00:05:25.200 you know, a dyslexic person tried to write Amanda and got it wrong. And her second name is Danish.

00:05:30.900 It's a shame. There's no Zulu word for unlimited in there as well.

00:05:34.900 I know. Yeah.

00:05:35.780 I think this was one of the most weird scenes ever.

00:05:38.780 What? The unlimited power scene?

00:05:40.680 Yeah.

00:05:41.020 The power.

00:05:41.940 Unlimited power.

00:05:43.000 I love the fact that in Revenge of the Sith, he just starts chewing the scenery. It's one

00:05:48.000 of the best and most fun performances of just an unapologetic bad guy you'll ever see. I

00:05:53.180 love everything to do with the emperor in that film. It's awesome.

00:05:57.920 So she's, you know, part African-American, part Inuit actually via her Danish sides, which

00:06:05.700 is a very rare combination. She also identifies as LGBT.

00:06:09.480 Oh, she does. 0.99

00:06:10.680 And on the right there is Leslie Hedlund, who is the creator and showrunner. And she

00:06:17.360 is a lesbian. She also spent four years as Harvey Weinstein's personal assistant and insists

00:06:23.040 she wasn't molested, which...

00:06:25.660 So she was helping?

00:06:27.060 I'm not suggesting that.

00:06:28.700 No, no. She wasn't. That wasn't a suggestion that she was doing. That was an honest question.

00:06:34.220 Mm-hmm. But I can see why that didn't happen, personally. But here is the actual interview

00:06:42.780 itself. This needs to be watched.

00:06:44.820 I want to ask you both because this is, I would say, arguably the gayest Star Wars, I

00:06:48.560 think, by a considerable margin. And are you excited about that? Are you bracing yourself?

00:06:55.360 Nothing gayest Star Wars. Nothing. 1.00

00:06:56.220 It's pretty gay. Let's be honest. Leslie, are you... How do you feel? 0.92

00:07:02.360 Am I gay? Yes.

00:07:03.160 Well, no, I know you are gay, but I'm asking, are you excited about putting this... You know, 0.98

00:07:06.680 this is going to be a talking point. 0.87

00:07:08.880 Is it going to be a talking point?

00:07:10.320 I'm sure some... 1.00

00:07:10.900 Because nerds are gay. 0.99

00:07:12.340 Yeah. 0.97

00:07:12.740 Well, some nerds are very not gay and are very...

00:07:14.760 12-year-old Josh vindicated.

00:07:16.340 Well, that's true. But in my world, nerds are gay. 0.98

00:07:18.580 Okay. 0.98

00:07:18.800 Was this the fun element of...

00:07:22.180 No, I don't think so. And yet, people have told me that it's the gayest Star Wars, and

00:07:26.260 I, frankly...

00:07:28.360 You're offended?

00:07:29.520 Into it.

00:07:30.040 No. 0.98

00:07:32.460 I think that Star Wars is so gay already. 1.00

00:07:34.840 Okay. 0.96

00:07:35.340 I mean, have you seen the fits? 0.64

00:07:37.980 We'd be like, look how gay this is, and then send each other a reference photo.

00:07:41.240 And are you telling me, with a straight face, that C-3PO is straight? 0.54

00:07:44.780 They're a couple. That's what I think.

00:07:46.740 But, this is more outward. 0.79

00:07:49.020 I think it's canon that R2-D2 is a lesbian. 0.55

00:07:52.280 Oh, interesting. 0.62

00:07:54.520 Ask Filoni.

00:07:55.520 Okay.

00:07:56.560 Ask Filoni.

00:07:57.780 Now, I think they're probably joking around a little bit there towards the end.

00:08:02.720 I thought that R2-D2 is bisexual. 0.92

00:08:07.820 He's robo-sexual, obviously.

00:08:09.380 He's being a bit of a centrist fence-sitter there at Stelios.

00:08:12.460 This is a very important question.

00:08:14.140 R2-D2 plays both sides.

00:08:15.720 Let's be honest.

00:08:16.640 Oh, so you always...

00:08:17.780 No, I won't finish that sentence.

00:08:20.000 We always drop Always Sunny references.

00:08:22.940 But, I think... 0.55

00:08:24.260 Well, I'm just wondering, is the interviewer gay as well?

00:08:27.120 I don't know. 0.96

00:08:27.660 Because he looks and sounds pretty gay. 0.95

00:08:29.800 Because if so... 0.98

00:08:30.540 If he was not, he would have been cancelled by now.

00:08:35.980 That's true, asking a question like that.

00:08:37.700 Yeah.

00:08:38.060 There you go.

00:08:38.480 In a way that he did. 0.98

00:08:39.140 So, what I'm seeing is gay interviewer, gay star, gay showrunner.

00:08:44.500 I'm thinking that Hollywood and Disney is run by a very particular kind of person making films and TV for another very similar particular kind of person. 0.99

00:08:56.180 It's all gay. 1.00

00:08:57.520 It's all just gay. 1.00

00:08:59.120 That's what it is. 0.98

00:09:00.320 And they're proud of it.

00:09:01.240 Whatever.

00:09:02.100 Yeah, I think that although they are joking around and they're not being too serious about it, which is fair enough, really, I think there is an element of they are genuinely proud of how gay they made it.

00:09:12.840 I've picked up on that.

00:09:13.900 I don't know whether you got that as well.

00:09:15.120 That's just my interpretation.

00:09:15.740 Yeah, clearly they are.

00:09:16.760 But they are proud of pushing this ideology into Star Wars. 0.95

00:09:21.040 And they're also insulting the original Star Wars fans by just like, yeah, it's pretty gay, isn't it? 0.67

00:09:25.840 You know, almost using it in the pejorative sense in the same breath.

00:09:29.180 But then they're allowed to do that because they are one of the alphabet people and therefore it's okay. 0.72

00:09:35.900 But the mainstream media picked up on this and reported on it.

00:09:41.980 You know, Fox, lots of other outlets as well.

00:09:44.240 And I think that the response here to an original post talking about this epitomizes my feelings.

00:09:56.820 It's a gif of Yoda saying this is why you fail because you're inserting politics into something that is an escape from the world, right?

00:10:04.800 That's why people watch, you know, sci-fi and fantasy.

00:10:09.080 It's not, you know, obviously it needs to relate to the world in some respects, but the things that chip away at your will to live don't necessarily need to be in there.

00:10:17.540 And these sorts of things just aren't an ordinary people's concern.

00:10:21.600 Well, the interesting thing that you bring up there is that you say that they're inserting politics.

00:10:26.940 And if I remember correctly, the fact that so much of the films was dedicated to Machiavellian power politics going on behind the scenes was one of the reasons that people said back in the day that they really didn't like the prequels when they first came out.

00:10:40.040 And one of the reasons that people praised The Force Awakens when that came out was they said, oh, they got rid of all the boring political stuff.

00:10:47.560 Thank God.

00:10:48.240 But evidently they didn't.

00:10:49.860 Even in The Force Awakens, there's some obvious social messaging going on in there.

00:10:53.660 What they did was they just removed the, you could say, quite interesting internal political stuff that was specific to the Star Wars universe that was going on in the prequels.

00:11:04.860 And they just added all of the, you know, rubbish that we have out in the real world.

00:11:08.520 Yeah, I actually quite enjoyed that aspect of the prequels.

00:11:11.280 But I think that the problem is it's sort of contemporary political messaging is what I mean when I'm talking about the politics.

00:11:18.700 Obviously, you can portray politics because it's a part of life and it's inevitable that it's going to come up in a series like this.

00:11:25.940 Yeah.

00:11:26.360 However, you could say the prequels were maybe allegorical.

00:11:29.480 And I think this is fair, allegorical to the early Bush years.

00:11:32.540 But it's still worked within the context of the universe and can be told as an internal story within that universe without you having to be aware of the outside context.

00:11:44.040 All of this is just going, oh, I'm gay. 0.73

00:11:45.960 Let's make everything gay. 1.00

00:11:48.040 Yeah. 0.73

00:11:48.640 And I think that the fundamental disagreement with this sort of thing is that it's taking a franchise that was good and it's making it bad.

00:11:56.120 It's not telling good stories.

00:11:57.320 You know, if you want to have your own thing that's bad, that's telling these sorts of stories, go ahead.

00:12:04.160 You know, no one at Lotus Eater is going to discourage people.

00:12:07.160 If they want to make a show about, I don't know, lesbian space samurais, then, you know, go and do it. 1.00

00:12:13.620 But just don't ruin other stuff.

00:12:15.260 We don't have to watch it.

00:12:16.220 That's fine.

00:12:16.760 No one really cares about that.

00:12:18.160 I mean, we're at this point where we kind of expect it.

00:12:20.640 I mean, if there's a movie without lesbians, I'm starting to think that there's something wrong. 1.00

00:12:26.180 I'm in an alternate universe or something.

00:12:28.320 Stella, you're spending a lot of time on the internet these days. 0.95

00:12:31.440 Stella, let's just watch plenty of films starring lesbians. 1.00

00:12:34.660 Yeah, to be fair, some of the best films.

00:12:35.520 Yeah, I've watched many films.

00:12:36.780 I'll say it, Liz.

00:12:38.860 Sorry, Harry's getting uncomfortable, so I'll have to move on to a meme.

00:12:43.620 I'm not sure I can read this out, otherwise YouTube will tell me off.

00:12:49.900 But it's a reimagining of the prequels with the new ideology of the current year.

00:12:57.160 And yes, there has also been news in Pink News, which is, of course, the premier gay publication.

00:13:07.420 The Acolytes' Amandla Stenberg is unbothered by haters dubbing the new Star Wars series Woke.

00:13:12.860 It's because she agrees with the messaging, as she has said.

00:13:17.420 Well, she stars in it, so I'm not that shocked.

00:13:20.100 They paid her a lot of money, and that's already been done. 0.89

00:13:23.860 Also, she says she's gay.

00:13:26.020 But yes, she's, I mean, someone named after the Zulu word for power by an African-American.

00:13:31.240 I think we know what their politics are going to be.

00:13:33.780 You don't name your son or daughter power, do you?

00:13:38.020 Unless there's some sort of chip on your shoulder.

00:13:40.960 So that's pretty much obvious, right?

00:13:43.940 And so, yes, the politics and the people involved are pretty obvious.

00:13:47.480 And talking of the people involved, one of them mentioned in this article, actually,

00:13:54.140 is one Abigail Thorne, I think the name is, who runs Philosophy Tube. 0.82

00:14:02.180 And there's this interesting phenomenon.

00:14:03.980 And this is a bit of an Easter egg here, that if you sort by oldest and then hover here.

00:14:09.860 Wait a second.

00:14:11.640 An entirely different person appears.

00:14:13.760 But we can't talk about that.

00:14:16.160 But it's just worth bearing in mind.

00:14:18.800 I mean, in philosophy, when you're talking about personal identity and how it changes through time,

00:14:23.300 you could say that it's, you know, a different self in the past and your future selves.

00:14:27.620 It's spoken like a true philosopher there, Stelius.

00:14:30.400 Also, I would say don't look up Philosophy Tube's internet personal relationships

00:14:36.780 that may or may not have happened between other transgender YouTubers

00:14:40.560 and some controversies regarding that.

00:14:42.960 Also, didn't Philosophy Tube accept money from the UK state to promote COVID stuff?

00:14:50.360 I don't know.

00:14:51.260 I didn't really follow it, but I can believe it.

00:14:52.960 I'm pretty sure that Philosophy Tube was involved in some kind of government,

00:14:57.340 internet, social media push.

00:15:00.780 But I think one of the most egregious things is,

00:15:03.380 here is Amandla Stenberg talking to Trevor Noah,

00:15:07.900 saying white people crying was the goal. 0.78

00:15:11.240 When people watch The Hate U Give, what do you want them to walk away with?

00:15:14.140 Because I know everyone has a slightly different feeling.

00:15:16.880 Well, I mean, white people crying actually was the goal. 0.89

00:15:19.220 So, I know she's trying to be clever and tongue-in-cheek,

00:15:26.820 but you can tell that there's substance there, right?

00:15:29.220 That even though she is half-white, 0.59

00:15:33.040 all of a sudden white people, you know,

00:15:35.600 doesn't claim any of that identity for herself,

00:15:39.000 but that is the goal.

00:15:40.920 And she's also suggesting that all the people complaining about Star Wars, 0.97

00:15:45.080 well, they must be white and just, you know, bigoted. 0.78

00:15:47.180 Well, I need to issue a correction there, 0.95

00:15:49.600 which is I've seen other people sharing this.

00:15:51.440 I believe this clip is actually from 2018.

00:15:54.120 Is it really?

00:15:54.700 Yes, because, of course, Trevor Noah isn't part of The Daily Show anymore.

00:15:57.340 Oh, of course, yeah.

00:15:58.660 Well, thank you.

00:16:00.360 You're basically my equivalent of Jamie here.

00:16:02.580 However, the principle still stands.

00:16:05.560 I doubt she's changed her views on something like this,

00:16:07.960 and I imagine this is still a motivating factor

00:16:10.120 for both her and the projects that she chooses,

00:16:12.420 and also the creators.

00:16:13.480 And there's also the fact that the people involved in it

00:16:19.600 don't really understand the source material of Star Wars.

00:16:23.300 Like, I'm just going to explain this one,

00:16:25.160 because it's quite long-winded.

00:16:26.480 But basically, he's talking about Anakin blowing up the Death Star,

00:16:31.680 which doesn't happen.

00:16:33.700 That was Luke, his father.

00:16:36.820 His son.

00:16:38.180 That one, yeah.

00:16:39.120 The other way around.

00:16:40.000 Oh, no.

00:16:40.520 Now, you don't even understand the source material.

00:16:43.320 I've been reading about this for too long, all right.

00:16:45.180 Samson's got his head in his hands.

00:16:47.340 What have you done, Josh?

00:16:49.220 No, this is a very niche reading of Star Wars,

00:16:54.420 where Luke is actually Anakin's father.

00:16:56.860 So when Luke kisses Leia in Empire,

00:16:58.960 he's not diddling his sister, he's diddling his mother?

00:17:01.840 Yeah, this is the Freudian reading.

00:17:04.100 Wait, his daughter?

00:17:05.320 Maybe?

00:17:05.600 I don't know.

00:17:06.440 You've mixed it up.

00:17:07.540 It's already confusing.

00:17:10.520 However, I am going to carry some water for one of the people.

00:17:16.120 This is the guy, Li Zhengzhai, I think you pronounced his name,

00:17:19.920 who was the lead actor in Squid Game.

00:17:24.180 Apparently, he learned English, especially to star in this.

00:17:28.480 And he's a massive Star Wars fan.

00:17:30.140 And he looked up to sort of Qui-Gon Jinn as the inspiration for his role.

00:17:35.240 Poor guy.

00:17:35.740 Which sounds like he put in a lot of work,

00:17:38.720 cared about the source material.

00:17:40.380 You know, a dream came true for him that he's in something

00:17:43.200 that he is actually excited about.

00:17:46.280 But unfortunately, it is Star Wars acolyte.

00:17:48.380 And I would like to, you know, say my sincerest apologies

00:17:54.380 to this poor gentleman, who probably doesn't deserve this.

00:17:58.640 I mean, he did agree to be in it, but also,

00:18:02.620 I feel a little bit sorry for him, really.

00:18:05.160 What even is Star Wars acolyte?

00:18:07.620 I know it's a TV show.

00:18:09.060 What's it about?

00:18:10.360 How are they still drawing blood from this stone?

00:18:14.200 Well, you see, because I don't want to lose my will to live,

00:18:18.700 I haven't seen it.

00:18:19.720 I'm just talking about the stuff around it.

00:18:22.420 And plus, you shouldn't watch it at home either.

00:18:24.720 So the plot, I'm going to talk about a few little bits about it 0.77

00:18:28.480 that are silly.

00:18:30.440 But other than that, we're not going to touch on it, really.

00:18:32.840 So there aren't going to be spoilers.

00:18:34.900 Although if you're halfway through this video,

00:18:36.360 I imagine you probably figured that out.

00:18:38.160 So let's go to the director.

00:18:41.200 Here she is.

00:18:42.000 This is happening now.

00:18:45.320 And so you are watching the lessons of,

00:18:48.300 and it's a dramatization of the lessons of it,

00:18:50.740 as an activist and an artist.

00:18:54.160 Do you make that calculation?

00:18:56.360 Who is my target?

00:18:57.420 You talked a little bit about,

00:18:58.860 I want women to watch this, 1.00

00:19:01.020 and I want them to feel empowered,

00:19:02.620 and I want my daughter to have heroes.

00:19:05.200 I couldn't help but notice a thread through each of these, 1.00

00:19:10.200 that the men were assholes. 1.00

00:19:13.880 And I'm wondering, 1.00

00:19:20.080 as one of them,

00:19:26.200 what is the balance of activating a force for change,

00:19:34.880 but also trying to...

00:19:36.800 Oh, get on with the spear! 0.98

00:19:37.660 Spit it out, Stuart!

00:19:39.500 ...to the calculation of your...

00:19:41.160 Oh, my God, he's still going.

00:19:42.220 Absolutely.

00:19:43.620 I like to make men uncomfortable.

00:19:47.300 I enjoy...

00:19:47.620 There it is.

00:19:48.220 There we go. 1.00

00:19:49.280 Fucking hell, John Stewart! 0.99

00:19:51.280 Look at the like-to-dislike ratio. 1.00

00:19:53.600 Oh, yeah, they're getting absolutely hammered.

00:19:56.300 And because of the torture of that,

00:19:57.940 I'm not going to play this one,

00:20:00.160 because John Stewart was just insufferable,

00:20:02.220 but she's talking about playing the woman card

00:20:04.460 and how much she likes getting special treatment as a woman,

00:20:07.680 blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:20:08.420 Oh, so she's not oppressed then, okay.

00:20:10.000 No.

00:20:10.340 Well, you cleared that up nice and quickly. 0.53

00:20:12.260 But yes, she hates men, obviously. 0.86

00:20:14.420 And here she is, her IMDb page.

00:20:18.660 She's produced and directed some not particularly well-rated stuff,

00:20:25.800 a lot of it features, like, women with Gloria Steinem

00:20:30.280 and things like that.

00:20:31.840 But also, is there a downward trend?

00:20:35.200 You are right there.

00:20:37.220 It gets worse all the time.

00:20:40.000 I suppose so, yeah.

00:20:41.240 The further you go towards the Star Wars series,

00:20:45.020 the worse it gets.

00:20:46.200 So Disney was watching this person going,

00:20:48.440 wow, she's getting absolutely terrible.

00:20:50.380 She started off okay, but now she's awful. 1.00

00:20:52.860 Let's hire her. 1.00

00:20:53.680 What a great CV.

00:20:55.100 Yeah.

00:20:55.800 So the New York Times was talking about the backlash about it.

00:21:00.220 And in this article, something mentioned was quite funny to me.

00:21:04.080 They mentioned the South Park episode

00:21:06.440 where they portrayed Kathleen Kennedy 0.99

00:21:10.220 as saying, put a chick in it and make her lame and gay. 1.00

00:21:16.200 Well. 1.00

00:21:17.360 And they said, well, that's our mission statement.

00:21:19.520 Yeah.

00:21:19.980 Turns out it's not actually satire.

00:21:23.060 It is just what happened.

00:21:24.660 And she actually talked about this.

00:21:26.420 My belief is that storytelling does not need to be representative of all people.

00:21:31.340 Thank you for correcting my reading.

00:21:35.840 That's an easy decision for me.

00:21:37.620 So this is why this is going on.

00:21:39.620 It comes straight from the top, doesn't it?

00:21:41.620 And now that women are solely involved in creating Star Wars, there are some pretty glaring problems. 1.00

00:21:51.260 So here's a quick clip.

00:21:52.600 This is a fire in space, which if we've got any physicists in the audience or anyone with common sense, there's no oxygen in space.

00:22:06.600 Well, they can just take, evidently there is, so they can take their helmets off, right?

00:22:11.220 It's also a good opportunity to have a flashback whilst staring into a flaming ship. 0.51

00:22:16.120 Rubbish engineering.

00:22:17.240 But yes, as Nerd Rotic points out, a fire in space. 0.81

00:22:20.820 That's what happens when people don't mansplain stuff to you.

00:22:23.780 And here we have what can only be described as a radical feminist art collective performance.

00:22:33.620 The power of one.

00:22:35.860 The power of two.

00:22:37.720 The power of many.

00:22:41.820 And this goes on for a long time.

00:22:43.780 The power of two.

00:22:46.420 The power of many.

00:22:48.420 The power of many.

00:22:53.780 It's terrible, isn't it?

00:22:56.140 What is this nonsense?

00:22:57.620 Can you replay it? 0.57

00:22:58.860 It's funny.

00:23:01.460 All right.

00:23:02.180 Well, just one replay for Stelios, but not the whole thing.

00:23:04.880 It's okay.

00:23:05.200 It's okay.

00:23:05.560 Let's not make the audience uncomfortable.

00:23:07.620 I never want to make the audience uncomfortable. 0.99

00:23:11.980 You liar. 0.97

00:23:13.040 This feels like it came straight from Wacaliwood. 0.99

00:23:16.260 Honestly.

00:23:16.780 But I have read online, because I've not watched this, that there are two women 1.00

00:23:22.940 who have a force baby created.

00:23:26.240 And I think that this might be the scene where they're harnessing the force 0.97

00:23:31.080 to make the force baby with these space lesbians. 1.00

00:23:34.160 So this is the first official Star Wars sex scene. 0.99

00:23:37.900 And it's a group activity. 0.99

00:23:42.000 If you like lesbian orgies, watch the new Star Wars. 1.00

00:23:45.060 That's what they should have marketed it as. 0.99

00:23:46.900 But there we go.

00:23:48.220 Maybe them that have got the male audience back. 0.98

00:23:50.100 And there have also been outlets complaining, woke outlets, of course,

00:23:57.780 that it's not the series that's bad.

00:24:00.260 It's the audience that are ruining it.

00:24:02.880 And they're basically saying,

00:24:04.620 it's not outright shocking to see something like the Acolyte marred by racist,

00:24:11.740 misogynistic, and even anti-LGBTQ backlash.

00:24:14.980 The Star Wars devotees would rather share multiple bad-faced treatises

00:24:18.180 about the series on YouTube or tank its audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.

00:24:22.580 It's just par for the course at this point.

00:24:25.520 No, if you make bad stuff, people won't like it.

00:24:28.100 If it's good, they will like it.

00:24:29.320 It's that simple.

00:24:30.920 And interestingly enough, recently George Lucas complained about Hollywood

00:24:36.720 for lacking original thinking.

00:24:38.320 Is this a veiled comment about this new series?

00:24:43.000 Perhaps.

00:24:44.760 He is right, though.

00:24:46.480 Of course he's right, yeah.

00:24:47.420 We can all go back and say that, oh yeah,

00:24:50.380 the prequels weren't exactly what people were hoping for after the original trilogy.

00:24:53.420 They were what I was hoping for.

00:24:54.300 But I think right now we can accept that, one,

00:24:59.380 I think they're a lot better than people gave them credit for,

00:25:02.300 or even I gave them credit for at some point.

00:25:04.420 And also, they have a clear authorial mark on them.

00:25:08.500 There's intent in them.

00:25:09.940 They feel like the work of one man with a vision,

00:25:13.500 unlike the paint-by-numbers committee stuff that we get these days.

00:25:17.640 I, for one, think Jar Jar didn't do nothing.

00:25:22.040 Jar Jar's great.

00:25:22.920 I'm glad he aided the rise of our Lord and Saviour, Emperor Palpatine.

00:25:27.740 And the final thing I wanted to end on was a message of solidarity to you all.

00:25:32.920 And that is this meme.

00:25:35.300 No hate-watching.

00:25:37.360 No effing hate-watching.

00:25:39.040 Don't you dare.

00:25:39.900 Don't even, you know, give them those viewing figures.

00:25:43.420 Just ignore it.

00:25:44.480 Pretend it doesn't exist.

00:25:45.760 That's all you need to do.

00:25:46.480 Watch this video and forget about it.

00:25:48.720 Because that's what most people are probably going to do.

00:25:50.360 They're just going to forget about this series.

00:25:52.320 And that'll be that.

00:25:53.340 So don't give them the numbers.

00:25:54.920 Let it tank.

00:25:55.940 Let them suffer the consequences of their own terrible decision-making.

00:26:00.860 You need things?

00:26:02.180 Yes, I need things.

00:26:03.760 Here are things.

00:26:07.420 The high-tech operation, as always.

00:26:12.160 Sounding very hoarse there.

00:26:13.640 Soldiers on.

00:26:14.480 Auditioning for the next Batman film.

00:26:17.780 Lotus Eaters.

00:26:18.360 Lotus Eaters never changes.

00:26:21.360 Harry, assist me.

00:26:23.340 Is that everything?

00:26:24.920 What is going on?

00:26:26.200 There you go.

00:26:27.240 Right.

00:26:27.640 If you sign up to Lotus Eaters, one day we'll have a third mouse and steam.

00:26:30.560 We'll have a wireless mouse, maybe.

00:26:32.440 Oh, that's not pushing.

00:26:34.160 That's kind of luxury, no.

00:26:36.060 Right.

00:26:36.380 Give me a moment.

00:26:40.000 Okay.

00:26:40.520 So the results of the recent EU elections have caused a panic amongst the progressives.

00:26:48.080 We will show you very delightful videos about this today.

00:26:51.860 But before we begin, check out Islander, our magazine.

00:26:55.900 And when is the deadline for ordering?

00:27:00.080 Next Monday.

00:27:01.240 Next Monday.

00:27:02.000 So Islander, it has been a massive success.

00:27:06.180 If you want to be part of that success, consider.

00:27:10.040 It has some big names in there, which you'll have to at least read the write-up to figure out who they are.

00:27:16.720 Right.

00:27:17.420 So I think we should call the reaction of the left to the right and the rising of the right of the last years as right-wing derangement syndrome.

00:27:27.620 And you will see why this relates to the constant use of the term far right.

00:27:32.900 But not only.

00:27:33.980 So we have been exposed to unbelievably weird statements by leftists.

00:27:41.840 And I want to show you this statement by Justin Trudeau, which I really want to ask you if you can spot something weird in it.

00:27:53.440 Let's listen to it.

00:27:54.780 We have seen around the world a rise of populist right-wing forces in just about every democracy that we've seen.

00:28:06.960 And it is of concern to see political parties choosing to instrumentalize anger, fear, division, anxiety.

00:28:19.680 My approach has always been to respond to it, to understand it and to look to solve it, to roll up our sleeves, work hard and with ambition for this country and for our future.

00:28:30.680 And I continue to be convinced that Canadians are thoughtful about the challenges we're facing and ready to see them solved rather than just allow themselves to have their anger amplified without any solutions offered.

00:28:48.960 I continue to be convinced.

00:28:52.220 That's very convincing.

00:28:54.240 I'm so assured.

00:28:56.080 Yeah.

00:28:56.360 So I think there are many problems with this.

00:28:59.080 What are the other problems you can find with it?

00:29:01.880 The fact that it's completely vacuous, empty, meaningless, political dribble.

00:29:07.120 He sounded like a kid who didn't do his homework, just making up a sort of book report.

00:29:13.760 It's like, well, you know, there's a couple of people, they do some stuff, you know, there's things happen, events unfold.

00:29:19.700 Well, of course, he was also lying through his teeth the entire time and saying that he solves problems.

00:29:25.900 No, Justin, you create problems and you do it with a giddy smile on your face.

00:29:31.360 Other people instrumentaling anger, fear, division, anxiety.

00:29:34.820 You have implemented far ranging hate speech laws.

00:29:38.580 Your health care system is an international joke because of the maid. 1.00

00:29:42.740 And also, let's not forget that you actively shut down people's bank accounts for protesting against your ridiculous lockdown measures.

00:29:50.340 So the left really needs a mirror to hold and look and see the reflection in the mirror because they literally project always, always.

00:30:04.720 And this is very narcissistic.

00:30:06.660 I mean, Josh, you're a resident psychologist.

00:30:09.100 You know far better than I do about the use of the term.

00:30:14.560 Well, psychopaths are drawn to power and psychopaths.

00:30:19.180 One of the ways you define what a psychopath is, is excessive narcissism is one of many.

00:30:24.620 You know, you have the dark triad where you've also got psychopathy as a metric on its own and also Machiavellianism, which does Machiavelli dirty.

00:30:31.260 But narcissism is the third and quite a central component of it.

00:30:36.440 And I think that people who want to dictate what others do and use power against them tend to be predisposed to be narcissists, right?

00:30:44.960 So one beautiful thing here is the way in which he just holds himself accountable to standards other than those that he uses to criticize his political opponents.

00:30:59.300 Because, as Harry, you said, yes, his basic philosophy, wokeism, because he's the darling of the woke, is all about instrumentalizing anger, fear, division and anxiety.

00:31:10.340 All of that is he routinely does exactly what he's criticizing.

00:31:15.760 But it's good that he finally found out that in popular governments, if you alienate the people, the people will start to turn their back on you.

00:31:25.040 So that's a good thing.

00:31:26.500 Now, let's look at how the leftists are reacting, because you see what Justin Trudeau said, that he is just responding to things, he's not just doing it, he's responding to things, reminds me a lot of the communist tactic of just sticking an anti in front of anything they criticize and somehow miraculously it gets justified.

00:31:47.900 So, is it violence? Just stick an anti-violence in front of it, and it's for good purpose, according to how they think.

00:31:55.300 Is it imperialism? No. They're going to call it anti-imperialism.

00:31:59.260 Because there's just magic when it comes to just putting anti in front of everything.

00:32:04.560 It just makes the immoral unquestionably moral.

00:32:08.340 Well, Stelios, I think you're failing to see the inherent logic in this, which is that they call themselves the good guys, well, they can't be the bad guys, can they?

00:32:25.780 Have you considered that?

00:32:26.700 Yeah. So, you have here leftists in France attacking the streets and routinely causing violent episodes, because what they're doing is anti-protest. It's not protest, it's anti-protest. So, according to themselves, it must be justified.

00:32:43.960 You might want to mute it, because your audio is probably overlapping there.

00:32:48.580 Anyway, so, by all means, anyone who wants to watch this video, you can just click on our link and visit our website on our aiding list.

00:32:58.260 There are lots of videos with footage of leftists just engaging in violence and civil discord.

00:33:08.580 They will, of course, put an anti in front of it.

00:33:11.820 Now, Jeremy Corbyn made some very interesting statements.

00:33:15.260 I want to ask you if you see, again, something weird with them, if you notice something.

00:33:21.560 So, he says, the far right is rising across Europe because politicians on both sides have pandered to their rhetoric and normalized their ideas.

00:33:29.300 The only answer to hatred is hope.

00:33:32.060 We have to stand up to racism, defend refugees, and inspire people to believe that a kinder world is possible.

00:33:38.440 Yeah, so, okay.

00:33:41.660 What do you make of this?

00:33:42.880 What's implicit in it is that politicians have allowed the rhetoric to exist, that it should have been clamped down on and persecuted.

00:33:52.280 These opposers to my ideology, talking from Jeremy Corbyn's position, should have been cracked down upon.

00:33:59.300 They deserve government oppression by merit of their politics is implicit in there.

00:34:05.140 And the fact that he's talking about, oh, the only answer is hope.

00:34:08.800 It's like, no, that's just nonsense.

00:34:11.000 This isn't Star Wars, right?

00:34:12.300 You know, it's not, you know, it's love and the light side versus the evil dark side.

00:34:17.240 No, life is a bit more nuanced than that.

00:34:19.320 Yeah, but apparently not Jeremy Corbyn.

00:34:21.520 Well, of course not.

00:34:22.300 Here we have Zahra Sultana. 0.97

00:34:24.460 She says, the far right is on the rise across Europe.

00:34:26.860 They peddle a politics of hate.

00:34:28.340 We must promise a politics of hope, combating racism, not stoking it, defending refugees, not scapegoating them, building a society that works for all, not protecting a system rigged for the rich.

00:34:41.180 Then why do you present your ideology as a zero-sum game?

00:34:45.620 Because anything that you're criticizing there is exactly what you're doing.

00:34:50.420 To be fair, the party she represents does make me hope.

00:34:53.840 It makes me hope that when I'm walking through the streets at night, I don't get raped or murdered from all the people that they imported without any correct documentation. 1.00

00:35:02.260 Well, of course, what they're talking about here is in both Jeremy Corbyn here talking about defending refugees and inspiring more hope and her Zahra Sultana saying defend refugees as they're completely ignoring that one of the main reasons that there has been such a backlash to their policies is the demographic change, the people coming over.

00:35:22.400 They don't care.

00:35:23.400 They want this.

00:35:25.060 I mean, Jeremy Corbyn, he hates the West.

00:35:27.920 He's a communist subversive.

00:35:29.280 Of course he does.

00:35:29.900 Zahra Sultana is just a foreigner, so she doesn't have any sort of care or love for the place that she's in right now. 0.92

00:35:39.120 She just sees it as a place where all of her family members can come here and get a free check. 0.90

00:35:43.700 Well, you see that what they're doing is they are routinely obfuscating the fact that they are employing direct anti-Western propaganda.

00:35:52.860 They do hate the West and they do stoke racism.

00:35:56.480 It's just not in the it's just racism against Westerners and they are scapegoating Westerners for everything for every evil in the world.

00:36:07.300 It's always the West and anything that happens in the world, any kind of conflict, wherever it takes place.

00:36:17.760 It is always presented as, let's say, something that is caused by the internalization of the pressure to assimilate to Western culture.

00:36:31.120 So, she does exactly what she's criticizing.

00:36:35.160 Now, again, let us see how this plays into real life and how, apart from the statements, we come to the allocation of blame and to the double standards when it comes to civil protest.

00:36:53.080 Now, we have here some grannies from the Just Stop Oil organization, the pressure group, who are smashing the glass around the Magna Carta. 1.00

00:37:04.840 Everyone knows this clip. Let's just remind people of it.

00:37:08.980 That's the problem when you've got old people on the front lines is they can't use a hammer and chisel very well. 1.00

00:37:13.920 This is a pathetic showing, right? 0.96

00:37:15.800 They're trying to basically desecrate the Magna Carta. 0.99

00:37:22.420 Hey, maybe somebody stops them.

00:37:24.440 But you know why they did so? You know why they did so?

00:37:29.100 Because the government is breaking the law.

00:37:31.840 Sounds like they're breaking through the TV as well.

00:37:34.480 Yes, I mean...

00:37:35.420 The grannies are going to be in the room. 1.00

00:37:36.460 Just imagine what kind of thought went to their head.

00:37:42.560 Right. So, the government is breaking the law.

00:37:45.540 So, let us basically desecrate one of the most historically important documents that tries to hold government into account to some laws.

00:37:57.020 But they're old. They know better than us youngsters, Stelios.

00:38:00.000 You know, she's even wearing a habit. 1.00

00:38:01.820 I mean, a lady of God, she can't be wrong, Stelios.

00:38:06.160 Yeah, but they're doing it for good purpose, Josh.

00:38:09.780 So, here we see also the desecration of statues constantly, and apparently all these are isolated incidents.

00:38:20.240 But when it comes to some pride murals that have skid marks and tire marks, that's the whole country needs to be announced to be on an epidemic of hate.

00:38:32.720 So, again, there are some double standards.

00:38:34.260 Well, they're facing a ridiculous prison sentence as well, and, you know, teenagers as well.

00:38:39.880 Yes, and no one is reacting in the way I'm going to show you here, which I have shown you before, and you loved it, and this is why exactly I'm going to show it to you again.

00:38:49.400 They are reacting like that for the mural, but they are not reacting like that, for instance, for the desecration of the Magna Carta and the glass,

00:38:58.400 or for the desecration of statues, or for Western symbols.

00:39:02.420 Let's look at this.

00:39:06.540 And it starts every day.

00:39:07.960 It's just habits.

00:39:08.800 It's how we show up for each other, in our families, in our homes, in our communities, in our neighborhoods.

00:39:13.560 We've got to show people some love.

00:39:16.260 We have to show people some love.

00:39:18.520 It's not okay what people are experiencing.

00:39:21.680 So, on behalf of Expo, on behalf of the community of Spokane, I'd like to apologize, but I'd also like to issue a challenge.

00:39:29.940 Let's do better.

00:39:31.160 We can be better.

00:39:32.240 We can be an example.

00:39:33.880 And, frankly, we need to be.

00:39:35.540 Thank you.

00:39:36.860 One way of starting is to not present your woke ideology as a zero-sum game.

00:39:42.580 It is a zero-sum game, so maybe you should consider revising your ideology.

00:39:47.660 Well, they're treating the people they're arresting with love, right?

00:39:51.000 They're sentencing them to a decent amount of their life in prison.

00:39:55.420 Basically, it's right-wing derangement syndrome.

00:39:57.580 Anything that is contrary to progressivism is just horrible to them.

00:40:02.680 It's an epidemic of hate.

00:40:04.100 And they are the only ones who hope.

00:40:06.660 They are the only ones who love.

00:40:07.680 They are the only ones with sentiments against people.

00:40:09.840 But I have good news.

00:40:12.060 Suddenly, the entire politics of the UK was revealed to me this morning.

00:40:19.460 A tweet by Josh Sheldon, who is having this graph.

00:40:25.780 And he's explaining how, basically, the parties in the UK are parties that all belong into right-wing authoritarian territory. 0.81

00:40:39.040 Are they crazy?

00:40:40.360 Also, why are the Greens close to libertarian? 0.98

00:40:43.300 They're basically communists.

00:40:44.740 It's like, yeah, Joseph Stalin, known libertarian.

00:40:48.320 Okay, so how do you feel that Labour here is basically well into right-wing authoritarian?

00:40:55.940 The centre-right.

00:40:57.160 The Labour Party, where their members are open socialists.

00:41:01.960 Yeah, centre-right.

00:41:03.320 If anything, if you shifted that right quadrant all the way to the left, maybe, you know, where Labour of far left and Reform and Conservative are still left-wing, but closer to the centre.

00:41:17.660 This is like the meme with a far right, where, you know, everything is just far right except from one area.

00:41:22.460 Yeah, yeah, except the political quadrant exists in the top left corner and everything else is Nazi. 0.66

00:41:27.680 Also, why are the Conservatives more right-wing than Reform, when Reform's whole shtick is that the Conservatives aren't Conservatives?

00:41:34.660 Economics, I would suppose, because the left-right axis is supposed to be economic.

00:41:40.560 But the Conservatives are socialists.

00:41:42.720 But there is a very interesting implication from this graph.

00:41:47.560 What about those who are saying zero seats for the Conservatives?

00:41:52.660 Are they pushing against the right here?

00:41:55.940 Well, surely we'd be completely off the reservation in that case, because I'm saying zero seats for the Conservatives from a right-wing perspective.

00:42:04.200 So presumably, I'm somewhere off in a completely different political compass.

00:42:08.980 Harry, you're actually far left.

00:42:10.720 It actually spins around.

00:42:12.720 Hmm, is that why I've been growing my mustache?

00:42:15.700 How do you feel now that basically, you know when people are using graphs like that and they routinely put the Roman Empire?

00:42:24.700 And it's funny because they also have the SPQR symbol, meaning when they want to refer to the Empire,

00:42:31.940 where, you know, the SPQR is the Senate and the people of Rome, that was primarily a symbol for the Republic.

00:42:38.000 But anyway, how do you feel that Rishi Sunak and the Conservatives are very deep into Roman Empire logic?

00:42:47.760 I wish.

00:42:49.300 I wish I lived in the world. 0.87

00:42:51.120 Also, these insane people lived.

00:42:53.040 Also, Keir Starmer is very, very into Roman Empire now.

00:42:57.660 You haven't seen him come out in his toga with a chariot flanked with miles?

00:43:04.180 Is Starmer the Caesar we've been after this whole time?

00:43:08.620 I'm pretty sure Starmer sacrificed a goat and said for Jupiter at the start of the campaign, didn't he?

00:43:13.960 Yeah. So basically what this is, is the basically that's the meme intended as a serious political graph.

00:43:22.660 And there is a reason why this happens.

00:43:24.680 And I think that the the main core of right wing derangement syndrome comes with the attempt to present anything to the right of social democracy as far right.

00:43:36.100 And they do this for specific purposes.

00:43:38.680 And we'll talk about them right now.

00:43:40.500 So there's a very interesting tweet here by the rabbit hole, and it has a meme that is very funny.

00:43:50.180 And it says the term far right has become so loosely applied that it's effectively useless in sniffing out genuine cases of extremism and more often used to slander reasonable people.

00:44:01.380 And what is interesting here is that you can see here the bell curve and you see the first here that you have the left and then the right, which I would say in common parlance, especially in the EU, these are the people who call themselves center right.

00:44:20.300 And what is interesting is that the left has all sorts of reasons why they would do propaganda for political, amoral reasons, why they should they want to call everything the far right.

00:44:34.520 But it's really interesting to ask why people who call themselves center right, especially in the EU, are buying that rhetoric.

00:44:41.020 And they basically present everything as far right.

00:44:45.560 And I would say that they also suffer from right wing derangement syndrome, because if you see in the EU, especially as they are talking about, they present the right area of the spectrum as a horseshoe.

00:44:59.300 Basically, there is no right wing between the center right and what is conventionally referred to as the far right.

00:45:10.060 There is no such thing.

00:45:11.520 And it's an interesting question why the center right parties would engage in such rhetoric.

00:45:18.760 Now, what do you make of this?

00:45:20.700 Well, it's all part of being engaged in the dialectic, correct?

00:45:24.600 If we truly are, as I suspect we are, in both the US and the UK, but certainly it seems more solidly so in the UK, because our system is so much more centralized than in the US.

00:45:36.660 If we truly are ruled by a uniparty, then of course it makes sense for that uniparty to present itself within different fronts. 0.94

00:45:44.500 And through that, through the dialectic that it creates between the left and the center right, it can gatekeep out dissident voices from the dialectic.

00:45:53.120 So if the center right is presented as far right as you can go while still being part of the respectable dialectic, then anything that goes beyond that is automatically disqualified from being seen as legitimate.

00:46:04.560 They're just trying to demonize their political opponents, basically.

00:46:07.540 Yeah.

00:46:07.860 So I have a thread about this.

00:46:10.140 Check it on my account if you want.

00:46:12.640 But I have two main reasons why the left wants to do it and why the center right wants to do it.

00:46:19.860 So first of all, we need to understand why this takes place.

00:46:23.900 And language is always language that is situated.

00:46:27.240 It occurs in a society, a concrete culture, where there is linguistic use.

00:46:36.100 And many terms are associated with symbols of good and evil, for whatever reason.

00:46:41.640 I'm not a big fan of that unsituated language.

00:46:44.220 My goodness.

00:46:44.720 Yes.

00:46:45.720 Yes.

00:46:46.320 So basically, in a nutshell, I think that in Europe, those who are in the center right camp are doing this for two main reasons.

00:46:55.060 Number one is to gain votes from the right and present themselves as the last bastion before extremism.

00:47:04.460 And they want to take advantage of those who are, let's say, on the right, but they're not sufficiently well-versed into political theory and political philosophy.

00:47:16.200 That's one reason.

00:47:17.240 And number two is to virtue signal to the social democrats.

00:47:21.240 And this is important because what you will see is that when you look at the parties who call themselves center right, and I think philosophically they're not, by the way,

00:47:29.520 I think that what they're doing is very simple.

00:47:32.960 They have zero substantive values.

00:47:36.440 All their values are essentially procedural.

00:47:39.440 They want to show that they are very much in favor of what is called civil discord.

00:47:46.500 And they really have no vision.

00:47:49.440 And in fact, they're penalizing vision.

00:47:51.440 They're demonizing vision.

00:47:52.400 And the only thing that this leads them to is to slowly and steadily begin to mimic social democrats and those further to the left,

00:48:03.780 because they do commit themselves to some substantive values, even though I think that most of them are wrong.

00:48:10.480 Well, let me tell you what those people on the center right, as represented here, want.

00:48:13.840 They want leftism with lower taxes.

00:48:16.520 With brakes.

00:48:17.460 That's all they want.

00:48:18.660 Well, it's the old adage that the Tories are labor driving at the speed limit, isn't it?

00:48:23.000 It's that same sort of philosophy, but applied to all politics.

00:48:27.380 And there is a really good essay by Hayek when he was writing about why he's not calling himself a conservative.

00:48:34.640 And he's very adamant about what he means by conservative.

00:48:38.840 He means about people who treat conservatism purely as temperament, and they have no substantive values.

00:48:44.380 So this kind of conservatism, conservatism that isn't attached to substantive and traditional values is precisely the kind of conservatism that is visionless

00:48:54.020 and is slowly starting to mimic social democracy and occasionally those to the further left.

00:49:01.180 And the left does this for two main reasons.

00:49:05.420 One is to demonize everyone who is to the right of social democracy and also to sort of pre-justify violent action in the name of self-defense.

00:49:19.280 Because as I said at the beginning, the left is known for sticking an anti in front of everything.

00:49:23.980 And suddenly any kind of act that they think the other side is immoral when performing, they suddenly become moral when they are performing it.

00:49:33.380 Because all of that is in the name of the good, in the name of the progress.

00:49:38.660 And I want to show you how this term is basically routinely abused.

00:49:45.360 And it presents politicians who aren't in any way related to what is conventionally associated with the term far-right in post-World War II continental Europe.

00:49:57.500 I want to show you The Guardian and how they refer to Javier Millay.

00:50:01.600 So, 19th of October, 2023, Argentina's far-right frontrunner reopens wounds of dictatorship.

00:50:09.140 Who is Javier Millay? Argentina's new far-right president, El Loco, takes the stage.

00:50:16.460 That's from the 20th of November, 2023.

00:50:20.500 And from May, no, from June 7th, Argentina's far-right president posed to shut down anti-gender violence agency. 0.93

00:50:29.200 So, basically, they're completely abusing the term.

00:50:31.980 They're trying to lead to a communication breakdown and they're trying to demonize those to the left of social democracy.

00:50:42.240 And those on the center-right, especially those who call themselves center-right, should bear that in mind.

00:50:48.040 And if they're not basically leftists in disguise and they have been taken advantage of, if their ignorance has been taken advantage of by the other side, perhaps they should start revising how they use language and stop identifying and using the language of the left.

00:51:07.280 Well, the Guardian would call the mid-century Germans far-right, wouldn't they? 1.00

00:51:13.560 And then they're also calling Millay far-right, who is happy to wear a yarmulke and he visited the Wailing Wall and he's talked about his great admiration for Judaism.

00:51:22.920 So, how can these two things coexist?

00:51:25.780 It doesn't matter. All of it is just demonizing because at the end of the day, they're trying to bombard the general public.

00:51:32.740 That's what the propagandist mindset is. Just throw mud and some of it will stick.

00:51:39.120 It doesn't matter if it makes no sense.

00:51:41.300 What matters for them is if it promotes their interests and if it aids them to demonize anything to the further left, to the right of social democracy.

00:51:54.420 And they also think, those on the far left, they think that social democracy basically is a facade for them, is just a means.

00:52:00.260 That's why they constantly talk about, it's not our democracy, and they talk about our democracy.

00:52:06.900 And even if the people vote differently, the people are not enlightened enough.

00:52:11.300 We need an enlightened von Goert party, as they say, to tell the people how to think.

00:52:16.320 So, even those to the further left than social democracy, they also view social democrats as their, they see their difference as a matter of time.

00:52:30.260 So, that is what I think is behind right-wing derangement syndrome.

00:52:35.720 Leftist propaganda.

00:52:37.040 Was there not an extra link that you wanted to look at, or was this?

00:52:41.700 Yeah, that's what I mean that middle-aged baby sent to me.

00:52:45.620 And I think that it's absolutely hilarious, where it's a normal communist says, every other political or social belief is far right.

00:52:55.380 The normal is just communism.

00:52:56.740 And I think this shows exactly how the leftist propaganda is using this, and how those on the, allegedly on the center-right, are basically falling into this trap, because they have no substantive values.

00:53:11.080 And they need to recover them.

00:53:13.200 All right then, let's pass over the mouse of power, and the box of power.

00:53:19.920 Unlimited power.

00:53:20.960 I have two boxes now, so I'm twice as powerful as I once was.

00:53:24.920 So, what are you, a cat?

00:53:27.880 Yes.

00:53:28.880 All right, so, I don't mean to be alarmist here, and I don't want to be alarmist through this segment.

00:53:35.080 But I'm going to do a bit of a review of what's been going on with the Ukraine conflict, and some of the discussions that have been going on, and some of the statements that have been made from Western leaders regarding the conflict that seem to be escalating it to me.

00:53:49.080 Certainly, there seems to be a lot of saber-rattling that is going on right now, and I want to try and understand why that is, because it does really worry me at the moment.

00:53:59.840 And I know that there's some arguments against this, but it seems as though they are behaving as though we can escalate to a ground war with Russia.

00:54:06.920 At least parts of the elite establishment are.

00:54:09.440 And I want to understand why, and I want to understand why they seem to be so blasé about the fact that there could be potentially nuclear exchanges.

00:54:18.980 Is it that they're not particularly confident in that Russia can fire nuclear exchanges accurately?

00:54:25.720 Is it that they think that they won't do that much damage?

00:54:28.460 Is it that they think that they can neutralize that kind of threat before it even gets here?

00:54:32.800 I'm very concerned about what's going on, and I want to approach this with caution.

00:54:37.840 Before I go any further, though, we do still have copies of Islander available for pre-order, if anybody is interested,

00:54:44.840 which you should be, because it truly is an excellent magazine that we've produced here,

00:54:49.120 and it's got articles from very, very interesting writers on very interesting subjects,

00:54:53.440 and the pre-orders are still available up until next Monday.

00:54:57.280 So, after that, you won't be able to get your hands on a copy, except for one which I assume will be marked up to an incredible price on eBay,

00:55:05.160 because this will be a rare collector's edition, very, very valuable, very, very expensive, maybe.

00:55:10.760 So, get a hold of one while you still can.

00:55:13.600 Anyway, so, I'll move on to what's been going on recently.

00:55:16.240 So, I have spooked myself, I will admit, looking into what's going on,

00:55:20.640 because one of the recent reports that I was seeing was this,

00:55:23.820 that Ukraine has been allowed to use U.S. weapons to strike targets on Russian soil,

00:55:29.520 and this is according to senators and other Western officials.

00:55:32.780 This has been approved under guidance from Joe Biden.

00:55:35.940 What I believe it is that they're allowed to strike tactical, strategic targets within Russian soil using U.S. weapons.

00:55:43.440 The Ukrainians have been calling for more tech so that they could defend new attacks that have been coming to Kharkiv,

00:55:48.220 and Germany has also stated, Olaf Scholz has, that they will be allowed to use German weapons

00:55:53.740 to strike similar relevant strategic targets.

00:55:57.060 Putin has warned Germany on Wednesday that the use of its weapons by Ukraine to strike inside Russia

00:56:03.420 would mark a dangerous step, and he said Moscow could in turn provide long-range arms

00:56:08.260 to others to strike Western targets.

00:56:10.360 And also, NATO is fully backing these developments where the Admiral, Rob Bauer,

00:56:17.840 who's NATO's military committee officer, was saying that we shouldn't allow Putin to deter us

00:56:22.720 in supporting Ukraine by claiming sending M1A1 tanks and high-mobility artillery rocket systems

00:56:28.660 would cross a red line and escalate the war.

00:56:31.060 Shortly after the possibility of deploying trainers, French trainers,

00:56:35.280 surfaced in news reports, French President Emmanuel Macron said his government

00:56:38.760 would provide Kiev with combat aircraft and trained pilots and crews in France.

00:56:43.340 There absolutely would be pushback in the alliance if Trump moved to pull the United States out of the alliance

00:56:49.500 because this is a genuine concern.

00:56:51.300 It seems that a lot of Europe and NATO has, that Trump will get in if he gets elected in

00:56:56.320 and decides to pull out of Europe because it's either too costly

00:57:01.240 or people within the NATO alliance aren't paying their fair share of the bills as he sees it,

00:57:06.780 which would leave Europe vulnerable because Europe for such a long time has relied on American backing

00:57:11.840 for its own military security.

00:57:15.220 Bauer also said that since it was a treaty, the House and Senate would have to concur as well,

00:57:19.900 so there would be pushback against Trump.

00:57:22.680 And all of this seems to be developing, and I think recently, over the past few weeks,

00:57:27.120 there was the approval of a $60 billion aid bill to Ukraine from the US,

00:57:33.220 which had spent months circling around without much going on,

00:57:37.480 which meant that Ukraine is in a worse situation now

00:57:40.160 because it's really not going well in Ukraine.

00:57:43.140 The war effort in Ukraine right now is going terribly for Ukraine.

00:57:47.800 There will be spin doctors saying one way or another that Ukraine is actually just on the cusp of winning

00:57:53.480 against Russia. We're finally going to stick it to Putin.

00:57:56.420 But they've been saying that for about two years now.

00:57:59.100 I actually saw the BBC last month talking to military commanders and former commanders in the UK,

00:58:06.380 and they were saying that, well, there's a good chance they're going to lose this year, Ukraine, that is.

00:58:11.000 Although with the sort of fog of war, it's very difficult to say what will happen, right?

00:58:16.040 I'm not willing to put myself out on a limb and say what's going to happen.

00:58:20.320 But it's interesting, to say the least.

00:58:22.840 I'm willing to hesitate a prediction.

00:58:25.860 All right.

00:58:27.220 Obviously, I don't know.

00:58:28.900 But I think that this is going to drag for a long time, for many years,

00:58:33.180 because, first of all, I think that what Trump says about NATO,

00:58:37.600 he's not going to pull the US out of NATO.

00:58:40.120 Because, yeah, NATO is also aiding the US.

00:58:43.540 It's not only as he tries to portray that NATO is primarily for the protection of Europe.

00:58:50.300 But obviously, the US is massively gaining from NATO.

00:58:55.500 So that's a given.

00:58:56.900 The reason why he does this is the art of the deal.

00:59:00.580 And it's understandable.

00:59:01.980 He wants to get NATO members to pay for more.

00:59:05.620 Well, of course, that's how it comes across to me.

00:59:07.720 Yeah, so definitely.

00:59:08.920 But I think that when it comes to claims about what is going to happen with the war,

00:59:14.480 you see claims from both sides.

00:59:17.060 They try to portray it as a done deal, either full Russia victory or full Ukraine victory.

00:59:24.260 Both sides have maximalistic expectations because that's where the propaganda is.

00:59:28.520 So personally, I think the war is going to drag for a long time.

00:59:33.460 The US is definitely not going to pull out of NATO.

00:59:36.500 Most probably, it's going to be a stalemate.

00:59:39.260 And we're going to go to an antebellum.

00:59:43.240 How do they call it?

00:59:44.720 Balance.

00:59:46.300 You know, post-war understanding.

00:59:49.500 And fundamentally, I think that the West is not going to leave Ukraine

00:59:57.260 because at the end of the day, it's a matter of prestige.

01:00:01.160 All the economics is just aside.

01:00:04.220 It's what most people think.

01:00:06.060 But as far as the leadership is concerned, if you can't hold your alliance

01:00:11.720 and if you send the message to your alliance that you can't defend them,

01:00:18.060 your prestige is massively harmed.

01:00:22.560 And this is going to massively affect.

01:00:24.240 So I don't think that even a Trump-led US is not going to stop.

01:00:29.140 But we were not allied to Ukraine.

01:00:31.000 We've got no obligation to them.

01:00:33.240 Yes.

01:00:33.700 No, no.

01:00:34.160 I'm not saying that.

01:00:34.660 I mean, I think by this point, we have pretty solidly shown,

01:00:38.400 even if it's not necessarily.

01:00:39.620 It's not formal.

01:00:40.280 Even if it's not formal, that we are clearly aligned on the side

01:00:43.880 of defending Ukraine's sovereignty, whatever that may mean at this point.

01:00:48.540 But in doing so, we've completely devastated Ukraine 1.00

01:00:52.780 by trying to expand NATO to Ukraine to the point where Russia,

01:00:59.060 you know, took its special military operation, police action,

01:01:03.080 whatever it did.

01:01:03.980 We've devastated Ukraine to the point where, as I said, 1.00

01:01:07.040 carrying on your point about Trump and NATO,

01:01:09.880 now I don't think that he'd want to pull out of NATO.

01:01:12.860 You are right that he's trying to get people to pay up their fair share of the bill

01:01:16.760 as he sees it.

01:01:17.940 But I do think that he is much more willing to speak peace terms than Biden is

01:01:22.500 and the Biden administration is.

01:01:24.420 And he is not happy about the money that is being spent.

01:01:28.540 Trump would not be very happy about seeing all of that money continually going over to Ukraine,

01:01:32.820 especially when he is considered, by American terms, an anti-war candidate, you could say.

01:01:40.060 Part of his whole reputation from 2016 through 2020 lies on the fact that he didn't start any new wars.

01:01:46.280 I think you're correct.

01:01:47.760 And I think he's way more willing to negotiate a kind of peace deal.

01:01:53.220 Yes.

01:01:53.580 And I think that would probably be best for everybody if we did.

01:01:57.000 One thing to note, because I have friends from both sides.

01:02:00.860 And, you know, I haven't spoken about this for a long time and purposefully so.

01:02:04.680 But I want to say one thing that a lot of Ukrainians don't see it that they have been ruined by the West.

01:02:14.320 And I have I had a lot of Ukrainians really don't. 0.70

01:02:21.060 They much rather have a devastated Ukraine that isn't Russian occupied than have a Ukraine that isn't devastated, 0.90

01:02:30.800 but is Russian occupied.

01:02:31.760 That's just what I'm being told by some people.

01:02:35.260 This has nothing to do with other sides.

01:02:38.480 What is the West's involvement on the war?

01:02:41.020 I'm just saying what I'm being told by people from both sides.

01:02:44.880 That's absolutely fair.

01:02:45.920 But of course, as far as I'm concerned, there comes a point where you have to accept and acknowledge a lost cause.

01:02:52.300 And it seems that our leaders from the saber rattling that I'm reading are not willing to accept that and are on some level willing to escalate it further to avoid losing face in the way that you're describing.

01:03:05.200 So at the moment, this is one of the more recent reports is that Ukraine is short on ammunition, which is mainly artillery shells and air defense missiles.

01:03:13.800 The average age of frontline soldiers is 43 years old and draft dodging among young amongst younger people who are coming up to conscription is has become a very big problem.

01:03:25.020 And they're very short on manpower soldiers.

01:03:27.340 When the war first broke out, 650,000 Ukrainian men of fighting age fled.

01:03:32.980 And that's been over the past two years as well.

01:03:35.280 Metro stations have police mounting document checks looking for draft dodgers. 0.96

01:03:39.860 People are getting knocks on their doors.

01:03:41.300 People are getting press ganged into it who are ready who are up for conscription.

01:03:45.240 A lot of people are trying to dodge it.

01:03:47.460 And there's a statement in this article here from an official saying this is becoming a real mess in I think you told me that it's pronounced Lvov.

01:03:54.880 I think Lvov, I think L-V-I-V.

01:03:57.580 So you might want to correct us if that's wrong.

01:04:00.040 People are buying apartments but not signing a purchase agreement to avoid it being formally registered or they register it in a friend's name because they're afraid later it could be confiscated.

01:04:08.500 Others are emptying bank accounts in case legislation is approved and their money is frozen.

01:04:11.980 And all of this is to avoid having to go out onto the front lines because at this point after two years a lot of people, as far as I'm aware from these reports, know people.

01:04:20.640 There was a report in The Economist a few weeks back talking about people who knew their friends had gone over to fight in the front lines and had either died or been horribly wounded, come back, not able to serve anymore.

01:04:33.620 After two years you get that initial burst of patriotism, that desire to defend yourselves.

01:04:40.000 But after two years it does start to grind people down.

01:04:43.480 The reality of war sets in, isn't it?

01:04:45.100 I've told you before we started shooting that I lost a communication with a friend.

01:04:50.460 Yeah, I'm really sorry to hear about that.

01:04:51.260 She went to fight and we've lost contact. 0.81

01:04:54.560 Yes, and then you see what's going on over here and here's an interview with the insane madman Emmanuel Macron.

01:05:03.020 Now, this might not matter as much going forward because I know that he's just put up a snap election following the changes that happened in the EU elections recently.

01:05:14.200 Although, being president, as far as I'm aware, his position is not up for election until 2027, somewhere around there.

01:05:22.140 So he's still securely in his position, even if the parliament and prime minister changed underneath him.

01:05:28.020 So what's he talking about here?

01:05:29.820 And he does seem to be referencing the fact that Europe would be in a position of strategic weakness if America were to pull out.

01:05:37.740 He's starting to talk about how Europe could die.

01:05:40.620 He's saying that we need to ensure European military security.

01:05:44.460 In the case of America pulling out, we need European economic security.

01:05:48.480 He's blaming all of this on Russia, saying through its behavior and choices, it has become a threat to European security, despite all the efforts made by France, but also by Germany and the United States.

01:05:58.680 And we can fact check how honest that is later.

01:06:03.900 But of course, he's basically saying that if Europe doesn't get its act together, create some kind of military and immediately go and assault Russia to a certain level, then we will all be in mortal danger.

01:06:15.740 When it seems to me that this idea that if Ukraine falls, the rest of Europe is just a sitting duck is somewhat overstated.

01:06:23.420 Because if Russia really had the kind of power to be able to take on the rest of the mainland continent, they probably would have flattened all of the areas they were after in Ukraine in about two weeks. 0.67

01:06:32.940 Yeah, it's a load of nonsense. 0.99

01:06:34.380 That argument is ridiculous. 0.99

01:06:36.380 It's just meant to make people afraid. 0.96

01:06:37.820 So they support the proxy war, isn't it?

01:06:40.140 That's the whole purpose of it.

01:06:41.360 It's not actually factual.

01:06:42.480 And the idea that Europe, as it existed historically, or even as it has existed now, could be united and empowered under a former investment banker like Emmanuel Macron, who is somebody who has gone quite a long way for opening up the borders.

01:06:59.240 He was a big supporter of Angela Merkel in 2015-2016 when she opened the floodgates to third world immigration into Europe. 0.85

01:07:07.200 The idea that he's somebody who doesn't even really believe in a European identity being specific to the people who have existed historically.

01:07:16.200 He was pushing, I believe, along with a few others, to get basically an EU army, a common army made, you know, where each member state contributes soldiers towards a military.

01:07:30.600 And that is just further undermining the division between the countries, as in the actual borders.

01:07:36.420 And it's trying to create this homogenous blob of sort of central or Western Europe.

01:07:41.380 But even then, I mean, he doesn't really it doesn't seem to me that he really believes in like individual European identities outside of I've got a piece of paper saying I'm French.

01:07:52.540 I've got a piece of paper saying that I'm German.

01:07:54.820 So he goes on later in this interview to talk about the threat of nationalists, saying that I'm a patriot.

01:08:02.660 I love my country in Europe.

01:08:03.860 But the best way of building together is to have as few nationalists as possible.

01:08:08.000 Nationalists are just distorting the European debate.

01:08:10.760 Brexit has impoverished the United Kingdom and all European nationalists are hidden Brexiteers.

01:08:16.160 So, of course, he's the one saying earlier on in the interview when he's asked, do you stand by what you said about possibly sending ground troops to Ukraine?

01:08:24.980 He says, absolutely.

01:08:27.780 We're the ones threatening Europe.

01:08:29.980 We're the ones threatening European security.

01:08:32.260 He, who has become one of the most hawkish against Russia, saying that we need to escalate by sending French troops, German troops, all other troops, U.S. troops probably as well.

01:08:44.980 I'm sure it would be his best case scenario to fight Russians on the ground, therefore escalating it into a greater conflict. 0.99

01:08:51.720 You mean to say a man with a Napoleon complex wants to avenge his idol's last defeat?

01:08:58.460 I know.

01:08:59.080 What a question.

01:09:00.800 And he also says that he's got Franco, and he talks about how he would want to neutralize nationalists in Europe.

01:09:08.760 And he says, we have a Franco-German agreement with Chancellor Scholz to move a move to qualified majority voting on the two main issues that still require unanimity, namely taxation and foreign policy.

01:09:20.360 Foreign policy probably being the more important of the two in his mind right now.

01:09:23.580 The reality of European practice is that even when you have a policy that is underqualified majority voting, when you are at a moment of crisis, a serious moment, unanimity comes back in because the leaders bring it back to the council table.

01:09:39.820 So what that sounds to me, translated from bureaucrat speak, is to we create crisis to drive consensus.

01:09:48.380 We have all of these nationalists threatening our vision, our way of life that we have created in Europe, which is impoverishing European people.

01:09:57.340 So if we create a crisis, escalate something, for instance, then that will force the nationalists and populists to step aside or toe the line.

01:10:07.720 That's what it sounds like to me.

01:10:09.000 What is absolutely appalling with lots of EU bureaucrats is that they are, I think basically they believe nothing because a lot of the times I hear this rhetoric that Merkel and Macron in 2015, they just wanted to do what they did.

01:10:27.920 I think it's not so much that they want it.

01:10:30.520 It's not that they have any humanitarian values or something.

01:10:33.520 I think it was a political, what was seen as a political necessity at that moment, because we had the Grexit discussion.

01:10:41.860 And at the time, Greece had the awful Syriza government that flooded Greece with 10% of Greece's population with immigrants. 0.66

01:10:55.240 Yes.

01:10:56.060 And there was this pressure to somehow relocate them in the EU.

01:11:02.020 So Merkel didn't just wake up one day and they said, OK, we are humanitarians.

01:11:08.540 It's not that they did it because they won.

01:11:10.680 It's just amoral politics.

01:11:12.940 This is an easier way to manage the situation.

01:11:14.840 This is an easier way to manage.

01:11:16.240 And what is absolutely wrong about this is that what they are doing is that they are, obviously they care for the next re-election, the next re-election period.

01:11:28.880 But also they draw up their plans as bureaucrats and they have completely given up on the idea of the nation state.

01:11:37.540 They try to demonize any kind of appeal to a nation.

01:11:42.280 And what ends up happening on paper is that their plans are actually making the demographic problem worse, not because it's something that there is an intention behind it, but because when you have, let's say, a demographic issue, bureaucrats are treating it just like Chuck Schumer is treating it in the U.S.

01:12:08.160 So it's purely an economic problem.

01:12:10.660 But most people in Europe and in the West are saying it's not just an economic problem.

01:12:16.560 It's also a national and a cultural problem.

01:12:18.660 And we want somehow to, let's say, go back and rediscover our culture, reaffirm our values and improve our numbers.

01:12:29.080 Because the kind of bureaucratic forecasting and the plans that they are devising and the constant going after the GDP every year is what is actually doing things worse.

01:12:44.020 Not because they have any values or they have a plan.

01:12:47.140 I think they just care about the GDP and indexes of the sort.

01:12:52.680 I do think that that is clearly something that they prioritize over any other what you could call humanitarian values.

01:12:59.560 I do think there is an aspect of this where people like Macron, people like the elites that we have in the U.K. and in other parts of Europe have separated themselves so much from the population below them.

01:13:11.600 No doubt.

01:13:11.980 The citizens of their nations, that they see themselves not only as being above them in a hierarchical sense in just terms of I've got the levels of power, but also better than them.

01:13:23.680 And see the concerns of those lower than them, specifically the middle classes, as being petty.

01:13:30.440 They would probably use terms like bourgeois to describe them.

01:13:33.500 And they have a certain disdain for them.

01:13:35.260 So I agree with what you're saying there, but I do think that there is a somewhat intentional element in the demographic change that's been foisted upon Europe as a way to try to destroy those values that they see as being disdainful and oppressive to a certain extent.

01:13:50.460 I think on a certain extent, these people have drank the Kool-Aid of their own insane ideology. 0.96

01:13:55.480 But if I carry on, so Russia, of course, in response to this, said, well, if we find French troops, we're going to shoot them. 0.99

01:14:02.540 It's simple as that. 0.96

01:14:03.680 It's surprising no one.

01:14:05.260 Yeah.

01:14:05.580 Yeah.

01:14:06.040 If the French troop, if the French appear in the conflict zone, they will inevitably become targets for the Russian armed forces.

01:14:12.160 It seems to me that Paris already has proof of this.

01:14:15.660 Zakharova said Russia was already seeing growing numbers of French nationals among those killed in Ukraine.

01:14:23.540 Russia said on Monday it would practice the deployment of tactical, this is from last month, by the way, of tactical nuclear weapons as part of a military exercise after what Moscow said

01:14:33.940 were threats from France, Britain and the United States and regarding Trump as well.

01:14:38.260 It does seem that parts of the U.S. security state are trying to do what they're calling Trump proofing Ukraine aid.

01:14:44.900 They want to make sure that if Trump gets in, that he won't be able to reverse the escalation and they won't be able to reverse the commitments that the U.S.

01:14:53.880 has made to Ukraine in prolonging the conflict.

01:14:56.540 So NATO is considering taking over the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the U.S.-led group of nations that coordinates military aid deliveries to Kiev.

01:15:06.960 It's also looking to establish a five-year aid package to Ukraine worth more than $100 billion, alliance officials confirmed to SITREP, with NATO Secretary General Jen Stoltenberg pitching the effort to the allies directly.

01:15:22.040 So that does seem to suggest what you were talking about earlier, that they want to extend it for as long as possible, that it will drag on and on and on.

01:15:30.300 Because for whatever reason, there does seem to be a lot of pride and there does seem to be a lot of investment put into the Ukraine conflict and making sure it goes on.

01:15:40.320 And foreign policy here just says that much of this effort centers on future proofing the alliance and Ukraine security if Donald Trump wins a second term as U.S. president.

01:15:50.980 And if you want to learn more about how the conflict started, we've got videos on that when it first happened.

01:15:57.520 But also an excellent, excellent source of information for this is any discussion that Professor John Mearsheimer has had on this, especially with Judge Napolitano.

01:16:07.960 Absolutely Napolitano, sorry.

01:16:10.960 I know.

01:16:12.200 Very interesting discussions that the two of them have together.

01:16:15.080 So some of this discussion, what they were discussing was that the U.S. equipment that's been approved to allow targets to be hit in Russia is operated using particular codes, strategic and confidential codes that the U.S. aren't just going to release to Ukraine, Ukrainian officials.

01:16:35.960 So in all likelihood, when they are making strikes using U.S. equipment, there are U.S. men with those codes operating them.

01:16:43.140 But I've heard from a number of different independent sources that there have been Westerners, so Western European countries and Americans, in combat roles since the beginning of the conflict.

01:16:57.060 It's been kept under wraps and it's sort of emerging now as it's been going on.

01:17:01.340 But it's been something that's been going on and I don't think it's something we should really doubt or even be surprised by.

01:17:08.360 No.

01:17:08.600 But perhaps it's more expansive than we've been led to believe.

01:17:13.280 I wouldn't be shocked.

01:17:14.740 And again, none of this is to say that Ukraine should not be able to exist as an independent and solve for a nation if that's what it is able to do.

01:17:23.560 I'm not saying that the people who have sacrificed their lives in Ukraine, on the Ukrainian side, should have been able to sacrifice them in vain.

01:17:30.680 What I'm saying is that our leaders in the West seem hell-bent on one level or another escalating and prolonging this conflict for as long as possible.

01:17:40.900 And the only thing that you need to do to confirm that this seems to be the intention is to go back and look at what happened in the months following the beginning of this conflict.

01:17:49.800 Now, this is an excellent article from the Foreign Affairs written by Samuel Charup and Sergei Radchenko, where they analyzed the peace talks that were initially going on in the months following the conflict's beginnings.

01:18:03.080 Where they examined draft agreements that were given by both sides.

01:18:07.700 They conducted interviews with the participants and government officials.

01:18:10.920 They've reviewed interviews and statements that have been released since then and developed a full timeline of the events.

01:18:15.840 Now, I won't go over all of this, but I'll read some of it and try and give you some of the main points because we're running out of time now.

01:18:21.440 So, it was only a few days after the war started that Moscow was starting to look for agreement between the two countries.

01:18:27.680 Putin arranged a negotiating team, as did Ukraine.

01:18:30.820 The reason for it being so soon after seems to be the initial push into Ukraine did not go as well as Russia were expecting.

01:18:37.820 They pushed a certain distance onto the territory, but they were unable to take Kiev.

01:18:42.360 They were unable to take Kharkiv.

01:18:44.280 And Putin realized that he was in for the long game if he wanted to carry this on.

01:18:48.520 So, perhaps it was time to get to the negotiating table already and see what we can work out here.

01:18:54.780 They exchanged demands and draft agreements over an immediate ceasefire, humanitarian corridors, etc.

01:19:00.900 Zelensky and Ukraine were primarily after absolute security agreements from Russia and other states, which would mean that they wouldn't be part of NATO.

01:19:09.040 They would actually have the opportunity to join the European Union as part of these talks.

01:19:14.020 That was a very strange thing, seeing as Putin was very against that in 2013.

01:19:18.520 But it would require them to be neutral.

01:19:21.600 And here's the logic as put in the article.

01:19:23.300 Russia would be a guarantor too, which would mean that Moscow essentially agreed that the other guarantors would be obliged to intervene if it attacked again.

01:19:30.840 In other words, if Moscow accepted that any future aggression against Ukraine would mean a war between Russia and the United States,

01:19:36.460 it would be no more inclined to attack Ukraine again than it would be to attack a NATO ally.

01:19:41.920 So, it's just a, if you attack us, it immediately escalates.

01:19:46.400 You don't get this buffer period like we're in right now.

01:19:50.000 That's a really good point because that sort of plays into my interpretation of everything.

01:19:55.320 Do you want me to go over it very quickly?

01:19:56.820 Yes, yes, go over it.

01:19:57.940 So, my understanding of this conflict is that the Ukrainian resentment against Russia is legitimate, right?

01:20:04.540 You know, they've got a long history of not getting along since the Russian Revolution of 1917.

01:20:10.080 And they have good reason to hate the Russians. 0.99

01:20:12.800 Obviously, their resistance against them is legitimate.

01:20:16.180 However, the countries that are funneling in weapons and money and resources are using Ukraine as a proxy to get back at Russia.

01:20:24.200 And I think the idea of the intelligence agencies, the military analysts and our politicians in the Western world is that,

01:20:32.440 sure, we'll be draining lots of resources supplying Ukraine, but we'll be wearing down Russia. 0.60

01:20:37.080 And eventually, maybe we'll be able to wear them down to a point where we can take them over and then...

01:20:42.620 Instigate regime change of some form.

01:20:44.280 Yeah, and then we can, this can be sort of our territory, if you will.

01:20:49.020 And in the long term, this is going to benefit us more, as well as allowing us to focus on places like China,

01:20:55.380 which would be the last sort of readout as resistance.

01:20:56.980 Well, it would be a hell of a geographical grab as well.

01:20:59.980 Yeah, it would.

01:21:00.300 So, moving into China's territory. 0.62

01:21:02.300 So, I think what they're trying to do is sort of resource extraction, really,

01:21:06.420 is that they're playing a long game where they're throwing in resources to Ukraine to drain those of Russia.

01:21:13.820 And then they can sort of pick the bones clean, if you will, once it collapses.

01:21:19.660 But it doesn't seem to have played out that way.

01:21:21.520 Yeah, it seems to be quite the Hail Mary at this point, judging by how events have turned out.

01:21:27.060 So, they actually had a draft framework treaty that both sides had accepted by about March.

01:21:32.960 And they were exchanging drafts and amendments of that kind of central framework.

01:21:39.000 And they laid out certain provisions.

01:21:41.480 If they had been attacked, what would happen from the guarantors?

01:21:44.440 What would their obligations be?

01:21:47.460 No fly zones, supplying weapons, or possibly directly intervening.

01:21:51.140 And it says,

01:21:52.100 Although Ukraine would be permanently neutral under the proposed framework, Kiev's path to EU membership would be left open.

01:21:58.540 And the guarantor states would explicitly confirm their intention to facilitate Ukraine's membership in the European Union.

01:22:04.600 And the communique, they say here, also includes another provision that is stunning in retrospect.

01:22:09.840 It calls for the two sides to seek to peacefully resolve their dispute over Crimea during the next 10 to 15 years.

01:22:16.660 Which just goes to show that, to a certain extent, this must have been relatively quite serious in terms of the peace talk.

01:22:23.980 If Russia was willing to put Crimea on the table and say, we can negotiate this if it means that we can end this conflict early.

01:22:31.200 I'm not sure if I'm stealing your thunder here, but I know that a few Western leaders played significant roles in sabotaging these early peace deals to keep the conflict going on.

01:22:41.880 Well, the article isn't quite as cut and dry as to say that it's explicitly just the result of someone like Boris Johnson meddling in the affairs.

01:22:52.060 I'm sure it's more complicated.

01:22:53.520 It does mention it because it seems that it was after these peace talks started that they were able to push the Russians back even more so than had initially happened that had led to the peace talk starting in the first place.

01:23:05.880 And it kind of gave the Ukraine government the sense that they would be able to forge on and possibly push them all the way out.

01:23:13.920 So maybe these peace talks aren't entirely needed.

01:23:17.980 But, of course, outside parties weren't enthusiastic about them either.

01:23:23.000 The West, like you say, has a massive vested interest in attacking Russia.

01:23:26.840 They see Russia as kind of a historical enemy at this point, ever since the end of the Second World War.

01:23:33.920 And there are still a lot of people within the Western establishment who probably go back to those Cold War years, who carry on that same animosity.

01:23:42.820 But they say here, already on March 30th, Boris Johnson seemed disinclined towards diplomacy, stating that instead,

01:23:48.300 We should continue to intensify sanctions and with a rolling program until every single one of Putin's troops is out of Ukraine.

01:23:54.320 On April 9th, Johnson turned up in Kiev, the first foreign leader to visit after the Russian withdrawal from the capital.

01:23:59.680 He reportedly told Zelensky that he thought that any deal with Putin was going to be pretty sordid.

01:24:05.480 Any deal, he recalled saying, would be some victory for him.

01:24:08.740 If you give him anything, he'll just keep it, bank it, and then prepare for his next assault.

01:24:12.520 In a 2023 interview, David, apologies for the pronunciation,

01:24:19.000 Arak Amaya, ruffled some feathers by seeming to hold Johnson responsible for the outcome.

01:24:25.420 When we returned from Istanbul, he said, Boris Johnson came to Kiev and said that we won't sign anything at all with the Russians,

01:24:31.680 and let's just keep fighting.

01:24:33.200 So it does seem, to a certain extent, that part of this was pushed from leaders in the West going to Ukraine and saying,

01:24:40.380 well, I know it would be nice to get peace right now, but we don't want it.

01:24:43.840 We'll keep it going.

01:24:44.820 You can win this, which has just extended the conflict for another two years and led to death and injury for everyone involved.

01:24:51.800 They conclude by saying,

01:24:53.280 Ultimately, however, in his discussions with Western leaders,

01:24:57.000 Zelensky did not prioritize the pursuit of diplomacy with Russia to end the war.

01:25:00.860 Neither the United States nor its allies perceived a strong demand from him or them to engage in the diplomatic track.

01:25:07.320 At a time, given the outpouring of public sympathy in the West, such a push could well have affected Western policy.

01:25:12.620 The Ukrainians' newfound confidence that they could win the war also clearly played a role.

01:25:16.800 The Russian retreat from Kiev and other major cities in the Northeast, and the prospect of more weapons from the West changed the military balance.

01:25:24.200 Optimism played a big role, and so they carried on, and by late April, they'd hardened their position,

01:25:29.120 demanding a Russian withdrawal from the Donbass as a precondition to any treaty.

01:25:34.320 And so the chair of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council put it on May 2nd.

01:25:39.800 A treaty with Russia is impossible. 0.75

01:25:41.820 Only capitulation can be accepted.

01:25:43.840 And that's all you can really say about it.

01:25:45.380 So it does seem to me that the war has been escalated needlessly and is still being escalated right now.

01:25:52.200 If the saber rattling is anything to go by, you can read that one way or another.

01:25:56.260 But again, not to be alarmist, it worries me greatly.

01:26:01.140 And with that, let's get on to the video comments.

01:26:08.480 They're like, oh, May was the hottest May on record.

01:26:11.100 It's like, no, it's freezing.

01:26:12.600 I know it's freezing. 1.00

01:26:13.780 You know, you bloody liars. 1.00

01:26:14.960 The trouble with experts is not that they lie. 1.00

01:26:17.480 It's that they're utterly execrable when it comes to communicating the truth. 1.00

01:26:20.900 I had to step in and remind a meteorologist friend of mine making disparaging remarks about people online saying stupid things, 0.99

01:26:27.480 his words, not mine, 0.97

01:26:28.900 that if only the so-called experts would just say that it was the month's average,

01:26:32.680 and then explain how the daytime temperatures were lower,

01:26:35.320 but the night times were much higher, and that's what pushed the average up.

01:26:38.660 Then he wouldn't have to be so rude.

01:26:40.680 I enjoyed that.

01:26:44.540 That's good.

01:26:45.500 Yeah, that was a good explanation of it as well, Alex.

01:26:47.440 A Gentleman's Observations of Swindon, Chapter 2.

01:26:51.440 As mentioned in the last entry, Swindon was first recorded as a swindun,

01:26:54.620 with swind meaning pig and dun meaning hill.

01:26:56.800 This is an old English name, which means that the settlement was founded somewhere between 449 AD and 1066 AD,

01:27:01.800 as we know that prior to the Battle of Hastings,

01:27:03.240 the Swindon estate was owned by an Anglo-Saxon thing named Lea Fjert.

01:27:07.100 Following the Norman conquest, Swindon was divided among five Norman lords,

01:27:09.880 as we can see in the Doomsday Book.

01:27:11.320 As its name suggests, Swindon revolved around farming livestock and trading these basic goods,

01:27:15.220 making it a barter market town,

01:27:16.460 and it remained this way for literally over a thousand years.

01:27:21.560 Cheers for the history lesson.

01:27:22.840 I know you told me that I was going to get it,

01:27:24.960 but that was very quick and very good, actually.

01:27:28.600 Yeah, that was great.

01:27:29.340 And all that history.

01:27:32.760 Of course, I was on the podcast yesterday, wasn't I?

01:27:35.540 Or was I not?

01:27:36.180 No, I wasn't.

01:27:37.340 I'm losing track of what day it is.

01:27:38.920 I think it was on Monday.

01:27:41.140 I watched also part one.

01:27:42.980 And all of that history, just so it can end up what it is now.

01:27:47.280 Let's go to the next one.

01:27:48.860 We're making it great again.

01:27:49.640 So here's a fun little chart I found about the US job market,

01:27:52.940 and why it seems like no one you know has a job.

01:27:56.180 It's because they don't.

01:27:57.540 Despite what they say, it's all just people being imported. 1.00

01:28:01.280 As usual.

01:28:03.720 Yeah.

01:28:04.820 That's a really good graph, actually, isn't it?

01:28:06.840 It really illustrates the point perfectly.

01:28:09.040 I mean, that's the point where it diverges in about, what was that,

01:28:13.680 September of 2021?

01:28:16.060 That's a massive difference.

01:28:17.440 Unemployment figures are looking so good these days.

01:28:19.920 Record low unemployment.

01:28:21.920 And I think we've got one more.

01:28:24.960 Do we?

01:28:26.120 Yes.

01:28:26.420 Oh, yes.

01:28:27.900 Ari Josh's Tokoloshi segment.

01:28:30.540 There are some people in South Africa that put their beds on bricks

01:28:33.860 because they think it was safeguard against this little creature

01:28:36.420 jumping up and stealing their life force out of them.

01:28:39.340 Now, I think that's an external locus of control.

01:28:42.200 Nobody wants to die.

01:28:43.680 Death is uncontrollable.

01:28:45.280 We're all scrambling for ritual or something that will safeguard against it.

01:28:49.580 I also think it's an avoidance of accepting medicalised reasoning

01:28:53.020 and rationality as to why some people pass.

01:28:56.800 I think you're spot on there.

01:28:58.220 I have heard repeatedly since doing that goblin segment

01:29:01.720 about people in the South of Africa putting their beds on bricks,

01:29:06.920 the legs of their beds on bricks.

01:29:08.580 To avoid the goblins.

01:29:10.400 And I think that it's sort of this magical thinking.

01:29:13.840 It's almost a bit childlike.

01:29:15.260 It is.

01:29:17.000 It's giving the world a sense of agency over yourself fundamentally,

01:29:22.240 I think.

01:29:22.640 And it's removing agency from individuals

01:29:25.720 and trying to prescribe forces of nature and things like illnesses

01:29:31.800 as having agency of their own.

01:29:34.480 I think goblins exist.

01:29:36.060 I was going to say, I think it's the goblins is the problem.

01:29:38.980 Clearly.

01:29:40.740 Josh, you know how they say about the devil

01:29:44.100 that the greatest weapon the devil has is to convince people

01:29:47.500 that the devil doesn't exist.

01:29:50.020 That's the same with goblins.

01:29:51.900 Yeah, that's what the tooth fairy has you believing as well.

01:29:54.900 And the Easter bunny.

01:29:56.460 I don't trust that bunny.

01:29:57.980 Written comments.

01:29:58.940 I'm going to make an executive decision right now

01:30:01.320 that we run over till at least 35 minutes past.

01:30:04.380 That is fair.

01:30:05.160 Yes.

01:30:05.480 Is that okay, Sam?

01:30:06.060 Is that all right, Sam?

01:30:06.980 Yeah, it's all right.

01:30:08.760 All right.

01:30:09.540 Fantastic.

01:30:10.540 All right, so starting off,

01:30:11.980 Jared, human man, says,

01:30:13.960 which makes me suspicious that you may not be human.

01:30:17.920 I would like to say thank you to you all.

01:30:20.300 Oh, you're welcome.

01:30:21.380 You and the Lotus Eaters helped me to find my way back 1.00

01:30:23.620 to a better political path in life.

01:30:25.540 Also, I'm getting married at the end of the month.

01:30:27.240 Well, congratulations.

01:30:27.860 Congratulations, yeah.

01:30:29.860 Do you want to read your comments, Josh?

01:30:31.500 Go on then.

01:30:32.680 MC says,

01:30:33.420 the reason these people always take over a beloved franchise

01:30:35.800 and make it gay and woke 0.91

01:30:37.940 is that their ideas simply can't survive on their own merits.

01:30:41.040 Of course they can't.

01:30:42.020 We've been saying this for such a long time,

01:30:43.680 so obviously we agree.

01:30:45.080 If they make an original gay and woke series, 0.90

01:30:47.460 seven people will watch it 0.82

01:30:48.700 and it will crash and burn and they know it.

01:30:50.840 Well, the gay and woke series already exist 0.75

01:30:54.160 and it's just that no one knows about them.

01:30:55.980 It's only when something that's already beloved

01:30:58.780 becomes gay and woke that we talk about it 0.97

01:31:01.320 because it's got a reputation 0.90

01:31:02.820 because it was once good. 0.99

01:31:04.800 If it's gay and woke from its conception, 1.00

01:31:08.920 then no one cares. 0.99

01:31:10.800 Yeah.

01:31:11.780 I imagine that's getting cut at some point.

01:31:14.560 Annie Moss says,

01:31:15.840 Disney stars show and demonstrate

01:31:19.780 that the message is more important than making money.

01:31:22.860 They're not interested in good storytelling,

01:31:24.980 acting or building a wider audience.

01:31:27.240 They kill people's dreams

01:31:28.220 by taking beloved intellectual property

01:31:30.420 and destroying it and making everyone hate it 0.85

01:31:33.960 who liked it in the past.

01:31:35.380 That's very true.

01:31:36.440 I mean,

01:31:37.320 a lot of them are talking about

01:31:38.660 the message is more important

01:31:39.960 than even Kathleen Kennedy,

01:31:41.900 isn't she?

01:31:42.300 She's saying,

01:31:42.920 well,

01:31:43.400 diversity above all.

01:31:46.520 George Happ says,

01:31:47.760 remember when Kathleen Kennedy

01:31:48.840 wore the Forces female t-shirts?

01:31:50.660 I almost included that in the segment

01:31:52.280 but thought it was too much cringe

01:31:54.180 for one segment.

01:31:56.180 She was honest from the start.

01:31:57.680 This is what feminists do, 1.00

01:31:58.540 destroy culture. 0.86

01:31:59.480 At this point,

01:32:00.080 anything Star Wars is a waste of time,

01:32:02.020 including the Cope examples

01:32:03.320 like Rogue One and Andor.

01:32:05.680 Yes,

01:32:06.000 they are Cope.

01:32:06.820 You're right.

01:32:07.400 I thought Rogue One was okay.

01:32:09.980 It had some good action sequences.

01:32:12.400 The story and characters were lackluster.

01:32:16.400 AZ Desert Rat says,

01:32:17.480 good job in alienating about 80% of your audience.

01:32:20.440 But I think I have read enough.

01:32:23.120 Stelios?

01:32:24.640 Yes.

01:32:25.440 So I wanted to say from Angela McColl,

01:32:29.240 so sorry to hear about your friend Stelios.

01:32:31.200 Thank you very much, Angela.

01:32:33.380 I hope she and her family are alive.

01:32:36.920 So,

01:32:38.500 Richard Monikendom,

01:32:40.300 Zara Sultana,

01:32:41.180 why do we have to listen to these foreigners 1.00

01:32:43.600 with their foreign ideologies,

01:32:45.400 obfuscating, stoking,

01:32:46.640 disquiet,

01:32:47.100 and pointing the finger at the Westerner?

01:32:49.680 These people are so transparent

01:32:51.020 and yet they have representation.

01:32:52.760 Why is that?

01:32:53.880 Weakness and a historical inability

01:32:55.620 or desire to speak up about this contradiction

01:32:57.820 to the culture of this country.

01:32:59.840 Well,

01:33:01.220 just as we were saying in the segment,

01:33:03.840 I really think that

01:33:04.840 this social justice multiculturalism

01:33:07.900 is a zero-sum game.

01:33:10.380 Westerners are losing from it.

01:33:12.700 Yeah,

01:33:12.940 and Zara Sultana and her type

01:33:14.720 see it as that

01:33:15.540 and she sees that she gains from it.

01:33:17.560 That's why she supports it.

01:33:18.300 They demoralize us.

01:33:19.280 They can take,

01:33:19.960 you know,

01:33:20.300 the fruits of our banquet on the table

01:33:22.580 without us putting up any resistance.

01:33:24.560 That's what it is.

01:33:25.500 Chase Ball.

01:33:26.040 Wow.

01:33:27.160 I can't believe ancient civilizations

01:33:29.000 used to sacrifice babies for rain.

01:33:31.620 Guys, 1.00

01:33:32.320 you have to cut your son's balls off. 1.00

01:33:34.540 Sobbing we. 1.00

01:33:35.420 You have to do better.

01:33:37.020 Weeping.

01:33:39.660 That's on the internet forever,

01:33:41.180 Stelios.

01:33:42.320 MC.

01:33:43.220 Leftists seem to love

01:33:44.300 throwing around the word hope,

01:33:45.680 but besides being a meaningless platitude,

01:33:47.900 what exactly are we meant to be hoping for?

01:33:50.620 They speak as if we're living 0.68

01:33:52.260 an apocalypse moving.

01:33:54.420 Yes,

01:33:54.880 they want people to hope

01:33:57.400 for their domination,

01:33:59.000 basically.

01:33:59.520 Hope is for people without agency.

01:34:01.280 That's my view. 0.99

01:34:02.780 Hope is for losers. 0.98

01:34:04.240 Don't hope. 0.99

01:34:04.780 Do it.

01:34:06.180 God's sake.

01:34:06.840 All right,

01:34:07.260 Shire.

01:34:07.780 Hope it,

01:34:08.220 dream it,

01:34:08.600 do it.

01:34:08.760 You remember Aragorn in Helm's Deep

01:34:11.460 urging people to hope.

01:34:14.680 He was urging them to hope

01:34:16.060 and also show agency.

01:34:19.140 Last stand,

01:34:20.140 right?

01:34:20.320 You still do,

01:34:22.000 you take ownership

01:34:23.480 of the actions you do.

01:34:25.180 You don't just hope,

01:34:25.980 just like,

01:34:26.200 oh,

01:34:26.440 well,

01:34:26.700 Josh wants to virtue signal

01:34:29.120 his libertarian credentials.

01:34:31.240 There's nothing libertarian about it.

01:34:32.620 It's just human psychology.

01:34:34.540 If you conceptualize.

01:34:36.040 I don't need hope.

01:34:36.900 I just do things

01:34:37.720 because I'm an independent libertarian.

01:34:40.760 No.

01:34:41.880 Bad,

01:34:42.400 Harry.

01:34:43.060 Where's my spray bottle?

01:34:45.240 But,

01:34:46.320 no,

01:34:46.580 it's about human psychology.

01:34:48.380 If you externalize your future

01:34:51.620 to other things,

01:34:52.780 it's going to make you feel powerless.

01:34:54.360 If you actually take steps

01:34:56.180 to improve your life,

01:34:57.480 then it is a positive thing.

01:34:59.260 So,

01:34:59.660 I'm not virtue signaling.

01:35:01.880 It is an important psychological point.

01:35:03.640 It's nothing to do with politics.

01:35:04.660 Right.

01:35:05.380 I have two more.

01:35:07.060 One is George Happ.

01:35:08.520 Since Corbyn and Sultana

01:35:09.880 are preaching about hope,

01:35:11.120 not hate,

01:35:11.720 I assume they will vote

01:35:12.700 for their biggest supporter,

01:35:14.020 reform.

01:35:14.940 Those two would not be out of place

01:35:16.800 as conform MPs.

01:35:19.140 And,

01:35:19.880 I want to tell you from the chat,

01:35:22.600 Unbreakable Litany says,

01:35:24.320 Harry,

01:35:24.860 it's not an executive decision

01:35:26.560 if you ask for permission.

01:35:28.620 Well,

01:35:29.100 I made the executive decision

01:35:30.560 and then I asked for permission

01:35:31.920 knowing that I would get it.

01:35:33.220 See,

01:35:33.640 that was actually

01:35:34.380 my internalized Blairism

01:35:36.140 going to the floor.

01:35:37.300 I was just about to say that.

01:35:38.600 Yes.

01:35:39.220 I've learned well

01:35:40.200 from the Dark Lord.

01:35:41.400 I made the decision,

01:35:42.480 then I'll ask for permission.

01:35:43.580 Should we go for comments from yours?

01:35:45.300 Yes,

01:35:45.560 we'll do a few from mine

01:35:46.640 while we've still got time.

01:35:48.380 Derek Power,

01:35:49.460 can we conscript

01:35:50.280 all of the bureaucrats

01:35:51.520 to the war

01:35:52.020 that they love so much?

01:35:53.480 If only.

01:35:54.340 You know,

01:35:55.100 I think System of a Down.

01:35:57.420 Bog the Russians down 1.00

01:35:59.000 with paperwork.

01:36:00.020 Yes.

01:36:00.480 It's like,

01:36:00.740 we would have taken,

01:36:01.700 you know,

01:36:02.060 Kiev,

01:36:02.460 but we had to fill out

01:36:03.500 all these forms.

01:36:04.740 System of a Down

01:36:05.600 put it best in BYOB.

01:36:07.580 You know,

01:36:07.980 why don't presidents

01:36:08.720 fight the war?

01:36:10.360 Good question.

01:36:11.420 I would like to see,

01:36:12.560 I mean,

01:36:13.060 if they're so eager,

01:36:13.820 I'd like to see Biden

01:36:14.720 and Putin have a boxing match

01:36:16.340 about it,

01:36:16.860 really settle this.

01:36:18.120 Zelensky can ref,

01:36:19.380 of course,

01:36:20.340 because that's actually

01:36:21.140 what's going on.

01:36:22.700 Rue the day.

01:36:23.280 This war is solely

01:36:24.120 to drain us of money

01:36:24.940 and morale

01:36:25.400 and it will go on

01:36:26.060 as long as it needs to.

01:36:27.000 We have always been

01:36:27.780 at war with Russia.

01:36:28.840 Yeah.

01:36:29.220 Well,

01:36:30.000 since the end

01:36:30.460 of the Second World War,

01:36:31.840 pretty accurate.

01:36:33.420 reference to 1984 there.

01:36:35.080 Biggie Bigfoot.

01:36:36.000 I was a bit blase

01:36:36.900 about the prospect

01:36:37.640 of World War III,

01:36:38.580 but I've recently

01:36:39.120 become a father.

01:36:40.000 Congratulations.

01:36:41.100 And I can't help

01:36:41.760 but worry about my son

01:36:42.760 and what he might

01:36:43.260 be embroiled in,

01:36:44.280 especially if it is

01:36:45.100 preventable today.

01:36:46.140 And yeah,

01:36:46.620 that's the big problem

01:36:47.520 that I have really

01:36:48.480 with it,

01:36:48.940 which is that

01:36:49.520 many of the steps

01:36:51.380 that have been taken

01:36:52.040 to get where we are

01:36:52.960 right now

01:36:53.520 have been completely

01:36:54.440 preventable.

01:36:55.600 Every step of the way,

01:36:56.880 there could have been

01:36:57.520 different decisions made,

01:36:59.100 different paths taken,

01:37:00.380 but they haven't.

01:37:01.340 And it seems to be

01:37:02.080 out of a mixture

01:37:03.280 of self-interest

01:37:04.420 from our elites

01:37:05.140 and resource extraction

01:37:06.180 and also a certain

01:37:07.360 level of arrogance.

01:37:08.400 I have a particular theory

01:37:09.880 that psychologically speaking,

01:37:11.360 some of our leaders

01:37:12.260 aren't eager

01:37:13.600 to be known

01:37:14.480 as having been

01:37:15.460 peacetime leaders,

01:37:16.480 specifically people

01:37:17.320 like Boris Johnson

01:37:18.360 being the big

01:37:19.780 Churchill fan

01:37:20.780 that he is.

01:37:21.820 I would expect

01:37:22.620 that he wants

01:37:23.140 to emulate Churchill

01:37:24.460 in a certain way

01:37:25.420 because Churchill

01:37:26.200 gets statues

01:37:26.740 made out of it.

01:37:28.120 Churchill gets known

01:37:29.080 in the history books

01:37:30.000 as a great hero

01:37:30.780 and leader of a nation.

01:37:32.280 Which he isn't.

01:37:33.060 But if you are

01:37:34.820 a peacetime leader,

01:37:35.780 you might have

01:37:36.480 many great accomplishments,

01:37:37.780 but you don't get

01:37:38.620 that necessarily.

01:37:40.400 And so he wants

01:37:41.000 to forge his name

01:37:41.900 or wanted to

01:37:42.700 in 2022

01:37:43.360 forge his name

01:37:44.900 in history

01:37:45.420 by extending a conflict

01:37:46.960 that he thought

01:37:47.540 he could win.

01:37:48.080 But in reality,

01:37:49.060 all that's happened

01:37:49.880 is it's gotten people killed

01:37:51.220 on both sides.

01:37:52.960 And as far as I'm concerned,

01:37:54.300 that's a tragedy.

01:37:55.800 I want to say

01:37:56.440 something about this

01:37:57.460 if I have

01:37:58.200 half a second.

01:37:59.200 Of course, of course.

01:38:00.020 Obviously, I come from it

01:38:01.280 from another angle

01:38:02.200 because I'm from Greece

01:38:03.720 and you see things,

01:38:05.000 but I have a soft spot

01:38:07.100 for Churchill

01:38:07.720 because he was one

01:38:09.860 of the reasons

01:38:10.440 why Greece went

01:38:12.180 into the sphere

01:38:12.860 of influence

01:38:13.480 of England

01:38:15.020 as opposed

01:38:15.920 to the USSR

01:38:16.640 after the World War II.

01:38:19.780 I mean,

01:38:20.060 I kind of have

01:38:20.880 to give it to him.

01:38:21.860 Oh, of course.

01:38:22.320 That's why I think

01:38:23.180 right-wing Greeks 0.78

01:38:24.240 are really,

01:38:25.660 they really have

01:38:26.600 a soft spot

01:38:27.300 for Churchill.

01:38:28.160 But this is not

01:38:29.800 to make a claim

01:38:31.180 about other aspects.

01:38:32.060 I'm not saying

01:38:32.820 anything about Churchill.

01:38:33.920 I'm saying

01:38:34.360 that Boris Johnson

01:38:35.280 sees Churchill's legacy

01:38:36.340 and says,

01:38:36.860 I would like a legacy

01:38:37.980 like that.

01:38:38.860 So if I can extend

01:38:39.740 this war

01:38:40.440 and make a name

01:38:41.160 for myself

01:38:41.740 in that war,

01:38:42.440 which he didn't

01:38:43.560 because he ended up

01:38:44.300 getting ousted

01:38:44.960 from his office

01:38:46.440 just a few months later,

01:38:48.680 then that's what

01:38:49.620 he was going for,

01:38:50.480 which is terrible.

01:38:52.740 But anyway,

01:38:53.780 on that down note,

01:38:54.980 I think we'll call it a day.

01:38:57.980 So thank you very much

01:38:58.800 for watching.

01:38:59.300 Remember to pick up

01:38:59.980 your copy of Islander

01:39:01.280 if you haven't yet.

01:39:02.440 You honestly will not

01:39:03.380 regret it.

01:39:04.320 Thank you to both of you

01:39:05.760 for sitting on this podcast

01:39:06.780 with me.

01:39:07.200 It's been a pleasure

01:39:07.720 as always.

01:39:08.800 Take care.

01:39:09.400 We'll see you tomorrow.

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters - June 12, 2024

The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters #935

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