00:00:52.280I know. We always do well in an apocalypse, don't we?
00:00:54.900Yeah, we do. Well, I don't know why I said we do. And to quote Batman, some people just want to watch the world burn.
00:01:00.480And that is, of course, the three of us. Not actually, because last time you were then being serious, you know, you said you see a fight coming and here it is.
00:01:09.460Yeah, it's not good, is it? I feel like it was already possibly too late back then, in a way, because you could see that people lost their good faith and they didn't want to talk anymore.
00:01:20.700And, you know, as you go into those arguments and people are just looking to to find the tiny disagreement that they can turn into a little hand grenade that they can then turn into from a skirmish into a war.
00:01:33.400And, you know, I think we're probably we're getting there.
00:01:36.240It feels very, very uneasy, doesn't it?
00:01:41.080I mean, no one's going to feel relaxed because we're in the middle of a lockdown.
00:01:43.140But the lockdown and the combination of the, you know, the tension, this building is.
00:01:47.720and Lawrence you have been dare I say on a little bit of a journey I mean
00:01:53.640euphemistically um how are you and how have you found it um I'm all right now it was pretty uh
00:02:04.540surprising actually before but then I suppose on one level I was already poking the elephant wasn't
00:02:09.200I well give us a bit of the chronology Lawrence because when we interviewed you I believe that
00:02:14.800I think it's accurate to say that was the first long form interview that you'd done talking about the whole culture war stuff and your thoughts on it.
00:02:22.700And from there you go, you do a bunch of other podcasts and eventually you end up on Question Time, which is where I think the journey, as Francis described it, really starts.
00:02:32.060And we might even include a little clip of that at the top of this.
00:06:37.020What do you mean came after, Lawrence?
00:06:38.420They attacked, you know, they attacked, they tried to draw divisions between my family members.
00:06:44.980You know, people would, the media would comment on various parts of my, you know, relationships I was having within the family that they just weren't informed about.
00:06:52.200So it's, and I then got some calls from my family saying, what are we going to do about this?
00:06:56.640Because this is really upsetting for everybody.
00:07:04.300And so it just got worse and worse and worse.
00:07:08.420And I threatened to sue equity for defamation because I think at the end of the day, you know, what they said to me was was unfair.
00:07:17.240I didn't think I was really I mean, I admit, you know, it's a fairly controversial thing to say that Meghan Markle as an actress may have an ego that may, you know, and want to be center of attention, which is sort of what I was saying.
00:07:29.840I didn't really have any interest in the color of her skin or anyone else's skin, really, because I just it's not really I know it's really bad to say that, isn't it?
00:10:29.600so i mean they do exist the question is is one stupid racist reflect reflective of society that's
00:10:38.000that's really the question that you were addressing yeah and that and it's um it becomes
00:10:42.760an agenda then slightly it feels to me so if you're going to talk about systemic racism then
00:10:47.300at some point i'm going to need some facts that's i'm just going to need it because i can't take
00:10:53.540your word for it if that's not my lived experience now i'm you know i qualify that by saying i don't
00:10:57.700I haven't had the lived experience of, you know, I was speaking to a friend the other day.
00:11:01.400He said, you've not been called a packie and been told to go home.
00:11:04.200I mean, the Home Secretary said it on TV.
00:11:06.360But apparently, I read yesterday that that's gaslighting other ethnic minorities.
00:11:09.700And you're like, if the Home Secretary, who's brown, has a view and says, I was called a packie in the schoolyard,
00:11:18.260and then you're going, she's now the Home Secretary,
00:11:20.160That would point towards the fact that possibly this country is quite progressive in terms of how we handle race.
00:11:29.120So essentially race is now an opinion rather than a colour of your skin, it seems to me.
00:11:36.080Because when you were talking about it, did you feel that you sort of stumbled into a landmine issue or onto a landmine issue without being fully aware of what would happen?
00:11:48.360Yeah. I thought it was a fairly sensible comment. I mean, I didn't look at it for a long time. And then I looked at it much later on and I thought, yeah, no, I do believe that. I stand by that. There's nothing. I mean, I maybe shouldn't have banged my head on the desk because that was just slightly disrespectful. But it was frustrating. And you're being walked into an argument that the minute you accept the argument exists, you've lost the argument because I didn't accept the terms of the argument that she was laying down.
00:12:14.100So, therefore, it wasn't really an argument.
00:12:16.780It was a lecture, and, you know, nothing bristles
00:16:38.700And Lawrence, I was going to ask as well, with social media, do you think that what social media does is it makes it very, very easy to demonise someone?
00:16:49.900Because sitting opposite from you, I get the fully rounded human being.
00:16:53.420But on Twitter, you just get the avatar with a little picture.
00:16:56.680Therefore, it makes it so much easier to create in my mind who you are.
00:23:53.640But, you know, as you were talking there, it reminded me of something because I talked a lot to my grandparents and parents about life in the Soviet Union.
00:24:05.900And the stuff you're talking about where you have to look for who's not signing up to a cause is exactly what we had.
00:24:13.380Like I get messages now from people going, oh, you know, by the way, this other comedian, he's one of us.
00:24:18.740And I'm going, what do you mean one of us?
00:24:21.260Like, why do we have to speak in hushed tones and private messages about us?
00:24:26.480Like, there's something seriously fucked up here.
00:24:29.880If people like us have to, you know, gather in private and, you know, keep our voices down, which is what's happening.
00:24:37.760But what's so good is now we're living in the world where people have the most information they've ever had.
00:24:42.360So that's a good thing when people use it well, and it's a really bad thing when people use it badly.
00:24:46.560But ultimately, you know, if it all goes wrong, we can just go and live in chairs.
00:34:47.460And maybe, look, if they had a vote now, I'm sure it would be removed.
00:34:50.920And your point about the democratic process is absolutely right.
00:34:53.900It's interesting that you mentioned that there's an argument for keeping these things up,
00:34:57.460maybe with a plaque that explains who this person was, what they did, etc.
00:35:01.140Because I went to school, and in my school, one of the alumni was Douglas Haig, who was the commander of the British Armed Forces in World War I, responsible for the over-the-top tactics, etc., which largely acknowledged as being terrible, having led to the deaths of thousands of young British men for no purpose whatsoever.
00:35:23.760And we were taught about this at school.
00:35:25.720We would walk past a statue every single day
00:42:53.180And that really stuck with me. And I thought, that's a really brilliant way of explaining it. And I've taken that away. And I've thought, yeah, we should be more, we should be gentler and more understanding and more aware of these issues, because they do cause people great hate.
00:43:08.020but on when i returned with you know well later on around our little walk around the park and i
00:43:14.120spoke about the you know what kneeling potentially would mean to you know someone who born english
00:43:21.780went to an english school you know whatever color that they are it's like no don't agree
00:43:26.840and i'm like okay well then you know we're fucked then aren't we but you've got to keep talking to
00:43:32.080them because you've got to love them love that i love your what is it love the enemy well i'm
00:43:37.220really good what is it i'll stab him in the face hello love your enemies yeah you know you do it's
00:43:43.940there's there's no other way what do you want to do i build a heart full of hatred for these people
00:43:48.080i'm like no fuck off i love you it's fine do what you want do your worst as well and i remember
00:43:55.220always remember this quote we were talking to count dankler the guy who made the pug video
00:43:59.920and he said something that always stuck with me.
00:44:02.720He said, we don't really believe in forgiveness anymore.
00:45:56.040And it's obviously a stupid little game because the moment the power companies turn off the electricity and the city stops taking away the trash and...