Francis Pouliotis, host of the podcast Money Makers, joins us to talk about the year that was and the one that is coming up in 2020. We talk about Bitcoin, the end of the year, and much more.
00:02:22.300We were just looking through some of the episodes and I was going, do you realize that that amazing conversation we had with Richard Miniter, which is on like 1.2 million views about the history of America.
00:03:00.900But also, I think it's due to the fact that because of the team that we have and because of the schedule and because of the amazing guests, we have such incredible conversations that you do want conversation.
00:03:12.240And then in a week later, you have another equally brilliant one.
00:03:17.360We've had everyone on from the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, to Boris Johnson, to Dana White, to Dave Smith for a discussion and all this.
00:03:26.780Richard Miniter, as I mentioned, Tommy Robbins.
00:03:28.660Like the whole year has just been absolutely incredible.
00:03:32.580But it was dominated, particularly the first kind of 10 months of it, I think it's fair to say, by the war in Gaza.
00:03:38.940That was a big part of the conversation.
00:03:42.040And what's fascinating to me is that that conflict is still ongoing.
00:03:48.080And no one is saying anything about it.
00:03:50.040This is the amazing thing where a ceasefire was declared.
00:03:55.700The hostages were given back, which is, let's be honest, and let's take a moment to celebrate that.
00:04:02.400Because I'm not sure if you would ask even the most ardent optimists, would the hostages be returned in 2025?
00:04:10.040I don't think there'd be many people who would think that would be possible.
00:04:14.320Well, Sam Harris, who I don't think is usually described as a Trump superfan, did say that Donald Trump deserves the Nobel Peace Prize for that.
00:04:23.080So that kind of tells you the scale of the achievement, I think.
00:04:27.180And it was very interesting because there was an interview with Trump on Air Force One, and he paid a lot of, I would say respect is the wrong word, but saying, you know, how it was a team effort, which was very un-Trumpian, actually.
00:04:40.200You know, saying that Erdogan and a few other people were instrumental in making this happen.
00:05:10.420Like for this entire year, they spent their time banging on about genocide and the ones on the left now, they've gone back to, they've reverted to the mean, which is now they're banging on about the tax-origin, the villainous.
00:05:20.960And the retards on the right are banging on about how Charlie Kirk killed himself or Erica Kirk killed him or whatever it is that they're onto now.
00:05:28.960And you just go, there's been this, like, there is a herd thing going on where people really just, they just follow the crowd and they talk about stuff that they don't know much about.
00:05:42.520And then that thing is still going on, but then they don't talk about it anymore because a new thing has come up.
00:05:47.740It is, it is, and it just shows, A, the power of social media, where if something is constantly put into your feed, then people then go, oh, this must be the thing that everyone's talking about.
00:05:59.140This must be the most important issue of the day.
00:06:02.120And let's be honest, it is a very important issue as well, by the Stein and Gaza and all the rest of it.
00:06:07.020But then you go, look, if you're so activated by it, which I understand, it's a very emotive topic, then you wouldn't have this reaction where the moment it's done, in inverted commas, you then go, okay, what's next?
00:06:24.480You would be genuinely concerned as to what's happening, the fate of the people.
00:06:29.560Have Hamas actually put down their weapons?
00:06:42.520But, of course, one of the other things that happened during the year in relation to Gaza was the 12-day war when the U.S. bombed Iran and damaged or destroyed their nuclear facilities.
00:06:57.000You know, there were people predicting it was going to cause World War III.
00:07:01.920Our recent guest, Dave Smith, called President Trump to be impeached.
00:07:07.560And ultimately, it was kind of an overall success.
00:07:11.440And that is, in some ways, a really strong contrast because the Trump administration has delivered a lot in the Middle East while not delivering anything of what they promised in Ukraine.
00:07:24.140And that's been a really interesting thing to watch.
00:07:26.540And I think it's partly because of the people involved.
00:07:28.760It's like Jared Kushner, I think, is really, really talented.
00:07:30.960And from what I know, he's done an amazing job in the Middle East, not just now, but with the previous Abraham Accords work they did.
00:07:38.560Whereas, you know, Steve Witkoff doesn't seem to have the measure of Vladimir Putin just yet, which is, you know, not a surprise because Putin really knows what he's doing and Steve Witkoff doesn't.
00:07:48.340But that is another conflict that's yet to wrap up.
00:08:10.120But there was a point, I remember when it started going, this could potentially be disastrous.
00:08:15.000And it's what we often talk to some of our guests about, which is going from a unipolar world to a multipolar world.
00:08:23.780And this is, I think, the fact what the left or progressives or not even the progressives, just the anti-interventionists, shall we call them, fail to appreciate.
00:08:34.180The moment America recedes from the global picture, the moment America stops being an inverted commas of world's policemen, that's the moment that certain nefarious actors are taking a cheeky look around and going, OK, well, then maybe we can take this and maybe we can do this.
00:08:50.040Because this idea that we were all taught at university where, you know, in basic economics, where, you know, if you trade with someone, you know, everything is going to be great, turns out that isn't always true.
00:09:02.480Well, what's interesting, of course, is those two conflicts started under the previous...
00:09:06.140They started under the Biden administration.
00:09:07.820And I think they were a response to the weakness of that administration.
00:09:15.560He's managed to get some progress on one, not so much on the other.
00:09:21.380But hopefully next year does bring proper peace to both of those places.
00:09:25.880Oh, well, look, that's what we're all desperately hoping for.
00:09:28.660Because the war, as all wars, but particularly that war, is just so brutal and horrific that you hope that some measure of sanity can be restored.
00:09:39.040The thing that I find worrying whenever I'm in the United States is this kind of pro-Putin rhetoric that comes out where people are saying, well, you know, Ukraine, the skirt was a bit high, therefore she deserved the black eye.
00:09:54.520Yeah, and they're also, as we discovered in our episode with Ann Coulter, quite famously, because that clip's gone super viral, they're very badly informed.
00:10:01.420It's just a bunch of talking points that none of them have actually looked into.
00:10:05.780But the reason they're all doing that, I think, is it's a much better explanation than the real explanation, which is they just don't want...
00:10:17.340And I would just have a lot more respect for those people if they just said, like, we're isolationists, we don't care about Ukraine, we don't care about the Middle East.
00:10:28.040Like, that at least is an accurate reflection of their true motivations.
00:10:32.900Whereas making up all this stuff about...
00:10:40.140It's like, why would you make up lies to justify, so that you don't have to say the truth about what you actually believe?
00:10:46.440Just say, I'm an isolationist, I don't want America involved in foreign affairs.
00:10:50.220And then that is a legitimate debate that people can have about what is the role of the West and America as its leader in maintaining world order and so on.
00:11:01.880Or the current world order, if you like.
00:11:03.720Because if you don't maintain the current world order, a new one will emerge, and that will be a world order in which the West and the United States in particular are no longer the dominant force.
00:11:13.120I mean, this was the crux of our debate with Dave Smith a few months ago.
00:11:21.240That was a big part of the conversation.
00:11:23.500Of course, this was also a year, I think, in which...
00:11:28.020You know, it's interesting, because on the one hand, it feels like all of the arguments that people like us and many of our guests have been making for a long time about the culture within Western countries,
00:11:39.060wokeness and all of this other stuff, it really was the year where our arguments started to be dominant.
00:11:48.060In many ways, you could argue that on many of those issues, we've won the arguments.
00:11:51.760But at the same time, I think the murder of Charlie Kirk, which was a political assassination, it just showed that there is a...
00:12:05.520We are living through a very explosive...
00:12:11.620You know, I'm trying to find the right words.
00:12:13.540We are living through a very combustible time.
00:12:17.160There is a lot of people who are very angry.
00:12:20.300There are a lot of people who've been trained to think that their anger entitles them to do horrific things.
00:12:26.400And I don't just mean in terms of political violence.
00:12:28.320I see people within the political world now saying, well, you know, they did this, therefore we're entitled to do that.
00:12:35.500And Charlie Kirk actually gave a lot of very bad actors, I think, on the right an excuse, which we've seen since, to go, well, you know, debate died with Charlie Kirk.
00:12:45.920And it's such a terrible thing to do to his legacy because this was a man who actually not only operated in the world, but demonstrated through his life and sacrifice the right way to approach these things, which is to argue, to win the argument, which is what he did.
00:13:04.520And ultimately, he was successful because he persuaded people and he became undeniable in that.
00:13:12.000And his murder was tragic, but in many ways, it only proves his point.
00:13:17.240And I think one of the things that has happened since is way more people have now come over to the side of rational discussion.
00:13:24.200But it's also, of course, given a lot of bad faith actors ammunition to do terrible things.
00:13:31.960Well, and this is the dispiriting thing about, I mean, obviously, the murder was awful.
00:13:38.720But then, like with all of these types of events, I think it was Douglas Murray who said it best.
00:13:45.740He said, it sends a flare into the sky.
00:13:48.140And then you can see where everyone really stands.
00:13:50.580And the people who have integrity and principle on either side behave with integrity and principles.
00:13:57.080And the people who have neither and more pertinently, the incredibly bad faith actors who then use a tragedy in order to enrich themselves behaved in that manner as well.
00:14:09.380And I mean, the obvious answer, most pertinent example of this is Candace Owens.
00:14:14.180Her behavior after Charlie's murder is, let's be honest, it's been despicable.
00:14:26.180And what makes her behavior and her actions even more heinous is this is somebody who had a personal relationship with Charlie.
00:14:33.400This is somebody who was a friend, yet uses the death or the murder of her friend, so-called friend, to then spread misinformation,
00:14:42.480to then spread conspiracy and then become even richer as a result of it.
00:14:48.460And the thing is, with Candace's behavior is, it's been, it's despicable, but it's more understandable if you don't have money, if you're trying to make it.
00:14:59.680It's not acceptable in any shape or form, but it's more understandable.
00:20:55.860That's how you build a healthy, functioning society.
00:20:58.700We've spoken about it on this show time and time again, that one of the major issues with the West is fatherlessness, the breakdown of the marriage.
00:21:08.180And in the younger generations, the fact that both males and females have a distrust of each other and they're not relating to one another as they used to before.
00:21:17.740Well, Nick, is this your grand vision?
00:21:19.860Like basically saying that women are disgusting and stupid?
00:21:23.120How is that going to make anything better?
00:21:24.960Well, I don't think people like him and there's previous iterations of him, obviously, as well.