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Religion, Politics, and the Sponge Mind
35 Plays1 year ago
Join Dave and Jake as they talk about more some of the more serious things in this week's episode! Disclaimer that we talk about some depressing world news, but there are a few jokes to tie it all together!
Intro:
- Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Marble Gallery
Outro:
- Sterling Holloway - Trust in Me (The Python's Song)
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Transcript
Snake Tropes in Media
00:00:51
Speaker
How's it going, everyone? Welcome to another episode of Soapstone. My name is Jake. I am joined by my co-host as always, Dave. How's it going tonight, Dave? It's going swell, which is like the word well, but a snake might say it. Yeah. Is that true? I mean, my only basis is really off of a CAH from Jungle Book.
00:01:15
Speaker
That's fair. I do like the, um now that we've we're set we're set on the motion of talking about snakes as portrayed in popular media. um A lot of this just comes from the Garden of Eden, right? But it would be very funny if all the way back then Adam and Eve, I guess specifically Eve in this case is like, you know, walking around doing her stuff, whatever. And then the snake shows up and he's got like the most suspicious, like.
00:01:47
Speaker
it's The story is told in such a way that there's not really reason for her to distrust the snake. But what if he had all of the tropes of like the snake as the bad guy going into it? um I think that would have... The tropes that were not invented yet. Exactly. Canonically. Yes. There's some time time travel shenanigans perhaps going on here. Or just as... Did you say Ka? Was Ka his name?
00:02:14
Speaker
I think Ka is the snake. Yeah. Because Sheer Khan is the tiger. Great name. Blue is the bear. Yeah. Yeah, quiz me, dude. Fucking quiz me. Any time I think about Jungle Book, I just think of the ooh, want to be like you, yeah like contemporary song, not even the original one, but the the one that we both listen to. I think it's just a good song. I like both versions. They are both good.
Nostalgia for Animated Classics
00:02:40
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:02:41
Speaker
um then Wasn't there like hypno ah hypno hypnotism or something like that with a snake at some point? Yeah, the songs yeah I think the the whole time pretty much Ka is trying to steal Mowgli away. I forget if he's trying to eat him or not. Yeah, probably. But they did it in like a less threatening way. um But at a point, I feel like I'm going deep in the Lord and someone's like, I don't care about this. Shut up. Listen.
00:03:09
Speaker
um basically Mowgli gets into a fight with Blue and kind of wanders off on his own. He runs into Ka. Ka has always been like a bit of an antagonist, but not super threatening. um But he eventually kind of like gets him to look into his eyes and it does like that technicolor going out from the center thing.
00:03:31
Speaker
and he starts singing his trust in me song as he's kind of like manipulating Mowgli's body in his own because like he turns his body into snare stairs and then has like Mowgli walking down nobody's actually moving in place choreography for the animation is great um yes the yes is the answer to your question that's really good also i think like For everything you just described, um I'm glad that it wasn't just a book, right? It's kind of ironic to make a movie. Why didn't they call it Jungle Movie?
00:04:07
Speaker
Terrible, terrible miss on their part, but still a very good show. What's whats what's your take on Treasure Planet? I honestly don't remember it. I know I watched it. I know
Evolution of Animation Technology
00:04:20
Speaker
I thought the cat lady was hot.
00:04:22
Speaker
so but But aren't they always, right? and Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I really don't remember too much about it. I remember more about the Atlantis movie. That's fair. Atlantis was also really good. I like the ah the mole guy. Or the explosive guy.
00:04:42
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. ah My brain wants to go to Underminer, but no, that that's the ah the villain from Incredible. Different character.
00:04:54
Speaker
um Yeah, Atlantis is really good. That was really good. Is that Disney? Yes. I want to say so, because I couldn't think of anything else.
00:05:11
Speaker
I asked just to make you throw something out there. Atlantis The Lost Empire. Well, it's at least. Yes, it's Disney. You got it. You got it. You got it. I think a lot of early Emmett stuff was just Disney because they were just doing it. Now they're like, we would like to also make animated things. Uh huh. It was also like, well, I mean, not to say it's not high effort now. Right. Because things like um Uh, the league of legends show, which by the way, coming back I have heard that they i are heard back then that they were continuing it. And I'm like, I'd keep doing that. They've had a trailer for season two. Right. Oh, that's right. I think I saw it actually. Um, but like that's, that's kind of a standout thing, sometimes like a trigger production or whatever, where it's just like, yeah, they clearly just threw infinite amounts of money at this, but as a whole.
00:06:08
Speaker
Like if you go back into the olden days, there was so much effort that had to be put into animation for like the Disney stuff that just they had basically, or few places would have like the technology to even make animations or technically now someone with blender could spend a very long time, but do it. Right. Yeah.
00:06:29
Speaker
Um, I remember in some snippet of a documentary, there was something about Disney and how I think Walt Disney basically patented or was the first to use
Mechanical Devices and Humor
00:06:40
Speaker
like multiple frames. Cause I think in one of the opening shots for Snow White, it kind of pulls back, but that was actually done with like seven different layers. Yeah. Yeah.
00:06:54
Speaker
No, it's crazy like what they what they pulled off for like those old animations. It's it's like um Analog animation is the way I'd describe it. That's really cool.
00:07:05
Speaker
I Just like the things that you spin around those are fun There was actually um, I saw it in like a YouTube short recently But um it was pencil sharpeners across like the decades and stuff. And there were things that are like 200 years old now, like no joke around 200 years old. They are just like mechanical marvels.
00:07:29
Speaker
in their like efficiency and design and they look so cool and i'm just like man old people are smart it's like if someone was like here's a pencil sharpen this for me i would like try to find a knife or something like a caveman perhaps Well, I mean, if you're not using pencils day to day, I wouldn't expect you to have a pencil sharpener or hey, worst case, you just get another pencil because they come in like boxes at 10. Yeah. Yeah. And if they could get them 200 years ago, we can get them now. So it's not a big. They were also pretty much unchanged. That was the other kind of cool thing. It was like pencils, obviously, by nature of the fact that they do what they need to do, haven't changed.
00:08:13
Speaker
ah outside of like maybe maybe we don't like put as much lead into them as we used to. Yeah, it's kind of interesting how it's been like pencils and pens or I guess quills were a form of ink that we haven't found something that's been more I guess gel pens. Those are kind of those are nice. Yeah. Child of the 90s. But there hasn't really been an evolution in that front.
00:08:43
Speaker
Right. They kind of just jumped to a different technology. Right. It's like, oh, are you not using a pencil or a pen or a gel pen? Well, I guess you then you basically board on the yeah keyboard. I mean, you can draw on stuff like there are tablets. Mm hmm.
00:09:02
Speaker
That is true, you know, like a stylus. I have a really small... Hear me out, there's no ink. What? Yeah, right. Could you imagine being like... It instead uses magnetized dust. Uh-huh. Oh yeah, Etch-a-Sketch. That's basically where we peaked. Well, Etch-a-Sketch, and there's the one where you have like a little magnet and you draw on the person's face by making like facial hair or like a mustache.
00:09:30
Speaker
out of it interesting not familiar with that one it was like all an enclosed plastic and you kind of drag the pen along the outside hmm um But yeah, old technology was cool, animation was cool. um Some of those movies, like they didn't really get... the So i'm I'm picking two that I don't think like got the recognition they deserve, um which was Treasure Planet, even though Trent Reznor is kind of like,
00:10:02
Speaker
I don't know. Are you going to guess the other one? i I easily know the other one. Isn't Trent Reznor the singer from Slipknot? Is that right? i One of these Reznor's. I'll let you look that up. um I'm going to guess because I've known you a long time. The other one you're going to say is Iron Giant. Yes, I was going to say Iron Giant.
00:10:26
Speaker
Yeah, nick referenceens this every so often with the ah I stay you go ah ah throws the kid into the sun. I love it. um And but the the other um edit that came up recently, probably because of just to I would say um close to the the the time that it happened was the Toy Story edit it with ah Buzz and Woody when they're flying. And Woody's like, we missed the truck. And Buzz was like, we're not aiming for the truck. And then it just cuts to the plane hitting the wheelchairs. That was a classic for sure.
00:11:15
Speaker
oh
00:11:18
Speaker
Never going to forget that one. Never forget. I always wonder if it's like rude to laugh at tragedies, but my thought is, A, it didn't happen to me. Two, I'm not doing it to target that group of people. Yeah. um Or make light of it in that sense. It's just like shit happens all the time to where you need You need some levity around it. Yeah, I think um I mean, this isn't even this isn't me. ever I think a lot of people have heard this right. But like tragedy plus time equals comedy. Yeah. Right. um There are definitely people who had comedy around 9-11.
00:12:07
Speaker
um, earlier than what a lot of other people would consider appropriate. But I mean, comedy also by the very, it's very nature a lot of times is edgy, right? Because it needs to, it needs to upend your expectations, um, in order to get anything out of you. Um, but like, I mean, people also dealt with that whole situation in a bunch of different ways. right like Some people internalized it. Some people got really patriotic. ah Some people invaded other countries. like We all had our own option like our own response. right
00:12:44
Speaker
um I invaded one or two countries. Yeah, was I wasn't going to call you out for it. yeah I was bored. I didn't know what else to do. um But yeah, I think I think, you know, once you pass the the 20 year mark. You're probably OK. Yeah. Also, I think another thing is like, you know, joke, but we're also acknowledging it in a sense like it's going to remain in our history as hey, this crazy bad shit went down and happened.
Humor and Tragedy
00:13:20
Speaker
But yeah. I mean, I don't we joke about the civil war all the time, right?
00:13:27
Speaker
Well, again, in hindsight, I mean, I don't as much because we lost, like we lost, but no, I'm just kidding. I think.
00:13:41
Speaker
I think the trick with the Civil War is, so like for 9-11, it's just like impact humor, right? But the Civil War, it's like, it's almost undercut these days by like, there's more people that kind of believe this right now than I would like there to be, you know what I mean? um It's kind of like joking about like World War II and the Nazis and stuff like that. And it's just like, I mean, I think I know my audience here, right? But I want you guys to understand The the axis powers were the bad guys. Right.
00:14:18
Speaker
um Yeah, when people start laughing in a way, we're like, ah that you're a little too on board with that joke I was making or trying to point out the preposterousness of this school of thought or these actions that were completely heinous. You're just like, yeah, fuck the Jews, right? No, no, sir.
00:14:40
Speaker
You like say something in satire or whatever and they're just like nodding along. You get an you get an amen or something from the crowd. You're like, oh, wait a minute. It took a while for people to adopt a modest proposal.
00:14:57
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. But the one that ah this is really veering into more serious territory, I guess, but I was just thinking about it because I saw an article on it this morning, but the um conflict in Gaza and the Middle East and like everything going on with Israel.
00:15:17
Speaker
Um, this is a talkcast. You guys, we talk about whatever we want here. We don't always just keep it, keep it light. Um, but the article was around the pagers. Did you hear about what was going on with the pagers? No, I'm not. I'll give you the TLDR for the real life. Sad news of people dying, but what happened was in Lebanon, um, a whole bunch of pagers went off at once, um, and then exploded.
00:15:47
Speaker
And the reason for this is, I don't know if it was broke by the New York Times, but like they have sources and people who were remaining confidential for a lot of good reasons um was that ah in the olden days, like you go back like decades and stuff and people were starting to try to find like find ways to track phones and things like that. So Hezbollah like leadership was like, we need to get away from phones. Let's go to pagers. And around the same time,
00:16:15
Speaker
um Israel was like opportunity though. And so what they did is they established a shell company to manufacture pagers in like not their region, but like in Europe. I can't remember exactly where it was. It was like Hungary or something, which I guess is in Europe, but you know what I'm saying. Um, where is Hungary?
00:16:38
Speaker
It's somewhere on that. It's some
Geopolitical Conflicts and Media Narratives
00:16:40
Speaker
it's i I unfortunately am not the best person to ask on geography. What I realized is I was under the bus. I can give you that. I realized I was under the the geography bus and I was like. I'm.
00:16:55
Speaker
Going to give Dave an option here where I either He stays out of the bus a net gain of nothing right by actually knowing we're hungry or he drags me down drag you under we've all be crushed But clearly you would know this geography fact right Dave right Dave right like you you're you're educated, right ah You didn' just scam a university out of your degree or anything like that e Yeah, but anyways, so they use the Shell Corporation to make a bunch of pagers and for, they make like legit pagers for other countries, but for the ones where Hasbro is operating, um they make pagers where they basically put bombs in them and a ah like backdoor device, basically like listening for a signal. And um this happens for years.
00:17:52
Speaker
It's not like a new thing. Like this is a plot that's been going since the word pager meant anything, right? um And they just, it just took off. Like people who had phones were having all these bad things happen to them or whatever. So they're like, let's just switch over to pagers entirely.
00:18:10
Speaker
So not that long ago, I think it was last week, this um happened where everyone got paged at once and then their pagers exploded. And and a lot of people got injured. A lot of people died. People went to hospitals. There's some kids that died. There was all this stuff.
00:18:26
Speaker
um And it's just like, it was so surreal seeing it in the news. One, because pagers, right? um But also like all of the comments were split.
00:18:40
Speaker
in exactly the ways you would kind of expect. And it's just like, Oh, well they're terrorists. So what do they expect to happen? And then like a bunch of people were like, you realize that like an indiscriminate attack like this with literally pagers would be called terrorist itself by like all of anyone else in the world, basically. Yeah. And pretty much is even as soon as you're involving non-combatants, like what the fuck? Yeah.
00:19:09
Speaker
Like one of the comp, one of the comments I read that kind of like stuck with me. Oh, like I'll let you respond to it. But there was, um, like, what do you, what do, what does Hezbollah expect? You know, um, they're the ones putting their kids in danger. And I was like, ah, I don't know about that. Like that feels kind of scummy because Here's the thing, right? I think a lot of Trumpers and MAGA people are stupid. They are ignorant. They have kids and they teach their kids what they believe, as any parent does, right? Is it is it okay for me to kill those kids?
00:19:53
Speaker
No, no. Yeah. Like you're responsible for your own actions. Yeah. 100%. Um, accountability doesn't go away because you feel righteous.
00:20:08
Speaker
Like, do you remember the Crusades? I wasn't around, but i heard I heard it. I heard about it, man. Jake doesn't like the nears. But it's literally one of those things where it's just, hey, the the powers that be, you're like, hey, fuck these people for this reason are causes righteous. I don't care how many of them die. but It's the us versus them. Exactly. OK, you've now just dehumanized a group of people and you've now justified killing them.
00:20:37
Speaker
yeah yeah it's it's like
00:20:44
Speaker
I don't know. it's It's such a slippery slope, it feels like. But I ah like i understand, not to both sides of the issue, but like this terrible thing that happened to Israel right with the people that were captured and all the people that were killed with pretty much like an invasion, essentially. um Or they just went in, killed a bunch of people, grabbed people, and then left. And like I get that. That's absolutely miserable. um And there has to be a response. like,
00:21:12
Speaker
It seems like that response shouldn't be like unilateral extermination of everyone in this region. you know like that seems That seems too much. I don't know why people would accept that or continue to say like, um while they attacked us first, right? And it's like, did did that nine year old girl attack you? Like that doesn't, I mean, it's did did she do any good at
Debating Political Ideologies
00:21:40
Speaker
it? Like that doesn't seem she does it seem like she'd be very proficient in attacking you.
00:21:47
Speaker
Ah shit, I was trying to make one reference to
00:21:52
Speaker
I forget the name of the movie. It's all gone. ah and Cut this part, me. got that yeah but ampa that's the the cut sound Cut this part. part. Philosopher train of thought. I gotta cut all this. That's fine.
00:22:11
Speaker
um
00:22:17
Speaker
Do you want me to jump in?
00:22:24
Speaker
ah just Yeah, it's just that thing where, I don't know, a lot of situations are messy. I get that. um There's a lot of deep history throughout the world and people have their own thoughts and predispositions for stuff for how to raise. Again, if anybody's pay attention to my rants, um I'm going to go back to education. ah We need better uniform education, both within our own country and in other countries because
00:23:03
Speaker
Like in the same way that like the south is taught about states rights versus what we're taught in the civil war as far as what happened historically and why. That's, that's a pretty stark difference in and of itself, let alone. Yeah. Like if you look at North Korea and it just being a full propaganda thing and that's the only information you're ever fed.
00:23:25
Speaker
Mm hmm. Guess what the fuck you're going to believe, right? Right. You when things are enforced so strictly and you're either part of our group or you're a spy or the enemy or something. Yeah, like. Yeah, not to get like too self-righteous with it, but to get a little bit self-righteous.
00:23:47
Speaker
um It doesn't really, like the strength of one's character isn't really shown at all in how you treat the people that like you and the people that agree with you and the people that like you agree with and you get along with and stuff like that. It's how do you treat the people that disagree with you and you don't get along with, or maybe they wish you harm or something like that. um And also as to just tack onto that,
00:24:19
Speaker
Understand in video games, we have this term called AOE. This is the area of effect. And it's really important that if you need to retaliate against somebody that means you harm.
00:24:35
Speaker
that you're not indiscriminately hurting a bunch of people who don't actually mean you harm, right? Or getting yourself into a situation where you're like, these are all part of the same group, or it's someone else's responsibility to protect them or whatever, right? Because this is where atrocities happen, right? It's just like, oh yeah, this nation is bad. Therefore, anything that we do to this nation is acceptable.
00:24:58
Speaker
um There's a lot of bad stuff that happened in history with around that justification guys, so. Yeah, in the same way, like when the the war with Russia and Ukraine broke out and I was like, fuck Russia. I'm like, not literally everybody. It's the military state that's saying to do this. There are a lot of citizens who were in protest to that, but just don't have. Like, what can they do? It's a it's a dictatorship. So and it's also like.
00:25:32
Speaker
for the people who weren't in protest, um it's hard to judge them fully because like we're used to free speech in the US, right? like We can talk about this stuff right now. And as far as I know, the FBI is not going to shut down our podcast. Although it'd be very funny if this was the last episode. We never were raby brag about. ah Did you guys still pocket? No, no, no. FBI shut it down. What? No, for real. Check it out. Here's the cease and desist.
00:26:00
Speaker
And what what's funny is like that's the cover story. is The FBI did it. It was actually the CIA because we knew it would be the CIA. MKUltra stuff. Anyways, but like other places in the country, free speech is not a given. Maybe it's not even a right.
00:26:17
Speaker
and Especially since it is you know a dictatorship. um Well, here's the fun thing with Russia is it's pretty much a compelled dictatorship is how I would describe it. Because Putin's approval rating is actually legitimately very high. There are a lot of people in Russia that like Putin.
00:26:36
Speaker
But can you hold them accountable for that if they don't have the full picture, right? If they have censored media, same for like China, right? um If they haven't had the opportunity to have alternatives and even disagreeing a little bit could land in Gulag imprisonment, like
00:27:03
Speaker
I don't have that decision to make, so I can't really judge them for it, right? but Yeah. and Also, i I do not consider myself to be a brave individual. I struggle enough talking to people who are walking by and waving and saying hello to me and my dog.
00:27:19
Speaker
like I'm not the type of reason. ah So I'm sure in that situation I would probably fare similarly um and to anybody who's like, no, that's impossible. It's it's that they should know better. and But maybe to a degree. But have you ever talked to a friend who was broken up with Have you ever heard their side of the story and you don't hear the other side of the story for years? Right. Exactly. Because you're on team. Oh, fuck that other person. Yeah. What they did was like really shitty and terrible. And then you were like, Oh, it was something else. And it was misinterpret. There's always going to be two sides to a story. I don't think anybody is ever fully the only one correct for the most part. Um,
00:28:08
Speaker
ah Yeah, again, it's, it's the information that you're fed, that you base your choices and other stuff off of. like Because it's worth mentioning for like the, the war in Ukraine. Um, the way that was built, that was sold to the Russian people was like.
00:28:26
Speaker
they want to rejoin us and the West is preventing this and we're not even going to fight. We're just going to march in and they'll literally just greet us with open arms. Like that was the propaganda for what was going on. In fact, they didn't want to call it an invasion. They didn't want to call it anything like that. Putin called it a special military action, which is like Okay, sure, buddy. At a point, I think people need to be responsible for not like do your research. I'm not not telling people to go like buy into conspiracy theories, but like
00:29:07
Speaker
Uh, suspicion at some point can be helpful, especially if you're primarily getting like state led media. Um, also the nice thing about the US is the state doesn't control the media, which is nice. Um, but we have, we have a wide spectrum of media options. Uh-huh.
00:29:30
Speaker
And there would be people who would disagree with that. They'd be like, really? I mean, like, but like the CNN and all of this stuff, like, and, you know, anything you see on AOL or MSN or all this stuff, it's all like, I don't know why I said AOL. That's not one of them. um ABC that is what I meant to say. um That's all like liberal media. It's controlled by the state and stuff like that. And you're like, OK, even if you accept that,
00:29:56
Speaker
all of the, like the alt right news locations, like they still exist.
Dialogue and Understanding
00:30:00
Speaker
You could just go to the website, right? Like that's what free speech is. Is it's just like, are you letting the crazy people talk to cause if so free speech probably actually exists. If it's only, if it's only the crazy people, then who's in power, right? but Um, yeah, it's.
00:30:24
Speaker
If the people who disagree with you are, are being heard as well, then it's probably a good sign that there's more free speech than not. Um, yeah, but yeah, it's just, I feel like everybody needs people in their life to fact check them or just check them in general. Yeah. Shoulder check.
00:30:48
Speaker
Yeah. Somebody should shove me. Physically shove me. Push me to the grass step up. but I want to grow literally just kill me. Murder me. Make me dead.
00:31:00
Speaker
It's that thing where like you don't want to be surrounded by yes men is the term. Yes. um Because it if all you hear is like, yeah, you're like, oh, I can't do anything wrong. And anything you go off of, you're just always under the assumption of you're correct because you're being backed up by these people. Yeah. And you're not getting an outside view. So it's good to have somebody who you're maybe not the best friends with or somebody who's good enough friends with you to be honest to your face and say, Hey, uh, that's kind of fucked up yeah what you did there with shitty. Or can we talk about something like that? Well, that wasn't cool. You should have handled it differently. Yeah.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely having people that'll check you or people that maybe don't fully agree with you because everyone likes to be reinforced, right? yeah like you You tend to stick around in groups that you already agree with because it feels really good when people agree with you.
00:31:59
Speaker
um But you got to watch out for that sometimes. Like, and I'll, I'll, I'll take some, I'll use an example that's like against our group more when there was the, I guess it was called the first assassination of attempt on ah Trump's life. Cause maybe the second one doesn't count the golf, the golf course thing. Not sure, but close enough that I think it counts. Anyways, the first one, um, before information really got out about like what actually happened.
00:32:28
Speaker
There were people who were literally expressing doubt that um he was shot at all. They're like, oh, he's maybe he's bleeding, but it's because he just fell on the ground. Like, this guy wouldn't have gotten shot, right? And you're like, I don't understand what we're trying to accomplish.
00:32:43
Speaker
by basically claiming that he wasn't before we have the facts, right? Cause it's almost like a preemptive downplay. Like he's such a loser. He wouldn't even get shot. and Right. You know what I'm saying? Like he's not important enough to actually get hit. He probably just scraped his face or something. Um, I'm like, this is kind of like do we need spin at this point? No. um So times I'll be just like reading comments on like YouTube or Reddit just passing through something and the number of times or like even Twitch where people just jump in with this hot take of
00:33:23
Speaker
Oh this um and then they just say stuff based off of things that they believe but are not factual or the person hasn't said at all and it's just I don't know, it's very easy to get, again, like a single piece of information, and then just go off of that. Yeah. um But you shouldn't go in fully confident of I know all things at all times, if you're not looking for that stuff. Right.
00:33:57
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, it's maybe it's cliche to say like, we should follow the scientific method a little bit more. But it's kind of just like, like the rules of magic, the gathering, where it's like,
00:34:10
Speaker
um This is the rule unless otherwise stated, right? That's the always one thing I taught you from magic that has kept with you all these years forever. Also, the other one I remember is like the rule that it's like you can always concede at any time. I'm like, thank goodness.
00:34:26
Speaker
um ah But you can't collude to concede. That's another thing we should talk about. But um the so talking about I have to recover this train of thought. ah Magic the gathering rules.
00:34:42
Speaker
Oh no, it was a good thought too. Well, it's gone. Goodbye. Goodbye thought. Jason coming hot 20 minutes later. aha What were we talking about immediately prior to to this? Do you remember? I crawled under the bus. I'm seeing if i'm like I just slide in. I have such short term memory. It's like when we play Smash, it's like, what's the previous matchup? I have no idea. We have no idea. I don't know. Yeah.
00:35:10
Speaker
um Anyways, it's very dangerous to focus on just one piece of and scientific method. That's what it was. Scientific method says like, we believe this. We have all the evidence for this. This makes sense, right? Like we have a strong reason to think that this is the way things are. But if evidence is introduced that points away from this, we will abandon course, right? We will reevaluate our hypothesis.
00:35:39
Speaker
We'll, some of these are really, really strong ideas. So like, we don't expect there will be evidence, but if there was, you know, we would change what we believe. yeah That's actually really important in life. Cause if you don't have the ability to be wrong or like hat eat a a piece of humble pie from now and again, like now and then, now and then.
00:36:03
Speaker
then you will just end up in a place where you are wrong about certain things and you aren't willing to change your position. And most people I don't think would say that they want to be that person, right?
00:36:21
Speaker
Like most people would want to say, if I was wrong, I would like to know that I was wrong, but it's hard to live that sometimes. Yeah.
00:36:33
Speaker
That's one of the thing that you just got to, again, I really do think an outside factor helps a lot. Cause I think if you are just by yourself or don't have that type of support group, it's so easy to get derailed and into like a weird fucking thing. Yeah. So I just have people to ground you. Um,
00:36:55
Speaker
I'm going to look, I pulled up the satanic temple tenants. Um, and this was like a loosely, I think this makes sense type of thing as far as a belief system or rules to live by type of type of deal. Um, but the fifth one is belief should conform to one's best scientific understanding of the world. One should take care never to distort scientific facts to ah fit one's belief. Nope. Maybe that was not the right one. Um,
00:37:24
Speaker
I mean, that relates to what we were talking about though. There was one that I thought was um more specific to like, Hey, if you're provided new information that like, like you find out later, Oh, I've been wrong about this. Okay. Now follow this thing that you believe to be true and right. Yeah. Like allow information to change your view of the world and don't be like, no, I'm right. You're wrong. Uh-huh. Yeah. Even if it hurts.
00:37:54
Speaker
And I absolutely will. And I will, I will admit, like I'm going to put myself in the camp of sometimes I don't like being wrong about things. And I don't like when I realized that moment that the, you're coming to the top of the roller coaster and you're about to have the fall and you're like,
00:38:13
Speaker
How long have I thought that this was the case? And then at the drop, right? um But yeah, that's just being human, honestly. I think I've talked about this before, how I like I like dumb jokes or joke jokes that are going to have effect like years down the line because like if nothing comes of it, fine. If somebody has a 10-year later realization, how juicy was that that we let it cook that long? right um Because people's brains are like sponges. If I tell you an innocuous piece of information,
00:38:51
Speaker
You're going to be like, OK. And it's not something where you need to like, oh, I firmly disagree with this. It's just a random piece of information. There's not anything to agree or disagree with. um So you just kind of hold on to that. And then maybe years later, it gets challenged as far as you should not swim after eating. And you're like, well, yeah, it's always been the way people like, oh, no, that's the thing that they said. So the kids wouldn't go in the pool and adults want to go in the pool. like but That that.
00:39:19
Speaker
ah Like Mountain Dew reduces your sperm count. Really? I relied on that. I relied on that. You guys lied to me. I was just pouring Mountain Dew everywhere at that point. Just to be safe. I guess. I'm just imagining a scene where it's like, do you have any, do you have any like contraceptives? You're like, sure, dude. Like rip off the cap of the Mountain Dew. Just baptize somebody in Mountain Dew.
00:39:51
Speaker
It changed from Mountain Dew to Mountain Dew Code Red. oh That means you're getting your sins out. Yeah. I know this falls more under old wives' tales. That's kind of what we're talking about now. But the one that got me was like, oh, if you crack your knuckles, then you'll get arthritis.
00:40:07
Speaker
Yep. I remember that. And then I just had like one of my cousins was just like, no, you won't. I was like, what? She was just like, no, that's that's absolutely made up. I was like, oh, and I just believe what she said. It's the thing like people's brains are like sponges. It's you're going to take that information and roll with it until somebody replaces it with something else. And you soak that up and you're like, well, hold on to this for as long as possible.
00:40:34
Speaker
um Cause yeah, it doesn't make sense from like a human perspective to be like, Oh, I don't believe this thing that I, you're talking about from personal experience. I'm going to take your fucking word for it. right Right. Um, but then again, like you can look at stuff like religion.
00:40:54
Speaker
Because again, we're talking about just knowing what you were fed. um I grew up Christian, so that was the world that I knew. That's how I looked at everything through that lens. but And it wasn't until I had repeated interactions with people outside that space who were kind of like, yeah, I think it's kind of And I'm like, oh my god. But I needed that that external influence to say, to kind of like pop the bubble and be like,
00:41:25
Speaker
There's other stuff out here. Exactly. um And I don't think I'm in a perfect space now. There are lots of things. I don't know. Um, things I'm still working on. Cause again, I'm human. I'm fallible. That's my excuse for everything,
Human Beliefs and Growth
00:41:40
Speaker
but it's. Willing to willingness to accept new information and then also trying to get some of that new information instead of just letting it come to you. Right. Because it's a lot easier to find that stuff if you're proactive. Oh yeah.
00:41:58
Speaker
And also like understand that there aren't that many things in life that are just like cut and dry, easy. Like sometimes there is nuance. Um, right. Like ah just going back to the serious topics for a second, like for Gaza, like I said,
00:42:22
Speaker
You kind of have to do something when people just cross your border and steal your citizens, right? Kidnap is the word for it, right? It's like there has to be a response. But the nature of the response is... very, very important. um And on the other hand, I'm not advocating for Hezbollah, by the way, but like this conflict is intergenerational, right? There are people who the entire their entire life has been, this person is your enemy. And it's kind of just not going to change, right? like
00:42:59
Speaker
There have been a lot of people, I think the the last one was like Jared Kushner, if I remember correctly, who have been tasked with solving the issues in the Middle East. It very, it's so, it's so kind of funny. That was the case. Just like, no, I got, I got my son in law and it's fine. It's fine. Don't worry about it. He can clear this stuff up. He's made business deals.
00:43:21
Speaker
um But like, If it's it's so much easier to say, I'm right, you're wrong, my point of view is correct, and your point of view is just tribal and pointless and throw it away. um But like things are oftentimes more complicated than that, and trying to simplify them down to the point that it's just black and white is dangerous in its own right.
00:43:51
Speaker
um Yeah, and it's really hard to do that. um Again, taking like Trumpers being like the most current example. I do not want to engage with anybody from MAGA, because For my opinion, I believe that they have drank so much of the Kool-Aid that they they're so head buried in the sand that they're not looking to hear an outside opinion and change their mind about something. It's just this is the one path forward that makes sense. And they're very fanatical about it. A lot of them. um
00:44:30
Speaker
Again, I think they're dumb. I'd like to point that out. ah so But um really the way to change somebody's mind about anything is talking to them. Because if you just say, my thing's right, instead of why do you believe what you believe?
00:44:49
Speaker
Right. I always find it interesting to just get people's thoughts about certain things because it'll probably be different from mine. Not everybody's me. Yeah. Sorry, guys. But we try, Dave. We all try. It it cuts to the cloning vat of days over in in like some other country. um But yeah, it's.
00:45:15
Speaker
a personal, uh, anecdote, maybe anxious on the right word here. My parents are older, um, conservative leaning, still Christian. They're still in a cult. So like, I don't expect a logical thought out of them at any point, right? Cause they have this belief system and they base everything through that. Um, and at a point it just gets tiring to reach out and it expands mental energy. I get that. now Um, I'm sure people have a lot of family members or friends who they're just a part of your life and you disagree on certain things and you just don't bring it up at this point because
00:46:01
Speaker
Conflict isn't fun. I'm very conflict averse. It's also doesn't accomplish much as the main issue for me. Right. A lot of times it is just you kind of circle some of those talking points and it's like, well, I believe this because of this ah versus, okay, well, I don't because I'm not a Christian type thing. Um,
00:46:29
Speaker
The thing that, if you're still going, keep going, going if you're still cooking. The um thing I was going to mention was um like one is an actual, an example is after the debates. um I like don't remember if it was in a paper or if it was just like a news report or something, but they were talking to people about like their impressions of the debates. And there was a woman who said that Before the debates, she was leaning Trump. She was planning on voting for Trump. And then after the debate, I said debates, but there was the one. After the debate, she was like, I don't really like what he said there. And this seems, you know, a little crazy to me, like a little bit weird or whatever. And I think I'm going to vote Kamala instead. And like, it's very funny because I've literally like, I consume this media sometimes, right? And a lot of it is obviously very liberal as we both are.
00:47:24
Speaker
um And there's this kind of sentiment that it's like, there's no one left that would ever cross party lines, like to vote for the other candidate, right? Cause like, it seems absurd that we would. So why would anyone else? And also we kind of have this caricature almost of the other side of like, they have to be dumb to still be believing it, right?
00:47:50
Speaker
But the reality is like not everyone engages in politics to the same extent. Some people legitimately may not have gotten as much of the picture as they did when they saw the debate the first time. So it is really important that you kind of like, you don't have to believe the best in people, but like giving people the room to show that they have good intent is pretty important in life to not like just become jaded. Cause in her case,
00:48:19
Speaker
Um, it would be really easy to be like, well, you're dumb forever having even thought of voting for him, right? If you're really politically on the opposite side, but from her perspective, it made sense and until it didn't. And then she switched sides and.
00:48:34
Speaker
My gosh, if people were willing to switch sides, as soon as it didn't make sense on all of the things we've talked about tonight and like to come together and talk and compromise and be like, what do we actually care about? Um, the world would be a better place. Right. So yeah. Uh, I mean, a hundred percent true.
00:48:55
Speaker
I actually have a personal experience of a friend who initially voted for Trump because they were hoping that they would change the political structure to not be so drain the swamp, basically. Right. Um, it's a good tagline. It was.
00:49:15
Speaker
The pause there being that it was, um, um but they decided not to after the fact, because after the first year, I'm like, Jesus Christ. No, definitely not. ahha so Um, so yeah, I don't want to make it seem like it's, it's never possible. Um,
00:49:36
Speaker
But again, if you really want to get to know somebody's intentions and thoughts and why their wires across the way that they are, you really have to fucking talk to them. Yeah. A hundred percent. um Because a person is rarely what they are on the outside. On the outside, I'm I'm adorable and huggable. On the inside, fierce.
Gaming Consoles Debate
00:50:00
Speaker
A porcupine. Two dogs.
00:50:04
Speaker
But no, it's it's very easy to have that firsthand impression, that first impression. And then, I mean, that's how you judge people, right? right That's how your brain categorizes things. You're like, oh, this person is driving a truck. They you have an American flag.
00:50:20
Speaker
that are probably a conservative person, listens to country, who likes Trump, and then you just make all these associates. You know their backstory, right? Yeah. You're giving them this backstory based off of a piece of information that you've correlated associates with something else. um I mean, maybe you do see a, a liberal type. I'm going to say a liberal Subaru that has like a pride flag on it. You're like, I get it. They're gay. Um, therefore also liberal. Therefore, also this therefore I like all this stuff and it could just be one of those, right? It could honestly just be one of those. This person has a truck because they grew up in the farm country and they need a truck to do stuff and it makes sense.
00:51:06
Speaker
Maybe they fucking like metal music. I don't know like and people are Vast people are dynamic. Exactly. And the log cabin Republicans exist, which in I heard about them in Texas, but they're probably in other occasions as well. But they're like openly gay Republicans. And it's I mean, I have my own opinions on how dangerous they're not dangerous, but like how you have to end up in that sort of situation.
00:51:37
Speaker
but like, I'm remembering a Rory Scoville joke about I need to send this to you after and George Santos, not straight actually, believe it or not. Um, and, uh, also a Republican. Um, so there's, there's, there's representation that now he also had, like, he is going to be convicted of fraud and he's no longer in Congress, but like still, um,
00:52:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's just important that there's probably still more in common with other people than what's different. and It's easy to lose sight of that when people are talking about politics all the time. There's a person up the street from me. They have a Trump sign. That's not enough information to dox me. Don't try. And ah they they they have a kid. That's still not enough information. And when I drive by, sometimes she literally does the the um ah truck driver horn motion thing. like And I'm like, I'm in a sedan. Still not enough. But I still honk the horn.
00:52:43
Speaker
And she like loses it. She just thinks it's the coolest thing ever. And I'm like, absolutely, I'm going to do this every time because this is awesome. And like that has nothing to do with politics. Right. um And yeah, stay on top. So little in life does, you know, so like, I don't know now that we've talked to you about politics for the whole episode, ah it's OK to focus on something else, too.
00:53:13
Speaker
Yeah. I don't think it should ever be somebody's be all and all. Don't ever try and assume a single identity. Don't ever try and put somebody in a single identity.
00:53:30
Speaker
And just make your best ever try and not to be a cunt through life. I think that's a good rule. That's a pretty good one. Cause everybody's going to fuck up, make mistakes, feel shitty about things that they've done, think they're right about things they're actually wrong in. Um, you're the other side of the fence for somebody else, right? Yeah. How do you want those people to treat you?
00:53:57
Speaker
to a lot of people, dude, we're killing babies and using their cells for stuff. And, uh, also trafficking them as well. Yeah, I forgot trafficking P Diddy, actually liberal. Um, Oh no, they, they can have them. That's a very specific, that's just, this won't age as well. We're like, that happened years ago. Well, Pete and PD to lose interest in it, I guess. then but Um, yeah.
00:54:24
Speaker
That's the revised golden golden rule. Treat others like you want to be treated. and Unless you're a masochist.
00:54:33
Speaker
I've been blowing random people. Sorry, maybe be too inappropriate of a joke towards the end of it. Um, but it's been fairly serious. That's your call. I had, I had a,
00:54:47
Speaker
an ending thing here, which was, cause we had talked a lot about politics. I mentioned like people are free to engage in something else. Are you buying a PlayStation Pro, Dave? It's $700. No.
00:55:02
Speaker
I haven't even opted to get a PS5, let alone the this PS5 Pro. like There hasn't been like a title thing where I'm like, I need this. I think that's the biggest thing. right like And they they're still making games that come out on the PlayStation 4.
00:55:20
Speaker
i think I think you should really just watch Dunkey's video and then be like, okay, I don't need to buy a PS5 Pro. If I can loosely spoil the the over synopsis for it, yeah ah basically he's comparing PS5 Pro graphics with PS5 graphics. And I'm going to put that in air quotes, because he takes something from PS5 initially, and then goes like he he keeps going back generations of consoles, and then even different things that aren't even Sony, um to be like, oh, it's PS5. Oh, it's so bad. Look at this. It's terrible. Because yeah, I do think that a PS5 Pro, it's definitely going to be better than a PS5. But I feel like it's going to be pretty marginal
00:56:07
Speaker
of a jump. um No disc drop. I think he's kind of just teasing with that a bit. um Because they obviously want to say it's like the next best thing. You have to be on the latest and greatest. And it it performs way better than a PS5, just trying to get you to buy the next thing. Yeah.
00:56:28
Speaker
um But it's a $700 piece piece of hardware. And if you want to disk drive, I think it was over 100 bucks as an accessory to this thing. That's wild. And it's like, I don't know about that one, chief, like, because if you take like the average person who let's say they're like middle class or like lower cut, like they are working a 40 hour, nine to five hourly type thing. You don't have a ton of money to fucking throw around. Yeah. Typically to down payment on a five beam burrito.
00:57:00
Speaker
yeah andflation's crazy right
00:57:05
Speaker
But yeah, it is a, anything that's like so several hundred, like over the 500 mark is like, that's, I'm fixing my car for stuff for a year, you know? Let's be getting a new set of tires. I don't want to get a single console. Cause I also need to buy games and controllers and other things for it. And it's a lot of money towards something that in my head I'm categorizing as, I'm not going to use it that frequently. Right.
00:57:33
Speaker
So it doesn't feel like a good investment. Mm hmm. I agree. All right. It's got that Nintendo Switch 2. That was the other one. So what would it take for you to get a Smash Bros? That's basically what I was going to follow up with. New Smash Bros. See, that's the thing, though, like that's.
00:57:59
Speaker
one of the driving forces of why I got ah the original Switch is because I enjoyed playing Smash because you bring it over and I'd like my eyes would light up like Christmas because it's just I've always enjoyed that as a series and it's is just a fun thing to do with friends and I know I'm going to spend a lot of time in it.
00:58:18
Speaker
And we have, dear God, so much time. So if they make a newer version of that, I would want to explore into that. Hopefully they have some backwards compatibility. Maybe check out some other games here or there.
00:58:33
Speaker
um But yeah, that definitely has more of my interest than anything Sony right now. They do have also the potential. So I would say for the Switch 2, for me to be interested in it, backwards compatibility first. um So I can just like throw out the old Switch. yeah Get it out of here.
00:58:51
Speaker
um And then better performance, hopefully, right? Like, cause I think the switch natively, if you'd like to take it off the dock, it's like 720p or maybe it's 720p all the time. I can't remember, but like, I would like more pee. Yeah. The more pee, honestly. Um, again, back to Diddy. Um, but no, that was our Kelly. There we go. Um, but, uh, performance would actually be really nice because the later Zeldas.
00:59:20
Speaker
um They start to chug at certain times when there's a lot going on. And it's like, yeah, it's because the Nintendo Switch is technically a potato. But that would be good. They have more distance to make up, right? Like they're like, oh, ma Monster Hunter is actually playable now. Or like the framerate is better or something. And the holy grail would be...
00:59:43
Speaker
um You can play smash ultimate on it and we fix the network and now there's actual networking like i would that would be theing that might be my ah No more Wi-Fi teleportation um
Closing Thoughts on Open-mindedness
01:00:00
Speaker
And the last one this is the one I'm less proud of but Actually, I'm enjoying the new Zelda's and I would probably buy it if they put a new Zelda on it But it would still need to like have backwards compatible. I like how you're like, I'm enjoying the new Zelda's. Like that thing that everybody fucking loved? OK. I mean, not everybody. Special guest Ian. He doesn't like the new Zelda's.
01:00:23
Speaker
I mean, he's one of a smaller group of people. I believe it was like 8 billion people on the planet now. So yeah, that's a pretty stacked against them. I imagine Ian holding off 8 million people. ah I hear his strained voice. Just the doom guy pose on a ah sea of bodies. Yeah. Very funny. I love that Photoshop.
01:00:50
Speaker
Somebody get on that please. I know you don't know what Ian looks like, but uh guess you can guess yeah Whatever you just visualize that's mostly correct slightly difference wrong hair color, but yeah mostly right um That's it, this is the most serious episode we've ever done And if you guys like that, you tell us like we're just serious now. We're only serious. We talk about upcoming consoles and geopolitical conflicts around the world and politics.
01:01:24
Speaker
We are not going to have a listener. face Next week will be a financials for the, the young adult. That's good. That's good. Um, invest TLDR, but like not in stupid stuff, smart stuff. Wait, which president was here? What was that? Which president was he TLDR? Invest is what I said.
01:01:49
Speaker
This isn't gonna land. I have no idea what bit you're making, Dave. You said TLDR, which sounds like FDR or something else. So I said which president is here. Yeah. He's the, he's the teddy bear. Takes more than that to kill a bull moose. But if you guys have ideas for new episodes, it doesn't even matter if it's serious. Now it's all on the table. Send them in, soapstonepodcast at gmail dot.com.
01:02:12
Speaker
Or you could also approach the table in the communal social networking space known as Facebook at facebook dot.com slash soapstone podcast. And as always, we'll see you in the next one.
01:02:39
Speaker
Trust in me.