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00:00:01
Jack Hammering My Brain
51 Plays1 year ago
An intro from Lance's wife followed by a conversation about how the modern world is jack hammering our brains with bad stuff.
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Transcript
Criticism of Podcast Approach
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm Lance's wife and I think this podcast is a piece of shit because these guys gloss over things that are really important and they could be talking about it in very sophisticated ways because they're super smart, but they gloss over it in pursuit of dumb jokes at times.
00:00:27
Speaker
old school friends from nine to four. Start a podcast, could they feel involved? 29 listeners just ain't enough. Gonna go big if they
00:01:14
Speaker
So I was listening to your homeboy, Joey Rogan.
Joe Rogan and Political Views
00:01:17
Speaker
He had Elon on, man. He was sucking. He was glazing on Elon, sucking on them balls, licking them balls. Like, oh my God. So glad you fucking bought Twitter. He says that probably six times a week. Does he? I don't listen much. That our freedom of speech was under attack until Rogan bought, or until Moss bought Twitter. He's gone, he's gone real hard. Even for people that are like,
00:01:44
Speaker
I think you were just talking about, he always has to mention that he used to be on the left and vote left. He's gone pretty hard into the point where he's he's constantly just like listing Trump, like things that people have said against Trump and defending them, which is, you know he didn't say that. Obama said this about Trump, and that's not true. This isn't true. He's just like debunking truths of what he thinks are lies.
00:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a lot of that. Yeah, my hot take is like he thinks he's a balanced source of information and he's fighting for the First Amendment and he's falling into the same trap, but on purpose because there's so much more money to be made now in picking a side.
Media Polarization and Centrist Gap
00:02:25
Speaker
I have there's, have you seen a single centrist podcast that Trends or some centrist person on youtube that's like lighten it up yeah only at gay dot.com Exactly. It's like something that that people would criticize in the old school way a word that we used to overuse but be like, oh, what you you don't have a hot you don't have a strong take either way pussy.
00:02:50
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure and he does this about so many things and so I think it just His audience is clearly more right and he he's appealing to it. I don't know how it happened, but it is quite interesting It's still entertainment, but like it's weird, but it gets to my point Today why we're having this convo is because I'm a piece of shit because my brain is changing in the modern world.
Tech's Impact on Behavior
00:03:18
Speaker
And to some extent, I blame people like Rogan, but I blame social media, technology, a number of things. That's that's what I got for you, bro. You ready to converse? You don't blame any of that on... what I'm sure you blame a little bit. what What percentage of this shifting brain do you blame on your old ass?
00:03:39
Speaker
in a negative way, and then in a positive way, you're all that's being like life's experiences and kind of being able to call bullshit. Well, I was listening to these guys talking, Elon's smart, I mean, he's brilliant, clearly. And he was talking about, I get leery of people who aren't actively engaged on social media, they're not keeping up with the world. And they have ah theories on how to essentially come to the truth via, I don't know what they call it. Is it crib notes or something? There's some technology that allows you to see truth in real time or debates about the truth in real time. I don't think that's- Is it like a fact checker or something like that? Yeah, there's something. I gotta look it up. I should have looked it up before the stupid podcast, but since it's a piece of shit, who cares? Yeah, so he's got some viewpoints on that and I just like, what?
00:04:27
Speaker
And then I have like the opposite viewpoint of um go out and look into your into your world and connect with some people locally. And I think you'll find a better version of reality there. But these these folks who are out of nowhere strongly, like very rigidly picking a side, very rigidly, it both left and right, it's ah so it's just interesting and concerning.
Hypocrisy in Media Figures
00:04:52
Speaker
It just feels like a vendetta more like vengeance, you know, like both those guys feel like I know Rogan was upset about the way CNN portrayed him as an anti-vaxxer. I'm not clear on what, what the world's done to piss off Elon Musk. Well, Biden didn't invite him to a EV summit, a government EV summit that really got under him. So it's yeah, it's coming coming off on um I got a lot of money and I can fight back. So I'm gonna Rogan, I don't know, man. I mean, they do make great points about the, the bad shit left that you and I have made. They make those, but they just take, they take some of it so far. So, you know, Rogan's hawking all sorts of supplements. And then he's talking about big, big pharma going, going nuts on people and not, not telling the truth or being profit motivated. Well, no shit.
00:05:44
Speaker
That's what I think you're doing. That's what I think you're doing, bro, with your ah newly found right-winged conspiracy nonsense. you're you're you're close to You're getting close to Tucker Carlson, buddy. So we'll see what happens there. At least Tucker's not claiming to be anything, but- A psycho? Right, yeah.
00:06:07
Speaker
I don't know, dude. If you listen to it in a bubble, it's like, I mean, some of it, it resonates with me, because i'm because i'm you know I don't have quite a formulated piece of shit statement for this one. But I know that as I get older, I'm skeptical of a lot of stuff now, like everything. And and that's good, ah because you know because we are being fed a lot of bullshit. But it's also like kind of a de debilitating in a way, because then you can kind of lock yourself up. You stick to your guns.
00:06:36
Speaker
can't can't do social media, can't do this, can't do that, can't get another job that's in the system because the system is a fucking lie. And so um I just become very
Rapid Information and Brain Changes
00:06:46
Speaker
skeptical. And that might be because I listen to people like them, but I'm not even there to listen to the right wing message. I just, I find it entertaining, but I'm getting the message because of that. And I find the other side that people that are that intense, like unbearable usually.
00:07:01
Speaker
Well, because then you get to the the patriarchy is ruining my life and and that kind of language that's even more hard to to is even more difficult to digest. Yes. it's So but my point is this whole episode is like, I think my brain is changing in this modern world. I actually think it's changing as much as I want to resist these sources of information. ah You see the speed at which you get fearful, the speed at which you want to take action, the impulsivity.
00:07:30
Speaker
ah Just even my behavior with my own phone and device and how I have to my routine with it is sad But I'm more interested in the emotion as your fear higher with a lot of this It's like more of an apathetic distrust of like yeah, this is all all ridiculous Like I don't I don't have a fear. I have like a fear of nothing now. I have anything that's related to fear I distrust But are you just jumping, yeah, but are you just jumping into the counter
Misinformation and Distrust
00:07:59
Speaker
arguments? Cause they're, it's like you're riding the skepticism wave without any thought and that like you just fear nobody's telling you the truth. So nothing's true except for the, it feels like people like you, people like you, Matt, are riding the skepticism wave because, you know, they need a simple answer that like nothing is true. You're lying to me about everything. I think if, you you know, you mentioned that you you might bounce in a few years,
00:08:26
Speaker
I think if you get out of that mess for a little while, then you really your apathy will actually be more like, yeah, none of that is like remotely important, what's going on in the US s and back and forth. And and your apathy, well it's not fear that I have. It's not this horrible distress. like I'm walking around going, and that's what they want you to think, or or some foreshit like that. I'm just like, I would rather be doing anything but this nonsense.
00:08:54
Speaker
The only thing that pulls me back to any of this, if I'm being true to like my life arc and everything, is the comedy aspect of it and and all of that. I found it fascinating when that comedian made it made a ah some, some controversy remarks at the Republican National Convention. I even was just listening. It was actually on Rogan. Theo Baum was there. And I thought it was funniest fucking thing I ever heard is the night of the election, that guy Tony Hinchcliffe was, was obviously freaked out because if Trump lost, he was going to get the blame. It was like he fucked up the whole thing with his like jokes about Puerto Rico and Theo Baum said something like, yeah, who's on an island now, huh?
00:09:32
Speaker
But he was busting his balls in the green room. And I thought that was fucking so great, because that is stand up. And those are the personalities that are in it, like just relentless fucking ball busting at all costs. and and the And the joke is the most important thing. So why would you put that motherfucker in a 11 a.m. ah you know show in a crazy fest, a lunatic? Like, who goes to the Republican National Convention? Full blown lunatics, right?
00:09:59
Speaker
Apparently 30% of the audience was Jewish, so I guess a lot of Jews. Yeah, it's crazy, dude.
Exaggerated Claims and Skepticism
00:10:03
Speaker
There weren't all sorts of minorities there and shit. You're like, what is going on? What a crazy thing. So I think it's fucking great. And a Puerto Rican joke was funny. So I don't care about that. I don't care about Rogan's conspiracies or how it affects the U. I hear Rogan talking about how Aurora, Colorado is like a Venezuelan war zone. And I'm like, hey, I was just there a few months ago. All it is is a bunch of fucking big box stores and ah and a Applebee's. are So I just like, dis I kind of distrust all that crap. So you don't believe in anything and you just look for the jokes. Well, I've i mentioned before on the show, I look for well how, i all I need to do is figure out what to do with my two kids yeah and what the message I want to send them.
00:10:46
Speaker
It's not what Joe Rogan or fucking Elon Musk or Trump or, or some ah person that's advocating a hormone therapy at five years old. Like all those people have a right to say whatever they want, but I'm going to tell Luca and Sophia X out their names, dude. So they don't get famous and get fucked. I'm going to tell Luca and Sophia how, what I feel about the world and they can receive the message, but that's all, that's my own responsibility. So.
00:11:12
Speaker
Okay. Wow. Sure can. Any responsibility to be aware of the truth in the world. Okay, bro. ah But this stuff irritates you though. And that's what I'm saying. If you did step out, like if you went on a world trip in two years, you come back and it's like, why um why would I listen to these idiots? why Why would this irritate me? You know, I'm not saying I'm above it. Some of the shit pisses me off, but it irritates you when you hear this conspiracy theories that move the needle so far that someone like Trump can get reelected, right?
00:11:39
Speaker
Yeah, I get worried when both sides think that the other side is so organized in their demonic intentions to destroy everybody else. And it's it's just a classic a conspiracy approach that I find to be tiring.
00:11:56
Speaker
and silly, and yet what gets my fear going is more and more people seem to be latching onto this type of thinking. And then I start to really envision a dystopian world. And so I think that's a product though. That doesn't exist to this level without... this modern world where tech is ubiquitous. And i I'm not going to pick on the tech or any version of it. I'm just saying um my fear response is higher because of this environment.
Media Influence on Body Image
00:12:22
Speaker
Yours ah isn't because you're a joke boy, which that's fine. How about like, are you influenced by these things that you see? Like, for example, I'd say Joe Rogan right winged world, like everybody's jacked.
00:12:35
Speaker
You know, like every everybody's hitting the the T, looking buff. ah I don't know if they're tanning, but they have good skin and they have a tight goatee and whatever. They're just jacked. Is that influence you? Do you like look at your own body and go, eh? Ah, maybe a little bit. Like just the point like, oh shit, do I need to, do I need to take testosterone therapy so I can lay pipe till I'm fucking 65?
00:13:02
Speaker
Maybe. But it's like, am I really like supposed to to destroy Tram, though? I'm like 75 years old. Maybe I am.
00:13:17
Speaker
But there are true. like I mean, all right. I think you think that RFK is crazy. I don't. But these are all like personal experiences. like You see people on 15 medications. there're why They're super unhealthy, and it leads to physical health and mental health. And it's just clear that like they're not they're not getting a lot of help from these medications. and that's like But it's it's so obvious to me. right Absolutely, and the pharmaceutical industry is to blame and the incentives are fucked up. We can agree on that. But do you think the person in the lab at Pfizer was like, ha ha, I'm gonna keep this person on the edge for the rest of their life, the edge of a horrible fucking existence, but not kill them and not cure them. Do you think that was their goal?
00:14:00
Speaker
No, absolutely not. They're not doing that at all. they're They're trying to solve a problem. And what we find in science is that it's it's not perfect. And the only way to solve the problem is to go to old-fashioned, modest, healthy living a lot of times.
00:14:15
Speaker
No, no, actually, what we what we fail to see when we go down these conspiracy paths, and it's easy, it's more fun to go down them. Let's like all pharmaceuticals are the fucking killing people and you see these people on 15 drugs. But yet you you go back to some of the drugs that transformed the health of millions and millions of people, because they gave them an option to survive. Yeah, do they have some downsides in an ideal world would be better that they're not on them.
00:14:41
Speaker
ah high blood pressure medications, for example. ah Yeah, it'd be better. Drugs like Warfarin. So, but they exist because science went after a treatment and they went after it hard, Matt, long and hard, sort of like you destroying trim. They worked hard at it and it's successful. Should they get paid for it? They'll say that too, though. Even on that show, they will say that. Okay, so you agree with their issues there, which I would agree with too. I just think you have to take each thing one by one. But you do feel insecure. You feel insecure about your body.
00:15:17
Speaker
Oh, no. I don't know. But insecure, like, I mean, I feel like I need to take care of it. I don't know if that's insecurity or truth. Like, I feel like I shouldn't just let it go. And I and I feel better when I'm, I just feel a little better when I'm taking care of myself.
00:15:34
Speaker
Well, how about all this stuff? Are you thinking about like, oh, there's different fads and ways to eat? are you Are you thinking about like, I gotta go a little more paleo, dude? I gotta get a little more protein? Are you thinking I gotta go a little more natural? Like what's in your mind there based on the things you've read and seen?
00:15:53
Speaker
All right, so if you if I look at the conspiracy theory, which actually if we're using Joe as as our basis for the show We don't have to but you can go on Netflix and find a handful of of Documentaries that have you watching those that are really against any sort of meat or dairy products that that we weren't meant to eat them eggs poultry Yeah, hi cholesterol. Hi. Yeah, and so the Plant-based diets is is a trend maybe be a fad the plant-based is a fat I think just like because it's even has a new name like we used to call it vegetarian or something like that, but I
00:16:29
Speaker
whole Whole food, plant-based diet, no processed foods, less meat. I'm interested in that because I don't wanna have heart problems and and all that kind of stuff. And so it worries me like, what if they're right? What if they're not right? But then the other side is like paleo people are like, this is we're fucking carnivores. We need protein, meat, wool animal protein. yeah I think about that stuff, I guess. I am affected by it. But I also know like, you make fun of me, you make fun of me, bust my balls about going to the fruit stand.
00:16:57
Speaker
But I know that I generally feel good if I keep it kind of light and and natural, which is a pussy thing to say, but but you know what I mean? You're not going hog wild. that i that's That's kind of a pun, but you're not freaking out about...
00:17:13
Speaker
I got to eat more meat because the whole environmental issues with eating meat is bullshit. Don't have to do don't have to worry about it any anymore, dude, because Elon and Joe said that it's it has no effect on the environment, cattle industry, dude. Right.
00:17:27
Speaker
But they go, they go crazy to where like, yeah, it's almost like they will. I know dude, I know you are. ah They go crazy to, I don't know if it's a way to entertain, but it's almost like now they want a bad mouth spinach in their quest to like talk up meat. It's like, no, fuck spinach, bro. Fuck spinach. You got to eat bison. You got to eat bison. Have you had bison jerky?
Social Media's Role in Distrust
00:17:50
Speaker
And then fucking 10 minutes later is an advertisement for like meat sticks, paleo meat sticks on the Rogan show. So it's like,
00:17:57
Speaker
it's It's endless hypocrisy, no matter who you are. I think people are affected. I think anxiety and depression is a mess because it's like every message is so fucking strong. and don't I'm not a always able to do this, but I'm just trying to base everything on like personal experience. So my brain has changed. I'm trying to base it on that. you know i don't like I don't like Joe's and even Trump's take on immigration because I've met a lot of illegal aliens in Colorado that were great people, hardworking people, and had no intention of doing anything but meant but working. um I don't know how to make the connection to technology that you're making. Well, here's a great example because we talked about this. you You're invested in some crypto. I don't think you come to that without it being blasted at you over social media and other. What's the acronym? Oh, the acronym? FOMO. Fear Missing Out. Yeah, yeah.
00:18:49
Speaker
Yeah, so you you you were influenced by that. And that's like a, you know, that's an impulsivity that I think technology is good at feeding. I personally don't understand crypto. I'm not invested in it. But I'm not going to get on here and talk to people about why I think it's stupid. But you invested in it. So like, how why did you do it? It was 100% FOMO fear missing out. I actually think since that done that transaction, not we're not talking about a lot of money here, folks. So don't get all excited. But I think I've probably changed since that. Like I have a general, I've i've faded more and and I think this might be because of social media, just how I see how people get wrapped up in it. like It's like the apathy and sort of a disappointment and mankind of what it's become is is kind of my current state of mind. and digit did you know Social media and all that stuff has probably led to that.
00:19:40
Speaker
But maybe if I engaged in more, I would see the positives in it and see the positives of mankind. like i I feel like in maybe you a little bit too, were're so we're pretty focused on how shitty it is and and how it's made people pieces of shit and shit and we're skeptical. And that's our only the only way we can deal with it.
00:19:59
Speaker
Yeah, I can't get around it. I truly think it has made people bigger pieces of shit. I don't have a counter argument for it. I don't have a counter. There are tools that are, that I appreciate and I've come to rely on, you know, maps, for example, but it's sad. It's sad. We're at a concert and you're fucking looking at the concert through your phone. Cause some, for some reason you got to film that shit. And I don't want to bash. We've done it before, but I don't want to bash.
00:20:26
Speaker
all the people that live life through their phone and through their device, because I have my own issues with it. This isn't fucking new. it's It's not been good for humanity. And I can feel, ah because you can't escape it, my own brain changing, particularly around this impulsivity and addiction. But you youre like how did it make you a BOS?
00:20:48
Speaker
Yeah, so for example, if you were on your phone just like sifting through short posts and just trying to digest information, that's a lot different than if you're reading a long form article or listening to a long form podcast. More and more people are just hitting the short form and that can have some long-term effects to your brain. that This is the one that I try to resist more than anything, but I do find I'm susceptible to it. I will not go to the bathroom anymore without the phone. Number two,
00:21:16
Speaker
Gotta have the phone. And then I find them, I'm just sitting on there, filling, the actual act in there is probably a minute, and then I'm filling 20, 30, been known to be in there 40 minutes. just Because of the phone or just because you don't wanna go back out and face reality? Yeah, because of the phone. No, my reality's good. But it's just just like a habit. It's a sad habit. So something's going on. So what's the example of what might what might catch catch your eye and since you're pretty, pretty deeply against it. What's an example of something that will catch you and keep you scrolling or reading? or Big butts. Like there's a chick with a but a giant round butt and a tight waist. Like I can roll into that for five solid minutes. Just like it's like then it's just feeding you more butts and you're just like, damn, god, damn. That's where you get like, that would just be like, where would you find that?
00:22:16
Speaker
It would start with like looking up women's basketball and then you see somebody with a nice butt and then you click on it and then the images below it subtly start to show more butts and then you get to ah like somebody who's in spandex with a big round one and then you click that and then you're just in the. and But you think it's being pumped like some, the algorithm is reading your move and then getting you more or you're like, yeah I'm not, or did you search like, oh, that's a good looking girl. And then you search her and then it,
00:22:46
Speaker
it's help No, I don't know. Sometimes I'll do that. I think it's just trying to give you more of what you want, we all trying to keep you engaged. I mean, that's all known. No, I mean, that's ah that's an example of stuff I've gotten sucked into. Well, I applaud you for going public with that, dude, and being candid. Latin booty queens.
00:23:06
Speaker
yeah Yes. Yes. Hell yeah. I fucking get on Yahoo Finance every day. Every day, multiple times a day, they have the worst articles, the most surface level BS. s with But the headlines always bait you too, right? like It's total bait, clip bait bullshit. And yet I'm there. I know it's bullshit. There are times when I go back in there and I go, fuck, what are you doing? This all sucks.
00:23:32
Speaker
And yet there I find myself again and then I click on an article and i am so and I'm skimming them all. I'm not even reading them. i so I guess I want the dopamine hit.
Addictive Nature of Digital Media
00:23:41
Speaker
I want the meth. I want the function. Do you feel like? I want the fire. Subconsciously or consciously? I want the boner. I do the same thing. I look at ya the Yahoo Finance a lot even though I have a distrust for the markets or whatever. like they've been captured. ah Do you feel like we're doing the same thing as a social media person, the Instagram person, TikTok, but we just, we where we think it's more righteous because of it's this financial thing and you can you can frame it as I'm protecting my family and my future. Gotta play the game, I don't want to, but I'm playing the game because I gotta protect my family, right? Oh yeah, it's no different to me than porn. Well, what?
00:24:24
Speaker
What announcers are you watching, dude? Yahoo Finance is porn. that you Walk me through that. It's no different than porn. ah There's an addiction to going and checking the stock market and going and checking these economic stories. And it's an addiction, just like somebody who would get it stimulated by videos of people banging Latin ass, banging around Latin ass.
00:24:53
Speaker
Yeah, it's the same dude. It's the same. I mean, there's a scale there potentially A lot of people actually I think go to the yahoo finance a lot and they're sitting in their office looking at it, you know, it's like Get me the fuck out of here Let's get shibuiwu. I need you to move over one decimal so I can buy a fucking maserati Uh, whatever whatever that thing uh, so social media porn financial stuff, like, you know, like, I mean, so that we're talking about, we look at the financial sites, but I think some people justify it and be like, well, I'm, I'm not, I'm not one of those Instagram addicts. I'm just looking at, I love mountain biking and I just look at that all day. And that's my feed. I'm not looking at Instagram slots. I don't care about other people, dude. I'm i'm trying to figure out what your problem is.
00:25:41
Speaker
we get How do we know I have a problem? ah You have to have some problem. I mean, because you're living in modern society. That's the whole thesis of the show. I have a ton of problems, but they're like real problems. I don't know if the, if my problems is conspiracy three. I got, um I have real, real problems. I'm like, I have a, okay you know, I have like tangible products.
00:26:03
Speaker
Yeah, but that doesn't preclude you from having these brain malfunctions because of modern society either. I think you got some issues. Let's break down a problem. I'm separated. I got separated and I'm trying to work through that and come out with a good solution for my kids and my wife and myself. Do you feel like this modern digital media could get in the way of any sort of progress on that?
00:26:30
Speaker
Well, you are bending over backwards anytime she hits you on WhatsApp. I mean- Are you including- You're just literally bending over backwards. You're including communicate like those things as part of the problem.
00:26:43
Speaker
What would it mean for you to put her on hold and say, no, I'm engaged in the podcast with Lance, something that transcends all entertainment. I've got to really focus on this and work on it. I do all the time, but I'll say, is it important I'm recording? Okay. But I answer, you're right in the way that I answer it, it takes up some time. i take Not just with with her, with anything. like I think if you look at that, you could you could break it down to my relationship but you call bending over backwards, but the issue that overriding issue there is like gotta to respond gotta gotta respond instantly and we went whatever how long mankind's been on earth without ever responding to anything but it's sourced from something right is it sourced from a fear of an issue with the kids or what's it or my wife and I talked about this specifically she keeps the phone on all night if the kids are gone or or my daughter's
00:27:35
Speaker
living outside the house now, but my son, he's gone. She keeps it on. And I'm always like, well, what is it you going to do in the middle of the night? Like, what's the fear? Do you, do you, do you think your kid is like on their death bed and they have like three last words to say to you and that's like the only thing you'll have left? Or do you think that you're going to jump in the car and race to pull them out of a car after a car. I'm just thinking of scenarios. like I'm like, dad, please answer. That was their last 30 words, 10 times. Dad, please answer. Dad, please answer. Yeah, I butt i think there was, and there was so like in in the relationship, there was there was some issues there with responding. and From you? You didn't respond fast enough?
00:28:22
Speaker
I just remember there was a lot of like, what are you doing? Where are you? When are you coming back? I mean, even like a surf trip like this with my kid would be like like on a day yesterday because i cause I had to take my other son somewhere. And it was like, are you going to be back? And like not everyone down here would would try to do. like Culturally, you wouldn't try to do multiple things in a day like that. like i wouldn't You wouldn't go take one kid surfing, then come back and try to take your other kid somewhere.
00:28:49
Speaker
Cause cause you might not make it back, so you shouldn't go. And so then there's like a stress in my head because I was always under that sort of thing. I like, so it's like, I'm going to answer. I don't know. I think there's probably something there like that. You know, uh, some conditioning, the old ball and chip, the ball and some sort of on undesired guilt, ah like that. I'm.
00:29:11
Speaker
that I need to get rid of. I've gotten there. Now I'm just like, I really don't care. I'm fucking going. I'm taking care. What do you want, reprieve? And everything's going to be fine. Would it be nice to have reprieve from that, and maybe you didn't have this thing? And it's like you made a phone call in the morning from the landline and said, hey, we're out. And if she didn't. Is the phone the issue, though, or the way we handle it? Because we could all easily just put the fucking thing down, right? But everyone's like, I wish I could just be off my phone for a while. It's like, you could.
00:29:40
Speaker
you know You hear a lot of people like, I'm kind of tired of the negative vibe I get from social media. I wish I could just stop. Well, there's some utility in this that we've all gotten used to, right? You you have gotten used to being able to, your your kids, for example, text you if they need money. That's basically what I get. And so I can shoot them money electronically really quick. and There's that piece. But there's also this piece where you can track your kids.
00:30:05
Speaker
And when I have an anxious moment, and I don't have it on because I've tried to resist it, but my wife kept on the tracking app 360. That's what it's called. And I'll say, Oh, I just have like this, you know, you have the weird premonitions that something isn't right or, and I'll have her check that.
00:30:22
Speaker
have Have you any of your intuitions or whatever, premonitions? like Have you ever used your wife's tracking device and checked it and been like, oh, I was right. They need my help. And because of this new technology, I was able to solve the problem. Probably not, right? Not because they needed help, but because I was probably wanting to catch them in the act of doing something normal for their age.
00:30:46
Speaker
ah just because I had my own fear. Could have been anything. Like he used to ride the scooter across town to these other kids' neighborhoods. And, you know, I was always sort of like, ah, cars don't look out for those things. And one time he did, he got got hit by a turning car. So, gotcha. But I had no idea about that until six hours later. He's like, duh, I got hit by a car. My scooter's all effed up.
00:31:13
Speaker
He was fine. And I was like, obviously like the worst fear. This was like seventh and eighth grade. Uh, so no, you're not going to know. And then, you know, so what you're catching them in the act, like, you know, you see that, uh, they're still at the party. They said they were going to leave at midnight. What are you going to do?
00:31:32
Speaker
Just be mad at them. It's just like a way to catch them and then tell them they're assholes for for not being perfect kids. So it's not a useful thing. I think it's it's it's almost like sinister. It makes parenting really feel sucky because we know too much. Where'd you go? I see you're still there. It's time to leave. I think a lot of people do. I think that's kind of my wife's intuition is to be like, you said,
00:31:57
Speaker
Now we're going to have to have a talk. She does it very balanced and you know, she's not hysterical or anything, but it's sort of like, I have these checks and balances on you that you didn't know just like the grades for school now where it's instantaneous. You could kind of catch up on the grades at any minute, any missing assignments. I think it's made parenting,
00:32:16
Speaker
more difficult. I'm not going to say that people aren't willing to have kids because of some of this, but I would imagine it factors into the equation a little bit of like, really? I got to be on point for every single thing all the time.
00:32:29
Speaker
And yeah I don't think it helps, man. I think it's made it definitely hard for me. And that's all tech. That's all tech. It's the modern world. I won't call, I won't say tech. It's a modern world. I think it, it's marketed, all this stuff is marketed as progress, but okay. I can get, I can use WhatsApp or some other, like I can get ahold of somebody whenever I want. I can, I can track where my kid is whenever I want.
00:32:54
Speaker
And I don't know. And i'm the the WhatsApp stuff is is like the one thing I actually use just because it's the way I communicate with people. And I have gotten the habit of of having of responding to everyone quickly. up and And I feel weird if I haven't responded. I don't know what that is.
00:33:09
Speaker
That's like a new, a modern anxiety, right? Oh, it's a message.
Tech-Induced Anxiety in Parenting
00:33:13
Speaker
Gotta respond, which we never had that, and it didn't really matter. I don't know. People would go, maybe it did matter if you know where your kid was in the 80s, because they were fucking around with pedophiles and weird people, and now you you know where they are. That's what's happening in the 80s, yeah. No, yeah. Well, I don't know. I mean, there's a fear that yeah that's like when your deepest fears go wild, like, oh, your daughter got kidnapped by a 20-year-old, and someone's fucking around with her.
00:33:38
Speaker
Well, do you remember this? have They went, they went to confession.
00:33:44
Speaker
Catholics rape, Catholics rape, Catholics rape, Catholics rape. I should make a song, dude. But as many, many comics have made the joke that she'd be all right because she's a woman. So the priest aren't looking for her. Just booty.
00:33:59
Speaker
ah God, I got to add that shit out. What was my point? Oh, but you've had the feeling. I'm sure you've had this feeling where somebody's late. I don't know. Remember early on with Andrea when you cared about her or early on with your wife when you cared about her. I'm kidding. You still care about her, but.
00:34:16
Speaker
and Did you ever have the feeling where she didn't come home in time and you just for whatever reason you had that burst of anxiety of something tragic happening to them and And you pace around and you're sort of like oh shit. Oh shit. That's a I think a fairly normal thing You've had it with your kids. I'm I'm sure as well and Yeah, I think that's ah episodes of family ties. the The parents are in the kitchen. Mallory. Where's Mallory? Right. But you had to like work through that and self soothe and calm yourself down and kind of tolerate that distress, which I think is a healthy thing.
00:34:53
Speaker
and before this tech, and now you immediately are just like, where are you? Where the fuck are you? Where the fuck are you? And if they don't respond to that, then you're going even, you're escalating even further. What? They're not fucking responding. Where the fuck are they? Oh my God. Ah, you're fucking. You get negative pretty quickly. It's like probably the reason you're not responding. And yeah and then then you have all that cycle of emotions. Oh, fucking yeah. yeah you I fucking hate you. You never fucking respond in these situations.
00:35:20
Speaker
I think we could agree there's an escalation of emotion because of the modern world. It's quicker, it's it's more um stratospheric in terms of the feelings if it doesn't go right.
00:35:33
Speaker
Well, we're not good at tolerating distress now, is what I would say. I'm not. up It doesn't like, in my opinion, in that scenario and some of the other ones, it doesn't like solve a need. it creates It actually creates a new need. And then you go, oh, it's feeling a need, so it's good. it's like But it also created that need. The need to to need to know where everyone is all the time wasn't an issue before. Right, here's the most funny thing. Yeah. You see the Ring camera commercials. Do they have Ring down in Costa Rica?
00:36:03
Speaker
Is that like the front door thing? Yeah, I've never seen it here. Okay, so now they're selling and they they have these commercials that pitch All the different uses of the camera and so you've got everything from ah The guy who travels too much at his son's birthday virtually via the ring camera it's obviously silly because there are other tools for that but then they have like what you would expect for a dog owner where the dog is jumping up on the couch. And then this guy's monitoring the camera and he's like, leave it, leave it. And it's it's so sad and silly. And then of course, tracking for everything that could go wrong with a suspicious person coming up to the door. ah That that's, is that a healthy way to be dialed into like every possible negative consequence of just living? That's where
00:36:56
Speaker
yeah we're getting We're getting sort of insane. Is that a tool? commercial It is a commercial. It is a commercial, but I see that behavior. Oh, shit, I better check and see what the dog's doing. Oh, there he is. He's just laying on his bed. The baby monitor is a great example. Did you get into that? Were you just dialed into that thing? Listening. You're just looking at it. Oh, when it became like you could get a like a color act live action video from it, not just the the baby monitor where they're crying.
00:37:24
Speaker
Was that, yeah, exactly. Was that healthy for you? Did that feel good or did that feel like, like are you gonna protect them from SIDS? and don't know I don't know, hard for me to say it was healthy. i Yeah, exactly. Like, okay, but you're you're you're kind of being told like, all right, that thing's gonna die if you don't if you don't fucking do this, right? that That's the image that you get. Yeah, I mean, all that like I said, all that shit is being marked as a positive thing, but it's kind of creating a new need.
00:37:54
Speaker
It's like, okay, now I have this thing so I have to look at it because otherwise I'm not watching my baby. or Obviously we wouldn't be here with humanity if we couldn't survive without baby monitors and baby cameras, right? So it's just...
00:38:08
Speaker
Yeah, I think most of the stuff creates creates new anxiety, even socially. Like, I mean, I know plenty of people that use social media in a positive, controlled way. Not everyone gets the crazy addiction, but it it does. It does just create unneeded anxieties because you start to hear other people's opinions, which everyone says, great, I can speak my mind. I can make a movement now. But it's like, well, now you're just pissed because Bob and accounting turns out he's a fucking tea party guy.
00:38:36
Speaker
And now you're like, fuck Bob, you know, like, or, or, oh, wow. Sally, Sally and her perfect kids pictures all the time. Perfect family. One of my family sucks. You know, like, uh, they used to happen just with book clubs. I don't know if your wife goes to the book club, but it would just be like man bashing club shit, talking about my husband club. And then they come back from that and be like, well, well, uh, Sarah, Sarah is like, Sarah and Lance have date nights.
00:39:02
Speaker
We don't have date night. It's like, ah, fuck, Lance. You feel disappointment from the guys. like You fucking asshole. Sell out. It's like you're a bad Marine. You don't leave your friend behind. But but ah now, all this shit's on social media. It's a bad example, but you know what I mean? So you're being exposed to shit that you don't even need to be exposed to. And then you're like, I wonder why I'm not doing that. It all comes back to like your testosterone thing.
00:39:24
Speaker
yeah So I just think a lot of is just creating new anxieties that and you can go, oh, it eliminated a bad thing, or it like we're fulfilling a need. But so you also created the need.
00:39:36
Speaker
And the there's that overarching or the increase in fear of things that go wrong. It's like we know more now. You have too much information. It's like everything from, do you have a fire extinguisher in your house? Or I had, last night, I not kid you not, I woke up in the middle of the night, forgot to unplug my e-bike. It was charging. And what did I recall? I recalled the any number of stories about electric batteries exploding and catching houses on fire.
00:40:04
Speaker
Even though my e-bike is manufactured by like one of the staples of bicycle manufacturing ah I had to wake up in the middle of the night Guess what I had to do shut my ring alarm off So I could get into the garage unplug the charger so it doesn't explode. These are things that I would have just, just would not have been on my radar absent this and what will happen death device. You just sort of burned a death in a mushroom cloud when yeah when everything exploded. Yeah, everybody. Yeah. I think those things can happen. Talk about you want to see me get anxious as like if something's wrong with the furnace or if I think I smell gas or anything like that. I mean, you want to see me lose my mind because those
00:40:50
Speaker
I don't know. That has just been ingrained in me to fear. Well, in fact, I was in a fire when I was little, and I think it was ingrained in me two to be afraid of it. What's that? I don't remember. It was like I was like three, and I remember just the chaos of it, and then it was like reiterated to me. I was as younger. This was in New Hampshire at my grandparents' house. I don't know. I think it was electrical. Electrical. Ah, yeah.
00:41:15
Speaker
You hear all these things. And now you'd have a a wonderful app, dude, that would tell you, your electrical's fucked. Oh, yeah. And they sell all these little things.
Awareness and Anxiety
00:41:23
Speaker
like ah The insurance industry loves this stuff. like they keep these They keep adding on this these technologies that will lower your bill. So do you have a flood detection on your AC? OK, do you have ah backup detection in your mainline water? Do you have sprinklers? Who has sprinklers in their fucking house?
00:41:46
Speaker
ah Yeah. I'm not, it's like, I'm not running a Marriott here. Just too bad. It feeds me though. I'll tell you that it feeds me. And now I'm like a pretty much an anxious mess, which is why I want to check out a society, sell this fucking house, live part-time in Costa Rica. We have no heaters or air conditioning here. Yeah, there you go. Anyways, you move the beach. You might want to invest in AC. Well, well the one thing that I would say I live in overseas is like, you're not going to get away from it. It might even be worse here. Like people's online addictions.
00:42:15
Speaker
And then there is a mindset there that you need to get rid of, right? But you think all this is worse because of. Technology. Right. For me, I don't know when I would have ever, uh, went down the web MD rabbit hole and determined that I had cancer for pain in my left toe. That's what killed Bob Marley, by the way. So see you have every right to to fear that.
00:42:41
Speaker
Dude, that's a good one that you brought up. So WebND, positive for society or negative. like That's what I'm saying. like it It's almost like that. i you got you must know i don't I can't imagine you're that bad, but you must know people that...
00:42:52
Speaker
that go crazy googling shit when they don't feel good and it's a rat hole, right? My wife would do it and she doesn't really do it anymore because it it does, it takes you deep into things you don't quite understand and and part of medicine is ruling out. The ruling out process is very complex in terms of disease diagnosis and like you don't quite get that when you're reading through this stuff. It's just not a good idea. Now, the flip side is people will swear by who have have been diagnosed with like certain diseases, come finding the treatment that worked for them and saved their life or you know sort of bucking the medical systems, common knowledge to come come up with- 10 stories, there's always one, right? that's like
00:43:37
Speaker
Yeah, so I think having information is probably okay. I just don't think a normal healthy person with some lower back pain should go search that at all. It's like you might have a mass on your spine. Yeah.
00:43:53
Speaker
So so it yeah, it's just this whole thing's a mess. I hate it all. I think that's what most of the shit is being marketed on is access is access to communication and information. And for that it's shielded and it's better for mankind. Or you could like now you now you're able to communicate fast and you ever can you can access information faster than you ever can. And it's like, all right.
00:44:17
Speaker
And, you know, like, that's great. I can access information faster than I ever can.
Information Overload and Stress
00:44:22
Speaker
I can access Willie Mays stats faster than I ever can. Doesn't make me a better person. So, I mean, I'm not above all that. I i just i hate i wish I could just refocus and be like, all right, this is a positive.
00:44:38
Speaker
There's some positive aspects to it, but I think, I don't know, too far gone I might be, you know? 10 years from now, 10, 15, 20 years from now. Dystopian type society that you're looking at. What does that mean? I don't even know what that word means. Hold on. Give me eight seconds. I'll figure out what that word means, bro. Okay, you saw Back to the Future, where Biff goes back in time, gives him like the sports betting book, he becomes super wealthy and runs the town. That's kind of dystopian, where society has kind of crumbled on itself. 10 years, I would say no. But um I mean, I keep coming back to it, but I'm worried about my kids like just not really get like enjoying reality that much, because everything is just
00:45:22
Speaker
It's not even all that negative. Like I see my son now, he's starting to hang out online with some of his friends. So at night they're like, five people are hanging out having fun, but I can't get over it. I just, I hate it. I fucking, I'll be, it'll just be like, let's get up and go run. Like, like I can't, I can't handle it that they're just like sitting still and like, that's not going to work. Then no kid's going to be like, okay, let me go grab my, my sneakers.
00:45:48
Speaker
But I just feel like if they're sweating, it's better. I don't know why. So I'm more worried about, like I don't know if it'll be a, it's only a dystopia if you're in it and you feel oppressed and you feel like it's negative. And I just don't think the next generations are gonna feel like it's a negative thing. It's what they're accustomed to. So I think they'll just be like, no, we, this is how I live. This is how I grew up. Yeah. And we'll be looking at it from the outside.
00:46:12
Speaker
that conversation dude is it's probably not even the right one right now we're probably already behind the times because you really if you're gonna start talking about dystopia then you got the you need to bring in the effects of AI on everything and then you're right I don't know that might be that's pretty that could be scary right Yeah, yeah. I just worry about the kids and what they think sex is now. So I just worry about them. They need to do crazy things to get off.
00:46:37
Speaker
here you' they got to chi in this thing that porn is You keep pitching this idea that porn is a negative, Lance. and I just don't think you need to choke each other out and you need to like fuckin' do crazy stuff, like smack each other around. You're afraid that that's that's what people's modern image of sex is because they see all this weird shit online. I just, don't you, in everything in your life, let's just take weed intake or anything you've experienced. This'll be the last word, Matt, no, I'm kidding. Do it.
00:47:12
Speaker
When you've been stimulated by something, it doesn't it take increasing amounts to get to the same ah pleasure, right? Maybe you started and a nationals gets built up.
00:47:24
Speaker
Well, maybe you started with National Geographic and some African women with titties flying around and you could, you know, get your rocks off. Flying around, yeah. You could get your rocks off that way. And then you, hit you know, maybe you snuck a playboy and you saw like, oh wow, like a Nebraska girl, completely naked. And then you got, what was the was the one where they were like
Dystopian Future Concerns
00:47:50
Speaker
spreading their lips? What was that magazine called?
00:47:54
Speaker
You mean just one that's more graphic, Penthouse, Hustler? Penthouse, yes, Penthouse. Then you move to Penthouse, right? And then it's just each step of the way. It's the same thing with drugs or with betting or gambling or with stocks or with seeking information. Do you not see this path in yourself and in humanity just getting increasingly more extreme? So everything that we do as human beings,
00:48:19
Speaker
like the standards are raising and I think a very negative way and that's what I think is the dystopian coming to get us unless we can somehow resist it. I uh yeah I agree I I don't but is that a new digital trend or is that just mankind but I I just think it's accelerated a lot like like there's always some slow progress but I think humans live essentially the same way from 3000 BC to the and industrial revolution, basically, right? Like, yeah, but now it's weird. Yeah. Okay. So like, you know, that women in the thirties or twenties, they like a lot like war stockings to go swimming. They didn't show leg or anything. And now it's like, if you're not showing your butthole, you're like, you're, you, if you don't have, you're a nun. Yeah. Yeah. You're a fucking, you're a psycho. You need to show, I want to see your cheeks and I want to actually see if I can get a glimpse of your bleached butt hole. That's weird. It's just getting more weird. Huh? I mean, it's getting more weird. And then what people think is a successful life has gotten so extreme. It's all fucked up, bro. It's all fucked. We're never going to be happy, buddy. Okay. That's why we keep doing this podcast.
00:49:34
Speaker
and Well, yeah, I just wonder if that's, we we put it on digital media, some people might just put it on natural natural progression, mankind, and or then some people might put it on the you know ah society field on growth, right? like But where do we end up? from a Let's just take sex. Is it like some dude's taking a ah literal jackhammer to somebody's ass?
00:50:00
Speaker
And he's like, yeah. So like, if you can't get pleasure unless you're fucking destroying yourself. I just think it just keeps getting. Well, I think we end up at a sort of a, and anything goes with, so and even like gender doesn't play into it. I think that's where we end up where it's kind of like, you know, you go one, one extreme is like someone's like, doesn't even like interrace relationships, right? And then like you have this real conservative approach of,
00:50:28
Speaker
You've got to be married, got to be within your race, and you get it's got to be one style of sex made to procreate all the way to the the extreme of anything goes. there's no There's no gender roles. There's no actually monogamy. And I think we're going in that direction.
00:50:44
Speaker
Yeah, you got motherfuckers like Drew, dude. Paulie Amory up the yinger. He's trying to back out. But he's still grounded in like a little bit. I'm just playing. No, but Paulie, you're right. I mean, that word, did you ever fucking hear that word like 20 years ago? I don't even know if that existed. It was just like a guy who fucking sleeps around, right? No. Or a girl who's a ho.
00:51:09
Speaker
Like, but but that's it. And now you've got a term for it. And now you've got people that are whatever the the binaries that are like, oh, I don't identify this way or that way. And i don't I'm not just hetero or gay. um And I think that's where it's that's where it's going. Yeah. And maybe it's not happening in increasing numbers. like A lot of people go, that's been happening forever. That's just nobody would admit it. Yeah. Yeah. So, OK. But back to the jackhammer.
00:51:43
Speaker
and Do I have to answer that you want a hard answer on that? I think it's it's not it's gonna what'll happen is we're gonna like everything else gonna be pushed in two directions. So people are gonna it's a it's already happening but people are gonna reject reject that hard and they're really gonna be pushing like these monogamous relationships and strength in the family. And then there's gonna be people that probably will be like, let's let's bring objects into the into into the floor.
00:52:13
Speaker
Well, funny. Uh, no, but everything is, is, is just gotten a little too far, right? You know, we can, I know we're sounding like the piercings aren't too far. I don't want to, I don't want to, oh yeah, piercings and tattoos. Like, come on, dude. Yeah, settle down, settle down a little bit, but okay. Express yourself, but come on. It is what it is. Like tattoo is like, I think I mentioned on other episodes, that's not a rebel thing anymore. It's like a housewife thing to do or.
00:52:37
Speaker
you know, like, it's just, it's just there. Yeah, well, but we you, yeah this, this thing about the porn, I honestly don't know, like you feel like it's, it's, I don't know if you're just being facetious or you think it's no it's true or more extreme.
00:52:56
Speaker
No, I think it's true that people are, I think, you know, your ability to access the extreme is so much easier. And so it starts to get into the psyche of more and more people of what what does sex look like? What should I be? What should I be willing to do? What should I find pleasure in? It's a weird fucking thing. And the same is happening with information normalized.
00:53:19
Speaker
Yes, yes. it's Same with information and belief systems and conspiracy and skepticism. Those are all things that have existed for sure, but not at these levels, not to these extremes. It's made some problems that we've always had. like It fuels the fire for everything, so it could fuel positive change quickly. It can fuel communication quickly. But ah like it or not, it fuels negativity and procrastination really fast. And that's what makes you feel like a piece of shit. Because I don't I don't think that anybody go like somebody might have a real positive experience on Instagram or Facebook. Oh, I saw my cousin had a new baby and then I I liked it. That I that whole thing's probably a positive experience, but nobody walks away from like looking at these things. Like jacked and happy and fulfilled and like you you actually have kind of a negative thing.
00:54:11
Speaker
and you feel weird. And so I think like all the positivity of it, it doesn't, physiologically, it doesn't it doesn't make you feel better. No, it's like ah first step, your coworkers, baby shower photos on Instagram, second step, getting jackhammered in the butthole. I mean, that's really where you're going. And that's how fast. And let's ah let's put the link to that to that video in the and the in the the show notes, if you don't mind.
00:54:40
Speaker
ah
00:54:44
Speaker
Anyways, why? I don't know what the right I don't know. It's TBD, man, because yeah I don't think you can hang everything up. I don't think you can do it anymore. I mean, you can't I there was a great PBS show as a guy i moved to Alaska and lived up there for like 40 years. it's Like my favorite fucking thing. I used to I bought it. I found it and bought the DVD. And he literally just dropped out. He was like a survivor and built the log cabin way up in Alaska.
00:55:10
Speaker
that's That's really like the only thing you could do now if you wanna get out of this and really be out of it. And that's not not feasible for most people. You moving to Costa Rica sure as fuck is not gonna take you out ah out of this. No, I can do a lot less though with the phone, I bet. I can do better. I just wanna be in my own head too. My own head that's not being jackhammered. You don't know what happened with your money today, bro. You have no idea right now. You're exposed. You're naked and exposed, dude.
00:55:39
Speaker
Yep, I better check. No. Okay, buddy. Hey, good talk. Good stuff.
00:56:08
Speaker
old school friends from non-defo startup podcast cause they feel i bored twenty nine 29 listeners just ain't enough. Gonna go big if they