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Episode 45: Jonny Returns
1 Playsin 7 hours
Jonny returns to give us some perspective from Berlin, Germany on the world and politics.
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Transcript
00:00:31
Speaker
yeah
Beard Banter and Introduction
00:00:32
Speaker
Yeah, you look well, my friend. Thanks. You guys look wonderfully bearded, I have to say. oh I mean, I trimmed my back a little, but we're all right. do I do try. m I shave mine off a few months back and it didn't go well.
00:00:48
Speaker
Okay. Siobhan didn't like that? Oh, she fucking hated it. Yeah. Yeah, every time she looked at me, she laughed. I would too. Every time I looked at myself, I was like, I don't even know who the fuck that is.
00:01:01
Speaker
and don I thought I had a chin. Apparently not.
00:01:05
Speaker
i have a chin. See, it's right here. yeah and Yeah, yeah, yeah. When I do this, rather than having to force myself to lose weight, I just elongate my face so I look thinner.
00:01:18
Speaker
That's the... I'm going to go for the full moon face, and then i will I'll feel better about myself. Who needs makeup? We can just grow beards. It's fine. Yeah, that's it. Right? Right.
00:01:29
Speaker
Pretty hairy man beard. Mm-hmm.
Podcast Introduction: "Toxic Masculinity"
00:01:32
Speaker
right, now that we got that out of the way. Hey, kids, welcome to Toxic Masculinity with Ian and Stuart. This week, we have our friend Johnny back. What's going on, guys?
00:01:42
Speaker
Hey, guys. i mean, is this your... Am I am i correct? Is this your 45th episode? This is our 45th episode. Yes, it is, yeah. We've been cruising along, sir. That's impressive. I remember what number was whenever was on, but it doesn't... was early. Yeah, I was going to say it was, like, early. Wow.
00:01:58
Speaker
Arpedius? Pretty... Pretty good. we're not I mean, we had a couple of hiccups trying to get back with the winter being sick and all kinds of nonsense.
Mental Health and Social Issues
00:02:06
Speaker
But we're we're back. We're rolling again, think. Yeah.
00:02:11
Speaker
I would assume this one's going to be a politically heavy conversation. Yeah, i mean, the past bunch have been politically heavy. My reasoning behind that is that is tends to be mental health adjacent.
00:02:27
Speaker
I mean, it is kind of mental at the Jason, but it's also, I mean, it it pulls at other things we talk about, like protection and taking care of people and looking out for your neighbors, like other things we've pulled strings at.
00:02:40
Speaker
Absolutely. And I think this is a little bit more than political because we're messing with social stuff now and people's well-being. So it's super glorious over here, guys. How you guys doing in your countries?
00:02:53
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, actually, I think we have when we reached out to Johnny again to go... Do you fancy coming back on?
Elon Musk's Controversies
00:03:03
Speaker
i think i but I'm not sure if it was the next day or the day after and heard Trump, or not Herr Trump, Herr Musk gave his... Sorry, he threw his heart out to everybody. The fucking absolute shit-cut.
00:03:22
Speaker
yeah And the reason I was sorry to you, Johnny, was because obviously you're in Berlin. yeah So the capital of Germany. And, uh, yeah, so we were kind of wondering how that, cause you know, Ian's constant question on here is, I know he knows what he's getting fed through his media in his bubble of America.
00:03:45
Speaker
And he's always interested to hear what my thoughts are from the outside. And we both kind of went, I wonder what is going on in Germany, looking at that being of Germany and having a certain amount of experience with such things.
00:03:59
Speaker
Um, yeah, I mean, i could we can see so much, but like, you know, we don't actually walk among the people there, which is even better than media. So, you know, you actually are walking around over there. So I think that's even better insight.
00:04:11
Speaker
How did it go down over there? what Which aspect? the ah The Nazi salute. Yeah, the salute, basically. I mean... Sorry, I'll put that down as the first of the Nazi salutes. Yeah. Yeah.
00:04:25
Speaker
And I mean, and and you had Steve Bannon doing again. I think that was... His wasn't even... His was straight there. There was no arguing that's what that was. like Yeah. Yeah, yeah, that's what was gonna say, I think that with with Elon, everybody's trying to be like, oh, you know, didn't really mean to do it. It wasn't really Nazi salute, and then Steve Bannon doesn't. You're like, ah guys, seriously? Excuse me.
00:04:51
Speaker
but Yeah. What was the reaction like over there with, like, even the people? I mean, even outside the media stuff, like, did you talk, did anybody talk about it over there with you? I mean, it's a topic of conversation also like Musk's impact. I mean, in Berlin over here, in the new issue of the magazine, The Berliner, we actually just did an article on um on on Musk and his, not his impact on Berlin, but essentially, right?
Political Donations and Free Speech
00:05:15
Speaker
They have the Gigafactory built in Brandenburg, just outside Berlin. And that was helped by a lot of political goodwill. And, yeah, and I can't imagine those politicians now. They're like, hold on a second. We, you know, worked with this guy to help him build the factory to bring the jobs in, you know, and to do this. And then now he's running around giving Nazi salutes supporting the AFD. Yeah, yeah.
00:05:38
Speaker
You're just like, they must be thinking like, God, what and what did we back there? um Yeah. How did that go down with him giving money to AFD? That's fucking madness. Yeah, it is just all right mad. I mean, yeah.
00:05:52
Speaker
but some For those who don't know, AFD is the far far right party in Germany. Although you probably could have surmised from where he fucking dickhead put his money. Yeah. Alternative for Deutschland, that's the... Yeah.
00:06:07
Speaker
Uh, yeah, we did see the art. What happened? oh I did hear the, the, the quote unquote art installation of the projection on the Tesla building. oh yeah Yeah. That was pretty cool. i have to say. Yeah, it was pretty fun for that was pretty fucking punk rock in my opinion. Um, what what happened to those artists? I know there's like a free, there's a whole big, it's a big deal to have like free art, but I also know it's a big no, no for the salute. So what was, what what happened with those artists over there?
00:06:30
Speaker
I'm not sure. I see. That's a good thing we should follow up on. It happened recently as well. The police just apologized the other day because they took that one, but there was other like AI generated art um yeah that was taken down because, yeah, the police took it down and then they had to apologize because they were quashing the freedom of expression.
00:06:50
Speaker
Yeah, I know. It must be a strange... and
00:06:55
Speaker
ah it must be a strange thing for German to society to have that need for free expression of art and speech and things like that, but have so many rules around, and rightly so, around Nazi expression and things like that, if that makes sense.
00:07:22
Speaker
Yeah. That must be... um tail But I think that, so just ah as a random aside, I think the last time I was on, we were talking, I was explaining or talking about how like Berlin is not like the rest of Germany in the same way that yeah New York is not like the rest of the US to a degree, you know?
00:07:40
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. We saw this, I you know, but when the, that we just had, you know, the the the German elections here and In Berlin, Die Linke, the left party, were the strongest party in Berlin. That got the majority of the vote in Berlin.
00:07:55
Speaker
It got like 20%. The last time, I think, they got four years ago, they got 10%. But in the rest of Germany, it was the CDU and then the AFD. And in Berlin, it was the left party. So in Berlin, yeah, we're still ah yeah we we took a left turn, a which is good.
00:08:12
Speaker
yeah Not um surprising, though. No, no, and not all. It depends where you are in Berlin as well. You know, to overall, Die Linke with the strongest party and obviously then in a certain districts, like in Neukölln, which, yeah, they got something like 33% of the vote, whereas before they got 10%. Neukölln is a really strong um immigrant population too. Mm-hmm.
00:08:37
Speaker
Lincoln were the only party running to say that, yes, we will not deport anybody, which I can imagine being a ah a good message to be receiving if you're an immigrant. oh yeah yeah Other parties were been like, yeah, we're some kind of deportation. yeah we no We don't know exactly what level, but you know, they'll be...
00:08:54
Speaker
Yeah. she something's let's Let's put it this way. You're not doing what the Americans are currently doing and sending people to internment camps. Yeah. yeah That's rough. Which is what they're actually fucking doing. More or less, yes. They built a, what is it, 300,000 people internment camp in Guantanamo Bay? I think it's like 40,000. You can't fit that many people there. Oh, Jesus, let's go.
00:09:19
Speaker
I'm just saying, like it's not I don't think it's hundreds of thousands. Well, the place has made to hold hundreds hundreds of people, not thousands. Yeah, I think i think the the finishing goal is something like 300,000. Yeah, insane.
00:09:30
Speaker
That's what it was reported as here. I have a time when we play the go run? yeah Yeah, please, by all means. That's what you're here for. I'm trying to get like ah out outside the world of yeah that I see. so so What I find interesting like from from my perspective in the election here in D-Linka, getting a ah strong vote, and I saw them as being one of the only parties that group but were for something.
US Political Critiques
00:09:53
Speaker
they were their Their election campaign in was kind of like, you know, are you paying too much for your heating?
00:09:59
Speaker
We're going to sort that out. Are you paying too much for your rent? We're going to sort that out. They were campaigning for these things that, in my opinion, they were saying like, ah this is too expensive. We're here on behalf of the people. And people were voting for that.
00:10:11
Speaker
And I think that in politics so much now, people are voting because for parties because those parties are saying they're against something. So other parties are like, we're against immigrants. We're against trans people and people are voting for parties that are putting themselves in opposition to other things.
00:10:26
Speaker
And I feel like this is the whole like rhetoric, this whole like hateful divided rhetoric is your people aren't voting most of the time as a positive vote to be like, this is what I'm voting for. They're like, Oh, that party is against this. Therefore I am for that.
00:10:41
Speaker
And it enables people to be like, Where they unite people in their hatred of the other thing without realizing that what those parties are actually doing is damaging to the people. the society. You know, it's like my stepdad described it as turkeys voting for Christmas.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. People are being put across like, oh, yeah, you know, it's all the immigrants fault. You got to deport immigrants, be against the immigrants, you know, and they think that's what they're doing. And that's going to somehow be better for them without realizing that those ruling parties are not making policies that are in their benefit. I mean, look what's happening in the States now.
00:11:16
Speaker
You know, people are voting for Trump because Trump and that from what I see from the outside, this is how it looks. Yeah. It looks me that people voting for the Republican Party because the Republican Party are putting themselves in the culture war to be against everything. You know, like they're stoking the culture wars to be like, we're against this. And people are like, yeah, to fuck everyone. Fuck everything. I'm all about that.
00:11:36
Speaker
Without realizing that what they're voting for are people who are making policies that are against everything. per people or people where you know like like working class people but it's okay they're brine per people so them it means everybody ends up under the same bus right so oh i know so here what happened from my perspective from being inside of it all is so the first time the first time around the culture war thing was a big thing for the trump election this time he actually did speak a lot about lowering prices on stuff but a lot of people just didn't believe it and the other thing is that instead of
00:12:10
Speaker
Blatantly being like anti-trans, for example, they would do things like Kamala Harris did this, this and this for trans people in prison. But it's something that she said a long time ago and basically disavowed it since. So the culture war on the left had been toned down, but the right used things that had been said more or less to like kind of reinforce it.
00:12:30
Speaker
And the other thing is that happened here, and I'm sure if you look into history, it's not much different than what happened in, like, ah maybe maybe, I don't even know, in Germany. But a lot of the mainstream media started to cave to Trump, and there was a lot of imbalance. So, like, if there was a Trump interview, he would say something, he'd be like, yeah, blah, blah.
00:12:52
Speaker
And they'd be like, okay, but if Harris said it, they would drill her on things. So it was imbalanced, and then the other trick they used... they say right They're afraid of him. They're afraid of him.
00:13:03
Speaker
Well, look, but the thing that he did they did this week is a thing they were afraid of. So they're only letting people into the White House press pool now who they agree with. They only blocked AP News once and they're saying that that's not going to happen again. But who the fuck knows? Yeah. but Okay. What the fuck was I saying? Oh, yeah.
00:13:22
Speaker
So the media basically did that imbalance thing, right? um So there was nowhere, unless you were like capable and somewhat media literate, there was no way for you to know unless you knew where to look.
00:13:33
Speaker
Because everybody was feeding the same line of bullshit. um That's kind of what happened here. And people were in for a change. And people were... Don't get me wrong, Biden was not doing like i would like the Lord's work. He was doing some good things, but...
00:13:50
Speaker
The problem that we've had here, and i'm I'm going to guess around the world, is that for literal decades, the rich getting richer has been perpetuated by both sides of the political aisle.
00:14:02
Speaker
And it's not being stopped or slowed, and it's only going to get worse. and think I think people are feeling it and they're just trying to, I think a lot of people are just like anxious and reaching out for whatever, any kind of change, but they don't understand what they're voting for.
00:14:17
Speaker
They really just don't understand. i so I think fine the the problem is like, you see rich getting richer, it The root cause of it is capitalism and the way the capitalist structure is.
00:14:27
Speaker
And you're like, ah you know, how do we solve this problem of capitalism? I don't know. Maybe by having two of the biggest capitalists and, you know, Musk and Trump. I mean, they're capitalists through and through. they see Yeah, yeah, for sure. You know, so, the yeah think The problem is that people who are voting for them don't see that.
00:14:44
Speaker
They can't see what's right in front of them. They don't want to see it. they their walk Well, either they don't want to see it or they can't see it through the barrage of bullshit that's thrown at them.
00:14:56
Speaker
but Because the the the i've I've never known another politician to throw so much bollocks out in one go. so during the campaign, Trump used the old fascist trick of repeating something until it became true.
00:15:09
Speaker
And then you get the echo chambers from the right and all the media collapsing to him and repeating the same things over and over. I mean, you just saw them try to do with Ukraine. They just tried to say Ukraine started the war and everyone's like, what the fuck?
00:15:21
Speaker
They all tried to do for years, for years. January 6th was just like a peaceful like tour. Like they tried to pull all this shit. I mean, those are big examples. But like even the little things happen over and over and over and over. Like you hear things over and over and over again. And people just think it's true. And like, you know, you guys both know that's like an old fascist kind of trick. Like that's the way they do that shit.
00:15:41
Speaker
So when that's happening and everybody's allowing that to happen, and then the other side is getting drilled and unable to get like a clear picture of what they're trying to do. And then also fuck both parties in this case. But like, obviously, like i just said, perpetuating the rich, getting richer on both sides. Like this country in the 50s is how the middle class came to be and in the 50s the rich were taxed heavily like 90 percent at like in like 1951 anything over i think it was like 250 000 got taxed at 91 percent and that would that was right up to after regan reagan reagan uh uh the seventy s was 70 percent and i think reagan it went to like 30 percent and then i thought reagan put them back up again
00:16:26
Speaker
I think yeah maybe he did for a little bit, but I thought it was this, maybe it was 86. I thought it was 86 or somewhere that it went into like, but i mean, that seems fair enough. People don't realize what a billion dollars or a billion. Well, the other thing so hearing is, this is, this is the illiteracy here for media. And maybe Johnny can back me up on this too, but people always show charts about how much the rich pay.
00:16:48
Speaker
They don't show the percentage of their income that they pay. Yeah. And that's what's really. And the other thing I think maybe both you guys understand this. I don't really know economics, but in my opinion, the actual cash in your bank is not what makes you wealthy. It's the assets you own and the resources you have access to. Right.
00:17:06
Speaker
So guess I've been watching this dude, Gary Stevenson, a lot. I don't know if you're are you both aware of him? Nope. he is ah He was a Citibank trader that came up poor in the east side of London, and he made all his money yeah he made all his money betting on the economy, and he bet he bet on it failing. So I've been watching a lot of his stuff to try and grasp some of this a little bit better.
00:17:28
Speaker
But he basically just bets on the economy failing, and he does it all the time, and he's he's become rich, and he's like, you need to tax the rich. That's the only way you're going fix it just need to heavily tax them because say like the rumor right now about us getting checks because of the stuff that Doge is doing, right?
00:17:45
Speaker
If we get that money, it's just going to increase prices and all that money just goes right back to the rich. So we're basically just taking money out of it out of the poor's hand and handing it back to the rich. And there's no cycle back through because there's no taxes on the rich really.
00:17:56
Speaker
The problem with telling Americans that is user fed the, lie of the american dream ameritocracy everybody thinks everyone in america thinks that it's that it's capable that they will one day be a millionaire or a billionaire yeah it's not possible and that's not reality it's not really possible anymore so that's why they're like oh yeah fucking because when i get to that point i want those tax breaks when i get you know that's my dream that's my goal you're fed
00:18:31
Speaker
This horse shit and everybody's shoveling down with two you hands. Yeah. I mean, it's, crazys I mean, and you got rich people that are actively signing documents and all kinds of stuff saying like, why don't you just tax us?
00:18:44
Speaker
But even Matt Damon was like, I make a hundred million dollars. Why don't you tax like 50% of that? It would solve like all of our debt problems, and it would make companies and billionaires and millionaires put their money somewhere else that would benefit companies and everybody else. but Yeah. it is i mean I mean, was it, Jerm, just on a side of that there, so the problem with that,
00:19:05
Speaker
is that the uber-rich are using their money to influence governments now. Yep. I mean, the Bound have been doing it for a long time, but it's really fucking obvious now.
00:19:16
Speaker
For example, Musk gave a whole load of money to AFD, which is the the right-wing German party, and I think the next week, Germany changed their rules on foreign a donations to political parties to limit that.
00:19:36
Speaker
But I mean, that i mean we the UK has limits on donations as well. and Northern Ireland has slightly different rules, which is why during Brexit they were funneling money in the millions through the DUP because we don't have the same disclosure rules as the rest of the UK.
00:19:55
Speaker
But in America, just don't have that shit. And it's going to take some, and you know, we've talked about this before you said, there's no way you're going to get rid of the lobbying power, but unless they do something about that,
00:20:07
Speaker
Not anytime soon. Because that's your problem. You're able to hide this money those Here's the thing right now. isn let me I'm actually curious to see if you guys if this has come up over there. but So we all understand that politicians and all are bribed and lobbied and everything else, right?
00:20:23
Speaker
Right now in this administration that Trump has put together, there are a lot of billionaires. So it's basically mask off. I don't know if you guys have seen all that. Like, there's a lot of, like, high-level, like, upper-level millionaires and billionaires in this administration. So it's basically mask off because none of them have any business being where they're at.
Social Inequality and Wealth in Politics
00:20:40
Speaker
So, I mean, like, what the fuck, dude? how And the thing that drives me nuts is... The talking point that people believe here is, for example, with the dough shit going on with Musk, he's doing it out of the goodness of his heart. I'm like, that motherfucker made over $100 billion dollars already since Trump took office.
00:20:57
Speaker
What makes you think he's doing anything out of the goodness of him? They fired all those FAA workers and then he put his own company in place to to fix things like what ah this. how how How hard do you have to get hit in the head with this fucking ham?
00:21:10
Speaker
until you understand what's going on. Like, what do you guys see about this kind of stuff that we're watching from the inside? Like, I'm curious from both of you and your perspectives and where you've come from and all that.
00:21:22
Speaker
mean, what's the solution? Like, really, i think that um Yeah, that's a good question. and what What really do we expect from these leaders in those positions?
00:21:33
Speaker
It's kind of like, i mean, they're not going to do anything that doesn't act in their own self-interest because they're directly self-interested people. They're not people that are in power because they want to make the world a better place for everyone.
00:21:45
Speaker
That is not the motivation. It's a zero-sum game. They're there for their own personal gain and also people who are there to help what their own people. It's like,
00:21:56
Speaker
They're not saying like, okay, how do we make the world a better place for everyone concerned? You know, which is what collectively we need to do, right? I mean, this is what you want your place. You want your world leaders to be like, okay, let's make the world a better. How do we all work together to make the world a That sounds like socialism, John.
00:22:15
Speaker
I mean, i would so maybe I'm a socialist, I'm like, that's kind of what we need to do. It's like, let's look who are the worst people? like being Who are the worst affected people? How do we help them? Billionaires don't need shit.
00:22:27
Speaker
These people should be like, how do we help those in extreme poverty? Let's start there. You know, let's like not like the whole... Yeah, anyway. And I think that... The problem is that when you put with people like that in par, i mean, they they operate in zero sum games. They think that for some people to win, other people have to lose and they justify it. People, poor people deserve to be poor and that rich people deserve to be rich as opposed to the fact of everybody is in those positions mainly by an accident of birth, more so of their own ability.
00:22:57
Speaker
And what we should be doing as a society is trying to redress the imbalance of accidents of birth so that everybody has a decent quality of life no matter where you're born. It shouldn't be the case where if you're born in a shit part of the US, you're condemned to be poor.
00:23:11
Speaker
And then if you're the Upper East Side of New York, you're going to be raked. And that is how it works. You're like, oh, no, they have both equal chances. It's like, do they? No, they don't. No. So we need to, as a society, we should be equalizing those problems. And other countries do a better job of equalizing those things.
00:23:26
Speaker
It's probably better in Europe than it is in the US. The US is like the hyper-capitalist messed up version of it. And you look at healthcare, you know? Yeah, I know. think that the whole The whole system is completely broken.
00:23:36
Speaker
And now we have the people who are in power have no interest in improving or fixing the system. It doesn't benefit them. And it's just not going to happen. So like, I don't, you know, even... It's difficult. I mean...
00:23:49
Speaker
I've had to sorry, but like Trump's entire way of zero sum game in order but for someone to it's not like let's collaborate and cooperate together. It's consistently being like i want to win and for me to win someone else has to lose. You know, that's that is the that is the mentality. It's exactly what he does. Um,
00:24:09
Speaker
And on a world stage, that's incredibly problematic, you know? And his approach to doing these deals, it's like, oh, it's just really, it's just very bad for the world. He's just not good at deals. He's good at real estate, maybe. Right.
00:24:23
Speaker
He came out today with and putting tariffs on Europe because Europe, the only reason the EU was put together, he said, the only reason the EU put themselves together was to attack America. Right.
00:24:38
Speaker
Uh-huh. And nothing to do with, you know, history, whatever, but to attack America and we don't take their food and we don't take their cars. And that's not right. We take everything from then and they take nothing from us.
00:24:54
Speaker
That's ridiculous. And this is literally the day after Macron wiped the fucking floor with him. Yeah. By going, eh, no, what you're saying not right. Yeah. and and Right in front of him.
00:25:05
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, yeah. almost like, i mean, he's just a spoiled child. Yeah, yeah. He is, he is. Yeah. Even um his approach to like problem solving in the Ukraine, right? He's like, okay, we can do that for you. b we We want 500 billion of minerals.
00:25:20
Speaker
it is love It's not like, oh, okay, we can't let a country be aggressively invaded and take it over. And that is not how the world operates anymore. We deliberately stop those things happening because that is just really the shittest thing. Instead he's like, oh yeah, well we can do but what's in it for us?
00:25:35
Speaker
You know, it's like, Whenever this time is like, what's in it for me? What's in it for us? And you're like, well, that isn't a really good way to collaborate and cooperate to make a better world for everybody, is it? He's fully transactional. He's 100% transactional. Do you remember back in the day when people talked about the Iraq the second, first time first and second Iraq war, yeah everybody went, oh, that's it's clearly about oil.
00:26:01
Speaker
it clearly the Americans want their oil they're They're doing it under the pretext of Saddam Hussein. Yes, he's a fucking despot, mental case, but it's really about resources and oil, and that's why they're going in there.
00:26:15
Speaker
Yeah. And No, he's not even fucking hiding it. just going, we want this. That's what I'm saying. It's full mask off right now. I mean, ah you didn't listen you didn't listen to that debate I sent you this morning, did you, Stuart? That long thing I sent you, really?
00:26:33
Speaker
not that I'll send it to Johnny too, but dude, the stuff that people are coming up with now to like... It's just insane. like it's fully like There are people out there that are fully war-hawked in now. It's crazy the shit that I'm hearing in some places.
00:26:48
Speaker
um Dude, this the stuff that's going on right now, like I have come... Stuart and I have talked many times, and he he would bring up like I would bring up classes, and he'd be like, you hung up on that? I'm like, no, this is why.
00:27:02
Speaker
and I think Tom backed me up, and now it's like even more blatant in my opinion. So I have... I have gone so far from like left or right to I just give a fuck what's happening to the people I care about and my neighbors more than anything because shit is getting so dire and one side is not doing anything and one side's running amok and like courts here are so slow. There's...
00:27:22
Speaker
I think there's like something like three cases a day that are brought against Trump right now and the administration in general. Like there's a lot of court cases. They just take fucking forever. And at best, there'll be a stopgap.
00:27:33
Speaker
And the worst part in this case in our system is, I mean, it's a good thing overall if you look at the grander picture and normal people. But when it comes to politics, even if there's a pattern established, you can't do shit until the line is crossed and then you can start the whole process. So.
00:27:49
Speaker
There's a lot of court cases. It's going to take a long time to get through anything. The most we have are stopgaps right now, and it's nothing and nothing's going to be solved by the courts. It has to be done politically. so Right now, I'm more concerned. Are you going to stand up and do you anything politically? There is some people standing up in small ways. You can see them.
00:28:09
Speaker
come on mean There's some Democrats that are being outspoken and doing stuff, but like right now, they're not they don't even talk about a plan, like what they're going to do. They're just like cruising along. like Some of them are getting loud, finally. and i'm like Jasmine Crockett, did you guys see her?
00:28:23
Speaker
they're like uh what would you say to elon musk if you could talk to him right now and you know what she said well she goes fuck off i was like that's fucking great dude but i mean that there's there's the courts are carrying the burden right now so and it's slow moving i i literally just give a fuck about like the people around me because everything's tanking stock markets dropping car the car market is crashing here because all these places know i heard walmart is like warning people there's going to be shit coming now and you see you do that the americans because yous are well renowned for even a hint of a whisper of an issue and yous will go and buy everything known to man and put it in a bunker yeah i don't i don't think there's an can buy enough of that stuff but
Global Political Tensions
00:29:06
Speaker
i don't know man you guys you guys both from come from countries that are older and as much as i like history you guys walk around amongst people that have different perspectives because you don't live in this shit like i do so
00:29:17
Speaker
I don't know, like any input or any insight, dude. I'd love to hear anything, even if it's random, like Johnny going off about his ah soapbox. whenever you're Whenever you're writing about in Berlin and you go into when people are talking, do people talk?
00:29:34
Speaker
Are people talking about what's going on in America? Are people worried about the situation between Russia and Ukraine, considering Europe's history? history Because I'll tell you,
00:29:47
Speaker
It's definitely in the back of my mind, Johnny. it It, you know, people talking about it in Berlin. Yeah. I mean, I suppose I can only really talk about my own personal thoughts and feelings on it with any any confidence. But yeah I think what worries me is like we're at the starting point. You think, well, where is it? Where are we going to be in four years time? Where are we going to be in 10 years time?
00:30:11
Speaker
know the the right away the actions nine You know, you know, they have consequences. And you're like, well, what's going to happen? You know, there are certain you think about it.
00:30:22
Speaker
what happened when certain people got into power in the thirties and it, you know, five years later, you'd like things, things really change and develop. And I kind of worry, well, what, where are we going now? This is not a, like on a global scale, it's not it's not a great thing to be going in. Where are you? Like, where, where is it going? Where's the end result? Like what damage is going to be done?
00:30:44
Speaker
The thing I can you, I can tell you guys is there's a fair number of people that voted for Trump that regret it and are openly telling him to fuck off now. um I'm not sure if you guys have seen any of the town halls with GOP representatives like in two and talks and people are just tearing into them like so hard.
00:31:00
Speaker
So people are definitely pissed and starting to be afraid. Is your quality of life there? Is it is it being affected and deteriorating? Oh, so It's been deteriorating slowly. um Biden. So the one cool thing that people didn't realize is there was still inflation under Biden, but he brought the rate down.
00:31:15
Speaker
and People were like, well, prices are still high. I'm like, that's not how inflation works. It's not a zero sum game. Like you can either inflate by nine or 2%. Like it's going to inflate. It's called inflation. So you can slow it down, but it's not going to be like, you're not going to go backwards. Like that's not going to happen.
00:31:30
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And also, like look look at what happened with COVID, right? you know Companies many didn't, you know they made more money than they'd ever made during COVID. Yeah, I know. Since the COVID pandemic um in these recent years, I mean, billionaires and large companies have made more profit and more money than they ever have before. Everybody else is struggling through a crisis.
00:31:50
Speaker
These things are weaponized and utilized by unscrupulous capitalists. I know I sound like a crazy man approach this, but... No, it's making it right. We can effectively price gauge and charge more and use this an excuse. And then no one's going back after that, you know.
00:32:04
Speaker
clients it to the It's like the elector it's the the like the the the fuel price thing in the UK with electricity and gas. So the price rose, the you know, the fuel cap rose by £2,000 year.
00:32:20
Speaker
yeah yeah So because obviously because this war in Ukraine and the price of oil and the price of gas has all went up. So it has to go up for everybody yeah everybody else. Yeah. Every fucking electricity and gas company made, you know, 500 times their normal profits. Yeah.
00:32:38
Speaker
So where was the fucking price rise there? yeah Yeah, exactly. If you're making record profits in these times and everybody else is like suffering for it, something's wrong. But again, it's just unregulated capitalism.
00:32:51
Speaker
you know i think i don't i think capitalism can be okay, but I think it needs to be regulated. I think that unregulated capitalism just means that the people with the most power and influence over the market will make rules in their favor. If it's not regulated, then just you it has to be regulated.
00:33:07
Speaker
That just has to be. And think about it. So a couple of years ago, I had to write a series of articles on trends of the future for a clean technology magazine that i work for. And I did articles in 14 days and there were things like the decline of the bee population, the decline of coral reefs, the problems with plastic production, the problems with like stranded assets and oil.
00:33:31
Speaker
And all of the articles that I wrote, whenever you look at the problems, the environmental and the catastrophic problems, they can all be traced back to the fact that we think it's more important that a private company is allowed to make profit than it is for anything else.
00:33:47
Speaker
It's more important that a company is allowed to produce plastic, right, than it is to regulate that industry and be able to, you know, impact it. it The yeah most important thing is for above the well-being of people, above the well-being of the planet, the most important thing is to allow a company to make the most profit possible.
00:34:06
Speaker
And in see, a few years ago in Germany, we were in the middle of what was known as the Energiewende, like the energy change, the And everything was, the focus was on sustainability, environmentalism, like, and Germany was the world leader in this regard in renewable energy, all of this.
00:34:22
Speaker
This was, it was at the forefront of this wave, this this energy change, this energy wave. And that is gone. That is over. That era is done. Yeah. And that is so bad for the world.
00:34:34
Speaker
Right. And youre because like it's not we just can't financially be done It's like, OK, we can't focus on that anymore, you know, because we need to enable people to make profit. And that I think it's really sad that that era is over. And then you look at Trump. He's like, OK, we need to allow people to keep drilling.
00:34:51
Speaker
We need to relax regulations on companies that are producing plastic, blah, blah, blah. And it's just overall a really negative, bad thing. Because anyway, I'm just ranting now. It's okay. Let's go, man. Go.
00:35:03
Speaker
but it is it's just Sometimes it's good to rant. Yeah, but it's just like, it's this idea like, okay, it's more important to enable companies to make money and make profit than it is for above anything else. And we just need to start regulating it. You know, like, why are we allowing companies?
00:35:17
Speaker
um Think about the, look at the, the the for the the rental market for, for, for housing companies, you know, like 80% of housing stock is owned by private companies now. That's the largest asset in the world. It's like, okay, it's the most exploitable best asset because everybody needs somewhere to live and then you can just force them to pay as much as is humanly possible. yep like We should not be doing that. Healthcare care should not be part of a private market.
00:35:42
Speaker
Healthcare care should be like... Anyway, I'm i'm totally random. No, you're good. You're absolutely right. Like healthcare care should not be part of the the market. It should be outside of it. So should education. There are certain things which are universal, basic human needs that are required and should be available to every human being. Yeah, yeah. That we should not be allowing people to make profit from. Same thing as housing. Why are we allowing private companies to make a profit off those things? just We need to stop that. It's like certain places it's illegal to have a water butt.
00:36:16
Speaker
What's a water bot? It connects to your downpipe from your house, so you can collect your rainwater to use for your garden. Yeah, it's illegal here in some places too. You can't collect rainwater. And why is it illegal, Ian? Why is it illegal?
00:36:30
Speaker
cold Because if you're collecting free rainwater, you're not paying for it. So the thing is too, uh, just because you brought it up real quick, Johnny, the ironic thing is under Biden. And again, he did some good stuff. I'm not a huge fan of his because I just, you know, people still are struggling under him.
00:36:45
Speaker
yeah get it. But he, he did have record levels of oil production going here in this country. Um, he brought back refineries that died and like tried to help companies that had folded before and bankrupt and themselves and everything.
00:37:00
Speaker
um, But Trump comes in talking drill, baby drill. The CEOs in December were like, we're going to back off. We've been going like full steam for years and people are getting laid off now from oil. So he's full of shit from the start.
00:37:11
Speaker
Yeah. And Pete and like the CEOs were telling him. And the other thing I want to say is generally in the world, especially since, you know, we always talk about healthcare care on here, but generally in the world to do the right thing is almost always better and cheaper.
00:37:27
Speaker
Like social medicine is cheaper and it tends to be better. I mean, I have argued with people left and right about like the waiting lines in this country. And I'm like, it doesn't mean we have to do it the same way.
00:37:39
Speaker
You can take the best parts of all of the things around. We have so many models to choose from at this point. It's a stupid excuse. It's dumb to me that our we pay into the government who pays into healthcare while we also pay a for-profit company that has control over healthcare by people that are not medical professionals. yeah It's just mind-boggling to me that the basic logic is right there and people can't even think the stuff out. But like I said, so often in life, the better thing to do is usually cheaper as well.
00:38:13
Speaker
And you could still make profit off of it if it's capital related. You know, it's just fucking stupid. It's mind boggling to me. you're right. My, I kind of worry that there's so many, yeah everybody seems to be getting into so many angles.
00:38:29
Speaker
you know what mean? You can't afford to live ah life.
Anxiety from Global Issues
00:38:33
Speaker
You're worried about the state of geopolitical situation. You're worried about impending possible world war.
00:38:40
Speaker
You're worried about, can you feed your children? Will your children be able to go to school and get a decent education? all It's coming from every fucking angle.
00:38:51
Speaker
And it's, i just don't understand how more and more people are cracking up, aren't cracking up. Because I know I'm finding it hard enough. you know know Well, look at the i don't know if it happened in Germany, Johnny, forgive me. I didn't follow it too much because there was so much chaos going on here. But look at how many incumbencies got flipped this last election around the entire planet, not just here.
00:39:15
Speaker
So many incumbents because everyone's struggling at this point. yeah and uh not everyone well you know what i mean yeah i'm like wait a lot of people struggling and then we've got like a lot of a very large class people here are making more and more money yeah but you know what i mean like the general population of the planet is still struggling because i mean right now at this point uh we went from like a percentage of people controlling 50 of our wealth in our country to three people yeah yeah it's fucking absurd to me man yeah It's like, if if politics isn't working to regulate that industry, then maybe the people have to regulate it by choosing better.
00:39:56
Speaker
Why can you do that? I mean, look at the the American system. I mean, it's just... It's a mess, dude. How can you do that? you know I mean, I suppose Biden and the Democrats are trying their best, but then also, they're also funded by donors and other people, and also people within the government. I mean, Bernie Sanders probably would have been good.
00:40:12
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, yeah the only... I would don't use Amazon. Don't buy a Tesla. Don't use Facebook. That's next to impossible to do. no that yeah I think it's like it's like beating capitalism by you know using capitalism. right it's like We have this idea that, oh okay, we can change the market by not engaging in the market. It's not going to happen. It's impossible. you to regulate it You just need to regulate it. like That's just what has to happen.
00:40:39
Speaker
Yeah, and taxing the rich would help a lot too. And taxing, to be clear, when I say taxing the rich, I don't mean their income. I mean their entire wealth. yeah fuck their and Some of them probably don't make that much direct income to tax. Tax their fucking entire wealth. That's how they do it.
00:40:53
Speaker
Do you know what I mean? I always i was going to say, I kind of like history and things like that. And I always wondered how the French Revolution kind of...
00:41:06
Speaker
How did that happen? It's like everything that happens. The other side of this is, you know, at some point, the pay you know, if France was the dominant superpower and the three richest people on the planet lived in France, I have a feeling and the French would probably stand up and go, fuck this, a lot quicker than the Americans are doing it.
00:41:29
Speaker
Do know what I mean? Because the French like a like a protest. why like They love a riot over there. Yeah. i think, you know, you can see how the French Revolution got to that point where they're going, hold on, we can't eat.
00:41:43
Speaker
We can't fucking eat. We can't look after ourselves. Yet these fuckers are living in palaces and building, you know, the palace to Versailles and all this shit. And it goes, ah, do you know what? I know what the answer is.
00:41:54
Speaker
Get the guillotine out. i think I think we're starting to see the signs here, but it's also a much bigger landmass and a lot more people here. And right now, people are at each other's throats, but it's slowly changing because everybody's starting to realize that shit's fucking with them, too.
00:42:07
Speaker
You know what I mean Like, you vote for these guys. Like, you vote for, just as an example, you vote for Trump in office, and you're like, well, it's not going to affect me. That's not what he's talking about. and you're like, yeah, he fucking is, but okay. Yeah.
00:42:18
Speaker
And then they get in and then like reality hits and everybody's like, oh fuck, this is starting to happen because he should still be in a honeymoon phase and his polls are dropping right now. So I think it's only a matter of time because it's just like everything else in history. If history is not taught ah taught us anything, it's that you can only put your boat boot on somebody's neck for so long before they lash out at you.
00:42:40
Speaker
And I mean, we've seen small signs of that in CEOs with Mangione shooting that dude, the CEO. So I mean, there's signs of it, but it's just nature. Like, it's not even just human nature. You can only fucking torture something for so long before it gets fed up.
00:42:56
Speaker
So it's going to lash out eventually. i just, I don't want it to be violent. I just want it to be done. You know what i mean? i don't really want to be over here fucking running around with guns and protecting people and shit. That'll really fuck with my head.
00:43:10
Speaker
Everybody seems so stressed out and anxious about it. It's kind of scary. it's It's like I said, I've seen more and more people. like Somebody won, I think, in Iowa, in a like ah place that one that Trump won with plus 22 points, you know what i mean? And they elected somebody in a Democrat in a special election.
00:43:28
Speaker
well So I think it's starting to happen. It's just going to be slow and stressful for at least the next two years until we can at least get control of Congress away from them. But again, i just keep going back to the same thing. Like either both parties have been fucking over the people of this country for decades. but It's really lesser evil and it's really not a great choice anyway.
00:43:50
Speaker
So to, to, to move away from my normal rant, my question is like, what would some i policies or what, will what would be some of the kinds of things or changes that you, if you could make them that you think would be for the better, because it's easy for us to rant about how shit things are, but yeah what kind of things, policy changes would you make if you could, for example,
00:44:19
Speaker
I'd like to see, I'd like to see obviously money out of politics or at least um like strangled down quite a bit. And I would be curious to see how ranked voting would work here because right now the winner take all thing is kind of bullshit.
00:44:34
Speaker
Like there's like this or that basically is what you get to because there's no, there's no way that somebody who's in a third party could make any kind of headway. But if you do a ranked voting thing, there's a chance that could happen. Yeah.
00:44:47
Speaker
cool cool I'm not sure that it's perfect. I'm not sure that it would even work here, but I'd like to see it tried. You what mean? most Most other countries now have a certain amount of coalition politics.
00:45:02
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, i know. They don't have enough... votes to go into par on their own they have to kind of well the thing is that that's happened here but it's kind of forced in it it's it's the coalitions are two groups johnny's shaking his head here i'm not talking about like if you could change out because you're actually you're like you want to play oh we're going to change the rules of the game i'm talking like if you could make policies if you could make changes what what were those policies obviously like i like i said i think i'd like to see how ranked voting would work for like a presidential like a national election i mean like for health care like for fucking social street single single single payer social shit fucking tax the shit out of the rich as well and like if you if you like stagger that shit like levels like if you make like a million dollars tax that shit at like like 30 percent and then yeah
00:45:50
Speaker
Double digits hit the fifties. And if you get to like billions of dollars, 90 fucking 5% of that shit gets taxed. And your wealth, not your income. yeah what will your What would you do with the, so you, we have the increased taxes. What do we do with that tax?
00:46:05
Speaker
What do you mean with that tax? We do the same thing, dude. I would, I would do free school. So this is, this is my thing. for Free education. so so So this is, this is my thing. And I brought this up on the show before. Yeah.
00:46:16
Speaker
The Constitution, and I believe it sets it up that the government is responsible for national security here, right? In my opinion, healthcare, care education are just as much part of national security as the military.
00:46:27
Speaker
And I think they should be taken as seriously and in the same way. yeah Because... And I've said it before, i don't know who would fuck with the smartest, healthiest, most powerful nation on the planet. but You what I mean?
00:46:38
Speaker
yeah And I think that would lead to a lot wealthier and a lot better decisions in the long run. Because right now, the education system is all fucking all over the place. you either educated, you're not, you can afford it, or you spend your life paying for it, and it's predatory. like I think that kind of shit should happen. I'm fine with Snap. I think if we do enough, like there won't be as many people that are homeless anyway. like If we're taking care of shit like that, it should be all right. I think...
00:47:01
Speaker
ah There should be better ways for people to get out of prison here because they just keep cycling back through because there's no... I mean, they the recidivism is just insane here. And fucking fuck those private prisons. They can fuck off with their guaranteed fucking 90% full and shit like that. You can't have a prison system run for profit. Yeah, yeah. Because they have absolutely no impetus to rehabilitate and release people. Yeah.
00:47:30
Speaker
And I think it's absolutely in insane. I think ah this country is with everything broken down. I think we're strong enough and wealthy enough to kind of lead the way and make even the world more intertwined, like with goods and shit. Like we don't need to keep fucking the world doesn't work the way it used to. Like do we don't have enough population to build the smallest things and the biggest things at the same time. There's just not enough people here.
00:47:51
Speaker
Like people like to argue that they're like, I want to bring the small manufacturer. I'm like, there's not enough fucking people here. Like right before Trump was in office, our our I think our unemployment was like 4%. That's not enough people to bring somebody in here to do like stupid, like handy, repetitive stuff. we don't We don't have the population for it.
00:48:07
Speaker
The world is so small now. that you don't have population for it. You don't want to do it. We don't, but at the same time, we don't have the number. like You got to think about like ah think about like a corporation. It's usually like...
00:48:19
Speaker
You get a bulk in the middle, but there's always like a platform of like the lower end of people like the janitors and like, you know, that kind of stuff. There's always a bigger group toward the bottom because you need ah so much small stuff to make the next level to make the next level.
00:48:31
Speaker
It's kind of like a like a pyramid kind of. So we don't have the population to do all that shit, even if we start adding in the automation. But those are some of the things i would like to see. i might be wrong and they might not work, but I'd like to at least see it attempted.
00:48:44
Speaker
You know what mean? mac like if What do you guys think as an outsider? If not free healthcare, I think every American should be entitled to free mental healthcare.
00:48:55
Speaker
I'm fine That would be such a fucking massive difference. It would...
00:49:03
Speaker
solve so many of your problems, including the gun violence rate. and Because i don't people can't ask for help because it's going to cost them money.
00:49:15
Speaker
People can't seek the most basic of mental health help, and which is why... People walk into schools and shoot people. People walk into their offices and shoot people.
00:49:28
Speaker
but It's just fucking insane. and i'm i mean, it happens all over the world, but not anywhere near your numbers. Yeah, I mean, and I want to be clear, too. From my point of view, it definitely seems like a that' it is most definitely a mental health issue right there.
00:49:45
Speaker
For sure. And I want to be clear, too. Like, um I'm not anti-capitalist. I'm totally like 50-50 on all that shit. I think there's good things because there's good parts about capitalism. and And if we want to have like a fully scalable social medicine, but somebody wants to do private medicine and people want to pay for it fucking go pay for it. I don't give a shit. that want You can do both. I don't give a shit. But like if somebody needs care, just give them care. Like, fuck off. if i' I'd rather pay for it It's going to cost me less in the long run. even if even if you shouldn't have to pay for an ambulance. That's fucking... Yeah, I mean, even if it's even if i my tax bill looks bigger, I know mathematically it's lower. It's going to cost me less. What what about you what do you? What kind of stuff do you think would help anywhere in the room, Johnny?
00:50:27
Speaker
I mean, free healthcare, free education. I think we're completely on the same page about that. Yeah. Including university education. Thank you. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fully, fully free education. And again, if I'm okay with private options too. If you want to pay for fucking school, then go fucking pay for school. I don't give a shit.
00:50:43
Speaker
it I mean, one one thing in Germany that we have it in Berlin, but I would introduce rent caps and I would probably introduce them across everywhere. I think that we should, we should limit, there should be a limit on the amount. We should be able to cap rents.
00:50:58
Speaker
So that kind of happened here. They made it so this is what happened. it happened to my friend actually. So I don't know if it was statewide. i can't remember if it was state or federal, but there was, I think, um I know for Connecticut, at least for sure, there was a rent cap where you couldn't increase rent more than 5% put on. Right.
00:51:15
Speaker
So right before the law, when it would infect everybody just jacked up the rents. My friend's rent went up $600 a month before that law got enacted. So they then they were trying to get ahead of it. You know what i mean? So it's all good and well to do that. But if you're going to do that kind of stuff like midstream, like we are right now, you need to be like, this shit happens right now.
00:51:32
Speaker
Like there's no fucking leeway. Fuck you all. what what really Really what they do is they they go, this is the rent for that location per square foot. Fuck you. Then it doesn't matter.
00:51:44
Speaker
that is ah can't go by 5%. You can't go with this to go, all right, so let me see. This region of Berlin is £5 per square foot per month or whatever the fuck it is. I kind of agree with that, but at the same time, like people like to take pride in their stuff, and if you build something up and make it nicer, you should be able to get a little more money out of it not I'm not saying you need to rip people off, but there should be a little bit in that. They do, and it it should be nicer. I'm just saying you could...
00:52:11
Speaker
You could stop that by capping with a percentage increase. No, I understand, but that's a, that's a, that's a, the, the, the impetus there to have a nicer place is that you get a better client who will look after your place.
00:52:24
Speaker
Potentially. Definitely. No, yeah but I'm saying like more money. um i mean, potentially. If that, if that makes sense. I mean, somebody might make more money than me, but maybe they don't take care of the place as well. You don't know.
00:52:38
Speaker
Like you just don't know. Yeah, but I mean, I think you're very jaded, sir.
00:52:46
Speaker
I mean, I don't disagree that it will happen. I just don't think that it's going to be like maybe 50, maybe 50 percent of the time. But I'm saying like there's not going to be any.
00:52:57
Speaker
Nobody's going to really want to do stuff to their house to like make it better to sell to make a little more money out of it, for example, or something if we start capping too hard. i Like I said, I'm not anti-capitalist. i just need There needs to be like a medium. like There needs to be a mid-range of both.
Housing Market and Political Reform
00:53:11
Speaker
and The problem is, by looking for the mid-range, that's what people find their rules for fucking people over. i as know so this is my my feeling about it. The rent increase in Berlin has been the fastest rent increase of anywhere in Germany, and the rent here is super high for most people.
00:53:28
Speaker
and you know Who does that benefit? Who does the increasing rents benefit? It benefits landlords that own the properties. and For sure. And the majority of people's earnings then go into paying their rent. And it's a very small number of people.
00:53:42
Speaker
And if you think about it now, the most global assets, like it's 80% you know assets is private property that's what companies are owning now if you look at black rock and they're buying up whole housing flyn so that they can you know and then they have the asset and they can force people to pay whatever rent they want and who's that for the benefit of imagine if instead of paying 1500 euro a month and your rent your rent was a reasonable 500 then these people have a thousand extra euro to spend on anything that they want within the city services culture no and then within the local economy and like
00:54:13
Speaker
Yep. The money going and being condensed into have small a number of landlords funneling the money out of the city. And be better to have that. And it's the same everywhere. All over. This is the way.
00:54:25
Speaker
That's kind of why I want to tax wealth, though, not income, because it might sway some of that from happening from companies owning every little thing. because right now it it benefits them because it's just income as opposed to what they're actually valued at like i could own a like i could own a two hundred thousand dollar house but i make like two grand a month on it what are you gonna that's like but the fucking resource i own is much more valuable than that money coming in yeah so i mean if you tax the wealth like their overall wealth they might find other other ways to like put their money places you get taxed on your house do you get taxed on your house every year yeah property taxes
00:55:00
Speaker
that's fuck that's how the town That's how the towns pay for everything. See, we don't, we pay rates and things like that, but it's not like a, that's, we we pay we we pay taxes on property when you buy or sell a property.
00:55:15
Speaker
No, we pay property tax every year and it funds the towns that you live in, the education, the roads, all the shit that like the towns. And is that based on the value of the house or the score of footage? It's just the the footage of the house and the property you own. That sounds great the like it's... Okay, that makes more sense.
00:55:32
Speaker
um DeSantis lately is trying to talk is talking about getting rid of property taxes in Florida. I don't know what you're going to replace all that income with, but because there's like millionaires down here, so I don't know what replace that income with.
00:55:44
Speaker
You have like fucking 15 acres land for a farmer, and then you have like a millionaire with like 20 acres of land or the same size, but like a huge mansion. Like, where the you going to make that money back? Yeah.
00:55:57
Speaker
It's probably going to be the four people in the middle class. Like, I don't know how yet, but it's probably what it's going to be. Yeah. Johnny talking about um property is ah it's definitely a big deal because I know it's a big thing that they're talking about here right now, right across the UK and Ireland.
00:56:13
Speaker
People can't afford to live kind of anywhere. It's happening here. It's terrifying. It's happening here. The amount of people that are homeless and e you're not a lot of people are not that far away from being homeless because they cannot afford to live anywhere.
00:56:28
Speaker
Everybody's close to being homeless. I don't think people, especially like middle class people, don't realize how close they are to being homeless. Like one bad decision could fuck you up. But we have the same problem here, man. Houses, is like especially for a little while, were super expensive. Rent is out of control down here.
00:56:45
Speaker
like it's Everybody's making money off of these properties, and they own them, and they hold them. So you're paying you're paying them on top of the wealth that they own by owning the property, and they're turning that into more wealth and resources and shit like that. So it's a cycle that benefits them. And so you start taxing them and taking that money from them.
00:57:02
Speaker
What the fuck else can you do? ah Yeah. I mean, yeah regulate it. yeah mean I'm saying like on top of that, I mean, there's going to be regulations, but there's still going to always be loopholes for them. They're always going to like avoid taxes. They're always going to do anything. I mean, like just regulate and close the loopholes. You know, it's not always. would love that. That's what we should do. You know, they should.
00:57:23
Speaker
They attempted it here. They brought in a rent cap for Berlin, um a five-year rent cap that was introduced, rent freeze. The rents weren't going to be allowed to go up for five years. And then it got overturned by the federal government. It was like the local Berlin government that passed this. And then the federal government said, yeah, you can't do that.
00:57:40
Speaker
um And also, but one of the the yeah some property owners also donated money. Yeah. yeah but And actually also explicitly said, yeah, they expected the regulations to be changed.
00:57:52
Speaker
And then they went, no, I didn't really mean what I said. Yeah, of course. Explicit, yeah. ah yeah It happens everywhere. is what we They brought that that rent freeze in here and then it could overturn. But yeah, that's what...
00:58:06
Speaker
So, but anyway, like, yes, we we can do these things. We should do these things. And my question is, do you, like, with these things that we've talked about, is there a political party in the US? Like, do the Democrats represent those things more than Republicans?
00:58:18
Speaker
Or are they just as bad as each other? Or is there a party that's coming out and saying, from my from an outside perspective, the only person that I see being so forthright in saying that has been Bernie Sanders. They'll like, yeah yeah, you know,
00:58:29
Speaker
We're going to talk outside of that. I don't really see that rhetoric because I do. A lot of people feel the same way where we're like, look, we need free healthcare. care We need free education. You know, we need to, we need to help people with um the the price of property and their rent and their cost of living and make all of these things better. Like, are there political parties that that's their, that's their. So it's not so much. So the problem here is like we were talking about before with coalitions and stuff. The democratic party is basically a coalition of a bunch of different like progressives, liberals, like all that stuff is in one party.
00:58:59
Speaker
The GOP has been, even though there are outliers, but it's largely congealed into one blob of MAGA or similar. but So there is it is a coalition versus the another side already. So there are people like... um The thing I thought was interesting was right after the election, AOC noticed she had people that voted for her and Trump, and she was like...
00:59:21
Speaker
Why don't you guys talk to me? Like, why would you vote for me and Trump? That doesn't make any sense to me. And she's like, and the the thing that she got most back, which I thought was the most telling about the election is both of them are seen as outliers as like things against the norm.
00:59:35
Speaker
So she is she's very much progressive. i mean, there's a few other progressives that we have. They're just not the majority. And she doesn't even take she doesn't take large donations from anywhere. She doesn't believe in the the stock buying that a lot of politicians do. like she She doesn't like the trading that happens. she's she's She's pretty fucking progressive, and she's pretty smart.
00:59:55
Speaker
And the way she's been doing things lately is pretty interesting. like She's been going on like Instagram Live and shit like that, just talking to people. I just don't understand how Trump can be seen as an outlier. i mean... i don't know, man. it mean, he's a literal billionaire.
01:00:15
Speaker
I know. Pretending to be working class. But he's not a politician, quote-unquote. Aye. Yeah. you know what i mean? It's just bizarre.
01:00:26
Speaker
It's very, very bizarre. Eat the rich. Fuck them. That's what I say. Yeah. But then senator just my question is like, yeah, if these are the, you know, and I think there's probably a lot of people who feel the same way, realize, know what?
01:00:40
Speaker
They feel strongly about free healthcare, care about making things better for working class people and middle class people. There are people who feel really strongly about that. But I, and this is what I was saying earlier about like Die Linke and their message in in Berlin being, hey, you know, if your heating's too, is your heating too expensive? Like vote for us, we'll lower it. Is your rent too high? We're going to help fight that. Do you need a higher pension?
01:01:06
Speaker
and making these positive things where people come out say this is what we want to fight for this is what we want these are the policies behind and and people voted for it and is it possible like is you know why can't that happen more where instead of like voting to be against something or to fight something else well like i said like trump even even way after he got to let he's i got elected on grocery prices like that's what he said straight up but the problem is he lied the whole time okay So, I mean, he did get elected. I mean, obviously he was like anti-immigration and all like, he's like, oh, they're overrunning the cunt, blah, blah, blah. But like he did, he did say like he did run on grocery prices, basically on inflation.
01:01:45
Speaker
So, I mean, people voted for that. Yeah. Yeah. naively thinking that that was the dude going to solve the problem when he had no policy. Yeah. People just hear rhetoric and they don't understand the difference between rhetoric and policy. They don't look up policy. Like Harris is not my favorite either, but she had some cool stuff. Like first time buyer, she was going to give like $25,000 back on a house at the first house they buy.
01:02:07
Speaker
She was going to give like $50,000 or like startup businesses, like all this crap that would have really helped a lot in a lot of ways. But I mean, not perfect by any means, but. way better but people don't read policy and the other thing that happens here now is the same thing that's been happening since tv's been invented like people vote for the person that has the charisma too they don't it's not uh it's not not it's not politics it's uh america's got talent yeah exactly it's it's it's not that i mean and if you watch i'm sure from the inside it looks like this so it has to look like it to you guys but it looks like people vote like rooting for two teams
01:02:44
Speaker
I'm like, my team are fucking middle class and poor people. Like, I don't fucking care if you're red or blue. You can say some vile shit to me, and I know part of it, if I know you well enough, then I probably am assuming you're scared and fucking this is your way of reacting, even if I think it's bullshit.
01:02:59
Speaker
I just, there are people and I'm sure you know people, Johnny, I don't know you as well as I know Stuart, but Stuart and I know people directly that don't act the way that they vote.
01:03:10
Speaker
like fate Like they do things as a person that does not match the way they vote. It's fucking weird, but they get caught up in the shit. And it's very much like, it's like teams here. It's like a team sport. It's like, you know, neither side is out for you directly. You need to pick the person that is, looks like they're actually going to help you and you can trust. But even that's hard to do now.
01:03:32
Speaker
So I don't know. That's my kind of rant, I guess. I'm very much... just leaning more and more into the wealth, the wealth inequality, because as long as that keeps going, we're all going fuck up. So i have a policy.
01:03:44
Speaker
Oh, you have a policy? Um, basic politics, politics. One-on-one should be a class in, in high school for everybody. I have another policy.
01:03:56
Speaker
My other policy be- maybe if people understood how it actually works, they might actually take an interest. Yeah, they used to have that. was called civics. um They don't teach civics that well anymore. I think the campaign season should be like a couple months, not like years.
01:04:09
Speaker
Yeah, that shit is- Right now in America, it's nonstop campaign, like nonstop campaigning. I think you should get like- Here it's like six weeks? At the very most, I was going to say six months, but more ideally like two months of campaigning, and then you're fucking done. It's about six weeks here. What is it in Germany?
01:04:26
Speaker
I'm not sure actually. From one being called and it was a snap election, wasn't it? This one. Yeah. So it's probably about six to eight weeks, something like that. It's fucking tiring to hear campaign shit all year round, all the time.
01:04:38
Speaker
Like, cause when they're doing that, they're not doing any work either for a start. They're not. Well, all the, and the other thing they do is literally across the street from where all the Congress people work, they have phone banks and they just call and try to get money and do money fundraising. Like that shit needs to stop.
01:04:52
Speaker
Maybe some kind of like government allowance for people to run with. I don't fucking know, but they need to stop with the fucking. It's been a really fun and stressful conversation.
01:05:04
Speaker
Everyone's real happy. Has anyone anything positive to say this week? You're still a cunt. No, I'm just kidding. um Positive. like mean we're and It's interesting to know that like Berlin did take a swing to the left.
01:05:21
Speaker
mean, Berlin is pretty left-wing, but it was interesting to see that, and unlike the rest of Germany, yeah took ah it took a swing to the left. I've seen a thing where it says a lot of the AFD
01:05:32
Speaker
a lot of the aftd voters kind of predominantly sitting around ah east East Germany rather than West Germany, you know, based on thats the old Berlin Wall. but That that what surprised me. done Because I'm sure, I think it was in one of your newscasts that I seen that, Johnny.
01:05:57
Speaker
And I was like, why? Obviously they have a history of... ah oppressive regimes why would they particularly vote for the far right bro this country i live in just spent almost its entirety like fighting against things like fascism and oligarchy and oligarchy but look where we are yeah you only said i'm just saying like it makes no sense dude i saw world war ii guys that were like i can't believe it fought for this fucking country and i'm like
01:06:31
Speaker
I don't know how we got here, bro. Yeah. It's kind of it's, I thought, I thought, I thought that was interesting. I think it's all pretty interesting. Um, I think the positive side here is watching people like changing and starting to realize and wake up and getting mad as far as political stuff goes.
01:06:49
Speaker
As far as other shit, I get to go get drunk Friday and that makes me happy. Yeah. It's one of the few times I'm going to get like really shit faced really hard. And then I get to go to the rodeo Saturday. You guys do anything fun? You're going to a rodeo? I'm going to a rodeo. I've never been to one live. I've seen them on TV. What's positive in your life, Johnny?
01:07:07
Speaker
and I'm just thinking about this weekend. We're going to be doing a walking tour with the magazine, a new walking tour, with the tour guide called Grand Balmer, and it's in the area of Schoenberg, and it's Riots, Raves, and Revolutions. Oh, i love that. Nice. Can I get that on YouTube or something? I want to see that. You can follow us around.
01:07:25
Speaker
We'll do a YouTube live. That sounds fun. but that's So it's a walking tour of riots, waves, and revolutions? That's fucking cool, man. Schinneberg uncovered an area of Berlin called Schinneberg.
01:07:38
Speaker
So yeah, talk to later. Wait, you say it's going to be YouTube Live for real? No, no, was saying we could do it. think you should be. I'll be there. Just like follow along. Just fucking film that shit. I want to watch that, dude. I'm super intrigued by that. I mean, that's cool.
01:07:51
Speaker
Berlin really has a very strong history of protest as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a big anti-fascist protest. It was in a few days of Musk's salute.
01:08:03
Speaker
That was positive to see. Yeah, there's a lot of protests here. There's a lot of yeah support. Yeah, it's good. That's cool, man. I want to do the tour that tour. Yeah, not as... mean, maybe not as much as it used to be.
01:08:16
Speaker
You know, there might be protests here, but there's still a lot of protests. and the Yeah, it's good. Yeah. that and Will you be will you be planning a would you be planning a holiday to Costa del Gaza when Trump has
AI, Misinformation, and Media Skepticism
01:08:31
Speaker
it built?
01:08:31
Speaker
It's <unk>s fucking terrifying. Did you see the AI video they put out? Yeah, did you see the AI video, dude? With the topless Netanyahu?
01:08:44
Speaker
Yeah. It's like... BB. It's just fucking madness. It's absurd, and we We live in crazy times. It's the weirdest shit.
01:08:56
Speaker
Yeah. I said, that i think I last episode, I said, Ian, the one thing I am looking forward to through all this turmoil is the music. Because there tends to be a ah resurgence of Of some good music during ah times of but of political upheaval?
01:09:13
Speaker
People get angry. It's great. ah I mean, anyway, no, i was going to add, do you think things are markedly different than they are now than they would be? Like if there were social media existed 50 years ago, would we, would we also be feeling like this?
01:09:27
Speaker
Like, are we caught up in this perpetual thinking of what everything is like and wrapped up in it? Because we have a new cycle on 24-7. Yeah. um Well, I mean, they had news cycles back then too. I mean, you had three editions of newspapers every day.
01:09:42
Speaker
yeah Do you know? I think... And more people read the newspaper... i think it's similar but the problem is that there's more information so there's more bullshit to siphon through you know yeah i think instead of their they're fading you shade a lot more yeah and you're and you're you're blatantly getting bullshit at this point from some places well most mainstream places some are kind of leaning back and forth um but most of them are kind of bullshit i've been doing a lot of like youtube and other kind of ways getting news and any news site i know that's like as moderate as possible
01:10:16
Speaker
because the problem is the people that believe Musk actually sucked Trump's toes in that video. That's funny though. I don't understand how it works. Do you know what I mean? Let him fucking think it, dude.
01:10:28
Speaker
It's, ian And that that's that's the scary time we live in. I mean, the videos and stuff that are coming out are so real looking. Yeah, they're getting better. Especially to the common person who doesn't really look at it and go, those hands are fucked up.
01:10:49
Speaker
to know some of those Some of those hands are being corrected, though. i know AI is learning to fix all that stuff. It's just kind of scary to think. I did think that was an excellent bit of the um an excellent bit of work done, whoever hacked those video screens.
01:11:07
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty funny. It um that's the you know That's the start of it. Obviously, more of that, please. you're doing no with That's the shit that's going to piss them off. Oh, yeah. The other side of it is,
01:11:19
Speaker
It's a bit scary when he gets pissed off because it could do crazy shit. i think um I think the one thing that is a little different now since we're so overrun with news is that it's easier it's easier to control the narrative and it's easier to keep people in fear and anxiety.
01:11:37
Speaker
I mean, it's hard it's easy enough to do it, but now it's like social media and you have somebody that owns an entire platform that's rather large and has control over it and throttles people he doesn't like. like I don't know if you guys but he fucked with Bill Burr because Bill Burr talked shit about him on ah Twitter. yeah like Stuff like that happens. like You have people that are literally at the helm and controlling. I deleted all my accounts off it anyway. So...
01:12:00
Speaker
ah I think it's a little easier to keep the fear up, which is kind of what helps like things like oligarchies and fascism come to fruition, because people want some that want some kind of imagery of strength.
01:12:13
Speaker
And that brings me to the people don't know what strength is, in my opinion, because if they think that guy is tough, I don't know what the fuck to tell you. But yeah, so we tried to get happy and it just fucking funneled right back down to bullshit.
01:12:26
Speaker
We tried. We fucking tried. Yeah. um Yeah, I don't know, man. I'm kind of frustrated with all the politics here. And yeah I like hearing an insight from you guys. Johnny, I got to get your number on like WhatsApp or something so I can talk to you more.
01:12:41
Speaker
Yeah. yeah and Also, mean on a positive note, Friday is another edition of Critical Mass, which is happening on the last Friday of every month in Berlin, as it does in many other places around the world.
Cyclist Protests in Berlin
01:12:54
Speaker
started in San Francisco, but Berlin is a real centre for it Critical Mass is a bike protest where thousands of people take to the streets on the bikes.
01:13:03
Speaker
ah to to be like, look, you know we are traffic. you know and say I'll push for ah yeah better better rights for cyclists and for to improve the safety for for cyclists.
01:13:15
Speaker
so The way it works is is there's no predetermined route for it. It's just thousands of bikes all meet at 8pm at the one spot and then cycle off and then they just get to the lights and people just pick a direction.
01:13:28
Speaker
So I did it for years and I always thought that there were some leaders at the front who knew what the route was and they kept it secret so the police didn't know where we were going, right? So after doing it for a lot of years, I was like, I want to meet the people at the front.
01:13:39
Speaker
So I cycled right to the front and when I got to the front, it was just they get their traffic lights and they just go like, Lynx! and acts like left, right. And then they just pick a direction and they go off.
01:13:51
Speaker
And I was like, oh my God, it's just anarchy. It's just like, it's not really. It kind of makes it better. And some of the people maybe think like, oh okay, let's go this route and they go there, but there's no pre-planned route.
01:14:03
Speaker
The only thing they do every time is it goes to the Zigazole, the victory column, which is a big roundabout. So yeah yeah at one point, all the bikes just go around the roundabout and just keep going around so none of the traffic can get in.
01:14:15
Speaker
Nice. So this is the most disruptive thing you can do. And then, yeah, and eventually at some point in time, the police who help the ride, they help, like when we pick a ah a place to go, they help block the traffic.
01:14:26
Speaker
And then at some point after 10 minutes, they're like, guys, yeah, we need to get you off this ride. People are going absolutely ballistic. You say that started in San Francisco? It started in San Francisco.
01:14:37
Speaker
Yeah. believe it started i I can't imagine that going well in America. oh it's probably not in Florida, but San Francisco is by Friday. Not anymore. That's the thing. So that's one of the amazing things about Berlin is that it kind of like enables this. Like in London, the police would just be like, yeah, you're not doing that here. They they tolerate that form of protest and yeah and they help it.
01:14:55
Speaker
ah Yeah, i completely love it But yeah, the first time I found it, I was just like, what is going on up here? What is it? That's crazy. That's fucking amazing. Oh yeah. And then there's one time that these kids, these, you know, just anybody can go to the front and start leading it. So these young kids started doing it and then they got to a roundabout and they didn't really know what they were doing and what exit to take. So they just sort of, Everybody's stuck on the roundabout because no one's leading it anymore.
01:15:20
Speaker
Everybody's like, where are we going? Why are we here? This is one of our stuff for this protest. that so but like Someone has to take the lead again and be like, all right, let's get off this roundabout. It's fucking funny, man. Yeah, yeah. So that's happening on Friday. I love that. And things like sound systems, there's guys, right?
01:15:41
Speaker
There's these ones that have, so I sometimes take a sound system, but these guys have three like wagons, Bluetooth, together. So one is like a guy cycling a DJ with a full setup.
01:15:53
Speaker
That's awesome. And then you've got another two guys on another big rig, which is like a massive sound system with lights on it, and it's radio controlled like with like to the other one, and then one in the front. And there's just these three. that Anyway, it's completely wild.
01:16:09
Speaker
That sounds awesome. That's good hot Friday. That sounds fun. i'm go to be More protests like that, please. That sounds so fun. It is amazing. The other great protest on a bike, it happens here every summer. It's called the Sternfahrt. It's the official, it's organized by the ADFC, the star ride.
01:16:26
Speaker
And it starts something like 26 different points outside of Berlin. So there are 26 different points. And it's like a star and they all keep converging. So they start everywhere and the the the the bikes keep meeting up.
01:16:39
Speaker
I think there's like 50 or 60,000, right? and then it And then they close the Autobahn for the day. What? The bikes go on so you get to cycle on the Autobahn.
01:16:50
Speaker
So then you're like thousands of people, no car, just cycling on the Autobahn. So I go and
Personal Reflections and Final Thoughts
01:16:55
Speaker
I tour Sound System
01:17:03
Speaker
That's amazing. I'm on the Autobahn. Amazing. yeah anyway sounds so good it's amazing so anyway that's sort of anyway this friday is critical mass that's what i'm looking forward to i like that more more protest that's yeah and that's the way to do it i believe yeah yeah i agree all right stewart we don't we didn't bother asking the first question because he's already answered that but he's already answered it we can answer this we'll ask the last question though okay Hey, Johnny, Johnny, Johnny.
01:17:34
Speaker
yeah What's the manliest thing you've done this week?
01:17:41
Speaker
She's not going to top the last one. No, no. I mean, it always goes back to the start. What's the manliest thing I did this week?
01:17:53
Speaker
I'm trying think, i have I been manly this week? It's just the manliest thing. It doesn't even necessarily have to be manly. It's just the manliest thing in your perspective that you did this week. took care of myself.
01:18:05
Speaker
good I'll take that. that's a good and don't I was being supportive to my friends. I think, yeah, yeah, that's a good answer. I did this week. That's a fair answer. More of that, please.
01:18:19
Speaker
Yeah, please. Yeah. Well, this was, this was an interesting, if not dark conversation. I'm sure it was. I'd be interested to know what people think of the political discourse. We live in interesting, if not dark times. We do.
01:18:32
Speaker
to And I mean, like I said last time, I'm perfectly okay with being wrong, but this is everything that I think and what history has taught me, so yeah we'll see. I don't fucking know.
01:18:43
Speaker
but Thanks for coming on, Johnny. We did want to hear a little perspective from someone from who lives in a different country, different place, in a different way, and it is... some Yeah, yeah, yeah. But we're all in the middle of this turmoil. like a tower Oh, yeah.
01:19:02
Speaker
It's happening everywhere, you know? But, yeah. Anyway, thanks for having me on, guys. No problem. Thank you for coming on. Really appreciate it. um Stop with your party bullshit. Look out for your neighbors and your family and all that shit. like yeah what you care about Focus on that shit. If we all do that, I think everybody be better off than fucking playing teams.
01:19:20
Speaker
Fuck that. It's not team sport. Awesome. All right. Take care, everybody. I'm away to bed. Thank you. Bye.