Transcript
Speaker: Today, we're talking about old versions of ourselves, selective free speech, and why trying too hard to look cool usually has the opposite effect. We're going to get into it.
Speaker: Let's get it.
Speaker: welcome first of all welcome this is unsolicited perspectives i am your host bruce anthony here to lead the conversation in important events and topics that are shaping today's society cycle stay join the conversation and follow us wherever you get your audio podcasts subscribe to our youtube channel for our video podcast youtube exclusive content and our youtube membership rate review like comment share share with your friends share with your family hell even share with your enemies On today's episode, Facebook sends me back in time. We confront our shut up and dribble hypocrisy and we start keeping score on everybody's aura points.
Speaker: But that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the show.
Speaker: What up, sis? What up, brudda? I can't call it. I can't call it. We're going to get into me getting back on Facebook in just a moment. a However, I have some breaking news.
Speaker: Breaking news to you. I'm sure other people found out about this earlier today. Okay. Yeah. The Bar Neal Hill Show will premiere on Paramount+.com.
Speaker: September 1st. You're kidding. Nope. Varnell Hill. For the ladies and gentlemen that don't understand who Varnell Hill is, Varnell Hill was a Arsenio Hall-like character from The Martin Show.
Speaker: Yes, played by the incomparable Tommy Davidson. And now, I forgot, Tommy Davidson brought it up. I don't know who approached him with the idea, but they somebody pitched it to Martin. Martin thought it was a great idea, got everybody involved. Paramount+. plus show is going to be Aaron.
Speaker: The Varnell Hill Show. That is... ah So Tommy Davidson as Varnell Hill on the episode where he comes on to two Martin's a radio show. It's a two-parter.
Speaker: Yes. So that is one of the only instances that I can remember of someone making Martin break on camera. And when he's talking about catfish is delicious... about Lake Varnell, and you just see Martin's face, and he just kind of looks away, and he is trying his hardest not to laugh. And it is, like, it's one of the funniest...
Speaker: two episodes, you will see. And so I encourage anybody. want to say Martin is definitely streaming somewhere. not 100%.
Speaker: I don't know what it's called now, but I know for a while it was on HBO Max or whatever it is Yeah. It's back to being HBO Max because they tried to do Max and everybody was like, what is this? Why would you cut off the selling point, which is the HBO? Yeah. So it's back to HBO Max. So it might be on there. I'm not 100% sure, but it's definitely streaming somewhere. So yeah watch those episodes and you will see why. We are excited for a real Varnell Hill show.
Speaker: It's season two. It's season two of the Martin short. two. Yeah, season two. like you it's So I'm excited for the Varnell Hill show. Martin will be making an appearance on the show. The cast, the characters, a lot of people that have been in old Black sitcoms from back in the day are going to be in on this. so And i yeah I think the premise is like the Larry Sanders show.
Speaker: Yeah, that's what i was thinking. Yeah, the premise is going to be like, so the premise is for those people who don't know the Larry Sanders show, which, by the way, another great show.
Speaker: Oh, my God. Larry Sanders starred Gary Shandling. Gary Shandling. It's a hard name to say. Especially for me. Yeah. is hilarious it's a show about a person doing a talk show yes yeah so it's like you like the back behind the scenes look of like building a talk so yeah yes that's what i assumed it would be i didn't think he would actually be the varnell hill show where he would have guests he might though they could do a little bit of both that would be funny
Speaker: Well, yeah, I'm sure there'll be like episode like episodes of him taping the show and have guests, but I thought like he would actually have a talk show no where he plays this character, kind of like a Jiminy Glick type of thing. If anybody knows, Martin Short plays a celebrity interviewer, Jiminy Glick. So he's in character, but he is interviewing people.
Speaker: I think they could do both. I think they could. They could. they they ah Tommy Davidson could pull it off. Yeah. Because he doesn't get the credit that he deserves as just a great comedian and comedic actor. so And a lot of people don't remember. Leading Man.
Speaker: He had his own movies. Yeah. i mean he had his He had one movie where he was the leading man, and that's strictly business. I don't know of any other movie. Woo was his movie.
Speaker: i Was it it? The movie was called Woo, and Woo was Jada Pinkett. Yeah, and it was about her relationship with Tommy Davidson. Okay, but the movie was called Woo. He wasn't top billing.
Speaker: He was. The movie was about him. okay That's, in my opinion. no he wasn't top billing because the name of the movie was Wu, which meant... It was because she was she was such a, like, crazy force in the film. But I honestly, I feel like the movie was about him. Ladies and gentlemen, if y'all don't know what Wu is, Ben Stiller stole the idea and and did it with there' something about... No, not something about Mary. The movie that he did with Jennifer Aniston.
Speaker: ah but She was just a force of nature. Yeah, I can't... I don't remember that. Yeah, but that's the like most things in black culture, it was stolen. Ben Stiller did it. It was funny, but it was just... It had been done before. Yeah.
Speaker: All right. So... You and I had a conversation off air not too long ago. And I was talking about how I was going to purge my closets because there's no justifiable reason why a single man specifically that has as much closet space as I have should also have a storage unit. That means I just have entirely too much stuff, right? yeah Yeah. So I've been getting rid of a lot of clothes. It's been tough.
Speaker: But it's been, it was like, yo, bruh, you don't fit this anymore. And no matter what you think you're going to cut, you're not going to enough to fit into these again. And even if you could, that's not the style anymore. Right. That's also a piece of it too, that you have to take into account. Like, Yeah, I could get back into these one day. Do I want to?
Speaker: But I'm upset that the young generation is going back to baggy because what was the whole purpose of me working out? Get this body to show off to put on the bag of clothes. That's that's not the life i'm trying to live. But that's that that has not made it to Atlanta yet because jeans are skinny.
Speaker: They're either skinny or baggy. So I'm getting rid of clothes. who And then I looked at the top of my closet at the over 30 boxes of Jordans. And I just said, let me go through these.
Speaker: Yeah. Let me go through these and see if I can get rid of any of them. oh hu And there was five. Five out of the 30 plus. I was like, all right, I can let these go. This could be a first step.
Speaker: Uh-huh. Right? Yes. It could be a first step. I can let these go. How am I going to sell them? Because they're still almost in, like, pristine condition. Because some of them I haven't worn since before the pandemic.
Speaker: Right? Yeah. Everybody keeps telling me Facebook Marketplace, Facebook Marketplace. That's where people are selling stuff these days. Yeah. I didn't want to get back on Facebook. No one does. Right.
Speaker: so I'm like, forget it. I'll just get back on Facebook Marketplace. Signed into my old account that I have not been on. Activated it. And it has not been active since 2012.
Speaker: woof I'm surprised Meta kept that a cat like kept that account data. I'm surprised. Yeah, well, they did. and What is their retention timeline? Because what? 20 years? That's No, that's what I'm saying. like Do they keep accounts for years? Or like what is the...
Speaker: Yeah, that's crazy that you were still able to log in. There are people legitimately, I know them, that are listening to this. Yeah. That were alive, but probably weren't even in elementary school yet the last time I used this account. Yeah.
Speaker: Now, what was going on in my life... 12 years ago, 14 years ago. Yeah. I had recently gotten married. Oh, yes. So I log in and the face profile is me and my ex-wife on a wedding day.
Speaker: All these photos, me my ex-wife. Mind you, ladies and gentlemen, I have no problem with my ex-wife. I wish her nothing but the best. There is no beef between us. We had a conversation not too long ago about a particular situation, and it was all love.
Speaker: You can be divorced from somebody who was once your best friend and still be cool with them. We ain't cool like we calling each other on on our birthdays which is wishing each other a happy birthday. But there is no beef.
Speaker: right But at the same time... I can't be activating my account, long been divorced, with all these pictures of me and her at the wedding. So I go through, and I got to delete them. And I got to untag myself from the pictures that that are on there. And finally, I think I've gotten rid of all of them. And I start i start seeing some old friends, because if they're not on Instagram, h and they don't live near me anymore,
Speaker: I lost contact with them after I got off of Facebook. Yeah. So I'm seeing the little Facebook Messenger. like, hey, what's up? bubble bla blah How you doing? This and that. And they're like, so are you still married? And I'm like, nah, I've been divorced for a long time. But why does your profile picture say, you know, still you guys? And I was like, no, it isn't. I'm looking at it right now.
Speaker: But it was still it. It was still the profile picture in the Messenger. So now I'm going all through trying to figure out how i changed the profile picture. Goodness, you might as well just started a whole new account. Probably, but Meta don't make it super easy to start a whole new account with the same email addresses. So then I started looking at some of these old pictures.
Speaker: haven't been on there for 14 years. And there are some pictures, pristine pictures of me at high school with my friends. yes And I'm just like, oh, this is memory lane. Then I go through my friends list and I'm like, who are these people?
Speaker: Some of them I recognize. yeah Some of them I do not. Yeah, yeah. And it's just like, wow, memory lane. So Facebook turned into like a digital, almost like holding place in time. And it's interesting to look at it and being like, oh, okay, I'm a completely different person yeah from what I was 14 years ago. Not only in my physical appearance, because I had hair. Okay, that's one thing. I had hair. yeah Yeah. But also just in my thinking and who I am as a person, my passions, what my goals are. What's important to you, like, you know, that all of that shifts over time. So, like, you could have some status updates on there. You'd be like, mm, that's not, I don't think that anymore.
Speaker: yeah Look, I'm so behind on this technology of Facebook, I have been having a difficult time just navigating through it. I wouldn't even know how to find some of my old statuses. yeah I don't know if I even did that. So that's just, it it was interesting to go back through and go down memory lane. And at the same time, as I'm listing this stuff on Marketplace, I did this on Monday, we are recording on a Wednesday.
Speaker: this will air on a Friday, hopefully by Friday, some of the items that I'm trying to sell will finish the review process and be placed out for actually listing. Yeah. Because that's the whole reason why I got on there.
Speaker: Yeah, that's, ah and that's a good thing. Like, they go through the process of, like, reviewing the stuff people put on there so that you know, I mean, yeah, there can always be scammers and this, that, and the third, but Nine times out of 10, you find something on there, it's legit. And so, you know, let them take glu take that time to review to review that stuff. So it'll sell quick. I don't think you need to worry about it.
Speaker: I'm selling five pairs of Jordans and a laptop. And I think, honestly, it is not unrealistic for me to get almost $1,000 from all that stuff. And I'm going like, oh, that's a nice little bump.
Speaker: oh That's a nice little bump. I wouldn't mind extra G in my pocket. I'm going to blow it. I'm going to blow it. I'm going to blow it. It's already spent. If it's me, I've already spent it in my mind.
Speaker: Before I even know what I'm going to end up with, I'm like, it's already gone. Yeah. In excess of what I actually get. This is going to be me, but it probably doesn't need to be said, but going say it anyway.
Speaker: Oh, boy. I am one of my, i am the harshest critic on myself when it comes to physical appearance.
Speaker: Nobody can ever tell me anything worse than I tell myself. Right? yeah Always hard on myself. Yeah. But I do think that despite the rough living and and the drinking and the occasional smoking, yeah I do believe that I am aging pretty well. Better than I'm aging above average. That's what I would say. That I'm aging above average. average i would agree.
Speaker: some people and that have not seen it 14 years, I would just say, have you ever seen a person where, like, you haven't seen them a long time or they've gotten older and it didn't necessarily, like, get fat?
Speaker: They got swollen. Yeah, bloated. but he Bloated. Yeah. There's a couple people on there. You know them personally, going wait till off-air to tell you who they were. That's it.
Speaker: There's a couple of people on there. They look, bloated. And I was just like, oh. That's out that's beer. Okay. Yes. That's a lot of beer consumption. Y'all gotta roll off beer. You gotta roll off. and As we get older,
Speaker: We can't consume beer the same way we did in our teens and 20s. Okay? Like, we just can't. When y'all would knock them back, okay, what ends up not happening now is you retaining a lot of water.
Speaker: And y'all look red and bloated. Okay? so Roll off beer. Roll off it. I stopped with beer.
Speaker: Yeah. Probably like 10 years ago. now every now and then I'll occasionally dabble in it. It's fine. It's fine. But if you're drinking a six pack a day, you are red, sweaty, and bloated.
Speaker: Yes. Yes. And a lot of people look really bloated. Now, some of it is just age. And I will also say, i don't have kids.
Speaker: Kids will age you. but the the The reason why kids will age you is not necessarily the taking care of the kids. There's the stress of being a parent. There's that. But I believe even in a two-parent household, when you have multiple kids and they're doing so many activities, it becomes extremely hard yeah to find time.
Speaker: to get to the gym on a regular basis. Or to just eat properly, especially depending on how old you're, if you got littles, little littles, bailey you might not even remember when you showered last. You don't even remember.
Speaker: i think people, well, how little are talking? There are a lot of married single moms with babies and toddlers who cannot remember the last time they showered. Tell how that threw me. You threw me on that one. And I had to be like, wait a minute, what?
Speaker: Married single moms. Now, I know what you're talking about. and I'm sure a lot of these moms that are experiencing this what you're talking about. know what I'm talking about. But explain it to the audience who might not be clear of what you mean by married single moms.
Speaker: Or single married moms, whichever way you said. Married single moms. So it's essentially you are married. You have a spouse. Typically, that spouse is a cishet male.
Speaker: Okay. And they are, well, just for lack of a better term, they are useless. Right. And you carry both the physical, emotional, and mental load of running the household and raising the children. And you carry it on your own. And you get questions like, why didn't you just tell me you needed help? Well, you see the dishes in the sink.
Speaker: You know what i mean? You see the laundry in the dryer that needs to be taken out and folded. Like, so you're still carrying the mental load, right? And they're fine with just like half doing a honey-do list.
Speaker: That is a married single mother. yeah And there are many of them. Yeah. Yeah. i I know of a couple of men, and every now and then, again, I got to, they're husbands and fathers, and every now and then I got to check them.
Speaker: Yeah, you're weaponizing incompetence to not do have to do anything. Well, I'll check them because they're like, man, they got me running all over here. I finally got a chance to sit down. And I was like, and what did she do?
Speaker: Right. What do you mean? Like, what what did she do? Did you help cook dinner? Did you do the laundry? Did you fold the laundry up and put it away? No, I do anything today. So that all you did was take the kids to a few of their activities?
Speaker: Do you normally do that? Yeah. I mean, sir sometimes I have to. Sometimes i have to. And it's that mentality of like, I'm just watching my kids or I'm just babysitting my kids. Or sometimes I have to, like they aren't also yours. That is when you, it's that kind of thinking that results in married single moms. And then, and then the divorce comes and he's like, it just came out of nowhere. It hasn't.
Speaker: For him, it it it has. i it For him, he was like, i didn't I didn't think anything was wrong. Because just being oblivious. You can be absolutely oblivious to your situation. We don't go on off topic, but that yeah but thats single married mom and mom, married single mom, whatever it it is, it's both of them. And that's crazy. But it's also real.
Speaker: Yeah. It's also real. So my lesson for this segment for everybody is to lay off the bill. the ah Not the bills. You got to pay those. You got to pay your bills. Yeah, you got to pay your bills. Lay off the bill.
Speaker: And husbands and fathers out there, do more. I'm not just talking about taking your kids to sporting events that you want to go and watch your kids. I'm talking about...
Speaker: grab their friends and take them out. Do a friends. Yeah. hit mama break. Yeah. Do the laundry in the house. Do the dishes. carrying the day to day. She's carrying all of it while simultaneously working because that's also another thing. Like y'all both work.
Speaker: Y'all are two-income household, and then she also comes home and has a second job. And you are no help. And she is going to divorce you when she realizes she could just do it by herself.
Speaker: then And he's sitting up there complaining, I don't ever get no sex. Nah, she's tired. I wouldn't. She's tired. She's tired and disgusting. Take something off her plate so she can make room for that.
Speaker: for For the guys out there, it's still not registering. You still don't get what we're saying. Think about it like this. You ever worked on a project for school or work or what have you, and you doing the majority of the work, and your people that supposed to be working this project with you are not holding up their end of the load? How do you feel towards them? Yeah, that's how your wife feels towards you. You better pick up the pace before you lose the pieces.
Speaker: I don't know what that means. Because you got to pick up the pieces. Yeah. Another Martin reference. But up next, I'm going to be talking about my favorite subject, hypocrisy.
Speaker: We're going to get into that next.
Speaker: All right, Jay. The title of this segment is, is it hypocrisy or is it me?
Speaker: It could be me. I don't know. maybe Well, we'll see. let what Give me the context. All right. What am I talking about? Let's first start start with Laura Ingraham.
Speaker: Why are we starting with Laura Ingraham? In 2018, Laura Ingraham coined the phrase shut up and dribble when LeBron James was his criticized and then president. Then president.
Speaker: Because it's 2018. He's president again, unfortunately. Then President Trump. It became shorthand for athletes and entertainers that should just stay out of politics, right? So the only people that can talk about politics are people in politics. why Yeah.
Speaker: Okay. You're not going to silence other people, but okay. Miss Rachel. Y'all don't know who Miss Rachel is? Miss Rachel has 18.7 million YouTube subscribers, and she does stuff for kids. She is the new version of Mr. Rogers. That's the easiest way for me to describe her. She's extremely popular with the kids. She sings a lot of songs. And she also criticizes certain things going on. She criticized Gaza, Gaza. the situation going on in Gaza and the kids losing their lives there. People yeah losing their lives there. She criticized ICE and the immigration crackdown. And there were people to that called for boycotting her, labeling her a socialist. There is also an attack on misracial from the Jewish community.
Speaker: Because in one of her posts, somebody made an anti-semitic comment and she liked, then deleted it. But people focused on the like part.
Speaker: And her publicist and everybody said, and she said, and she came out and apologized and said, i was trying to delete it and accidentally liked it. Yeah, it's very easy. You tap it and it it's shows a like. Very, very, very easy to do. And I think with her history, you'll give her the benefit of a doubt because she speaks for all people. But they're calling on her to not speak out against genocide because that's controversial and political and to just stay silent and just sing song to the kids.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. At the same time, there are people that told LeBron James to shut up and triple and telling Miss Rachel to don't talk about politics, just sing songs to the kids and shut up.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. There is a fever guard. Her name is Sophia Cunningham. She is Caitlin Clark's quote-unquote enforcer. And she made a recent statement about transgender athletes and sports. She said it's common sense to keep transgender transgender athletes out of women's sports.
Speaker: And she got labeled MAGA Barbie, though she has told ESPN that she's in the middle of However, she was at a UFC event being a ring girl. And the UFC is very much MAGA and conservative. And if you're really about women and women's rights, I would find it difficult to believe that you would want to be a ring girl for UFC when the president of that company at a Super Bowl was seen slapping his wife.
Speaker: That's just me. That's just me. Yeah. um Nothing wrong with being a ring girl, but, you know. I mean, with being a ring girl for the UFC. There's nothing wrong with being a ring girl. That's specifically. That's specifically. It's like, really, girl? Okay. So there have been some pro-Cunningham rallies that have po popped up at recently at the Seattle game to to support Sofia Cunningham in her anti-trans statements. And then the media went to Caitlyn Clark, because Caitlyn Clark is this avatar who,
Speaker: for conservatives. Yeah. She hasn't said anything. But she's a popular white woman, and we've already broken this down on other episodes. She's a popular white woman in a Black queer sport.
Speaker: Yes. So there are a lot of people that were being induced to the WNBA, being drawn to it because of Caitlin Clark, and saying, oh... This league is made up of black and Black and queer women. Not every woman is Black and queer, but right but it Black and queer women.
Speaker: yes And she was asked about everything that's going on with Cunningham and the protests and the rallies to support her. And she's basically like, hey, look, I'm trying to focus on a basketball.
Speaker: That's really honestly been her stance. Yes. For everything. She's like, I i play ball, y'all. Leave me alone. Yeah.
Speaker: So the conservatives basically attacked her who for not backing up what they believe. yeah So I ask, is this hypocrisy or is it just me?
Speaker: Yeah, it's obviously hypocrisy. Here's the thing. No one ever has any problem with someone speaking out if they agree. I've never heard anybody say, yeah, I don't like Trump, but I wish LeBron James would shut up about it. Like, nobody has ever... I don't know anybody...
Speaker: It's obviously people who would who are in support of the thing that you're speaking out against that are going to be, and they're going to be the loudest, that are going to have a problem with it. And it's always going to be hypocrisy because if it was flipped and it was LeBron coming out in support of...
Speaker: Trump, that everybody would have been like, invite him to everything. Put him out front. Put him on all the leaflets and emails. And next thing you know, Trump supporters are getting emails on behalf of LeBron James to donate money to something stupid. And so, like...
Speaker: Yes, it's hypocrisy. Obviously, you're going to have a problem with someone speaking out and saying something you don't agree with. I have that problem with Laura Ingram. I think she should shut up and not do anything else. Honestly, i think she should just go go away. But, you know, yeah, i the ah I'm not calling for a boycott.
Speaker: of her i mean, I don't consume any of her media or anybody who thinks like her, but it's always going to be the people who don't agree with you that are going to be the loudest and obviously the most wrong in these situations. No, it's not you. It's hypocrisy.
Speaker: So I'm glad that you, I know you didn't read the notes because I left this out. I left this out on purpose. Mm-hmm. And you're going to want to naturally push back against what I say. Okay.
Speaker: And I'm not going to say that I'm going disagree with your pushback. I'm just speaking on a larger issue. There are people out there that saying Sophia Cunningham shouldn't be saying what she's saying, that she shouldn't have the right to say this what she should say.
Speaker: And they're essentially saying, shut up and dribble. Yeah. So when you bring up the hypocrisy, it's not solely the hypocrisy on the right. It's hypocrisy on the left as well.
Speaker: this is yeah a This isn't a both sides are wrong type situation because the arguments typically fall on a moral issue. Yes. And morally...
Speaker: is not gray. Morals are kind of black and white. that You can't really flow gray in there. if it's a you can i think you can. think you can. say where you can hear more You can say that stealing is wrong, but is it wrong if you steal a loaf of bread to feed your family?
Speaker: It's still wrong. You just have a reason to do it. But it's still there is ah But there is a moral and ethical question in there. So i think that I think that there are, with ethics and morals in general, right, first of all, our morals and ethics are dictated by the society we live in, the time that we live in.
Speaker: and it shouldn't be. It shouldn't should be dictated on what you feel is right and wrong. Like we say murder is wrong, but we do have the death penalty and we do murder when we go into to war. So eight I think morality and ethics live in the gray area. And that's why we have so many rules around people We should live. That's why we have laws, because these things can live in the gray area. but when But my point was, it is hypocrisy because always the people who disagree are going to be the ones that have a problem with it. And that's anybody. Like, it it it really isn't even a left or right issue. It is if someone uses their voice and another person does not agree, that other person they want you to shut up
Speaker: They want you to shut up. If that's anybody. And I'm going to say that's not right. It's not right to tell somebody else to shut up when at the same time you're not going to shut up.
Speaker: Right. Because I can't tell as much as I want to. As much as I want to. There are so many ignorant ass people out there that swear that they are brilliant. yeah i The self-awareness.
Speaker: In people. It's so low. All time low. I don't know if it's all time low, if it's always been this way and we're just getting older and we could see it a lot more because i we're more knowledgeable. think that the internet has given us a glimpse into the minds of the everyday person.
Speaker: And it is a a feast of nonsense. Yes, it is. yeah And I'd be wanting to tell them to shut up and dribble.
Speaker: i yeah I don't want to hear from them. And a lot of times you've called me on it a lot recently and and I've had to check myself and I can't because I do it all the time where I have these little ticks where somebody will say something and I, it's a tell.
Speaker: You know what I'm thinking by the way I respond to it. Even if I don't say any words, I could just say something like, oh, oh, well, okay. And ye my tone, my face, you know what I, what you just said, or even what I just said, i think is dumb as hell.
Speaker: Yes. I don't want people to stop talking. Because I'm not going to stop talking. I can't have this platform. I can't be on this podcast and tell other people to shut up and dribble.
Speaker: Like, I can't. And I think a lot of people will, will like you said, that they have their side. They don't want to hear the other side. They don't want to hear anything against them. and And they'll be like, you shouldn't be saying what you are saying. But at the same time, they still feel like they should be able to say what they are saying. and they could be right. They they are it could be right. But that doesn't mean that you tell another person to shut up.
Speaker: Now, so here's the thing, that we do have freedom of speech, right? And there's caveats to that. You can't incite violence. You can't be, you know, directly or indirectly harmful to somebody or a group of people or something like that, for sure. We really probably should have pulled it up before you just started giving definition that you didn't, was wasn't really clear. at the The freedom of speech.
Speaker: is It is based on the government the government yeah yeah not being able to censor yeah your speech as long as it falls under certain parameters. Correct. So what I'm saying is like the caveats to that are, you know, you can face consequences from a governing body via the police, right? If you are inciting violence or ah it causing harm in some way, right? So freedom freedom of speech...
Speaker: we have it, right? But we don't have freedom from consequences. And we don't have freedom from criticism. Right. So you can say what you want,
Speaker: Provided you're not being like directly harmful. You can say what you want, but that's not going to keep you from consequences or criticism, especially if you have a platform where you can what you say can reach a broad audience. I think that there is a responsibility that a lot of people don't take seriously.
Speaker: in that when they're in that position right they just say things well this is how I feel okay but you also have to understand that you have an audience interesting you have fans that cross the spectrum and you are being harmful to people So you're going to open yourself up to criticism and you're going to open yourself up to consequences. If you make inflammatory statements, but you work for a league that is progressive or liberal, you might face fines or some sort of sanction and stuff for the things that you say, because you are also still beholden to your employer, right?
Speaker: Like, but You can't just do what you... But should people have the freedom to voice their opinions? Yes, you should absolutely have the freedom to voice your opinions. But be aware that there's responsibility and there are consequences that are tied to that.
Speaker: So it's not just you could get... I'm very aware just being on this podcast that I can't just say whatever I want to say. Because I be thinking it. Mm-hmm. Oh, I be thinking it. I see you thinking it.
Speaker: Yeah. and when we And when we, you know, cut and when we break, I be saying it. um Right?
Speaker: But I also have to be aware that we have a platform that reaches a diverse audience and I have to use language that doesn't, that, it you know, doesn't offend someone else. I have to be careful about how I characterize things or people or groups of people, how broad of a brush we language. When generalizing about a group of people, like we have to be careful about these things because we do have a responsibility. And I think a lot of people don't take it seriously. And then when you have people like Laura Ingraham telling him to shut up and dribble, right?
Speaker: is you that is a consequence of the thing that he said and she is within her right to say shut up and dribble that is a that's a consequence for taking a controversial stance on something or to honestly to take a stance on something in general that's going to consequence of it going have people that don't like what you say but just as she's allowed to tell him to shut up and dribble, which is incredibly rude, by the way, because he does much more than dribble.
Speaker: But just as she's able to say that to him, he's able to say what he has to say as well. And he can respond to that, and they can go back and forth into eternity, and no i don't really care. But...
Speaker: I think you're absolutely right. It's not a left versus right or liberal versus conservative thing. and this is It is the way in which people can be hypocritical just in life.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. And you hit the nail on the head when you were talking about platform. You're talking about us, but let's expand it even further going back to Miss Rachel and Sophia Cunningham, right? Miss Rachel reaches millions of toddlers and parents.
Speaker: Cunningham reaches a fan base that the WNBA desperately wants to monetize, right? Like they yeah generate money. The panic is not really staying your lane.
Speaker: It's your lane is too big. And you need to point it somewhere else. Yeah. So their platforms are too big for what they want to express for the people that are against what they're trying to express. That's where the fervor comes from, right? That's where we don't get it.
Speaker: Like we get a little bit of it, just a little bit of it, but we just a little teeny tiny podcast. We don't have millions of people watching us on YouTube. We wish. Right. We do. We wish, but we don't, right? Maybe one day, maybe never day, but maybe. Who knows? Who knows?
Speaker: But platform is also important. And the people with the highest platforms just know that no matter what you say, half of the population is going to disagree with you.
Speaker: Yeah. And I think they're aware. I think they're aware. Sometimes I think people aren't self-aware. You know who's clearly aware? Caitlin Clark. She's like, look, I'm just trying to play some bad. We forget Caitlin Clark is like 23, 24 years old. Why is she even having to speak on social issues yeah that are that are hot button Because they placed her in that position. she didn't ask for that. They said, you are a great white hope and we're going to put you in this position, even though you didn't ask for it and you don't want it.
Speaker: You just want to play the game that you love and earn a living and live your life. But they've pushed you out there. And so it's a very difficult position to be in because I genuinely think she does not agree with the people who are pushing her out there. don't know. We don't know. And that's the point. Nobody is clamoring for her point of view on diverse social issues. Right. We want to shoot a basketball. Now, if you want...
Speaker: to speak whatever truth that is yours, speak it. Yeah. Speak it. But nobody's clamoring for it. Yeah. The people that have built her up as an avatar, and they've done this once before. They did it with Larry Bird.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. It was a longer time ago. was much longer ago. was 40 years ago, as a matter of fact. Technology in the media wasn't as prevalent. Mm-hmm. But he was somebody who' like, I play basketball. Why are you talking to me about these race issues? He was like, the Black players were the only players that that I was... that always welcomed me to come play with them. So, yeah, I'm comfortable playing. I'm comfortable being around Black people. And I'm yeah comfortable kicking their ass. Now, he didn't say that part. directly, but he told the players out there, um we knew and every Black person, you don't hear any Black basketball players from that time period talk negatively about Larry Bird because they respected him.
Speaker: Yeah, he they respected him, yeah and and he wasn't faking the funk. He he wasn't yep a kid rock. or ah Or some, who who else? or ah Post Malone.
Speaker: Right. Or ah people that are... Miley Cyrus for a little while, and Britney Spears, and Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake, and there's a list, there's a long People like Kid Rock have done a complete term, right? They were yeah in the culture, they were immersed in the culture.
Speaker: And then now they just Trump writers? That's what I'm talking about. People that were immersed in the cur and the culture, like Justin Timberlake, he hasn't come out and, like, rode for, like, conservative issues or anything like that. so I'm not gonna put that on him.
Speaker: um I would just say in terms of... using the culture as clout, and then once you get to where you think you want to be, then you can say, oh, I don't really actually subscribe to that. i' I'm actually this way. I just needed it for the clout real quick. I think that's Kid Rock. I think that's Post Malone. I don't think Miley Cyrus has done that. Miley Cyrus definitely did that with her whole twerking phase.
Speaker: ah ah She don't twerk anymore? No, and she strongly denounced hip-hop and hip-hop music. Oh, okay. Yeah, no. She can kiss my... Damn, i mean I mean, I can't listen to that Mike Will Mata song.
Speaker: Oh, man. Anyway. Anyway, basically, the point of this whole segment is to make you think. Yeah. If you are praising LeBron James and condemning Sophie Cunningham, that's fine. But if you're saying LeBron can say that and Sophie Cunningham can't, call yourself on the same hypocrisy that you're calling the right on.
Speaker: Mm-hmm. Because you're doing the exact same thing. Yeah. Just say you don't want to hear it. Just say you don't agree with it, but you cannot take away somebody's right to say it.
Speaker: And you know what that is? i don't know. That's the truth, Ruth. boy. I walked into it. You did.
Speaker: All right, Jay, I just want to do a quick little roundup of some stories that aren't whole segments, but I thought were interesting to say the least. Did you hear about SpaceX?
Speaker: No, but I hope it's hilarious. So SpaceX rocket just crashed into the moon. And it's like, it's a big target. You know what I'm saying? Were they aiming for the moon? Look, the Falcon 9 slammed into the lunar surface today at seven times the speed of sound.
Speaker: Boy.
Speaker: We out there littering space. Not only are we destroying Earth, now we got Earthlings. destroying the moon. It's seven times the speed of sound.
Speaker: Here's my thing. what What's going on? Was the Falcon 9 supposed to land on the lunar surface and y'all came in hot? Were you not trying to hit the moon at ah it's a pretty big target for you to not miss like it's very interesting that i i i feel like you could see where you need to swerve like so that you don't know seven times the speed to sound i don't that why we might not have enough is do rockets typically go that fast I don't know. yeah i don't, I don't, I mean, they go fast.
Speaker: They do go fast. And typically to get to the moon, you got a slingshot. Yeah. Against Earth's gravity. So that might, you know, whatever. I saw a little bit of hidden, I saw hidden figures. I kind of remember something about a go, no, go something. I don't know. But yes, I believe that that is the way. But boy, y'all, ah was anybody looking out The windshield.
Speaker: but but but but I just feel like even going that fast. Okay, the moon's not close.
Speaker: But it eat seven times the speed of sound is fast. It's fast. But again, the moon's not close. Like you're still traveling a ways even at that speed.
Speaker: The moon's not like right there. It's pretty far. And so I feel like... Hold you was driving 30 miles per hour around this curve. And I saw that you was about to hit the curve and I couldn't get it out in time. And you hit the curve. You was like, why didn't you say nothing? I was like, i i was trying to. I didn't have enough time. I feel like that must be what happened on the Falcon 9.
Speaker: And he was like, boom. The moon in front of us. Like, I don't. Okay. I don't see how it happens. But let's be clear. There was nobody on the rocket.
Speaker: Right. Like nobody crashed in and died from. Okay. So it this is an unmanned spacecraft. It was a damn sure unmanned. because It had to be. because It wasn't nobody at the the Sega Genesis controller or whatever it is to look this ain't pilot this? This ain't the ocean diving thing where they had a Nintendo 64 controller. This ain't the submersible they had a Nintendo 64 controller. They got more than that. man joytic They might have had that. They might have had that. But just crash the Look, somebody's calculations was all wrong. Whoever that was,
Speaker: Just ask chat GPT next time. I don't see how if you weren't trying to crash into the moon. Like, am I crazy? If you weren't trying to crash into the moon. Right.
Speaker: How the hell did you crash into the moon?
Speaker: That's a good damn question. That's a good damn question. I know they're not trying to just ruin. I know Elon Musk got a lot of money and SpaceX got a lot of money and they got government contracts. They're going to be just fine, right? yeah That's the bulk of where he makes his money is SpaceX because of all the government contracts. Hmm.
Speaker: Elon Musk got a lot of government contracts. and he was part of Doge trying to get rid of all the bloat and excess in the government. he was a part of Doge so he could get all of our information. Well, I mean, but but the purpose of Doge supposedly was to, you know, get rid of the bloat and everything. and here Well, that's what they said, but the purpose was to get our information.
Speaker: And here he is crashing a damn rocket into the moon. How much did that cost? Yeah. it's Boy, i again, if the goal was not the moon,
Speaker: how did the moon is not close and it is a big target. So if the goal is not the moon,
Speaker: What do you think they was talking in the control moon in the control room? They was like, hey, man, that moon getting caught kind of close. Hey, man. Hey, man, pull up. Pull up. two two Two hours later, man, that moon is still getting close.
Speaker: Another hour later, that moon pretty close. Seven times the speed of sound. I don't know how fast that is. Because what is the distance to the moon regularly? Isn't it like...
Speaker: Doesn't it take like a day to get to the moon? asking wrong person. I thought it was like, it's like 24 hours to get to the moon.
Speaker: That's a crazy concept in and of a itself. Yeah. You got rockets traveling at crazy speeds and it still take a full day. It don't even, does it take you a full day to drive? Does it take you a full 24 hours to drive from the East coast to the West coast?
Speaker: Yes. Okay. Yes. All right. Okay. How long does it take to get to the moon? I know the audience is like, it's the answer. It's the answer. We don't know it off the top of our head. Earth in a rocket. It takes three to four days for a rocket to travel from Earth to the moon. So again...
Speaker: At what speed? Is it seven times a speed of sound? I don't know. But the distance to the moon is 240,000 miles. Okay? took hours. Apollo took to reach the moon. was planned to take four days. So, it so again...
Speaker: We're heading right for the moon 12 hours later. We're getting a little closer to the moon, y'all. 24 hours later, the moon's still getting close. So I go back to my original question. if If your goal is to land on the moon, the moon is going to get closer. You're on the way to your target. Right. Okay.
Speaker: But if the goal was not the moon,
Speaker: How the hell did you end up slamming right into the moon? If the goal wasn't the moon, that's yeah crazy. But even if the goal was the moon, how the hell do you just end up slamming into it?
Speaker: Right. Well, he's he' supposed to be a genius. He's supposed to be genius. Have you seen this viral thing where...
Speaker: People are putting pictures of themselves and their parents at the same age. No. Yeah, there's this viral trend that's going on where people are putting their picture up against their parents' picture at the same age and just ok looking at the differences. And and I was like, hmm, I almost want to do this with with our parents. Because our parents were young when they had us.
Speaker: I'm 46 right now. When my dad was 46, he had 24-year-old son. Yeah. yeah You know I'm saying? That's crazy. He had a 20-year-old daughter. Yeah. He had another 18-year-old son. like And yeah we thought they were ancient.
Speaker: And now being that age, I'm like, how did y'all do this? Wait a minute. Now that I think about it, were all three of us in college at the same damn time?
Speaker: Yeah. Because, ladies and gentlemen, you know, I, you know, I had to take semester off because of some financial difficulties. so you know, it took me a little longer than four years. Plus, I was a double major. Well, no. And give a damn the last two semesters. No.
Speaker: No. ah Remember, our brother has a late birthday. So he was still in high school. When I graduated from college? When you graduated from college, he was entering college.
Speaker: But you had graduated. ah there' there's a There's an overlap. Because remember, i graduated in the winter. What year? 2004. Yeah, he was still in high school.
Speaker: Oh, he was? Mm-hmm. Oh, okay. Because I graduated in 2002, he graduated in 2004. Right, he graduated in 2004, which means he started the fall of 2004.
Speaker: Yes. i was I graduated the fall of... So, it wasn't as long as it was, but there was a brief time that we was all in college. was little overlapped. I would love to compare, because our parents have aged well.
Speaker: Yes. And I would love to do a side-by-side. Yeah. would love to do a side-by-side. I wouldn't. And because I would hate for them to look better than me. Yeah.
Speaker: that's what you say because i i don't have children they do have children at that age and it's just like if they are with the stress of being parents and married and trying to build a life and stuff still look younger than i do without these things i don't want to i don't want to do it The flip side to that is because we don't have kids, we still out here in these streets. Right. And that ages you. When they come at home. somebody was drinking beer past 35. Looking swollen when I jump on Facebook. All right.
Speaker: Last thing. You have a bunch of little nieces and nephews. I know you heard of this or. Yes. yeah or i hear it a lot. Yes. All right. Ladies and gentlemen, for those of you don't have kids, or if you do have kids and you hear this aura thing, you don't know what they're talking about.
Speaker: It ain't nothing but swag. It's just swag. that It's a new name, same meaning. Aura is a Gen Z and Gen Alpha slang for their version of coolness. I will say Gen Alpha because Gen Z, I feel like, had riz.
Speaker: yeah Young Gen Z, though, you got to remember, young Gen z is in high school right now. Okay. Yes. Okay. Gen Alpha is about to enter high school. young gen Young Gen Z is still in high school. Yeah. Okay.
Speaker: So it's about your vibe, the presence that you give off walking into a room. The joke is, is you get scored imaginary aura points. You gain or lose based on how you act.
Speaker: And farming coming straight from gaming is where you do like repeated actions to rack up points. So aura farmer is deliberately doing things to build your cool factor up. Yeah. It's cool points.
Speaker: Yes. and and And when a young person was explaining it to me, I was like, oh, you mean swag. Or Riz. But was like, swag. And he was like, what's swag? was like, exactly what you just said. It's just different name. It's exactly what you just said. That sounds old. was like, well, because to you, I am old. Yeah. Right? I am old. But you ain't coming up with nothing new.
Speaker: It's not new. Like, the concept of cool points is not new. I will say this part is new.
Speaker: Generally speaking, there are always outliers, but generally speaking, in our generation, what was it before swag? It was something before swag, but I can't remember. I can't remember either. But our generation, like when we were coming up at high school, it was something else before it was swag. It might have just been cool.
Speaker: Yeah. It just might have been that. You couldn't. Oral farming is about being nonchalant, acting like you're cool. Like, you couldn't fake swag. Either you had it, or you didn't.
Speaker: Faking it came off as corny. you're You're not supposed to be able to fake aura. It's supposed to be like literally just your presence, the level of your confidence, self-assuredness. When you walk into a room, people stop, stare. You're not supposed to be able to fake aura. It is supposed to be this inherent thing that you have, this charisma or charm that you have. You're talking about the traditional definition of aura. These young kids mean something different.
Speaker: It's about remain cool in the presence of you know, chaos. it's is It's coming up with smooth lines. It's purposefully being cool in situations as opposed to that naturally being your personality.
Speaker: See, I never was laid back. I'm an intense personality. Always been an intense personality. I've grown to be laid back because I know that I'm too big to be intense all the time.
Speaker: But um that's a new thing. My swagger was in how I carried myself in fashion. Like, that was my swagger. But these new kids have certain rules. And everything is different. I'm sure that I'm misremembering my youth, and we had rules as well, too. Yeah, there are plenty of times where where I'll see somebody something, I'll be like, you lost a lot of cool points for that. Like, that would be taking a tally of, like, was there actual points that we were actually...
Speaker: collecting? No. Was there an actual point system? No. We just knew you just lost some cool points for that. You just and they knocked the cool out your walk. All of that. Like, it does that's that's what that's what that came from.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah. I'm not knocking these new kids, you know, but when you tell me about your aura and I say, yeah, we've been doing that for the longest. we It was just called swag for us. yeah You didn't come up with anything new, but i I applaud you and your generation for keep coming up with stuff that's your own and not biting. Well, you're you are biting off of previous generations, but we all did. here's the thing. They don't know that.
Speaker: Yes, that's true. Every generation is thinking they're inventing something, and then they name it, and it's their thing, and then someone from the previous generation who sounds bitter comes with, there ain't nothing but swagger.
Speaker: Or, there ain't nothing but some dookie stick. Right. Ladies and gentlemen, that's when our dad told us so a song that was by Fat Joe with nothing but this song from this guy, Dookie Stick or whatever. Dookie Stick by Bootsy Collins. Okay, well... yes. The... Our dad was furious.
Speaker: It's No Games by Fat Joe. Play No Games. Yeah, Play No Games by Fat Joe and Terror Squad. And Lil Jon. It was on Lil Jon's album. It was on Lil Jon's album, yes. And the melody is Dookie Stick by Bootsy Collins. The sample is, yes, yes.
Speaker: Jay, before we get out of here, what do you want tell these people? After 35. but
Speaker: You can have beer socially. You shouldn't be at home in front of the TV knocking back a six-pack because you will be bloated and red and sweaty and your belly will just... Boy, please, we there is an age limit.
Speaker: To beer, there is. But a lot of y'all are aging because of your beer consumption. Switch to something else. Switch to wine. Switch to liquor. Switch to something else. Cut back.
Speaker: Oh, as usual, you have a message for the people. But before we end, per usual, these stories might sound like they have absolutely nothing to do with one another.
Speaker: me going back to sell Me going back on Facebook to sell some stuff and get ambushed by pictures from 15 years ago. Miss Rachel and Sophie Cunningham speaking on political and social issues, then watching people decide who should be allowed to use their platform.
Speaker: And an entire generation keep an imaginary score of who has aura and who needs to sit down somewhere before they lose another thousand points. But underneath all of it is the same thing.
Speaker: Who gets to decide who you are? Facebook holds onto a version of you that may not exist anymore. The haircut is different. I had hair, ladies and gentlemen, at one point. The body is different.
Speaker: The captions are definitely different. You look at those pictures, you remember what you believed, who you loved, who you trusted, and what you thought your life was going to become. Some of it makes you laugh.
Speaker: Some of it makes you cringe. Some of it hits you in a place that you weren't expecting. because you're not only looking at an old picture, you're looking at somebody who had no idea what was coming.
Speaker: And then we move into this argument about people using their platforms. We love to say that people should speak their truth, use their voice, stand for something. Do not stay silent.
Speaker: But here's an uncomfortable part people don't want to talk about. A lot of us only believe that when the person is saying something we already agree with. When LeBron James speaks, one group tells them to shut up and dribble.
Speaker: When Sophie Cunningham speaks, another group suddenly starts looking for the mute button. When Miss Rachel speaks, people tell her to stick to singing songs for children. And I have to check myself too.
Speaker: because it's easy for me to defend somebody's right to speak when I agree with them, with their message. The real test is whether I still believe they have the right when I think they are completely wrong.
Speaker: That doesn't mean every opinion is equally informed, equally compassionate, or equally defensible. It doesn't mean you can't challenge what somebody says. You should challenge it.
Speaker: But disagreeing with someone is different from deciding they should not be allowed to speak at all. And maybe that's where the aura conversation fits in better than when it first appeared.
Speaker: Or it's supposedly about being calm, confident, and unbothered. The person with the most presence is usually the one who is not begging everybody to notice them. But now people are trying to manufacture that.
Speaker: They are performing about how effortless everything is to them. They're trying really hard to look like they are not trying at all. And that is kind of what social media has trained all of us to do.
Speaker: Cultivate a past. Control the present. Build a platform. Protect an image. Collect approval. Avoid embarrassment. Make sure everybody sees the version of us we want them to see.
Speaker: Meanwhile, an old Facebook picture, an unpopular opinion, or an awkward wave at somebody who is not waving at you can destroy the whole performance in a mere seconds.
Speaker: Maybe the point is not to control every version of ourselves that exists in somebody else's mind. You can't. Some people will always remember the old you. Some people will judge you by the worst thing you've said.
Speaker: Some people will only support your voice when it sounds like theirs. And some teenager on the Internet will probably deduct 5,000 aura points because of the way that you were moving your chair around.
Speaker: You can't live your whole life trying to manage all of that. All you can really do is be honest about who you are, responsible for who you are, and open to who you are still becoming.
Speaker: Because growth is not pretending the old version of you never existed. freedom Growth is being able to look that person in the face, laugh at that haircut, forgive them for what they did not know, and keep moving forward.
Speaker: Ladies and gentlemen, i want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for watching. And until next time, as always, I'll holler.
Speaker: That was a hell of a show. Thank you for rocking with us here on Unsolicited Perspectives with Bruce Anthony. Now, before you go, don't forget to follow, subscribe, like, comment, and share our podcast wherever you're listening or watching it to it. Pass it along to your friends. If you enjoy it, that means the people that you rock will willing enjoy it also. So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise.
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