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The Hawk Tuah Collapse, The SAVE Act & Why Technology Is Driving Us Crazy
2 Playsin 16 hours
Viral fame looks fun until it turns on you. In this episode, Bruce starts with the rise and fallout of Haliey Welch, the internet’s “Hawk Tuah” phenomenon, and uses her story to break down what happens when sudden fame moves faster than wisdom, preparation, and protection. What starts as internet comedy quickly becomes something deeper: a conversation about opportunists, money, image, and how fast the public decides who you are before you even get the chance to define yourself.
Then the episode shifts into something more serious. Bruce takes on the SAVE Act and the broader fight over voting rights, laying out why making people “prove” their eligibility sounds harmless on paper but can create real barriers in practice. He connects the dots between paperwork, access, class, identity, and the long American habit of dressing voter suppression up as common sense. It is sharp, direct, and unapologetic.
To close things out, Bruce brings the energy back up with a painfully relatable rant about modern technology. Passwords, typing bubbles, dying batteries, endless group chats, delayed packages, random updates, and all the little ways tech promised convenience but somehow delivered fresh anxiety instead. It is funny, frustrating, and way too real. This episode is part cultural breakdown, part civic warning, and part group therapy for anybody tired of living in algorithmic chaos. #hawktuah #ViralFame #VotingRights #SAVEAct #InternetCulture #ModernLife #TechStress #PoliticalCommentary #unsolicitedperspectives
Chapters:
00:00:00 — Viral Fame, Voting Rights & Modern Life Chaos 🎙️🔥👀
00:02:03 — Why Bruce Never Wanted Fame in the First Place 😅🎤🏃🏾♂️
00:03:50 — Hawk Tuah Girl and the Internet Fame Machine 🌐🚀😳
00:05:23 — Viral Fame Is Fast but Nobody Prepares You for It ⚠️📱💸
00:08:33 — How the Hawk Coin Collapse Changed Everything 🪙📉😬
00:12:28 — Pump-and-Dump Chaos and Fans Losing Money Fast 💥📊💀
00:15:24 — Can a Viral Star Really Rebrand After a Scandal 🔄🤔🎭
00:19:33 — Why Voting Should Be Easier for Every American 🗳️💭
00:22:18 — Who Gets Easy Access to Vote and Who Does Not 🚪⚖️🧾
00:23:52 — The SAVE Act and Why Bruce Calls It Bull 🏛️🚨😤
00:27:23 — Supporters vs Critics of the SAVE Act Explained ⚔️📚🗣️
00:28:32 — When Required Documents Become a Modern Poll Tax 💵📄🚫
00:33:33 — Name Changes, Paperwork and the Real Voting Barrier 🪪❗🧠
00:35:48 — Election Integrity or Just Another Way to Rig Access 🗳️🎯🚧
00:43:26 — Passwords, Typing Bubbles and Everyday Tech Torture 📱😵💫😂
00:48:43 — Battery Panic, Voice Notes and Group Chat Madness 🔋🎙️🤣
00:56:42 — Technology Promised Ease but Delivered New Stress 🤖📡😩
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Transcript
Introduction & Episode Teasers
00:00:00
Speaker
viral fame, voting rights, and modern life chaos. We gonna get into it. Let's get it.
00:00:18
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. 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.
00:00:37
Speaker
Rate, review, like, comment, share. Share with your friends, share with your family, hell, even share with your enemies. On today's episode, we're going to talk about a viral rise and fall, voting rights, and how modern technology pisses me off.
00:00:53
Speaker
But that's enough of the intro. Let's get to the show.
Bruce's Privacy Concerns & Fame
00:01:04
Speaker
You know, somebody asked me the other day if when this podcast blows up, notice what I said there. Not if. when I think that we're already on track to to do really well in the next year, coming years. But anyway, they asked me what is going to happen when I gain more notoriety. And I said, oh, that's something that I would absolutely hate because I adore my privacy. I'm really an introvert. I'm really a hermit. I don't like going outside. Yesterday, it was really nice in the D.C. area.
00:01:44
Speaker
I was out in the streets and I was like, I'm going be outside this summer. I said the same thing last summer. I wasn't outside. So that doesn't really even bother me. Besides, if money and notoriety came my way, I have a really good goal.
00:01:59
Speaker
grouping around me of friends and family that will always call me on my BS, right? That'll never let me get too big for my britches. That always humble me. You got to have people that will humble you if you start to get a little bit of a big head. But I will admit that there have been times that I've been out and I have been recognized and it's kind of taken me aback and People have wanted to follow me on Instagram. I always say, follow the show. Don't don't follow me personally because I'm not going respond to you most of the time. I don't even respond to people that I'm close to in my DMs anyway. So I'm not going to respond to a complete stranger, but you follow the podcast.
00:02:38
Speaker
you'll get a response back because I'm not the one running it anyway. But yeah, no. So it always kind of takes me aback. And my sister was, you know, at a party and the party was like, hey, you know, it was wits and wages or something like that or ah acts of humanity or whatever that card game is. And it was like, all right, the person that gets to go first is person that has the most Instagram followers. And my sister was like, wait a minute, the most Instagram followers,
00:03:08
Speaker
that I'm associated with or my personal page. She was like, no, what you're associated with. She was like, well, the podcast, though it is a small, small following, has about 11,000 followers on Instagram. They was like, you win. And she's been out in Atlanta and been recognized. It's cool and also terrifying. But like I said, we have people around us That always keep us humble. Me and my sister will always keep each other humble because we grew up cracking on each other. That's joking on each other. Cracking on each other, joning on each other other. And our brother will do the same thing. We will always remain humble. We a't got no choice because our people around us will make us that way.
Haley Welch's Viral Fame
00:03:48
Speaker
Why am I bringing all of this up? It's not to talk about me because I'm not the one that's had a viral rise. But y'all remember the hot to a girl? You remember her. She got she became viral in June of 2024 doing a Nashville street interview where she was saying you got a hot to it on that thing. She became an Internet sensation, blew up.
00:04:09
Speaker
She started pushing merch. She started doing paid to appearances. She was social media monetized. She started her own part podcast. And here's the crazy thing. She was just a regular person and became a mean celebrity within days. You know, viral...
00:04:26
Speaker
Viral fame today is an algorithm driven, not career built type of situation. You can be like her, which is her name Haley. You could be like Haley and just be a regular person. One day, Haley, Haley Welch is her official government name. You can be a regular person one day.
00:04:47
Speaker
go on the internet, and it could be something as simple as you doing something on your on your own page, and it could be something as simple as you at a bar saying, and we outside. Next thing you know, you've got 50, 100,000, 200,000, 500,000 views on that one particular post, not to mention likes and shares and reposts and all that type of stuff. You've become a viral celebrity. You got that 15 minutes of fame, and it's important for a person to capitalize on that 15 minutes of fame because it's 15 minutes, not literally, but it's a short window. So you got to capitalize on it immediately. And she did.
00:05:28
Speaker
But here's the thing. The internet decides who you are before you even know who you are given in those circumstances. Going viral is not the same as being prepared.
00:05:39
Speaker
And you can't compare it to old school celebrity pipelines in Hollywood sports music. Versus TikTok or Instagram randomness. So there used to be a time when you were kind of prepared for these things, right?
00:05:56
Speaker
Where you were a musician, right? Or you were a entertainer and you were acting. You started from the bottom. Everybody always says they became a success overnight. that No.
00:06:07
Speaker
There was hard work that was associated in this becoming a success. Michael B. Jordan has been an actor for, I don't know, almost close to 20 years now. Close to 20 years. Definitely 15.
00:06:20
Speaker
Right. I think this first movie came out. The Hardballs, I think, is 2011. No, no, no, no, no. Because he was in The Wire in 2002. So it's been over 20 years.
00:06:32
Speaker
This a Oscar, we've literally watched him grow up. This Oscar is not an overnight sensation. He's been preparing for this for 20 years to get this notoriety, to get this fame.
00:06:45
Speaker
Internet fame doesn't give you that opportunity to grow, to grow into your fandom, to grow into your fame, to grow into all of a sudden getting this windfall of money, even if you're an athlete, right? When they use to let high school players go directly to the NBA. Yes, it was life changing money overnight. It's still life changing money overnight.
00:07:05
Speaker
ah Well, before the NIL deals, because now these kids are getting paid in college. But it's still you have no money. And then you go from being a millionaire. That's the reason why we hear so many stories of lottery winners going broke. You're not prepared for that type of money. It's different.
00:07:22
Speaker
When you're climbing that social economic ladder in increments and you're making more and more money as you go along to when you become a millionaire, yo, you might be able to handle it a little bit different. But that doesn't mean that you can get all this money at one time and remain normal. And like I said, this internet fame type situation, it decides who you are before who you know you to be.
00:07:52
Speaker
with this newfound fame and money. And I don't blame her for capitalizing on this instant celebrity. Yo, this is what you're supposed to do. She was selling merch, like I said, started podcasts. She had a little podcast. She had personality. She has personality. I believe...
00:08:13
Speaker
that she could be successful in this space, it produced properly, could be very successful in this space.
Cryptocurrency Ventures & Fallout
00:08:21
Speaker
You know she has a lot of personality and she seemed like a down-to-earth type of person. But why did I say in the beginning, viral rise and fall?
00:08:34
Speaker
Well, she was pip she was pitched as part of these marketing ideas, cryptocurrency. Look, let's be real clear. Influencers often don't understand complex financial products.
00:08:50
Speaker
Managers, marketers, and crypto promoters often drive decisions, and viral fame attracts opportunistic and risk-heavy deals.
00:09:02
Speaker
When you become famous overnight, you don't have to build financial literacy. Everybody shows up with a business opportunity once your name starts trending. And what would you do if you had millions of dollars and ideas that could generate millions of dollars thrown at you tomorrow?
00:09:19
Speaker
Becomes tough. So she developed or people people came to her to develop her own crypto coin. You know, the same kind of nonsense that our president is frauding people on by, you know, milking it. I call it.
00:09:36
Speaker
Actually, this is not my term. This is a term used by my mom, Beaumont Jones. But I believe this term is apropos. funny money, right? This isn't even stocks, which like you kind of, you kind of know what stocks is. This is the next thing. This is, you don't know what this is worth. People are kind of telling you what it worth what it's worth. And it's not something that, that is tangible. It's not even like art, right? Even though they have these like, I don't know, bit means, I don't even know what they're called that you could buy like artwork on digital artwork. Look,
00:10:10
Speaker
All this is above my head. I'm a tangible type of person, not solely cash, but I like to look into my account and see what the hell I have. Not this imaginary idea of what it's worth.
00:10:23
Speaker
So this company came to her, so Luna, and they wanted to produce a hot corn. And so they released it in December, 2024. It was a massive hype push across all of her social programs, all of her social platforms for this coin. The market cap reportedly skyrocketed near 490 to 500 million. Now, what does that mean? It means that this coin was launched And because of her popularity, the value of it shot all the way up to $490 to $500 million, which is crazy.
00:11:00
Speaker
Here's the part where she got in trouble. It then collapsed with ah with over 90% of its value within hours. So what does that mean? Because like if you trade in stocks, stocks don't just kind of drop that fast, right? Like you don't balloon a value of something.
00:11:21
Speaker
I have a cup to the left of me, right? If all of a sudden I designed a cup, and And I said, hey, I'm going to make the digital version of this cup, this new design for this cup, available for everybody to buy into. And the value of that cup shoots up to $490 to $500 million, dollars just like that.
00:11:42
Speaker
But then drops 90% of its value within hours. Everybody that invested into that cup that shot it up to that level lost money immediately.
00:11:54
Speaker
Well, not immediately, but within hours. That would piss me off. That would make me seem like this was all a scam. And so on-chain analysts, whatever the hell they are, they said there was a large percentage of supply held by inside snipers, insiders or snipers, and higher transfer fees, roughly 15%. So there was millions generated in trade fees during the hype and the spike.
00:12:23
Speaker
It's a classic crypto chart pattern, but it's a vertical pump and a cliff dive crash. So crypto moves at Internet speed so you can get rich or wiped out in minutes. And this was a prime example. Fans didn't buy coins. They bought a belief in the personality.
00:12:42
Speaker
Right. That's a problem. because you're not spending money on a personality. You're spending money on something that's not quite tangential, but that's digital and and internet.
00:12:53
Speaker
You know, you could be rich and then wiped out. We saw this happen with and during a pandemic with with with stocks for like GameStop, right? People got rich and then lost a lot of money. This this happens. So fans became disappointed, pissed off, agitated at this situation literally pump and dump.
00:13:17
Speaker
And once again, the analysts said that there were people behind the scenes that owned it. Okay. That were benefiting highly off of this rise. And then it's done.
00:13:33
Speaker
So fans accused Haley of the rug being pulled out from one under them. There was a class action, a civil class action lawsuit, Welsh fame, uh,
00:13:46
Speaker
Dissipated. She disappeared. Like after this broke, i didn't see her for a while. And the window was short, right? Her viral thing happened in June. This coin happened in December.
00:13:57
Speaker
She didn't even get a good six month run before she disappeared and she's coming back up. This is March, 2026. This happened over two years ago, right? Disappeared. It's because of the civil lawsuits and that people were saying that she was a key promoter in the face of the project. And this is the reason why these things happen. there Something that is very important to distinguish, there were civil and criminal cases. The SEC reportedly closed the probe ah without any findings or penalties against her.
00:14:29
Speaker
um But her reputation was damaged and still occurred regardless of the legal outcome. So, yeah, she was a she was just the face of it.
00:14:41
Speaker
Right. She didn't have any anything going on behind the scenes. Well, people don't care about that. You're the face of it. You're the face of it. Right. When X is trash now. I believe it's because of Elon Musk. I have strong belief it's because of Elon Musk, right? And he's the face of it. You're going to feel my anger it.
00:15:00
Speaker
because you're the face of it You're the reason why this is happening, even though truthfully she wasn't. And like I said, she was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing. She still got some civil stuff. Her people, though, they still they still in that trouble. ah But like I said, this happened two years ago. Recently, this is coming all about because she's trying to make a comeback. And that's what America loves. Right. America loves for you to become famous, fall, fall.
00:15:27
Speaker
and then have a rebrand and then a comeback. and She's coming back with new podcasts, brand deals, and events. But that's how internet fame works, right? It's a cycle. You go rise, controversy, then you rebrand attempt, and some influencers recover, and others just become a cautionary tale. I don't know what the outcome for her is going to be. Like I said, I don't know her personally.
00:15:55
Speaker
Don't know a personally. But what she gave off was a genuinely decent human being that had good personality. She'd done a lot of interviews and and and expressed who she was. And I believe that she was a good person that got wrapped up with not understanding that there are snakes out there that are going to present themselves as people looking to give you an opportunity When in reality, they're looking to line their pockets.
00:16:29
Speaker
Some people can see it. Some people can't. And so I feel bad for her. I hope she can rebrand. I hope that she can get some popularity back in. Because like I said, she seemed like she was a decent human being.
00:16:42
Speaker
But when people lose money, see, there's a lot of things that you could do to lose popularity.
00:16:49
Speaker
Taking people's money. Yeah. That's a tough one to come back from, but I'm rooting for But, you know, stories like this always make people pick sides entirely too fast. Some folks say she knew what she was doing.
00:17:05
Speaker
Others say she was taken advantage of. But the truth like most real truths, usually live somewhere in the uncomfortable middle. Because what we're really looking at isn't just one viral personality or one bad business decision. We're looking at what happens when modern fame moves faster than modern wisdom.
00:17:25
Speaker
See, there used to be a runway to celebrity. You had to fail quietly. You had to learn industry. You had to build a team that actually cared about you, not just the money attached to your name.
00:17:37
Speaker
Now, one clip, one moment, one algorithm push, and suddenly millions of people know who you are. But here's the part people don't think about and don't know how you are yet.
00:17:49
Speaker
You don't know who you are yet in the spotlight. And when you don't know who you are, somebody else will gladly define your value for you. They'll tell you what to post.
00:18:00
Speaker
They'll tell you what to sell. They'll tell you what opportunities you can't miss. They'll promise you community, legacy, generational wealth, all while moving at the speed designed so you don't have time to ask the right questions.
00:18:14
Speaker
That's not a new story. That's an old story. Young athletes signing bad contracts, actors surrounded by yes-men, musicians going broke after platinum albums,
00:18:25
Speaker
The only thing that's changed is timeline. Fame used to creep up on you. Now it ambushes you. And when fame ambushes you, the real danger isn't just the spotlight.
00:18:36
Speaker
It's the crowd that rushes in behind it because success attracts opportunity, but it also attracts predators. People who see the moment not as something to protect, but but something to extract from.
00:18:50
Speaker
So whether you think she was naive, responsible, manipulated, or some combination of all three, the lesson isn't really about her. It's about all of us living living in an era where influence can outpace maturity and money can outpace understanding.
00:19:09
Speaker
Because the uncomfortable truth in this is getting famous is easy now. Staying grounded is the hard part. When success comes before preparation, the real test isn't fame, it's survival.
00:19:23
Speaker
Because in deep water, you either learn to swim or you drown.
Voting Rights Challenges
00:19:37
Speaker
You know, voting is a right. It's a legal right. I've never understood
00:19:46
Speaker
because voting is so important and because we have national holidays for anything, right? Why aren't election days national holidays?
00:20:00
Speaker
To make it easier for everybody to vote because that's the thing, right? If it's your right. you should It should be easier for you to do it. It should be easy to vote.
00:20:13
Speaker
And for some people in some areas, it relatively is. For me in Virginia and in the area that I live in, okay, and I'm afforded certain privileges because of my social economic status.
00:20:28
Speaker
My social economic status is
00:20:32
Speaker
allows me in the spaces that if I wasn't at that status, I wouldn't be allowed in those spaces as a black man. So I have certain privileges, even though I'm my i'm a minority, because socially and economically, i'm I'm doing okay, right? So for me, it was really easy to register.
00:20:57
Speaker
I moved to a new area. I moved to a new state, right? Moved from Maryland to Virginia. Had to go down to the local DMV. Had to get my driver's license. Right there as I'm getting my driver's license, register the road. I'm on the registration roll.
00:21:16
Speaker
All I got to do to go vote, go to my polling station, go to my voting station, give them my ID. They check the database. They ask me a couple of questions.
00:21:28
Speaker
I go vote in and out. My whole process for even voting It takes me longer to walk to the voting station than it actually does to actually vote.
00:21:40
Speaker
Because once again, I live in a social area that's a higher social economic to plane. And look, they make it real easy for people that have a little bit of cheddar. ain't got that much. Don't get it twisted. I ain't got that much. right you know Technically, I think I'm broke. But I think I'm broke no matter how much money I got in my account. I'm broke. Okay. I ain't got no money. Don't ask me for no money. But...
00:22:02
Speaker
But we make it easier for people that have a little bit of bread. My sister lives in a district in Atlanta. My sister got a little bit of bread, too. She got a house. You know what saying? You know, in the surrounding neighborhoods, Bankhead.
00:22:15
Speaker
Right. And there are some people that are lower on the socioeconomic ladder and live in the surrounding neighborhoods. So they have a voting station and it's always packed.
00:22:31
Speaker
Long lines. And that's never, I never understood that to me. You would think when you have more people in a concentrated area, you'd have more polling areas that make it easier for people to vote.
00:22:42
Speaker
And they just don't do that. This country does not make it easy for the majority of people to vote. They really don't. A lot of times, if you're not really paying attention to your local politics. You have no idea when city councils and city mayors are, unless you live in a big city like Baltimore, D.C. You know, know i I don't live in a big city.
00:23:09
Speaker
I don't even know if my city has a mayor. I think we do. I know they got to counsel because I thought about running for it a few times. But, you know, I got some stuff on my record. a You know, I come up during, you know, you know, debates and stuff like that. You ain't going to put my business out there in the street. I'm going to fight you. And that's not how politicians really are supposed to operate. So that won't work for me. But.
00:23:29
Speaker
Yeah, no, I mean, unless you're really paying attention to your local politics and people, and people are and people vote for national elections. Most of the time because they don't know what's going on locally. Not really, not unless you're in the community and you're being active.
00:23:45
Speaker
Why am I bringing all this up? There is a method to my madness. The SAVE Act. What is the SAVE Act? It's the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act.
00:23:58
Speaker
This is a Republican-backed bill. It was introduced by Chip Roy in Texas in May of 2024. Why am I talking about it now in March 2026?
00:24:10
Speaker
Because it passed the House of 2024, didn't get voted on. They reintroduced it in 2026,
00:24:22
Speaker
And it's still kind of stalling in the Senate. Odds are this thing is not going to pass. But it's important because you need to understand what, you know what, i can't even i can't even fake it, right? I was going to try and be impartial, but I got to just be real with y'll y'all. It's unsolicited perspectives with Bruce Anthony.
00:24:44
Speaker
I got to be real with y'all, right? This is some Republican BS. It's some Republican bull. And even Republicans in the Senate, it's like, this is bull. But what's in this act? What are they trying to do?
00:24:57
Speaker
So it requires documentation, proof of you being a U.S. citizen. Now, when you think about that, when I say that, people going to be like, yeah, you know, that don't sound like a big deal. Like, you just prove you're that you're a citizen.
00:25:14
Speaker
You have to prove that you're a citizen to even register to vote and update your voter registration.
00:25:23
Speaker
Non-citizens are not out there voting like that. It's a small, I mean, like small number, like in the tens, maybe the hundreds, not thousands, not millions, hundreds, maybe And they get caught. You know what I'm saying? They get caught. We already have laws in place to make sure non-citizens aren't voting.
00:25:51
Speaker
But the way that you have to prove that you are a citizen is by these acceptable documents, either a passport, a birth certificate, or naturalized papers.
00:26:05
Speaker
What doesn't count anymore, what isn't sufficient, are driver license, real IDs, military IDs, which is crazy. um Those alone won't be sufficient.
00:26:18
Speaker
It requires in-person presentation of your documents, and this would amend the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
00:26:27
Speaker
It shifts the burden of proving eligibility more heavily onto the voters when voting is already restricted to citizens. So this adds a new verification layer. layer This changes how registration works nationwide.
00:26:44
Speaker
and And you once again may say to me, but Bruce, What's the big deal? Okay, so I'm going give you the Republican supporter argument because I don't think a lot of Democrats is out here supporting him, except for John Fetterman, which, by the way, bro, just go ahead and change parties.
00:26:59
Speaker
Go ahead and change parties because you ain't a Democrat. All right, so what are the key points some of the supporters are saying about this? It's designed to prevent non-citizens from voting in federal elections, right?
00:27:10
Speaker
It's tied to border concerns about immigration, election integrity, and confidence in election systems. Supporters ah frame it as a simple safeguard, a citizens only voting protection and a one time document documentation step.
00:27:30
Speaker
What did a critic say? Non-citizen voting in federal elections is already illegal. You can't do it. Documented cases are statistically extremely rare. I already told you about that.
00:27:45
Speaker
Existence systems already include citizen ah citizenship, non-citizenship, underperjury, right? You can't do that. And database verification.
00:27:58
Speaker
You know, critics are saying that this bill could disenfranchise eligible voters lacking documents and or severely limit mail-in registration and create unfounded mandates from states.
00:28:11
Speaker
Okay. I want to get on the documentation because everybody's like, yo, Bruce, what's the big deal? Get your birth certificate. Get your passport.
00:28:23
Speaker
You'd be good to go. You can vote. This is going back to my original point that some of us have certain privileges that we don't even realize are privileges.
00:28:34
Speaker
And you may think to yourself, I'm living check to check, but you still live in a social economic level where you have a passport or you have a copy of your birth certificate. My mom,
00:28:46
Speaker
God bless her. Love my mama to death. Kept that paperwork, right? I have a copy. When I became a adult an adult, my parents were like, all right, man, we've been keeping this documentation, but you're at that age now. Here's your birth certificate. Here's your Social Security card. Don't lose it.
00:29:04
Speaker
You got to keep it. And I do. I have it. I know exactly where my birth certificate is. I know exactly where my Social Security card is. My parents was on top of that stuff. You know, not everybody has parents like mine.
00:29:18
Speaker
So to get a copy your birth certificate ain't a whole lot of money to certain people, but it could be the difference between eating and not eating, right? To get a copy of birth certificate. I personally forgot what city I was born in.
00:29:35
Speaker
If my parents weren't alive, That would have taken real strong investigation work to find out. I would have had to contact the state, right? i would The state would have given me information. Maybe they had the information where or the hospital was because the hospitals have to keep a copy of the birth certificate records. And then I would be able to, you know, get my copy of a birth certificate. What happens if you don't even know what state that you were born in?
00:30:03
Speaker
I mean, we think I'd hire an investigator to find out, to get you get a copy of your birth certificate? You know, people that have it don't think about these type of things because we don't need to think about them. We got a copy of our birth certificate.
00:30:18
Speaker
But these are real things. Passport. Look, I know I still have it. I can't even renew my passport anymore. It's expired. So time so long ago and I'm leaving the country this summer. I need to go get a new passport. I need to go do it this week to guarantee that I have it for my trip this summer because I'm slowly approaching that system. Getting a passport to me is not a big deal.
00:30:44
Speaker
A hundred buck, 50, maybe $200 to get it expedited. Right. Like, I mean, don't just got $200 just thrown around, but that's not going to make a dent. That's not going to make me not have to decide if I could get groceries for a week.
00:30:59
Speaker
Like, once again, i I'm fortunate to do decently professionally where that type of thing doesn't hurt. There are some people that aren't even living check to check. What do i mean by that? Some people are living a check behind. and You're like, Bruce, how can you live a check behind?
00:31:19
Speaker
they got They get their paycheck and they're paying bills that are should have been paid in the previous paycheck. That's not living check to check. When you're living check to check, you get your check.
00:31:32
Speaker
It pays the bills forward, not backwards. right They're retroactively, not retroactively, but they're paying bills that should have already been paid. So they're in the hole.
00:31:43
Speaker
There are people out there literally living like that. A lot of people. And it don't really matter what socioeconomical level that you're in, right? There are a lot of people that are behind, that are not living checkto- check to check.
00:31:59
Speaker
They're living past check to check. I think he can't $100, $150, $200 for a passport. But you can spend that $20, $25, $30 to get the driver's license. And even for a lot of people, that's a stretch.
00:32:13
Speaker
So what this amounts to is a poll tax. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to give you a history lesson. What is a poll tax? A poll tax is a tax that was applied during the Jim Crow era to be able to vote.
00:32:28
Speaker
Now, you may say, Bruce, this ain't no poll tax. That's not the same thing. Yes, it is. If you have any type of common sense or critical thinking skills, you would know. In order to have those documents, you have to pay money.
00:32:39
Speaker
In order to vote, you need to have those documents. Therefore, It's a new poll tax. So it's illegal because the poll tax was outlawed in 1964 with the Civil Rights Act. And there was a ah case, the ah I think it was Henderson versus Virginia in 1966. But the reason why it was deemed illegal, because it disenfranchised poor voters,
00:33:10
Speaker
Black voters and rural voters. ah So it was banned in the 24th Amendment in 1964, and it was Harper versus ah the board of a Virginia Board of Elections since 1966. You know, poll tax.
00:33:25
Speaker
That's what this is. Another thing that people might be thinking that might not realize is what happens when When your name doesn't match your birth certificate. What do you mean, Bruce? why Why wouldn't your name match your birth certificate?
00:33:40
Speaker
Easy. There are easy examples of why your name wouldn't match your birth certificate. Your legal name would not match your birth certificate. I'm going give you a few. Married women, divorced individuals, transgender citizens, and adopted individuals.
00:33:56
Speaker
Their names wouldn't match. You know what else wouldn't match? If you changed your name. What if I changed my name, my legal government name to Bruce Anthony? That's not the name i'm bur on my birth certificate.
00:34:09
Speaker
It's not the name on birth certificate. It wouldn't match. I would be disqualified from voting even though I am a legal. so I was born here, born in the state of Illinois, been here on this on this land for over 45 years. I'm in the 46th year of my life.
00:34:24
Speaker
I'm about turn But if I decided to legally change my name because it wouldn't match my birth certificate and say I couldn't afford to get a passport, I wouldn't be allowed to vote. Do you understand why this doesn't make sense? Do you understand why there would be a big problem to all of this?
00:34:43
Speaker
It restricts voting. It doesn't improve election integrity. And once again, why do we need to improve election integrity? Because a big crybaby bitching and moaning still six years later about losing the 2020 election.
00:35:03
Speaker
He lost. And there's still people out there saying that he didn't lose. Funny enough, some people who are in the house, who are in the Senate, who are election deniers. But you know what's funny? They don't deny the fact that they won.
00:35:23
Speaker
They don't discredit the system when it benefits them. Because you don't ever hear Chip Royce say, well, I won, but I don't know if I won legitimately because it might have been so many legal people voted for me. No, no, they don't want that.
00:35:41
Speaker
They don't believe that. So why are they really doing this? The reason why Republicans are really doing this, it's not about election integrity.
00:35:52
Speaker
It's not. That's what they'll say, but it's not about that. It's about reducing the number of eligible voters because their policies aren't popular.
00:36:07
Speaker
Now, you will say to yourself, but Bruce, how are their policies not popular when they hold the president's They hold the majority in the House. They hold the majority in the Senate. And even though it's not supposed to be political, there are more conservative justices on the Supreme Court than liberals by 63.
00:36:29
Speaker
How are their policies not power popular? I'm going to get it out. Popular.
00:36:36
Speaker
They run on certain identity politics. Right? The enemy over there. Not you, the enemy over there.
00:36:48
Speaker
And that will galvanize people because a lot of people's identity is wrapped up in being American. I've already described it for you guys that some people call me un-American. Y'all can kiss my ass, okay, because I love this country. and i And you could tell that I love this country because I'll call it out.
00:37:06
Speaker
for its fallacies. What I mean by that is we all love our parents. We all love our siblings, aunt, uncle blood, all that stuff, right? But we also can call out the fact that they're flawed.
00:37:17
Speaker
It doesn't mean that we don't love them still. We do love them. We love them so much that we want them to be better. And it's funny. It's funny how the left is always being called American haters and when the right literally ran on a campaign, make America great again.
00:37:39
Speaker
So if you take that literally, that would mean that they thought America was not great. So if America wasn't great, isn't that a criticism of America?
00:37:51
Speaker
And if it is a criticism of America, doesn't that make them un-American by their own rules and their own standards? I'm just giving y'all some little a little bit of game to think about.
00:38:04
Speaker
You know, if you're a Republican out there, you're conservative person out there and you don't like what I'm saying, I'm just holding you accountable. I'm just making you look in the mirror and decide, do you want to be accountable for your own actions or or is it just always about somebody else?
00:38:20
Speaker
Never mind the fact that they're trying to rig the system by the SAFE Act. They're also trying to rig the system by gerrymandaling gerrymandering. If their policies were popular, you wouldn't have to rig the system. It's like going out and playing pickup basketball and you get all the best players. Oh, you don't want to really compete. You just want to win.
00:38:40
Speaker
So that if you just want to win, then that means you're not really doing the will of the people. You're not really doing it for the people. You're doing it for yourself. It's disingenuous. It's hypocrisy.
00:38:51
Speaker
And this is the reason why I get upset. I have no problem with Republicans who stand on business. These people don't. Chip Roy is a prime example. And it's all stemming from a big crybaby complaining about losing the election.
00:39:08
Speaker
So now you have this new safe act that thankfully, hopefully, more than likely will not pass in the Senate. So won't become law, even though Trump is trying his hardest.
00:39:20
Speaker
to make this law. But more than likely, it won't become law. More like we don't have to worry about this. However, they've been trying to do this since 2024. They're never going to stop.
00:39:36
Speaker
They're always trying to limit what people can vote, who people can vote for. And that's not how democracy works. But you ever notice some political solutions show up long after the supposed problem has already been solved? This is a prime example of this. This would make these debates like this feels like less like policymaking and more like performance.
00:40:02
Speaker
Because the idea that only citizens should vote isn't controversial. It's already law. It's already enforced. And actual cases of non-citizens voting in federal elections are extraordinarily rare. I've already told you guys. It doesn't really happen and does not affect overall races.
00:40:20
Speaker
Okay? So when a proposal comes along that adds more hoops, more paperwork, more bureaucracy, the real question isn't just what the rule says. It's about what the rule does.
00:40:33
Speaker
Because of politics, rules are never neutral. They shape turnout. They shape access. They shape who participates and who decides is just not worth the hassle.
00:40:46
Speaker
History has shown this this before. Poll taxes didn't say you couldn't vote. They just made voting cost money. Literacy tests didn't say you weren't a citizen.
00:40:56
Speaker
They just made proving harder for some people more than others. Every time the justification sounds responsible, Security, integrity, protecting the system.
00:41:09
Speaker
But here's an uncomfortable truth people don't want to sit with. You don't always have to take someone's right to vote to weaken their voice. Sometimes you just make the process complicated enough that fewer people use it. And when you start requiring documents that millions of eligible Americans don't have easy access to,
00:41:30
Speaker
Passports that cost money, birth certificates that take time to obtain, paperwork that doesn't match because life changes like marriage or adoption. You're just not creating a rule.
00:41:42
Speaker
You're creating friction. And friction in democracy has consequences because the same election systems that produce controversial losses also produce victories at every level in government.
00:41:56
Speaker
which raises an uncomfortable political paradox. If systems are truly broken, that doubt would logically apply to every race, not just the ones people are unhappy about.
00:42:08
Speaker
Now, that doesn't mean election security isn't important. Public confidence matters. Transparency matters. But solutions should match the scale of the problem.
00:42:20
Speaker
And when the cure starts looking like it could discourage more legitimate voters than stop the illegal ones, we have to ask whether they're strengthening the democracy or just reshaping who gets to participate in it.
00:42:36
Speaker
Because democracy doesn't usually disappear overnight. It changes gradually through policies, through procedures, through rules that sound reasonable on paper, but feel very different in real life.
00:42:51
Speaker
And the real test isn't whether we can design tougher systems. It's whether we can design systems that secure without becoming selective. Because once participation starts depending on who has the right paperwork, the right time, the right resources, the question isn't just about who wins elections anymore.
00:43:12
Speaker
The question becomes, who still feels invited to be a part of them?
00:43:23
Speaker
All all right. We've been serious. All show. I'm lecturing again. i know. I know I'm the lecturing. Look, I went school to be a teacher, ladies and gentlemen.
00:43:38
Speaker
So sometimes going to come off on these podcasts. A lot of times on these podcasts, a lot of episodes, I'm going come off as preachy. In the words of one of my favorite sports writers, and I live by this motto, I'm not telling you what to think.
00:43:54
Speaker
None of this. is to try and tell you what to think. I am asking you what you'd like to think. That's all. But that's enough of the serious, thought-provoking conversations. Even this is still thought-provoking, but this is a little bit more on the relaxation side, you know, little bit more fun, little bit more upbeat, kind of.
00:44:15
Speaker
And it's about the struggles that only exist because of technology.
Modern Life & Technology Frustrations
00:44:20
Speaker
What do I mean by that? Something as simple as forgetting your password Again, let me tell you something.
00:44:29
Speaker
I'm so sick of all these different things that I have to have passwords for that I can't ever remember. I have, and I got to change it because my brother and sister actually figured out what it was. And I thought it was foolproof. It had been my password.
00:44:45
Speaker
For like 30 years, I thought nobody would be able to figure it out. And maybe only people that really have known me for a long time would be able to figure it out. But ah my password is always some variation or combination of these words and numbers that I've been using for the last 30 years so that I can remember it. And I had to change it. I had to completely change it because my brother sister figured it out.
00:45:06
Speaker
What pisses me off is that a lot of times I can't even figure it out. And it's my password. And y'all all know what I'm talking about. And I don't want these strong-ass suggestion passwords but that Apple or Google provide to you because what happens if they all of a sudden disappear? It's happened before with some of these Apple updates where I would go into my passwords and be like, i don't know what that password is. And I'm like, you're supposed to know what this password is. You created it.
00:45:33
Speaker
I don't know what this password is. it was... supercalifragilisticexpercalidocious, 1 million pi times 52. Like I can't remember that. I can't even spell that. So I need you, my iPhone, my laptop, to remember these passwords because I can't remember them because I got passwords for everything. And y'all know what I'm talking about. So this is what I'm talking about with these struggles that only technology, that only exists because of technology. Don't get me wrong.
00:46:04
Speaker
glad that they had now that they now have this kind of thing where at least they'll remember, but half the time they're not remembering, right? This is another one that technology just, oh, this this kills me.
00:46:19
Speaker
And we've all been there. We've all, look, some of y'all lied. If you don't own up to this, we've all gone on one of our exes, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, what have you, just to see how they doing and secretly hope that they're not doing better than us. We've all done that. We've all been that type of petty.
00:46:40
Speaker
Problem is sometimes, or maybe it's just me with my little fat fingers, you accidentally are looking at a picture and accidentally like a post. And that post was from 2016. So that person immediately gets a notification that you liked an old ass picture.
00:46:58
Speaker
Or, and this happened to me, a friend of yours wants to see what what a person is up to and they like a picture by accident. This is only a struggle that technology has presented.
00:47:12
Speaker
It was not a thing back in the day. I don't remember time from MySpace allowing this to happen, but Instagram sure allows this to happen. Facebook sure as hell allows it to happen. And it's embarrassing.
00:47:25
Speaker
You know what else?
00:47:28
Speaker
Watching somebody type and then it disappear. Now, What's crazy is this is even working Android. It even works on Instagram now, DMs and all this stuff. It'll say typing or you'll see the little bubbles or what have you.
00:47:42
Speaker
And then they just disappear. You was going say something. What were you going to say? I'm waiting. Say it. This is only a struggle technology has presented to you. And it's aggravating.
00:47:56
Speaker
don't Don't give me the bubbles and then disappear. you get I might come to your house. Hey, look, there were some bubbles earlier. What was you going to say? Because I need to know it because we was having a conversation. And obviously, it seemed like you going to say something smart.
00:48:11
Speaker
And I need to know ah what my clapback needs to be for whatever you was going to say. So what was you going to say? And don't let it be bubbles and then disappear.
00:48:23
Speaker
And then you're like, all right, forget it then. And then you walk away and then you hit a text alert five to 10 minutes later. It's like, oh, you was really thinking about this. I'm about to get them. You know what ah what another struggle of technology presented?
00:48:37
Speaker
your phone battle Your phone battery anxiety. That's a real thing. You got 100%, man, fearless. may you fearless You ain't worried about nothing. You got ah you got all the apps open. You on YouTube.
00:48:52
Speaker
You got music playing. You ain't worried about your battery life. That bad boy get about 50%, 20%. You start You might put on that, you know, the little mode where reserved the battery because you're like, hey, I don't know if I can get to a charger in time. You fighting with folks. Hey, man, you got a charger. No, I'm using it right now. Hey, you got a charger. Yeah, I got a charger. Man, that charger don't match this phone. I need a charger real fast.
00:49:19
Speaker
My phone is about to die. And then by the time you get to 5%, you're praying. Because when you get to 5%, you actually need to use your phone for something. People be calling you, hey, man, hey, I got to get off this phone. I only got 5% battery life. Text me. Text me real fast. Text me real fast. I got to get to a charger. That's a new world struggle, and it's a struggle because of technology.
00:49:41
Speaker
vote Voice notes being longer than movies. i Like I said, I got a lot of female friends, a lot of them, dear friends of mine, and it's ah it's only my female friends.
00:49:53
Speaker
I don't, none of my male friends do this. I'm not saying it's gender specific. I'm saying in my life, it is gender specific. And I'm like, look, with all these damn voice notes, you could have just called me. Now I'm not going to answer the phone because I don't want to talk on the phone, which is probably the reason why they're leaving me voice notes. But the fact that they only a minute long and I got to listen to 20 of them.
00:50:15
Speaker
Come on now. is it Is this a new Risa Tisa, you know, documentary series? Why are you sending me so many voice notes? The struggle that technology created. You know, what's another struggle technology created?
00:50:28
Speaker
Wi-Fi acting different in in every room in the house. Look, I have to use wired Wi-Fi in my studio because the Wi-Fi in the studio is not as strong everywhere else in the house. And I don't understand it. It'd be pissing me off. And it's always been like that. In the living room, you've got super high speed cable. And in the bedroom, in the studio, in the bathroom, you got to use Morse code.
00:50:54
Speaker
Why isn't this strong everywhere? My place ain't really even that big. I shouldn't have to get extenders, Wi-Fi extenders, just to have power everywhere. And that's crazy.
00:51:05
Speaker
And that's another struggle that technology has created. ah Another struggle is seeing somebody who is active online but not responding.
00:51:18
Speaker
So you online, you online just not for me. That's one way. for me to send you straight to hell and whatever message. I hate it. I hate it.
00:51:33
Speaker
When I see people online, I send them something and they act like they yeah didn't send it. They didn't see it. They don't want to respond to it. That's a bunch of bull. You see, I see you online. It's got the little gray, which by the way, really don't like that.
00:51:47
Speaker
I don't want people knowing when I'm online because they might send me something that I don't want to respond to. Is that selfish? Because I don't like it when it's done to me. Yes. Is it hypocritical?
00:51:58
Speaker
Yes. I just said I was perfect. I'm a flawed individual. I like attention when I want attention. And sometimes I don't want attention, so some'm not going to respond. But you damn sure better respond to me when I see that you are online.
00:52:10
Speaker
Another thing, tracking packages like it's a stock market. Look, it'd be out for delivery for 27 hours. And it's always something that you're like, man, I kind of need this right now.
00:52:23
Speaker
I'm like, oh, okay, I'm going to get it. I'm going to get it earlier in the day. And then it still don't show up until you're about ready to go to bed. And I got special Amazon and UPS lockers in my building. So I got to go downstairs. It's not a package that's delivered to my front door. And I wish it was. It used to be a time.
00:52:40
Speaker
But they got a new security system make a little difficult. You know, that's another struggle technology has created. You know? It's good for people because ah their homes are protected, but I don't want this strong security system where I live. It makes it difficult for people to deliver my food. I love the pandemic when I didn't have to interact with people unless I was getting some alcohol.
00:53:01
Speaker
And then I was already, you know, soft, just getting some extra alcohol. So in that moment, I actually want to speak to people, but I don't actually want to see or talk to people. When I'm in my chill mode and technology has ruined that because the security system is so damn strong and you can track these packages. And I just want my package.
00:53:21
Speaker
I just want my package. Look, another thing, struggles, technology, you got to update everything before you can even use it. Before I started, i so swear to God, this is a true story.
00:53:37
Speaker
Hand to the ceiling, to the heavens. I am not lying. Before I started filming this show and I'm running late to film the show, right? That's the reason why y'all might notice that it's a little frantic.
00:53:50
Speaker
ah You know, sorry, and you know, I'm not perfect. I'll do the best that I can, but I was a little late starting the show. I wanted to start at a certain time because I'm meticulous and I done planned out my day and I got things that I got to do. And I had to get this show recorded and all this stuff.
00:54:08
Speaker
And what happens? What happens? My phone just decides to update itself. And shuts off. Completely shuts off.
00:54:19
Speaker
I go to change the lights because the lights are controlled by my phone. Technology. Struggle. And I can't change the lights because my phone is updating. How long does this update take? a good 20 minutes.
00:54:34
Speaker
So I'm 20 minutes behind starting the show. which I was already late starting to show on because of technology. And I didn't tell it to update. It decided to update it itself, pissing me off.
00:54:47
Speaker
And the last thing that I'm going to say, that technology has made the struggle in my life mad crazy, group chats.
00:55:00
Speaker
Because group chats never die. You can have a conversation on Tuesday and then they go dormant for days. And then all of a sudden on Friday, text streams. My phone is on do not disturb because I'm recording right now.
00:55:15
Speaker
I have more group chats that I want to be in. I want to get out of them. But you can't because there are people that, you know, you care about. And if you say leave the chat, everybody going to be like, yo, why you why you leave the chat? You can't. They're muted.
00:55:29
Speaker
They're muted because I don't want to hear the thing. think I don't want to hear that. But a lot of times it'd be a lot of nonsense. And I'm in group chats with a lot of people. And it's worse when it's some Android users because you can't even you can't even leave the group chat if you wanted to.
00:55:45
Speaker
just ruining everything. And then you look at your phone and you got 237 text messages. My anxiety won't let that number sit. I've got to erase that little marker, that indicator on my text icon has to be empty.
00:56:01
Speaker
I don't know why this is... Don't try to explain who I am. I just accept the fact that I am this way. God made me this way. I accept it. And I'm not going change. It gives me anxiety. I've got to resolve that. And so that means I've got to click on that link and look at those group chats. and A lot of times it's nonsense.
00:56:24
Speaker
Or it's a conversation that I might have been interested in. But now it's too late to enter in the conversation because you weren't around your phone. So technology.
00:56:35
Speaker
But technology promised to make life easier. But really, it just gave us new ways to panic faster. You know what's funny about all of this, though?
00:56:46
Speaker
We were promised a future that was going to look like flying cars, robot assistants. And instead, we got phones that listened to us argue with autocorrect at 2 in the morning.
00:56:57
Speaker
Technology was supposed to make life simpler. Now it just gives us new things to be dramatic about. Our ancestors were worried about survival. We were worried about whether someone saw us accidentally like a photo from 2014.
00:57:11
Speaker
They were building farms. We're building password combinations that look like Wi-Fi codes. And somehow, all of this is quote-unquote progress.
00:57:22
Speaker
Still hasn't solved the biggest modern problem of all, figuring out what to do and what to watch on Saturday night. with our Netflix.
00:57:35
Speaker
But here's the part I actually kind of love about all of this. As stressful and ridiculous as this tech stuff is, it also connects us.
00:57:45
Speaker
It gives us shared experiences, shared annoyances, shared moments where we all realize, oh, it's not just me. Everybody's confused. Because whether it's bad Wi-Fi, dying batteries, ghosting text typing bubbles, or group chats that refuse to die, these little frustrations are weirdly universal.
00:58:10
Speaker
And maybe that's the trade-off. Life doesn't necessarily get easier. It just got faster, louder, and a little bit more ridiculous. But at least now when things go wrong, we don't suffer alone.
00:58:25
Speaker
We suffer together in high definition with notifications. And honestly, that might be the most modern form of community that we actually have.
00:58:37
Speaker
Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for listening. I want to thank you for watching. And until next time, as always,
00:58:48
Speaker
I'll holla.
00:58:51
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 will enjoy it also. So share the wealth, share the knowledge, share the noise.
00:59:14
Speaker
And for all those people that say, well, I don't have a YouTube. If you have a Gmail account, you have a YouTube. Subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can actually watch our video podcast and YouTube exclusive content.
00:59:25
Speaker
But the real party is on our Patreon page. After Hours Uncensored and Talking Straight-ish. After Hours Uncensored is another show with my sister. And once again, the key word there is uncensored. Those who exclusively on our Patreon page, jump onto our website at unsolicitedperspective.com.
00:59:41
Speaker
dot com for all things that's where you can get all of our audio video our blogs and even buy our merch and if you really feel generous and wanna help us out you can donate on our donations paid donations go strictly to improving our software and hardware so we can keep giving you guys good content that you can clearly listened to and that you can clearly see. So any donation would be appreciated. Most importantly, I want to say thank you.
01:00:08
Speaker
Thank you. Thank you for listening and watching and supporting us. And I'll catch you next time. Audi 5000. Peace.