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Ep. 196 – Death Via Compound Standoff: A Time-Honored, Cross-Cultural Religious Tradition
323 Plays5 months ago
This week the boys are flying solo! We spent some time griping about the looming threat of war and the unsettling jingoistic attitude some in the west seem to have about it, pasty trust fund Rastafarians, and a very interesting story unfolding in the Philippines where the wealthy leader of what appears to be a Christian cult stands accused of a litany of disgusting criminal acts, including human trafficking. He and his followers are currently in a standoff with a large police force, and have barricaded themselves inside his 75 acre compound. What could be more American than that?! Enjoy the episode and if you’re not a member of our Discord, come hang out with us! You’ll find a link to it in our Instagram bio.
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Transcript
Spiritual Connections and Misunderstandings
00:00:00
Speaker
it's Yeah, that's like the guitar guy at the party, but like on crack. I mean, he's got some essay in his history. There's no way he does guarantee gar a it. And to him, look, and if you ask him, it was an actual spiritual experience where the two of them connected his as entities other than physical. ah And to the other person, it was the worst day of their life. so And if you if you bring it up, he he would say something along the lines of,
00:00:29
Speaker
you know i I see you and I hear you and I recognize the hurt that you feel. I guess i see the humanity in your eyes.
Legal Escapes and NDAs
00:00:37
Speaker
I guess what pains me is to know that you don't feel the same level, the same kind of gratefulness that I do for our our physical connection and the the experience that we had together. and You did sign an NDA. yeah number might You to my dad's attorney, so I don't want to hear about this again.
Podcast Intro and the Hoagie Incident
00:01:16
Speaker
Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Growing Up Christian. I'm Sam. I'm Casey. And it's just us today. We were supposed to be joined by our good friend, Spencer, the spice man bland. ah But some last minute stuff came up. He swallowed too big a chunk of hoagie. Yeah, got that like.
00:01:37
Speaker
that hurt feeling in the top of his like, it's like top of stomach, bottom of throat, and it just aches. And you try to drink water and force it down like, like, and and none of that would have happened if they didn't try to cancel lunch or schedule a meeting during lunch at work, and he had to like, secretly eat it through his sleeve, you know?
LifeVac and Marketing Paranoia
00:01:59
Speaker
But he should be joining us next week, so we're excited. Always a pleasure to have him on. Do you think a face plunger would work for those sort of situations?
00:02:11
Speaker
There, I think there was a, wasn't there a follow up? I think you should leave sketch. Yeah. Where he's like, he creates, he creates, like, I created an invention after getting embarrassingly fired from my last job, something like that. And it's like, I'm not going to say why I got fired. Cause it was embarrassing, but it was basically like a vacuum to suck out a hot dog that you choke on to work.
00:02:33
Speaker
it yes my god so funny funny thing is ah My wife did buy these things called life vax. I think it's what they are after we had kids. And it's literally just a suction device that goes over your face and sucks food out of your throat if you're choking on it. So something like that does exist.
00:02:55
Speaker
man It's like selling parachutes after 9-11. The odds of you like kid choking is like to death is basically nothing. I don't know what the number of chokings to death are for children in the US, but I don't hear about it much. So it's probably not that high.
00:03:12
Speaker
It's like maybe a news story a couple times a year, but so selling those is just like, you know, preying on parents who just are like terrified, like, Oh my God, if I, on the off chance that my, like, why wouldn't I, why would I not spend this $30 and then regret it? Like if my kid starts choking, like it's 30 bucks, who cares? And I think that's such a funny business model because like,
00:03:39
Speaker
you've you're essentially creating a useless product that will never be used based on people like this just the only marketing strategies like fear and i i mean i like the idea of finding my way into something like that right you don't doesn't really, you don't even know if, like I don't know if those things work. I believe, I'm just buying that they do. I'm hoping that like they do, but it's not like, it's not like you buy it and you use it and you're like, this is great. Or like another item that you buy and you use and it doesn't work. And you're like, I want my money back. This is just something that you buy and it sits under the seat of your car for six years until you realize your kids don't like, until you're like, oh shit, I guess I don't need this anymore.
Preparedness and Parental Fears
00:04:24
Speaker
i have a bunch of that kind of stuff like i heard about i had a customer tell me about ah friend that he's like a this guy i was talking to was he's a big big gun guy and kind of not a prepper but like he's got He's got like a bug out bag and stuff like that But he was telling me that he's like everybody should keep a like emergency tourniquet in their car I was like, what are you talking about? and He said that there's new emergency heroin Yeah, no something like that. But the he was telling me that a friend of his like Saw an accident happen in front of him and I think a guy got hit on a motorcycle or something like that but like his leg was basically off and this guy had a
00:05:10
Speaker
one of these emergency turnip in his car. And like, it's basically, it looks like a big kind of rubber band thing. You put it around there and then there's a stick that comes with it. So you twist the stick to like cinch it up. And he like saved this guy's life because he had that thing on him, kept him from bleeding out. And so now I have a tourniquet in all of my cars. Not because I care about other people, but because like,
00:05:38
Speaker
That would be a great opportunity for me to get on the Today Show and talk about like what a brave hero I am. Yeah. That, and when you're on long drives and you're driving through the middle of absolute nowhere, you like to pull over and tourniquet your balls while you rub one out. but You can finish the trip. If you come across somebody in a wreck that was bleeding real bad like I might, if they had the wrong kind of bumper stickers on the back of their car, I might just wrap the tourniquet around their neck.
Billionaire Bashing and Sinking Yachts
00:06:10
Speaker
Please, or error. I don't know. I thought that's how I've never used one. who Honestly, it's the company's fault for just selling tourniquets to anyone who wants to buy one. Yeah. All tourniquets are potentially a garat.
00:06:26
Speaker
They can come in handy for a lot of things. ah Good, bad, morally neutral. But speaking of good, bad, and morally neutral, let's have a ah quick conversation about this billionaire super yacht sinking. that was I saw that this today on um at work. i was like I pulled out my phone. I was in my office with my colleague. And I open it. And I go, oh, hell yeah.
00:06:54
Speaker
And she's like, what? I was like, oh, I don't know that. I don't think that reaction is going to really line up with the story I'm about to share with you. It's like, I guess this billionaire is dying on his super yacht. And she's like.
00:07:09
Speaker
But yeah, i guess that's pretty I guess that's pretty cool. But I thought it was good news. ah i I don't think anyone who listens regularly is ah unaware of my disdain for billionaires. Yeah, it's a controversial stance you had there.
00:07:25
Speaker
Not, I just mean in general, it comes up frequently. I don't ever, I don't really hear you bringing it up too often. yeah You're still hoping you can be one someday. so That's right. yeah I view myself, I don't view myself as a failure, just a temporarily embarrassed billionaire.
00:07:41
Speaker
yeah
00:07:44
Speaker
Like every other fat American loser. yeah
00:07:49
Speaker
But what I text, we haven't made a shirt since that first one, but I texted you the other day. It was just like, how well do you think an assassinate billionaires shirt would sell? And we didn't get to in the weeds on it, but I feel like that that has potential. Also, anyone can steal it now. I'm sure it already exists. I don't even know why I'm worried about it. I'm sure if I Google it, it
Humor in Extreme Measures Against Billionaires
00:08:10
Speaker
exists as a shirt. It would definitely start a lot of annoying conversations because it's going to be like homeless people coming up to you and slapping you on the back and be like, that's right, bro. Or it's going to be like annoying old Republican grandpas coming up and like trying to go through the whole like, uh,
00:08:28
Speaker
You know, take a look at this pencil. This is made of many components that only capitalism can bring together. It's like, shut up, grandpa. I do. i I like the idea of like, we don't.
00:08:42
Speaker
We we don't like as a and a constitutional level or through legislation prevent the opportunity to become a billionaire. I just think we need to make it not illegal to kill them. I think that would just.
00:08:58
Speaker
I think that would even in things out really well. like if If you knew that the day you hit a billion dollars in assets, in in then then that's the day that like it's open season on your life. So you do everything you can to keep that $9,999,999.
00:09:17
Speaker
Yeah, like especially as the guy accidentally bought the right stock, but like the the leading Pelosi stock at the right time, and then all of a sudden he's a billionaire, it's just open. It's like that every day is the purge for him. Yeah, because he made the right trade account.
00:09:34
Speaker
but trade So you put a grace period in. Look, i'm I'm willing to work across the aisle, Casey. you You put a grace period in for accidental billionaires. You became one overnight by accident. That's fine, but you just have to find a way to get rid of enough so that way it's not open season on your life. You get 48 hours. you know I think that's plenty of time to move money around. It's going to take a lot of research, though, to figure out a good way to murder one. like I would probably go for Warren Buffett just because of the vi You know, he's in my vicinity in like Omaha or whatever So maybe I don't know just hide it like he's eating his Dairy Queen Blizzard and like takes one spoonful too many out and it's just my fist with a gun and at Dude and also I think we have to I want to flush this out more if you kill a billionaire I mean you get a reward like you get you get more money, but if you kill a billionaire none of this like
00:10:31
Speaker
It doesn't go to a trust. It's not an estate shit. It's not, was it like it doesn't go to children. It doesn't go to fucking anybody. It goes to the people immediately. You kill a billionaire, their money's liquidated and it shows up in everyone else's bank account. Awesome. Now this is where we differ because I want like a Highlander system where like, you know, you, you cut off his head.
00:10:53
Speaker
there's a quickening, all the cars around you blow out their headlights, and you absorb like all of his assets.
The Morality of War
00:11:00
Speaker
But now you're the target. Now you're the billionaire, and that's dangerous. So you know we can figure out what an appropriate amount for them to get is, but it needs to be enough so that way like it's worth it for the to have blood on your hand. like Of course, there's some PTSD that comes with shooting somebody, or maybe, I mean, however brutal you want to get with it. and just the point is it there's a it's like soldiers right you know how so it's like yeah it's like they're just taking that necessary like i know this is gonna fuck me up but i'm doing it because i believe in my country i every time you bring up soldiers got oh boy here we go
00:11:38
Speaker
And we respect it and we, and well, I don't think we even try to help them when they come home from being fucked up. But ah but yeah, so you take that burden. If you're the one who's willing to take the burden on, you kill him, you get like 250 million chaching that hits your bank account. The rest liquidated goes to the people. We all see like a thousand bucks in our bank account. Sick.
00:12:00
Speaker
and then it's also I like it because if there's no reason unless he's gonna pay like the world's best bodyguards like 250 million dollars right they're not gonna you have to make it high enough so he's not he needs to these people need to try to fucking hide You know, they can't hire bodyguards because the bodyguards will just be like, they'll just kill them. They'll be like, yeah, fuck you, dude. Like, I'll make more money dusting your ass than I will defending it. So this is more or less how drug drug kingpins in Mexico live.
00:12:33
Speaker
That's true. Yeah. All the ex-US special forces you hire all of a sudden just murder you and cut off your family's head. And now they're the drug kingpins. Yeah. Now they just ship tons of cocaine back home to their friends. It all really does come down to commission structure, just like any sort of, you know, worthwhile job. You got to work your pay plan and you can apply that to, you know, so many situations in life. This, uh, so I don't know a ton about this story.
00:13:03
Speaker
um But this week on ah Tim Dillon's Patreon episode, he was talking about it, because anything about the super rich he usually talks about. So this guy, ah boy, he, so the one that I'm, the the one that I was listening to him talk about was a, ah the guy was somehow tied to this company that they sold to, they sold their company to Hewlett Packard.
00:13:33
Speaker
But he and his partner just went through like this big court case and were acquitted of fraud because they were accused of like artificially inflating the company's assets before they sold it. And then, don't quote me on this, but like a week before this guy's ship went down, his partner got like hit by a car and killed. Oh, wow. Somewhere.
00:13:57
Speaker
And then this guy's boat, which is dude, it's a it's a $40 million. dollar hundred and hundred and oh god what is it 180 foot long i think uh super yacht sailboat thing flying was sailing off the coast of italy and it got hit by like a freak uh water spout iceberg which i wasn't sure what a water spout is and you google it it's basically just an aquatic tornado it's crazy looking
00:14:29
Speaker
There's a there's videos of them from all over the place like over lake michigan or you know just like off the coast of some random state you wouldn't think of and it's just like this giant tornado out over the water. That's great i was thinking when you said water spout i was thinking like something that gushed up.
00:14:46
Speaker
from the, like, from the ocean, like water that bursts up for some reason. I mean, it does. It's just spinning when it does. Oh, yeah, I guess so. But I'm thinking more from like a pressure from, from the ocean. I keep doing this ah eruption motion with my hand. Yeah, spurting an ejaculation of water. Exactly. An ocean come. It's basically, I think, splooged all over his boat, made it sink.
00:15:14
Speaker
ah So, 15 of the 22 people on board survived and were rescued from the waters of the ah off of Portocello, a small fishing port off northern Sicily. ah The body of Ricardo Thomas, a Canadian Antiguan national who was the ship's cook, was recovered shortly after the ship went down.
00:15:36
Speaker
Massive search effort was then launched for Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter Hannah as well as Jonathan Bloomer chairman of Morgan Stanley International and the British insurance firm Hiscox and his wife Judy and a well-known New York City defense attorney Christopher Morvelo Morvio and his wife Nita all of their bodies were eventually pulled from the right that's so basically it was like all the money folks and the cook died and Everybody else survived That's pretty amazing. I mean, that's wild. I think ah but so far, one of the things that stands out to me the most is um the insurance company. His Cox is ah they advertise, I believe, on NPR. And every time I hear their ads, I think that they definitely need to redo the wording.
00:16:25
Speaker
So it doesn't sound like they're talking about his cocks like it. It's such a. big That's just not a name. Look, I don't know. People were calling penises cocks when that insurance company was made.
00:16:39
Speaker
So it's kind of hard to change your name down the road, but it's just one of those names that hasn't aged well. And it's crazy that it's like a billion dollar, million dollar corporation. So this boat sounds remarkable. It was ah built by Italian shipbuilder Perini Navi in 2008. The UK registered Bayesian.
00:17:00
Speaker
could carry 12 guests and a crew of up to 10, according to online specialist yacht sites. Its nearly 250-foot mast was the tallest aluminum sailing mast in the world, according to Charter World luxury yacht charters. Lynch, who was regularly described in UK media as Britain's Bill Gates, was acquitted by a San Francisco jury of fraud charges stemming from the 2011 sale of its software company Autonomy to Hewlett-Packard for $11 billion. dollars God damn. i It's hard to care, dude. it's like i You know what's funny is I think back to like my most my my my journey as an individual, went from your typical like turn the Middle East to a glass parking lot 12-year-old boy during 9-11 because that's the media I consume from my parents. like I had any idea. It's the internal brain worm. Yeah, and it didn't matter. and then
00:17:57
Speaker
you know I end up at liberty and I start like really considering like pacifism in general. And then you like shift swords, which is not a huge delineation between pacifism and nonviolence, but I think nonviolence is a more practical. Pacifism is just kind of, you're just you're just there, whatever. like Nonviolence is more of like this idea that you're like committed to something, civil unrest, causing problems that ah creating enough problems, where it's you know well whoever it is that you're creating for needs to make changes.
00:18:34
Speaker
um Not that I ever participated in anything because, you know, I had rent to pay and didn't want to go to jail. Like, like most people. I'm not that bad. Protesting is kind of stupid for the most part. ah Right. um So you go from that and I stayed in the nonviolent lane for a long time. And I don't know. I think practically speaking, I think it's the best option. I think when you look at the numbers and how uh, how things pan out, right? Nonviolence versus like violent revolutions. Um, nonviolence statistically has a much better chance of getting you what you want. Uh, violence often
00:19:17
Speaker
Not all the time. I mean, there are some violent, you know, revolutions that have made things better. So I'm not, this isn't just like a black and white thing, but it's a, but violent, violent revolutions tend to be more likely to ah just create another cycle of violence after the fact. So either way, like practically speaking of still nonviolent, a lot of my Christian ethic for my, you know,
00:19:45
Speaker
for those days had a lot to do to inform that. And now it's just like practical, like, oh, I think nonviolent strategies are more practical. But I think dead billionaires are dope. I think that's a great thing. And I don't feel bad about it.
00:20:00
Speaker
yeah I'm not worried about his soul. ah This is like, these are the times where I'm like, you know, like, it's just when you stop believing in an afterlife, it's just tough because you just it sucks to like, this is the evangelical impulse that I get, which is like, it's kind of nice to believe your enemies are burning
Billionaires, Hell, and Afterlife Reflections
00:20:20
Speaker
in hell forever. And I get as much as evangelicals be like, we don't want that for anybody. We want everyone in heaven. Like,
00:20:26
Speaker
No, you don't that's why you don't believe that because you know, there's no reason to believe one or the other you just get to choose which one you want to believe for fun and it's like You don't want them there you don't want them in heaven with you and that's fine like I'm fine with you feeling that way ah in the same way that like I want these people to be burning in hell and it's just a bummer that they're just It's just, it's just pre-birth existence at this point. Sucks. What did he ever do that was wrong? what are you billionaire just It's just offensive to you that he just pulled on his bootstraps that hard. He pulled so hard, his anus prolapsed and he got a billion dollars.
00:21:11
Speaker
He basically like, the shoe equivalent of Atomic Wedgie himself into an opulence.
00:21:20
Speaker
I don't know, man. I i feel like, uh, if he was a bad guy, God wouldn't have blessed him so much. Or God would have saved his life if he didn't suck so bad. He didn't even commit fraud. I mean, the court ah yeah so, so good. That's the interesting, I guess, on the non-violence thing.
00:21:45
Speaker
I don't know how all of that stuff delineates between each other. I did the whole like libertarian non-aggression principle thing for a minute, or at least like read some stuff about it, you know ah which I think at the core is just like, hey, you should endeavor to live completely free of coercion. Like nothing you do should force somebody else to do something that they don't want to do in one way or another. That's so none of that's interesting. How does anybody stay completely true to any of that stuff? you know That's impossible. ah even just Even just me like having a bad attitude about something kind of forces the way that my wife has to handle
00:22:28
Speaker
dealing with me, right? Like I just don't count. Yeah. That's crazy. That's such that's such an ideological like pile of horseshit is what that is like. That's like in my perfect world. And that's what that's the the libertarian idea is just like it's so insulated in this idea that you just like live in rural Pennsylvania or in fucking ah middle like the mountains. You fucking carved a house out of a tree.
00:22:57
Speaker
Like yeah and and you just like this like the butterfly effect doesn't exist in any form. I think like in any it doesn't matter like what you're talking about like being an ideological purist is just a dead end. Yeah makes you seem like a moron when you fall into that cycle of just like.
00:23:18
Speaker
Well, the reason that this isn't working is because we didn't do it completely right. And there's still these things about it that are not, you know, in line with the core principle, which is this, and that's why it doesn't work. It's like, come on, man. So I stand with Israel, is what you're saying? Exactly. Yeah. I do feel like, dude, I don't know, man. I i feel like ah the the libertarian wing nowadays,
00:23:45
Speaker
resonates with me more in because of foreign policy stuff where like I don't know these like there just seems to be such a small group of people that are like anti war. Yeah. And I feel like we have this weird cultural infatuation with war where, you know, even even in when we're talking about like Traditionally liberal people like there's still like this we we've been sold over and over again as a as a as a culture like this myth of like the good war the worthy cause the other and like
00:24:24
Speaker
I just don't, there is no such thing as a clean war. That doesn't mean that you should, like under no circumstances should a country ever go to war. Like that would be a ridiculous, purest stance to have. But I think this, like, like, why do we have 600 World War II movies a year? Because that was the good war that we can all
The Ukraine Conflict and Worthy Wars?
00:24:45
Speaker
feel good about. Now, and you know, it's only when we're talking about Nazi Germany, we don't really talk about you know, Imperial Japan very much in all of these like, you know, war porn movies and stuff. I feel like it's not even that.
00:25:00
Speaker
It's just such a it's such a ah weird way that we look at war and we're constantly like looking for the next like worthy conflict. And that's how every single one of them is sold to us. It's how the war on terror was sold to us and to our parents was that like, yeah yeah these are the these people hate freedom and they hate you know Western values and they're actually oppressing their own people and we're gonna go liberate them and this and that and the other.
00:25:28
Speaker
And like, you know, it it two years in, like most people of, you know, of a reasonable sense are like, this doesn't look like what I thought it would look like. I mean, it seems like we're not exactly like liberating people. And it just doesn't like, where is the end of this conflict? Like, when does, you know, what are the end goals and stuff? And I think we delude ourselves when we continually like.
00:25:55
Speaker
Look for that that next worthy conflict and stuff like there's going to be catastrophic costs No matter how worthy the cause is, you know And I I think you see that with like how people view the the war in ukraine where like obviously there's like it The idea that you know like the the people on the other side of that issue who are like always trying to see Russia's side of things and like you know all of that, like they sound ridiculous. Because obviously, like the Russian government is not good. They've done so many terrible things. you know Vladimir Putin kills his like political rivals and stuff like that.
00:26:40
Speaker
but At the same time, like they they're not Nazi Germany, and we continually paint them that way and stuff. and like you know Ukraine was evaded and they deserved the chance to fight for their freedom and stuff like that. but like At what point does the the cost start to outweigh the potential gains, you know, and and I don't know I just feel like we're so lost in that like That myth of like the the the worthy war that it colors our our our view of these conflicts and at the end of the day, like, you know, regardless of what like Zelensky and a bunch of generals say, you know about how
00:27:21
Speaker
They'll fight to the to the very end, you know, and they won't cede an inch of rush of Ukrainian territory. It's like, what is the what is the farmer that lived in, you know, the Donbass think at this point? You know, I mean, what are the chances of them ever returning to a normal life? And, you know, under what circumstance could they ever start to rebuild what they had before? It's probably going to come through negotiations. So like the idea that we should just like make this a zero sum conflict where we never negotiate, we never capitulate, we never feed any territory to like, that's all well and good if you win, but it doesn't really look like they're going to, I'm rambling, I know I'm way off in the weeds here, but I just, it's something I think about a lot these days. And I think it makes sense because I think also ah people in the United States, ah so I mean, obviously we've lived through you know the US,
00:28:19
Speaker
like the war on terror. It's pretty much it. Looks like we'll be living through another one soon, or at least funding one. seems like it ah But it when we when we talk about um World War Two, and it's like nobility or whatever. ah I think what I think what's interesting is like all those wars were fought on other people's soil. So like all of the wars that the United States has experienced has been not here. And we don't like we don't really deal with the ramifications of what a war looks like. As if you're like for everybody else on the fucking planet, everyone else who's in war. It's constant unrest. It's constant fear. It's in the next one we get into.
00:29:12
Speaker
we might actually experience that fear. And the US s is big, right? So if you live in the Midwest, you won't experience that fear. But like, And if you lived in New York on 9 11, you experienced that fear and you did for a while. And like, you never, you couldn't, if you, were if you, you know, by the time, when you started seeing planes fly over New York again, that created anxiety that create, like there's, if you live in an area like that, you're, you're going to have a slightly better idea of what that
American Views on War and Isolation
00:29:44
Speaker
feels like. Then, you know, I did in Massachusetts when that happened or, um,
00:29:49
Speaker
And I remember talking about that. I remember talking about like, who were the most likely targets, uh, in the event that people bombed or nuked the U S and it's going to be major cities. It's going to be the on the West coast. It's going to be New York. It's going to be DC. Um, I mean, Boston would be a landmark city to hit, but I might be outside the blast zone. So I could be okay. Maybe not if the, you know, there's a.
00:30:16
Speaker
wind blowing and the radiation shoots over in my direction. But like, either way, my obviously, my only point is that like, it's easy for us to look at, at World War Two with kind of these clear cut, like boundaries and and ideals ah and it being noble and it was more, I mean, it's one of the most, it's one of the most obvious examples of like, you had to do something about Hitler. ah So, but what did that look like for people in Europe?
00:30:45
Speaker
pretty fucking shitty like it lived in the aftermath of it for i mean some of them still are right there's a there's a book that i i read last year called bloodlands that's about the history of like the uh oh god i don't know the baltic states or whatever but like ukraine and um ah Belarus and all of those areas right there that were like pinched in between Nazi Germany and the USSR. And at different points during those conflicts, they suffered under the the oppressive boot of either of those countries. And when it wasn't either of those countries, it was also like sectarian groups within the country, you know, I mean, that they were controlled by the USSR, but that there was like this, you know, like
00:31:36
Speaker
Independent Ukrainian militia group that was also operating there and you helping or not helping either one of those two forces could get you killed by the other in like horrific brutal ways and Yeah, I mean, even this month, just this month, I think it was, there was, uh, somebody found like an unexploded ordinance in like Ireland. I think it was there doing construction or something like that from world war two, and they had to evacuate like a huge area. But I think where, where I originally meant to go with this, when I started down this path is like.
00:32:12
Speaker
what we don't talk about in regards to war that is like one of the most horrific, long lasting consequences of it is that violence is like this. It's a virus and you don't, once it's in you, you don't just get rid of it. Like you don't shed it after the fact. And I'm not talking about like, you know, guys who served in, you know, and in in the Philippines and stuff during World War II and came back and were like not, you know, maybe a ah cold parent or maybe they were ah whatever, you know, at home. I mean, I'm talking about like when these conflicts reach a certain point, like any any treaty or agreement doesn't just end violence for the people in those areas. And you look at story after story about like that that book that Bloodlands was, you know, there was
00:33:06
Speaker
just like and a never ending cycle of violence that happened after the fact because people get used to living in a certain way. And I think hatred kind of infects you and you reach a certain comfort level with killing and violence and just, you know, brutality that it makes it so much easier for you to then, you know, ah to do those things to people after the fact. So like you see that over and over again where you know there's ah There's a big war and one group you know takes control and stuff and then you know their immediate like brutal oppression of their political rivals and their perceived political rivals starts happening and you've got concentration camps and things like that, torture. i mean
00:33:53
Speaker
ah Saddam Hussein regime was it was a great example of that, you know, yeah, yeah, kind of a hostile takeover. And then like literally anybody that smelled like a dissident after that was, God, there's just horrific stories about like the torture chambers and stuff under his palaces and things. And like, so like, I, it it drives me nuts when I see people like just Casually like I don't know like just presenting this like, you know I've watched too many Star Wars movies and I think that this group is the Rebel Alliance and the other group is the Empire So yeah, we should totally fight them or we should totally do this or that and the other it's like dude The consequences of what you're talking about are so beyond like even aware. I mean, it's terrible It should be there should be almost no circumstances under which we go to war with another country
00:34:48
Speaker
And there should be almost no circumstances under which we arm and aid and abet another country that's purposely trying to stoke a war with multiple other countries. Multiple at this point, simply because they have they have our backing. And that's what's even more all of that insane about it. Just withdrew the like credit card from that whole thing.
00:35:10
Speaker
Like yeah it only continues because we're willing to arm and and fund their operations. to To my previous point, I think, you know, ah I agree with what you're saying. I think violence is contagious. I think it's like a virus. I think that's why nonviolent revolutions have done more to establish peace and new government without having those lingering effects. um ah and sounds I mean, that just seems like an obvious reason for why that could be the case. but And again, with like the the US s being so locked in, it's like, land like, ah boy we, you just listen to people be like, we should just, oh, why don't we go to war with them? Why don't we go like it's a video game or something? And it's like, like, if you if you live in the in the Middle East, or Europe, where anyone can just like, where there are no real board, like anyone can just walk in, like, you're you got people around you on all sides. It's not like the oceans on the left and the right. And
00:36:05
Speaker
one of your allies is to the north like there's just so it's just so obvious like if you live in that world where you go of course we're not going to start shit because that shit can easily come to to us like for people here it's like you they act like you could just start shit and end shit real quick because you're the fucking heavyweight champ fighting the lightweight. It's just like there you're where ah we've almost been too invincible for so long. until recently That's why I say until recently. Eventually, I mean, it seems inevitable at some point. Someone's just going to like be willing to put every put everyone in their nation to the fucking slaughter and just like throw a nuke at us. like i
00:36:50
Speaker
i There's so many nukes now. There's so many. like I just can't even imagine a world in which a war was brought to us or that like the people here actually had to had to live through what every other country in the fucking world has lived through. like that's yeah It makes it so easy for us to just be over here talking about funding this war that or that.
00:37:13
Speaker
or engaging in violence here or there, calculated violence for the purpose of taking out people that we don't want to support or we think are active enemies or whatever. It's just fucked. The whole thing's fucked. And that's why we love World War II because the we get to show up late. It's clean. We got to show up late, do it clean. I mean, the what the only two real attacks on us from outside from countries is Pearl Harbor and 9-11. Otherwise, what else? I mean, maybe isolated incidents, but we're not really We're not talking anything major. that ah So yeah, of course. Of course we get to fucking sit over here on our high horse and talk about good wars and bad wars and and necessary wars and whatever. Yeah. It's it's funny too. like um
00:38:02
Speaker
i I've used Reddit a little more recently, which is, I don't, I don't know why, I don't know why I'm doing this to myself, but. The comments are better on Reddit than they are on Facebook. I can tell you that much. Yeah. Well, nobody uses Facebook anymore. That's, that's a dead site. But, um, like when, you know, there's, there's just like endless videos that it's just, I mean, literal, like war porn.
00:38:29
Speaker
of yeah you know Ukrainian and Russian soldiers trading fire and stuff. And some of them are just like, Oh God, they're bleak. Like, uh, the stuff involving these little explosive drones is it's so scary to think about, you know, being like, like sitting beside a fire, cooking your dinner, not knowing that there's a quadcopter the size of like a suitcase behind you. That's about to like explode you and all your friends.
00:39:02
Speaker
you know And you don't know it. It's 30 yards behind you, watching you with night vision, and like you don't even know it's there. And the stuff that people say in these comments and stuff, it's crazy. It's crazy the things that they say. just like And especially knowing that like, okay, yeah, like we said, you know the Russian government, bad organization, right? But that is like a a heavily conscripted military force.
00:39:31
Speaker
So you're talking about people that are forced to be there. They didn't choose to go do that. Like they've been plucked out of their normal life or out of the prison system, which I'm sure in Russia is awesome and and forced onto the battlefield, you know, and it's sort of like a, uh, well, you can go fight or, you know, we can kill you at home sort of thing. And like these people are just like filthy Russians. Good. Kill them all.
00:39:57
Speaker
And you're like, ah yeah I don't, I don't understand. And then conscription is like a whole nother topic where like people state, I mean, they, they literally like make comments about, you know, like, uh, well, you know, Ukraine is still hasn't conscripted the people that are, you know, 18 to 25. I mean, they've got a whole nother X number of hundreds of thousands of people that they can call into the fight and stuff. It's like, you're talking about forcing people into a trench, like,
00:40:25
Speaker
I mean, it's why about it like literally, like you said, like it's a video game and yeah stuff. like And then you hear people like, fucking rts dude, the conscription thing comes up a lot now too, in reference to the US because like military, uh, enrollment is and recruiting is down pretty significantly.
00:40:45
Speaker
yeah And I mean, there's way too much talk about conscription and a draft and stuff like that now amongst politicians and stuff. i It and makes me super uneasy. And I'm too old. I mean, we're too old. we won't We don't have anything to worry about. But like,
00:41:03
Speaker
Just crazy to think that we're too old. I don't feel that. i and When you first said it, I'm like, oh shit, that would suck. And then I like, oh fuck, I'm almost, I'm closer to 40 than 30. That's too old. They don't want my old ass. Especially like me with my bad back and my fucked up neck and it's like my glasses, my weakening eyes every year, my prescriptions worse. It's like, shit, I'm worthless to the US government. That's awesome.
Conscription Concerns and Age Exemptions
00:41:30
Speaker
ah We might get pulled in, but we're gonna be like, but you know, stirring a big vat of powdered eggs or whatever. Yeah, battleship. They're like, we heard you like to cook breakfast for a lot of people. I'm like, ah, fuck. It's like, you heard wrong. I like giving food poisoning to people. don't Don't bring me. I think at least I can point to this fucking thing to prove my status as a conscientious objector if it comes to that, you know?
00:41:58
Speaker
Here's the thing about Sam. You can check the records. He hates soldiers. yeah
00:42:06
Speaker
You don't want him over there. You might have a few instances of friendly fire on your hands. Thanks, Benedict Arnold over there. ah Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I know I got on a high horse there. I just like, God, that's something I just can't stop thinking about. And it's just like every day there's a new piece of news where it's like, well, maybe today's the day.
00:42:32
Speaker
Well, the comments are always today that the Lebanon war kicks off, right? Did the comments are always also just so done like it's it's the comment. Everyone says, obviously, don't read the comments like there was one the other day. And I think it was like a real news, no bullshit post about how the Taliban in Afghanistan has obviously they're the ones in power now has like basically made it so women They literally need to fully cover their bodies. I think their eye, I don't even know if their eyes can be seen. I think they have to have like a mesh thing. So it's like, I think I saw that. And then like, and then like the top comment was just like something about how much liberals like try to defend Hamas. And then like the replies like, ah, yeah you know, the Taliban in Hamas aren't the same thing, right? And then it's just a bunch of bickering of back and forth of just like,
00:43:26
Speaker
Most people are like, yeah, no one's pro Hamas. And they're like, you can't say no one's pro Hamas because some people are. And it's like, who? And then it's like you find that one libtard who's just like, ah actually, Hamas isn't what you think it is. You're like, you just ruined it for everybody. Like, yeah, you're just like making propaganda for him. Good work, dummy.
00:43:49
Speaker
yeah
00:43:51
Speaker
It's like, just Mr. College student trying to have the edgiest take. That's all they're waiting for is for one person to show up and say that but in order to like ignore everything else and have no good faith conversations, which don't exist in the comment section, but it was so rough to like watch and it's like.
00:44:10
Speaker
any one of these people you could literally read like a short article on the history of Hamas and Israel Palestine conflict and you know like like yeah like Hamas it's like no one's really pro it even like Palestinians that just was like their only option for defense like if you're gonna tell me literally anybody here like Hey, by the way, like you're nothing and your only option for like some sort of ah representation in government and someone to protect you is ah these people telling you what you want to hear and you have no other options. You're like, I guess I, yeah, of course I fucking support that. Like you're just going to do it. And then when they're like, what happens afterwards is just like, I don't know, like it's better than being dead. I guess, like, I guess it's better than being wiped off the face of the earth.
00:44:59
Speaker
That was a very bad explanation of how Hamas started. But my point is that like, there's ah obviously complicated factors. No one's just like, let's go Hamas. Let's just like rubber stamp it with our approval. but Like everyone's just like, it's not okay to bomb 80% of infrastructure, hospitals, schools. Like no one's talking about how it's like Hamas is cool. It's just you literally committed war crimes for months and months and months.
00:45:29
Speaker
and No one's holding you accountable. And what now what Netanyahu is just going to show up at the UN. Like it's cool. Yeah, dude it's, it's crazy to me that like, I think most, most reasonable people can look at like the situation in Gaza and deduce that like the Israeli government is not handling it well. Right. That is the most diet bland watered down way of like, you know, objecting to what they're doing, you know, literally committing a genocide over there, but like most people can at least say like, yeah, it's that's, they're not handling this well and they're, they're killing too many people, you know, but he's like, even there is not like, there's not an option in our election first.
00:46:23
Speaker
someone willing to take that stance.
Political Unpredictability with RFK and Trump
00:46:25
Speaker
Like you can't, there's no candidate for president that's running. I mean, Jill Stein, that's probably who I'm going to vote for at this point, you know, but Kansas is a red state. So get off my balls. No one cares. It's going, it's going red. It doesn't matter who I vote for, but like.
00:46:43
Speaker
There is no option other than like a third party candidate who's going to maybe garner 3% of the vote. That's willing to be like, Hey, this is, this is over the top and sorry about your boy RFK. Oh my God. duy
00:47:02
Speaker
yes oh like Totally off the deep end. yeah Talk about a guy like if you weren't sure before you realized that he's he lost the plot a long time ago. It's it's is his dea devolution is incredible. Yeah.
00:47:21
Speaker
He's a, he's, I wouldn't, I would, i' I'm not going to say that I wouldn't be real petty against the Democratic party if I were in his shoes, but even still it's like you're endorsing Trump after all the things that you've said about him. Like the the hilarious thing is is he was like, didn't he make some weird statement about how he's just, he's not technically endorsing Trump. I swear to God, I saw something silly about how he was like i i i don know circles.
00:47:50
Speaker
and And he also had, a I read, ah someone posted a tweet from his, ah so like a year back where it's just like under no circumstances I ever endorsed Donald Trump. And that's just like, I endorsed Donald Trump. it's so yeah thatd be beside who isn't doing that I mean, I already made a joke about like, Wait, was that before we started recording? I think I said it before we started recording. Kamala's, she's as flip-flop-y as JD Vance is on shit. Not on everything. And not on stuff that matters as much. And sometimes it's she flipped in a direction i'm I'm happy about. Other times she doesn't. But my point is none of these fucks are principled. No. They're not. They're just not principled. You just have to pick which principled, unprincipled piece of shit aligns with your values more. And it's so...
00:48:39
Speaker
Fucking exhausting it really is Yeah, it's it's funny when you think about the fact that like I get really irritated that she hasn't like laid out some clear policies and she did a little bit at the DNC but like Really hasn't laid out like a clear vision for what she wants to do once she gets to office and stuff But it's like at the same time Trump hasn't played out anything. I mean, he's, he's got no actual like concrete policies on any, it's just like platitudes. Yeah. Whatever the crowd wants to hear is what he's willing to say. The most they had was project 25. And then they like realized how unpopular that was even in their own party. And they walked that back. I wonder who got fired at the heritage foundation for that. Because boy, they screwed the pooch.
00:49:29
Speaker
yeah yeah and probably um Yeah, dude the heritage foundation is it's such a hilarious concept It's such a whacked out group of just old white fuddy duddies Yeah, but yeah, they're just one of many of those groups. It's just a ah way to throw money around Try to demand like little changes that benefit them. I Don't know man, dude. It's I we were just we talked before this about how like we
00:50:01
Speaker
are having a tough time like watching anything related to the, to the election. Like both of us have, we were saying that we, you know, we'll start videos about like some sort of update news or so-and-so said this or this person is now supporting that person or whatever. And we're both like, yeah, we get like three minutes in and just go, I, I don't, I don't care. I can't, I can't take in any more information about this. Like I'm not watching any more videos about what, you know, the sudden shift in the polls.
00:50:30
Speaker
Like, it's just nonsense colored garbage. It's just a, it's just an unnecessary roller coaster. Like dude, I, the, one of the conversations that has been coming up a lot is how insane it is to have like an entire year campaign before an election. Like it's exhausting. It's the worst goddamn window. Like people there's, so you already, some people already know they're voting, but let's just shorten it and give everyone a couple months to really sell their position hard. Like this is, I don't want to listen to this shit anymore. It's fucking August.
00:51:02
Speaker
We have to do this until goddamn January? Well, and like, I don't want to say that Trump's totally done if he loses this election. Like, I wouldn't put it past him to try to run again at some point if he's still alive.
Trump's Election Rhetoric and Fraud Claims
00:51:16
Speaker
I mean, hope against hope that he's not, but like,
00:51:20
Speaker
There will, there's just gonna, there's just going to be another one. Like he's useful of, I mean, the Republicans need some sort of rallying point, some sort of figure to rally behind somebody's going to step into that, that they'll, they'll take up the mantle after he's done, you know, but like, even if they weren't.
00:51:42
Speaker
doing a good job of designating that person. Like Trump is too useful to the democratic party for them to just abandon that concept after he's done. Like there's going to be another Trump and it'll all just the, the marketing will all change and go with the next person. Especially if they beat him again, like if they beat him again, now you're like, you're 12 years in beating the same guy or whatever eight years in. And it's like, you just.
00:52:09
Speaker
it a And then they like previously expected the red wave, right? That didn't happen. And you go, all right, we we've heard about the red wave. It didn't happen. We've heard about like the existential threat to democracy. Three elections in a row now.
00:52:28
Speaker
And it's not that I don't have i mean i have concerns ah we another with a Trump presidency and and its implications for democracy. I know some people don't. I know some people think it's overblown. I think even his shift, I think his recent shift in the way he talks about the election is super concerning because I think he's recognizing that he's losing and that he's doesn't really have the chance that he thought he had. And his language recently has been very much like, I don't even need your votes. I don't want you to vote. I don't need you to vote. I have all the votes. I have so many votes. I have the most votes ever. I don't need you to vote. He's like saying this. I think there's like five, six, seven recordings of him at different rallies saying this. And then like his ah recently, he's also like
00:53:18
Speaker
If I win, you're not going to have to vote for a very long time. You're not going to have. Oh, yeah, I've heard that. And you just go, I know this guy talks out his ass. That couldn't mean any number of things. But I just hear all this priming for I have all the votes. Even if we don't win, we had all these votes like he's just queuing up and priming for a full election fraud, civil unrest.
00:53:46
Speaker
Well, he certainly is going to do that because yeah he can't admit loss. I mean, he won't. There's no way that he's going to admit loss, but I, there's, I just don't think there's any way that they get like.
00:53:59
Speaker
Like the animus is not there among his photo base. That's a big part of his problem right now, is that the magic's gone. Yeah, because that didn't help him for the Senate elections of the past. When they were expecting the red wave, they really went hard on election fraud, and it did not do them justice. Well, and I think part of the reason that they're not generating that kind of that, that, you know, like Republican revolt, you know, against the Democrats this time around. I mean, it's, it's still there among certain circles and stuff, but you know, the Republicans still don't like them. Everybody I know is, you know, like, Oh, Kamala sucks and stuff. But I think like this time, like we're we've fully entered like an era of like normie Democrat policy and, and marketing.
00:54:52
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I think for those people, like whether they admit it or not, the way that Kamala is running this campaign and stuff feels like much less of an attack on their, who they are and their way of life than like past Democratic candidates. like I mean, Hillary and Biden both ran on like, ah you know we have to save America from these degenerate you know like conservatives and stuff. like It was much more targeted. And this time I think they've finally figured out how to deal with Trump in a way. It's like just to kind of laugh and shrug and be like,
00:55:25
Speaker
You know, is this really what you
Election Campaign Fatigue
00:55:27
Speaker
want? Do you want to keep doing this whole thing or do you want to just, you know, find a way to, to live together? Yeah. It's like, it's like they realize that everyone on both sides is tired of like having to live in constant existential crisis of democracy. Like we just, whatever, whatever. I'll fucking vote for you. You shut the fuck up. Be a little bit normal. Like.
00:55:51
Speaker
I don't know. ah I'm never going to get what I want. It's like it's not even like a concession thing. It's not like a reach across the aisle middle ground bullshit. It's a two party system is a huge problem. It's a and you just have to whatever.
00:56:07
Speaker
we're We're all just resigned to the fact that we have to just live with this shit. in there's There's just no way around it. I don't know. It is what it is, I guess. i there it's just you You just start thinking more about things that are going to have direct impact on your life. like I'm not voting for the president in their policies. I'm voting for the next motherfucker who gets to pick a fucking Supreme Court justice until someone decides, until like the balance is like at a point in which both sides realize that they don't want lifetime appointees anymore.
00:56:46
Speaker
like yeah right so Like if we could just move towards something, like if you just find ways to like shove down the hatred and the misery of listening to this shit and then go, what, what, what are the only things that I can practically glean from it?
00:57:03
Speaker
I would love it. I would love to have some of the student loan debt that I took out to get a master's to get a worse paying job gone because that's a shitty way to run a fucking country.
Student Loans and Voting Decisions
00:57:15
Speaker
It's super shitty to make people go to school that much to get a worse paying job.
00:57:22
Speaker
And then go like, well, you have after being told your entire life, like you need to go to college to get a good job. And then I did. And I didn't get a good job. And now I have to go back to get a worse job. Fuck you. This is stupid. It's like.
00:57:37
Speaker
ah Anyone who could fix that that's why it's like the only you can buy my vote The first the first person who actually puts through any sort of debt relief plan I'll vote for you. I will vote for Kamala I will vote for so fucking hard if she's gonna leave my student loan debt I don't like my my vote is for sale Everyone says it sounds to me like you made a poor economic choice and now you're dealing with the ramifications of your you know of your your dismal class envy and I've made a lot. And the fact that you're never going to have a 180-foot yacht that you get assassinated on. yeah I've made a lot of poor economical decisions. One of them was not investing in ah certain cryptocurrencies at the right time. But I'll see. Now, that's that feels underhanded, not becoming a view.
00:58:27
Speaker
ah All right. hit Hit that pause button real quick.
Cooking for Parents – A Personal Story
00:58:33
Speaker
All right. Now that we're done 69'ing each other over geopolitics, I have a little story that I learned about today. i love Also, okay, before I jump into the story, I just thought about this. So I had my parents over for dinner this weekend. I made a bomb ass dinner too. um I got a screaming good deal on a ah beef tenderloin.
00:59:02
Speaker
And it was like half a tenderloin. not like And I didn't know. i So I had to do some Googling, because I was going to roast it. I found a good recipe to roast it. But then I was also roasting Brussels sprouts and potatoes. And I was like, I don't have any more room to roast. So I had to Google how to cut it properly. Because like I didn't know. I thought the tenderloin was just kind of like what filet mignon was. so I was like, I didn't realize that that's a part of the tenderloin and that there's other parts. And so I was like reading in this article on how to separate everything properly and cut it the way you want to in order to like serve it up. Anyway, I was just a learning experience that I just wanted to share with everybody. It's cool because you like read. Oh, like, you know, like it's basically this muscle joins with this muscle and there'll be this little like sheath of fat between the two and you can kind of separate it pretty easily by pulling it apart.
01:00:01
Speaker
And it just like, and then you, as you're like cutting it and doing that, you're like, Oh, that's so crazy. Now I kind of want to like feel dress an animal because that was kind of cool to like realize how everything comes together and how you separate the muscles and get the different cuts. Anyway, that was cool. Uh, parents are over dinner. Actually, I'll tell you what the rest of my dinner was. So I made the fillets for me and my wife and my parents.
01:00:28
Speaker
Had some ah just I Had diced like garlic and shallot mixture that after I seared one side flipped it put that on top and then just like kept Spooning the hot butter over it from the pan. So it like kind of cooked sounds pretty good the shallot and shit and I had I bought time I like time in that and I totally forgot to use it like a dope dope and And then my Brussels sprouts were roasted and I always do a little like I had this like Fig balsamic glaze with a little and then I sprinkled them with parmesan and tossed them and that so fucking good and then potatoes just Typical I usually use gar garlic and rosemary when I roast my potatoes, but dinner came out great. My parents loved it. I Feels good. I sometimes it just feels good to have your parents or my mom has made me countless dinners in my life and uh it feels good to sometimes just have my parents over and like work really hard to make a nice dinner for them and and then hear that they appreciate it feels like i get i did a good job as a son uh anyway talking with my dad he goes are you still doing the podcast and i'm like yeah uh yep i don't want to i don't
01:01:43
Speaker
i don't care My dad's been one of the most like cool people about it. After we started, I mentioned that he was like, I like it. it's you know I like hearing the real you. I feel like I'm getting to know you better. like The things he said about it were nice. ah It was just great. i He only had good things to say, ah despite him knowing we have obvious disagreements on stuff. So I really appreciated that.
01:02:08
Speaker
um But I just assumed everyone in my family stopped listening to it. So when he asked me about it, I was like, I don't I don't really want anyone to start listening again, really, like that's just because then I'm going to think about them. Listen, I don't want to I don't want to do this and think about my dad listening. And the reason I'm telling the story is because I just told you after shifting to the story I'm going to tell about the art, this article I'm going to talk about, I said,
01:02:34
Speaker
ah now that we're done 69 each other about geopolitics. And I started thinking, I wonder what my dad would think about me saying that like that's just in my head now. um But he asked me about it because when we had my old ah childhood friend of mine on who had his Instagram page kind of had, he had some videos go absolute viral. He's the Seth Allen, he did the music theory videos and Um, my dad was like, I've been wanting, I want to listen to that episode. And, um, he's like, but I can only see the last 10. He was still going to Podbean. We shifted from Podbean a while ago. Podbean only shows their most recent 10 episodes. So I was like, yeah, it's on Spotify. He's like, Oh, really? And then he really, he has Spotify on his phone. I didn't know he would. Um, and then it was like, now he has access to every episode we've talked about. And I know my dad has problems with fluoride in the water. And I know last week I joked about.
01:03:30
Speaker
People we joked about the flora and the water people. So if you're listening to this one dad, I'm sorry But it's uh, it's just like I'm like why ah so they were over this weekend. They asked about it Now that's been in my head this entire time. We're recording. I'm like any joke or swear or whatever. I'm like Now I immediately go, my is like my dad listening to this? Is this going to impact anything? Because I'm ah a little freer with it now than I was, I think, when he started listening. I think he maybe has a 100 episode break in between the one he listened to last and now.
01:04:10
Speaker
Anyway, all right, so I found this article today and I immediately fell in love with it. I feel like it's going to be a Netflix show at some point in our future if
Cult Standoff in the Philippines
01:04:22
Speaker
if we're lucky. I hope so. um But I found this BBC article and the title is ah Standoff as Police Close In on Son of God Pastors, Son of God in quotes, obviously.
01:04:35
Speaker
So we're taking our ah we're moving around the globe a little bit tonight. We've done some ah we've talked the we've talked to Europe. We've talked the Middle East. We've even talked about some oceans, the Atlantic and the Pacific, to be specific. Though they weren't named, but I did mention them if you were listening.
01:04:54
Speaker
ah
01:04:56
Speaker
Now we're moving to the Philippines. A country we haven't ruined in a while, and they probably do.
01:05:03
Speaker
So this is so sick ah in the Philippines right now. Well, this was two days ago. I haven't seen a, um, I haven't seen it resolved when I was searching it. I found a couple of different articles. The, the, the BBC one is just is a quick, here's the information read. Uh, but I haven't found a resolution article to it yet. So maybe by the time this comes out, the crisis will be, uh, will be handled.
01:05:33
Speaker
But a standoff it says ah a standoff is erupted in the Philippines as thousands of police officers descend on a sprawling religious compound in search of an influential pastor who has been accused of child sex trafficking amongst other crimes.
01:05:49
Speaker
Thousands of police officers? Thousands. So the police say they will not leave until they have found Apollo Quibbloy, who calls himself the appointed son of God. He is believed to be hiding inside his 75 acre complex.
01:06:07
Speaker
which houses some 40-something buildings, including a cathedral, a school, and even a hangar, which I believe is where he might keep his private jet, ah because he does have a private jet. The president of the Philippines, he's one of those cool Christian guys that allowed himself to like get cozy with the president of the Philippines, so he gets to really do whatever he wants.
01:06:29
Speaker
um But they've been on the hunt for this guy. The authorities have been on the hunt for this guy for months. At some point earlier than when before all this started, he said yeah he would certainly not be caught alive, which is pretty sick. i mean Whoa, they're just straight up saying they're going to kill him? No, he's saying he would not be caught alive. Oh, I see. He's going down like... Apollo's like, no, no, no. Our face? Yeah, he's he won't be caught. He will not be taken captive. um Police raided the Kingdom of Jesus Christ compound late on Saturday with reports saying that they later used tear gas against Mr. Quibbloy's followers who had become unruly and violent.
01:07:15
Speaker
devour police spokesperson uh whatever told uh whatever blah blah blah um hundreds of his followers have blocked parts of major highways and attempts to disrupt traffic to the compound and of course they all maintain his innocence they're just like he's perfect he's wonderful he is our leader we will not abandon him which is ah obviously what major red flags um But they think what he's doing right now is that he's hiding in like an underground bunker. ah Like so he's got this 75 acre compound, basically a whole town there. And who knows how much underground bunker space and tunnels this guy is rocking.
01:07:56
Speaker
And if you look, if if you are a guy who has prepared underground bunkers and tunnels, I would it's safe to say you're in some fucked up shit, right? Like you don't plan like a multimillion dollar escape route ah unless you know someone's going to come after you at some point. Right. Yeah. Yeah. That's got international fugitive written all over it. Mm hmm.
01:08:19
Speaker
Of course, it would have probably been smarter to just get out of there on your private jet instead of waiting for them to pump seawater into your tunnels and drown you. They and maybe he thought they'd shoot down his jet and before takeoff. Those do make a little bit of noise. um One supporter from the group did die of a heart attack during the police raid. He's just so scared of the cops, you know, which I get. Oh, speaking of being scared of the cops, I got pulled over my way home from work today. And I immediately would like recognize like, my heart was just pounding, absolutely pounding. And it just feels so insane. Like what's the worst that's gonna happen? to Nothing to me.
01:09:05
Speaker
and be like, do you know why I pulled you over? I'm going to say I don't. And they're going to tell me why. And then they're either going to give me a warning or a ticket. I get warnings mostly because I have a perfect driving record in my complexion merits warnings. I don't know. I mean, they I'm not I you just know at this point, like they you're like, I'm ah I have a good yes, sir. Officer, what is the matter? I ive whatever I fucking fall in line like a coward.
01:09:33
Speaker
I'm not gonna be one of those guys that cracks my window and holds my license up to it and it was just like, I know my rights. like um trying entertained I'm trying to get out of a ticket like anybody. um It was because i was on my like I was on my way over work, I called my wife, I passed this cop.
01:09:52
Speaker
Massachusetts is a hands-free state. You can't hold your phone up to your face while driving without getting a $105 ticket if they want to ticket you. So that's what I got pulled over for. I was like, that's ridiculous. I was just like, i I knew that's why. It was obvious that that's what was happening because I wasn't speeding, I'm just chilling, but I had my phone up to my face. and He's like, do you know why I pulled you over? Of course, you always say no, no idea. And he's like, are you, you know, I saw you on your phone, are you aware that Massachusetts is a hands free? I just started laughing. I was like, no, I just played so dumb. Like I thought it was the most insane thing in the world that you couldn't talk on your phone while driving.
01:10:32
Speaker
And he's like, yeah, okay, whatever he and he was, it was fine. I got out of it. Anyway, who cares? That's a stupid story. It's just stupid that you can't drive that you can't talk on your phone while drive. I'm a fucking 36 year old man. I, I know I shouldn't text and drive. I mean,
01:10:50
Speaker
hands-free, I have to change my music on Spotify sometimes. I don't know. where I just was wanting to be like, if I was a combative type, I'd be like, where do you draw the line? can i What if I wasn't talking on my phone and I just hold held it in my hand? Can I have a burger in my hand? Yeah, can you take a drink? I'm wanting to have a burger on my hand. Do you have to have a camelback system in order to drink while you drive? You want to push it so hard, but i i I'd just rather not get a $105 ticket. So anyway,
01:11:19
Speaker
ah All right, so this guy, he's a political influencer. He's a spiritual advisor to the former president of the Philippines, Philippines, I guess. um There's not a whole lot more to say about this story ah in his relations to political ties. um Other than that, he has them. He this guy claims he has 7 million followers, ah which seems inflated.
01:11:45
Speaker
I guess is, yeah, claims to have 7 million followers and has grown his ministry through television, radio, and social media. So maybe if you count his Facebook, Instagram, and X followers, and YouTube followers, and you and you don't exclude for overlap, he probably has 7 million.
01:12:05
Speaker
um what' What's the name of his church? It's not like that Iglesia de Cristo or whatever. No, it's Kingdom of Jesus Christ, K-O-J-C. and At least it's the name of his compound.
01:12:20
Speaker
yeah That's the compound. and Does it say, it's the compound the same name as the church? that I'm not sure. um But here's what's cool. ah He claims to have heard that God whispered him to him,
01:12:35
Speaker
i will use you while attending an event by the American pastor, Billy Graham, and when he was ah preaching in South Korea in 1973. This led him to set up the kingdom of Jesus Christ in the Philippines in 1985. Well, his compound's about to get raided. It sounds like God's about to use him like a celestial fleshlight. Yeah.
01:13:04
Speaker
but yeah he's got the cool shit you know uh a bunch of followers a private jet um i guess is he like started to gain prominence when the former president was elected in 2016 was that that detorte guy yeah detorte yep i didn't know how to say i was Brutal if I remember right he was the one that was like Sentencing you like if you get caught selling any sort of drugs, you'd get like a death sentence or whatever Really? Yeah. Oh, yeah, I guess that's not shocking ah But anyway, the charges against him are ah so in in 2021 the US Department of Justice charged. Mr. Quibble would sex trafficking of children fraud and coercion
01:13:48
Speaker
and bulk cash smuggling, the FBI's to the trafficked girls and women from the Philippines to the US where they are forced to solicit money for his for a bogus charity. He also required his female person. Shocking. Guess where this ends.
01:14:07
Speaker
He also requires female personal assistants who are called pastoral's. ah That's pretty gross to have sex with him. The FBI said in January of 2022, the FBI released a wanted poster seeking information on him. And then and last ah last March, the Philippines Department of Justice filed human trafficking and sexual harassment charges against Mr. Quibbell for allegedly abusing a teenage woman in 2011.
01:14:34
Speaker
Basically, now he's just dealing with courts in the United States and the Philippines having wore and sought for his arrest. Of course, he's denied any charges of wrongdoing. And he accuses the US authorities of prejudging his case, which is hilarious because apparently prejudging is arresting for an accusation. Like the accusation leads to the arrest, which leads to a trial so you can judge.
01:15:00
Speaker
but apparently just arresting someone on suspicion of horrific crimes is prejudging. In order to not prejudge, you can never arrest anybody no matter how guilty they look.
01:15:14
Speaker
I like cult stories from other countries because it feels like ah yeah it's just nice to see that it's not completely an American like mine virus.
Global Cult Phenomena
01:15:23
Speaker
Yeah, that is nice. It's refreshing to know that we're all equally as awful everywhere. I agree. Other people can fall for dumb things too.
01:15:31
Speaker
But it made me think of, ah i i I played Far Cry 5, it was like one of the only Far Cry games in the franchise. Same. That I played. And I loved it. And it was about a cult in like the Midwest, um where you just kind of drop into this area and have to like deal with, it's like the cult and it's the cultist, the cult leader and it's like three children. And you look just like Carl Wentz.
01:15:57
Speaker
Yeah. And it was kind of like hippy dippy shit mixed with like extreme fundamentalism. And it was a very well done story. It was just a fucking fun game. But it kind of reminded me of that. Of just like the because it's a compound, right? You're dropped into so Like this cult kind of controls this little town area and it's in if they have their own like compound and it's in It's kind of encroached in mountains. So you can't really it's hard to get there on foot um but thinking of all these cops just Showing up to this compound a 75 acre like religious And like ah
01:16:40
Speaker
Whatever I guess cult but like i'm trying to it's just like a quote unquote that family shit like that. They created a sub separate Environment for them to like to live it's crazy. Yeah well isolation is a big part of like controlling a cult like you have to cut them off from the outside world keep them, you know away from people but uh Yeah, it is He definitely stepped on the wrong person's toes. Cause like, I'm sure that this has been common knowledge stuff for a long, long time.
01:17:13
Speaker
It's just, he was involved in politics. Like he finally like, like peed in the wrong guy's Wheaties and boom, all of a sudden there's thousands of cops. and yeah well i mean It's probably because of his shit in the US. s Like I don't know what he's doing, but it whatever it is, if he's sending, if he's trafficking people over here to try to build money, solicit funds for a bullshit charity. like i mean the wrong Justice Clarence probably accidentally gave to it after sleeping with one of the fucking trafficked people and now he's like, we have to take this seriously. have you have you seen I know we've talked about catatonic youth before, but have you seen ah the
01:18:00
Speaker
They've posted that, I think, a couple of times, but it's this guy, white dude with dreads, very hippie looking guy. And he's called he calls he's playing this like it's like this terrible like house music overlaid with like twangy, you know, like lyre notes or whatever.
01:18:24
Speaker
And he's like explaining how he's created a new genre of music called like medicine reggae. ah And you have to use an actual style of music's name in your new style of music. You didn't create a new style of music. You just fucked with one that already existed. He's like, it's, it combines the healing effects of, you know, playing in this frequency. that Yeah, what's what's there's like that like those those kind of morons talk about like how there's this certain like The brown note frequency basically. Yeah, it's like the hippie brown note that The white note and just makes you come in your pants immediately There's a lot of the white note going on at like burning man
01:19:15
Speaker
The ground's so sticky. But, uh, I, dude, I, there is nothing more annoying than white people who like insert themselves into like Eastern religion.
Cultural Appropriation Critique
01:19:31
Speaker
Yeah. You know, like a group of Indian people doing, you know, Hindu or Buddhism or whatever, you know, like rituals and stuff like that.
01:19:44
Speaker
Fine. Makes sense. Go for it and stuff. But like for a middle age, like Doofus to go over to, you know, to Jamaica and like,
01:19:55
Speaker
all of a sudden pick up like yoga on the beach and they show them with the little like sounding bowl thing you know that the the little bowl that they like rub this like mortar on and it makes a note or whatever it's so annoying to me like i can't it's just like the the the things that they say like the language that they all use about like Healing and you know, like balancing your body's like like static charge or whatever garbage they're selling. It makes me so angry. to listen to there's just like Nothing about it. That's cool.
01:20:31
Speaker
Like, there's no there's no part of that, like, persona that all those people, like, seem to adopt that appeals to me in any way. It's it's got the same, like like, repellent impulse to it that, like, ah you know, like 50-something dudes who who wear leather chaps and, like, buy a Harley tricycle. Or it's the same thing. Yo, it's true. Because...
01:20:58
Speaker
it Yeah, it's just like, how do I cater how do i like build an entire personality around this like recent discovery? like You discovered something that's literally older than Christian. It's thousands and thousands of years old. And you're acting like you just discovered this new way of life. It's like, oh my God. you guys Have you guys even heard of this? It's like, yeah, most people have.
01:21:20
Speaker
ah it's and It's also annoying because it's so rude. it like It's like being a vegan. like you can You can do it, but as soon as you talk too much about it, everyone wants to kill you. It's true. so like if if If you connect with Buddhist practices in that message, by all means, do that shit in your private life, just like you cook up your refried bean burger, whatever, your black bean burger.
01:21:50
Speaker
Just shut the fuck up about it and that's all anyone's asking it's like if because It's all this shit in so much of it so much of those Western. I mean Eastern religions are There are a lot of cultural beliefs and elements built into it that don't really compute with Western culture that you have to like either ignore or like feign to that and I'm not saying it you can't believe in the overarching principles. I'm just saying like if you get too into the weeds with it and you try to tell everyone about it and you can't grasp that was it's like it's and it's born out of ah cultural aspects,
01:22:37
Speaker
that like for you to act like our novelty and not like people's way of life. It's just obnoxious as fuck. It's like, this is, a you're like commodifying and like people's, just people and in the a belief system and ah and and an understanding and a culture. It can come off as appropriating in some ways if you're not careful about it. Yeah. Yeah. And just like it's,
01:23:04
Speaker
It feels like it really caters to people who are like, yeah, ah you know, I spent two years in Bangladesh just like studying spirituality and stuff. But, you know, thanks to the the trust fund that my dad set up.
01:23:19
Speaker
Right. Anyone who's like, you have to go on an Oscar trip. It's like, yeah what does that take? Like you have to go to a particular place with a particular group and then you vomit for 48 hours, essentially. I don't know how long. And it's like, like, that's just, that's such a niche thing to act like that is like, that's the only path to enlightenment is actually worse. And have you, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior?
01:23:47
Speaker
i love the I love the thought of mid-level tech management guys, all taking a ah you know like a work retreat to Peru so they could go into the jungle and do ayahuasca, but the guy just makes him huff like liquid ambien and pass out and crap themselves. Gives him a bunch of epikak.
01:24:10
Speaker
he ah Are you tripping yet? No, I'm just super sick. I don't know. Maybe take a little more.
Burning Man: Spiritual Facades and Bizarre Behaviors
01:24:18
Speaker
Okay, here. I found this guy. You got to hear this.
01:24:55
Speaker
Dude, get out of here with that. The whole time it's like photos, ah like video footage of him at Burning Man or like playing his acoustic guitar in front of like a like an Eastern art piece, sitting Indian style in a park, like yelling at people going by like, ah get out yeah out, get out, get out, get out.
01:25:19
Speaker
along with the drawing that he did to pregnant Sonic. yeah That guy has deep, dark sexual demons too. Oh, absolutely. Mr. soft spoken spiritual healing vibes guy, like he's going to chain you up and it's not going to be fun. It's yeah, that's like the guitar guy at the party, but like on crack, it's like,
01:25:45
Speaker
He's not just trying, like that guy has, I mean, he's got some essay in his history. There's no way he does guarantee gar a it. And to him, look, and if you ask him, it was an actual spiritual experience where the two of them connected his as entities other than physical ah and to the other person, it was the worst day of their life. so and if you If you bring it up, he he would say something along the lines of, you know i I see you and I hear you and I recognize the hurt that you feel. I guess i see the humanity in your eyes. I guess what pains me is to know that you don't feel the same level the same kind of gratefulness that I do.
01:26:27
Speaker
for our our physical connection and the the experience that we had together. And you did sign an NDA.
Manipulative Spiritual Lessons
01:26:34
Speaker
yeah number might You talked to my dad's attorney, so I don't want to hear about this again. like As an empath, I actually find it deeply offensive that you don't understand that I feel you're hurt actually more than you do. like I'm here with you looking into your eyes as you tell me the most painful experience of your life and you think that you shouldn't also feel like it's me telling you the most painful experience of my life. Like it's the same. It's offensive that you don't see that.
01:27:09
Speaker
I guess the way that I look at it is you know um happiness, joy, fear, shame, deep regret. They're all a part of the human experience and things that you know we we we all we all have to have to learn to embrace rather than hide from them by hurling accusations at people.
01:27:32
Speaker
and they're all the cover feeling code All those feelings are experiences of our expressions of sexual desire when you when you think about it. One thing that I'm learning in my spiritual journey is to embrace and be grateful for um you know a plethora of experiences of all different types. you know The good, happy ones, the ones that are easy to find joy in and also you know, the darker, more somber moments. You know, I really have been learning to be thankful for those as well. And, ah you know, maybe that's something that you should think about or else I'll leak all your photos online.
01:28:12
Speaker
i'm sure He had a pretty good criminal profile for this guy. He's happy to give you negative experiences to look at in a way that you can grow from them. He's so happy to do that for you. He wants you to grow and therefore he's happy to present you with a lot of adversity and pain that you can become a better person after processing. Your no regrets tattoo will only have deeper meaning.
01:28:37
Speaker
There's a 50-50 chance he didn't give you the kind of mushrooms you were expecting.
01:28:48
Speaker
Yeah, those were portobellos.
01:28:54
Speaker
I was thinking more the ones that just kill you. Just like old toads you will shrive your yard. plug things off a dog tur He got really into foraging. yeah He's like, he's that's his way out. He's just like, babe, I have these awesome shrooms and you are a risk to me now. So he just gives her the wrong ones.
01:29:22
Speaker
What are you going to do? It shows up as, I think it probably shows up as food poisoning. Uh, maybe i'm I'm sure they'd be left. Some traces would be left in an autopsy, but yeah.
01:29:35
Speaker
You know, the best way to avoid that is just leave shrooms alone. Yeah. And to in toad shrooms are fine. Uh, I don't have a vast experience with them, but the the interactions I've had with them are are worth it. Uh,
01:29:51
Speaker
but I would like to have some experience. I and would it really, be I mean, you just avoid anyone who proclaims to have come up with a new micro genre. That's embarrassing. Yeah, I think, yeah. ah That's worse. That's good advice.
01:30:09
Speaker
it's ki
01:30:14
Speaker
Oh my God.
Artisan CBD Sodas and Burning Man Economy
01:30:20
Speaker
I've really taken this year to focus on you know my my my business. I've got a ah line of artisan CBD sodas that are available at the farmer's market. We're just putting a lot of a lot of my my mental, physical, and emotional capital into that venture right now. He sells a lot of like he sells dread extensions that are just like cat hair rolled together.
01:30:49
Speaker
ah You probably could market. Dude, what if you set up like a booth, like one of those, uh, you know, like the, the gypsy pagodas in the middle of the mall, but you like did one of those at Burning Man and you're selling dread extensions. It is literally just like wads of hair from your, uh, shower drain, yeah dried and rolled. He collects them all year long. You harvest them all year long so that you can take them to Burning Man and, you know,
01:31:20
Speaker
It's your own little like farmer's market there. Well, just held together by soap scum. You can't sell at Burning Man though, can you? Like there's no buying and selling here. That would make sense. I didn't know that. I've never, I've never been, I don't know much about Burning Man. It makes sense that you couldn't that, because that's too capitalist to sell anything at Burning Man. You have to barter. I think you can have a booth, but you can only barter.
01:31:47
Speaker
It's a whole economic system based on sexual extortion. yeah you can't If you walk in, they like they frisk you only for cash. You get to keep your drugs and alcohol, but you can't bring cash in. four card No card, especially no card. No cash or card. All the illicit drugs you want. Yep. i do That doesn't doesn't speak to me. i would I would, out of curiosity, I would venture into a ah into a burning man. I would do it.
01:32:17
Speaker
for a moment. Like, I don't think I, I don't know. I, I'm curious. I'm curious as to what that would look like.
Road Trips to Cultural Gatherings
01:32:24
Speaker
Maybe for like a day. Yeah. i'd go up for day How long is it ah like a week? I think so. I think it's like a week. I would just inspect. I would check it out. That'd be interesting. I would be more interested in going to the gathering of the Juggalos. Yeah, I would. That'd be sick. Where, where is Burning Man always in the same place?
01:32:47
Speaker
Yeah, it's a part of California that's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it is in Nevada. It's like the area of the country that looks like the surface of the moon. Mars. It's just like a pock mark on on the devil's butt.
01:33:05
Speaker
yeah Maybe we should do that. We should go. I could see us going to burning man together. I would love to just do an all gas, no breaks, like road trip month where you and me just drive to like different giant gatherings and just film ourselves being uncomfortable. Yeah. God damn would I, uh, but yeah, it would get diner drive ins and dives, but it's just you and me going to like different nut job churches.
01:33:36
Speaker
Yeah, that'd be so fucking fun. We've talked a lot about going to different churches. I think there was, uh, Steven, I was near ish to Steven Furdick's church. I think when I go to North Carolina and I always think about going there, but I'm there to visit with family. So I don't, I don't go out of my way to go to ridiculous churches when I'm on vacation, but.
01:34:00
Speaker
If we could just make a if we could make a week long like the two-week road trip out of it I I have summer is off. It's this is if you can if you can get a couple weeks off in the summer and April can ah can film it and you and I can Just roll with it. Yeah, that would be a bad smelling car by the time we're done. Yeah, definitely
01:34:24
Speaker
Well, folks, thanks for listening. um If you're not on our Discord, you should join. It's ah the links in our Instagram bio, but you can find that there. Come share your stories and you know tell us about, I don't know, your ah your your doomsday bunker ideas. Maybe ah where you plan to dig a big hole to die in when the cops eventually come for you.
01:34:53
Speaker
and you know how you plan to tunnel your way out um rather than go to a federal prison and have to join a Therian Brotherhood. You could also just post cool pictures of your pets or talk about what movies you've been watching. Yeah, we can yell at each other over over a TV series or something like that. but The links in our bio, so go go join. It's a fun place to be. Yeah, I think that's it. Hope everybody has a good week and happy safe Labor Day and we will see you next time.