Transcript
Speaker: Hi, pros.
Speaker: Lou Santini here, host of Amateur Nation.
Speaker: My Dry Bar Comedy special, Amateur Nation, is now available.
Speaker: And you can get a free month subscription to Dry Bar Comedy just for being a lister of this podcast.
Speaker: And just like this show, if you're allergic to a lack of common sense in today's world,
Speaker: And you like your comedy delivered with uncompromising talent like it is bite?
Speaker: Then check out my half-hour comedy special, Amateur Nation, for free.
Speaker: Go to drybarcomedy.com slash lews and use promo code lewsantini, L-O-U-S-A-N-T-I-N-I, and you'll get a free month of clean comedy.
Speaker: That will probably still offend Amateur Nation.
Speaker: Drybarcomedy.com slash lews and promo code lewsantini.
Speaker: This is my way of saying thank you to the pros who listen to this show every week.
Speaker: Amateur Nation is not just a podcast, it's a movement.
Speaker: Warning, the podcast you are about to hear is often based on true events and people.
Speaker: It chronicles the dialogue and actions of random, anonymous, obnoxious, self-entitled, unintelligent, self-centered idiots, attention whores, ignoramacists, dolts, clods,
Speaker: Nimrods, douches, weirdos, drama queens, overly sensitive crybabies, and people who think they are better, more important, and special than the rest of us.
Speaker: In one word, amateurs.
Speaker: Amateurs.
Speaker: It's Amateur Nation with Lou Santini.
Speaker: We call attention to and call out the amateurs.
Speaker: The people who are doing life wrong.
Speaker: The speed bumps of life.
Speaker: The people that are in your way every day.
Speaker: The unintelligent, obnoxious, attention whoring, self-entitled drama queen victim types who chip away at the moments of your life due to no self-awareness, common sense, manners, or social skills and are disturbing the flow of the pros.
Speaker: Hi, Mom.
Speaker: Oh, hey, Lou.
Speaker: Amateur Nation.
Speaker: It's not just a podcast.
Speaker: It's a movement.
Speaker: If you're going to lie to me, tell me there's a broad waiting in the car.
Speaker: I want to tongue my balls.
Speaker: No, I don't lie on this show.
Speaker: This is episode 210.
Speaker: Why is that special?
Speaker: It's the beginning of season five, China's Syndrome 2.0.
Speaker: Fans first.
Speaker: Shouts out to Terry, Rich, Love, Jess, Kiss, Joshua Edwards, and Josephine Pratt, all listening to the show on SoundCloud.
Speaker: My website and YouTube pages have been completely revamped, restyled, and redesigned and ribbed for your pleasure.
Speaker: LouSantini.com.
Speaker: And if you want to check out everything I'm doing, go to YouTube, at Lou Santini.
Speaker: Here's what's happening in Amateur Nation.
Speaker: Perhaps you had better start from the beginning.
Speaker: Topic number one.
Speaker: Topic number one.
Speaker: This topic was ignited by the contribution from friend of the show, Tomas Strom, originally of Denmark, then Los Angeles, and now, like me, he escaped California to live in Florida.
Speaker: He sent me this succinct but thought-provoking message.
Speaker: Listen carefully.
Speaker: I just stepped back and had a bird's-eye view.
Speaker: My hat is off to China for their art of war.
Speaker: They sent fentanyl to kill the poor.
Speaker: The poor are the soldiers who fight the war.
Speaker: They sent COVID to kill the old.
Speaker: The old have the money.
Speaker: They sent TikTok to destroy the kids.
Speaker: The kids are the future.
Speaker: I couldn't agree more.
Speaker: That earned him a free No Amateurs t-shirt, by the way.
Speaker: Watch your mailbox, Tomas.
Speaker: All right, I replied to him, you know, I thought the same things about the first two regarding fentanyl and COVID, but since I don't use TikTok, I guess I didn't give that as much thought up until now.
Speaker: I did have a TikTok account for, I'd say, about two weeks, maybe well over a year ago, before one of my podcast promos got my account canceled without warning.
Speaker: No warning, no flag, no fact check, nothing.
Speaker: Just one day I went to TikTok and it was gone.
Speaker: I'm sure it was some anti-China or anti-vax or anti-mask or calling out the Hollywood elite or calling for the names of those who have been to Epstein's Island, etc.
Speaker: Could have been anything.
Speaker: It was at least a year ago.
Speaker: So after that nonsense, I just bailed.
Speaker: I'm not going to spend all this time setting up an account and posting stuff to TikTok.
Speaker: I just don't care enough.
Speaker: Unlike the Hollywood elite, I did not feel the need to declare it from the mountaintop and announce my departure from TikTok.
Speaker: The same way that I left Twitter unceremoniously well over three years ago.
Speaker: In regards to Tomas' statement, this headline from thefreepress.com.
Speaker: How China Got Our Kids Hooked on Digital Fentanyl.
Speaker: TikTok is a national security threat.
Speaker: A man by the name of Jeffrey Cain wrote this article in November just last year.
Speaker: Listen carefully.
Speaker: TikTok is the most trafficked news app for Americans under age 30.
Speaker: The article says now there are calls to shut it down.
Speaker: FBI Director Christopher Wray said the bureau has national security concerns about TikTok.
Speaker: The top Republican on the Federal Communications Commission, Brendan Carr, called TikTok China's digital fentanyl.
Speaker: Senator Marco Rubio and Representative Mike Gallagher, both Republicans, introduced legislation banning the social media platform, noting that the data of millions of Americans is effectively controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.
Speaker: Carr also said the U.S. government should ban TikTok.
Speaker: The article continues, saying it's about time.
Speaker: The author says,
Speaker: with its preference for video snippets of dancing celebrities, DIY projects, cooking demonstrations, skincare routines, and other Gen Zers singing and dancing in their parents' kitchens.
Speaker: As the fastest growing social media app ever, it rankled American competitors Facebook and YouTube, which were banned in China.
Speaker: By October 2018, ByteDance was the world's most valuable startup, with a valuation of $75 billion.
Speaker: Sidebar, why do you think something that requires little brick-and-mortar support has no real monetary value, doesn't produce or manufacture anything, and is a startup have such a high valuation?
Speaker: Answer, for what it can do to the world in the long run.
Speaker: It's influence.
Speaker: It's power.
Speaker: It's global manipulation.
Speaker: Those are two heavy-duty words next to each other.
Speaker: Global manipulation.
Speaker: The article continues.
Speaker: Follow this timeline.
Speaker: Four years later, ByteDance is now worth $300 billion.
Speaker: TikTok is expected to reach 1.8 billion users globally by the end of 2022.
Speaker: And a quarter of American adults under 30 get their news from TikTok.
Speaker: Oh!
Speaker: There's a good reason for this success.
Speaker: TikTok has developed one of the most powerful machine learning algorithms ever.
Speaker: One that is able to reveal people's unknown desires to themselves.
Speaker: Every day, every hour, every waking minute, TikTok is hovering up seemingly infinite bits of information about its users.
Speaker: Their tastes, hobbies, political views, sexual preferences, their facial structure, the sound of their voice.
Speaker: By the way, this gets so much worse.
Speaker: The article continues,
Speaker: So I like cat videos, Lou.
Speaker: I mean, what do I care if China knows?
Speaker: Look, any country, any powerful entity that needs to know or wants to know your likes as benign as cats
Speaker: is not an entity you should be empowering.
Speaker: And it's not just about them knowing that you like cat videos or cats.
Speaker: It's knowing that if they know that, what else do they know?
Speaker: What other ways are they listening in and watching you?
Speaker: Oh, you have nothing to hide?
Speaker: What does that matter?
Speaker: You're breaking the law.
Speaker: You're stalking.
Speaker: You're spying.
Speaker: And you don't even live in America, TikTok.
Speaker: And I don't know you.
Speaker: The article continues.
Speaker: When ByteDance announced it was expanding into the U.S. in 2017, I had recently been kicked out of China's westernmost region of Xinjiang for investigating the beginnings of what the State Department had since labeled a genocide.
Speaker: Some 1.8 million people, mostly Uyghur Muslims, would soon be hauled away for such crimes as praying and not showing sufficient loyalty to the Chinese Communist Party.
Speaker: This mass internment has been made possible by AI and camera surveillance that can record every moment of people's lives, even installing government surveillance cameras in private dressing rooms.
Speaker: ByteDance was essential to that effort.
Speaker: In April 2019, the company signed an agreement with the Chinese Ministry of Public Security, which has played a key role in the Uyghur's internment, promising to promote the ministry's influence and credibility.
Speaker: ByteDance also bent over backwards to suppress news on its platform of the Chinese state's repression of the Uyghurs.
Speaker: Xinjiang, as it turns out, was the testing ground for a much more ambitious and global surveillance campaign carried out by companies like ByteDance and the smartphone maker Huawei, if I'm saying that correctly.
Speaker: Today, Chinese data collection has spread far beyond Chinese borders.
Speaker: The idea that apps violate personal privacy is something that many Americans now shrug off.
Speaker: The difference in this case is that the company that is doing the violating is an extension of the Chinese state.
Speaker: Internal ByteDance guidelines leaked to The Guardian in September 2019 show that TikTok moderators were instructed to censor videos that mention Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or the banned religious group Falun Gong.
Speaker: Two months later, TikTok took the surprising step of suspending the account of a New Jersey teenager who posted a video about the Uyghur atrocities.
Speaker: After that became public, TikTok backtracked.
Speaker: ByteDance spent more than $13 million on lobbying in Washington to ward off potential investigations, employing an army of Democrats and Republicans, including two former senators.
Speaker: An internal memo outlining TikTok's public relations strategy leaked in July of 2022 advises company officials to, quote, downplay the parent company ByteDance, downplay the China Association, downplay AI.
Speaker: It adds, emphasize TikTok as a brand slash platform.
Speaker: I began documenting, the article continues, by the way, I began documenting TikTok's expansion in the years of following its entry into America through interviews with dozens of employees and with former Chinese technology workers involved in government surveillance.
Speaker: Though TikTok denies it, reports to the CCP with the spurious claims that the U.S.-based company is separate from its Chinese parent, it's possible to imagine that the data of countless Americans is flowing directly to party officials.
Speaker: In China, the CCP has ultimate authority over people and institutions across the country.
Speaker: Business executives, technology innovators, journalists, police, and even court judges must accede to the Communist Party.
Speaker: Uyghur refugees who had worked for Chinese technology companies and helped set up government surveillance systems of their own people...
Speaker: told me about aggressive police collection of data and how quickly companies handed it over without question.
Speaker: They showed me internal company documents and diagrams too that illustrated how the CCP gathers data on its population through ByteDance and other companies.
Speaker: Over the past year, I've spoken with 24 former TikTok employees, mostly in Los Angeles, the location of the company's main office.
Speaker: They would only speak anonymously.
Speaker: One former marketing employee said the Chinese execs, they're in control.
Speaker: The American execs are there to smile, look pretty, push away criticism.
Speaker: But ByteDance is still calling the shots behind the scenes.
Speaker: Another former TikTok employee told me, TikTok is an American company on paper.
Speaker: It's a Chinese company underneath.
Speaker: In 2017, ByteDance established a committee that studied the speeches of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the better to hue the party line.
Speaker: In 2018, Zhang Yiming, the founder of ByteDance and TikTok and the former CEO, posted what could only be described as an apology.
Speaker: To the Chinese Premier for failing to live up to the party's expectations, we have placed excessive emphasis on the role of technology, and we have not acknowledged that technology must be led by the socialist core value system.
Speaker: In 2021, the Chinese government acquired a 1% stake in a subsidiary of ByteDance and picked up a board seat on the subsidiary, deepening its ties with the social media platform.
Speaker: That same year,
Speaker: the government adopted the Data Security Law, which mandates that technology companies hand over their users' data, including that of Americans, if requested.
Speaker: TikTok insists that no one in its C-suite is a CCP member or reports to the party, noting, for example, that TikTok executives answer to a CEO, Xiaozi Chu, in Singapore, who wields limited authority over the company he ostensibly runs.
Speaker: What's more, company higher-ups say TikTok is migrating its data to U.S.-based servers audited by the American company Oracle.
Speaker: Backup data will be stored on servers in the U.S. and Singapore.
Speaker: I have nothing to hide.
Speaker: What do I care?
Speaker: You'd be surprised what you have to hide.
Speaker: You'd be surprised.
Speaker: Would you let someone film you in a dressing room at a store?
Speaker: What do I care?
Speaker: If they want to see me naked, go ahead.
Speaker: Really?
Speaker: Great.
Speaker: They see you is one thing.
Speaker: What if they post it to people you don't want to have see it?
Speaker: Now do that with, not some, all.
Speaker: of your information, all of your texts, all of your posts, all of your screenshots, all of your videos, all of your comments on other people's videos, all of the things you simply look at and don't even comment on.
Speaker: Everyone has skeletons.
Speaker: Everyone has something they can be embarrassed about.
Speaker: And even if you don't, why is that still okay?
Speaker: Why are you okay with that?
Speaker: The article continues.
Speaker: This is a sleight of hand that distracts from China's vast data-gathering capabilities and the requirement that ByteDance and TikTok employees in China comply with them.
Speaker: The privacy policy gives TikTok authority to share its users' private data with its Chinese affiliate ByteDance, which is required to hand that over to Chinese officials if it's demanded.
Speaker: What we know as TikTok is really part of a holding company incorporated in the Cayman Islands that owns the American company TikTok and the Chinese company ByteDance.
Speaker: It doesn't matter what TikTok's corporate chieftains say to placate Americans.
Speaker: No matter how powerful you may be, no matter how much wealth you may have amassed, your business is intimately bound up with the Chinese state.
Speaker: There is no escaping it.
Speaker: And if you upset the wrong people, you are almost certain to pay a steep price.
Speaker: Consider the case of Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce giant Alibaba and the richest person in China.
Speaker: Ma disappeared from public view in November 2020 after criticizing state regulators.
Speaker: Two years later, he re-emerged, a gaunt and rattled version of his former self.
Speaker: He later gave up control of another business venture, Ant Group, and in July 2022, left China for Europe.
Speaker: In recent months, we have gotten an even clearer sense of how deeply America is compromised by TikTok.
Speaker: In June 2022, BuzzFeed published material from leaked audio files from 80 internal TikTok meetings.
Speaker: The leaks revealed that Chinese engineers assessed Americans' data from at least September 2021 to January 2022, the timeframe of the leaked recordings.
Speaker: That data can easily be stored on Chinese servers.
Speaker: On the tapes, an employee is heard discussing a Beijing-based engineer known as the Master Admin with access to everything on the app, contradicting the sworn congressional testimony of a TikTok executive in October 2021 who claimed that this was not the case.
Speaker: On October 20th, Forbes revealed in a bombshell article that a China-based team at ByteDance planned to use TikTok to monitor the location of American citizens.
Speaker: TikTok claimed in the article that it gathers data on its users' locations for the purposes of targeted advertising.
Speaker: TikTok now has 138 million active monthly users across the U.S. and is projected to hit $12 billion in profit this year.
Speaker: And it is in PR mode, publicly challenging its critics.
Speaker: That includes me following my Senate testimony in September, the author says.
Speaker: And he concludes with this.
Speaker: The Biden administration is negotiating a deal with TikTok that would potentially require it to change its data and governance practices, but would not require ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American firm, according to the New York Times.
Speaker: A previous order under the Trump administration would have required ByteDance to sell TikTok to an American company or face a ban.
Speaker: TikTok sued the government, Trump left office, and the deal never went through.
Speaker: No shit.
Speaker: Fears of Chinese manipulation of American elections has curiously not deterred candidates in those elections from using the app.
Speaker: More politicians than ever, one-third of Democratic contenders and 12% of Republican are deploying TikTok to reach Gen Z voters.
Speaker: They are transforming the app from its miscellany of aspiring socialites, showing off their private jets into an ever more perfect algorithm created in China and at the heart of our democracy.
Speaker: Okay, I know that was a lot of information.
Speaker: I urge you.
Speaker: to go back and re-listen to that topic when you can.
Speaker: Or more importantly, share it with someone who needs to hear that, a young person who uses and lives on TikTok.
Speaker: Make them understand.
Speaker: In a comment at the end of that article, someone by the name of Unwoke in Idaho said it well.
Speaker: All the little numb nuts out there who can't wait to share their latest tattoo or death-defying act or whatever will be up in arms.
Speaker: The Chinese use TikTok to advance knowledge and education.
Speaker: We use TikTok to highlight decadence and stupidity.
Speaker: And now this.
Speaker: Topic number two.
Speaker: Racism?
Speaker: Bad.
Speaker: Government-sanctioned racism?
Speaker: That's okay.
Speaker: Gotta get this topic in before Sheila Jackson, a Texas Democrat representative, says I can't.
Speaker: You see, she doesn't believe white Americans deserve the full guarantees and protections of the First Amendment.
Speaker: spicy food up her butt.
Speaker: I agree.
Speaker: Lee has introduced legislation called the Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023.
Speaker: Listen carefully, which would make it a federal hate crime for whites to question open borders immigration
Speaker: advocate for preserving America's culture and traditional demographic makeup, or even criticize minorities, according to the National File.
Speaker: Don't tell me that's covered by the First Amendment.
Speaker: The outlet noted further, like in far-left European nations, they have turned their federal law enforcement apparatus against their own native-born citizens under Jackson's legislation.
Speaker: Merely posting online about the decline of American culture at the hands of open borders immigration could land a white person in federal prison.
Speaker: The article says, A person engages in a white supremacy-inspired hate crime when white supremacy ideology has motivated the planning, development, preparation, or perpetration of actions that constituted a crime or were undertaken in furtherance of activity that, if effectuated, would have constituted a crime.
Speaker: The bill reads...
Speaker: In short, we have another Democrat of color using the excuse of battling racism to promote official government-sanctioned racism.
Speaker: Under Jackson's legislation, if federal investigators determined that the web postings of a third party had inspired someone else, even someone they don't know, to commit a federal hate crime, that person would be arrested and federally charged with a hate crime of their own, the National Files report continued.
Speaker: Specifically, Jackson targets Americans who are in favor of border security, calling out replacement theory by name, an ideology that holds that open borders of mass migration into the Western world are part of a deliberate effort to replace white people in their native lands, the report continued.
Speaker: As the legislation explains, two people could be charged in relation to the same lone wolf style attack if at least one of them published material advancing white supremacy, white supremacist ideology, antagonism based on replacement theory or hate speech that vilifies or is otherwise directed against any non-white personal group, even if they don't know each other.
Speaker: The article continues, this measure does not stand a chance in Hades of becoming law, but it does demonstrate very clearly what the Democrat Party is in 2023.
Speaker: A party of race-baiting, divisive, counter-cultural revolutionaries who are working overtime to destroy the fabric of this country in a way not seen since our founding.
Speaker: You know, these last five to ten years and watching our government has really opened my eyes as to not only who the incompetent people are,
Speaker: the corrupt people are, but also as to who the truly evil-minded, internally ugly, and vile people are.
Speaker: That are in positions of power.
Speaker: Imagine being so hate-filled.
Speaker: that you run for office and later write legislation silencing an entire race as to avoid any kind of criticism and worse, thinking that it's a good idea and that it's progress.
Speaker: How was that any better than Hitler?
Speaker: What, because she hasn't thrown people into concentration camps?
Speaker: That's where her head is.
Speaker: She'd clearly do it if she had the power and authority and it was legal.
Speaker: Mandatory mental health screening for all federal government employees at every level.
Speaker: And make it illegal.
Speaker: yearly.
Speaker: Well, let's go kill them.
Speaker: And we're not there.
Speaker: Yet.
Speaker: To show my thanks for your listening to the show, I'm giving you a free month subscription on Dry Bar Comedy.
Speaker: Get your free month of funny by going to drybarcomedy.com slash L-O-U-S and use promo code LUSANTINI.
Speaker: At Lou Santini on YouTube is where you'll find Sneak Peek Thursday's 60-second preview of what's to come next week.
Speaker: I'm also on Truth Social at Lou Santini 3.
Speaker: Topic number three is next.
Speaker: There's been an odd shift in human behavior over the last 15-plus years.
Speaker: A sense of entitlement.
Speaker: A constant need for attention.
Speaker: Ironically coupled with the need to be left alone.
Speaker: A desire to be treated the same as everyone else.
Speaker: Stupidly combined with the mindset of, I'm special, so treat me accordingly.
Speaker: Introducing the book, Amateur Nation.
Speaker: The Decline of Common Sense Manners and Social Skills.
Speaker: The Second Edition.
Speaker: Inside, you'll read...
Speaker: The Amateur Mission Statement.
Speaker: The 30 Truths About Amateurs.
Speaker: The Four Stages of Being an Amateur.
Speaker: Amateur Habitats and History.
Speaker: Social Media plus Me, Me, Me equals Amateur.
Speaker: Technology and Amateur Behavior.
Speaker: With dozens of real funny photos, weird signs, and laugh-out-loud real-life accounts and actual conversations vividly showing how us pros are surrounded by Amateur Nation every day.
Speaker: Download the expanded second edition of the e-book, Amateur Nation, The Decline of Common Sense Manners and Social Skills.
Speaker: The second expanded edition available now.
Speaker: Be a pro.
Speaker: Go to Amazon.
Speaker: Type amateur nation.
Speaker: Hey pros, Lou Santini here.
Speaker: They're running out and half off.
Speaker: No amateurs men's and women's t-shirts.
Speaker: Normally $22.95, now just $11.48.
Speaker: The men's tees are a soft, high-quality, pre-shrunk cotton poly blend in sport royal blue.
Speaker: Displaying the no amateurs logo with the waving American flag set at the top.
Speaker: The women's tees are a lightweight, super soft, high-quality, pre-shrunk cotton poly blend in royal blue.
Speaker: And are fitted.
Speaker: Displaying the No Amateurs logo with the waving American flag.
Speaker: T-shirts just $11.48.
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Speaker: Available at lusantini.com slash shop.
Speaker: Be a pro.
Speaker: Say no to amateurs and order your half-off No Amateurs T-shirt today.
Speaker: Topic number three.
Speaker: Hit me!
Speaker: Warning!
Speaker: This topic will insult your intelligence to the highest degree.
Speaker: Here comes one of my favorite headlines I've ever read on this show from yahoo.com slash lifestyle.
Speaker: Transgender men can get pregnant.
Speaker: Here's what they wish more people understood.
Speaker: Sometimes I wonder if I have ovaries in my scrotum.
Speaker: No, not that.
Speaker: Look, I'm going to try to get through this article as respectfully as I can.
Speaker: Who am I kidding?
Speaker: This is beyond stupid.
Speaker: I'm going for the jugular.
Speaker: Also, please note all the proof and scientific data and facts throughout the article.
Speaker: Here it is.
Speaker: When Danny Wakefield gave birth to their first child in 2020, it brought to light a string of issues faced by transgender parents in the healthcare system.
Speaker: I had a really hard pregnancy.
Speaker: Wakefield, 36, who is transgender, but also uses they, them pronouns.
Speaker: This is someone you want to spend your free time with, right?
Speaker: Hey, who's going to be at that party?
Speaker: You know Danny Wakefield?
Speaker: Oh, that pregnant trans guy?
Speaker: They is going to be there?
Speaker: Hard pass.
Speaker: The article continues, during emergency room visits, Wakefield says they were met with snickers from nurses as well as doubt, disbelief, and a lack of knowledge from physicians ill-equipped to handle their needs.
Speaker: Can you imagine?
Speaker: Doctors and nurses doubtful that a man can carry a baby to full term and deliver it through... I can't even think about the rest of that sentence.
Speaker: In one instance, it took an hour and a half to get them to treat me because they didn't believe I was pregnant, Wakefield says.
Speaker: The doctors and nurses would talk quietly among themselves, asking each other questions about me, instead of asking me directly, the patient who's sitting right in front of them.
Speaker: Here is a transcript of what I believe that conversation sounded like.
Speaker: Nurse number one.
Speaker: The fuck do we do with this crazy fat guy?
Speaker: He's been in the lobby for an hour and a half.
Speaker: Nurse number two.
Speaker: Maybe if we ignore him, he'll leave.
Speaker: Crazy fat guy.
Speaker: Ahem.
Speaker: They'll leave.
Speaker: Get my pronouns right.
Speaker: Nearby patient.
Speaker: Can someone help me?
Speaker: I'm bleeding heavily from many areas.
Speaker: Stories like Wakefield's are not uncommon.
Speaker: Wait, they're not, says Dr. Juno Obadin Maliver, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Stanford University School of Medicine.
Speaker: Ah, there it is, Stanford.
Speaker: Remember episode 207?
Speaker: This podcast is hosted by an American.
Speaker: Suck it, Stanford.
Speaker: Remember that episode?
Speaker: This is the college that has a long list of words that they say are banned.
Speaker: That's where this doctor attended medical school.
Speaker: If you have a kid going to Stanford, pull them now, the article says.
Speaker: That's mainly because the medical establishment and society at large has little knowledge about pregnancy in the trans male population.
Speaker: I wonder why that is.
Speaker: Did you know the medical establishment and society at large also has little knowledge about pigs that fly, dogs that do accounting, and cats that drive?
Speaker: The article says, we grew up in a world with books from preschool on up that until very recently have not imagined or really represented the diversity of communities as they are.
Speaker: Obadi Maliver tells Yahoo Life, none of our systems have been designed to delineate the difference between somebody's gender and somebody's pregnancy capacity.
Speaker: Translation, we have no capacity to deal with the level of crazy and delusion in the amateur nation.
Speaker: The article continues, that's slowly changing, Obadun Malever points out, due to a growing demand from transgender patients and because more and more are sharing their stories, stories, as with the recently trending New York Times op doc about a trans man giving birth in a small town in Mexico.
Speaker: Ah, yes, small towns in Mexico leading the way for unusual scientific and biological breakthroughs in human anatomy.
Speaker: The article says, but Obaden Malever argues until society acknowledges the basic truth that anyone born with a uterus, ovaries, and tubes has the capacity to become pregnant, there will always be a lack of accurate research and data, leaving trans parents at a disadvantage.
Speaker: Anyone born with a uterus, ovaries, and tubes.
Speaker: Oh, you mean women?
Speaker: No, I understand that.
Speaker: All right, brace yourselves.
Speaker: Here comes some science words.
Speaker: The article says, transgender men, people born with female anatomy who live and identify as men...
Speaker: I need video proof, please.
Speaker: Sometimes undergoing gender-affirming care through surgeries and or testosterone and sometimes not can get pregnant in the same way anyone with reproductive organs can, explains Obad and Malivar.
Speaker: That includes penetrative sex with someone with sperm as well as through assistive reproductive technology, ART, such as intrauterine insemination or in vitro fertilization.
Speaker: The article says, due to the fact that trans male pregnancies are vastly under-researched, not to mention their lack of visibility, that's what they said.
Speaker: The process is clouded with misconceptions.
Speaker: One of the biggest, Oban and Malever says, is the notion that trans men on testosterone are unable to conceive.
Speaker: Though more studies need to be done on how testosterone influences ovulation in general, taking the hormone does not negate one's capacity to get pregnant.
Speaker: Phew, now get your pencils ready to take notes.
Speaker: There is a difference between having a period or not and ovulating or not, she explains.
Speaker: Those are actually related but distinct processes in the body.
Speaker: So it's possible that someone on testosterone might have stopped menstruating but is still ovulating or producing eggs.
Speaker: That's true for anyone with female reproductive organs and that sometimes makes it difficult for folks to know if they are pregnant.
Speaker: Folks!
Speaker: Folks!
Speaker: because they're having sex with sperm involved and we don't know how much testosterone diminishes ovulation.
Speaker: That message often doesn't translate to the population that needs it most.
Speaker: Oh, you mean the population of zero?
Speaker: This gets so much better and yet more ridiculous.
Speaker: Caden Coleman, a gay transgender man, meaning his gender is trans male and his sexual orientation...
Speaker: I know, your head is exploding.
Speaker: Something separate and different is gay.
Speaker: Is father to two daughters, ages 9 and 2, and has been on testosterone for 14 years.
Speaker: He went off during both pregnancies at the advice of his doctor, but was still taking doses of the hormone when he discovered he was pregnant, both times unplanned.
Speaker: Hey, why wasn't this on the cover of the Weekly World News?
Speaker: We have the bat boy and the talking cats and the woman who's 250 years old.
Speaker: Why is it the man who said, not one, but two kids, as long as nine years ago?
Speaker: We've never seen that on a headline in the newspaper.
Speaker: Not a photograph, not a video, not a YouTube video of the delivery, nothing.
Speaker: You know what my favorite part is?
Speaker: You're delusional in the fact that you're a man and you think you can get pregnant.
Speaker: You already have two daughters that you know you didn't give birth to.
Speaker: And you're so irresponsible that you had two, quote, unplanned pregnancies.
Speaker: You're a man.
Speaker: You think you can give birth.
Speaker: And you're like, birth control?
Speaker: Nah.
Speaker: The article says, Sonny Witt, a trans father in Australia...
Speaker: who gave birth in 2022, remember that national worldwide news coverage?
Speaker: I don't.
Speaker: That we never saw photos or video footage of his delivery?
Speaker: Planned his pregnancy through in vitro fertilization.
Speaker: At the advice of his doctors, he went off testosterone during the egg retrieval process.
Speaker: So he had eggs.
Speaker: This guy had eggs in him.
Speaker: They had to go in there and get his eggs out.
Speaker: As well as during the pregnancy itself, the article says.
Speaker: He started up again about three months after giving birth.
Speaker: The article says in some cases, trans men may choose to pause their hormone treatments in an effort to get pregnant.
Speaker: But this step is sometimes unnecessary and those considering it should consult with their doctor beforehand.
Speaker: And again, not all transgender men use testosterone, just as not all keep their uteruses.
Speaker: Are you shaking your head?
Speaker: Next time I get together with my guy friends, like, raise your hand.
Speaker: You guys all still got your uteruses?
Speaker: No?
Speaker: None of you?
Speaker: Okay.
Speaker: I myself, I'm very glad I kept my uterus.
Speaker: It's in a jar.
Speaker: I'm so tempted to make an appointment with my doctor.
Speaker: And when I call and they ask the reason for my appointment, I will tell them I think I'm pregnant.
Speaker: For real, I actually may do this.
Speaker: I may record this conversation when I call my doctor.
Speaker: And if they take my appointment, you can bet I will be setting up my phone to shoot video and or at least record audio.
Speaker: The article says, as for WIT, 30, he says he had no idea pregnancy was an option until he started seeing other trans dads sharing their journey online.
Speaker: That's when he decided to make his dream of fatherhood a reality by reaching out to a rainbow clinic.
Speaker: There's a sentence for you.
Speaker: A grown man, I'm going to make my dream of fatherhood a reality.
Speaker: I'm going to reach out to a rainbow clinic.
Speaker: A rainbow clinic specializes in LGBTQ family planning.
Speaker: This guy said he had no idea pregnancy was an option until we saw other trans dads sharing their journeys.
Speaker: In other words, I didn't know I could be pregnant until I saw other mentally ill delusional men also doing this.
Speaker: He says, I had no idea that this was available to a trans person, which is why I have publicly shared my own journey.
Speaker: I want more people to be aware that this is a possibility.
Speaker: Idiot.
Speaker: And here is yet another man who gave birth.
Speaker: They're everywhere.
Speaker: I bet your mailman is pregnant.
Speaker: Your dad.
Speaker: I just may tell my girlfriend that I'm pregnant just to see how devoted she is to me.
Speaker: Sean McLeod, a Virginia-based U.S. Army vet who identifies as trans, is currently pregnant with his first child, conceived naturally with his male partner.
Speaker: His doctors considered the pregnancy high risk because he was on testosterone during conception.
Speaker: Note, he was high risk because he was on testosterone, meaning he had testosterone occurring naturally in his body, which is partly why he has paused...
Speaker: Taking the hormone until after giving birth.
Speaker: So many of us feel judged or that we don't have the support we need.
Speaker: McLeod tells Yahoo Life.
Speaker: So I'm excited to provide that for my son.
Speaker: All right, warning.
Speaker: Here comes a major insult to all women who have given birth.
Speaker: from Dr. Juno Obadin slash Maliver.
Speaker: I want to make sure I say that name fully so you can find her on some kind of social media and feel free to send her a message and tell her to turn in her doctor's license.
Speaker: She says, I often get asked, what's the experience of a trans man giving birth?
Speaker: And I say, well, what's the experience of a cis woman giving birth?
Speaker: For example, as a queer woman, I had a terrible time in my pregnancy.
Speaker: That was really different than friends of mine who loved being pregnant and had a wonderful time.
Speaker: Remember Caden Coleman, one of the jillions of pregnant trans men out there?
Speaker: He says, I need it to be normalized that transgender people exist, that we give birth.
Speaker: He needs it to be normalized.
Speaker: That transgender people exist and that they give birth.
Speaker: He needs that so he feels better about himself.
Speaker: Just what I talked about last week.
Speaker: Adding that telling stories of black transgender men is especially important because it challenges both transphobia and racism.
Speaker: Well, we have a winner for the most attention-starved, most high-maintenance human of all time.
Speaker: A pregnant trans black man.
Speaker: There would be literally nothing you could say around this dude without offending him.
Speaker: Go to hell.
Speaker: Good riddance.
Speaker: Yep.
Speaker: I want it noted that unlike most articles on Yahoo.com, there was no space for readers to comment.
Speaker: More importantly, there was not one specific about how the delivery went, the pain, the duration, the blood, how the baby was removed slash delivered.
Speaker: And I don't want to hear, well, all trans men births are C-sections.
Speaker: That's a cop-out answer.
Speaker: Amateur nation, empowering men.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: All right, it's time for a la carte.
Speaker: Hey, did you know February 3rd is work naked day?
Speaker: You can imagine my surprise last year when I saw this for myself at the dentist.
Speaker: Does anyone watch the Mr., I mean, Miss Universe pageant anymore?
Speaker: I thought it was called Who Caresness.
Speaker: In case you didn't know, transgender businesswoman and jack-upon jack-upon-jack-for-juda-tip, I think I pulled something trying to say his name, the CEO of JKN Global Group bought the Miss Universe organization for $20 million in October.
Speaker: Now, if you missed it, here's a soundbite of his short speech.
Speaker: Miss Universe organization.
Speaker: From now on, it's going to be ran by women, owned by trans women, for all women, for all women really around the world to celebrate the power of feminism.
Speaker: So to review, to celebrate women and feminism, a non-biological woman will be running the show.
Speaker: That's going to be a fun dressing room.
Speaker: Electricity is not better than gas.
Speaker: They are merely different heat and or energy suppliers.
Speaker: You know, I admit it.
Speaker: I'm not mature enough to go on the website nuts.com.
Speaker: I'm sorry.
Speaker: I just keep expecting to go on there and seeing balls.
Speaker: I cannot take that risk.
Speaker: This is hard for me to say, so I'm just going to power through it.
Speaker: I was thinking about that time I almost died.
Speaker: It's hard for me to talk about sometimes.
Speaker: I was walking in the grocery store.
Speaker: The arrow said to go one way, but I walked against.
Speaker: the arrow.
Speaker: It was like I was outside my body.
Speaker: There was a light.
Speaker: It might have been coming from the frozen food section, but I remember amateurs shouting at me, you're going the wrong way!
Speaker: But somehow, I survived.
Speaker: But we didn't know any better.
Speaker: Two years after Alec Baldwin shot and killed 42-year-old cinematographer Helena Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza with a live round from a prop gun.
Speaker: At the airing of this podcast, he has been charged with involuntary manslaughter.
Speaker: Alec Baldwin had this to say.
Speaker: I'll be fine.
Speaker: I didn't do anything wrong.
Speaker: Now it's time for three pro things.
Speaker: Three things that are done right.
Speaker: Number one.
Speaker: You know, last week I played a great audio clip defending masculinity from Jordan Peterson.
Speaker: This simply tags onto that clip.
Speaker: This is from at freedom underscore chronicles.
Speaker: Masculinity isn't toxic.
Speaker: The absence of it is.
Speaker: Weak men are abusive and spiteful.
Speaker: Strong masculine men are protective and loving.
Speaker: They know that a society of strong men would never allow what's happening to occur.
Speaker: That's why masculinity was attacked first.
Speaker: Number two.
Speaker: This quick Instagram post by fellow comedian Steve Mudflat McGrew and his Instagram is at remasculate.
Speaker: This.
Speaker: Today's conspiracy theory?
Speaker: They are purposely throwing Biden under the bus to create a very large news cycle to distract from the fact everything they did with COVID is about to be exposed.
Speaker: The creation of it, the lies about it, how they used it for power, and the vax deaths.
Speaker: I admire your honesty.
Speaker: Hell, I like you.
Speaker: You can come over to my house and fuck my sister.
Speaker: Yeah, I'll add to that and note that they'll kick him out of the presidency.
Speaker: He'll either step down or announce that he's not running again because I'm too old.
Speaker: When really, these classified documents found in his garage is just a lesser reason to cover up his backdoor dealings with Ukraine, China, other Epstein Island visitors, etc.
Speaker: He'll step down or not run again and avoid any charges.
Speaker: Kamala Slingblade Harris will pardon him.
Speaker: And another treasonous commie avoids the firing squad.
Speaker: Until the right people, the good people, the pros in our government actually charge, imprison, and or execute those who engage in treason, I still have no real faith in our government.
Speaker: But make sure you declare your earnings of $600 or more on Venmo.
Speaker: Number three.
Speaker: Bro thing number three is a movie pick.
Speaker: Man, I have not seen this movie in a long time.
Speaker: It's from 1979, and I can't believe how well this translates to today's social media-influenced world.
Speaker: It stars the underrated but extremely talented, quirky, eccentric Peter Sellers.
Speaker: Have you guessed it?
Speaker: Being there.
Speaker: Also stars Shirley MacLaine.
Speaker: Now here's a quick synopsis.
Speaker: Simple-minded Chance, played by Peter Sellers, a gardener who has resided in the Washington, D.C.
Speaker: townhouse of his wealthy employer for his entire life and has been educated only by television, is forced to vacate his home when his boss dies.
Speaker: Think The Truman Show, kinda?
Speaker: While wandering the streets, he encounters business mogul Ben Rand, played by Melvin Douglas, who assumes Chance to be a fellow upper-class gentleman.
Speaker: Soon, Chance is ushered into high society, and his unaffected gardening wisdom makes him the talk of the town.
Speaker: Oh, that would be an understatement.
Speaker: Way too many spoilers for me to tell you more, but mark my words, you'll say no way.
Speaker: And are you kidding me?
Speaker: A lot.
Speaker: When viewing this movie that is an absolute social commentary of today's social media influenced world, substitute him being educated only by television with social media.
Speaker: And you have a movie that still speaks to this generation and time.
Speaker: Now here is one spoiler that has nothing to do with the plot.
Speaker: Watch near the very end and see the plain as day fills the screen image of the Illuminati.
Speaker: Created more than 200 years ago to oppose religious influence over daily life, now one of the world's greatest not-so-conspiracy theories.
Speaker: It's downright creepy how it's shoved right in your face, especially considering the context of the movie and its characters.
Speaker: Watch it.
Speaker: See how the dumbest, most clueless, somehow run the show.
Speaker: Amateur Nation is the name of my book, this show, and my Drybar Comedy special, of which you can see for free and get a free month's subscription by going to drybarcomedy.com slash L-O-U-S and using promo code LUCIATINI.
Speaker: Subscribe to my new and improved Lou Santini page on YouTube, at Lou Santini on Facebook.
Speaker: Snag a free no-amateurs tee by sending me a comment the same way Tomas Strom did on today's show.
Speaker: Send me a clip, send me a criticism, or naked pictures, I don't care.
Speaker: Lou at LouSantini.com.
Speaker: Just don't use TikTok.
Speaker: Amateur Nation is not just a podcast, it's a movement.
Speaker: Remember, amateurs, we see you.
Speaker: You're not at home.
Speaker: Don't do life wrong.
Speaker: Go pro.
Speaker: Don't be an amateur.
Speaker: For Amateur Nation, I'm Lou Santini, and this has been a Big Major production.
Speaker: Good riddance.
Speaker: And you like your comedy delivered with uncompromising talent like it is bite?
Speaker: Then check out my half-hour comedy special, Amateur Nation, for free.
Speaker: Go to drybarcomedy.com slash lews and use promo code lewsantini, L-O-U-S-A-N-T-I-N-I, and you'll get a free month of clean comedy.
Speaker: That will probably still offend Amateur Nation.
Speaker: Drybarcomedy.com slash lews and promo code lewsantini.
Speaker: This is my way of saying thank you to the pros who listen to this show every week.
Speaker: Amateur Nation is not just a podcast, it's a movement.
