Seth Barron’s Weaponized: The Left’s Capture of America’s Sacred Institutions

Title: America held hostage in the left’s ideological suicide vest – Seth Barron’s Weaponized
(0:00) here. This guy had his American dream
(0:02) stolen from him because uh he was
(0:05) deported.
(0:07) It's funny when um Trump changed the
(0:11) H-1B laws, there was and I talk about
(0:14) this in the book, this Indian couple who
(0:16) have a big, you know, following on
(0:18) social media, they said, "Well, that's
(0:20) it. So, this is the death of the
(0:21) American dream for all Indians." It's
(0:24) like, well, you know, if you don't live
(0:26) here, it's not clear why you're entitled
(0:29) to an American dream. M Donnie, Mayor
(0:32) Manny, on July 4th, he gave this really
(0:34) twisted, grotesque speech where he sat
(0:37) he they dragged George Washington's desk
(0:40) out of out of storage somewhere. And he
(0:43) sat there and he gave this really stern
(0:46) and very joyfree
(0:48) lecture about the meaning of America on
(0:51) its 250th birthday.
(0:53) where he basically said that um
(0:56) immigrants are the ones
(1:00) who who have to fix America. If you come
(1:03) here today, you can't take credit for
(1:04) the work of people who came here 150
(1:07) years ago. They you don't have anything
(1:08) in common with like you don't have you
(1:11) don't inherit their their merit, right?
(1:14) It it's just because you're both yes,
(1:16) they were immigrants, you're an
(1:17) immigrant. It's a it doesn't mean that
(1:19) that you get their virtue. honored
(1:27) [music]
(1:33) [music]
(1:40) [music]
(1:48) today to have with us Seth Baron. He's a
(1:50) uh member of the New York Post editorial
(1:52) board. He's a New York City based
(1:53) reporter and editor and author. Uh he
(1:56) wrote something like uh let's see the
(1:59) last days of New York reporter's true
(2:01) tale. Um
(2:03) uh and we were talking that he probably
(2:05) needs to write a new last last uh days
(2:08) of New York City updated version. I'm
(2:10) imagine the previous one was Delasio. I
(2:12) don't know. Um but uh Seth has a a great
(2:16) book right now. I've um um been reading
(2:19) it and almost finished with it. It's
(2:21) called Weaponized um the left's capture
(2:25) uh and destruction of America's sacred
(2:27) institutions. Um I'm hoping it's not
(2:30) full destruction just yet. Uh it's
(2:32) intended. Um you know, we see so much uh
(2:35) uh fun and games happening right now. I
(2:38) recently spoke to Heather Macdonald of
(2:40) the City Journal and she has an article
(2:42) on the um uh teen rampages that are
(2:46) capturing cities and whatnot. Uh this
(2:49) used to be called Wilding and one point
(2:50) is freaknic and um flash mobs um the
(2:55) punch out game all that kind of stuff
(2:57) that um it's happening of various
(2:59) aspects of disorder. We've seen you know
(3:01) a lot of decay on our campuses and so
(3:02) forth. And um uh Seth has a great book
(3:06) that kind of uh uh you can't really undo
(3:10) entropy, but it kind of looks at some of
(3:12) the seeds and pathways by which some of
(3:13) the disorder has been created. Uh so
(3:16) Seth, thank you very much for coming on.
(3:18) Uh you can add to my intro if you like.
(3:20) Um tell us a little bit how you came
(3:22) about writing this book and and what
(3:24) should people get from it.
(3:26) >> Sure. Um let me uh just mention that uh
(3:29) Heather McDonald wrote the forward to my
(3:31) first book. So, uh, I feel like I'm in
(3:34) good company on this show. Um, vice
(3:36) versa, you know, but
(3:38) >> yeah. Um, well, I wrote weaponized. I I
(3:42) I was looking, you know, I I've written
(3:45) a lot about the left and what I see as
(3:48) their strategies and their their secret
(3:51) goals, I guess. [snorts] Um, and it
(3:53) occurred to me that I was seeing I was
(3:55) looking at different what I call domains
(3:58) of of of American life. And I felt that
(4:01) I was seeing uh similar patterns.
(4:04) And what I what I what I recognized was
(4:07) that there's this impulse to
(4:11) remove power from like the base from
(4:13) like the people essentially and pull it
(4:16) up to higher
(4:20) less um responsive less accountable
(4:23) realms.
(4:25) uh you know I guess I look at Woodro
(4:28) Wilson as kind of like the
(4:31) you know like the grandfather of all of
(4:33) this in the progressive movement. And in
(4:36) 18 in the 1880s he wrote this book
(4:38) public administration
(4:40) where you know he laid out his theory
(4:43) based on kind of like the Prussian model
(4:46) that that government and civic life
(4:49) should really be taken care of by
(4:52) experts that experts are the ones who
(4:54) should be in control of things and you
(4:57) know okay maybe at the time American
(4:59) polit like municipal politics it was all
(5:02) run like you know tamy like in a patri
(5:04) system. So, every time there was a new
(5:07) person elected to office, well, you
(5:10) know, the garbage the street sweepers
(5:12) lost their jobs and you had to get like,
(5:15) you know, new guys, the ones who were
(5:17) the the patrons. Um, and so maybe that
(5:20) wasn't such a great system. and maybe
(5:24) having a civil service. Okay. I you know
(5:26) there is like a certain degree of uh
(5:31) you know it's it's a r is it's rational
(5:33) to have to to to have that but you know
(5:37) and maybe I'm jumping ahead too much but
(5:39) what I think is interesting is that what
(5:42) we have now for instance and I'm just
(5:44) talking about say municipal government
(5:45) right um so we have this system now
(5:49) where yes it's a civil service and
(5:52) there's no patronage at all like there's
(5:55) So, uh, you know, you politicians don't
(5:58) get to come in and elect choose who the
(6:00) new street sweeper is and who works in
(6:03) the post office or whatever.
(6:06) But a sad kind of um like or function of
(6:11) this is that now
(6:14) you have completely unresponsive
(6:16) politicians. like politicians no longer
(6:18) have a reason to worry about um getting
(6:23) getting the votes out or like doing what
(6:26) the people say because I mean in the old
(6:28) days you needed them to to elect you so
(6:31) you had to stay on top of things.
(6:33) Nowadays you can get elected just by
(6:36) having the unions
(6:38) and like whatever ethnic blocks uh you
(6:42) have you know coming out. So you just
(6:44) wind up with very low turnout elections.
(6:46) it's better if the if they're low
(6:48) turnout. Um and this has led to this
(6:51) sclerotic politics which now the
(6:54) socialists are taking advantage of by u
(6:58) you know having these enthusiastic
(7:00) groups come out to um to elect them. So
(7:04) I mean that that's kind of a very
(7:06) roundabout way of of talking about this.
(7:08) But it it is an interesting uh side
(7:12) effect I guess of when you when you when
(7:15) you I mean democracy is like this
(7:18) two-edged sword. I mean on one hand well
(7:20) of course we we want the people to be
(7:22) involved but then you know once you get
(7:25) in power well let's not keep them let's
(7:28) keep them out of this for a little
(7:29) while. We we we've got it. Um so you
(7:33) know I mean this is sort of the
(7:35) direction in which I was thinking when I
(7:37) started to write the book or compose the
(7:41) book.
(7:41) >> Fair enough. Interesting. I mean
(7:43) [clears throat] it could be that you
(7:44) know monarchy is is the default position
(7:47) of all animal systems. Um you
(7:49) [clears throat] know if you look at
(7:50) walruses or sea lions or whatever
(7:52) there's there's a king right basically
(7:54) they don't they don't have those words.
(7:56) I don't speak walrus. I don't speak sea
(7:58) lion. Um but basically they
(8:00) [clears throat] anoint a master. So he's
(8:01) the head, he has a harum. We've seen her
(8:04) um in North Africa and whatnot. Um and
(8:07) you know kind of similar layout. Uh you
(8:09) know sexual favors are kind of the coin
(8:12) of the realm for men, young men and
(8:14) whatever. Um and so that you know
(8:17) amongst many many species there's a
(8:19) little bit of a hierarchy. Uh so we we
(8:22) are you know animals and we may think we
(8:25) have you know we have computers we very
(8:26) complicated whatever but on some kind of
(8:28) innate level we are hier hierarchical if
(8:31) you just look at like the way you know
(8:34) soldiers have you know those big hats
(8:36) and you know everyone's [clears throat]
(8:38) >> we kind of rever height you know
(8:40) somebody generally the taller guy in a
(8:42) race will win you know John Kerry
(8:44) doesn't bring a lot to the table but uh
(8:47) needs a you know needs a tall chair um
(8:49) or maybe the obverse whatever um
(8:52) [clears throat] but anyway so I think
(8:54) think we have kind of a hierarchical
(8:56) system and it gets mismanaged um you
(8:59) know there's the pretense and this the
(9:00) the sheen of civility democracy and
(9:03) whatnot but that gets manipulated
(9:04) because you know people don't
(9:06) necessarily care about it enough to you
(9:09) know create self-ruule um it's it's you
(9:12) know the the the American Revolution was
(9:14) you know a little bit of a reformation
(9:16) rather than a revolution per se but
(9:19) historically You know, the understanding
(9:20) was that you need an educated population
(9:22) in order to keep such a thing going. You
(9:24) need people to understand the rules. You
(9:26) know, if you have a soccer game, you
(9:28) know, some people are going to pay, you
(9:29) know, thousand $10,000 to go see a World
(9:32) Cup game. Now, assuming they all
(9:33) understand the rules of soccer, it's not
(9:35) that interesting if you have never
(9:37) you've never seen it. You know, if not,
(9:39) then it wouldn't be that interesting for
(9:40) me to go see a cricket game, you know,
(9:41) sit for 20 hours or whatever. I'd be I'd
(9:43) be bored. Somebody else might not be.
(9:45) And so with democracy, with government
(9:47) there, we, you know, the concept that
(9:49) you have a population that cares about
(9:51) it well enough, like they might care
(9:53) about soccer or basketball is is is
(9:55) obviously a fallacy, you know. So people
(9:56) are just willing to, you know, give
(9:58) their vote for whatever, you know. I I
(10:00) could vote for whoever's going to win
(10:01) the World Cup. I don't care one way or
(10:03) another well enough. They could probably
(10:05) buy my vote and I'm not going to be
(10:06) invested. I'm not like gonna weep like,
(10:08) you know, the England supporters or or
(10:10) Egyptian whatever. Like they're very
(10:12) very much invested. They care about it.
(10:14) And so the concept you know when we have
(10:16) stocks whatever we own a stock we get to
(10:18) vote in it but but with democracy you
(10:22) know there's there are stakes for people
(10:24) who have stakes and so the people who
(10:26) understand this like the currently the
(10:28) DSA in in New York they they are willing
(10:32) to invest the time and effort to get
(10:33) themselves elected on an early basis um
(10:36) and get you know they figured out the
(10:38) hack which is like AOC did to that
(10:40) nobody shows up for the primaries. New
(10:42) York's a, you know, for better or for
(10:43) worse, a one party city or you could
(10:46) call it in the old, you know, Greek
(10:47) sense, a state. It's kind of a city
(10:49) state of its own type. And the easiest
(10:52) way in is to go to the p primaries
(10:54) because only a Democrat running and
(10:55) everyone's got some guy they they don't
(10:56) really know, but they've seen that name
(10:58) a lot. Some other name comes along. It
(11:00) sounds like their name. So Cortez, maybe
(11:02) it's go I don't know whether it was a
(11:03) Latino district that it's Queens,
(11:04) whatever. Maybe not. Um, but any she's
(11:06) got a pretty face and she shows up and
(11:08) she does this and that. She parties and
(11:10) then she's in. And once you're in,
(11:12) you're in. And that that that's where
(11:14) resembles more of a monarchy and and
(11:16) then this kind of this, you know,
(11:18) sclerotic aspect I think you mentioned.
(11:20) Anyway, so I apologize for that diet
(11:21) tribe. Um but uh you know getting to
(11:24) your book itself I'd like to really talk
(11:26) about the fundamental aspects of how in
(11:28) a sense along those same lines the
(11:30) system has been hacked uh to varying
(11:32) extents and it's on a way to being
(11:34) hacked to something else that's you know
(11:36) even less like a monarchy and less like
(11:39) a democracy and less like a republic to
(11:41) this other thing which we've seen in
(11:43) other places you know North Korea uh
(11:45) Soviet and whatnot is my view. So tell
(11:48) us what what's going on. Um I think it
(11:50) was what's the what's the Russian KGB
(11:52) guy's name? Bzenov or something like
(11:53) that. He had that dictim of how to take
(11:56) over the US. Uh it seems like you have
(11:59) you know dissected some of the policies
(12:01) and pathways. Uh but give give our
(12:04) uninformed uh you know people who have
(12:06) not read the book uh the concept of what
(12:09) those categories are and what are the
(12:11) elements and where are we on the road
(12:13) map.
(12:15) >> Sure. Uh well the the the four domains
(12:17) that I that I look at in the book are um
(12:20) well the border meaning like you know
(12:23) not just the border ex itself but also
(12:26) uh the civic sensibility. Um I look at
(12:29) public safety the whole idea of you know
(12:33) having
(12:35) you know basically crime and policing. I
(12:38) look at education
(12:40) and I look at housing.
(12:42) Um, and you know, people ask me, well,
(12:45) what do you mean by weaponization?
(12:47) And what I mean is, how have essential
(12:51) American myths been twisted by the left
(12:56) uh in order to
(12:58) twist these these key institutions,
(13:02) these these key domains that, you know,
(13:05) that we sort of swim in and may not even
(13:07) notice, twisted them to serve this
(13:10) radical political purpose. So for
(13:12) instance like the term the American
(13:14) dream
(13:16) um the American dream always meant
(13:19) uh this is something that Americans
(13:21) strive for. Uh Americans you know strive
(13:25) to improve their lives and uh create
(13:29) prosperity for their children and their
(13:31) grandchildren like you know their
(13:33) posterity. [snorts] Um,
(13:36) and you know, the idea being like, well,
(13:38) and if you work hard, you can you can
(13:40) have a house and a car and maybe take a
(13:43) vacation uh once a year and you know,
(13:46) your your kids will do better. Uh, and
(13:49) that's what it meant for a very long
(13:50) time. And then at a certain point, the
(13:53) American dream ceased to be something
(13:54) that Americans are allowed to to claim.
(13:59) The American dream became something for
(14:01) foreigners.
(14:02) uh and you know I think this kind of
(14:04) lines up with the mid60s when the seller
(14:09) heart act was passed and we had complete
(14:11) a complete reformation of the of the
(14:14) immigration system. Um
(14:17) and at that point so since then
(14:20) basically
(14:22) the American dream like we hear a lot
(14:24) about oh so and so is chasing their
(14:27) American dream by crossing the border
(14:30) illegally. Um here this guy had his
(14:33) American dream stolen from him because
(14:37) uh he was deported.
(14:39) It's funny when um Trump changed the
(14:44) H-1B laws, there was and I talked about
(14:46) this in the books, this Indian couple
(14:48) who have a big, you know, following on
(14:50) social media, they said, "Well, that's
(14:52) it. So this is the death of the American
(14:54) dream for all Indians." It's like, well,
(14:57) you know, if you don't live here, it's
(14:59) not clear why you're entitled to an
(15:02) American dream. I mean, you may dream of
(15:04) coming to America, but that's not
(15:06) exactly what we're talking about. Um, so
(15:09) that, for instance, is an example of
(15:12) like a cherished myth that's used,
(15:13) that's twisted. So, people have now kind
(15:16) of become convinced like, oh yes, the
(15:18) American dream that means uh untrable,
(15:21) you can't have a border. We can't have
(15:24) any uh restrictions. We have to change
(15:27) the whole notion of what is an American.
(15:30) I mean, Manny, Mayor Manny, on July 4th,
(15:33) he gave this really twisted, grotesque
(15:36) speech where he sat he they dragged
(15:38) George Washington's desk out of out of
(15:41) storage somewhere. and he sat there and
(15:44) he gave this really stern and very
(15:47) joyfree
(15:48) lecture about the meaning of America on
(15:51) its 250th birthday [snorts] where he
(15:54) basically said that um
(15:56) immigrants are the ones
(16:00) who who have to fix America. America has
(16:03) all these you know this great potential
(16:06) but really it's um it's incumbent upon
(16:09) the immigrants and that's why
(16:11) essentially he was saying that we owe a
(16:13) debt to the immigrants
(16:16) uh because after all it's immigrants who
(16:17) built the country um now I think this is
(16:20) a very funny twist and we hear this a
(16:22) lot that well America America was built
(16:24) by immigrants New York was built by
(16:26) immigrants now it's true that New York
(16:28) City you know physically was built in
(16:30) large part by immigrants you Irish
(16:33) laborers, Italian mason masons and and
(16:36) whoever else. Um, but the immigrants of
(16:40) yesterday are not like if you come here
(16:44) today, you can't take credit for the
(16:46) work of people who came here 150 years
(16:48) ago. They you don't have anything in
(16:50) common with like you don't have you
(16:52) don't inherit their their merit, right?
(16:55) It it's just because you're both yes,
(16:57) they were immigrants, you're an
(16:58) immigrant. It's a it doesn't mean that
(17:00) that you get their virtue or or you get
(17:03) to claim uh that you're all part of some
(17:08) [snorts]
(17:09) class together. I mean, especially given
(17:11) the fact that, you know, in the last
(17:15) great wave of immigration, you know,
(17:18) there was no, you know, I'm talking
(17:20) about like 150 years ago, 120 years ago,
(17:22) there was no um social safety net in
(17:25) America. Yes, people came here. The
(17:28) promise was you can come to America and
(17:30) try to make a go of it. And there was
(17:33) opportunity, but if it didn't work,
(17:36) okay, well, too bad. You know, 40% of
(17:38) Italians who came to America went home.
(17:41) Uh cuz it was rough. There was no
(17:44) welfare. There was no Medicaid. There
(17:46) was no food stamps. There was no
(17:49) temporary aid to needy families. There
(17:52) was no wick. uh there were no there was
(17:56) very little rules about zoning so people
(17:59) lived in like you know eight to a room
(18:02) or whatever. Um so it was a different
(18:05) society it was a different situation and
(18:08) making this claim that immigrant is
(18:11) itself like this cherished and sac
(18:14) sacred it's actually become sacred uh
(18:18) category that's another way in which I
(18:21) would say that you know I think the left
(18:23) plays on the goodwill of the American
(18:26) people
(18:28) um and takes these like I said like
(18:31) these cherished myths and twists them,
(18:34) uh, inverts them, weaponizes them in
(18:37) order to take over and basically
(18:39) destroy,
(18:41) you know, what the my title the title of
(18:43) my book calls America's sacred
(18:44) institutions.
(18:45) >> Yeah. No, I I [clears throat] can see
(18:47) that it's it's almost uh, you know,
(18:50) there's a movie The Revenge of the
(18:52) Nerds. You know, a fair amount of our
(18:54) modern history has been that revenge of
(18:56) the nerds. You know, they they're
(18:58) somewhat prayed upon at high school. say
(19:01) um you know if you watch any number of a
(19:03) thousand movies um uh for kids
(19:06) ostensibly Disney kind of thing you know
(19:08) there's the the rough and tumble
(19:10) football players and they take advantage
(19:11) of the nerds and then you know you fast
(19:13) forward you know to the 15th reunion and
(19:16) the nerds um have the pretty girls
(19:17) because they started you know the
(19:19) equivalent of Amazon or something like
(19:20) that um but you know we have the
(19:24) civilization where civil society and
(19:26) then there's um there's speech there's
(19:28) rules there's laws
(19:30) Um and [clears throat] it's not really a
(19:32) a battle of the fittest of your fitness
(19:35) of your physical strength. It's a battle
(19:37) of the fitness of minds and the way you
(19:39) can um you know kind of carve out your
(19:44) space not again by pushing other people
(19:46) out physically but by crafting laws and
(19:49) restrictions and synicures rentseeking
(19:51) whole bunch of things. So that's where
(19:52) the nerds, not the ones who are tech
(19:54) nerds, but kind of the the lawyer nerds,
(19:56) the advocacy nerds, and they they tend
(19:58) to be on the left. And so they um you
(20:01) know, [clears throat] I think it's it's
(20:02) been said by others that socialism is
(20:04) the politics of envy. And if you can't,
(20:07) you know, figure out how to get things
(20:08) yourself, you assume that if people got
(20:10) them, they got them by ways since you
(20:13) couldn't figure out how to get them. You
(20:14) know, I didn't become Jeff Bezos and
(20:15) therefore Jeff Bezos must have stolen
(20:17) money and um you know, there must be
(20:19) some crime there. And there are probably
(20:21) some, you know, fortunes that are built
(20:22) on crimes, no doubt. But you know, to
(20:24) the Tony Sopranos of the world or
(20:25) whatever. Um, you know, there are
(20:27) probably some crimes fortunes built on
(20:29) crime. But for the most part, if you
(20:30) volunteer your money to somebody, it's
(20:32) not that. And and uh, you know, the
(20:33) Bernie Sanders types, you know,
(20:35) billionaires and millionaires, whatever,
(20:37) it's like always, you know, somebody
(20:38) else who has those things. And, you
(20:41) know, I didn't get them. Why didn't I
(20:42) get them? Well, Bernie Sanders like
(20:43) barely ever had a real job. And it's
(20:45) like, oh well, no wonder you didn't make
(20:47) that money because you didn't build
(20:48) something that other people happen to
(20:50) have wanted, you know. But there's one
(20:52) other point about the immigrant thing.
(20:54) And you know, my folks were immigrants
(20:56) along the way. Um, you know, various
(20:58) parts of my family like 19th century and
(21:01) early 20th century. Um, but uh, you
(21:04) know, Anne Coulter makes the reasonable
(21:06) point that not everyone, the country
(21:07) wasn't built by immigrants, per se. They
(21:09) were settlers. And there's a difference
(21:10) there. You know, if you go I I've been
(21:12) to Disney World. I've golfed by there.
(21:15) uh once or twice and and and gone into
(21:17) the um you know, the greater world of
(21:19) Disney World. Well, you know, I actually
(21:22) was I'm old enough to have been in
(21:23) Orlando when it was just like a you
(21:25) know, I don't know, 10 or 20,000 people
(21:28) or maybe maybe 50,000 people or
(21:30) something like that back in the 60s. It
(21:31) was a nothing little town. We stopped
(21:33) there once to get at a Howard Johnson's
(21:35) to get a meal because we were driving
(21:36) from Florida up north. um you know the
(21:41) the Disney World if it was a swamp
(21:42) basically what was Disney World if we
(21:45) look at Disney as a settler I mean was
(21:47) he an immigrant to Disney World itself I
(21:50) mean it's named after or was he a
(21:51) settler well you know he basically
(21:53) settled this thing that we see as Disney
(21:55) World and once it's there for a few
(21:57) decades we think oh that's a place and
(21:59) we should unionize we should do this and
(22:01) and it's it's kept running by immigrants
(22:03) because you know all the people who are
(22:04) sweeping out the places they're all you
(22:06) know I don't know from Dominican
(22:08) Republic or Haiti. So Disney is run by
(22:10) immigrants. Well, yeah. Okay, maybe it
(22:13) is. And maybe if you got rid of every
(22:14) immigrant, whatever, you wouldn't have
(22:15) anybody to clean the toilets and man the
(22:17) place. All a fine, but but to be fair,
(22:21) Disney was settled by Walt Disney and
(22:24) his vision. And he put, you know, he
(22:26) didn't like get malaria um you know,
(22:29) doing it like the people do the Panama
(22:31) Canal um or [clears throat] built
(22:33) Washington DC for instance, which was
(22:35) literally a swamp back then. But you
(22:37) know, he took that swamp and built
(22:39) something out of it. He put his own
(22:40) personal vision and a lot of cap capital
(22:43) on it and he staked his reputation. He
(22:45) built Disney World. Now, is Disney a
(22:47) perfect guy? No. Um, but that's that's
(22:50) his place. I can't say, "Oh, my folks,
(22:53) you know, if we, you know, man the booth
(22:54) there uh for 20, 30, 50 years that we
(22:57) built Disney World." We didn't.
(22:59) >> Right.
(22:59) >> Anyway, so
(23:00) >> Sure. No, I like that. I like that
(23:02) analogy. Um, you know, a friend of mine
(23:04) says that like basically the the
(23:06) attitude of immigrant,
(23:09) but the attitude of like say the
(23:10) immigrant advocacy class or mom Donnie
(23:14) is well, we don't really love America,
(23:16) but we like what you've done with the
(23:18) place. Um, and we'll take it from here,
(23:23) you know. Um, I mean, that's basically
(23:26) like how they see it. You know, it's
(23:28) funny what you were saying before about
(23:30) socialists and nerds.
(23:33) Um,
(23:34) people ask me sometimes, you know,
(23:36) talking about the book like, well, you
(23:38) know, and this is sort of an end of the
(23:39) interview question, but like what can we
(23:42) do? And I sort of see like liberals and
(23:46) conservative or leftists and
(23:48) conservatives have different attitudes.
(23:49) Like conservatives have lots of things
(23:51) to do in their lives. They have a
(23:53) career. They have family.
(23:57) um they have religion, they have
(24:00) hobbies,
(24:01) so they like to do that stuff. For the
(24:04) left,
(24:06) politics is everything. Politics is
(24:09) their family. Politics is their social
(24:11) life. Politics is their religion. And a
(24:15) lot of the time, politics is their job
(24:17) because they either work for the
(24:18) government or they work for nonprofits
(24:20) that are associated with the government
(24:22) essentially dependent on it. So
(24:26) to them, like having meetings before the
(24:29) meeting and a meeting after the meeting,
(24:32) this is all great. Like they love it.
(24:34) Oh, it's time to go canvasing. Okay,
(24:36) super. I mean, this is how the
(24:37) Bolshevixs managed to take over Russia.
(24:40) Um, if you have I mean, it's this is
(24:42) vanguardism. If you have a dedicated
(24:44) core,
(24:46) they can, you know, essentially
(24:48) infiltrate a parliamentary system
(24:51) [snorts] and subvert it. And this is
(24:54) clearly what the socialists are planning
(24:56) to do now. Um, but so conservatives, you
(25:00) know, I mean, there's this old saying,
(25:02) um, you may not be interested in
(25:03) politics, but politics is interested in
(25:05) you. Now, conservatives, I think, hear
(25:08) that and they're like, okay, well, I'm
(25:09) still not interested. Um, but the left,
(25:13) they're like, "Oh, well, well, for one
(25:15) thing, they're not surprised that
(25:16) politics is interested in them because
(25:18) they find themselves fascinating, but
(25:20) they really take this to heart." Um, and
(25:23) so they make, and you know, I I can't
(25:26) say that they're wrong. This explains a
(25:28) lot of their success. For conservatives,
(25:30) voting is politics. Politics is voting.
(25:33) So, every couple years you go and vote
(25:36) and that's politics. Then you go back to
(25:38) life. The left understands that voting
(25:40) is just like,
(25:43) you know, this this one thing that
(25:45) happens, but politics itself is a
(25:48) constant organization, constant
(25:50) organizing and struggle. Um, so, you
(25:54) know, I think they're a little bit ahead
(25:56) of the game. uh conservatives are not
(25:58) going to be convinced to turn out, you
(26:02) know, all the time
(26:04) to, you know, have struggle sessions
(26:09) and to argue about this stuff. Um so,
(26:14) you know, that's part of the problem of
(26:16) having like a successful, prosperous
(26:18) society built by conservatives. It's
(26:21) Jonah Goldberg whom I've had a kind of a
(26:25) friendmy kind of relationship with. He's
(26:28) I I I really I liked his book Liberal
(26:30) Fascism. I used to love his work in the
(26:32) National Review like 25 years ago,
(26:34) whatever. A very funny guy. Um
(26:36) [clears throat] but um one of the things
(26:39) that I'm left, you know, I'm not a ball
(26:41) work guy. Um so I'm not as much of a fan
(26:45) of and I think he's got TDS to a certain
(26:47) extent. Um he could probably argue that
(26:49) say it's all rational fine. Um one of
(26:52) the things that you made a reasonable
(26:53) point was that um uh the voter turnout
(26:56) this is kind of the houseion days of the
(26:58) '9s. Um and you know people like oh we
(27:01) have low voter turnout. So I always hear
(27:03) the same thing. Oh my god you know we're
(27:05) a terrible country because you know I go
(27:07) to Europe and people speak four lang
(27:08) each person speaks four languages there.
(27:10) Well, well, my grandfather, like one of
(27:12) my grandfathers spoke like five
(27:14) languages, but that's because he had to
(27:15) keep going from place to place, you
(27:17) know, and because the borders were the
(27:18) countries were smaller and and you know,
(27:20) it's he was much happier speaking
(27:23) English probably, you know, after after
(27:24) a while he just spoke English. That
(27:26) that's kind of the the default position.
(27:28) Somebody, you know, want to learn extra
(27:29) languages, they probably should learn
(27:30) Python, you know, before they learn, you
(27:33) know, Croatian or something like that.
(27:34) But you know anyway along the same lines
(27:37) about the voting thing what he said was
(27:40) um you know we we should be happy we
(27:42) have a low voter turn that means that
(27:44) we're not depending on government to be
(27:46) the the lever by which we intend to move
(27:49) the world. There are other things out
(27:51) there. You know it's kind of like the
(27:52) same thing with soccer getting back to
(27:54) the World Cup is that everyone bemoans I
(27:56) along like we don't speak four
(27:58) languages. We're not a world soccer
(27:59) power. Well dude you know we have like
(28:02) so many things we have. I mean just I I
(28:05) play racket sports and just amongst the
(28:06) racket sports there's so many like
(28:08) there's ping pong, there's padell now
(28:10) and pickle ball and I I played handball
(28:13) and raetball and um and god I can't
(28:17) remember one of them. Um there's court
(28:19) tennis, I played outdoor tennis, I play
(28:21) I play indoor tennis, I I played I was a
(28:23) squash player, but that's just racket
(28:25) sports and it's like you know we have so
(28:27) many things to choose from that that's a
(28:29) wonderful thing. And again to to finish
(28:31) Gold Jonah Goldberg's point um he said
(28:34) we should be happy and thrilled that we
(28:35) don't have huge voter turnout because
(28:37) people don't see it as their priority
(28:38) item that it's not dispositive whether
(28:41) they're going to be able to eat tomorrow
(28:43) or in the Soviet or in Cuba they have
(28:46) like mind you it's fact you know which
(28:48) is the opposite of factual you know it's
(28:51) fact that they have 100% turnout
(28:53) everybody has to show they don't you
(28:55) know they don't eat
(28:56) >> you know so so why should you want that
(28:59) That's again getting back to monarchy
(29:00) that's in subservience to the sun king.
(29:03) You know if you didn't you know if you
(29:04) looked up at the sun king you know I
(29:06) assume you you would get solar glare and
(29:08) you'd go blind because somebody you know
(29:10) one of his cordier courtsman would would
(29:12) take your head off if you didn't show
(29:13) proper difference. And so that this kind
(29:16) concept where you have to be voting is
(29:18) really not it's enimical with the
(29:20) American project which is elsewhere and
(29:22) and you know you're talking about Woodro
(29:24) Wilson you know uh I think a little bit
(29:27) after was Calvin Coolage and you know he
(29:28) gets made fun of for saying the business
(29:30) of of government is business but you
(29:32) know in the sense that you know you're
(29:34) this is mind your own business people
(29:36) would say when I grew up like mind your
(29:38) own business that's none of your
(29:39) business that's my personal business.
(29:40) Well, yeah, mind your own business, you
(29:42) know, is you want to be busy like we can
(29:45) be with all those sports say or watching
(29:47) all those sports or learning watching a
(29:48) thousand movies. This is a a wonderful
(29:50) time and place to do it and this concept
(29:52) that you have to be kind of regimented
(29:54) or go out and vote. I mean this is where
(29:57) I think the AOC type have have have
(29:59) hacked the system with the lack of
(30:01) interest and the fact that of the Jonah
(30:03) Goldberg you know dictim that people
(30:05) don't see government as you know
(30:07) dispositive in their lives you know
(30:08) ruling them over one way or another and
(30:10) so they've let that happen and then it
(30:12) will you know Min said about democracy
(30:15) uh democracy is the system by which you
(30:16) vote for what you want and you deserve
(30:18) to get it good and hard
(30:20) and that's what that's the mom Donnie
(30:22) thesis and and you know people voted for
(30:24) him because you know he's a pretty face.
(30:26) He's an Obama kind of figure and they
(30:28) think they going to, you know, speaking
(30:29) of the religion part, it's some kind of
(30:30) catechism to have, you know, open
(30:33) yourself up. I I can I don't see color.
(30:35) I don't see this and that. I would I I
(30:37) would be like totally thrilled to have a
(30:39) you know, the next 12 black presidents,
(30:41) you know, presidents be black or mayors,
(30:43) whatever. They're all like Thomas Soul,
(30:44) you know, or or, you know, Clarence
(30:47) Thomas or, you know, Wilfred Riley, one
(30:49) of my friends, whatever. It's like
(30:50) that's not and and you know I I I I
(30:53) think he'd be happy to have me, you
(30:54) know, be the the city council, whatever.
(30:56) It's got nothing to do with any of this.
(30:58) Like whether you agree, it's like
(31:00) totally a bait and switch that Obama had
(31:02) to be the first black president when we
(31:03) got this and and Mum Donnie is going to
(31:05) be the first whatever he happens to be
(31:07) mayor. I we had a black mayor. It was
(31:09) David Dinkas went on and Eric Adams and
(31:11) so forth. So whatever he's the first of
(31:13) we had to have this. It's not that. It's
(31:14) not the the the the racial part. It's
(31:17) what's going on inside. But um you know
(31:20) any right I'd kind of like to you know
(31:22) speaking of the color aspect I mean I
(31:23) think there is certain color aspect
(31:25) within the book you know we can just
(31:27) maybe talk about all things Angela
(31:29) Davis. I think there's a a movie like
(31:31) six degrees of Kevin Bacon or something
(31:33) like that. Um it seems like you know
(31:36) Angela Davis figures in very heavily to
(31:38) some central points and thesis. Maybe
(31:40) you can give us the exogesis of Angela
(31:43) Davis.
(31:44) >> Yeah I'd be glad to. Can I just say one
(31:46) thing first though? uh talk off of what
(31:49) you just said. I mean, I I don't know if
(31:50) you got to the very very end of the
(31:52) book, but that's where I talk about how
(31:54) mind your business is essentially the
(31:57) the the essence of my politics.
(31:59) >> And I I have this anecdote that I like
(32:01) to tell where one time my daughter was
(32:04) in kindergarten or first grade and she
(32:06) came home and she said, "Um, Dad, we
(32:08) have to come up with a New Year's
(32:10) resolution for the world."
(32:13) And I said,"Well, I think it should be
(32:15) mind your business because [snorts] that
(32:17) way nobody would bother anyone and
(32:19) everything would be would go smoothly."
(32:23) And she looked at me and said, "Well, I
(32:24) don't think that's what they meant."
(32:25) >> And I'm like, "Well, of course it's not
(32:26) what of course that's not what they
(32:28) meant."
(32:29) >> Um, yeah, Angela Davis is a fascinating
(32:32) character. Um, and the reason I talk so
(32:35) much about her in the book, well, for
(32:37) one thing, she's like the the last
(32:39) living recipient of the Lenin Peace
(32:41) Prize. [laughter]
(32:42) as an oxomor
(32:45) >> which cracks me up and [snorts]
(32:47) um you know we've seen a lot today
(32:51) uh with American urban politics and
(32:54) racial politics
(32:57) and it's all
(33:00) it's all been sort of there's been this
(33:02) impulse to make it all to part connected
(33:04) to a global struggle
(33:07) and we hear this a lot and in the last
(33:11) few years there's been this obsession
(33:13) with Palestine. Palestine has just
(33:16) become the center of American politics
(33:18) and it's like what the hell this has
(33:20) nothing to do with it. Um, and I think
(33:22) it's Angela Davis who really, you know,
(33:27) maybe I give her too much credit here,
(33:28) but I really feel like she's the one who
(33:30) connected or forged this what I think is
(33:33) a bogus link between American racial
(33:36) politics and this idea of a global
(33:39) postcolonial struggle. [snorts] Um, so
(33:42) for instance, we hear a lot about um,
(33:48) well, I talk about this in the book.
(33:49) This there's this facility that the city
(33:51) of Atlanta is building called it's
(33:54) basically just like a training facility
(33:55) for the police, like a firing range,
(33:58) whatever they do. And they've decided,
(34:01) they've called this Cop City.
(34:03) And what they've they've come up with
(34:05) this idea that Cop City is a mini Gaza
(34:09) or it's a model of Gaza. It's a model of
(34:11) how the IDF
(34:14) um
(34:15) polices
(34:17) or you know
(34:19) suppresses
(34:21) uh you know revolutionary
(34:24) impulse and and polices the people of
(34:27) like Palestine. Um now they they make
(34:30) this connection because the Georgia
(34:32) police
(34:34) engage in um international cooperation
(34:38) basically like different countries you
(34:41) know share best practices and this is a
(34:43) common thing and because Israel's
(34:45) involved they've come up with this idea
(34:48) that
(34:49) actually what's happening is the IDF is
(34:52) going around the country training police
(34:55) department American police departments
(34:56) in counterinsurgency.
(34:58) and how to so basically the idea is that
(35:01) uh American cities have been conceived
(35:05) of as uh colonial zones that have been
(35:10) conquered and now the problem is we need
(35:13) to we need to to suppress the
(35:16) revolutionary impulses there. Um, Angela
(35:20) Davis. Okay. Well, she came up in, I
(35:23) think, Mississippi. Obviously, a very
(35:25) talented girl. Uh, she moved to New
(35:28) York. She got involved in like Communist
(35:30) Party circles. She was very much groomed
(35:34) and vetted and, uh, quickly rose to this
(35:38) place of enormous prominence in the in
(35:41) the movement. This is in the 60s. Um
(35:45) then she she helped to organize the um a
(35:50) famous a famous uh hijacking of the the
(35:53) the Marin County uh courthouse
(35:57) on behalf of George Jackson who was this
(36:00) like I don't know this genial psychopath
(36:02) who started the black gorilla family. Um
(36:06) and this is around 1970. I mean it's a
(36:09) long story. She became this huge cause
(36:11) celeb. I talk about how the Rolling
(36:13) Stones have a song about her. John
(36:15) Lennon and Bob Dylan, they all wrote
(36:16) songs about her. She was incredibly
(36:18) popular. She was a wanted She was a refu
(36:20) not a refugee, a um
(36:22) >> fugitive.
(36:23) >> What do you call it when someone's
(36:24) fugitive? She was a fugitive from
(36:26) justice for for a murder charge and then
(36:28) she beat that. And now she, you know,
(36:30) then she got the Lenin Peace Prize. She
(36:32) was good friends with Eric Hanuker. Um,
(36:36) now she's like a, you know, a tenure
(36:39) professor of at at uh of cons of the
(36:42) department of consciousness at the
(36:44) history of consciousness at Santa Cruz.
(36:46) I mean, she lives this like amazing
(36:49) life. Um, but she, if you look at her
(36:52) her writings, it's all been about
(36:55) Palestine and the black experience. Uh,
(36:58) so this is a project that's been in the
(37:00) works for a long for decades. this idea
(37:02) of tying uh black subjugation in America
(37:07) to the global south
(37:10) uh in and you know particularly with
(37:13) Palestine. You know, it's funny that you
(37:15) brought up six degrees of well, the book
(37:18) the book was the play was six degrees of
(37:20) separation and then there's a game
(37:21) called six degrees of Kevin Bacon and
(37:24) then I call I came up with something
(37:25) called six degrees of exhortation
(37:27) where you connect every
(37:30) and this is how every struggle is
(37:31) connected to every struggle. Um like as
(37:34) we saw during COVID oh well uh racial
(37:38) justice is a health issue and so is gun
(37:42) violence. that's a health issue and uh
(37:44) transgenderism is an economic issue and
(37:48) you know basically everything crosses
(37:50) over into everything else
(37:52) into what they call the unic cause which
(37:55) is a very convenient way to compel
(37:58) people to do things. Um one thing I talk
(38:02) about in the book and this this to me is
(38:05) the essence of like the leftist approach
(38:08) to to running things. You know, there's
(38:11) a saying that was popular in the 70s,
(38:14) um, think globally and act locally.
(38:18) Um, you know, that that was, you know,
(38:21) applied to environmentalism. And there's
(38:23) something kind of seductive about it.
(38:26) But thinking about it, what it means is
(38:29) don't use your own senses and your own
(38:35) cognitive capacity to understand the
(38:38) world around you because you could
(38:40) easily be tricked if you just if all you
(38:43) do is use your own lying eyes to figure
(38:45) out the world. We have people over here
(38:47) who've done the big picture thinking.
(38:50) They've got the global perspective. So
(38:52) what we'd like you to do is take the
(38:54) global helmet and put it on your head
(38:56) and then go out and act locally. Um so
(39:00) therefore any action you take you know
(39:03) in this kind of contian way what you
(39:05) have or you know I guess RS you have to
(39:07) consider well how is this the global
(39:10) perspective? go. Oh, well, it doesn't
(39:13) seem like uh plastic straws are actually
(39:17) a big problem here, but they're they're
(39:20) really choking up the rivers in Vietnam.
(39:23) Uh so, we better get rid of them. Uh you
(39:26) know, oh well, global we seem to be
(39:29) doing a lot of stuff to clean up the the
(39:31) rivers and the air in America in the
(39:34) last 50 or 60 years, but no. Uh that's
(39:38) not good enough because the climate is
(39:41) changing and our experts have decided
(39:45) it's because um you are using a internal
(39:49) combustion engine so and a gas stove. So
(39:52) that has to go. Um you know Lenin said
(39:56) who says A must say B. Like this is the
(40:00) idea. You get people to to to agree to
(40:02) one little thing and then it all falls
(40:05) into place. So, you know, you can say,
(40:08) well, uh, if you agree that
(40:12) transgenderism is, you know, a feminist
(40:15) issue, well, feminists, you have to
(40:19) agree that boys are allowed to use the
(40:21) girls locker room, you know. So,
(40:24) essentially, there's this way of
(40:26) compelling uh action. And this is the
(40:29) important thing. uh it's this what I
(40:32) call like enthemic reasoning or enthmic
(40:35) logic where you you take a syllogism
(40:38) like a logical set of logical steps and
(40:40) by suppressing the middle step you can
(40:43) create all kinds of um ladders in the
(40:47) air to to to move from one cloud to the
(40:50) next and you know make people believe
(40:53) things that actually you know if they
(40:56) were left to themselves maybe they they
(40:57) wouldn't they would realize are kind of
(40:59) fallacies. Um, that was a long way of
(41:02) get talking about Angela Davis, but uh,
(41:06) I think if you were to look into her
(41:08) role in a lot of the like for instance
(41:11) the women's women's march and the DSA, a
(41:14) lot of the stuff that's going on now. Um
(41:17) she's kind of in she she or her spectre
(41:21) are sort of in the center of um so yeah
(41:25) I mean she's a fascinating character and
(41:27) she she gets a lot of praise and she's
(41:29) lauded it a lot but there hasn't been
(41:31) that much I don't know maybe it's
(41:33) because she's like in her 80s and
(41:35) doesn't really seem like she matters
(41:36) that much anymore but she's in the
(41:38) background
(41:41) >> you know I I um I [clears throat]
(41:43) traveled into the uh Soviet realm
(41:46) 1987
(41:48) um we my wife we were not married yet
(41:53) don't tell anybody but we we bicycled
(41:56) um from Vienna into Hungary and then we
(41:59) bicycled basically kind of through
(42:03) Hungary into Czechoslovakia which was a
(42:05) thing then um and then [clears throat]
(42:07) trained to East Berlin. We were in
(42:09) Yugoslavia briefly. Uh we saw lots of
(42:11) stuff behind the iron curtain and twice
(42:15) we traveled from east to west Berlin
(42:18) back there was a they they destroyed my
(42:20) bicycle in the East German trains. Uh
(42:23) they basically guillotined it um
(42:26) mechanically. It's hard to believe but
(42:27) anyway so I was crazy. I went back to
(42:30) East Berlin to make a claim. So we went
(42:33) back and forth east and west Berlin at
(42:35) the time was 1980s in West Berlin was
(42:37) very happening place and it's like that
(42:39) Smallville movie where they go from
(42:41) black and white to color. Um but the
(42:44) whole thing you [clears throat] know for
(42:46) East Europe it was probably the most
(42:48) informative trip I've ever taken and you
(42:50) can't do it again fortunately. Um, and
(42:52) we've been back to Budapest last summer,
(42:54) but um, you know, it it was Budapest was
(42:59) a dower place and I I remember it and it
(43:01) was in color then, but almost like black
(43:03) and white. Uh, there were no
(43:05) restaurants, there were no signs, there
(43:06) were no, you know, there's no like
(43:09) almost nothing going on at night. Nobody
(43:11) walking the streets at night. It was
(43:13) safe as it were, but empty. like nobody
(43:16) had the free time and or the money to do
(43:18) anything and nobody didn't want to be
(43:20) seen in public um in in parts of uh
(43:23) Prague, you know. We went to a beautiful
(43:26) bakery. I mean like forget which style
(43:30) it was. I think it was art nuvo. Um
(43:32) beautiful like colored stained glass
(43:34) windows. A gorgeous place. If it were,
(43:36) you know, downtown New York, you'd be
(43:38) charging, you know, it'd be like the the
(43:40) the the plaza or something like that.
(43:42) But there was nothing in there. you
(43:44) know, people [snorts] are lined up for
(43:46) [clears throat] a thing, whichever that
(43:48) happened to be. Um, but, you know,
(43:50) everyone like stared down at at their
(43:53) feet. Um, on the subways in in Prague
(43:57) and and in uh Budapest and Berlin in the
(44:01) communist part, um, people wore very
(44:04) plain clothing and they only stared at
(44:07) the floor. They wouldn't you look across
(44:09) at each other. There was no advertising.
(44:12) Um, and the whole time they just no
(44:14) books, they wouldn't read any. They
(44:16) would just st sit there as if they were
(44:18) kind of in front of the principal's
(44:20) office. Um, and I think there was that
(44:22) element to it where they knew if they
(44:24) did anything they'd be reprimanded.
(44:26) And that that that mind you was
(44:28) socialism. Each one of those places was
(44:30) the the socialist state. Um, and they
(44:33) were not official Soviet um states as it
(44:37) were. Um, but essentially they were. And
(44:41) th this is somehow where socialism
(44:43) always winds up. Um whether it's
(44:45) Venezuela, North Korea, um Hither Yan,
(44:48) Eratria, you know, you can name the
(44:50) place. And and it's miserable. And it's
(44:53) it's a funny thing because there's this,
(44:55) you know, the the way you get there is
(44:57) by having this fment and ferment and and
(45:00) fullness of ideas that they're
(45:02) cultivated in universities which are
(45:03) there because of the capitalism, because
(45:05) the money is there to create these
(45:07) institutions.
(45:09) And it's it's just so predatory, you
(45:11) know, and and and and fellacious to to
(45:15) have these things come about based on
(45:17) the laress the people who donate and
(45:20) whatnot. They're all there in this huge
(45:22) project to f you over. You know, it's
(45:24) just a funny thing. Um you know, there's
(45:28) John O Sullivan wrote the National
(45:29) Review and he had O Sullivan's law
(45:31) whatever is every institution like turns
(45:33) left and the colleges um I don't think
(45:36) were established in that way. and Yale
(45:38) and Harvard were religious schools. I
(45:41) believe Penn was um and and you know yet
(45:45) I mean I suppose you could say they're
(45:46) religious now that that they are just
(45:49) doing something completely different.
(45:51) >> Um but you know
(45:54) >> we're we're kind of like you know to
(45:56) towards the last lap of our talk here.
(45:58) I'd like you maybe to talk about, you
(46:00) know, the other pillars within your book
(46:02) and uh what's the project and so forth.
(46:06) Uh you know, where does it all wind up
(46:09) and and why do socialists want this
(46:10) thing? They I mean, do they ever go see
(46:12) what socialism actually creates? I mean,
(46:15) you know, even Jesse Jackson at one
(46:17) point was willing to say that, you know,
(46:18) when he walked down the street and he
(46:20) heard, you know, footsteps, he looked
(46:21) back, saw as a black guy, he'd be
(46:23) scared. So, he was kind of, you know,
(46:24) against his own project. He understood
(46:26) that aspect. race is different thing per
(46:28) se, but you know, do any of them have
(46:30) this kind of realization that this you
(46:32) know where whenever you do this thing
(46:33) that you do that it comes out mucky and
(46:36) miserable?
(46:38) >> Well, you you know the answer to that.
(46:39) They all say, well, it hasn't really
(46:41) been done yet. It hasn't been tried yet
(46:43) or it faced so much pressure from it
(46:45) like the cap capital just leapt on it
(46:47) and tried to destroy it. It's funny one
(46:50) of the whenever you talk to socialists
(46:51) they'll say they'll cite as the one
(46:54) example where socialism worked um the
(46:57) Israeli kibotim
(46:59) which naturally they want to like you
(47:02) know that that's the that there's the
(47:04) home of the one model that they that
(47:06) they approve of and they want to destroy
(47:08) destroy the matrix. Um well [snorts] you
(47:11) know in terms of my other domains that I
(47:15) talk about one I think is very important
(47:17) and people often ask me well where where
(47:19) does this fit in this seems weird is
(47:20) housing [snorts] um and I came to
(47:23) housing because I was reading about like
(47:25) yimism
(47:27) this you know you have nimiism not in my
(47:30) backyard and that's kind of you know
(47:32) seen as like the
(47:34) oh that's kind of like the babbbit types
(47:37) who don't uh or not even babbit types
(47:39) like small-minded suburbanites who don't
(47:42) want anything to change in their
(47:44) neighborhood. So, not in my backyard.
(47:47) And then in San Francisco in the last 15
(47:49) years or so, a movement came about
(47:50) called Yimi. Yes, in my backyard. Yes,
(47:53) we want more and more. Yes, building is
(47:55) great. Let's let's build and build and
(47:57) build so we can have housing for all.
(48:00) Um, and I was like investigating this
(48:03) this movement
(48:05) and what it seeks and how it wants to
(48:08) seek it. And it occurred to me that
(48:10) there's a big similarity between yimism
(48:13) and uh open borders,
(48:16) namely that being that the people who
(48:19) live somewhere
(48:21) aren't the ones who get to decide what
(48:23) happens there. like Americans weren't
(48:26) consulted about opening the border and
(48:28) like welding the doors open. Um, and
(48:32) it's not really their business as to how
(48:34) many people come in and it's actually in
(48:37) really bad taste to bring it up. Um,
(48:41) similarly
(48:43) in the Yimi vision,
(48:45) the people who live in a community are
(48:48) the last ones who get to decide what
(48:49) happens there. So what we've seen across
(48:52) the country is this effort to take the
(48:57) power of zoning local zoning which has
(49:00) always been very much uh you know
(49:03) concentrated in you know basically the
(49:07) localities because people who own
(49:10) property are exquisitely attuned to the
(49:14) um value of the the their property and
(49:18) the quality of the neighborhood and
(49:19) anything that's going to impact how
(49:22) their uh property value moves. Um, and
(49:26) you know, this is seen as like very
(49:28) small-minded. Uh, but you know, this is
(49:31) kind of the essence of American
(49:33) prosperity, I would say. Um, and it's,
(49:36) you know, I I think you you you you
(49:40) sneer at the impulse to protect your
(49:43) property at at great uh risk. There's a
(49:47) great jeopardy to that because as soon
(49:49) as people stop caring about it, well
(49:51) then you you I think you can guess what
(49:53) happens. So anyway, there's this idea
(49:55) that they came up with called the home
(49:56) voter hypothesis and that people who own
(50:00) property and are concerned about it,
(50:03) they're called the home voter and they
(50:05) will do everything they can to protect
(50:07) their property and because zoning is
(50:10) concentrated in localities, these people
(50:12) have all this power over what happens.
(50:15) So when you have someone like Obama come
(50:17) in um who wants to expand uh
(50:21) affirmatively furthering fair housing
(50:24) uh to out to every suburb and force
(50:28) every community in the country to build
(50:30) like affordable housing which means you
(50:33) know I I struggled with this for a very
(50:35) long time. I I thought well affordable
(50:37) housing every house that someone lives
(50:39) in is affordable to them. But it was
(50:43) only recently that it dawned on me, oh,
(50:45) what they mean is subsidized housing.
(50:47) Affordable means subsidized. It's just a
(50:49) code word. Um so you know this is part
(50:53) of the leftist project is to destroy the
(50:56) suburbs to
(50:58) uh impose a kind of regionalism on
(51:02) cities and suburbs to uh force
(51:07) I mean I guess you would you might look
(51:09) at it to have cities annex the suburbs
(51:12) um in order to share in the the wealth
(51:15) of the the um the you know basically to
(51:19) share the wealth of the suburbs. for the
(51:20) city. So you you have this idea and like
(51:23) AOC and other people have talked about
(51:25) how you know I I think I uh I think I I
(51:29) read this in the Brookings in a report
(51:30) from the Brookings Institution very
(51:32) recently. They said that um suburbs
(51:35) extract wealth from the cities that
(51:38) they're around. And this is basically
(51:40) the idea behind um the notion that
(51:44) highways are racist, that that cars and
(51:49) highways and suburbs were all part of
(51:52) this grand plot to uh destroy to to to
(51:57) filter white people, funnel white people
(52:00) out of cities into suburbs, uh segregate
(52:05) them, uh redline districts so blacks
(52:08) couldn't develop any uh wealth,
(52:11) generational wealth. Um and the cities,
(52:15) the suburbs could just take all the
(52:17) money, extract the money from the from
(52:19) the suburbs. Now, that's ridiculous
(52:20) because even if you have people move
(52:23) going into the city to do work um and
(52:27) then go home, they're not extracting
(52:30) wealth like they might, it's not like
(52:32) they're going in there to to to mine the
(52:35) resources that are naturally there. like
(52:38) they're working in a bank that happens
(52:40) to be centrally located.
(52:42) I'm sorry, but the the other residents
(52:44) of the city have nothing to do with the
(52:47) wealth creation that's going on. I mean,
(52:49) they they may participate in it by like,
(52:51) you know, having jobs, like I don't
(52:53) know, serving food or being, you know,
(52:57) the male people or whatever. I mean,
(52:59) assuming they're not like, you know,
(53:01) executives or whatever, but they could
(53:02) be. Um, so I I know this is kind of like
(53:06) getting very um I'm not like really
(53:09) being very scientific about this at this
(53:11) point. If you read the book, you'll see
(53:13) what my argument is, but basically there
(53:16) is this um this move to to disrupt
(53:22) local control
(53:24) and um and you're seeing this all over
(53:26) the country, you know, I mean this is
(53:28) it's very spec happening very
(53:30) specifically like in Washington state,
(53:32) they have
(53:35) basically made it that uh localities no
(53:38) long like can no longer um you have
(53:42) single family
(53:44) residence zoning. So, you know, any
(53:47) place that you if you buy a a plot of
(53:49) land, you can't be restricted from
(53:51) building a
(53:53) a a quadriplex or even a high-rise
(53:56) maybe. Um, so I kind of see this as like
(54:00) a crucial part. And you know, it's funny
(54:02) talking to people.
(54:04) This is something that got, you know,
(54:06) because when I was doing my, you know,
(54:07) talking on to radio people and stuff, I
(54:10) talked to a lot of people in the
(54:11) Midwest, Christian radio, rural areas.
(54:16) People were so inflamed over this
(54:18) matter. This is like a core issue for
(54:21) people. uh the effort to impose
(54:27) what Obama saw as like this was and
(54:30) Biden like
(54:33) to make to impose economic
(54:37) equal to to to make sure that that that
(54:40) all jurisdictions had economic equality
(54:43) as because you can't really it's
(54:45) difficult to to insist that there be
(54:47) like racial equality but by to force
(54:52) cities to force suburbs to essentially
(54:55) become um
(54:58) you know more diver economically
(54:59) diverse.
(55:00) >> No, it's an interesting thing. You know,
(55:01) it's like you know if Obama didn't have
(55:04) a a place on the beach in Hawaii and a
(55:06) place on the beach in Martha Vindian and
(55:09) a couple other places here and there
(55:12) argument might be strong if Bernie
(55:13) Sanders didn't have his million-dollar
(55:15) homes plural. uh if Joe Biden didn't
(55:18) keep, you know, a beachfront place, you
(55:20) know, having only been a US senator, um
(55:23) at at reasonable but not extraordinary
(55:25) income, but yet collected wealth, I
(55:27) mean, they might have an argument.
(55:28) Everybody, you know, it does this kind
(55:31) of extraction aspect. They they're
(55:33) they're all mining for stuff for
(55:35) themselves. It's just a matter of what
(55:37) the system is, whether it's, you know,
(55:39) something that, you know, I don't I
(55:41) don't mind the greed of of Joe Biden in
(55:43) a sense, as long as they're guard rails
(55:45) and everybody, you know, benefits from
(55:46) it. But, you know, most of the most of
(55:48) the stuff from the left is predatory.
(55:50) They want what's yours. It's like
(55:51) Mikasa, Sucasa, but it's mo mostly like
(55:55) your house is my house and my house is
(55:56) my house. They're not really Yes.
(55:58) >> Um, doing much else there. Um, so we're
(56:01) kind of uh ready for framing the last uh
(56:04) concept. you want to leave for people
(56:05) and how they can find you and and buy
(56:07) your book and so forth. And again, the
(56:09) book is is weaponized, the left's
(56:11) capture and destruction of America's
(56:13) sacred institutions by our friend Seth
(56:16) Baron. Tell us why people should get the
(56:19) book and how and where and how they can
(56:21) find and read you.
(56:23) >> Well, I think that why they should get
(56:25) the book, it's it's should be obvious to
(56:27) them after listening to me for the last
(56:28) hour. Like, you know, it's just filled
(56:30) with all of my wit and wisdom. Um, and
(56:34) you know, and you liked it. Uh, yeah,
(56:36) you can find me on Twitter at uh, Seth
(56:39) Baron NYC or X. You can find me online.
(56:42) I've written a lot for the New York Post
(56:44) and City Journal and other places. And
(56:46) you can find the book at amazon.com.
(56:48) It's like very easy to um, to get it and
(56:51) they'll deliver it in a day or two.
(56:53) >> Perfect. Well, I I love my copy and and
(56:55) and and as as funny as you are here,
(56:58) it's really nice to see, you know,
(56:59) somebody who's able to translate that
(57:01) into into pros because a lot of these
(57:02) things might seem, you know, very
(57:04) esoteric and whatnot. I I think you
(57:05) bring the humanity, uh, the hilarity,
(57:09) uh, and with a reasonable sense of
(57:11) humility. So, I appre Thank you so much
(57:12) for that, Seth.
(57:15) >> Thank you, Randy. This is a real
(57:16) pleasure.
(57:16) >> Appreciate it.