The Daily ZeitgeistCrofton vs The Matrix, Can’t Spell SUS Without U.S. 03.28.25
In episode 1837, Jack and Miles are joined by writer, musician, comedian, and host of Cold Brew Got Me Like, Chris Crofton, to discuss… Crofton Infiltrates Corporate America, This IS Us…Unfortunately and more!
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Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa whoa. God Beatrix, Oh, you're not gonna believe it. You're not gonna fucking believe it. I can't talk about on the show, So if this is some cold open bullshit, I cannot use that as a cold open.
Hello the Internet, and welcome to season three eighty one, episode five of.
Dirt Eiey's I Guys.
There's a production of iHeartRadio. This is a podcast where we take a deep dive into America's shared consciousness.
Consciousness.
And you can tell I'm lying because I rose up at the end.
You've seen that.
There's like some woman going bill being like, if you have a question mark at the end of your statement, that's how you know somebody's lying, Like that's I've never told the truth.
If that's wait, what by being like if you have upspeak, if you speak with upspeak, everything you say with speak is lying because you're basically the statement you're making.
You're questioning the right city.
It's like you're basically asking them do you believe me? And there might be something to that in the sense that like I don't know if anything I've ever said is true.
So I do speak. I do do upspeak at the end, but I love you. I'm Jack O'Brien. Yeah, will you marry me? Yeah, I'd go alowd to do that one with up speaker. But then you're like, oh, I can get lying, but I do, I did do I do?
And she was not pleased. It's Friday, March twenty eighthay bye oh.
Yeah three twenty eight. It's National tried listen man. Fuck that that's I think sponsored by pharma. It's National Black forest Cake Day, National something on a stick.
Day, huh something on a sick.
Like corn dog, fucking you know, roasting a marshmallow, a couple of hey, anything, I mean in this photo there's there's a fucking slice a lemon slice on a stick.
I'm like, okay, now you're just fucking doing stupid shit.
Like on this as a drink.
Why it looks like a fucking like just a lemon slice on a stick, Like that's some kind of treat for people.
It ain't.
But also, hey, and I can get behind this one National Weed Appreciation.
Day, but the plant form, not cannabis, city barn.
The plant form of weed, just the anti resolved Day, the anti.
Yeah round up and all that ship.
Yeah, round up is the anti round up day.
They need to round up the pharma CEOs am I right over here.
Yeah, my name is Jack O'Brien aka oh Bradley Coop. It ruin Gemstones when they spoiled me telling me that you were gonna be on TV. What a spoiler Ruin by night? That one courtesy of hanahamic view on the Discord talking about lights a light spoil.
We spoiled that.
Bradley Cooper is the first episode, the first scene, basically the first episode of a show and it's in Yeah. Also, by the way, just downloaded that from Max and guess what the thumbnail is for that episode.
Guess who.
Bradley Cooper. So I feel like kn't be too mad at us.
Yeah yeah, yeah.
Anyways, I'm thrilled to be joined as always by my co host.
Mister Miles Gras.
No one is it's Hideo NoHo aka Gray oh Taani aka Smokey Sasaki because yes, it is opening day for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
At least as we record this on Thursday, so you know, just shout out to my favorite Japanese Dodgers players there you go. Thank you so much for playing for the Boys in Blue, the real boys in blue, the Dodgers, although were playing gray and white blue.
Why does everybody look at me weird when I do the back the Blue chant at the Dodgers, it's a wait, it's opening day today?
Yeah? Yeah, where I mean the boys? Yeah? Yeah yeah.
Oh on Thursday it was it was Yes, I did. I did cop to the reality of what we're recording to. Just say, that's why I'm doing Dodgers. Aka's right now. Sorry, shout out to another spoiler. Yeah, shout the mookie bets. Glad he's back out there.
Is he know he was really sick?
Oh?
Is he still sick?
Yeah?
He got really said you love fifteen pounds. Yeah, and then he said his body was eating it so from the inside.
Jesus Christ.
Oh, he says he'll be ready after Yeah, okay, we'll see. I mean, look, having your body be eaten from the inside isn't the best preparation for opening Day, but hey, to each their own.
That's like how I would describe indigestion, by the way, like, I'm so dramatic, bab babe, Either kill me or just get.
Out of here. My body's eating it, so how many folds of cereal? Did you eat? Like the whole scene, the whole box?
And then I started on a second one, the cereal or a boros m m okay, no man can escape Miles.
Yes.
In our third hilarious stand up comedian actor musician like Pitchfork rated seven points two.
I know that's right.
You can listen to his podcast, Colbrew Got Me Like Anywhere. Speaking of cold Brew, I believe he is the only guest we've had where we had to stop down a recording so he could eat a hard boiled egg because he was too cranked up on that demon mud water. His book, The Advice Ring Anthology is available now anywhere fine books are sold. The poetry window is open because it's Chris motherfucking Craft.
Wait, what's up that someone sent me up? Aka okay from Victoria g But I don't know if I can do it. It's pretty long. The feed's now live, the MIC's turned up, and long ago for break the clock was struck. But he's sipping his Colbrew and slinging advice and opening the poetry window. He's going the distance.
Oh okay, saying, hey can Miles and I guess what is so?
I know, it sounds like a Gregorian chant up until he's going the distance. He's commanding the feed. He's not alone, not alone on his z on the Zeitgeist show, because he's ranning and raving and blowing through time. He's a poet, a thinker who opened your mind. He's going that distance with cold Brew in tow finding treasures in the mud where the water's.
Slow, where the water slow.
Hell, no idea, I didn't write this. Thank you, Victoria gen that's great.
Shut out.
All in all, it's just another brick in the Chris Crofton.
Also a classic Crofton. Aka, all in all, it's just another brick in the Chris crafted Crofting.
Hey Crofting, leave cold brew alone. That's the other one, you know, when you have to eat that boiled egg.
Yeah, that happened. I was listening. It was the episode that you had Kristin on to me and that was a great episode. And I heard, yeah, I heard you guys talk about that, and I was remembering. We called it a brain wipe.
My brain went blank, like it was just like a short circuit. It was just too too much voltage going through at once.
And it was only a couple It was only a couple of times, only my second or third time on the show, maybe even my second. So it was like I think you guys thought maybe I was about to like fall out.
We knew that, like for real, we knew that the first episode.
I was like because I was I was like completely, I was like in the middle of talking, and then I was like, I can't get my train of thought back.
I need like we gotta keep having this.
This and this is what this is. When I was eating like on a regular basis, I was eating those Starbucks compartmental like lunch a little protein, like I was drinking a huge amount of cobrew and eating that like every day. And so I had that with me, like I showed up like it was my lunch box for daily Like.
Guys, yeahless joyless, yea capitalist version of Bento boxes whatever that.
Yeah. And I took the high priced slice of government cheese and smashed it against the hard boiled egg and shoved up my mouth and then I was back in.
It was crazy. It was like something I feel like that would have been a cure that Hunter S. Thompson like when he'd be like, we need to get hard boiled eggs in this man, you know, like he's like one too many drugs.
Irish. Yeah, yeah, it's Irish stuff.
It's like, yeah, yeah.
Smitty went down.
Get him a potato, get a potato in him. Just shoving a baked potato in some he's only a potato from the ground.
That's the Irish bottle for real. There's like something in your stomach.
Just folk tales.
That's all it is. Yeah, that's all it is. Yeah, I forgot.
I forgot to get something in my stomach.
Yeah you.
Been there, I've been there. Well, we're thrilled to have you.
Thanks. Fun to be here. It's been a while.
Coming from undisclosed locations.
Yeah, I'm at a crazy location. I'm at my new job break and I worked for one of the evil empires, one of the famous ones.
Like I'm not actually so many America, yeah this one. I mean, we don't need.
Just for our own conscious we wouldn't rather you're not. Just avoid that much, Chris.
I think sleep that part out please.
I'm in the back room of an old navy.
There you go. It is. That's even funnier knowing where you are. I'm in the back of old navy.
Don't worry dude, we're switching out seasons right now, so nobody's gonna miss me.
But you are in the heart of capitalist empire, and the vibes are good, I have to imagine good. They're like they're taking all the money.
Right.
I'm on like a camp a campus type thing, you know, where it's like the the you know, like it looks like it'd be a lot of fun.
You know.
I also know nobody at this place is going to listen to this podcast. These people don't know anything about anything except for like what's wrong with the copy machine? And they don't know that's not that's something they don't know, but they want to ask every you know, like that's one of the main topics, Like what is up with.
A copying back read the copy machine?
Yeah, anyway, it's just.
Like fun benefits, whimsical benefits being it's.
Just like it looks like it's gonna be fun, you know, and then like it's just I don't know. It's like no matter how much soft ice cream you give to.
Of like goolog like oh, you know, like yeah, it's still what ifs had sauc served machines or fun orange couches, Gulog had.
Like yeah, like had like you know something so like said like living your best life or something on the side. I mean, it's like fucking it's not you know. And goolog actually would be a funny comedic device if it wasn't like at the front of our actual news. But yeah, this is not a gulog. But it's it's just it is interesting that I've been trying to figure out what's weird about it. It's just like a really fun looking building, but the but there's no no laughs, and it's.
Does everyone just kind of like eyes straight ahead, like just getting the work done or like the socializing is very superficial because everyone's I mean I get it. Everyone's toilt the threat of being unhoused and uninsured.
So it's like.
I think it's mostly work. Yeah, I think they have huge amounts of work, like a real ton of like closely monitored work like that.
I love that you're sneaking up to record a podcast. This is your sid And if.
I got fired. If I got fired, would be fine with it, Like I mean, I don't care, like I I'm doing my job the best I can. And I did find out in the last couple of years that like being freelance as a you know, I don't even know how to discuss this without like sounding like like you I would consider meet myself to be sort of a success at what I do, but but this kind of whatever this is, like you know, is not doesn't pay, you know, it doesn't pay enough. It pays, like you know, I'm so grateful for my Patreon I have from my podcast, and and I'm grateful for the occasional thing I'll get, like a tour or something like that, but it's not something that you can count on. I had a tour that was supposed to happen last fall that was going to be a lot of money, you know, a lot. But once again, like what I think of is a lot of money, but isn't a lot of money. You know, It's like sure less than I don't want to say how much it is, but let's just say it's like, yeah, it's it's it's it's not enough, you know. And it's like that fell through and then I was fucked. So it was like an emergency like it cause I had that lined up and I was like, oh my god, the universe is like providing, you know what I mean, Like like, oh, it's true what they say. Just manifesture, you know, just getting a good mood and and and you know, and and that happened at a time where I was like, oh my god, this isn't going to work out. And then it was like in the mail, like an offer from some people, I like, saying, come out and do this thing, and it just didn't. And I'm not mad at them. It just got can and that's that. But that was the end of Then all of a sudden, it was like, oh, I can't manifest my way out of the fact that I have like two hundred dollars, you know what I mean. So it's like, so I had to get a job. So I'm at a job and I'm very grateful to have it. But I will say that there's not a lot of room to move up anymore for anybody. You're sort of in your job. And that's that's what it like. There's not I don't feel like there's much excitement. You kind of know, you have a basic idea of where you're gonna go, and it's not going to be too far vertically, it's going to be maybe, you know, I don't think the spirit I don't know I'm sure, like there have been a million jobs like this, but but they don't present themselves as fun usually. I think that's the difference. Like if he worked at like, you know, I don't know, there's.
Something word yeah, at like the Ford Factory in the seventies or eighties or nineties, Yes, and like this will be fun.
Henry Ford like also like even though he was probably a horrible lawyer, and I think he was like and everything yeah yeah, okay, so but you know, he still didn't like, he didn't like, he didn't like wear a speedo. He didn't like have a Henry Ford like action calendar nineteen thirty eight where it showed him on his boats and stuff. I mean they didn't rub it in like I mean they did, but it was just like different. You can see these these guys that are running your company now in bathing suits, like just being like fuck you know what I mean. I mean, you know, it's like that is not like a lot of the jobs that this company require a lot of like ability. But you're serving people who are like, you know, you know, they're not good. They don't even pretend, you know, they don't even pretend that this is this is just a transactional You're just working for something that has no goal other than money. There's no other thing they're even talking about. They're not even trying to disguise it, you know, except for with the living your best life neon even that. It's like, now that Trump's in office, all that rings completely hollow because all of these oligarchs just lined up, all these guys who put up the you know, all these like we're inclusion and all this bullshit is it's completely was all just just whatever they read the room at the time and said we have to put up this kind of shit because this is what's happening because we got a democratic president. Now, oh fuck fuck all that.
Yeah, and that's disheartening.
I mean, I don't know, you know, I mean, you can be in here and make money at this you know, this old Navy store that I work at in the hall or you know, but I mean just because there was a foosball table in the break room with this old Navy, They're not going to trick me into living here or you know, being here forever.
Yeah.
And I am not really at an old Navy, but somewhere in between an old Navy and and what a World bank basically somewhere in between Old Navy and Raytheon.
Yeah, yeah, right, right right, I mean I think it is.
It is something when just thinking of like you're like your point about mobility right now and opportunities for employment and the ones that you have. It's like like some people are lucky enough to like work at a place that feels like it's doing the right things, and most of us just work at the death Star, you know, and like it is what it is. But the other thing too, it's wild that with all this going on, like it's you constantly, I keep seeing these.
Headlines like what are the chances of a recession? The recession to the markets, It's it's we're getting close to recession territory. I'm like, anecdotally from everything I'm experiencing and seeing around me, I would say, this is a recession that works, yes, and like to and we're just doing the thing or the media is doing like the mainstream media is doing the thing.
Like you know, it's kind of rocky right now, and you know things are a little bit harder for consumers and and borrowing rates bl blah blah blah. But like you look at what the situation is for people, it's hard to say that this is anything but that, and we've been there for quite some time now. It's more about like what's the Wall Street definition of it?
But I think the market isn't technically in a recession. Yeah, so they're gonno that I'm going to go back to the ViBe's economy, you know what I mean. The ViBe's economy is in the fucking gutter, and I think a lot of people like, yeah, it's it's just very very The job numbers are predictable. Okay, they don't indicate a recession, but the jobs are bad and they're not allowing for upward mobility.
The job's number meaning what's the number of jobs you got? Right?
Exactly right.
We got seventeen jobs for this guy, so that really helps our numbers.
Like this is like the Jamaican family sketch from in Living Color, like from back in the day.
My coworkers are younger than me, which is not surprising as I'm the oldest person in the world. But uh, but I will say that they are they have side hustles that are not going to make them billionaires, and they I think kind of hold out hope that they are going to. But I'm from the outside. I find it also sort of like, I mean, you have jobs where you have to have these dreams that that you know. And I'm not faulting someone for having a dream at all, because those are the things that keep you going. But yeah, at the same time, looking at it as an older person looking at a younger person, younger person in this environment trying to have a side hustle where they really think maybe they can, but they have no connections and no family money, it ain't gonna happen. It's just it's not It's not like you can just do some like mom and pop store when the rent is like this, and you can start some online ordering thing maybe, but I mean you can start something where you're selling crafts or whatever. But it's like, but then it's not gonna get you.
Consumer confidence as though people don't have the money to even buy these things. It's it's also connected and yeah, it's.
Yeah, like whether your business does well is very much connected to could you do a GoFundMe and raise one hundred thousand dollars right, Like it's the same. It's all networks. Now, there's no anyway it's just sort of hard. I think it's hard, especially for young people because you know, there was a shot at when I was younger at renting some storefront, you know, because it wasn't five grand a month, it was probably like three hundred dollars.
A month or whatever.
I don't know making this shit up. I've never had a business.
But it's okay. I like that. I like that number.
Yeah, you used to be hard when I was growing up. You could start a bowling alley for sixty.
Dollars start a bullet, but you just get a long It's so believable though, too, because I mean, like we always hear about what people bought their houses back in the day, like.
Yeah, the fuck? Yeah, hello, is it too much for the house? We got to give them, leave them money for their bowling league. Fifty dollars.
It's sixty dollars to the whole building. Okay, Yeah, I saw that, all right.
Yeah, I like the looks of it.
Is it long though?
Is it a long building?
How long it is?
How long is your Oh that's too short? Than trying to do a bowling buyer's market for anyone looking to start a bowling alley.
Yeah, it's I have.
The deeper we get into this, the more it feels like it's really bad and bleak. And in America, like people don't allow themselves to say that, and so there's no like community being built around it. There's nobody like Instead, you just have to have a side hustle where you flew yourself into being like this is my meal, take it out, and then I'll be one of the like one in a million that like gets out of the bleak situation that we're all in. And I think that's the thing that separates America is that you have you either believe that you are going to succeed or you are like told it's your fault. I feel like it's like because like everything's a meritocracy.
And culturally, like yeah, culturally too, Like to be an American is just to participate in this like constant perpetual act of self denial over the fact that you're vulnerable. Right, you know, there's no like to your point, like we we don't have a culture that embraces being honest about how bad things are actually right, and I think when we're not, and like you can see that how that's reflected even how politicians like message things back, Like it's the people that are saying like it's so fucking bad right now, you won't believe it that are getting more attention than the people who are just trying to kind of couch everything in this sort of like faux optimism without being really realistic about like what is ailing us.
It's the mayor from jobs where you know, well, it's just like, no, it's good, we're good.
Everybody could go swimming.
We're good, We're good.
Everybody.
You guys are nay sayers.
Yeah, well, I mean everybody who's got three jobs too, say they're trying to do two side hustles and their regular job, or two regular jobs and two side hustles. They don't even know. Like what I'm finding out is most people don't even know what's going on at all, like they're gonna be So I told my coworker like, god, can you believe Elon Musk coming for Social Security? And she was like, Elon Musk, what does he have to do with social security? What do you mean what would he have to do with social security?
Right?
You know?
And I was like, oh my god.
Let me tell you.
Yeah, I didn't, you know. I mean people who have kids. This is a person who has kids. They have no time to even fucking they're working every minute. Then like usually if they're at work ten extra minutes, they have to call their mother to go pick up the kid because they can't be there right.
On time because they need it.
And get fired. It's like fifteen minutes. I'll stay fifteen minutes after work, So that means I have to that fifteen minutes. Screws up my entire hair. I don't know how to put it, Like, you know, everything's so close together, like you don't miss any Yeah, so it's like I can't now that I have to stay five more minutes. I'm gonna miss my daughter. I have to do this. Then that means my daughter's gonna be over my mom's house, not.
Check up over there.
And it's just an endless And then in the middle of that, like I'm just a single guy who's like, have you heard about Elon Musk? Is he doing something? What is he doing?
I thought he was just some rich guy with cold brew breath. Kept keeps asking me about Elon Musk?
Why are you so old working at Old Navy? I guess it's on a friend.
They're trying to live up to their name. Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back.
And we're back.
And we might get to some news stories, but we also are going to get to know you, Chris a little bit better by asking you. What is something from your search history that is revealing about who you are?
Well, I'll tell you one quick one so we can get moving. It's just I was searching what I I do sometimes as I go on YouTube. I don't know if you guys have ever.
Heard search.
On you?
And is that that's just the letter you?
And then two.
I'll set I'll send you the link.
Okay, okay, cool, It's yeah, it's.
This great thing. Anyway. I have a tattooed it I got during the pandemic. I have a big back piece, a YouTube backpiece.
YouTube.
So I was on YouTube and I searched something I do. I just searched documentary and then like a random year, so I searched documentary nineteen eighty one. And it's also so I can get content from my brother's website. My brother has a website called channel nonfiction dot com, and he like, he loves. We both love documentaries and we kind of bonded over like Grey Gardens in the nineties. You know, I was like, the first time I saw Greg Gardens, it was like, I don't want to watch any more regular movies.
Yeah.
This is about two people who were related to the Kennedys and were like former heiresses who just like lived in a dissolving, dilapidating, delating, real grown manner in where what it was like in the Hampton East Hampton.
Yeah, and they had like they both had you know, I don't know, depression, clinical depression or something that they let the place.
Fall around around.
And also that thing where two people together both get crazy, like called like you know those two Swedish twins who went crazy and like on the motorway or whatever. Yeah, it's like, well it was a different set of codefended twins, uh were conjoined. That's the difference. That's why they could share a hair dryer. But this this was like a when two people are together, they're psychotic, and if they're not together, it doesn't it doesn't like manifest until they're together.
And I know you're talking about our podcast.
Yes, okay, well three of us that's true.
So okay.
Anyway, so Great Gardens is a great documentary by the Mazles brothers, same guys who did give Me Shelter. And I was looking up documentary and I found such a great documentary. I couldn't believe it, because if you put in nineteen eighty one, I don't know, you'll end up getting a lot of like best of the eighties documentary that was made like last year, and it's just like.
Oh, nineteen eighty one, what happened in the year nineteen eighty one? Atari Yes, it was one point sews.
I was stunned that I found such a great one. And it's called Root sixty six and it came out in I guess it says shot in nineteen eighty one, and it came out in nineteen eighty five, so I don't know why it was shot, and I don't think it was shot in nineteen eighty one. But anyway, it's like a someone just ripped it from a DVD or something. And it's called Root sixty six. That was made by John T. Davis, that's a director. And I'll send you guys the link so you can share it. But it is a shot on film, almost two hour documentary that was made for British TV about Route sixty six in nineteen eighty four, and this guy was a socially minded filmmaker, so he interviewed all these down and out people, stuck the camera in all these old bars and talked to the regulars and stuff, and talk to people in motels, talk to some guy from Texas who wanted to wanted Texas to secede, and was talking about all the same shit that's being talked about right now. And you realize, basically America is in the exact same spot it was in nineteen eighty five, except now no one is making documentaries like this because the five people that fund everything have no interest in them, in them being made right. So that's what knocked me out. Like things were really bad in nineteen eighty four, but the difference was, like things are so much worse now, but they feel better because we do not see it. We do not see that all those towns that are in this, all these towns that are like under financial pressure because the factory is closing, those towns are now boarded up and full of people overdose on opioids, and we just don't know about it. And while they cut funding to PBS and stuff like that. I mean, this is part of the plan. Make everyone, you know, cut, make it so no one can go to college, make it so no one knows anybody's poor, make it so you know, everybody stays yes, are you know? Anyway? So this documentary is a beautiful documentary, but it's also well made in the sense that it talks to a lot of fucked up people who are suffering in nineteen eighty four, and I can you know, it is so much worse now. But it's really funny because I just don't it just doesn't get reflected back to us in the media. But it's also great because I love seeing people hanging out in bars in the eighties. It's tons of stage.
You like to see, Oh my god, it's so.
Many cigarettes and they're so long, and they're so white. Everyone's cigarette that's like four feet long. Just this country, This country is found, dude.
I'm smoking at Benson and Hedges six thousand.
About this country is cigarettes as long as hell.
I'm like those old like nostalgic cigarette vending machines that were like wood pants, like wood grain pants.
I use those chunk chunk chunk those old Yeah, I pled I pulled those from like my life depended on it.
They had the same like dependent but my life.
Depended on your life was pulling on.
Those the same arm as the pinball machine.
I feel like, oh yeah, yeah, arm, My arm was over developed back then from pulling on cigarette machines.
He had just a huge right trap.
Yeah, I think this machine stuck. Hey, get the Yankee in here, hey, Chris.
All the real men, all the real men of the nineteen eighties had over developed arms from pulling on one arm bandits cigarette machines, that's a arm wrestling, yeah, and playing and playing vicious pac Man tournaments.
Chris, what's something you think is underrated?
How funny Republicans are? Because I was thinking about this, DJ, I mean, this is a lighter look we can because there's nothing funny about Republicans really. But also Republicans don't understand how these like crazed libertarians took over their party because they actually thought they were about balancing the budget at some point, you know what I mean, Like my mom was just like, I'm just for fiscal responsibilities.
Just like, why the fuck is this?
Yeah, they're laying off the entire Center for Disease Control. What does that do with anything?
You know what I mean?
So Lost Money Center for Disease Control.
Yes, she doesn't, you know, like she doesn't understand in a good way. Like Republicans are like waking up, but it's a little too late. You know. I expected Republicans to jostle or you know, come awake a little, like who cares if you wake up?
Now?
It's too late? Oh wait you know.
Yeah, anyway, so they're not even close to waking up. I feel like still right.
No, I mean they're in the part where like you're dreaming and you think the alarm clock's going off, but you're still in the dream and you're like, I don't know.
Why am the fire truck here?
Why is the fire alarm? Why am I going to the bathroom in this dream? Right now?
Yeah? To the bathroom?
So so what is funny about it is like like they don't know anything and they think that that's a good way to be. Like basically, they're like, I don't need to know anything because I'm a white supremacist, and white supremacist don't need to know anything because white people automatically know everything when they're born. It's all loaded in there, and we already know everything already, so we don't need to know anything else. All we need to do is they forget. Of course, that the reason why white people have like this huge advantage, just because it seems to me looking at the history of the last few hundred years, they're uniquely violent and that is the part of them that makes them able to do all this stuff. Not competence, not competence. It's not competence, it's violence. So like they like do a bunch of violence and then they ride around attractors and be like this just happened naturally because we're so inherently smart. Look what we did. We created this law. We invented the lawn.
There was no such thing as a lawn.
Until white people made it up. And uh, except that lawn was where Native Americans used to be, and they kept it. They kept it long, they didn't cut it short like you you're trying to order under world. This lawn is going up my pants. I want to keep it a little shorter because I wanted to match my pants. So anyway, so I was just thinking about how this signal app thing because I I were growing up and or I grew up in white New Canaan, Connecticut where these people were. You were bullied out of doing anything that required any thought. You know, if you thought about anything, they're like, what do you you know, what are you doing? You're thinking?
You are you an asshole? Yeah?
Yeah yeah, like like you know, there's like, oh, look at mister Worret. You know, it was back to Rumsfeld saying this guy is falling, Henny Penny, the sky is falling, which it was in Iraq interac. He was like, oh, the insurrection. Everybody's afraid of. All the liberals are afraid of the insurrection. You know. Cut to ten years later us like running away. So I just think this signal app thing is like putting pepperoni on a pizza. Like like It's like when I was in Connecticut, if I said I want pepperoni, people like, ooh the like mister cultural like what pepperoni like? Because white people eat playing pizza. That's good enough for us, just playing old pizza. We don't like anything fancy. That's part of our white smartness.
That part of it.
I mean, that's no these are this is part of our white smartness. We have an inherent knowledge that we do not put things on our pizza. We keep it simple.
That's why I went Kevin from Home alone is the most is the original white supremacist.
So exactly, I don't even know what that means. So so.
Alone.
God, I've never confessed that. I've told a lot of people have seen that.
Don't it isn't a lot of dates and I don't.
You hid me.
The main central character is a kid who all he wants is a plane, cheese pizza. He's it's the inciting incident. It's how he gets sent up.
To the attic.
To then get left behind him forgotten. Also, going along with your theory that that is white su premise of this position, the only person of color in the entire movie is a cutout of Michael Jordan that he uses to scare the robbers. Aware office not that there's not another person of color that is, it's like it's a shadow of a black man.
Well, I know most of that because I read before I go on a date, I read the Wikipedia for that movie. Yes, that you're down, of course, so that this is all crazy. What I'm saying, I mean like in this the way I'm trying to tie it together is I just thought, like signal okayig app that they talked about the war on you know, talked about the war plans like in detail, which we've all seen now. Like liberals, like people who worry would have been like, hey, that's not Oh the liberal thinks it's not okay to use Signal this app, right, Like, guess what, It's a secure app, asshole, and we all use it.
I use it all the time.
I've sent all my I cheated my wife and I sent all my shit through there, and she's never seen it. She's never seen one bit of it. And also my friend Doug started Signal and this thing is to secure, so you get bullied into everybody's on Signal because everyone's like, yeah, these liberals think you got to use these hyper secure things. Who because also white supremacist thinks no one's coming to get them, because they think no one else in the world is capable of doing anything except them. And we're one month into this and those fools got on a publicly available quote unquote encrypti app, and the whole world for the first time that I can remember, and I'm sure recorded history, someone some country put their actual war plans into a text with emojis and I just think it's so perfect because Republicans actually and white supremacy in general gives no credit to anybody except for these fools that these four you know, any any like little group of white men get together and decide that they're impenetrable because they're just like we're all together, we're all cool, like there's no no one can hack us. Not really, And they got hacked immediately.
By the way, I mean they're welcome, not even ACKed. Yeah, just on their just because their own ineptitude. The architect, yeah forced hacking. They forced the hacking themselves. They added somebody who didn't.
Yeah.
Yeah, I don't mean to go crazy. I got a little crazy, but but but.
That is like but that is like your famous catchphrase. I don't mean to go but white people are apex predators.
Well no, but I mean it's like it's like really, I think they thought like like, yeah, we can use signal. I mean, really, who's out there? Like I mean you think they liberals think everybody's doing all kinds of stuff all.
The time, like they think other countries have like.
But like you know, heg SE's not gonna let us get hacked, are you? Heeth you know what. I'm like, Yeah, hell, no, okay, put this pepperon on pizza?
Man?
What is that?
What is yeah?
In Asia?
So yeah, so heg Seth you know, those guys are like, we can't be hacked. Look at hegsa's hairdoo. It's that kind of thing. And I want a button where I can make heg Seth bald.
Yeah when he.
Fired immediately because they do everything based on central casting. That guy looks like you know some guy from a movie that looks like this.
Yeah. Yeah.
By the way, I think white supremacists, I think nobody is coming to get them. With their conscious mind. With their unconscious mind, they know they suck and they they're insecure unconsciously, but they they don't let that rise to the level of the conscious mind. I think is how it works. And that's where a lot of the fear and anger comes from. Is they the knowledge that they're wrong lives somewhere deep down in the dream world of the unconscious that like words don't reach, but they know it. It's there, and that's why they're angry and violent all the time.
Yeah, and they're dropping bombs while they're while they're like, they act like it's like they're not worried about anything, but all they do is bomb people because they're terrified. Really right, right, anyway, that's my that's my underrating. Underrated.
We'll take a quick break, we'll come back. We'll get your overrated and definitely get to a bunch of news stories.
We'll be right back.
And we're back. We're back, and Chris, as we do about this time in every episode, we like to ask our guests and the thing that you think is overrated.
Well overrated. And I'll make this I really will make this quick bit.
For everyone.
What made me think of this was what made me think of this whole Republican thing. And pepperoni is like deep knowledge of music is also like pepperoni to them, like it's like too exotic, Like we just need the normal bands. I don't need to know about a million bands. I need to know about Pearl Jam, I need to know about the Allman Brothers and Government Mule. I need to know about quality, good bands. I just need about four bands to get me through. Four standard bands that go with my goal. Yeah, they go with my pants and my general attitude. Bands be hacked right long music bands that are too cool to be hacked. So anyway that this I had this radio show on college radio and a Republican kid who went to Vanderbilt, Kate, had a show after ours and it was called the Cocktail.
Hour and it was mad.
But they put it on at eleven am. Our show was on like eight to ten or something. Best of Bread got it and yeah, it was on from two thousand and five to two thousand and nine. At some point in there, most of the students at Vanderbilt, you know, don't aren't aren't interested in college radio, so the whole schedule was wide open. So we had a whole the whole schedule is like locals and this. But this kid was for Vanderbilt, and he was a preppy kid. You know. Look he dressed like a golfer or whatever, and he and he and he came in and he was like and he played. First of all, he's like, man, I wanted the show is called Cocktail Hour. Was hoping they put it on at five. But he didn't understand, like you don't get to choose. Like he's like, they put me on at eleven am. Kind of ruins the concept. And we were like, yeah, it's a great concept, but yeah.
It's ruined cool, it's a crazy and it used to be called happy hour.
So anyway, here's the thing about Republicans. It's like very much like choosing a commercially available app to transmit war plans or not having pepperoni on your pizza because you think it's communist. These guys. This guy played normal music on college radio. He played like we listened to his set as we were driving away in the car. He played like Honky Tonk Women, Wow. And then he played Pink by Aerosmith is my favorite color.
And then that's like standard that was in two thousand and five to two thousand and nine. That is what is on most radio stations.
Republicans are idiots, and they don't see it because they convinced themselves like, yeah, I don't need I don't need to go crazy and find out about every band when there's a perfectly good band called the Rolling Stones and Ladies and Gentlemen. Anyway, so he played, he played fucking Honky talk women on goddamn college radio. That's what Republicans do.
That I'm playing.
I don't know if you guys heard this little banger from Ario Speedwagon, but we're playing can't fight this feeling. I think it's the first time anyone's heard this one.
Yeah, you're not gonna believe this. It's a live version off Ario Live from nineteen ninety seven. But he doesn't even know.
It's like with all the wrong all the.
Wrong band members.
The original Ario Speedwagon.
So that's it, that's it. I don't know, Yeah, that's I don't know if I proved my case, but I think Republicans are so stupid.
Yeah, it is the Cocktail Hour.
It is Republican DJs.
Probably has the number one podcast in America right now.
And obviously both parties are horseshit. But I mean, like, in general, like being a Republican has always been like bragging about knowing nothing and thinking everything was going to work out just because you fucking you know, use the right because you use ivory soap and it drives your fucking skin out right.
I don't need skin, itchy, I don't need moist skin, you liberal fuck I don't even know their skins right up right, it's just flaky.
Uh, let's talk. Let's talk about a news story, shall we. Yeah, Over the past couple of weeks, we've seen a bunch of legal residents of the United States and students being disappeared because they either looked like gang members or they had the decency to speak up against a genocide. And they're getting like in some cases they're just like people in masks are coming up to them, and yeah, I'd say almost all cases, these people are hiding their faces and.
Like the tattoo.
And I was just reading about a guy who had an autism awareness tattoo for their little brother and they use that as grounds for being gang tattoo.
Another added soccer ball.
Anyway, and now we're seeing more students, you know, they're than like even students who weren't like necessary, like as if as if organizing a protest is worth having any kind of attention on you from authorities. But like, there's another student at Columbia named Ra Johnny Srinavasan who left to Canada because they were just like, oh, they found out that she found out her visa was being revoked and had ICE agents knocking on her door and she was just like, I wasn't even participating in the Hamilton Hall protest. I mean I have, like I have openly supported the Palestinian cause, but I wasn't necessarily at the rallies or o's your problem the speaking at them, But yeah, she left because she was just like this is fucked up. Then, like there's so many stories like this. Another we also touched on Yunseo Chung, who's like another student from South Korea who's been here in the US since she was seven, but again deigned to have any kind of opinion on genocide. We've seen this with lectures at universities, and one of the most recent ones was like this disappearing of this PhD student ro Mesa Austin who was at Tough's University. And again she's getting a lot of attention because of her brazen daylight kidnapping that was caught on fucking video and it looks like some shit out of a movie. Like she's walking on the sidewalk, she's on her way to a friend's house to break her fast, and one by one, massed agents pull up, start pulling badges out, start clawing at her, taking her backpack off, putting their masks on, and throw her in the back of an suv. And you know, like we see all these things, We see what's happening with the government and I think a lot. I'm definitely all the time just sort of like internally and outwardly saying shit like, oh my God, like what is this like Nazi Germany, and a lot of people do say this kind of thing. But I was just reading this piece by Daniel Besner, who's like a historian and he's been on Zeitgeist before. He wrote a piece in Jackoman that kind of gave a little bit like some perspective that I really needed. He sort of points out that while this is all very disturbing and terrible and not normal by sort of like what we believe to be the everyday comings and goings of you know, America, it isn't some kind of like freaky fascism that is happening here that comes from like European history. This is all actually very American and the laws being used are not coming out of thin air. They are American laws. And that just sort of gives a lot of these examples to sort of help recenter like what we're fighting against, cause I think it's it's very easy to be like, this is some foreign malady that's landed on our shores, and what do we do about this? Rather than giving ourselves a little bit of historical perspective and understanding that the way out of this is truly like through reckoning with how we actually how our own laws are constructed, how our own systems of oppression are constructed. Like talking about presidents that act you unilaterate laterally without Congressional oversight. You know, you point to the fact that while typically Congress was the body that was empowered to officially declare war, the last time Congress did that was nineteen forty two, and since then we've threatened or use direct force over two hundred times at the behest of the president.
Or these weren't officially wars, you know, so we didn't didn't officially lose.
Them either, that's the undefeated. And like illegally detaining and deporting people.
I mean, look, we've seen it in World War Two with what we've done to Japanese American people. This is also happening during Woodrow Wilson's presidency, and it goes on and on and on, and I just think, again, his point isn't that we just need to sort of chill out, because this is all just very par for the course of the United States. But again, like to frame it as this thing that isn't uniquely American, is not is counter to like effective resistance when this is truly also about reckoning with what has been constructed in the United States and actually figure out how to dismantle those things as well.
Yeah, I think it's hard for Americans to like the Israeli quote unquote settlers who attacked the Oscar winning filmmaker and like they had masks on as they did it, and it was like people were like, oh, it's like the Klan again. But right then, when there's these masked police officers or whatever, these mask ice agents who are kidnapping people off of American streets for having the wrong opinion, they like, I feel like people aren't as quick to make that connection even though the klu Klux Klan is the origin of American police thing, you know, it's.
Definitely entrenched in it.
And also thinking about the people who were of high status, which is why they even covered their faces when they did that, because they couldn't they knew this was something they couldn't they couldn't reconcile that with their outward personas or identities. But yeah, it's just a I mean, I think the point being too is like, because I think a lot of people are like, oh, we just got to get rid of Trump, but if we don't get rid of the rule set that we just have in the United States, Democrats use these same laws to justify these same kinds of actions as well, So it's not I think that's like a lot larger point that we really need to think about and also really take a second to really sort of settle with that, because right now it's students who are who have visas who aren't technically United States citizens that they're you know, mistreating with impunity. The logic in history only suggests that this will then extend to actual citizens of the United States too. And to think that maybe this is like well it's gonna it'll certainly stop there and it won't come to us, I think is really really dangerous and we really need to look at what's happened, like especially with this student at Toughs, Like I think the only again charged without any without a crime, add on no crime that she did.
She wasn't charge with any crime. They're just like material support.
For hamas And I think the only thing they can point to is that she was in a byline in the university paper that doesn't even mention Hamas, it just asks the the administration at the school to recognize what is happening. That the International Court called this place the situation of Goaza for a high risk of genocide, acknowledging that and divesting as appropriate, and this is what's happening. And I think that's very fucking scary. It's very frightening and sadly very American.
This this this, this is the moment. We have to move beyond the two party system or we have to abandon both these parties. At this moment, I don't know how we're going to do it, but I think most people, well not most people, but a lot of people realize that we're appealing to the Democratic Party at this point. Is is pointless. And only you have to do is look at the history of the Democratic Party for the even the last like twenty years or fifteen years. You know, Obama, I cried and Obama got elected. That's how invested I was in party politics back then. And that wasn't that long ago. And I and I and I and I really thought something good was going.
To happen, and then they told us something good was going to happen.
Yes, I mean, no, Isaiah, I got no transparency. Maybe I'm going to prosecute the bankers. Maybe I'm going to prosecute the war criminals from the Bush administration. Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean or know and anyway, And that was like quite the opposite with Obama. I don't know the stats, but I know he was doing tons and tons of drone attacks, you know, accident weddings and deporting and going after whistleblowers. So this is the thing. Whistleblowers haven't been deported because they're American citizens. And maybe maybe that's like a bridge too far or it was then, but they did everything short of deport They ruined their lives, Like the people that broke the story that the CIA was still collecting Americans' phone data or you know, like illegally the NSA, CIA. Those guys are like, hey, there's a whole room in this building where they just have this thing that's copying the whole Internet, and they said they stopped doing that. Those people all were ruined, Like I mean, I forget the name of the guy which I had on the my tongue, but that was an American citizen. Guy Will Snoweden had to leave. I mean, reality winner, anybody who tries to do the right thing generally, yeah, gets fucked like hard, not just Democrats by Democrats, just as hard as Republicans. So that if we really want that to change, you know that there has to be and we may be able to pull out like an AOC or a Bernie out of the We might be able to pull some like greatest hits out of the Democratic Party to start a new party, but I'm suspicious of even that. But I mean, we really need a third party or just I mean, those parties are done in my opinion. Yea, we have seen the absolute failure. Appealing to Democrats now is just like anyway.
So well, I think because we still look at like America as like this house that like we still want to live in, and it's like we're nostalgic for it without really realizing how dilapidated, rotten and violent it is, and we're like insisting that it can be fixed and we're but we're all we're all living under this same sort of oppressive cage and trying to think that like, well, maybe if we can just reform this, it'll work, rather than like what activists have been saying for lazing, like you can't, we can't reform our way out of this, Like this has to be left behind because we're seeing what the status quo for both of these, both sides of this political spectrum, how that plays out, and it's not beneficial to normal people at all. It's basically two flavors of oligarchy. Yeah, one one has like better marketing and the other is just more in your face with how fucking just brazen it is. So I think, yeah, to your point, it's every time people are like, I mean, like so many people.
Are like God, what the fuck are they doing? Like we can't even fuck Like these people don't even want to have a fight.
We have that energy has to kind of extend to also realizing we cannot let these people, you know, continue to try and convince the rest of America that like they are the solution to this problem that they are also the cause of. That's the third party, which I'm saying, like, dude, you running is amazing. Kat Abu Gazle running in Illinois ninth District against Jan Schakowski, that's great. The homie that is running for mayor in New York Zorn Mamdani, who is just again talking that real shit about like we are leaving normal people behind and we are emphasizing the well being of corporations over really simple shit like being able to afford to get around the city or pay your bills or eat food.
And whatever free speech we have left, we've got to use it. I mean, like right now, you can still run for office. It's not even hard, and you might not get elected, but you will get to speak to people. That was for me, like just getting invited to events where they gave me a microphone, right, you know, that's huge, Like being on a podcast is also huge. The fact that you guys are talking about this stuff fearlessly is huge. I'm so excited every time I hear someone telling the truth because it's dangerous right now, but it's a risk that has to be taken. You know, it has to be taken, and and you know I I anyway, Yeah, what you're saying is correct. I mean it's like, uh, I'm just as I mean, I'm still wishing the Democrats would would do something because I grew up in this country. Yeah, so I'm like, God, Chuck Schumer really dropped the ball. Whereas there's a lot of people are like, he's a profisi. Yeah, yeah, that's his job is to drop the ball. You know, did you forget what you said yesterday? You know, because you keep wanting to go back to because everyone just wants to have some fun and like raise their kids. They don't want to deal with all this fucking bullshit.
He's like the Washington generals, the Democrats more and more just seem like they are intentionally there to have their pants pulled down as the Harlem Globetrotters like put spin the ball on top of their yeah confetti on their head.
Yeah, it's literally called controlled opposition exactly.
Well, Chris Cross, often such a pleasure having you as always on the Daily site Geist.
Thanks. This was like a mission. I'm on a secret mission. I'm not really in the back of an old navy but I had to run away and do the Daily zeite Geist. But I will tell you this, I love you guys, and I love this audience so damn much that I would if ever there's some job where I cannot do this podcast, I will quit that job and I will.
Do that podcast.
We'll change our recording time to I'm not kidding.
I value this is the stuff that that keeps me saying, you know, telling the truth. That's what keeps me saying, telling the fucking truth. And and and uh and that's all anyone. I don't know what the end of that is, but something something, something, that's all anyone. I always love. Whenever I get off the phone, I'm like that to you have a great day.
And also that I don't know, get go get them and with your spirit and also with you, Chris. Where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff?
They can find me on Instagram sadly, they can also find me mostly on Instagram. You can find me on Blue Sky that's where I do the poetry window. You can very shortly. The audiobook is finally actually finished completely. I can't even tell you how long it's been, how long it's taken, but it's gonna be on the market in a couple of months. I will once again keep you all posted. My album is on the way. It's going to be out in a couple months as well. And the documentary about me is coming out, premiering next month, you know, in May at the Belcourt Theater in Nashville. And I don't have a date yet, but I will let you know that too. So lots of fun stuff. And the other thing is, go read my advice king about golf. I wrote. It's the newest one and it's so fucking funny. It's about golf making Republicans feel like farmers.
Nice dog.
You gotta know, not at all, nothing about golf of any use in there. I say that the game of golf was invented in nineteen sixty two by William F. Buckley Junior, and it was originally called eighteen Reasons to put your Kids in Boarding School. So anyway, go find my golf. It's called how to Improve Your Golf Swing. And thanks again, thanks again, amazing. Is there a work a media you've been enjoyed?
Oh?
Yeah, one thing. I found something. So since I had to run away to do this episode, I figured I should be prepared. Of course I'm not really exactly. Oh this one is from a cry You guys might be familiar with Crystal Baye one. You ever heard her? Crystal Crystal Baye You know, like bay like your boyfriend or whatever. Crystal Baye one. And she said, salmon good as fuck. I see why bears just grab them bitches out the river.
It's true. Salmon's good, so good, cooked, so good, row too, Salmon is just so delicious, it's very good.
Wait, why do you think we would know Crystal Baye?
Because I looked at her account and she has like fifteen zillion followers and she's just always yelling and screaming. But I love that, just the simplicity of that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, No. I always love when you find black Twitter. Chris's yeah, black Twitter more than anybody.
And I think that I think, I think, are you thinking of that like fake George Orwell quote when you talked about telling the truth, Because there's like that fake Orwell quote.
That's like, in a time of deceit, telling the truth can be a revolutionary act.
I wasn't thinking about that, but yeah, because of Instagram, everybody's screwing up all the quotes. It's like weird. Al Yankovic probably said that.
Yeah, it's actually Hermit d Frog.
Exactly. Yeah, like yes, the rainbow connection, George Orwell for whatever it.
Is, wonderful miles Where can people find you as their workimedia you've been enjoying? Uh?
Yeah, man, find me everywhere at Miles of Gray, you find Jack and I on the basketball podcast Miles and Jack Got Mad Boosties a great episode.
If you're a Laker hoping snorter like I am, it.
Was like, okay, Jack, you think the Lakers of the dark horse team. I was like, what what do you mean?
Yeah, what do you mean?
And that they're not supposed to be like their team.
Yeah, that's like if you're playing two K or something right and you're like, dude, I'll pick that team. They'll beat everybody anyway.
Look, that's the fun about talking about sports anywhere out loud is those kind also find me talking about ninety I like a couple of things over at your Little Boyfriend posted if you're white, you can't crash out, you can only go bonkers.
That's right, and and I thought that was correct.
That was crash going bonkers over here.
You're not crashing out, you're boker. You're going bokers and then said.
A form of that like four times today.
And then Maddie Lubchansky at Maddie Lubchansky dot com on Blue Sky posted an ass that won't quit and also cannot be easily fired due to an ironclad collectively bargained contract won.
By the ASS and her union comrades. That's good.
That's fucking good.
It's good.
You can find me on Twitter at Jack Underscore O Brian and on Blue Sky at Jack O b The number one I was enjoying so discussing film posted first look at Chad Michael Murray and Freaky Friday in theaters August eighth with like a screencap from a movie and page at Boner Wizards tweeted, can only think about this ClickHole quote And it was a picture of Chad Michael Murray and it said every time I do good, they let me have another boy's name, Chad Michael Murray on his career. Shout out the click hole.
That's good.
Yeah.
You can find us on Twitter and Blue Sky at Daily Zeitgeist. We're at the Daily Zeitgeist. On Instagram. You can go to the description of this episode wherever you're listening to it, and you can find the footnotes where we link off to the information.
That we talked about in today's episode.
We also link off to a song that we think you might enjoy. Hey, Miles, is there a song that you think people might enjoy?
Yeah, this is a bit of modern day psych rock from UK from a band Nice Biscuit.
The track is called the Star. Just got a nice little dreamy, positive vibe to to start your weekend off. I think that's a good kind of music.
So if you're looking for something like that, throw this in your fucking tape deck. And I said, put that in your tape deck, the Star, Nice Biscuit, let's.
Tape deck and smoke it all right. Well, we will link off to that in the foot notes to day does a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. That's gonna do it for us this morning and this week's that's the week, another week in the books, swish the back on the logo. We'll be back on Monday to tell you what was trending over the weekend, and we will have a best of episode over the weekend from this week's episodes. Uh So look out for that and we will talk to you all then.
Bye bye.
The Daily Zeit Guys is executive produced by Catherine Law, co produced by Bae Wang, co produced by Victor Wright
Edited and engineered by Justin Conner.
