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Surviving Ish: Politics — MAGA, “DEI,” ICE & Why This Isn’t Just Politics Anymore · Surviving-ISH Podcast

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the very first solo session of Surviving Ish.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is going to be the politics edition.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: I am your host, David.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: I want to start with a confession.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: 10 plus, I guess, years ago, I had the luxury of pretty much being detached from politics.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it was my age, maybe it was the world we lived in.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: But back then, an election didn't feel like a life or death sentence.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't scared of who won because I didn't think the ground beneath me was actually going to be stolen.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: Then enters Donald Trump.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And politically, it changed my mind.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to spend a minute talking about a story that this reminded me of about the golden calf, right?
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: We've all heard the story, maybe.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I say we all have heard it, maybe we haven't.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a group of people that get so desperate and fearful, and they become impatient for a leader that they actually melt down gold and build a statue to worship.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: They start bowing to this as an idol that represents everything they claim to stand against, such as greed, ego, and cruelty.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: In my opinion, that is exactly what the MAGA movement is.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: It's a cult built around a golden statue, or an orange statue, if you will.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that worship has turned our reality into a place where our rights, my rights, your rights, and all the lives of the people we love, those are now being questioned and threatened.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: And some have been changed.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: This isn't politics anymore.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: This is a moral crisis.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: And look, I wanna I want to be the first to say that I have by no means have all the answers.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I probably have zero answers, which is one of the reasons why I'm wanting to do this podcast.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'm wanting to figure this stuff out.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: But the thing that drives me crazy about politics is the way that they talk.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: They hide behind these fancy clinical words like extrajudicial or privatized detention.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And it's almost like they just want to mask that they're actually hurting people.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like sometimes when you're at work, you hear like your boss talk in meetings, or if they do like a QA and they don't answer the question, they kind of just bullshit around it and make you think it's the answer.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's the shit that I'm talking about.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's the shit that pisses me off.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: So my goal for these episodes is to bridge that gap.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I want to take these headlines and break them down into terms that I understand with the kind of language that I actually use.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: I want to research it until I can understand it and even explain it or have a conversation about it.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there will be times that there'll be longer episodes where maybe I'll have an expert on.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's a couple that I've already done that got some really great traction and questions, which has helped me want to do this even more.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think that it's important because I do think that MAGA is a cult.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been in a cult, but I've done a lot of interviews and some research with people that are have deconstructed from cults.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel that knowledge is the only thing that breaks the power of the cult mentality.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to dive deep into the Ebsyn files.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: We're going to look at the skeletons in the closets of this administration and the ones that keep trying to bury their skeletons under the floorboards.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And since some of you all have asked me for my thoughts, I'm going to read your emails and write down the questions that you have and put those into some of the topics that we talk about on here.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: I want to find the truth.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: I want us to talk about the truth, even when the truth is ugly.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_00: And right now, in my opinion, uh but things are pretty ugly.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: I want to talk for a minute about a phrase that the MAGA crowd loves to screen.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: And that's DEI.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: This administration and MAGA have turned diversity, equity, and inclusion almost into a slur.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: They want you to believe that if a person of color or a gay person gets a job, they must be unqualified.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: I want to hold a mirror up to them.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: In my opinion, the real DEI hires are the ones wearing the ICE uniforms.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're unqualified.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: They're high on power.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: These individuals, they were not hired because they knew the law or the constitution.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: In my opinion, they were hired because they were willing to do the dirty work.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: These people didn't even read the fine print of their own contracts.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: They signed up for the sign-on bonus, which, um, by the way, we are going to have a full episode about that coming soon.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: But they, but they didn't even read the fine print of their own contracts.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And without realizing, they were becoming pawns in a system that would eventually turn on them too.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: These ICE agents are diversity hires for the Trump administration.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: They represent a diversity of cruelty.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: They are people so underqualified that they don't realize that kidnapping children and murdering non-citizens, and yes, even American citizens, is a violation of the very values they claim to protect.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to come into this by carrying a core principle into the show.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Two things can be true at the same time.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I cannot understand the grip this cult has on people.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: I have never been in a cult, so I know it's easy for me to lean into the shame.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: But please do not mistake my lack of understanding for forgiveness.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: I I will not forget.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: I will not forget the silence of those who stood by while families were being separated.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: I will not forget those who watched people be sexually assaulted, starved, and deprived of their legal rights in detention centers and said nothing.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you voted for this thinking your skin color, your bank account, or your gender made you safe, I see you.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't care when the trans community was and still is under attack.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: And like they're in true danger.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: You didn't care about children in cages because you questioned how they entered the country.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: All because the color of their skin was darker than yours and their language was different, they were perfectly fine voting against humanity because they thought they were on the winning team.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: In a lot of cases, the fire has either reached or gotten much closer to their own front door.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about those who didn't think it would.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, so many people are starting to realize they voted against their own selves.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: But do we've told you for years the man himself, Donald Trump, told you for years.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: There's so many people that did not listen and will not listen until it actually affects them.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And frankly, I give no grace, and I have no grace left for that delayed realization.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I'm saying all this because the stakes are too high for anything else or for anything less.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to coddle anyone or make anyone feel better about their choices.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to talk, to respect the truth, and to help those who are awake stay awake.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm open to disagreements as long as we stay respectful.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is also a reminder to myself because I get very passionate and can sometimes not be that great with words, but I want to be open to disagreements, but I do want us to remain respectful.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the first and foremost, we all need to remember that I am by no means a political expert.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a man who is still learning and is nowhere near perfect, but I do pride myself on morals and values.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, we have a president and an administration with bankrupt morals that just talking about what's right and wrong has become a political act.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: Again, my name is David Keck.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: This is surviving-ish politics.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really looking forward to the upcoming episodes.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: Please send in your questions, your thoughts.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm here to learn and I want you respectfully.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see you next time.