Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: Hasan Piker’s Shocking Charlie Kirk Song & Democrats’ Far-Left Problem

Transcript

Normally Podcast: Hasan Piker’s Shocking Charlie Kirk Song & Democrats’ Far-Left Problem · Normally

0:06
Speaker 1: Hey guys, we are back on normally the show with
0:08
Speaker 1: normal it takes for when the news gets weird. I
0:10
Speaker 1: am Mary cassin Ham.
0:12
Speaker 2: I'm Carol Markowitz. We are back, Mary Catherine. We're back
0:15
Speaker 2: in our studios and we are back and school has
0:19
Speaker 2: begun and we are back to being just us two
0:23
Speaker 2: on here.
0:24
Speaker 1: Yeah, we have routines now, that's the thing we're doing.
0:27
Speaker 2: It's only day one of my routines.
0:29
Speaker 1: So we will see, yes, yes, we see. We'll see
0:32
Speaker 1: how it holds save over here. We got a little
0:35
Speaker 1: practice in last week and then today here we are
0:38
Speaker 1: on a Monday, having to do a full week.
0:40
Speaker 3: Yeah.
0:41
Speaker 1: I don't know how I'm gonna deal with all that.
0:42
Speaker 2: I only got home last night after being away from
0:47
Speaker 2: home for almost six weeks.
0:48
Speaker 1: Wow, it was a lot, it was. I am getting old.
0:51
Speaker 2: It is not something I can do with no problem anymore.
0:55
Speaker 2: The sleeping in hotels and you know, walking, I don't
0:59
Speaker 2: even know how many, I guess. I don't measure any
1:01
Speaker 2: of that. I don't have any of the devices, so
1:03
Speaker 2: I could just tell you walking quite a bit, quite
1:06
Speaker 2: a bit.
1:07
Speaker 1: Well, we are glad you're back and had the adventure,
1:10
Speaker 1: I mean, my adventure was a week long, and by
1:12
Speaker 1: day eight with four kids, I was like, we should
1:15
Speaker 1: probably get you guys to your real home. Whereas my
1:18
Speaker 1: children call it my little child. They're normal home, the home. Yeah, normally. Well,
1:29
Speaker 1: the streets of DC were not totally normal this weekend
1:33
Speaker 1: because there was the Freedom two point fifty Grand Prix
1:37
Speaker 1: and IndyCar race through the streets of d C, a
1:40
Speaker 1: one point seven mile road course by every monument there is.
1:47
Speaker 1: And you know, there's the normal pooh poohing from those like, oh,
1:52
Speaker 1: the streets are closed and it's inconvenient, and this is
1:55
Speaker 1: Trump's project. And then there are the normal people who
1:59
Speaker 1: say that was a normal from here on out, to say, wow,
2:06
Speaker 1: that was cool, that was cool.
2:08
Speaker 4: That's cool.
2:09
Speaker 2: I am not a racing person, but the clips I
2:13
Speaker 2: saw on X looked awesome.
2:15
Speaker 3: A lot of.
2:16
Speaker 2: People that we know were there and had a great time.
2:19
Speaker 2: You know, it was funny. In advance of it, people
2:21
Speaker 2: like on the left were tweeting stuff like can the
2:24
Speaker 2: streets even handle this kind of thing? Like your streets
2:27
Speaker 2: can't handle it? That is not a good sign for
2:30
Speaker 2: your city. I'm sorry it was.
2:33
Speaker 1: Let me give you a sense of how cool it was.
2:36
Speaker 1: This is NPR's lead on it. In the end, it
2:39
Speaker 1: was an American who took the crown. The first ever
2:41
Speaker 1: street race in the nation's capital ended with Florida native
2:44
Speaker 1: Kyle Kirkwood on the podium. He led one hundred and
2:46
Speaker 1: twenty eight of the one hundred and forty seven laps,
2:48
Speaker 1: finishing with a commanding when over the weekend, the Freedom
2:51
Speaker 1: two fifty Grand Prix transformed some of the nation's most
2:54
Speaker 1: famous streets, Pennsylvania Constitution and Independence Avenues into a racetrack.
2:58
Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of people packed into the National Mall
3:00
Speaker 1: to attend each day of the two day event, and
3:03
Speaker 1: had all these beautiful pictures, and I thought, if nprs here,
3:07
Speaker 1: it was a good event, right right, It's again.
3:11
Speaker 2: We talked about this a lot on here, but if
3:13
Speaker 2: this was happening under Biden, you and me would still
3:15
Speaker 2: be like, this is cool.
3:17
Speaker 1: Cool, Yeah, loving their country is cool.
3:21
Speaker 2: Cool. Events like that are obviously cool. Why not.
3:25
Speaker 1: I was skeptical that they could pull this off. I
3:27
Speaker 1: remember when they announced it and I thought, gosh, that
3:29
Speaker 1: seems very ambitious. I thought the same thing about the
3:31
Speaker 1: UFC event on the White House lawn. Both of them
3:35
Speaker 1: stunning images.
3:36
Speaker 3: I don't.
3:37
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter if you're a fan of UFC or
3:39
Speaker 1: of open wheel racing. In both cases, just incredible showmanship
3:45
Speaker 1: as we have now come to expect, and it's hard
3:48
Speaker 1: to be mad at the images of this. And it
3:52
Speaker 1: turns out I was right to be skeptical because Roger Pinsky,
3:54
Speaker 1: who arranged this, had been coming to DC some two
3:58
Speaker 1: hundred times to try to arrange this could get not
4:03
Speaker 1: the people needed to make it happen, and then he
4:05
Speaker 1: met with Trump and Trump was like, let's do it,
4:08
Speaker 1: and do it. They did it. We could just do
4:10
Speaker 1: things with Trump motto.
4:12
Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, you know, it's a good time for this
4:16
Speaker 2: kind of thing. Two fifties obviously still ongoing, which I love.
4:20
Speaker 2: I think we should just continue it all through the
4:22
Speaker 2: year and keep celebrating.
4:26
Speaker 1: So yeah, why not. You know, one thing I want
4:29
Speaker 1: to shout out to Metro because they have been just
4:33
Speaker 1: sort of that's the subway system in DC, which has
4:37
Speaker 1: been terrible in the past but has been competently improving
4:40
Speaker 1: for quite some time. And the Metro, the guy who
4:44
Speaker 1: leads Metro and their organization has just been happily and
4:48
Speaker 1: enthusiastically joining in on two fifty events, and they've done.
4:53
Speaker 1: It's been so nice for people visiting and for the
4:57
Speaker 1: city and for all of us who were watching. They
4:59
Speaker 1: had a an IndyCar comes through get carried through the
5:02
Speaker 1: Metro on a metro car. They had apparently racing celebrities
5:09
Speaker 1: visiting with people on the metro. It has been fun
5:12
Speaker 1: and creative, and I appreciate that one area of DC
5:16
Speaker 1: governance making it happen in the f two fifty events.
5:23
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's root for a competency every time. What else
5:27
Speaker 2: is going on in politics?
5:28
Speaker 1: Oh my goodness, Well what of them?
5:30
Speaker 2: Miss?
5:32
Speaker 1: Well, I do think it's worth talking about data centers.
5:35
Speaker 1: This is a populist issue that has really caught fire.
5:39
Speaker 1: But you and I have some questions about exactly where
5:42
Speaker 1: the messaging is coming from and why. And Trump jumped
5:46
Speaker 1: in on the question this weekend on the tarmac, he
5:49
Speaker 1: was asked about data centers, so we have his take here.
5:52
Speaker 3: Well, the data center, subject to me, is a pretty
5:55
Speaker 3: simple one. If you pick the right location, and it's
5:58
Speaker 3: going to be not every location perfect for it, but
6:01
Speaker 3: you pick the right location. What it means for a
6:03
Speaker 3: community is jobs and lots of money and lower taxes
6:07
Speaker 3: and the data centers now are mandated by me that
6:11
Speaker 3: they build their own electricity, so they're not taking it
6:13
Speaker 3: for the grid. It's going to lower the electric courts
6:16
Speaker 3: because they're building electricity and the extra as an example,
6:20
Speaker 3: we talked about this one.
6:22
Speaker 2: I'm very proud of it.
6:23
Speaker 1: It was my idea.
6:24
Speaker 2: They're going to build their own.
6:26
Speaker 3: Electric producing facility and that electricity that they have left
6:30
Speaker 3: over is going to the grid. It's going to lower
6:33
Speaker 3: the costs of electricity. So if I were a community,
6:36
Speaker 3: I would want the data center. It means jobs, it
6:40
Speaker 3: means income, and it means lower taxes. No, I want
6:47
Speaker 3: them to do it. They want. Some people feel differently.
6:50
Speaker 3: I really want them. The Republicans against the data student
6:54
Speaker 3: that's okay with me. I'm only saying that if I
6:56
Speaker 3: ran a community. Now there are different types of communities,
7:00
Speaker 3: but generally speaking, if I ran a community, if I
7:03
Speaker 3: was a mayor, or, if I was a governor in
7:04
Speaker 3: a state, I would want to have the data centers
7:08
Speaker 3: because they bring tremendous income, they are clean, they produce
7:13
Speaker 3: their own energy. The new ones are produce das their
7:15
Speaker 3: own energy. I would want to have data centers.
7:18
Speaker 2: Yeah. The thing is that the conversation around data centers
7:22
Speaker 2: seems so foreign influenced. It's just the conversation where people
7:28
Speaker 2: believe that they're going to steal their water and the electricity,
7:32
Speaker 2: and the reality just isn't that at all that Obviously,
7:35
Speaker 2: golf courses take up so much more water and electricity,
7:38
Speaker 2: and a lot of other projects are just much more
7:42
Speaker 2: and I wouldn't even say hurtful to the community. Just
7:45
Speaker 2: do have more of an implication on the community, have
7:48
Speaker 2: more of an impact than data centers do, and yet
7:53
Speaker 2: we never hear anybody complaining about those projects.
7:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're starting to get a little bit
7:59
Speaker 1: more handed reporting about this, where people are actually going
8:02
Speaker 1: to the places where they put data centers. David Hogg
8:05
Speaker 1: of famously a Democratic Party influence, tweeted last week, like,
8:11
Speaker 1: what did you put them in the most affluent zip
8:14
Speaker 1: codes in America first and then come to us And
8:15
Speaker 1: it's like, well, that already happened because they're all over
8:18
Speaker 1: Northern Virginia. Now, the data centers in those industries have
8:23
Speaker 1: sort of made their own bed to some extent, because
8:26
Speaker 1: I do think if you engage with the community a
8:28
Speaker 1: little bit more and you make the data centers like
8:32
Speaker 1: twenty seven percent prettier instead of just like giant industrial
8:36
Speaker 1: looking blocks. You could make a lot of inroads. I
8:39
Speaker 1: don't know, like you do. You want to sponsor a
8:42
Speaker 1: t ball team or something.
8:43
Speaker 2: You need to.
8:45
Speaker 1: Know the people in this community. But lives can be
8:49
Speaker 1: improved from it. There are downsides from any business that
8:52
Speaker 1: comes to your town, but there have been places that
8:55
Speaker 1: have seen great improvement in quality of life and places
8:59
Speaker 1: that have been able to together. But I understand where
9:01
Speaker 1: the concerns come from, and you have to like not
9:04
Speaker 1: write them off. But I appreciate that we're getting a
9:06
Speaker 1: little bit of a different message. Also, it's classic Trump
9:09
Speaker 1: to be like, oh no, do what you need to
9:11
Speaker 1: do like I and trails if you disagree with me,
9:14
Speaker 1: Tim Sheehe also said, and this is an interesting take
9:17
Speaker 1: on it. He's the Montana Senator. He says, first they
9:20
Speaker 1: killed our timber mills, then our minds, then our factories,
9:23
Speaker 1: now data centers. Every good paying, middle class employment powerhouse
9:27
Speaker 1: has been systematically murdered by globalists and communist lobbying in America,
9:31
Speaker 1: sending those jobs that industry and all its economic impact overseas.
9:37
Speaker 1: And he says every politician calling for this is calling
9:39
Speaker 1: for us to not have all these things it offers.
9:42
Speaker 2: Right, right, and just again back to the point of growth,
9:45
Speaker 2: like these communities need this kind of growth. There's places
9:49
Speaker 2: that absolutely would welcome data centers and they should be
9:53
Speaker 2: able to do it and not be not have roadblocks
9:57
Speaker 2: set up for them by false reporting and false information.
10:01
Speaker 1: Well, and I get even when there is real community pushback,
10:05
Speaker 1: I do get suspicious of the sort of constant drumbeat
10:09
Speaker 1: that is like a little bit environmentalist, a little bit
10:12
Speaker 1: anti capitalist, and I go, what what are you guys
10:16
Speaker 1: doing over here? And who's doing it right?
10:18
Speaker 5: Right?
10:19
Speaker 1: And look, the left is so.
10:21
Speaker 2: Good at being Nimby's, you know, not in my backyard,
10:24
Speaker 2: but using different language than the right does and being
10:28
Speaker 2: better at it. I saw this for myself. I may
10:30
Speaker 2: have even told the story on here because it really
10:32
Speaker 2: had just an effect on me. But when we moved
10:34
Speaker 2: to park Slope, there was they were going to do
10:37
Speaker 2: a really big parole center and a park Slope's a
10:39
Speaker 2: super left area, and all of the complaints were like,
10:44
Speaker 2: I'm just concerned about the carbon footprint of this. I'm
10:46
Speaker 2: just you know, it's not that I don't really you know,
10:49
Speaker 2: obviously I'm for parolees and I want justice, and I
10:53
Speaker 2: don't want them to be incarceraated, incarcerated forever. But like,
10:56
Speaker 2: what about the transportation issues around this? It just the
10:59
Speaker 2: conversation and become something else entirely.
11:02
Speaker 1: Yes, well, this conversation does seem to have newly more facets,
11:09
Speaker 1: so I appreciate that a couple people are coming out
11:11
Speaker 1: with slightly different messages so we can have that conversation.
11:14
Speaker 1: Also in politics, and I hate to bring us down
11:16
Speaker 1: with this one, we got to talk about Hassan Piker. Yeah,
11:20
Speaker 1: so he's the extreme left wing communist streamer who Mike
11:25
Speaker 1: Rogers in Michigan who's up against El Sai Ed has
11:28
Speaker 1: referred to him as El Sayed's running mate, which I
11:32
Speaker 1: I think that's a nice, that's a nice, that's flair,
11:35
Speaker 1: that's good. He was in San Francisco doing a live
11:40
Speaker 1: podcast with some friends where he sang a tribute song
11:45
Speaker 1: to Charlie Kirk where they just mocked his murder and
11:51
Speaker 1: the idea that you would honor Charlie Kirk. So here
11:54
Speaker 1: he is singing for a cheering crowd about this.
12:27
Speaker 2: He's so disgusting and the Democrats have completely made their
12:31
Speaker 2: bed in getting involved with him. They want his audience,
12:35
Speaker 2: they have to take the whole package.
12:37
Speaker 1: I mean, listen to the absolute praying in that audience
12:43
Speaker 1: for that performance. Also, why is he wearing doctor Evil
12:47
Speaker 1: size extra large suits? What is Yeah, it's the matter.
12:52
Speaker 2: He dresses like chairman now and he talks about how
12:55
Speaker 2: great he was and how much he did for China.
12:59
Speaker 2: So again, I think the Democrats are maybe realizing a
13:02
Speaker 2: little too late what they have here and what they
13:05
Speaker 2: have tied themselves to. But I think they need to
13:08
Speaker 2: be held accountable in his rise and the fact that
13:11
Speaker 2: he gets soft focused stories in the media and all
13:15
Speaker 2: of these picture spreads and like the New York Times
13:17
Speaker 2: and elsewhere where he's treated like a total normy and
13:22
Speaker 2: he's not. He's a really sick person who has an
13:26
Speaker 2: audience who is thirsting for this kind of violence. He
13:30
Speaker 2: also in the last few days made a comment about
13:33
Speaker 2: how Jews abroad American Jews will meaning not in Israel,
13:39
Speaker 2: will have to kind of abandon their support of Israel
13:42
Speaker 2: or risk their safety. And on this Abdul al Said
13:47
Speaker 2: has actually released a statement saying and while politicians and
13:50
Speaker 2: pundits try to make this race about a twitch streamer.
13:53
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about gas and groceries. He said
13:55
Speaker 2: that he doesn't like, you know, he opposes what Hassan said,
13:59
Speaker 2: but that he's just a twitch streamer. Like, no, he's not.
14:02
Speaker 2: He was on stage with you a lot when you
14:04
Speaker 2: were running. He was on stage with you a lot
14:06
Speaker 2: when you needed him. And the truth is that every
14:08
Speaker 2: single twenty twenty eight candidate is going to try to
14:12
Speaker 2: be on Piker's Twitch stream. They're all going to clamor
14:15
Speaker 2: for it. They're all going to try to be on there.
14:17
Speaker 2: They're all going to try to talk to his audience.
14:19
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he's out there saying, look, if you support
14:21
Speaker 1: Israel too much, like someone's going to come for you.
14:24
Speaker 1: That's just the national consequence, like saying that Jews are
14:27
Speaker 1: inciting violence against themselves. And by the way, Sayed might
14:32
Speaker 1: say that he disagrees with this comment, but he also
14:34
Speaker 1: gave a whole florid speech after a someone tried to
14:37
Speaker 1: attack a Jewish preschool in a synagogue in Michigan, saying
14:40
Speaker 1: hurt people, hurt people, which is kind of the same argument,
14:45
Speaker 1: and he didn't back off of that. So this is
14:50
Speaker 1: they're stuck with this guy. Yeah, his business model is
14:54
Speaker 1: built on being as disgusting as possible, because I'm sure
14:56
Speaker 1: he's getting paid off the clicks off of singing this
14:59
Speaker 1: song about by the way, a young father of two,
15:03
Speaker 1: who's who Hassan Piker knew personally and had debated in
15:08
Speaker 1: the past. Yeah, And if you think that would have
15:10
Speaker 1: gone the other like if worlds were reversed, Charlie Kirk
15:13
Speaker 1: would have done anything like this, You're out of your mind.
15:15
Speaker 1: Not in a million years, Not in a million years.
15:18
Speaker 1: It just doesn't happen in the same way. On our side,
15:21
Speaker 1: do we have sick.
15:22
Speaker 2: People, do we have evil people? Of course, do we
15:26
Speaker 2: celebrate them and have our candidates campaign with them?
15:29
Speaker 1: We don't. That one's a nasty one. Scared the hits
15:33
Speaker 1: will keep coming unfortunately.
15:36
Speaker 2: Right, And the funny thing is, you know, like look
15:37
Speaker 2: at us talking about this. We're like, oh, we have
15:39
Speaker 2: to talk about this guy. If this was also reverse,
15:43
Speaker 2: they would love to tie him to us and to
15:45
Speaker 2: talk about it all the time. And we're like, oh,
15:47
Speaker 2: we have to discuss this monster because he is so
15:51
Speaker 2: influential among Democrats, and it's like we wish he wasn't. Yeah,
15:55
Speaker 2: will take the fair fight where they don't have this
15:59
Speaker 2: anvil tied to their ankle.
16:02
Speaker 1: For Hailey Stevens because she's not hanging out without sign.
16:05
Speaker 2: Right, they would never do it the same way they
16:08
Speaker 2: would want the Nick Fuentis or whoever. I think Nick
16:12
Speaker 2: Fuents is disgusting and horrible.
16:14
Speaker 1: He's also not as bad. He's also claimed he votes
16:19
Speaker 1: for Democrats now right, right, he's very nominally on.
16:24
Speaker 2: Quote unquote our side at all. But you know, the
16:27
Speaker 2: idea that that this guy is just like a normal guy.
16:32
Speaker 1: Is is just false.
16:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, all right, We're going to take a short break
16:36
Speaker 2: and be right back with more on Normally. We are
16:43
Speaker 2: back on Normally, where Sean Duffy, Transportation Secretary, has recorded
16:48
Speaker 2: a sort of reality show with his family. I think
16:51
Speaker 2: it's cute and charming. A lot of people have a
16:53
Speaker 2: problem with him doing it on while he hasn't taken
16:57
Speaker 2: a break or anything from his government job. Understand that argument.
17:02
Speaker 2: But we're here to talk about a clip that came
17:04
Speaker 2: out that had Sean Duffy talking about not letting his
17:09
Speaker 2: daughter go to Harvard. Let's roll that clip.
17:12
Speaker 1: Can't say now to Harvard.
17:14
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, me and mom can say no.
17:18
Speaker 6: Catholicism to us is everything. It's the basis of our marriage,
17:22
Speaker 6: it's the basis of our family. So I'm nervous about
17:27
Speaker 6: the idea of Poloma going to Harvard. We spend a
17:30
Speaker 6: lot of time nurturing and providing formation for our kids,
17:33
Speaker 6: giving them an environment where they are steeped in faith
17:37
Speaker 6: and values, and so the idea of dropping or off
17:40
Speaker 6: at a place that would undermine that or try to
17:43
Speaker 6: undo all those things makes me worried.
17:46
Speaker 5: And again, I don't want them to get one viewpoint.
17:48
Speaker 5: I want them to get a lot of different viewpoints,
17:50
Speaker 5: but I don't want them fed only one viewpoint. This
17:53
Speaker 5: contrary to the way my kids were raised. My problem
17:56
Speaker 5: is we have thought about how we raised you and
18:00
Speaker 5: how hard we've worked to I think raise what is
18:03
Speaker 5: a remarkable young girl? If I send you there, I
18:07
Speaker 5: think what happens is they have professionalized figuring out how
18:12
Speaker 5: they can take good young girls like you, and I
18:16
Speaker 5: think corrupt their minds. You don't have to believe what
18:19
Speaker 5: I believe. You don't have to have the political viewpoints
18:22
Speaker 5: that I have, But I do think it's important that
18:25
Speaker 5: you make those choices for yourself, and you have a
18:27
Speaker 5: fair representation of what they are and I don't think
18:30
Speaker 5: the Harvards of the world give you that kind of
18:33
Speaker 5: well rounded picture.
18:34
Speaker 2: What was so interesting about this to me was that
18:38
Speaker 2: so many people on the left do not understand and
18:41
Speaker 2: do not know that conservatives have been having these conversations
18:45
Speaker 2: for years, for years. I have a daughter who's just
18:49
Speaker 2: started eleventh grade. This is very much a conversation that
18:52
Speaker 2: we're having in our home. Which schools are we not
18:55
Speaker 2: paying for? Obviously, you can make your own choices, you'll
18:58
Speaker 2: be an adult, but if we're paying for college, you're
19:01
Speaker 2: not going to Columbia. Not going to I mean, Harvard
19:05
Speaker 2: is one that's debatable in our home. And the thing
19:09
Speaker 2: is that I feel like we raised our kids with
19:13
Speaker 2: the values and kind of the ideas that I don't
19:17
Speaker 2: think will be shook by a place like Harvard. I
19:20
Speaker 2: think that they're going to be fine. But having said that,
19:25
Speaker 2: I still don't want them to be in a leftist
19:29
Speaker 2: soup of bad ideas where they're pressured to believe what
19:33
Speaker 2: everybody else believes and they're pressured to maybe take political
19:37
Speaker 2: stands that they don't want to take. So a lot
19:40
Speaker 2: of schools are off the list for us, and have
19:42
Speaker 2: been for many many years.
19:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think this is a perfectly reasonable conversation to have.
19:48
Speaker 1: People were reacting to it as if he's just breaking
19:52
Speaker 1: his child's heart, and it's like, yeah, no, he's having
19:56
Speaker 1: a conversation with her about what this looks like. And
20:01
Speaker 1: conservative parents or anyone who's not a militant leftist, it's
20:06
Speaker 1: well gone to say, if I'm going to give this
20:09
Speaker 1: institution my child and a ton of money to educate
20:14
Speaker 1: my child, what does that look like? And then you've
20:17
Speaker 1: got a bunch of leftists saying, oh, these snowflakes they
20:21
Speaker 1: can't let their kids go to Harvard, Well, what good
20:24
Speaker 1: did you do raising them if they don't have a
20:26
Speaker 1: foundation that can withstand Harvard. It's like, my dude, you've
20:29
Speaker 1: never left your parks. Right. These people can't endure hearing
20:35
Speaker 1: me talk about something different half the time. I'm a
20:40
Speaker 1: lightning rod when I come to campus. Right. So I
20:45
Speaker 1: think it's totally fair to wonder, even though Harvard's name
20:48
Speaker 1: is Harvard, what it's actually offering. And if you're an
20:54
Speaker 1: active parent who has invested years of love and intentional
21:00
Speaker 1: in your children, you should have opinions about how that's
21:04
Speaker 1: gonna go. When she gets to campus.
21:06
Speaker 3: Right.
21:06
Speaker 2: Again, imagine the reverse if a liberal family had a
21:12
Speaker 2: child who wanted to go to like Killsdale who wanted
21:15
Speaker 2: to liberty right, or to liberty or even you know,
21:18
Speaker 2: on even a smaller level, to just an openly religious school. Yes,
21:24
Speaker 2: I can you imagine that what they would think about that.
21:28
Speaker 2: And the fact is that you're right. It's the same
21:31
Speaker 2: people who invented safe spaces so that their kids didn't
21:34
Speaker 2: have to hear any differing opinion. And I kind of
21:38
Speaker 2: made a joke about this on X But the only
21:41
Speaker 2: part I disagree with is Sean Duffy being like, you
21:43
Speaker 2: don't have to have my opinions, Like, yeah, you kind
21:45
Speaker 2: of do. I mean again, imagine a liberal parent being like,
21:47
Speaker 2: you don't have to have my opinions on abortion. They
21:50
Speaker 2: would never say that, ever, they would you kind of
21:53
Speaker 2: have to have their opinions. And it's not all my
21:56
Speaker 2: opinions that I think I need my kids to share,
21:58
Speaker 2: but the foundational ones for what we believe and what
22:02
Speaker 2: we want our country to look like and all of that. Yeah,
22:04
Speaker 2: those I think that they should have my opinion on that,
22:08
Speaker 2: they should have what I consider the correct opinion on that.
22:12
Speaker 1: Well, and there's Also, I want to mention Greg Lukianov,
22:14
Speaker 1: who's written about academia for years. He's the head of fire.
22:18
Speaker 1: He calls it the conformity gauntlet. And in any institution
22:21
Speaker 1: like this, Yeah, the pressure to only believe what they
22:25
Speaker 1: believe just so you can move up.
22:27
Speaker 4: Right.
22:28
Speaker 1: No, And I knew this at CNN, right, the same thing.
22:31
Speaker 1: You know exactly what behavior will get you to the
22:34
Speaker 1: next step. You know exactly what beliefs to profess to
22:37
Speaker 1: get you there. And the question is do you do that?
22:40
Speaker 1: And if you don't, you are going to suffer some consequences,
22:44
Speaker 1: just even if it's just not rising as high as
22:46
Speaker 1: you might want to. Yeah, and do you want to
22:49
Speaker 1: put do you want to make that your entree into
22:51
Speaker 1: the professional world that you have to go to the
22:53
Speaker 1: conformity gauntlet? Now I will I will add somebody noted
22:59
Speaker 1: a professor noted that is one of the few out
23:01
Speaker 1: conservatives teaching at an Ivy League university. She wanted to
23:04
Speaker 1: add some insight, and she basically said that the lopsidedness
23:07
Speaker 1: can affect quality of teaching and education, but that if
23:11
Speaker 1: you're thinking this way with your kids, you're ahead of
23:13
Speaker 1: the curve. There's nothing wrong with wondering about it, but
23:16
Speaker 1: she often finds that conservative students who face the conformity
23:20
Speaker 1: gauntlet in fact have their ideas honed and end up
23:24
Speaker 1: having better formed arguments for what they do. I believe
23:27
Speaker 1: that finding their people and importantly finding real friendships because
23:33
Speaker 1: they have to have these interactions in person because the
23:36
Speaker 1: university has made it toxic to be having them online.
23:39
Speaker 1: I thought that was an interesting take.
23:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, I think that that's right on. And again,
23:45
Speaker 2: it's not that I'm worried about my kids having their
23:48
Speaker 2: values change. That's really not it. It's just I also
23:51
Speaker 2: don't want them battling for four years. I don't want
23:53
Speaker 2: having to have the constant fights and having the conformity
23:57
Speaker 2: pushed on them. I remember my own in college writing
24:02
Speaker 2: papers on things I did not believe. I have one
24:05
Speaker 2: that really sticks out to me on how the family
24:08
Speaker 2: is an outdated concept, got an a obviously. I remember
24:12
Speaker 2: just saying whatever they wanted to hear, and looking back
24:15
Speaker 2: at that, I was so so be it. It was
24:17
Speaker 2: like I knew what to regurgitate to them, so that
24:20
Speaker 2: my teachers, who were you know, ninety plus probably liberal,
24:24
Speaker 2: gave me the a that I was saying whatever they
24:27
Speaker 2: wanted me to say. I want to believe that we
24:29
Speaker 2: can move past that kind of system, but I don't
24:32
Speaker 2: see it at all at any of our universities very well.
24:35
Speaker 1: I think it was one of the braver students, but
24:37
Speaker 1: I still didn't push back a ton until I knew
24:40
Speaker 1: I was pretty much good for graduation. And then I
24:42
Speaker 1: started pushing back more. And I found when I was
24:44
Speaker 1: looking through my old stuff recently a gun control paper.
24:48
Speaker 1: It's like, you know that one to get an a
24:50
Speaker 1: that was that was nice that we.
24:54
Speaker 2: Don't want our kids doing that. Maybe we want them
24:57
Speaker 2: to be able to say whatever they want, and we
24:59
Speaker 2: know that certain schools won't allow that. My priority, actually
25:03
Speaker 2: for my eleventh grader is a place that values.
25:07
Speaker 4: Free speech and schools that specifically go out of their
25:11
Speaker 4: way to say we are a place where free speech
25:14
Speaker 4: is welcomed and encouraged, and we have a lot of
25:17
Speaker 4: different viewpoints and all of that.
25:19
Speaker 2: That's the priority for me. And then probably second to
25:22
Speaker 2: that is somewhere that takes anti Semitism seriously and didn't
25:25
Speaker 2: let the Hamasniks run rampant on their campuses.
25:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, let me add some proof that academia is a
25:31
Speaker 1: bit off the rails, so we have I think we've
25:35
Speaker 1: spoken briefly about the Jason our Day controversy. Sadly it
25:38
Speaker 1: ended with his death, which no one wants to happen.
25:41
Speaker 1: He was accused very credibly of plagiarism and all sorts
25:45
Speaker 1: of fabulousm in his career. But since that happened, there
25:51
Speaker 1: has been a backlash against those who pointed out he
25:56
Speaker 1: had risen in the elite academia universe despite all these fabrications, plagiarism, etc.
26:05
Speaker 1: Including the actual whistleblower, the academic who was at Cambridge
26:10
Speaker 1: and was let go for his wrongthank he ended up
26:13
Speaker 1: at a Belgian university and started writing about how Our
26:18
Speaker 1: Day was violating all these academic integrity rules, and he
26:24
Speaker 1: has now been suspended by the Belgian university because of
26:30
Speaker 1: his part in this, which is to me just such
26:34
Speaker 1: an indictment of academia. And of course they say we
26:38
Speaker 1: attach great importance to academic freedom and to open academic
26:41
Speaker 1: debate even when views are controversial. However, that freedom is
26:44
Speaker 1: not unlimited, and he's suspended at the moment, but I
26:47
Speaker 1: don't feel great about him continuing in that employment. And
26:51
Speaker 1: one last point on this because I need to read
26:53
Speaker 1: you this quote. This is from the New England Medical
26:58
Speaker 1: Journal and the pieces in titled Jason Our Day in
27:01
Speaker 1: the Perils of Being Black in Academia Quick two sentences
27:04
Speaker 1: from it. They're trying to kill us. When black academics
27:08
Speaker 1: say this, I imagine folks outside of our community think
27:11
Speaker 1: we're being hyperbolic. We are not. It's appalling and scary.
27:15
Speaker 1: And also this is not how This is how it
27:17
Speaker 1: feels to know that there are systemic pressures working against
27:20
Speaker 1: your success, your well being, and in the case of
27:22
Speaker 1: Jason our Day, your life. He goes on to say
27:25
Speaker 1: he doesn't care if the professor our Day accusations are true.
27:29
Speaker 1: None of them were worth his career or his life.
27:32
Speaker 1: Then the message to black academics is clear, come in,
27:35
Speaker 1: be great, and indeed be excellent, but don't dare dream
27:38
Speaker 1: too big, don't dare shine too bright, walk the line
27:40
Speaker 1: of excellence and humility with perfect grace, and be ready
27:43
Speaker 1: to fight for your life. Or don't plagiarize.
27:47
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, were his plagiarism accusations worth his life?
27:51
Speaker 3: No?
27:51
Speaker 2: Were his plagiarism accusations worth his career?
27:54
Speaker 1: Yes?
27:54
Speaker 2: So those are two different things, and they want you dead.
27:58
Speaker 2: I don't know who they are in this case, but
28:00
Speaker 2: call me back when you have a crowd cheering as
28:03
Speaker 2: somebody makes up a mocking song about Jason ar Day
28:06
Speaker 2: on the right or anywhere, and then we'll talk about
28:09
Speaker 2: who wants who.
28:10
Speaker 1: Did so that's that's academia.
28:14
Speaker 2: Yeah, And why wouldn't want to stand to our kids there?
28:16
Speaker 1: Who can tell us?
28:20
Speaker 2: All right, We're going to take a short break and
28:21
Speaker 2: be right back with more on normally.
28:27
Speaker 1: All right, we are back on normally with a story
28:30
Speaker 1: about the New York Times. They're not used to this.
28:33
Speaker 1: They lost a defamation case for the first time in
28:36
Speaker 1: fifty years. This is in Alabama. A Tuscaloosa jury returned
28:40
Speaker 1: to verdict in a civil trial pitting a former Alabama
28:43
Speaker 1: walk on basketball player against New York Times. Kay Spears
28:46
Speaker 1: was awarded damages of nine point two five million in
28:49
Speaker 1: the defamation trial. Thursday evening, The New York Times wrote
28:52
Speaker 1: about the verdict. The lawsuits stemmed from reporting done in
28:54
Speaker 1: the aftermath of a twenty twenty three murder of twenty
28:56
Speaker 1: three year old Birmingham mother, Jamia Harris. Then Alabama well
29:00
Speaker 1: player Darius Miles was charged with murder in the shooting
29:02
Speaker 1: that occurred in the Strip in Tuscaloosa near the UA campus.
29:05
Speaker 1: Miles is still a waiting trial. His friend Michael Davis
29:08
Speaker 1: was convicted of capital murder. Spears was a walk on
29:11
Speaker 1: freshman at the time of the shooting and was falsely
29:13
Speaker 1: connected to the event. The New York Times reporter said
29:15
Speaker 1: that he was in a car at the time of
29:18
Speaker 1: the shooting with these other folks and was not. So
29:22
Speaker 1: this is kind of a big deal because it's been
29:24
Speaker 1: a long time since The New York Times has lost
29:27
Speaker 1: one of these cases, right.
29:29
Speaker 2: I think the difference here is that he was treated
29:31
Speaker 2: as a private figure, according to The Washington Post, so
29:35
Speaker 2: he did not have to meet the more demanding actual
29:38
Speaker 2: malice standard that applies to public officials and public figures.
29:42
Speaker 2: The Time said quote it was an honest mistake, doesn't
29:45
Speaker 2: seem like that honest mistake. And the fact is, they
29:48
Speaker 2: make mistakes like this all the time. They make mistakes
29:52
Speaker 2: all the time. They're never held accountable. The fact that
29:55
Speaker 2: they lost this one is like amazing and different, but
29:59
Speaker 2: it really should be much more often because they are
30:01
Speaker 2: just frequently wrong like this.
30:03
Speaker 1: Well, and the idea that Kay spears like, oops, oopsy,
30:06
Speaker 1: we connected you with a really controversial murder. That does
30:10
Speaker 1: seem like a problem for his regular life. He's since
30:14
Speaker 1: transferred from University of Alabama. I would guess that probably
30:17
Speaker 1: has something to do with it. Yeah, because it's hard
30:19
Speaker 1: to live your life normally in the wake of that.
30:21
Speaker 2: So right, I mean, I think to the you know,
30:25
Speaker 2: Sarah Palin, you know with the map that she had
30:29
Speaker 2: released a map of election districts' target and then Gabby
30:33
Speaker 2: Giffords was shot by somebody and her map was blamed
30:37
Speaker 2: for it. The Times basically got away with tying her
30:42
Speaker 2: to the map, and that was because she was a
30:43
Speaker 2: public figure and that the standard for malice was so high.
30:48
Speaker 1: So in other news, I did want to note real quick,
30:50
Speaker 1: Karen Attia, the absolutely horrendous opinion columnist for the Washington
30:54
Speaker 1: Post and arbitrator, has ordered that they rehire her after
30:58
Speaker 1: she made some nasty about in the wake of Charlie
31:01
Speaker 1: Kirk's death. But my feeling on that was she wasn't
31:04
Speaker 1: really fired for that. She was fired for a body
31:06
Speaker 1: of work that was a very unimpressive. But apparently the
31:10
Speaker 1: Washington Posts Guild and union agreements are that you have
31:15
Speaker 1: to do arbitration, and arbitration is binding. So Attiya will
31:20
Speaker 1: be coming back to the Washington Post opinions page in
31:23
Speaker 1: some capacity. Apparently you can't fire back, can't.
31:27
Speaker 4: Get rid of her.
31:28
Speaker 1: What are you gonna do?
31:29
Speaker 2: I mostly remember her for during the twenty twenty riots,
31:36
Speaker 2: she posted her cash app and was like, if you
31:38
Speaker 2: want to pay a black person, you know, for all
31:41
Speaker 2: your sins, here's my cash app. Like, girl, you work
31:43
Speaker 2: at the Washington Post, you're a columnist there, why are
31:47
Speaker 2: you posting your cash app? Like, come on?
31:50
Speaker 5: Yeah?
31:50
Speaker 1: Embarrassing, embarrassing several times over many like over the years.
31:54
Speaker 2: Yeah, And they're going to have to have her back
31:56
Speaker 2: because that's them's the rules, and that's what they've kind
32:01
Speaker 2: of gotten themselves into. And it's sad, empathetic And why
32:04
Speaker 2: does she want to come back when she knows she's
32:06
Speaker 2: not wanted there?
32:06
Speaker 1: But here we are, yeah media, Yeah, I feel like
32:12
Speaker 1: I wouldn't get my job back right right, and we
32:15
Speaker 1: wouldn't be orientated. It feels like a double standard, right,
32:18
Speaker 1: a little bit of a double standard.
32:20
Speaker 2: Well, thanks for joining us on normally normally airs Tuesdays
32:23
Speaker 2: and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts,
32:26
Speaker 2: get in touch with us at normally thepod at gmail
32:29
Speaker 2: dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things get weird,
32:32
Speaker 2: act normally