Latest / SpaceTomatoes / From Bronze Star to Plot Armor Matt Hasty on Orders, Anarchy & Charleston Stages S3-EP12

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From Bronze Star to Plot Armor Matt Hasty on Orders, Anarchy & Charleston Stages S3-EP12 · SpaceTomatoes

• 0:00
  And the shenanigans that went around just in this little local election.
• 0:04
  He was approached by party representatives, and they said,
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  Hey, we switch you to our party.
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  We'll pay for an apartment in this other district so you don't have to run against our guy.
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  And this is just local stuff.
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  All this shenanigans going.
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  I can only imagine the stories that you could tell us.
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  All right, everybody.
• 0:46
  Welcome back to another episode of the Space Tomatoes podcast.
• 0:49
  Today we are joined by a special guest, Matt Hastie, a bronze star decorated retired Army Chief Warrant Officer,
• 0:56
  former congressional candidate and has reinvented himself as an actor award-placing screenwriter and
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  stage director welcome to the show matt thank you gentlemen mr havoc mr lx yes sir yes sir
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  so um what okay i i just got it that's an interesting like i i the you know from chief
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  foreign officer to congressional candidate. Okay. That makes sense. That tracks from there to
• 1:25
  actor, screenwriter, stage director. I'm like, Oh, where'd we go? Where did that come from?
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  Well, I think it's, I think you guys would agree too, that, that, um, one of the most important
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  things in life is to find yourself an artistic outlet in some way, shape or form, whether it's
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  drawing or writing or sculpting or, you know, don't, you don't even have to be good at it.
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  Learn to play the drums, man. You know, something that can give you an outlet for those moments of
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  frustration or sad, or even just boredom, something that you can go and do and express creativity in a
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  way that, um, it can be therapeutic almost. And not just for you, but for anybody around you who
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  is also trying to express themselves artistically.
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  And for the majority of my life, I've been that nerd.
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  I've been that comic book nerd, the TV science fiction nerd, the movie nerd.
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  I've loved them all my life.
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  And even though my path of seeking truth, wisdom, whatever you want to call it,
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  that pathway of making my way through life, it did take me through the military.
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  It took me through politics.
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  I'm still involved in politics in some ways, but the love that I have for film as an art form has never faded.
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  I could talk to you guys for hours about the best films out there.
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  So once my political career, I did run for Congress. I did not win.
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  And once that kind of fizzled out, I moved to Charleston to be a full time dad.
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  And I was left with that unique position of what do I do with my time?
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  And that's when I decided to throw myself into artistic creativity. And I took some film production classes at the local technical college and they wanted to train me on sound mixing and the different camera types and lighting. And that's when I realized I didn't care about any of that stuff. I really didn't.
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  I just wanted the artistic expressions that you see on the scene and the best connection between my skill set, which is the military taught me a lot of public speaking and being able to stand in front of crowds and not feel humiliation or shame.
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  So the most specific application of that is to either be in charge of a production as a director or to be in front of the camera as an actor.
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  So I threw myself into that and started writing some screenplays because, you know, I really think I'm the only person in the world that can write good movies, just like I think everybody else who tries to write movies.
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  But I know it seems a little odd, but trust me, in my mind, it makes sense.
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  In a lot of ways, I'm like, and here I go babbling, but in a lot of ways, it's, I don't know if either one of you are Christians, but there's a book of the Bible called Ecclesiastes, where an unknown author is seeking, you know, purpose in all these different areas.
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  He's seeking it through wisdom, through pleasure, through piety.
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  And ultimately what follows is just, you know, whenever God wants it to be, God will let you know what's important when it's time.
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  And that's kind of where I'm at now.
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  One of my favorite sayings is want to make God laugh.
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  Tell him your plans.
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  Yeah.
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  So, yeah, I know.
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  And I think that's a really valid thing right there.
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  You know, that creative outlet is something that's necessary for all of us.
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  We need to have something that we do, you know, it could be crocheting.
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  It could be making duct tape boats to push down our, you know, gutter river or whatever.
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  It doesn really matter Are podcasts an art form It is Sure they are Absolutely Why aren they This is the artistic creation or this is the artistic expression of discussion that
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  you are exchanging ideas in a way that you are trying to express something.
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  And even if the expression is just an interesting conversation, can you agree that having an
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  interesting conversation is more of an art than a science?
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  Oh, yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  I think it is.
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  Absolutely. So did you go to school then to learn how to screenwrite, etc.?
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  No, I did do the degree thing. I have a bachelor's in information technology management, and I have a master's in organizational leadership.
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  But neither one of those is acting. I never went through an official acting school.
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  I did study. That's what the question that people like to ask, you know, did you study anywhere?
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  And it's like, well, I've studied, but I haven't studied anywhere. And in a lot of ways, most of the things that I've learned over the last five or six years about any topic has been me diving into the Internet various ways.
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  and now I'm teaching acting at the same technical college that I decided I didn't want to
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  pursue any more classes which the combination of studying on my own to become an actor
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  and then actually being an actor in various productions and now having to teach the craft
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  I definitely had to study somewhere so I didn't get a degree in it but I did go through some
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  education in various ways.
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  So no Juilliard.
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  No, no.
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  And in Charleston, we have, and I'm going to say it wrong, I know,
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  and a lot of people from Charleston are going to laugh at me,
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  but here they have G-A-I-L-L-A-R-D, which it's not the New York Juilliard.
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  I think they call it Galiard.
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  It's something that's just slightly different,
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  but it's a huge theater production thing.
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  But I enjoy the artistic expression, but I've been held holding myself back from trying to dive into it full bore because everything I learned about once you start getting into the corporate and professional aspects of acting or film production or even theater, it gets very nasty, very fast.
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  It turns into nepotism and money around everything.
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  Is there is there a big enough scene in Charleston to do that?
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  I know it's not comparable to New York or Los Angeles.
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  Is there still a pretty good crowd there?
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  There's a technical college that has a film production area,
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  which means there's a lot of student films.
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  And there's also some Hollywood productions that come here.
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  I don't know.
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  You ever heard of The Righteous Gemstones on HBO?
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  It's a Danny McBride comedy,
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  and that shot here for the whole 44 seasons it was here.
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  and there's another one called Outer Banks. There's a few like professional Hollywood level
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  productions that shoot in and around the Charleston area. And a lot of these film production students
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  will, you know, they'll go, they're, they'll go and they'll work for free. So of course the film
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  production people are like, okay, just sign here, make sure I'm not liable for you. But, you know,
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  so there are opportunities to learn from the professionals, but there are, there are also,
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  I think in any big city, especially in 2026 America, you've got all the dreamers in the world.
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  There's all kinds of people who want to be directors, screenwriters, actors, and it's not difficult to put all those people together and create a project.
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  I mean, they have premieres here. It's nothing like what you'll see in New York or L.A.
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  But if you're in Charleston and it's something you want to pursue as an artistic expression, there are opportunities.
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  There's also tons of community theater, depending on how much you want to go into.
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  I was going to say Charleston is really, you know, I mean, you've got a very eclectic mix, but it is it is a very, you know, art centric type of a town, especially when you're in downtown Charleston, you know, especially like the open air market and all that kind of stuff where you've got the other one that goes on the square there.
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  I can't remember the name of it.
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  That's I think once a month, but you, you have a lot of artistic expression.
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  Last time we were down there, I actually bought a dude, welded a propane tank into a little
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  pig.
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  And so that's sitting out front.
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  I liked it.
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  I love this country so much.
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  He welded a propane tank into a pig.
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  That's art right there.
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  It is.
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  It is.
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  I saw it and I was like, you know what?
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  I want that.
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  So we got it.
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  we went to when i lived in manhattan for a year i was stationed in uh i was attached to fema
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  in in new york city for a year and me and my now ex-wife but we jumped on the subway and we went
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  to brooklyn because there was some famous i don't remember the names of it but it's like a famous
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  farmer's market but some kind of artistic style farmer's market and we were walking through there
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  i mean there a lot of unique it art so you know it all going to depend on what your interpretation is I walking around going this is garbage They literally selling us garbage and calling it art But she found a brick I mean it was just like a regular mason brick with two holes in it red mason brick and it had dirt in each one of the holes
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  And there was a single flower growing out of it, and they wanted $150 for it.
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  Wow.
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  And I don't want to disparage anybody trying to make money off their art.
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  I don't want to disparage the work that went into the thought for that art project.
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  But right then and there, it was like, you know, I might not be a modern art kind of guy.
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  Yeah.
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  It's all about what you, you know, it's really an individual thing, right?
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  Yeah, subjective.
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  Yeah.
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  Yeah.
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  You can find areas where people all get together and they go, oh, yeah, well, that's a beautiful work, right?
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  But that's very few and far between.
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  Most art falls into the category of you either love it or you hate it.
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  Yeah.
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  I think.
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  Like, you know, I look at some of the stuff and I'm like,
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  I just don't understand why anybody would want that in their house or hanging on their home.
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  I'm like that with movies now, man.
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  I don't know what the hell went on with – I mean, I do know, or at least I think I know,
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  but that's an hour-long rant.
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  But what Hollywood has turned into is just amazing that, you know,
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  as somebody who appreciated the art form for a long time, it's enough to drive you nuts.
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  so what happens if uh what happens if they approach you and say hey mr hasty uh you want
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  to be famous uh that's great we we have this opportunity for you we just have a few things
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  that we need you to do for us before before that happens well and this is going to sound very
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  self-centered i know that but i have considered this i've sat around and asked myself like when's
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  my big break going to come when am i going to turn into you know whoever the next great uh
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  thing and i honestly i don't know i don't it's going to depend on the things you know of course
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  but uh it's okay it's just just a night at diddy's house and just bring some maybe that was
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  would you accept the invitation to the diddy party no i might go to the i might go to the
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  party just to say i went to the party but i'm y'all might not be able to tell but i'm a pretty
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  big dude i'm like 6'2 250 so diddy ain't gonna i mean it's gonna take a team of them to get that
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  That's the kind they like.
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  Well, then afterwards, he's got to live the rest of his life in fear,
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  and there ain't nothing I can do to help him about that.
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  But that's one of the beautiful things about being,
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  and I do want to give a shout-out to the Department of Defense
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  and Veterans Affairs because I think a lot of veterans badmouth them
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  in various ways, but they very much took care of me.
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  I had a lot of problems when I was getting out of the military,
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  physically, mentally, emotionally.
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  I mean, I had broken down in a lot of ways and they took care of me so well so that now I'm not going to be able to live in this apartment or live like royalty.
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  But if I never want to work again, I can live in a trailer off baloney sandwiches like my retirement will take care of that.
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  And that gives me a level of freedom that if somebody did come to me from Hollywood and they said, you know, hey, let me offer you this steady job and all the money in the world.
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  it's a beautiful thing to just be like i don't need you man i don't need you i i the military
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  has taken care of me i gave 20 years and now i don't need your million dollar paycheck
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  uh i would love it just to be able to with film as an artistic medium it requires so much money
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  it's you can make a movie on your phone nowadays so it's not exclusive to that but in order for
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  the movie to be interesting there's a series y'all you guys know this so i mean let me talk about it
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  for just a second like you don't the lighting the the cinematography the music the costumes
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  the the camera work the all of the different not the writing the the storyboards each one of these
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  things isn't and that's before you get to the actors the makeup the each one of these things
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  requires a level of artistic dedication that, I mean, you can have some people double up,
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  but you really need a team with you. And if you're going to make a movie, you're going to need so much
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  time that the only way to get a movie done is by paying these people. You're going to have to help
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  pay their bills. Otherwise, it's just not going to function. So right off the bat, you're dealing
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  with the money situation. And then once you start getting into the quality of all those categories,
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  I just said, you know, which kind of lights are you going to use? You know, which kind of makeup
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  are you going to use? So that's one of the things that's frustrating about that artistic medium.
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  One of the reasons that I'd be tempted to go to the Diddy party is just like, hey man, you know,
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  you can't touch me, but I'll go hang out and, you know, drink some whiskey with you
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  if you're going to fund my project. But Mr. Hastie, would $100 million in a private jet
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  change your mind? I mean, that's a lot of money. That's a lot of money. I don't know. I would,
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  I would consider it in a way that would be considered offensive to a lot of people.
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  $100 million is a lot of money.
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  Where's the baby oil?
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  Well you sitting there like man I could give million of it to the church you know and maybe that would buy me an indulgence like back in the Catholic days And then I could you know and you can get away with a whole lot of stuff
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  I'm pretty positive.
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  Well, let me lie to myself, Havoc.
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  Why can't you let me have my lie so I can live my dream?
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  Get off me, bro.
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  Yeah, 50 million dollars in tithe, that clears that night.
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  Yeah, that's it.
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  I think any priest in America nowadays be like, yeah, you're forgiven, bro.
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  Never happened.
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  Never happened.
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  Yeah.
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  Any more indulgences?
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  Before I forget about it, because I know it's going to just leave my brain.
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  You mentioned you were involved in FEMA, and I didn't want to change the subject.
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  But I was attached to FEMA.
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  How involved were you with FEMA?
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  So after this, and if I talk too long, you guys are just going to have to give me a heads up.
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  But after Katrina, when Katrina hit New Orleans and FEMA had all those problems,
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  They couldn't get people evacuated. They couldn't get water to the Superdome, all that stuff.
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  The federal government changed the way that FEMA operated in terms of active duty military.
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  After Katrina, the policy shifted so that every FEMA region and, you know, the entire United States is broken up into regions for FEMA.
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  And the entire FEMA region, whoever the command, I say commander, the civilian that's in charge, whoever is in charge of that FEMA region has an active duty army component attached to him.
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  And their entire, it's called a defense coordination element.
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  And whatever, if FEMA gets kicked forward, let's say I was, because I was in Manhattan, I worked in 26 Federal Plaza.
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  And if something goes down, here's a perfect example in New Jersey.
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  In New Jersey, the year I was in Manhattan is when the Super Bowl was in New Jersey.
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  It was the Panthers-Broncos Super Bowl where the Broncos just got demolished.
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  But when that happened, the New Jersey – everybody's prepared for some kind of terrorist attack.
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  Everybody's prepared for something to go wrong because it's a huge event.
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  We all know that it's a major soft target.
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  And when you activate certain elements of the government to just be on standby, the defense coordination element has to be right there next to whoever's in charge.
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  And the intent is if something gets bad enough at the secretary of defense level, they can sign a memo and then that active duty colonel can turn to the FEMA director and say, what do you need?
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  And if he needs Blackhawks, that active duty colonel is now in charge of all of what we call Title 10 resources, which is active duty military resources within that area.
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  He can call Fort Drum and say, give me, you know, 20 Blackhawks.
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  Give me a thousand troops.
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  Now, they can't.
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  There's certain things that are restricted from doing them.
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  Active duty military, because of Pase Comitatus, they can't carry weapons.
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  They can't carry rounds.
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  They can't engage in it.
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  They can't even defend a convoy.
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  If they were bringing supplies to an area because of a disaster had descended into chaos, active duty military, because of the law, if they're taking convoys of supplies and they're getting attacked, they can't defend themselves.
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  They can't. They're not even supposed to be carrying those live rounds.
• 18:46
  Now, you know, don't get me started on all the loopholes that are involved in this.
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  And I mean, you get active duty military down at the border.
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  Uh, but so the active duty military that's attached to the FEMA director in that FEMA
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  region consists of an active duty Colonel and active duty Lieutenant Colonel, um, an
• 19:05
  operation Sergeant, a communication Sergeant and a supply Sergeant.
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  And I was the communication Sergeant.
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  And it was the best assignment I've ever had in the military.
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  I'm almost done because I'm stationed in Manhattan, which means you, the taxpayers were paying
• 19:20
  my rent in Manhattan for me to live in a nice little shoebox apartment. But FEMA reason two
• 19:28
  is New York State, New Jersey, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. And because we are
• 19:36
  a unit that is associated with readiness, we always have to be ready to go no matter what
• 19:41
  disaster happens. The comms have to be checked monthly. That means I have to go to San Juan,
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  Puerto Rico and I have to go to St. Thomas and the Virgin Islands once a month to check all of
• 19:52
  the cars. It was the best assignment in the world. Are you kidding me? Once a month for four days,
• 19:59
  usually two days, but sometimes I can get away with it. For four days to sit down there,
• 20:05
  because you have to test all the emergency comms. You got to test the radios, the secret phones,
• 20:09
  all that stuff. And if something's wrong, you got to fix it.
• 20:12
  so all right so i'll ask the question that maybe i don't know some people might be afraid to ask
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  how close were we to having the walmart's converted into uh confinement centers and
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  all the people that refuse to take the vaccine put in there you know like if you read the internet
• 20:30
  that's what was going to happen well i was attached to fema in 2014 so uh i worked at
• 20:40
  UN General Assembly and there was
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  well, I don't know if I could talk about that, but there
• 20:46
  was something else domestic
• 20:47
  that was not that
• 20:50
  But I can tell you, having worked in the military for 20 years and having seen how the government operates at the Pentagon level and all the way down at the dirt where they dig the holes, that's not going to happen.
• 21:02
  It's not going to happen.
• 21:04
  What people, I don't want to pull you too far off your question, but what a lot of people forget about America is how well armed we are.
• 21:13
  It's not just about the cities, because in the cities you could get a lot of that just from giving directions.
• 21:22
  You'd be amazed at how if you come from a position of authority, and you saw this with COVID.
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  If you come from a position of authority and you say X equals Y, there's going to be an entire group of people who are going to say X equals Y, and they're going to scream at anybody who disagrees.
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  So you can get a lot of people to go into these Walmarts or whatever just by saying you need to go there.
• 21:41
  But you're also going to have the rednecks in rural Louisiana and rural Illinois and even a lot of the common sense, not to disparage too many people, but a lot of the common sense in the cities.
• 21:54
  They're going to say, I don't care what the government says.
• 21:57
  I'm not going into that Walmart, no matter what they say.
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  And that resistance in order to comply with the directive that is given, unless it's optional.
• 22:07
  So if we're saying it's mandatory, anytime you hear the word mandatory, that involves force.
• 22:12
  That is literally you're endorsing violence.
• 22:15
  OK, by saying because somebody is going to resist and you have to have guidelines for what those people do when they resist.
• 22:21
  Now, in COVID, they tried this public shaming, you know, whatever they want to call it,
• 22:27
  where you got deplatformed and considered a moron if you didn't take the vaccine or stay six feet and wear the mask.
• 22:33
  But there was very little, they had some in democratic states, but there was very little violence applied to people in order to get them to comply.
• 22:42
  Except for the violence of the laws and the violence was, well, you just won't fly.
• 22:46
  Or, well, you just won't get this job.
• 22:49
  I think you gave me a five cent question and I gave you a $50 answer.
• 22:53
  No, I appreciate it.
• 22:55
  So you were around for the Katrina thing.
• 22:58
  I have a question.
• 23:00
  Well, I was in Afghanistan when that happened.
• 23:02
  Go ahead.
• 23:02
  Oh, all right.
• 23:04
  I was only at FEMA for one year.
• 23:06
  I got to FEMA.
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  I had a really good question.
• 23:08
  I had a really good question.
• 23:10
  Well, I'm from Louisiana, so you can ask.
• 23:13
  Who made the wonderful, brilliant decision to erect the camp with all the mobile, the trailers, et cetera, in Texas to help the victims of Katrina in Louisiana?
• 23:29
  I can almost guarantee you it came from the top.
• 23:32
  Something like that.
• 23:33
  Anything involving state lines.
• 23:36
  Yeah.
• 23:36
  Who thought 500 miles away?
• 23:38
  Yeah, that sounds like a good place to set up.
• 23:42
  I'm going to tell you, look, so this is, you know, because I started in the military as an E1 private all the way at the bottom.
• 23:50
  All right.
• 23:51
  And I made it to Sergeant First Class, which is, I mean, that's a senior NCO.
• 23:56
  And I served as a Sergeant First Class for six years, which is a long time.
• 24:00
  I made rank real fast because Iraq and Afghanistan were kicking off and they promoted everybody.
• 24:08
  I got to see the military at the moderate level, at the battalion level, brigade, division.
• 24:14
  But I also got to see it way up at those higher levels.
• 24:18
  And as there's this thing when you're a young soldier and maybe it's like this in the corporate world when you're a young employee or whatever, that you truly like even if you're motivated, you're like, OK, this seems stupid.
• 24:28
  But, you know, maybe it makes more sense to the people making the decision.
• 24:32
  They see more than I do.
• 24:33
  They know more than I do about this situation.
• 24:35
  And then as you get promoted in the military and you move higher, that's not what it is.
• 24:40
  Like you sit in these meetings and you're like, no, these decisions get made for very stupid reasons.
• 24:46
  Very dumb.
• 24:47
  Like, I don't want to look bad kind of reasons.
• 24:49
  And it doesn't matter that they're screwing people over.
• 24:52
  Thousands of families.
• 24:53
  I'm not going to bust anybody out.
• 24:55
  But I was stationed at Fort Stewart, which is outside Savannah, and there was a hurricane coming.
• 25:01
  I don't remember which hurricane, but like, I mean, y'all know what it's like when a hurricane's coming in the 2000s.
• 25:07
  It's on your phone.
• 25:08
  It's on the news.
• 25:09
  It's national level news because everybody knows they're tracking it.
• 25:12
  They want to know where it's coming.
• 25:13
  Well, this thing we knew was coming straight for Savannah.
• 25:17
  Like it was nobody was dissenting about it.
• 25:19
  And we're talking.
• 25:22
  I don't want to lie to you.
• 25:23
  I think it was less than a day.
• 25:24
  It was something that was it was ridiculous that we had not been ordered to evacuate yet because everybody around us had been ordered to evacuate.
• 25:31
  And I got I had a newborn at home. I had my. So the first time in my life, I disobeyed orders.
• 25:37
  I just I said, OK, guys, I'm on my phone if you need me. And I drove home and I evacuated, got on the phone and drove to like.
• 25:44
  Oh, I don't know. I don't think we stopped till we hit Tennessee because everybody else was evacuating, too.
• 25:48
  But those decisions, the reason that they didn't want to give the evacuation order, it had nothing to do with the safety of the troops.
• 25:55
  It had nothing to do with anything other than nobody wanted to be the person to make that decision And all the way at the top they waiting on they waiting on some person to get a briefing They waiting on some person to have a meeting or something so that they can make that decision
• 26:10
  And it drives you crazy because that's a really stupid reason for people to be left in danger.
• 26:16
  So that's everywhere.
• 26:19
  And everywhere in the military.
• 26:20
  And as I got hired, there's an old saying in the military that you know when it's time to go.
• 26:26
  you know when it's time and my last few years were very difficult but i made it i made it
• 26:32
  i knew it was time to go without getting into any like particular experience i mean unless you want
• 26:38
  to and you feel comfortable doing that how do you personally reconcile taking an order and
• 26:44
  following through with it if you don't personally believe that that's the right call which i'm sure
• 26:50
  happens or even if it goes against your you know personal convictions most of well first i'm going
• 26:58
  to give you the idea the idealism answer first and then i'm going to give you the brainwashing
• 27:02
  answer so the idealism answer is it's not service if you're not sacrificing something
• 27:08
  and one of the things that you sacrifice when you're in the military is your ability
• 27:13
  your ability to make those decisions you don't get to decide if it's a good order or not you
• 27:19
  You don't get to I mean, there are exceptions, of course.
• 27:21
  You're not going to flamethrower a village and shoot some kids in the head and you can be legally prosecuted for following those kinds of orders.
• 27:29
  But when it comes to things like what I just described, I could have when, you know, I'm waiting on them to give the order for evacuation and I got my child in danger and I just said I disobeyed orders because nobody given the evacuation order.
• 27:43
  I was technically a walls absent from my post without leave.
• 27:46
  and for me to make that decision part of it was that frustration that I had already started to
• 27:52
  reach toward the end of my military career but it was also that I had reached a high enough rank
• 27:56
  that I felt I could deal with the consequences I didn't really care whether or not because if I
• 28:01
  got caught doing it that's I mean they weren't going to bust me down in rank you know they might
• 28:06
  if they really wanted to go to town on me they could have but I would have just gotten chewed out
• 28:10
  So when you get high enough rank, there's something in there's another military saying says do what your rank can handle, because every once in a while you will find yourself in those kinds of situations.
• 28:24
  And you're most of the time your peers or even your bosses, sometimes they won't stand in your way because they know what it's like.
• 28:33
  Sometimes you just have to use your best judgment and decide to accept the consequences for disobeying an order.
• 28:38
  So that's kind of the idealism version of it, which involves you have to sacrifice that part of your decision making process for yourself.
• 28:48
  And the brainwashing part of it is I can't speak to the other military services, but in the army from day one, they are ripping out your individuality.
• 28:58
  And it's a good thing that they do because everything about being in the military is about being part of a team.
• 29:05
  You have to be on a team. Even even in basic training, you don't go anywhere without a buddy.
• 29:09
  It's called a battle buddy. And everything that you do requires you to understand your place in the team,
• 29:18
  which is especially as an E1, which is to shut up and drag that, you know, case across the sand.
• 29:24
  I don't care how much it sucks. I don't care how hot it is. We're all hot. Shut up. Drag the damn box.
• 29:30
  so when you start getting into those
• 29:34
  they're called illegal orders
• 29:36
  the immoral illegal orders
• 29:39
  that becomes a gray area that
• 29:42
  you didn't touch on this
• 29:46
  and I don't know if I want to drag y'all down this rabbit hole
• 29:48
  but these Democratic Congress people
• 29:51
  who went and gave a video
• 29:52
  that encouraged service members to understand
• 29:56
  that they don't have to follow illegal orders
• 29:58
  that was very frustrating for me as somebody who was in the military because well first of all just
• 30:05
  to to answer the arguments of every military person who will hear this everybody knows you
• 30:10
  don't follow illegal orders every it's one of the first things they teach you in the military
• 30:14
  okay that you're not supposed to kill an innocent child just because your boss told you to you can
• 30:20
  get in trouble for doing that but the democratic congress people that did that had enough military
• 30:28
  experience and had enough federal agency experience to understand that how what they were saying would
• 30:34
  be perceived. And they did it purely for political reasons. And we are living in a time where things
• 30:42
  like we're disagreeing on presidential powers to the degree that the Supreme Court has to decide
• 30:49
  what is legal and what is not legal. That's where we are right now, that whether it's Obama or
• 30:55
  or Biden or Trump or whoever it is, they'll do something on immigration.
• 31:00
  Obama tried to rewrite immigration.
• 31:02
  He did rewrite immigration law, but that had to go to the Supreme Court to decide if he could do that.
• 31:07
  Congress passed the Affordable Care Act.
• 31:09
  That had to go to the Supreme Court for them to decide whether or not that was a legal law So in this modern context where the major decisions that are made by people in politics
• 31:22
  even they aren't sure if it's legal, even they're not sure if the order that you've been given by
• 31:28
  the president is legal. To put that doubt from that government level down to the lower levels
• 31:35
  of the military by releasing it on social media, it was irresponsible at best. You don't want to
• 31:42
  hear me go, you already heard me go off on it, but to me, it's closer to treason than irresponsible
• 31:46
  because you, I mean, not treason, it's closer to sedition because sedition, if I remember my
• 31:52
  terms correctly, sedition is encouraging others to disobey orders. So there was another $50 answer.
• 32:01
  At the same time though, so a couple of things I would interject here, right?
• 32:05
  I think it's important to know this, and I think very, very, very few people actually know this, right?
• 32:12
  Number one, the Supreme Court interpreting the Constitution is unconstitutional.
• 32:21
  They gave themselves that authority in the 1800s, late 1800s, and were never contested on it.
• 32:29
  And ever since, they've ruled on interpretations, including things like the Commerce Act, which has become the largest billy club the government has to wield, bar none.
• 32:41
  So what's the constitutional role of the Supreme Court, in your opinion?
• 32:45
  It is to rule on law, not to rule on the interpretation of what is constitutional.
• 32:50
  What does that mean, rule on law? Doesn't that mean interpreting the laws?
• 32:54
  the laws that are made by Congress, okay, that is what the Supreme Court's dictate is,
• 33:03
  is to uphold and to rule on the laws that Congress is legislating. It is not to interpret the
• 33:10
  Constitution. In fact, that is, if you look at the, people always forget about these two.
• 33:15
  Like everyone's really up in arms and they mostly know about the First, the Second,
• 33:20
  and the fourth amendment uh some most probably the fifth but when you get to the ninth and the
• 33:26
  tenth amendment yeah you find something very interesting where it says if it's not specifically
• 33:31
  listed as a power that you have it is not yours period and you will not find anywhere in there
• 33:40
  that lists that as an authority the government has there there are quite a lot of no i'm with you
• 33:47
  They were very explicit in the Ninth and Tenth Amendments because a powerful federal government was the biggest fear.
• 33:55
  It was when we when we talk about the founding fathers trying to avoid creating kings, it wasn't kings that they were.
• 34:02
  That was just a symptom of a deeper problem. The deeper problem is overpowered government.
• 34:07
  It's why they put in the checks and balances against democracy as well.
• 34:10
  But I do disagree with you that the role of the Supreme Court is to interpret the Constitution.
• 34:15
  I think they have to interpret the Constitution in order to rule on the laws.
• 34:20
  Otherwise, their rulings are not based on anything.
• 34:23
  It's flatly unconstitutional.
• 34:24
  Who do you think should interpret it, Havoc?
• 34:26
  It doesn't require interpretation.
• 34:29
  There is no interpretation needed.
• 34:31
  It's very, very plain language.
• 34:32
  It's not like, oh, well, we don't know exactly what shall not be abridged means.
• 34:38
  It means shall not be abridged.
• 34:40
  We don't know exactly what it means.
• 34:42
  Are there any people in America that shouldn't own handguns?
• 34:45
  anyone no no anybody so if i'm a psychopathic killer that has killed 16 people and i've been
• 34:53
  arrested but i was insane and they they didn't send me to prison to 30 years they sent me to a
• 34:57
  mental hospital for 10 years and i get out should i be allowed to buy a handgun did you complete your
• 35:04
  time yeah and i did i was sentenced i was sentenced to 10 years so you think okay 100
• 35:09
  100%.
• 35:10
  I disagree.
• 35:11
  Second Amendment shall not be infringed, period.
• 35:14
  It doesn't say unless, until, maybe sometimes.
• 35:20
  You got to remember.
• 35:21
  Should private citizens be allowed to own nuclear weapons or chemical and biological weapons?
• 35:24
  You have to hold on here.
• 35:26
  In the beginning, we owned warships.
• 35:31
  Yeah.
• 35:31
  Private citizens owned the most powerful weapon available to anyone.
• 35:37
  so at the end of the day it literally plainly states and if you if you are you know this is
• 35:45
  one of the things if you are a constitutionalist if you believe in the no i love you brother you
• 35:50
  are i love how constitution don't don't make like some excuse for why the constitution doesn't apply
• 35:57
  here or it doesn't apply there did it does it say that no if it doesn't say that it's plain
• 36:04
  Period. It doesn't need interpretation.
• 36:06
  It just says shall not be infringed period.
• 36:09
  It doesn't have an unless until except when it just says shall not be infringed.
• 36:17
  And there's a period.
• 36:19
  What is well regulated mean to you?
• 36:22
  A well regulated militia was the idea behind that was you know it a group of your redneck buddies and you go out you train you understand how to use firearms you train people that are interested in learning and becoming a part of that militia
• 36:36
  That's it.
• 36:37
  So you would require training?
• 36:40
  I wouldn't require training, no.
• 36:43
  Not for the ownership and the use, but to be a part of the militia.
• 36:47
  Wouldn't that violate the well-regulated militia portion of that amendment?
• 36:50
  If they're not trained at all?
• 36:52
  the militia can call up on any citizen and it's got to be regulated right the word regulated is in
• 36:59
  there right i mean we're going constitutional we're going to play text no it is actually it
• 37:03
  doesn't say regulated it says well regulated yeah it does it doesn't that kind of well
• 37:10
  some regulation even if it's not at the same token and wouldn't wouldn't defining how much
• 37:16
  regulation takes interpretation at some token the military as it stands today is also on
• 37:22
  constitutional. There were to be no standing armies. There were to be no entangling alliances.
• 37:27
  We've got military bases in almost every single corner of the globe. Yeah. Over 700 foreign bases.
• 37:35
  Yeah. Over 700. So, you know, right off the bat, that's not even constitutional. The idea was that
• 37:40
  the people were the defense of the nation. And that's where the well-regulated militia.
• 37:45
  Well, I think providing for the national defense is included in there too.
• 37:48
  If we wanted to go back to that standpoint, then yeah, I would say well-regulated militia.
• 37:54
  You show up National Guard style maybe once a month and you train and some basic firearms
• 37:59
  stuff and everyone's armed.
• 38:01
  Everyone.
• 38:02
  Okay.
• 38:03
  But the training wouldn't go-
• 38:04
  Matt, do you like puppies and kittens?
• 38:06
  I was loving that, man.
• 38:08
  Y'all aren't hurt.
• 38:08
  You're not scaring me as long as I'm not hurting Havoc's feelings.
• 38:11
  I'm not.
• 38:12
  Brother, I'll just come at you, man.
• 38:14
  I don't have-
• 38:15
  This is what I love about podcasts is having these difficult conversations.
• 38:20
  You and I disagree, and I'm trying to help you see my perspective because I think I do.
• 38:24
  Brother, I was a libertarian, man.
• 38:25
  I know exactly what you're talking about.
• 38:27
  I'm all about government being at the community level.
• 38:30
  You know what I'm saying?
• 38:31
  So I've transitioned my views in a lot of ways, and I'm trying to help you see things how I see things.
• 38:38
  But I'm not attacking you.
• 38:39
  Do things get awkward, Alex?
• 38:41
  I'm good, man.
• 38:42
  No, I'm just sitting back and watching.
• 38:44
  I do like puppies and sunshine and rainbows.
• 38:47
  So let me explain to you where I came from, right?
• 38:49
  Raised in a very conservative household.
• 38:51
  My father was a captain in the Navy, okay?
• 38:54
  Stationed on the USS Lexington when it had a CVA designation.
• 39:00
  Okay, so I was raised in that household.
• 39:01
  He was career military if he was a captain.
• 39:04
  I was raised in that household.
• 39:08
  I grew up conservative.
• 39:09
  at some point I started to go something just something's not right and along comes this tea
• 39:17
  party thing and I think okay well let me let me check this thing out uh and after a while something's
• 39:23
  not right and then I went to okay there's this constitutionalist movement and I went to that
• 39:29
  and again it's just not it's not right from there I examined the libertarian party and went
• 39:36
  Yeah, no. And so now I am what is referred to as a small L libertarian, where the large L libertarian is a party person. I no longer believe in the system, the process. I don't. I think it's completely and totally unnecessary.
• 39:53
  and it does far more damage and harm to the world in general than it provides any reasonable amount
• 40:01
  of good. So that's my stance. So you're not going to hurt my feelings because I don't have a side.
• 40:06
  I think they're all absolutely stupid. But that's okay, right? I mean, everyone's allowed their own
• 40:13
  opinion, their own journey and what they feel and believe. I just, you know, the reality of some
• 40:20
  things, the reality of some things needs to be discussed because a lot of people just don't know
• 40:26
  this, right? People think right now the problem is the economics and everything else. The problem is
• 40:32
  who's in power and stuff like that. Here's the reality of the situation. Since 1913 to today,
• 40:39
  the dollar has lost 96.7% of its purchasing power. That is a direct result of the Federal Reserve
• 40:46
  being put in place and being allowed to just print dollars whenever they feel like it okay
• 40:53
  since 1971 i think it's lost 84 percent of its purchasing power people look at it and go well
• 41:01
  you boomers squandered away no man the federal reserve is the problem here the so that's where
• 41:08
  i stand right okay boomer i can i can hate on every single part of this system because i think
• 41:14
  they're all deserving of a great deal of hate.
• 41:18
  No, and I'll be, brother, everything you just said, the only thing I can provide is the good
• 41:24
  side. I mean, I can give you the good side and we can argue about whether or not there's more good
• 41:29
  than bad, but I don't disagree with it. The two-party system, it's not even just the two,
• 41:35
  when we talk about our politics, it's not even just the two-party system, it's the entrenched bureaucracy that's
• 41:39
  created by 250 years of progressive expansion of the federal government. And where we are now and
• 41:46
  what you're seeing today with Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Donald Trump, whoever else it is,
• 41:52
  these demands for change, for hope and change to, you know, drain the swamp and destroy the deep
• 41:58
  state and all this stuff, it's never going to happen because the entire system is designed
• 42:03
  to perpetuate itself. It's designed to stabilize itself and perpetuate itself. And there is no
• 42:09
  board of directors that you can go and sit down with and convince. The machine is not being
• 42:14
  operated by anybody. It's being operated at full capacity by the largest employment force that's
• 42:21
  ever existed just to maintain operations. It's just perpetuating over and over again.
• 42:28
  And what you're seeing from Obama, from Biden and Trump and Republicans and Democrats switching
• 42:33
  back and forth is they can't change it because of the methods of power that have been used to
• 42:38
  operate this machine are dependent upon the emotional factions of democracy. So I am 100%
• 42:46
  on board with what you are saying. The Constitution does not mean what you think it means.
• 42:53
  The global empire, although it is an empire, was never meant to be created by the Constitution.
• 43:01
  The Constitution was a philosophical and ideological and a moral experiment to find out
• 43:06
  what the least amount of government necessary was to establish 13 laboratories for governments
• 43:15
  to experiment with the contrast between individual liberty and the social contract. Because we have
• 43:22
  to live together, that we have to have these bare minimum rules for us to avoid harming each other.
• 43:28
  That was the experiment, was to find out how little government that we could have so that we
• 43:33
  could all live our lives freely. Individual rights were the foundation of the country.
• 43:39
  As we moved on, because it became a source of centralized economics and a source of centralized
• 43:45
  power, the emotional demagogues took up. By the time we get to Andrew Jackson, we fall into
• 43:50
  democracy. And when we say, I mean, that's when the landowning voting requirements.
• 43:56
  Well, we had an electoral college and the U.S. Senate was not chosen by the people until 1917,
• 44:01
  until the 17th amendment.
• 44:03
  Yeah, but I mean, you could go all the way back to good old Abe Lincoln, right?
• 44:08
  You know, levying the first income tax.
• 44:11
  No, Andrew Jackson was 1820s.
• 44:13
  So he was before, that's what I'm saying.
• 44:15
  Andrew Jackson, this is when Jacksonian democracy started our modern moronicity, idiocy, whatever
• 44:22
  you want to call it, with democracy.
• 44:24
  But that's not what the Constitution is about.
• 44:26
  Your understanding of the Constitution is flawed, in my opinion.
• 44:30
  I don't agree. I think you need to look it up. And specifically...
• 44:35
  I know more about the Constitution than you do.
• 44:38
  Okay. I'll give you that.
• 44:40
  Okay.
• 44:41
  I'm not going to argue the fact.
• 44:42
  I don't know that for a fact.
• 44:43
  Because I don't know you well enough to argue that.
• 44:44
  But I'm trying to get you to listen.
• 44:46
  I've got to break through this.
• 44:50
  If you go to any legal... Go ahead. Choose any one of them and start asking.
• 44:55
  and ask them, do they have the constitutional authority to interpret the constitution?
• 45:01
  And you will find out that the answer is absolutely not.
• 45:05
  It was never part of their dictate.
• 45:06
  By ruling on the law, they are interpreting the constitution.
• 45:10
  No.
• 45:11
  That's what that means.
• 45:12
  That's what that phrase means.
• 45:13
  To rule on the law, their rulings have to be based on interpretations.
• 45:19
  We disagree and constitutionally you're wrong and any Cornell.
• 45:22
  No, I'm grammatically in the meaning of words you are wrong.
• 45:25
  school will tell you it's not a lie it's a it's a list of rights that we have that are protected
• 45:31
  from the government it's not a law and the founders did a lot of the founders didn't even
• 45:35
  want to include the land it's not a law find the word law does it say the constitution of law
• 45:42
  does it say the sky is not labeled as a sky either but we know what it is it's not we don't
• 45:48
  need it to be labeled of rates how is that law it's not it's it's only a law to the federal
• 45:53
  government in that you are not allowed to trample this but you do it every day anyway yeah okay
• 45:59
  there's a book called three felonies a day that you should read man it's by a harvard scholar that
• 46:04
  describes how there's so many you have i've read it yeah awesome yeah so we're on the same page
• 46:09
  that when we got to talk about laws and the ridiculous size of the government and how
• 46:14
  corrupt it can become and is all it takes is for the federal government to come after you and they
• 46:18
  can get you there's more laws than they can count hence my stance you realize this you fully realize
• 46:25
  this you realize the system is broken you realize it's broken you realize that you're not going to
• 46:30
  get them to vote their power away or their money away or their fame away uh but yet you think for
• 46:37
  some reason that putting your hat in the ring every time every once in a few years is a worthwhile
• 46:43
  objective i only done that once i don know where the once in a few years and now that i done it once I never have to listen to people saying what have you done to try to fix things I talking about voting You voting someone into office for what purpose They corrupt
• 46:58
  Oh, I see what you're saying. I'm sorry. I'm not going to they're not going to affect any change.
• 47:02
  You know, they can't because the system's corrupt. So you're voting for someone to go in and be status quo.
• 47:08
  Yeah, it's it's manipulation because they believe it matters.
• 47:12
  And if you believe that your vote matters, you are going to go vote.
• 47:17
  The closed nature of the system and the private nature of the corporations that are running as political parties, they understand how to weaponize, manipulate and project those beliefs in a way that gets people to the voting booth.
• 47:30
  So that's why people think that they, oh, all we have to do is get Obama into office and it will all change.
• 47:35
  All we got to do is get Trump out of office and it'll all change.
• 47:38
  All we got to do is get Trump back into office and it'll all change.
• 47:41
  It's even worse.
• 47:42
  We've got to win the midterms and it'll all change.
• 47:44
  You've got a Congress and the voting turnout for Congress is far lower than the presidency.
• 47:51
  Everyone looks to whoever the sock puppet is in the presidency and goes, oh, they're going to make change.
• 47:57
  Look, they don't make law.
• 47:59
  They don't.
• 47:59
  They can write an executive order and the next guy or gal that comes in, stroke of a pen, it's gone.
• 48:04
  It's a nothing.
• 48:05
  Anything one president can do, the next one can undo.
• 48:07
  It's a feel good.
• 48:09
  Let me rile my base up and get them charged so that they'll vote harder next time.
• 48:14
  And at the end of the day, it doesn't make any progress whatsoever.
• 48:18
  So, you know, and then you've got the 13 to 17 percent dismal approval rating that Congress hovers at and has for a guy I don't even remember.
• 48:29
  You know, and people, you know, don't understand that 60s and 70s.
• 48:33
  It really started to go down and with Watergate and it never.
• 48:36
  Yeah. I mean, I was I was around for Nixon. Right.
• 48:39
  I wasn't aware of my surroundings during that time, but I remember Carter, you know, and I can tell you every single one of them has been a disaster.
• 48:48
  Bar none.
• 48:50
  You know, Ronald Reagan's a conservative powerhouse that everyone's like, oh, Ronald Reagan.
• 48:54
  That guy ushered in the Department of Education.
• 48:57
  He finalized it.
• 48:58
  He sealed the nail in that coffin.
• 49:01
  And, you know, so you can't find a hero here.
• 49:05
  None.
• 49:06
  Yep.
• 49:06
  And the ones that come out as heroes get squashed like a bug.
• 49:13
  Bye.
• 49:14
  So that's my whole take on it, right?
• 49:17
  That's why it's too late to save America.
• 49:19
  I don't know if you've realized that, but it's too late to save America.
• 49:23
  Here's a book that I would urge you to read.
• 49:25
  It's not a long book.
• 49:26
  It's a very short book.
• 49:27
  It's by a gentleman named Lysander Spooner.
• 49:31
  Okay?
• 49:32
  Lysander.
• 49:32
  What a name.
• 49:33
  Lysander Spooner.
• 49:34
  L-Y-S-A-N-D-E-R.
• 49:36
  last name spooner just like you would think um and he actually started a company called the american
• 49:42
  american letter mail company okay and it did things cheaper faster and better than the postal
• 49:50
  service would uh he was taken to task ended up in the supreme court and so a lot of this is
• 49:57
  detailing that whole thing can't compete with the government and business if the government decides
• 50:02
  to get into business for any industry you can't compete with them yeah well it's they they made it
• 50:08
  that way right they didn't he was competing but then they came back and made it illegal for him
• 50:13
  to compete with the government yeah that's why so yeah there you go so but you know the the title of
• 50:19
  the book uh uh is called um oh no treason the constitution of no authority okay and one of his
• 50:31
  arguments is, but whether the Constitution be one thing or another, this much is true. It has
• 50:39
  either authorized such a government as we have, or it has been powerless to prevent it. In either
• 50:46
  case, it is unfit to exist. And it's an argument that's worth mulling around in your brain,
• 50:54
  and look at his book and read through that book, and I think you'll come away with an opinion that
• 51:00
  makes you want to dig into things a little bit more and really understand.
• 51:05
  Let me ask you this. Do you agree that the average American today lives a life that is
• 51:12
  objectively superior to royalty at any point in human history before about 100 years ago?
• 51:19
  Absolutely not.
• 51:21
  Absolutely not. Education, transportation, sanitation, access to food and water,
• 51:27
  communication.
• 51:29
  Royalty had all that.
• 51:30
  The most successful...
• 51:32
  Genghis Khan himself could not get access to Spotify.
• 51:36
  He'd say, bring me all of the best musicians in the land,
• 51:40
  and he'd get three guitarists from the neighboring,
• 51:43
  and he'd have to hope that they were good.
• 51:45
  He'd say, bring me a harem,
• 51:47
  and he'd get 20 good-looking women from the immediate area.
• 51:51
  You got Pornhub, my friend.
• 51:53
  Hey, go find the finest chefs in the world
• 51:56
  and have them make me dinner.
• 51:57
  You got DoorDash, baby.
• 51:58
  They bring that crap to your face That stuff has been chemically enhanced to change your understanding of the meaning of delicious That how good that food is It poison You want to go How about transportation
• 52:10
  You can fly across the world in a day.
• 52:13
  Compare that to royalty before 100 years ago.
• 52:17
  Sanitation, education, health care.
• 52:19
  No, you talk for a long time.
• 52:21
  It's my turn.
• 52:22
  You got to listen.
• 52:24
  You need to be able to accept.
• 52:26
  Bring it down.
• 52:27
  Well, you keep trying to talk over me, baby.
• 52:29
  I got a command voice.
• 52:30
  No, man, I'm trying to finish a complete sentence.
• 52:32
  So bring it down a little.
• 52:33
  You're telling me you didn't talk for like a good 10 minutes just a second ago?
• 52:37
  Are you telling me I wasn't sitting here listening to you and now you ain't going to let me talk to you?
• 52:41
  Is that what you're telling me?
• 52:42
  No, I'm listening to you, but you're saying something.
• 52:43
  No, you ain't.
• 52:44
  A hundred years ago in Buckingham Palace.
• 52:45
  You ain't listening because you're listening to reply.
• 52:48
  You're not listening to understand.
• 52:49
  That's why you keep interrupting me.
• 52:50
  That's why I didn't interrupt you.
• 52:52
  It's because I was listening to understand what you were saying.
• 52:55
  But when I start talking and you hear something you disagree with,
• 52:58
  You want to talk and you immediately want to jump into it because you're not listening to understand.
• 53:01
  You're listening to reply.
• 53:03
  Now, what I'm trying to explain to you is using the objective evidence and the facts of the reality that exists outside of your subjective perspective.
• 53:11
  It is objectively true that in any quality, in any criteria that you use to evaluate the lives of the people that are alive today in America, education, transportation, access to food, access to clean water.
• 53:28
  Health care, whatever category you want to use to measure the quality of life for the individual.
• 53:34
  The average American lives a life that is superior to royalty before about 100 years ago when they were shitting and they're shitting and it's going down the castle walls into a pile outside.
• 53:47
  And that they I mean, I don't need to elaborate.
• 53:49
  You know what I'm talking about?
• 53:50
  I'm talking about Game of Thrones, son.
• 53:52
  That's the way the majority of human history has lived.
• 53:55
  And now here we are, 2026 America, having this beautiful conversation over the Internet through these 4K webcams, recording, quantize, how do you say, quantize, however it does.
• 54:07
  It gets converted into binary data and goes to fucking space and comes back down and gets reconnected.
• 54:12
  I mean, we're living in an age of wonders.
• 54:14
  And the only thing I wanted to get to is if we could agree on the basic truth that you don't seem to want to acknowledge, which is fine, that we are living this great modern life of comfort and leisure and plenty.
• 54:27
  You know, everybody's got a digital harem in their pockets.
• 54:31
  So can we agree that along with all the negative that has happened since the Constitution was drafted, that some good things have happened as well?
• 54:39
  Infant mortality is down.
• 54:42
  You know, there's so much plenty.
• 54:43
  The nation of America, take away the empire, but the nation of America has so much generosity and charity, nobody would starve.
• 54:52
  Nobody literally if you walked out right now and decided not to ever eat again, but you went to a city and you sat down and you held a sign, have not eaten in two days.
• 55:01
  Somebody is going to feed you.
• 55:03
  And if you are if you can't find any random person, the city is probably going to have some kind of resource for you to go to.
• 55:09
  And if not, there will be a church.
• 55:12
  So does that make sense?
• 55:13
  that there has been some good stuff that's come along with all the negative stuff that's happened
• 55:17
  since the Constitution was drafted, and we kind of got away from what you consider the,
• 55:21
  has some good stuff happened too? Yeah, human beings have technologically advanced. Yes,
• 55:27
  I'll agree with that. It has absolutely nothing to do with the Constitution, the government,
• 55:31
  or anything else. In fact, I would say government in general hampers innovation. You can just look
• 55:37
  at our space program, and then one gentleman has enough money. Next thing you know, he's doing
• 55:42
  things we couldn't do in 60 years. Right. So, yes, yes, we have technologically advanced. Is
• 55:48
  life better today than it was 100 years ago? Yes. Was life better 100 years ago than it was 200
• 55:53
  years ago? Absolutely. Was it better 200 years ago than 300 years? We can just keep doing this.
• 55:59
  Yes, things advance. But I don't think that has anything to do with a government whatsoever or a
• 56:06
  constitution. So, you know, that's, that's my stance on it. I think people will innovate over
• 56:12
  time. They have gunpowder came about, we innovated dynamite came about, we innovated, we created
• 56:19
  nuclear fusion, you know, fission, right. So, you know, it's, you don't think there's been a degree
• 56:26
  of exponential technological advancement over the last hundred years before the last, but from 1920
• 56:33
  We found electricity.
• 56:35
  We found electricity.
• 56:36
  Some gentleman, aside from the government, went out and found electricity.
• 56:40
  And boom, next thing you know, you've got technology.
• 56:42
  How long was fire?
• 56:43
  Our only light source.
• 56:44
  Some gentleman goes out there and finds a computer chip and starts out computing.
• 56:49
  And oh, yeah, we innovate.
• 56:50
  But that wasn't the government that did it.
• 56:52
  It was a human being, a private individual somewhere that had the will to create something.
• 56:59
  Not by himself, though, right?
• 57:00
  Not by himself, though.
• 57:01
  Well, no, with a team of other individuals.
• 57:03
  And if you have a team of individuals together, don't you have to have some kind of law or regulation to keep them from hurting each other?
• 57:09
  No, I don't think so.
• 57:10
  Stealing from each other.
• 57:12
  Communities don need rules and laws I live I live nobody said no rules Okay we all we all with some very fine exceptions right
• 57:22
  I mean, a few exceptions.
• 57:23
  We all have a built-in kind of a feeling like that, right?
• 57:27
  You know it's not okay to go take someone's stuff.
• 57:30
  You know it's not okay to harm someone's stuff.
• 57:32
  And you know it's not okay to harm them.
• 57:34
  I live in rural America, and I'm telling you, we all get along just fine.
• 57:38
  nobody nobody's out here disrespecting anyone and trying to cause problems and we handle most of that
• 57:45
  stuff on our own if that there's i think it's thomas hobbs who wrote the i can't remember which
• 57:50
  of the enlightenment thinkers but uh if angels if men were angels government would not be necessary
• 57:56
  i agree with you on that but that's not if you don't think we have every every ounce of human
• 58:01
  history says that that's wrong okay if you don't think people can be trusted to to be kind and and
• 58:08
  follow things with themselves.
• 58:10
  I didn't say that.
• 58:11
  Then how is it that you think that electing certain people to govern all of them is going
• 58:18
  to work out?
• 58:19
  Who said I believe that, first of all?
• 58:22
  Well, that's the argument you're making, that government is necessary or people will harm
• 58:26
  themselves.
• 58:27
  And if you make that argument, you're essentially saying people will harm themselves without
• 58:31
  a government.
• 58:32
  But we're going to put people in government to make sure that other people don't harm
• 58:36
  themselves.
• 58:37
  Are there any codes, laws, or rules that could exist besides government that could help people decide not to harm each other?
• 58:47
  Yeah, the golden rule.
• 58:49
  Torches and pitchforks.
• 58:50
  There you go, the threat of consequences.
• 58:52
  That'll work too, which is also law.
• 58:55
  It also becomes a practical matter of self-defense, right, at the end of the day.
• 59:00
  It becomes a practical matter of self-defense.
• 59:02
  The practical matter of self-defense for all life is to secure resources in a world of competition.
• 59:09
  Limited resources in a world of competition.
• 59:11
  It is survival of the fittest.
• 59:13
  It is, I'm going to take your shit because I'm bigger than you.
• 59:15
  Okay.
• 59:16
  Well, that's anarchy.
• 59:17
  That's what anarchy creates.
• 59:20
  Well, no, it doesn't.
• 59:21
  So you're an anarchist.
• 59:21
  You've got plenty of examples.
• 59:23
  It's America.
• 59:24
  Yeah, I am.
• 59:24
  I am, but it doesn't mean you've got the wrong idea on what anarchy is.
• 59:29
  Anarchy is very simple.
• 59:30
  it's it's literally two two and archie and meaning without archie rulers rulers okay it doesn't
• 59:40
  necessarily mean there are no rules for a civil society the rules who enforces the rules if there
• 59:45
  are no if there are rules who enforces them you each individual enforces them it's kind of how it
• 59:51
  works today no we have a government today and rules and laws and regulations after the fact
• 59:56
  They come after the fact and determine you've broken a rule.
• 1:00:01
  That's how enforcement works, yes.
• 1:00:03
  That's how enforcement works.
• 1:00:03
  It doesn't stop it from happening.
• 1:00:05
  It only means that there's some kind of a, you're just changing it from the person defending is responsible for their own sovereignty and their own safety.
• 1:00:16
  Are you saying that you can stop bad things from happening?
• 1:00:19
  Is that what you were saying?
• 1:00:20
  That a regulation law comes back and the enforcement applies after it has already happened.
• 1:00:25
  Are you saying that you know a world where bad things don't happen?
• 1:00:30
  Nobody knows that.
• 1:00:30
  That people don't hurt each other?
• 1:00:32
  Anarchy is no guarantee that people won't hurt each other or form gangs and rob people.
• 1:00:36
  It's a guarantee that people will.
• 1:00:37
  Government is a guarantee that it will happen in a legalized plunder way.
• 1:00:44
  Period.
• 1:00:45
  Imminent domain.
• 1:00:46
  We're just taking your stuff.
• 1:00:47
  Too bad.
• 1:00:47
  Sorry.
• 1:00:47
  Go away.
• 1:00:48
  Yes.
• 1:00:48
  Force is required to enforce rules.
• 1:00:51
  You are correct.
• 1:00:52
  And again, you can enforce your own individual rules.
• 1:00:56
  And if everybody's following their own rules and there's no external rule enforcement, then there are no rules.
• 1:01:02
  It's just people doing whatever the hell they want.
• 1:01:05
  That's not what rules are.
• 1:01:06
  Rules govern people, not a person.
• 1:01:09
  I mean, they govern a person, but your rules are created in a way that is designed to make the collective work.
• 1:01:16
  The team has to have rules.
• 1:01:19
  Each individual person cannot do their own thing.
• 1:01:21
  It's that's not how teamwork they can work together for a survival need or something.
• 1:01:26
  But there's going to have to be some kind of rule for that guy who didn't go on the hunt that now he thinks that he deserves, you know, most of the meat just because he woke up whenever we came back.
• 1:01:36
  Like, no, there's going to have to be some kind of rule about who gets the meat, you know, who participates in the survival defense.
• 1:01:42
  And all of those rules require a degree of force.
• 1:01:45
  And once that force is applied on the group as a collective, you have created government.
• 1:01:50
  Whether you want to acknowledge it as government or not, that's what the Constitution is supposed to be.
• 1:01:54
  All of these things have been proven by history, so the Constitution was supposed to be creating a form of government that minimizes that requirement, absolutely minimizes it.
• 1:02:04
  That's why individual liberty was considered so sacred.
• 1:02:07
  It's also unique in the history of the entire human species that this level of individual freedom has been explored.
• 1:02:14
  And the dangerous part of it, I love you, Havoc, is your mentality, which is that I don't need government at all, which is fine.
• 1:02:20
  If you want to live that way, you should be able to do that.
• 1:02:23
  But if you are going to live in shared society, if you're going to take advantage of any of the...
• 1:02:29
  The resources that lead to the innovations you're talking about, as soon as your one-person team
• 1:02:35
  he needs to drive to a road or have a fire department or any of those things,
• 1:02:41
  then you have to come into society and obey the rules along with everybody else.
• 1:02:46
  It's okay that you're an anarchy. I'll be honest with you, man. I flirted with anarchy for a while.
• 1:02:50
  I did.
• 1:02:51
  You and I blatantly disagree, and that's okay, right?
• 1:02:54
  That's a good thing. That's what America is, yeah.
• 1:02:57
  um but i disagree with all that i have a 300 yard gravel driveway nobody takes care of that but me
• 1:03:02
  i'm more than capable of taking care of my local road running water with with my neighbors yeah i
• 1:03:08
  have a well i do okay so i paid for a well to be dug and i pay for the the pump not plugged into
• 1:03:14
  the grid nope and i'm i'm on propane so you know where do you get the propane from i get it from a
• 1:03:22
  local company. I just switched
• 1:03:24
  companies not too long ago.
• 1:03:27
  Do you have to drive to get to it or do they
• 1:03:28
  have to drive to get to it? You're
• 1:03:30
  connected, brother.
• 1:03:32
  Roads are just big flat
• 1:03:34
  things. Government doesn't make
• 1:03:36
  roads. Government takes funds
• 1:03:38
  and appropriates them.
• 1:03:41
  Government
• 1:03:41
  Okay, we disagree.
• 1:03:44
  Where did our interstate system come from?
• 1:03:47
  What is your favorite comic book series?
• 1:03:50
  Oh, man.
• 1:03:50
  Punisher Max
• 1:03:53
  Punisher Max by Garth Ennis
• 1:03:55
  The pencils I think
• 1:03:58
  Oh man I'm going to say his name wrong
• 1:03:59
  Gorlan Parlov
• 1:04:01
  It might be something else
• 1:04:04
  But the art and the writing
• 1:04:06
  Anybody who's wanting to get into comic books
• 1:04:08
  And you think it's for kids
• 1:04:09
  Marvel released a series called
• 1:04:12
  Max
• 1:04:13
  Marvel Max and they had Wolverine Max
• 1:04:16
  Deadpool Max, Fury Max
• 1:04:17
  And
• 1:04:18
  Punisher Max
• 1:04:21
  Garth Ennis, the guy who wrote The Boys and he wrote Invincible.
• 1:04:26
  He wrote a bunch of great things that are now production.
• 1:04:28
  He wrote the Punisher Max series and he wrote the Fury Max series.
• 1:04:33
  And that's one of the biggest pieces of evidence that I have that Disney does not know what the hell they're doing with their intellectual property.
• 1:04:41
  Because they haven't turned Fury Max and Punisher Max and Barracuda Max into some kind of like an animated series or something.
• 1:04:49
  because it's some of the best Marvel stories that you'll read.
• 1:04:53
  You didn't think I'd be ready to answer that question
• 1:04:55
  since you tried to take me sideways.
• 1:04:57
  I'm on top of you, Havik.
• 1:04:59
  No, I'm happy you did.
• 1:05:00
  I'm happy.
• 1:05:01
  What about y'all?
• 1:05:01
  Do y'all read comics?
• 1:05:03
  I haven't since I was a young kid.
• 1:05:05
  My favorite was the X-Men.
• 1:05:08
  And honestly, my favorite character from the X-Men was Banff or Nightcrawler.
• 1:05:13
  Yeah.
• 1:05:14
  He wasn't in.
• 1:05:15
  I was going to say it was at the 90s X-Men,
• 1:05:17
  but he was in Excalibur in the 90s.
• 1:05:20
  Nightcrawler.
• 1:05:22
  No, I think this was in the 80s he showed up in the 80s.
• 1:05:25
  Yeah, no, he was Uncanny X-Men in the 80s.
• 1:05:27
  Yep, yep.
• 1:05:29
  And I always just really liked the character.
• 1:05:32
  He wasn't the best superhero out there.
• 1:05:35
  I do too.
• 1:05:35
  I'll be honest with you.
• 1:05:36
  In the comics, he wasn't really my favorite.
• 1:05:38
  He had a great design, but he just wasn't interesting.
• 1:05:40
  But I'll be honest, the new X-Men 97
• 1:05:43
  and even some of the older X-Men animated series,
• 1:05:47
  Nightcrawler is a great character.
• 1:05:49
  I don't know if you've watched that latest season.
• 1:05:51
  I don't want to ruin it for you,
• 1:05:52
  but they do him justice in there to the point that
• 1:05:55
  he's one of the best characters on the show.
• 1:05:58
  I haven't seen it.
• 1:06:00
  X-Men, Jim Lee's run in X-Men is the definitive,
• 1:06:05
  I mean, that's the pinnacle of comic art right there.
• 1:06:07
  When they split the team into blue team and gold team
• 1:06:11
  and they started a new X-Men series that was just X-Men.
• 1:06:15
  I forget what volume it is by now, but it was just X-Men.
• 1:06:19
  And Jim Lee did the first like 11 issues and he had,
• 1:06:23
  there was a Ghost Rider guest star, man.
• 1:06:25
  It was awesome.
• 1:06:26
  That's the best comic art I've ever seen.
• 1:06:29
  Jim Lee's X-Men run.
• 1:06:32
  Nice, nice.
• 1:06:34
  So what would be your favorite superhero then?
• 1:06:39
  Batman.
• 1:06:40
  Batman.
• 1:06:40
  And it's not close. Batman represents the pinnacle of human potential.
• 1:06:47
  I mean, he's there's a there's a core trauma to it that creates a character that is so driven and gifted that I mean,
• 1:06:59
  physical fitness wise, intellectually, tactically, strategically, you know, operationally, whatever you want to call it.
• 1:07:10
  And he's also, Batman's superpower is plot armor.
• 1:07:16
  He's going to be prepared for everything because the writers want him to be prepared for everything.
• 1:07:19
  But he's my favorite because it always seems plausible that he is two steps ahead of everybody.
• 1:07:26
  He hangs with Superman.
• 1:07:27
  He can beat the crap out of the whole Justice League.
• 1:07:30
  I was just going to say, that's my one area where the whole Batman versus Superman.
• 1:07:34
  I'm sorry, dude.
• 1:07:35
  No.
• 1:07:36
  Superman will never win because Batman protected by plot armor until Superman he did kill him in Red Sun In Red Sun it was an Elseworlds comic where Superman became Russian
• 1:07:49
  and he killed Stalin and became a dictator of the Soviet Union.
• 1:07:53
  And Batman was like this, I don't know, he died in one of,
• 1:07:56
  his parents died in one of the camps and he became like the Russian Batman.
• 1:08:00
  And in Red Sun, Superman kills him.
• 1:08:03
  so there are plenty of examples of that realistic probability but it's fictional and he's protected
• 1:08:10
  by the writers so it doesn't matter how superman doesn't matter how powerful superman is he's got
• 1:08:16
  absolutely and that is that is the reality of it yeah that's fine with me i i accept it yeah
• 1:08:23
  that's fine with me he's still awesome he's that's why he's the greatest superhero is depending on
• 1:08:27
  the writer you can truly believe that he can beat the whole justice league and he's just a guy
• 1:08:32
  so that's why he's the best superhero
• 1:08:35
  best written
• 1:08:37
  best everything in my opinion
• 1:08:39
  but I mean
• 1:08:41
  I can come up with plenty of alternatives
• 1:08:43
  LX did you want to ask me something
• 1:08:44
  me and Havoc started arguing and LX is just sitting over there
• 1:08:47
  like these two guys won't shut up
• 1:08:49
  I'm a little nervous
• 1:08:51
  I don't want to steer things back in a
• 1:08:53
  political direction
• 1:08:54
  I'm very apolitical
• 1:08:57
  as long as Havoc agrees
• 1:08:59
  that I'm right
• 1:09:00
  I won't say anything
• 1:09:01
  but i am very curious about your congressional run i want to know stories you can tell us like
• 1:09:10
  just from a personal perspective i knew a guy that ran locally for like the board of county
• 1:09:14
  commissioners and the shenanigans that went around just in this little local election like
• 1:09:20
  he was approached by party representatives and you know they said hey you know we switch you to
• 1:09:26
  our party we'll pay for an apartment you know in this other district so you don't have to run
• 1:09:30
  against our guy and this and this is just local stuff all this you know shenanigans going i can
• 1:09:35
  only imagine the stories that you could tell us what goes on i don't have anything as interesting
• 1:09:41
  as that i mean that's to be honest with you that the only thing i think about in that situation is
• 1:09:48
  liz cheney i want everybody to remember that liz cheney did not live in wyoming she moved back to
• 1:09:54
  Wyoming to run for Congress, to leverage her father's contacts and networks in that state
• 1:10:00
  to run for Congress and win, and then go to Congress and try to be the anti-Trump voice
• 1:10:06
  that leads Republicans away from MAGA. It backfired on her. She got booted. And guess where she lives?
• 1:10:12
  Guess what? It's not in Wyoming. She lived back in D.C. She's always been a D.C. person.
• 1:10:17
  But that kind of crap where you move into the district just so you can run in that district
• 1:10:23
  with the backing of it defeats the entire purpose of bottom-up politics.
• 1:10:29
  But from my personal experiences, I don't have anything close to that good.
• 1:10:36
  I mean, the most specific anecdote I can tell you is that I ran for Congress
• 1:10:41
  in Louisiana's 5th District in 2020, which was the same year that Kanye West
• 1:10:46
  ran for president in the birthday party.
• 1:10:49
  and I got more votes for Congress in the 5th District
• 1:10:53
  than Kanye West got in Louisiana for president.
• 1:10:57
  So I will always have that, and no one can ever take it from me.
• 1:11:01
  And if Kanye ever hears this, just recognize I understand
• 1:11:04
  that you're richer than I am and more talented,
• 1:11:06
  but I got more votes, bro.
• 1:11:09
  Do you still have a garage full of yard signs and T-shirts?
• 1:11:13
  I did. All the yard signs were out.
• 1:11:15
  The district hated me by the time I was done
• 1:11:17
  because I had so many signs, man. I was convinced if I could just get my name out there and in the
• 1:11:22
  smartphone age, people could pull out their phones and just say, who is Matt Hastie? Why do I see his
• 1:11:27
  signs everywhere? And if they looked me up and saw kind of my background and heard some of my
• 1:11:31
  speeches or read some of my positions, because Havoc, I'm with you, man. I wanted elected
• 1:11:37
  officials to wear body cams. I mean, I'm talking about a radical overhaul of how our government
• 1:11:41
  functions and you know how because it all needs to be reduced massively uh but what i learned
• 1:11:49
  during the process it was very i tried to i sold my motorcycle and tried to run on my retire move
• 1:11:58
  back in with my mom i ran on like my retirement pay so it was a buttload of signs and interviews
• 1:12:03
  like you know this with the news every they have debates so there's different stuff like that but
• 1:12:10
  But without the level of money that you get from one of those two parties or another chunk of serious voters, because it's also nobody wants to get caught donating to the wrong side.
• 1:12:24
  You have to pick if you're going to pick a side, you have to pick a side.
• 1:12:27
  Most people try to stay out of it or they already have their team.
• 1:12:30
  They're not going to go for somebody who's, you know, this retired soldier who wants to be in Congress.
• 1:12:36
  And once you see the scale and the scope of the resources that are available to your opponents, you realize none of it is based on ideas.
• 1:12:48
  None of it is based on policy positions And the most damning part of it all is that the voters don care They pretend that they care It the same thing like that Everybody says they hate tabloid magazines
• 1:13:01
  but tabloid magazines, they make so much money. You know what I'm saying? Somebody's out there
• 1:13:05
  buying these tabloid magazines, but everybody pretends that they don't care about celebrity
• 1:13:10
  gossip. But that's what gets the clicks and the shares and the likes and the, you know,
• 1:13:14
  so it's a lot like that with politics is that people say that they want change. They say that
• 1:13:19
  they want something different. They say that they want to address what's wrong in politics,
• 1:13:24
  but the idea of going outside of those two teams or outside of the people who are producing the
• 1:13:32
  most, I don't know what to call it, the things that are being bought, the commercials, the 30
• 1:13:38
  second spots, the flyers, the people calling and texting and all that costs money. And the people
• 1:13:45
  who are throwing that stuff out there are the only ones that they'll really consider because
• 1:13:48
  they're also the only ones that can pay influencers or you know have people go to bat for them
• 1:13:56
  just because they're getting paycheck for them so it was very frustrating to realize that it's not
• 1:14:02
  just the system itself at the top the government that's broken because the government is broken
• 1:14:08
  but it's not just that it's not even just the election systems because the election systems
• 1:14:13
  are also broken but it's also the population the population is broken they think that they want this
• 1:14:18
  but they don't understand how difficult those kinds of changes are going to be.
• 1:14:23
  That's why nobody can change anything.
• 1:14:24
  It's because once Obama gets into office, Biden or Trump,
• 1:14:28
  they know if they try to change anything, the optics are going to backlash
• 1:14:31
  because everything's determined by democracy right now.
• 1:14:35
  So if the optics backlash, they're going to feel it in the midterms
• 1:14:39
  or the political weight that they have will disappear to accomplish any of their goals.
• 1:14:44
  Look what's happening right now with immigration enforcement.
• 1:14:46
  All they're trying to do is deport illegal criminals.
• 1:14:50
  And, you know, you see what you see on the news.
• 1:14:53
  You see what you see on the Internet.
• 1:14:54
  They find the one out of 500,000 kids and put a camera in his face until the emotional factions of democracy have done their job.
• 1:15:06
  And everybody says, oh, we have to be able to do this better.
• 1:15:11
  Big question.
• 1:15:13
  Are you getting another motorcycle or have you gotten another motorcycle?
• 1:15:16
  I would love to, man, but I just, I can't afford it, first of all, but I also don't know how much I would ride it.
• 1:15:25
  I'm getting to that age that, you know, if I fall on a motorcycle, I'll never be the same.
• 1:15:31
  I already got a beaten up body from the military, so I don't think so.
• 1:15:35
  I have thought about it.
• 1:15:36
  Yeah.
• 1:15:37
  Be very honest with you.
• 1:15:39
  Like, living in the Carolinas, there's no way you'd get me on a motorcycle here.
• 1:15:44
  Not a chance.
• 1:15:45
  Why?
• 1:15:45
  I don't know what it is, but I've had a better experience driving around in Mexico than driving here.
• 1:15:51
  I mean, we have, I don't know where some of these people come from to drive.
• 1:15:57
  Because you people drive worse than us Floridians do.
• 1:15:59
  I've been there to visit.
• 1:16:00
  I know.
• 1:16:01
  You guys are nuts.
• 1:16:02
  It's bad.
• 1:16:04
  Is that what it is?
• 1:16:04
  Is it the traffic?
• 1:16:06
  Oh, yeah.
• 1:16:06
  It's not the traffic so much as people doing things like, you know, I remember once, you know, big thunderstorm, right?
• 1:16:13
  your visibility is pretty limited and i'm cruising down the street you know i'm going at a decent
• 1:16:19
  clip because you know you can see there's not that many vehicles on the road but they're you
• 1:16:24
  know there's traffic and you got yo-yos coming from like a two left hand turn lane the second one
• 1:16:31
  the most out you know inside left turn lane yeah and stopped at a light and just go from there and
• 1:16:38
  turn right across five lanes of traffic in in a thunderstorm with limited visibility and and you
• 1:16:46
  know like red lights are suggestions i think that's what i was going to say when i visit you every time
• 1:16:52
  the traffic lights are a suggestion like nobody actually uses them it's and so you're if you're
• 1:16:59
  on a motorcycle man all of that stuff is like a recipe for very serious disaster i'm again i've
• 1:17:06
  felt safer driving in Mexico than I have here. Yeah, I could see that. Well, that might have
• 1:17:12
  sealed the deal. I don't think I'm interested in a motorcycle. I will tell you that Americans are
• 1:17:15
  the worst driver. I've been around the world, man. I've been in over two dozen countries.
• 1:17:20
  And I'll tell you right now, Americans are the worst drivers in the world, even in the Middle
• 1:17:23
  East, where they don't really acknowledge road laws and they don't follow the signs or anything.
• 1:17:29
  They're still kind of more cautious of taking turns, even if they're all just funneled right
• 1:17:35
  there into that one funnel they they know how to you know you go then i go then you go then i go
• 1:17:41
  and there's an element of i'll get off my you know motorcycle or i'll get out of my car and
• 1:17:45
  beat you right here nobody will care but hey we've lost that in america yeah so everybody's
• 1:17:52
  a jerk in traffic and everybody's a jerk online we've removed the consequences yeah that's true
• 1:17:58
  Yeah yeah It an interesting world you know It really is It got its own unique challenges but you know hey every day when I wake up and I hear the roosters going and the geese yell at me and those stupid guinea hens start squabbling
• 1:18:15
  and, you know, hey, I know it's going to be a good day.
• 1:18:18
  That's right.
• 1:18:19
  Every day is a blessing, man, full of grace.
• 1:18:21
  That's the other thing.
• 1:18:22
  It took me a long time to figure out.
• 1:18:25
  Because I saw a lot of negativity my whole life.
• 1:18:28
  A lot of the I mean, and there but there's so much beauty that you don't realize until you go back and really start to think about it, too.
• 1:18:36
  And what happened to me is in my 40s, I very much settled down and.
• 1:18:42
  I mean, you settle into grace.
• 1:18:44
  I don't want to turn into a preacher on y'all, but yeah, I found Christianity.
• 1:18:49
  I found Jesus and.
• 1:18:52
  I mean, there's so much good to go along with the bad.
• 1:18:58
  In all aspects of our lives that even if it is just the rooster crowing or that sunshine coming out, you know, the blessings that we have each and every day, especially in this country, the greatest nation to ever exist, greatest nation that can possibly exist.
• 1:19:15
  As far as I'm concerned, just based on the philosophical nature of its founding.
• 1:19:21
  We're very blessed.
• 1:19:23
  A lot of bad stuff.
• 1:19:24
  They're always going to be bad stuff.
• 1:19:25
  And we got more than our chair.
• 1:19:26
  right and especially if you know the cycles of history i'm sure you do have it i mean waves of
• 1:19:32
  migrants and a loss of shared values and uh you know demagogues so it won't be long now
• 1:19:39
  won't be long we'll collapse into tyranny the only conversation to have really in my opinion is what
• 1:19:44
  form that tyranny is going to take well we almost ended on a positive note there we got close we got
• 1:19:52
  Oh, man, I ruined it.
• 1:19:55
  Sorry.
• 1:19:57
  I'm just going to say, I think you two would make a great podcast on your own.
• 1:20:01
  Well, and I didn't mean to be rude, Alex.
• 1:20:04
  I'd love to talk to you as well.
• 1:20:06
  It's just Havoc was wrong, and I had to tell him he was wrong.
• 1:20:09
  I hate podcasts.
• 1:20:11
  I do not watch them.
• 1:20:12
  I do not listen to them.
• 1:20:14
  It's just not my thing.
• 1:20:15
  But I could watch you guys go all day.
• 1:20:17
  It's entertaining to me.
• 1:20:19
  Hey, bring it.
• 1:20:20
  Anytime.
• 1:20:21
  I'm that guy.
• 1:20:22
  And you're going to look and you're going to prove me wrong at one time and you're going to be amazed at how quickly I'm just like, yeah, I was wrong.
• 1:20:28
  My bad.
• 1:20:28
  Like, it's not going to devastate me at all because it happens.
• 1:20:32
  Oh, good.
• 1:20:33
  Anyway.
• 1:20:33
  Yeah.
• 1:20:33
  Let me know.
• 1:20:34
  Anytime y'all want to do this and argue about politics, I can argue about politics all day.
• 1:20:39
  I'll take that day off.
• 1:20:40
  I hate politics.
• 1:20:41
  I really try to stay away from that, to be honest with you.
• 1:20:45
  We both really do.
• 1:20:47
  But, hey, it's been a good conversation.
• 1:20:50
  what would you say looking at things where things are today where you are today where
• 1:20:56
  the world is today etc what what is one thing that you can take away from all of that and go
• 1:21:03
  you know what this this is a good portion this is something that is good what would be that one
• 1:21:09
  thing that you look at and just gives you hope the world today yeah anytime anytime you see a
• 1:21:17
  mass shooting, anytime you see a disaster, anytime you see a fire, something horrible that happens to
• 1:21:24
  a group of people, pay attention to how many people help. Pay attention to how many people,
• 1:21:31
  even not, not even just the first responders, but recognize that first responders are usually
• 1:21:36
  running toward the sound of gunfire or into a burning building or up to the man who is missing
• 1:21:42
  a torso. Also think about them, but also watch for all of the random people who are in the area
• 1:21:49
  when that terrible thing happens and they immediately rush to help. They don't think
• 1:21:55
  about it. And even if they do think about it, their only intention is to go and help. Even if
• 1:21:59
  it's just to tell them that help's on the way or to co-call for help. You're going to have people
• 1:22:04
  that run, which is fine. That's an instinct, but also pay attention to all of the grace that is out
• 1:22:11
  there deep down inside of ourselves we have something that we've denied and it's our share
• 1:22:17
  it's our fellowship with each other and that's one of the the most prominent times that you will see
• 1:22:24
  it is right when it is needed it's when when the most horrible things have happened and you will
• 1:22:29
  see people running towards screaming strangers to help was that what you were looking for
• 1:22:37
  Something good?
• 1:22:37
  I was looking for whatever you wanted it to be.
• 1:22:40
  It was your question.
• 1:22:44
  I'll try to find something other than Jesus.
• 1:22:46
  But yeah, go ahead.
• 1:22:47
  No, that's fine.
• 1:22:49
  And to that point, I remember when Florence came through.
• 1:22:53
  And I was talking with a group, and one of the gentlemen was part of the Cajun Navy.
• 1:23:01
  And he was coming out here to go down to, I think it was Wilmington.
• 1:23:05
  And, you know, I told him, man, you're welcome.
• 1:23:09
  I've got plenty of room.
• 1:23:10
  You can park your stuff here.
• 1:23:11
  We've got a spare bedroom.
• 1:23:13
  We'll give you a hot meal and everything else and load you up with some stuff to take with you.
• 1:23:17
  You know, and you're right, man.
• 1:23:19
  That's a beautiful thing.
• 1:23:21
  It's still something.
• 1:23:21
  And it feels good.
• 1:23:22
  It feels good to help other people like that.
• 1:23:25
  And it's not just about glorifying yourself as a hero or anything like that.
• 1:23:29
  It reestablishes that connection that we have with each other in a way that it's, I mean, in Christianity, they call it grace.
• 1:23:38
  But you can call it whatever you want.
• 1:23:39
  But when somebody needs help to give them help, it helps us to connect inside ourselves with what makes us great, what makes individuals good people.
• 1:23:52
  So, awesome.
• 1:23:54
  All right.
• 1:23:55
  And there's one question we like to ask all of our guests.
• 1:23:57
  You know, throughout our lives, there's a figure that has a massive impact on our lives, a nice long-lasting impact.
• 1:24:04
  Could be a sixth-grade science teacher, an author, historical figure, could be mom.
• 1:24:08
  but we like to give our guests the opportunity to shout someone else out and give back
• 1:24:13
  who would you like to shout out my first reaction is to say jesus and i don't say that okay well and
• 1:24:22
  i'm trying to do a better job of uh i mean i don't want to shy away from talking about jesus in any
• 1:24:29
  way but i also don i was that guy man i used to hate when people forced it on you everywhere you go There this guy that But I going to tell you right now man if you read the book of Ecclesiastes you know what I talking about But for the majority of my military career I was chasing
• 1:24:46
  hedonism, the physical pleasure, emotional gratification, and success. I wanted money.
• 1:24:53
  I wanted to get the degrees and have all the certifications and have that job that was paying.
• 1:24:58
  And I got out of the military and I was making a lot of money. I'm not going to tell you all my paycheck, but more money than I grew up very poor. And I never thought I would make that kind of paycheck, but it was all empty. And pursuit of wisdom, pursuit of success, pursuit of money. I mean, all the pleasure, whatever it is that I decided to dedicate my life to.
• 1:25:21
  all of it was empty in ways that I never could quantify.
• 1:25:27
  And then when I was at my most lost, when I had no idea what else to do with my life,
• 1:25:33
  is when God came into my life.
• 1:25:34
  And over a period of six years, I struggled with that.
• 1:25:38
  And it's completely normal to struggle with faith.
• 1:25:40
  So that everybody understands that Peter literally was walking on water with Jesus
• 1:25:47
  based on his faith in Jesus and before he got to Jesus he started to sink His faith started to waver So I mean even the people who are standing beside Jesus and walking on water with him their faith wavered So
• 1:25:59
  it's okay to struggle with your faith that you have trouble believing. Just try it in a way that
• 1:26:07
  connects your heart to Jesus and he will transform your heart. Like it's, it's what's missing in not
• 1:26:14
  only my life, it's without speaking about anybody else's life, like I know what they're going through.
• 1:26:20
  It's what's missing in everybody's life. All that we are all looking for on this earth that will
• 1:26:26
  never be found until we find Jesus in our hearts. That's just my opinion, though. So
• 1:26:31
  if I had to give one person that's changed my life, it'd be the man himself.
• 1:26:37
  I think that's a wonderful shout out. All right. Well, where can people find you? What do you got
• 1:26:44
  going on? What are you working on? What's next? I'm not really pushing anything. If you want to
• 1:26:51
  find me on social media, it's matt.hasty and the number is 378. So matt.hasty378 on Instagram and
• 1:26:59
  Facebook is the best to find me, but each one of those has a link tree. I have a sub stack that's
• 1:27:04
  Matthew Hastie but I not selling a book I not running for office I really just want to find the truth and have interesting conversations with people that disagree with me
• 1:27:17
  So I appreciate y'all being a part of my journey.
• 1:27:21
  I appreciate you letting me be a part of your journey.
• 1:27:23
  Thank you.
• 1:27:24
  Yeah. Thank you for coming on and giving us some of your time.
• 1:27:28
  It's our most valuable and precious commodity.
• 1:27:31
  And thank you for giving us some of your time.
• 1:27:34
  We really appreciate it.
• 1:27:35
  You know where you can find us.
• 1:27:37
  We're everywhere podcasts play.
• 1:27:39
  YouTube.
• 1:27:40
  We've got a Telegram channel if you want to join that.
• 1:27:42
  And we're also on X.
• 1:27:44
  Give us a look.
• 1:27:46
  See if you can find us.
• 1:27:47
  Give us a thumbs up if you liked us.
• 1:27:48
  If you didn't, leave a thumbs down.
• 1:27:49
  Tell us we sucked.
• 1:27:50
  Leave a note in the comments.
• 1:27:52
  We'll reply in kind.
• 1:27:54
  And remember, wherever you are, whenever you're watching this, have an amazing day.
• 1:28:01
  Nice to meet you, Matt.
• 1:28:02
  Nice to meet you, Alex.
• 1:28:04
  Havoc.
• 1:28:04
  Now let me know you want to do this again.