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Halloween Monsters and Victims - Big Picture with Jack Atherton · Brian Thomas

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  Speaker 1: It's 7.05, and on a Wednesday, that means kick back,
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  Speaker 1: get your popcorn out, and enjoy the big picture with
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  Speaker 1: Jack Atherton, lawyer, anchorman, also author, philosopher, and historian. Brilliant
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: he always is. Welcome back, my friend, Jack Atherton. It's
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: great to have you on the show again.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, man. Thanks for having me back, brother. Let
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  Speaker 2: me ask you, in honor of Halloween, who is your
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  Speaker 2: favorite movie monster? Oh, wow.
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  Speaker 1: Well, I'll just substitute my wife's because I have to
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  Speaker 1: think about that. Dracula.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. I can see how the women went for him.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, my wife really loves him.
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  Speaker 2: You've got to dress like him, Brian. You've got to
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  Speaker 2: keep wooing her.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: My favorite monster was the original King Kong from 1933. Oh, sure.
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  Speaker 2: What an actor. Much more believable than the people in
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  Speaker 2: the movie. Although as a teen, I thought Fay Wray
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  Speaker 2: was great in her torn dress. But Kong, you really
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  Speaker 2: pitied the big guy. I mean, here he was, happy
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  Speaker 2: on his island, battling dinosaurs long before Jurassic Park. Eating, yes,
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  Speaker 2: the occasional human who strayed onto his territory. But then,
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  Speaker 2: wicked hunters kidnap him, clamp on giant chains. and shove
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  Speaker 2: him on stage so everyone can jeer at King Kong
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  Speaker 2: as a freak, a monster, a victim. During the Great Depression,
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  Speaker 2: the heyday of classic monsters, most of them were victims
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  Speaker 2: of forces beyond their control. Boris Karloff was made into
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  Speaker 2: a monster by Victor Frankenstein. Then he was misunderstood by everyone,
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  Speaker 2: most tragically the little girl with the flower. Lon Chaney Jr.
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  Speaker 2: got bitten by a werewolf and turned into a werewolf himself.
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  Speaker 2: We didn't know how Paulette's favorite, Bela Lugosi, became a vampire,
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  Speaker 2: but that elegant guy had to keep attacking people, especially
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  Speaker 2: pretty girls, or he'd disintegrate in his coffin. It wasn't
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  Speaker 2: so much, I want to suck your blood, as, give
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  Speaker 2: me a break, I have to suck your blood. Audiences
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  Speaker 2: back then identified with monsters because they had been turned
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  Speaker 2: into victims themselves. Greedy bankers and investors, mostly, we have
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  Speaker 2: to admit, establishment Republicans, rigged the stock market so you
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  Speaker 2: could buy shares on margin, meaning for a few pennies
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  Speaker 2: on the dollar, until their house of cards collapsed. The
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  Speaker 2: Great Depression left 25% of America's labor force, one in
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  Speaker 2: every four workers, lining up at soup kitchens, begging for apples,
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  Speaker 2: hoping to land one of the new government jobs created
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  Speaker 2: by Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. But the Depression did not
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  Speaker 2: end until America re-industrialized for World War II, which put
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  Speaker 2: everybody back to work fighting Hitler and Dojo. Prosperity returned
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  Speaker 2: after we won, and then rebuilt America and the world,
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  Speaker 2: including Germany and Japan. since the Great Depression and World
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  Speaker 2: War II, America, kids, I hate to break this to you,
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  Speaker 2: has been doing great. We've become the most prosperous nation
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  Speaker 2: in the history of the world, providing jobs and material
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  Speaker 2: comforts to the broadest swath of citizens and non-citizens ever.
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  Speaker 2: We've helped those who cannot help themselves and millions who
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  Speaker 2: could help themselves but got hooked on Democrat cradle-to-grave welfare,
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  Speaker 2: welfare that Democrats running for office today insist should be
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  Speaker 2: paid to anyone, even if they refuse to work or
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  Speaker 2: look for work or just train for work free of charge. But, folks,
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  Speaker 2: it's not just lack of money that's made us victims.
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  Speaker 2: Most Americans until recently have been literate. Then Democrats turned schools,
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  Speaker 2: especially inner-city schools, into graduation assembly lines for the benefit
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  Speaker 2: of teacher unions. Worse still, how about equal rights? America belatedly,
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  Speaker 2: but at long last, truly guaranteed equal rights under the
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  Speaker 2: law for women, racial minorities, and most recently Americans of
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  Speaker 2: whatever sexual orientation. We ask only that Democrats not use
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  Speaker 2: drugs Or worse still, surgery to try changing the sex
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  Speaker 2: of children. Yet for Democrats, that request turns children into victims.
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  Speaker 2: So am I saying everything is hunky-dory today? No. Even
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  Speaker 2: in this land of limitless opportunity, there have been economic dislocations,
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  Speaker 2: like the dot-com bubble bursting in the 1990s, or the
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  Speaker 2: mortgage banking collapse of 2008. Or how about gas and
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  Speaker 2: diesel prices in 1973 during the OPEC oil embargo and
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  Speaker 2: again under Joe Biden? Regular gas soared to an average
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  Speaker 2: $ 5 a gallon. Not because Joe went to war with
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  Speaker 2: a terror regime seeking nuclear weapons. Because Democrats declared war
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  Speaker 2: on fossil fuel. Folks, if they regain power, you think
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  Speaker 2: that strategy is going to make gas and diesel more affordable?
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  Speaker 2: Donald Trump made us independent of OPEC with the GOP's
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  Speaker 2: all-of-the-above approach to energy. And once Trump finally stops dithering,
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  Speaker 2: going back and forth and back and forth for seven
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  Speaker 2: months now on whether he wants to negotiate with Iran's terrorists,
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  Speaker 2: if he instead consistently strangles them economically, gas prices will
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  Speaker 2: come crashing down. Meantime, friends, my point is that nothing,
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  Speaker 2: Nothing in America for the past 80 years has approached
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  Speaker 2: the misery of the Great Depression and World War II,
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  Speaker 2: thank goodness, when people understandably felt they were victimized, turned
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  Speaker 2: into pitiable creatures by forces beyond their control. So let
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  Speaker 2: me ask you, this is the question. Why today? Do
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  Speaker 2: so many people still think they're victimized? Why does today's
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  Speaker 2: pop culture turn monsters into victims unless they're Republicans like
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  Speaker 2: evil orange man Donald Trump? The most obvious example is
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  Speaker 2: somebody who seemed like a villain even during the Great Depression,
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  Speaker 2: the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.
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  Speaker 2: I'll get you, my pretty, and your little dog, too.
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  Speaker 2: I don't know about Frank Baum's books, But in the
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  Speaker 2: 1939 movie, there was no explanation for the Wicked Witch's villainy.
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  Speaker 2: She was just plain evil. And we accepted that. Not today. Today,
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  Speaker 2: when everyone is a victim, we get the musical Wicked,
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  Speaker 2: the title of which is meant to be sarcastic. Do
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  Speaker 2: we lose him?
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  Speaker 1: He fell over, Joe. What do you mean? Well, should
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  Speaker 1: we give him a few moments time to regroup? I
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  Speaker 1: don't hear him. He's gone. Joe has declared that he
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  Speaker 1: is gone. Well, that's sad. I just chime in before
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  Speaker 1: we take a break here. His point on, you know,
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  Speaker 1: people seem to be so miserable and happy in spite
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  Speaker 1: of the fact that, you know, we are living the
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  Speaker 1: best lives that we've ever been able to live in
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  Speaker 1: this country. And to his point, no, nothing is perfect.
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  Speaker 1: This is when they start playing on Envy those evil
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  Speaker 1: billionaires and substitute, oh, how about Jews? Like if you
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  Speaker 1: go back to Nazi Germany, when the economic collapse, they
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  Speaker 1: had to blame someone. So let's conveniently blame the people
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  Speaker 1: that have been demonized for basically their entire existence, for
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  Speaker 1: all the calamities that befall us. It's their fault. It's
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  Speaker 1: their fault. You know, you can get played so easily. But,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I think we need to dwell a little
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  Speaker 1: bit more on what really, truly, I don't know. Equals happiness?
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  Speaker 1: Is it taking and tearing down someone else's lived life
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  Speaker 1: and lived experience and what they are choosing to do
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  Speaker 1: and how they got to where they are just because
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  Speaker 1: you haven't, well, achieved or whatever your measure of success is,
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  Speaker 1: you aren't there and therefore we need to tear them down?
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  Speaker 1: Conclude that it wasn't fair that they arrived at the
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  Speaker 1: place that they are in, not because of their work
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  Speaker 1: or their effort or their brilliance or their ideas. They
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  Speaker 1: brought something to the market that we all wanted and
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  Speaker 1: therefore bought, making them successful. That they could do that
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  Speaker 1: and did do that probably made life better for a
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  Speaker 1: whole lot of people merely because they became so wildly
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  Speaker 1: successful bringing to the world whatever it is they brought
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  Speaker 1: to the world that made them so wildly successful. But
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  Speaker 1: why does that make it wrong that they end up
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  Speaker 1: having more? And we can all collectively criticize the stupid, stupid,
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  Speaker 1: stupid things that a lot of rich people use their
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  Speaker 1: money on, the things that they buy. But remember, there's
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  Speaker 1: also an economy that's supported by their seemingly stupid purchases.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, if I had a billion dollars, I wouldn't
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  Speaker 1: go out and spend it on a $ 500 million boat.
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  Speaker 1: What the hell is with that? But they all seem
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  Speaker 1: to want to do that, at least a lot of them,
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  Speaker 1: not all of them. But the boat manufacturers and the
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  Speaker 1: people employed, the craftsmen and the tradesmen and all those
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  Speaker 1: that make the boats that those people float around in,
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  Speaker 1: burning up fossil fuels and polluting the planet, they're all
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  Speaker 1: happy that they're dumb enough to go out and spend
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  Speaker 1: money on things like that. But, you know, it's their
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  Speaker 1: life decisions. They can make them. It's freedom and liberty.
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  Speaker 1: There's no right for us to be envious of them.
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  Speaker 1: I'm never going to be there. Let them have their
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  Speaker 1: wealth and thank them for, well, providing jobs and employment
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  Speaker 1: and all that's right. A lot of tax revenue to
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  Speaker 1: keep afloat all the social programs that we've enshrined. in
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  Speaker 1: law here in the United States of America. 7.15, remember,
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  Speaker 1: it's never enough. There's never enough money. Look at what's
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  Speaker 1: going on in California and look at what happens after
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  Speaker 1: you tax the hell out of everyone on all levels,
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  Speaker 1: even lower and middle class folks. France, that's what happens. 7.15, 55KRC,
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  Speaker 1: the talk station. See if Jack's okay.