965 - A Chorus Line feat. Alex Nichols (9/2/25)

All I wanna make is a jumble.

All I wanna be is a jumble.

Bring me bones and pistols.

All I wanna be is a

Okay, all right.

Hello, everybody.

It's Tuesday, September 2nd, and we've got some choppo for you.

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day weekend.

And as summer draws to a close, Felix and I are joined once again by Alex Nichols, who is back with us.

Alex, welcome back.

What's up?

Well, boys, Labor Day weekend is over.

As I said, in the waning hours of summer, the nation, I think, this weekend was sort of

by speculation.

Is Donald Trump dying?

And it is my pleasure to report today that no, he seems like he's doing fine.

What did you guys make of that this weekend?

Was Trump going out like Chera?

You know, like, it's one of those things that always be cautious about things that you want to believe to be true.

But, like, I have a strong suspicion that Donald Trump will live to be like 112 years old.

Yeah, I mean,

like, that is the thing.

Like, you know, if you, anyone out there in the audience, I know that some of you, you're the type of Americans where your grandmother is like 34.

I don't, I don't understand that, but that's most people.

But for

people more of my

persuasion, where you have like a, you know,

the, the youngest grandparent you have is 98.

You know what it's like when they get sick.

Like when a, when, when an 80-something, a 90-something year-old, when they get cancer, it takes them like 30 30 years to die.

Doctors explain this to me, that

their cells are exhausted from doing body stuff their entire life.

So it's like the cancer is walking through their body and not sprinting like when someone is younger.

So I think he probably is like diseased in some ways.

I've seen a lot of old people in my time,

usually when you have to put makeup all over their hands, it's because either you've been burning them on purpose or because of a gross problem they have or both.

But

I think the stuff about him having like a series of strokes was,

I don't know,

it's the same thing that happens every time.

Whenever there's like a shot of like an old person and their ankles look weird and they're like,

I'm a live-in nurse and this only happens when old people are going to die.

And it's like, no, no, old people have gross stuff that happens to them all the time they live another 50 years uh

I do think something is off though because he's just like even during the Epstein thing like Hassan pointed this out when when everyone even his supporters were like are you a pedophile you're you're a pedophile you're doing all the stuff a pedophile would do he would he was still doing like 12 hours a day of media so I don't know

I think the speculation started when he had like no public events scheduled for the week.

Didn't even seem like maybe he was playing golf this weekend.

But

I think we should start worrying about him when he doesn't show up for the golf course.

But like fueling this speculation, I feel like she mentioned it.

We have to begin with what's going on with his hand.

Because in recent public appearances, he has like

what appears to be a large amount of like pancake makeup or just paint covering one of his hands.

Now, this could be a number of things.

It could be covering up a very large liver spot or perhaps like bruising caused by the repeated removal of an IV.

What do you think is going on with Trump's hand?

I don't know.

Like,

he could have run out of like good vein.

Is he shooting between his toes?

It happens to the best of us.

Yeah, I don't, yeah.

I mean, I would figure it's that.

What else would it be?

Like, did he get it banged up doing boay tie?

He sat on it too long doing the friendly stranger routine.

See, that's pedophilia because they're so small.

He's basically pretending a child is jacking him off.

And I'm not okay with that.

And I suppose the other thing that led to speculation about Trump's well-being is

just down on several recent statements from JD Vance where he was just like, hey, just so you all know, I'm totally ready to be president at the drop of a hat should anything happen.

I'm still here, guys, and I'm ready to serve.

Day one.

Do you think he used to say that to his mom or his grandma?

His me-ma?

I'm ready to take over anytime.

Do you have to go to the hospital or something?

It's hard to evince much meaning from that because it's like, well, what else would he say?

Like, if they asked the vice president, hey, if the president dies, are you ready?

Are they supposed to go, no, I'm going to kill myself if that happens?

Like, straight up, I'm not ready for it.

I'm fucking terrified.

I don't know what I'm doing.

I'm probably going to start cutting because you asked me.

It's so scary to think about.

I only said yes to the VP position because I thought I would never have to do anything.

It's the most meaningless job in government.

I'm very scared.

I might have to become president.

Please, someone replace me.

That is kind of the thing I thought was strange about people getting really excited about it.

I mean, granted, it would be hilarious if he just...

you know, just all the shitty habits and everything just instantly catches up with him.

Like, he can't even take another year of being president.

But like, I don't know.

It's too hard to read the tea leaves on this one.

I think on balance, it would probably be worse if JD was president, even though I doubt he could hold the coalition together quite as well.

Right.

I mean, like, because, you know, like the, the, the, the common refrain you heard for a long time was like, what if, what if, what it was Trump's fascist policies, but someone who was competent or young, like JD Vance.

But like, that may be true, but he just doesn't have the Riz because he's so such a dour school marm and doeboy.

But I mean, the other thing that people are speculating about is like, there's some funny photos of Trump and they were like, oh, he looks terrible.

But like, I don't know how to gauge that either because like he always looks terrible.

Like he's looked like shit for as long as I can remember.

Like he looked like shit when he was running for president back in 2016.

Like he never looks good.

So like

When you see a photo of him wearing a giant hat and his like mouth is slack jaw and his eyes look like two little piss holes in the snow.

Um, like, how am I supposed to uh judge that?

I'm like, oh, wow, he's Trump is really looking bad today.

Something may be wrong with the president.

Yeah, that's a great picture.

He's giving dry Spongebob, and it's iconic.

And like SpongeBob, he did the second he left Sandy's dome, he was fine again.

Yeah, I always, I always think about like what it feels like to be him.

It might, it probably really feels like,

yeah,

probably good as fuck.

It has to feel like spending like a million years in purgatory, but in a hotel.

Like that picture, the picture of him with his mouth just gaping open, I feel, I just automatically feel thirsty when I see that.

That is the exact sensation of like best, very harsh, best Western AC completely drying your mouth out.

Diet Coke.

I need a Diet Coke.

Yeah, I guess,

you know, it's just like people still want the, they want the juice, they want the excitement of when we all thought he was going to die of COVID, you know, but I just don't think we're going to be so lucky to have him go out like Chera, though I will say,

Brandon outliving Trump would be a hilarious squirk of history.

I mean, it might happen.

He is,

I mean, I think more.

funnier than him just dropping dead now is just this continued slide into brandon-ness

both physiologically and in a more figurative sense.

Yeah, people don't really die anymore.

That's the thing.

At least rich people and celebrities.

That's true.

The only time someone dies is when it's like a Tom Sizemore type.

Yeah.

Someone who would have died at any time in history.

Or Gene Hackman and there's some sort of freak accident involving dogs.

But he was still like 93.

That's basically not dying.

He's the youngest a rich person dies now.

It's crazy.

You have to be like a real Coleman francis type like you have to you have to have specifically sort of the habits in the body of a of a drifter who's fat

you think all that drifting would uh burn up some calories that's like a catamari you pick stuff up as you go

um yeah so like i he appeared today uh at a press conference and you know people are like oh trump press conference at two o'clock he's going to come out there and go hello i am dead now Goodbye.

But unfortunately, it was just to announce that he was changing the location of the head of the Space Force from Colorado to Alabama.

And, you know, this also comes amid his recent announcement that he would like to change the name of the Department of Defense, the Department of Defense to the Department of War and the Secretary of Defense to the Secretary of War, which is what it was called, you know, prior to World War II.

It was right after World War II that they changed it to the Department of Defense rather than the Department of War.

Yeah, then we started losing them.

Yeah, exactly.

You noticed that?

Yeah.

And, you know, he's not wrong about that.

I got to say, Department of Defense is not really, I don't know, an accurate moniker for what that part of our government does.

So, and then also, he is sending the Navy to Venezuela.

I don't know if he's going to start a war with Venezuela soon, but that certainly seems like it might be in the offing.

Moving on, just

another bit of news from Trump World from the weekend that involved somebody not dying, unfortunately.

We'd like to, from the Choppa family here, extend our sympathies and get well soon wishes to Rudy Giuliani, who was recently the victim of a car accident in New Hampshire.

The New York Times covered this story.

It says here, Rudolph W.

Giuliani was expected to make a full recovery after a vehicle slammed into his car on Saturday, leaving him with a fractured vertebrae and other injuries.

Mr.

Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and lawyer for President Trump, was riding in a Ford Bronco that was rear-ended in New Hampshire on Saturday evening.

The police said the injuries suffered by Mr.

Giuliani, 81, and the two drivers involved in the accident were not life-threatening.

The driver of the Honda was a 19-year-old from Concord.

According to the police, the Bronco was being driven by an advisor to Mr.

Giuliani, Theodore Goodman.

Michael Ragusa, Mr.

Giuliani's head of security, said the Bronco had been flagged down by a woman who was the victim of domestic violence.

The former mayor called 911, waited for help to to arrive, and then left, Mr.

Ragusa said.

Andrew Giuliani, the former mayor's son, whom President Trump recently named executive director of the 2026 Men's World Cup Task Force, acknowledged the crash on social media and said that his father was tough.

Your prayers mean the world, he said.

As a son, I can tell you I'm honored to have a dad I can call the toughest SOB I've ever seen.

What do you think's going on with that?

I mean, like the details are going to jump out to me.

I'm just exactly as described.

Yeah, I think there's a woman who doesn't have a phone on a back road in New Hampshire.

She was just waiting for a car to go by.

Hey, are you Rudy Giuliani, America's mayor?

Can you help me get out of the domestic violence situation?

Sure.

Hold on.

Can I crash my car first?

Like, what is that?

Well, yeah, it says that he was flagged down by a woman who was the victim of domestic violence.

He called the police to help her, but like,

you know, like, this is pure speculation on my part i want to make sure make make clear here i'm not making i'm not alleging anything i would just imagine a situation like this could in fact be cover for an act of solicitation not by mayor giuliani but i'm just saying if i was soliciting a a pro on the side of the road on a a dirt road in new hampshire in the middle of the night uh and then got into a car accident as a result of it um i might like i might say that i was trying to help her you know This is the old Eddie Murphy excuse.

I was giving her a ride home because when I saw her walking on the side of the road, I decided to ask if she would like a ride.

Yeah, I mean, or

I don't know, the specific mention of a domestic violence victim flagging him down, it could be...

You remember that lawsuit that got filed?

Like one of those

one of those sort of like Palm Beach looking women that always hangs

around around those guys.

Like, she disappeared out of that orbit a few years ago.

And it turns out she has this long, like, ongoing legal battle with Rudy over Rudy, like, sexually harassing her.

So, like, according to that lawsuit,

he asked her to, like,

give him a blowjob while he was on the phone with, like, whoever.

So he could have just he could have like, I don't know.

Some grandma could have seen him and, like, asked him for a selfie.

And then he was like,

can you rub my ass while I FaceTime with what, with the mayor of Abu Dhabi?

And she said, you, no.

And he like grabbed her wrist really hard.

It could be that.

It could be any number of things.

But

I just,

I don't know.

I have a lot of questions.

I don't know why his.

If this is, if this is how they're describing it, like, why would his chief of security issue a letter?

Why is his head of security issuing a statement in this regard?

I mean, I was just glad to hear that he wasn't driving the car at 81 years old.

I mean, maybe he was.

No way.

Yeah, they switched seats.

Yeah, they switched seats.

That's a classic move.

The homer

there.

Yeah.

Why was he in New Hampshire?

Running for president in 2028?

I don't know.

Oh, I hope so.

New Hampshire is kind of a classic simpleton's hangout.

It's a bad place to get in a car accident because no one has insurance.

Yeah.

There's no requirement.

That's why Vito killed that guy.

Yeah.

Oh my God, Felix.

I was thinking, like, that was the first thing that came to mind when I heard this story.

I was thinking of the Johnny Kicks plotline where Vito rerends that guy and then just kills him to prevent him from

asking for his insurance.

You know, I get that they were probably portraying that as like a bad thing to do.

But I always thought, like, how relieving that must feel.

Even if you're not in, like, a Vito situation,

you just get to get, you could get, like, completely erase this car accident by just killing one guy.

There's so many situations where I just picture Vito waddling up to that guy and just dumping around in the back of his head.

And I don't want to kill the person in question.

Like, I would never do that, even if I had a gun and we were in this.

bullshit stretch of New Hampshire, but you just, you have to figure that is the best feeling.

People always talk about how good it feels when like a party gets canceled or whatever.

I always think that's stupid.

It probably feels great, though, when

that's not even an enemy, just an obstacle in your life is killed by you.

I mean, we, well, I would like to interview David Chase.

Was that supposed to be bad when Vito did that?

Do you agree with doing that?

Because I actually, I think it's a good idea, I would do it.

Yeah.

The Johnny Kicks plot line got

a lot of, I think, unfair hate when it first premiered, but I love it.

It's one of my favorite plot lines on the Sopranos because I love the scene where Vito tries to do an honest day's work and can't get like two minutes into it.

And he's like, don't check the clock.

Don't check the clock.

And then basically like flees having like a loving hot boyfriend and flees to certain death and being tortured by the hands of Phil Dietardo just simply to avoid having to work honestly for a living.

Yeah, he doesn't even try putting on music or anything.

Like, turn on the radio.

At least try it.

He's like sawing wood and he's like, don't look at the clock.

Don't look at the clock.

And he's like, all right, now is a reward.

Look at the clock.

And like four minutes have passed.

That's the worst feeling in the world.

Yeah.

That was what, like 2006, 2007?

And podcast.

Or, you know, talk radio at the least.

What podcasts were out in 2006 or that was always like ricky gervaish maybe like maron ricky gervaish mark maron and then like you know all the other podcasts were like you know rain wilson is going to interview a different member of her religion every week like bullshit like that so i i guess i see his point you could listen to stern

yeah yeah that was when he went over to serious art was there that was kind of on their wavelength Artie was kind of like a guy like that, like a closeted gay guy pretending to be an Italian gangster.

It was kind of the perfect radio show for Vito.

Yeah.

Plus he was fat.

A fat gay slob who's in denial, trying to be masculine.

Well,

best of luck to Riguliani and his head of security.

I'm glad they got this situation resolved.

And I'm glad he'll not suffer any lingering effects of a broken vertebra.

I always liked when Vito came home and just like telling his stupid kids, like, I just, I'm on leave from the CIA.

I have to go back to Afghanistan.

Like all this stuff.

It's so

sad.

I totally agree with you.

I think it's great.

There's so much great, just like depressing human behavior in all of that.

I love Vito when he meets with Tony by sandbagging him and he just brings his like severely brain damaged brother

standing around like Hodor.

Like he could do anything if Tony just like peeled out on them.

And I like

Tony's

sort of stab at being the socially progressive mob boss leader.

Because when he realizes how much money Vito brings in, he's like, maybe the rest of you guys just start sucking cock.

That, yeah, that was rainbow capitalism.

Yeah, he was the first guy to do it.

It was like Trump with Roy Cohn.

Yeah, absolutely.

If it's useful to me, I'm okay with it.

Yeah.

Always crashing.

Every

cross.

So yeah, moving on from

people in the president's orbit, I do want to get to this story that's

the big sort of story about the democratic dark money and the democratic influencer sphere.

I'm calling it the chorus kerfuffle.

And this is a story that has like a lot of layers layers because like there's the story itself and then there's like taylor lorenz who wrote the story and her involvement with the story and there's just like it's like a sort of a hall of mirrors of uh sort of like competing endorsements sponsorships and sort of i don't know democratic politicking basically like uh taylor lorenz wrote this story for wired and it basically involves uh this outfit called chorus which is quote the non-profit arm of a liberal influencer marketing platform.

And it's basically the article is about like that they have cultivated what they're calling like an incubator for sort of liberal democratic online creators and influencers.

And the crux of the story is about the the contracts that these people were either signed or pressured into signing where basically they get they were they were offered eight thousand dollars a month to like sort of be part of this chorus incubator program, but they couldn't tell anyone that they were being paid by this outfit.

And the contracts themselves seemed to come with some stipulations about the kind of topics they could talk about and like, you know,

their autonomy as creators in the sort of political entertainment sphere.

Could they talk about the veto, the gay arc?

Because then I wouldn't do it.

Otherwise, I would.

You know, that was actually included in the contract.

They were very explicit about not discussing the Johnny Cakes hot.

I would never do it then.

It says, I was going to read a little bit from Taylor's article here.

It says here,

For years, Democrats have struggled to work with influencers.

In 2024, President Joe Biden's White House snubbed several prominent content creators after they lightly criticized the administration over its policies on climate change, COVID, Gaza, and the TikTok ban.

Content creators who challenged Kamala Harris, including Hassan Piker, were similarly unwelcome at campaign events.

After the Democrats lost in November, they faced a reckoning.

It was clear that the party had failed to successfully navigate the new media landscape.

While Republicans spent decades building a powerful and robust independent media infrastructure, maximizing controversy to drive attention, and maintaining tight relationships with creators despite their small disagreements with Trump, the Democrats have largely relied on outdated strategies in traditional media to get their message out.

Now, Democrats hope that the secretive Chorus Creator Incubator Program, funded by a powerful liberal dark money group called the 1630 Fund might tip the scales.

The program kicked off last month and creators were told by Chorus that over 90 influencers were set to take part.

Creators told Wired that the contract stipulated they'd be kicked out and essentially cut off financially if they ever even so much as acknowledged that they were part of the program.

Some creators also raised concerns about a slew of restrictive clauses in the contract.

Now,

the people involved in this are some names that you might be familiar with, but most of them are people that are sort of, you know, I'm encountering them for the first time here.

And I just want to read this from Taylor.

It says here, influencers included in communication about the program and in some cases an onboarding sessage for those receiving payments from the 1630 fund include Olivia Giuliani.

I'm familiar with her.

Giuliano.

Giuliano.

Oh, yes.

Not Rudy's daughter.

Yeah,

she got divorced from Rudy Giuliani after his car incident.

She would not stand by him.

Now, Olivia, I am familiar with.

She's described here as a centrist Gen Z influencer who spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.

Lauren

Piertra, a former Playboy executive turned political influencer who hosts a podcast for Occupied Democrats.

Barrett Adair, and this is my favorite detail in the article.

Barrett Adair, a content creator who runs an American doll-themed pro-DNC meme account.

What?

You can read that again.

An American girl doll-themed pro-DNC meme account.

Hmm.

Who does that appeal to?

Like Smithers, if he was.

Smithers, yeah.

Yeah.

Next up is Suzanne Lambert, who has called herself a Regina George liberal.

That's a mean girls reference, right?

That is.

Yeah.

What does that mean?

She's like, you know, I think basically

someone else has covered this, but Suzanne Lambert, the Regina George liberal, just means that she was a Republican until like a year ago.

Oh, okay.

And I think Regina George, that's the mean girl.

So she's like sort of a mean girl looking influencer.

Yeah.

So it's like, I like politics, but I won't just wear like a potato sack with a rope tied around it.

I'll wear a skirt.

I do fashion.

Isn't that just like Amy Klovichar or Hillary?

Like Hillary like snapping her fingers and saying, get me gum now.

Isn't that just all those people?

Isn't it just a type A politics person?

Yeah.

And like, you know, like that, I think that's like, that's her brand.

And I think that's part of the appeal that they're paying eight grand a month for it.

Yeah, there's never, there's never been a woman in Democratic politics who's like, I think that steak and blowjob day should replace Valentine's Day.

I get along with guys better.

You know, like a woman who talks like a woman character in Control Alt Delete.

They could try it.

Yeah.

If I was a woman, that's what I would be.

Yeah.

Yeah, I would be one of the guys.

Because then I wouldn't have to change this drama.

Yeah, it'd just be easier that way yeah i'll be yeah i'll be like a like a like a football influencer like talking about sports and things like that something for the fellas uh ariel fodor an education creator with 1.4 million followers on tick tocks that's a crazy name that's like that's like if one parent was an orc

a half orc education creator um Sander Jennings, another great name, a former TLC reality star and older brother of trans influencer Jazz Jennings, David Pac-Man, who hosts an independent progressive show.

I see, I have heard of David Pac-Man, who hosts an independent progressive show on YouTube covering news and politics, Lay McGowan, who goes by the online moniker Politics Girls and Politics Girl, and dozens of others.

The first two declined to comment.

The rest did not respond to requests for comment.

Politics Girl, that's cool.

That's like if you wrote these people in a movie or a TV show, like a law and order episode about a political influencer.

Her name is just Politics Girl.

Yeah, yeah.

Politics Girl locked Vote Boy in a flooding basement to get more likes.

That's a very, yeah, it's a very

SMU popline.

Yeah.

Like, why do you have to pay these people?

Looks like Politics Girl is going to turn into Politics One Woman because she's going to be in prison for life.

They're seeking out people who are doing it for free and then just giving them like $6,000.

Well, I mean, yeah, that is the obvious question here.

I mean, if someone already has 1.4 million followers on on tick tock and like they're already doing this content i mean i i think this is

uh you know as as taylor identifies in the beginning of the article this is like the democratic party's attempt to take the people who are already doing this for free and i don't know like corral them into a more sort of well-oiled uh sort of media and communications uh organ like you know because like in the article they talk about like there are sort of like tutorials and training sessions about like how to expand the reach of your posts and sort of like message coordination.

I think like they're trying to like you know I think after ignoring the internet for a long time I think they're just trying to like shape what's already there into an even more I don't know effective means of political communication and and this gets into like the contract stipulations about what they are are and aren't allowed to talk about And it says here, following the initial outreach, many creators expressed concern about some stipulations.

According to copies of the contract viewed by Wired, creators in the program must funnel all bookings with lawmakers and political leaders through Chorus.

Creators also have to loop in Chorus on any independently organized engagements with government officials or political leaders.

Creators in the program are not allowed to use any funds or resources that they receive as part of the program to make content that supports or opposes any political candidate or campaign without express authorization from Chorus in advance and in writing per the contract.

And it says the goal of Chorus, according to a fundraising deck obtained by Wired, is to build new infrastructure to fund independent independent progressive voices online at scale.

The creators who join the incubator are expected to attend regular advocacy trainings and daily messaging check-ins.

Those messaging check-ins are led by Cohen, that's Brian Tyler Cohen, on rapid response days.

The creators also have to attend at least two chorus newsroom events per month, which are events chorus plans, often with lawmakers.

So like

Alex, I think that what's going on here is like they're taking a bunch of reliably just sort of partisan Democratic online influencers and sort of putting them in Democratic Party boot camp to make them even more reliable surrogates and mouthpieces for whatever the Democratic Party is trying to do, whatever candidate they're trying to support, or whatever message they're trying to promulgate.

And, you know, one of the details here was about how they are allegedly not allowed to, like, if you take the money, you're not allowed to talk about Gaza, right?

Because that makes the Democratic Party, puts them in an awkward position, makes them look bad.

And

I think the way to look at this is like, I don't think it's not, I don't think it's so much that this, you know, 1630 fund and chorus or whatever.

I think the way to look at it is not so much that they're paying these people not to talk about Gaza.

I think they're paying them because they've selected people who would never talk about it to begin with.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And none of these people need the money to be towing the Democratic Party line.

And I'm not sure what that is either.

Like, what is the messaging that they're putting out?

Like, I don't see any Democratic messaging other than the shit from Newsom.

But

that's more of like a, that's directed more towards like normies.

It's not directed towards TikTok.

Yeah, it's just like, I guess at this point, just like, no, Hakeem Jeffries is a competent adult.

Like, there's no message or like central set of policies that you could identify with the party at this point.

It is just like, yeah, Gavin Newsom, like re-truthing things and

nothing else.

Well, I just, I, this has all the hallmarks of people trying to look busy.

Yeah.

Which is, I mean, people trying to look busy is why 90% of things happen.

Yeah, that's our economy.

I mean,

the thing about there being like two monthly briefings where they go, okay, everyone, just to remind you, we're still Democrats.

Like,

this is Brian Tyler Cohn, who did any of you guys remember him?

I've seen his posts.

I don't really know anything about him.

He's like a news guy.

Yeah, he's like a liberal influencer who has like really alarmingly prominent temples.

Like he's, he reminds me of Professor X for that reason.

I think he, he controls all these people with his dilepidate.

But he was, he was early on the, you know, influencers for Bloomberg train.

And it, it's very not, it's not very surprising to see him in charge of something like this.

But this does have all the hallmarks of him approaching, you know, like David Geffen and people like that and going, okay, I think we're going to,

we're going to do it.

We're going to get a liberal Joe Rogan.

And to show how serious I am, we're going to have three meetings a month, three entire Zoom calls.

And whatever guy he was talking to went, sure, that sounds amazing, Brian.

Yeah, I feel like I think you identified this.

This is their incubator program, not to like support someone who already might be, you know,

who might have the mantle of the liberal Joe Rogan.

This is like their six million, you know, like the $6 million man project to create a liberal Joe Rogan through this incubator program.

And Alex, I think you identified like the essential sort of conundrum here is that like, what is the message that they're paying for?

Because what they're seeking to counteract, either on the right or on the left, are voices in the independent media sphere who are all very critical of the Democratic Party for varying reasons, either right-wing right-wing or left-wing.

And like they want their own sort of farm system of people who support the Democratic Party line, which is at this current moment, whatever it is that we're doing, that's good.

And don't complain about it.

If you're dissatisfied with Hakeem Jefferies or Chuck Schumer, you're wrong.

And like, what do we stand for?

I don't know, our politicians.

What we stand for is the Democrats who currently hold office.

And we should support all of them.

It's trying to reverse engineer a liberal Joe Rogan from like the politics mean girls and American doll influencers.

An interesting thing in the article, though, is that it says: The influencers offered the funding were given just days to sign the contract, which was essentially presented on a take-it-or-leave-it basis.

At least one cohort was specifically told they could not have their lawyers redline it.

In the group chat form to discuss contract negotiations, some creators discussed the clause prohibiting the disparagement of other creators.

Not being able to criticize anyone else affiliated with Chorus felt restrictive to some, according to text messages posted to the chat.

So

I'm just going to like, you know, my, my, sort of, here's my two cents, my advice for any sort of

budding influencer or creator out there, or really anyone in any field in life.

When someone offers you a contract and gives you an hour to sign it and doesn't let your lawyer look at it, they probably don't have your best interest at heart.

Like, who the fuck?

Who is Corus?

Are they Jerry Jones or something?

I'm kind of I'm I'm of two minds on this because like on one hand yeah that's pretty bad practices like to to tell like don't let a lawyer look at this you like here's all these restrictions but also like

judging by what I've seen if you at any point have been offered a chorus contract you should probably kill yourself So I don't like I don't know it's sort of like Amy Klovisher abusing her staff, you know?

Yeah, that's it could be bad, but then then again, they work for Amy Clovisher.

Yeah.

Like, are those people going to disparage the other people?

Are people just going to go really in on Olivia Juliana?

Like, posting like the right-wing stuff, like the

America First post that was going around?

Like, there's

a DNC heavyweight,

an influencer who puts everything on the table, like putting out all those hack jokes.

Like, one of them's going to do that.

They're just going to be like, oh, look at this fucking cow.

It just seems like, what's the point of any of this?

It's so weird.

Like, why do they need to pay these people?

Why is it not that much money?

Why do they need to put these stipulations in when none of them are ever going to not post about that shit?

Like, these are people who are self-selected to just be democratic mouthpieces who are not even really like,

they don't even have that much influence.

Like, they have less influence than like Jeff Tiedrich.

Yeah.

Where's his money?

Jeff needs to get a bag now.

Honestly.

Yeah.

He's been out there.

He's consistent.

i like this one one creator named chesco who goes by the speech professor online applied to join the program because your name is chesco and you go you go by something else yeah go by chesco at chesco that is cool yeah i've never heard of a chesco before his username is the speech professor the speech prof online man yeah these are democrats yeah It's only Democrats who have usernames that are like the cool professor, the crunk professor.

Remember that love professor?

I love the crunk professor.

The crunking lawyer.

I went to college, but I'm a little crazy.

And yes, I do listen to gangsta rap.

It says, applied to join the program because he views it as an opportunity to get access to people that have the funding or backing and actual research that I could use, he says.

I mean, like, you're just doing it.

Are you a professor or not?

It sounds like a university, which you're supposed to belong to.

Yeah.

What does that mean?

I'm doing this because it'll give me opportunities to have money put in my bank account.

Oh, good reason.

Yeah, I guess so.

Going on here, she writes: The structure of the program highlights the vast differences between how Democrats and Republicans appear to attempt to amass online influence.

Republicans have spent decades building up a powerful, independent media ecosystem, though the right-wing influencer world is far from transparent.

In September 2024, a federal indictment alleged that the Russian state-sponsored network RT was covertly producing producing millions in funding to Tenet Media, a company working with major right-wing influencers, including Benny Johnson, Tim Poole, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern.

In 2024, the Republican National Congressional Committee spent nearly $500,000 on working with Creator Grid, an influencer marketing company whose website says it connects Republican candidates with the internet's most powerful conservative influencers, according to analysis of campaign finance filings from the Washington Post.

And I mean, like, I think this is like, you know, because obviously, like, the whole right-wing media, online new media sphere is, you know, deeply corrupt and stupid as well.

But I think, like, this does, this does accurately identify, like, an essential difference here is that, like, Russia will wait for someone to blow up before they start paying them to do fucking videos for them.

Whereas, like, what, what, what these people are doing are just, like, trying to, like, like I said, like, pick someone in the fifth round who's going to win a Super Bowl.

You know what I mean?

Yeah, I know.

Yeah, it's just,

again, it's hard to see any point in any of this besides Brian Tyler Cohn, like justifying his $700,000.

I don't know what he gets paid to lead all this bullshit.

I'm assuming.

You know, probably high six-figure salary running this thing.

I just, yeah.

All these people.

The highest profile among them have like, you know, 200,000 followers, I think.

I don't think there's a lot of crossover in this group.

I don't think there's a lot of people who are like, I'm a, you know, I voted for Trump in 2020.

I didn't vote in 2024, but I love the DNC American Girls account and Olivia Juliana.

I think they're so, I love those two.

It just,

yeah, again, like most things,

appearing to be busy.

But it seems like the right wing, like, like I said, like, they'll, they'll sort of adopt and start funding guys who have sort of already created for themselves, not just an audience, but like a political line or point of view or like, you know, some weird conspiracy rabbit hole.

You're just like, they have a thing, right?

Like, Rox Jones had a thing.

Like, he had a sort of a brand.

You know, Benny Johnson had a thing before he started.

They'll co-op people who have like an outsider credential.

I mean, that has happened in the past with like Democratic stuff, but it seems like now there's such a siege mentality that they don't even if you've appeared as an outsider at all fuck off you are not getting this eight thousand dollars a month we're not even gonna try to co-opt you and like you know like that that's why uh like again like this all seems so pointless to me is because like they're they're trying to like gain purchase in the minds of young people or online or in independent media, but they're doing it all sort of, but they're starting from a point of like, we're only going to fund people who already agree with us and who are a thousand percent loyal democrats already so it's just like where like where's the buy-in here like where's the juice you know like and like yeah and seemingly like creating contracts which make it so that you can't ever sort of buck the party line in any way that might be surprising or novel yeah

I if you're taking them at their word that they're like trying to win back the online landscape, it's just, it's inherently self-defeating even by, even going just by their own words.

Because, I mean, according to them, this is all a messaging issue that has left the Democratic Party in the state where all these,

according to them, Democratic beliefs are uncool.

So we're going to get.

The only people in this group who have any name at all have a name beyond just Democratic circles because they are constantly made fun of for being uncool

in various different ways.

So it's just like, what?

Are they going to become cool by virtue of you paying them?

I don't, yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I got there's better, there's more evil things that I guess David Geffen could spend his money on.

I guess it's good to just kind of waste his time and waste everyone's time.

But it's, um,

I don't know.

This is, this is, this is barely one step above like just paying pe paying people to do like a one of those no work jobs where you just show up to a construction site and like and talk to other guys in lawn chairs

back to veto again yeah but um no i mean i i think i think you got it exactly right felix is that like this is all indicative of the fact that like they still believe or need to believe that like the democratic party is so brutally unpopular right now because their messaging just isn't working And that like the delivery vehicles for like people,

like the sort of vectors of delivery for the message that the Democratic Party is doing great and everyone loves them and their policies is just not working anymore online so we need to have more people towing that line and like I think the tell here is like all these sort of like incubator sessions about how to like how to how to make your posts have better reach or how to get better more you know more hits or go viral or whatever like all that shit is always doomed to fail because it's just like if you want an audience just do good content like do good posts be funny be amusing be entertaining Be intelligent.

Make good videos.

I don't know.

Like, you can't, like, there's no strategy that's going to

sort of, I don't know, replace the fact that all these people are boring and have nothing to say other than Akeem Jeffries is cool.

Yeah, I mean, this is, again, if I am taking them at their word, this is like if Poland...

a week before Germany invaded them was like, okay,

we're at this, we're at a severe technological disadvantage.

We need to get four times as many horses and two times as many biplanes.

We need a penny-farthing cavalry division.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Like, we're at this inherent disadvantage because they have tanks, we have horses, we're using the first planes ever, and they have Stuka dive bombers.

We just need more of those things, though, and then we'll be fine.

You could have done something.

Yeah.

If you throw enough enough horses in there we'll fuck up the tanks like one horse a tank could probably roll

but like hundreds of them yeah like if you tried to run a tank through the kentucky derby i think it would like it would really grind up the the treads and shit like in saving saving private ryan they did it with a sock it worked with a sock so like like 300 horses and i i guess if you if you if nazi germany wins you're losing all your horses no matter what they're putting all those horses in the death camp yeah they killed all the polish elites, all the intellectuals, all the nationalists, and the horses.

The horses they rode in on.

I don't know.

Yeah, and it's just like

the Democratic Party isn't popular because everyone hates them because like no one knows what they believe in and the things that they do and say are also evil and awful and everyone hates it.

So like the way out of that is just like

like try to counter the messaging of anyone who could theoretically be on your side, but is critical of the Democratic Party.

Guys, I think we needed our own incubator program for online content creators.

And I was thinking, what would that look like?

And then I thought to myself, that is Chapo FYM.

We need to start funding Outlaws Generation and people who review food in their cars.

Well, I think he might support Trump now.

Well, we're going to get him back.

That is there.

We need to win people over.

Democrats need to do more

food influencer shit.

Yeah.

I'm not going to say anything about Olivia Juliana.

I'm not going to say anything.

No,

it's.

I am looking at this American Girl Doll account, and it does have a lot of likes on Instagram.

And it is kind of interesting because it's Felicity.

It's the American Girl doll that's like a Revolutionary War,

not soldier,

bystander, I guess, observer.

But it is kind of interesting.

She was in the Continental Army's child soldier for kids.

Yeah.

We could have won faster if we had more child soldiers.

And we like girls in the army.

Couldn't you see Bede Skelton being into that American girl account?

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah, they could win him over.

But it is kind of interesting because it's like, it's almost like a liberal tea party because they used to wear the little hats and the tea bags and they got really into the Revolutionary War cosplay.

And I guess this is like the Democratic version of that against Trump is like dressing up as dressing up your doll as a Revolutionary War era person and using that against the president somehow.

I'm not sure how well that messaging goes over.

It kind of doesn't sit that well with people on the left to do the

Revolutionary War was good kind of thing.

I think you could probably make it work.

Like Mad King George and all that.

You have to bypass like the slavery stuff.

But Alex, I'm confused.

How are they relating the American girl doll felicity to the current Democratic Party and current political debates that are beneficial to the

liberal media creator complex?

I think there are just dolls in the pictures.

Yeah, that is really it.

It's just like outsider art.

That would be generous to call it that.

I don't know.

It gets more likes on Instagram than I do.

I mean, there's some bullshit on Instagram.

America.

What is this account called on Instagram?

Helicity Merriman.

Felicity Merriman?

Helicity.

Hell is.

Oh.

I'm not sure what the bid is for that.

That's pretty scary.

Okay.

Helicity Merriman.

Is it...

Okay, so I assume it's going to be one of.

Oh, this is just fucking bullshit.

This is terrible.

You know what?

I thought this was going to be.

Oh, God, I hate the.

What did you think it was going to be?

I thought, Alex, I thought it was going to be one of those accounts where it's like, here's Nikki Minaj's ring pops.

And it's like, her outfit looks like it's the same color as like a ring pop that someone posts.

people do that kind of bullshit all the time but no it's like um

these very 2019 style super wordy memes when you see memes in this font you are just you're about to see some absolute horse shit

oh my god i this sucks uh here's the pose we need an american girl doll who costs pre-trump prices it's just photos of dolls with text basically and to be fair it's like the creator herself is speaking to the camera a lot too.

So it's like she's sort of a personality as well.

But these are just sort of doll-based memes.

The dolls don't even need to be there.

It's like trying to reach out to basic women, not to be rude, but I guess it's like women who could be Republicans.

Because like the woman, the woman who runs this, like...

If you saw her and you said, and you heard she was a politics influencer, you would probably guess she's a Republican because she has like bleach blonde hair and she kind of fits like...

And she's into dolls, isn't it?

yeah yeah it's a very like um feminine coded almost traditional aesthetic but it's democratic so i i kind of get their thinking i guess because this is the kind of thing where it wouldn't automatically be democratic like these people could go over to the republican party but

i don't know i guess i mean if they're giving her like eight thousand dollars a month maybe it's worth it i don't know why not it's not that it's not even that much money so

they should do like, just as a control group to see how well this kind of thing works, do the same kind of account, but it's one of those like terrifying anime guys who like fills a figurine in a jar filled with cum.

Same style of meme and that same sort of like didactive meme font that was very popular.

Yeah, there should be guys posting about like their cum shirt.

Like your mom taking your cum shirt out of out from under your bed and it's hard and it stands up up and she washes it.

Like they should have guys like that and just say, I support the Democrats.

Oh, they stole one of my jokes.

We need an American girl doll who lost her virginity in a finished basement while the Disney movie played loudly 10 feet away.

That's very specific.

Yeah.

We need an American girl dog who is crusty white and named Bella.

We need an American girl doll who had her first kiss under a sunset or retractable awning.

We need an American girl doll who treated the Disney Channel games with more reverence than the Olympics.

Felix, they're stealing all your material.

And these are my allies.

What are the Disney Channel games?

I mean, I would assume they're less important than the Olympics, but I'm not the American girl doll who treats them with more reverence than the Olympics.

I would have to assume that it's like, you know, the cast of the sweet life in Zach and Cody doing the shot put.

But there's a Disney twist.

Yeah, I guess I would treat that with more reverence than the Olympics because I don't really treat the Olympics with much reverence at all, honestly.

No offense to the athletes and the organizers.

No offense to all the countries of the world.

Yeah.

No offense to the global society we live in.

But miss me with that shit.

I love the Olympics, Alex.

I always look forward to the Olympics.

It's always fun to me.

Oh, Will, Will, Will, this is one of yours they stole.

We need an American girl doll who tells SCODUS to fuck off in front of a crowd of 20,000 people.

Wow.

We need an American girl doll who can't even parallel park.

We need an American girl doll who can't parallel park.

We need an American girl doll who builds bridges more iconic than the Golden Gate.

I'm glad they named it a famous bridge there.

We need an American girl doll who has spent the night crying on the floor of the bathroom.

See, okay, I think this content, I think, Alex, Alex, I think you're right that like this is maybe trying to like stave off

women who would otherwise be, you know, seduced by far-right-wing politics and the doll collecting community.

But I feel like a good chunk of this is just probably appealing to sexually depraved men as well.

Yeah, yeah, like really alarming.

Like the types of men who were like first arrested for the John Benedict Ramsey case.

Well, those guys lean towards John Mark Carr type guys.

We do need to win those guys over.

Well, there's a lot of them out there.

Terrifying perverts.

I think this account more appeals to like,

I don't know,

people whose personality changed after a car crash.

I just can't picture anyone who like knows when you're supposed to vote liking this.

You know, like, I, I,

is this on Valentine's Day?

Yeah.

The people who like this, I just see them going, wait, we do the, do we do that every year or every day?

This is for a very low-functioning type of person.

There's a group of American Girl dolls in a playhouse and the caption, or the words on the meme are, did you remember the weed?

That one's a little edgy for them.

I wonder if that was before the Chorus deal.

Yeah.

Oh, man.

I've seen some bullshit meme accounts on Instagram, but this is among the worst.

Well,

I guess like a sort of follow-up to this story is that like in the week since it's come out, like all of the people who are mentioned as being sort of part of this chorus incubator project have all issued state have all issued statements like, you know, saying that the article is full of lies and distortions and that like in no way is this some sort of coordinated messaging operation to sort of enforce Democratic Party groupthink.

But the problem with that is that they all released virtually identical worded statements.

Yeah.

So not and then, but like, I want to get to one last element of this story that I think is like, like an interesting sort of layer or reflection upon like meta commentary on the story is that like the fact that the article was written by Taylor Lorenz, who is sort of something of a, I don't know, like a

like a lightning rod herself, but like particularly in this story, because like...

Didn't Taylor just get in trouble for like doing ads for some company that like sells cell phone like smartphones to children or something like that?

okay so it is I think it's either an app or just an entire smartphone that like it doesn't go on like Facebook or something

I I so apparently she did an ad but wasn't paid which is one of the weird craziest things I've ever heard

she posted a video on her account that she labeled as a hashtag ad and she said in the video that she's proud to partner with a company called Bark,

which is, it advises parents on phone software to purchase for kids, like small kids.

And

I don't know, because I don't know, like, like Taylor is like,

is she's been very vocal about being opposed to like efforts to restrict the usage of smartphones among school children, which I find somewhat baffling because like, I think, I mean, like, that to me, I look, I don't have kids, but like, it's seeming to me that, like,

I think it would be wrong to say that kids can't have access to the internet or phones or shit like that.

But, like, I do not understand why anyone thinks it's a good idea to allow them to be used in schools, like when you're supposed to be receiving an education.

If you're even kind of ambivalent on this, okay,

get two kids, raise one of them unrestricted phone access, the other one

normal style, see which one turns out better.

Yeah, I don't know.

It's kind of a tough question because kids are going to get access to it no matter what.

And everybody else at school is going to be talking about skibbity riz and all that bullshit.

So like they're going to get inundated with it no matter what.

And I think like, even though it's objectively harmful, it is sort of helpful in a way in understanding the world.

Because unfortunately, for better or worse, the world is kind of defined by that, by the dynamics of social media.

Kind of the same thing with TV.

Like it's objectively good not to let your kid watch a lot of TV.

But we also live in a world right now that's completely shaped by TV.

And we have the TV guy as president and he plays to the ratings and everything else.

Like he's completely defined by TV.

So if you have no experience with that, it's kind of hard to understand the world.

And that kind of fucks you.

Like, I don't know.

Yeah.

But at the same time, this would be the equivalent of like, cause, you know, like TV rots your brain.

And like, when I was a kid, my parents tried as hard as possible to like limit how much TV I watched during the day.

But I think the difference is, is like, because of technology, I wasn't able to watch TV in school, like in class.

I wasn't able to watch TV constantly.

Unless there there was a disaster.

Well, unless, you know, yeah, exactly.

Like they were launching a rocket that was about to explode.

Yeah.

So you have to watch the Challenger takeoff on TV.

Fuck, I'm not that old.

But

I don't know.

I see like, I think, I think efforts to like make kids put their smartphones in like a bag during school hours so that they're like

forcing them in some way to like not ravage their attention spans and just like learn something or pay attention in class.

Like I did see Taylor, my favorite comment Taylor made about this is she was like, well, the internet is where people learn things.

And I was like, well, yeah, but it's not the only place people learn things.

I think kids are more

well-read and educated in certain ways because of that.

But also, it's really hard to guarantee that people use it for learning and they use it for the correct things because the profit motive encourages the worst aspects of it, like AI generated Instagram reels and just the worst, like brain rot.

It encourages brain rot.

It doesn't encourage like reading Wikipedia or whatever.

Yeah.

Or like, I don't know, like to me, like the purpose of education at any level should be like producing human beings who are capable and even desirous of reading an actual book on their own time.

And like, it's very hard for me to see how unlimited smartphone access is making that more or less more realistic or a more,

yeah.

You can read books on there.

I read books on my phone.

I think that's just the only way to really do this would be to just like

that, like a national, like blanket ban.

And that you can't, kids can have jitter bugs, but you can't have a smartphone until you're like 21 or something.

Yeah.

I didn't have a smartphone until I was like 19, I think.

Yeah, I was older than that.

Like, I had an iPod Touch before that, but.

I could have gotten an iPhone when it came out technically, but I just spent money on a gaming PC.

When I was working at McDonald's, I got my paychecks.

I wanted to get a PC.

I didn't want a phone.

Well, I think that would, in my ideal world, that would be part of it is you don't get a phone until you're like, I mean, I'd like to be 25,

but

you get a gaming PC when you do like a summer service project.

Yeah.

Like a racing street art.

Kids do need to learn how to use computers more.

Yeah, but they're not learning how to use computers.

They're learning how to use phones.

Yeah.

Like when I was that age, like to expose yourself to brain rot, you had to, you had to put in so much technical work, like learning how to torrent stuff and building a PC and like learning how to convert video and stuff.

Like I was thinking about that recently, about how so much of my technical knowledge, it comes from stuff like converting Simpsons episodes to watch on a POM pilot.

Oh, yeah,

I used to do that with the iPod video.

I would rip it off the Simpsons DVDs that I had and create MP4 files that I loaded onto an iPad video.

Yeah, like so much of that.

Like pod video, sorry.

The reason I did it was to get to the same place that kids can get to easier now, like just watching 24-hour Family Guy streams.

Yeah.

But it required more technical work to get it done.

Same with obtaining pornography, you know?

You got the risk embarrassment of asking for a magazine from a sort of a skeptical looking magazine clerk or news kiosk attendant.

But these kids today, they got it too easy.

And, you know, I mean, again, like, and once again, like,

so like, if we're saying that, like, unlimited access to the internet is like okay for children, like, well, it certainly hasn't been okay for adults or even Taylor Lorenz herself, whose output on a lot of issues is, I would say, somewhat odd recently.

Like,

for instance, her contention that NYC DSA members are more fascist than actual Nazis at this point towards disabled people.

At an event for Trump's inauguration with literal Nazis in attendance, I was masked.

Multiple people there put on masks, asked if my health was okay, and one told me about his sick grandma.

So, I mean, like,

it just, it's, it complicates the issue.

No one's ever seen her without a mask at an event.

No, no, certainly not.

Certainly not.

No one's ever.

You know, you never hear about that.

I will just say, I, I will just say, I, I think it's, I think, in general, you need like three or four reporters who, like,

the stories that they do when they they file a story it's like it's interesting it gives you something to talk about but they as a person they're insane i think it's a socially healthy to have that because it

i think a lot of there are a lot of reporters who are great reporters and they're regular you know like if i

in a uh just day-to-day situation if it was like um

I have to choose between this reporter or a member of the general public to like water a houseplant plant while I'm gone.

I'm picking that reporter.

But then there are some types of reporters where it's like,

all right, well, you should have an air tag on you in all times.

You're a little bit nuts.

Yeah.

I think if I asked you to babysit someone, I might come home and you're leg dropping.

You're leg dropping a toddler.

The thermostats at 87.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think the Democratic Party should pay her, honestly.

Yeah.

No, I.

should have paid her not to run this article.

You have to believe a lot of like really stupid things to be a reporter.

And some of the reporters that I put in the crazy, you know, that I would put on my crazy person island, but who I still think

have done good articles, they're stupid in the way that they're, you know, credulous or

that that is their form of mental illness.

It's rare to have one who's like,

they have the same thing driving them that like Trisha Paytas does.

You know what I mean?

Right.

Yeah.

Like, I think to be like a good journalist in a lot of ways, you do have to have some sort of like oppositional defiant disorder.

Yeah.

Did I ever tell you about the time that, like, do you remember the episode where you and Adam were talking about when she

talked to Libs of TikTok on CNN or whatever?

That was

a bizarre interview.

Yeah.

Okay.

So, like, months later, she like yelled at me about that

because apparently you guys were like mean to her.

Wait, I don't know.

I know I listened to her.

I wasn't listening to TikTok.

I didn't.

I don't know.

I don't remember.

Honestly, I don't remember what I said.

Adam might have said something that was like kind of, but it wasn't really, it didn't warrant like her like messaging me months later and being like, what the fuck?

You know, it was, I, I, I didn't even see who it was from first.

I just saw like this message that was just, what the fuck, like, first thing in the morning.

And I was like, oh my God, do I owe someone money?

And she just, she was just like hectoring me about

how like evil, evil and stupid the segment was.

And I was like, yeah, it sounds bad.

Oh, you bunched it on me and Adams, right?

Okay, great.

Yeah, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

I was like, they're getting fired.

I was like, they're getting fired soon.

Don't worry.

But I wasn't on the episode.

So can you stop yelling at me?

Yeah, you kind of have to have something a little wrong with you to be.

that committed to being a reporter in this media landscape right now.

Like, that's the one thing you want to do and you won't stop.

Even after getting like fired and getting in trouble and stuff and having all these controversies like having to do that like you have to have something has to be a little bit wrong with you but it's in a way that's kind of compelling and interesting i there's no other reporter i can think of who like

would

like message me about something that was on the show months ago and be like what the you piece of shit like i i even the reporters who are like credulous or believe stupid things, that is a specific, like, Trisha Paytasness that I think is, it actually is very novel among reporters.

And I will go as far as to say, I'm glad that there is someone like that.

Yeah.

That's what the guy from the 1975 does.

Like, if he gets a bad review, he'll just send a long email to the person just ripping into him.

But Adam kind of dodged that because he had him on the show.

So he doesn't have to deal with that.

And he should have Taylor Lorenz on the show.

I think that would be kind of interesting.

That's kind of, it's kind of normal for musicians to do that, though.

I mean, you expect that from a musician.

Yeah, there's less professionalism required.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, yeah, Taylor, if you're angry about this segment, please direct all ire to Alex Nicholas.

Yeah, he told us to say all this.

It's his well, he did it.

He goaded me into doing this.

I think she posted one of my tweets on her Instagram story.

Okay.

Look,

in that song we we made, the David Sirota song, where we reference her and say mask off.

Charles wrote that.

I made the beat.

I thought that was a really good line.

I like the entire song, but

that was a great punchline.

I'm in the Lotus.

I'm feeling like David Sirota.

I'm puffing a Yoda.

I'm feeling like David Sirota.

Don't look, I was legit.

I might run up with a stick.

Well, it depends.

I'm in the bands.

Mask off, Taylor Lorenz.

I might fuck around and be up next from DC Nova.

David Brooks, Brooks David from David Shore move over Maddie Glacius can't pay for this that substat cash outrageous but don't look up like I thought I thought the wired piece is good I think she like does good reporting but like you know some of her public stances I find a bit strange that's all strange is I think the best way to put

Yeah, I don't know.

It's a charitable way to put it.

I definitely don't.

I don't agree with her thermostat takes for sure.

And maybe not the mask stuff entirely.

I think she makes some good points.

And in the stuff about the phones, like

one, one thing about that that I think about is that the internet sucks so bad now that I feel like at this point, kids are just going to turn it off by themselves.

Like it's going to go around.

Like the amount of old people on there and AI shit and just garbage.

Like, it's so, like, I think there's going to be a point where kids just say, you know what?

I'm sick of looking at this.

Like, I don't even really look at my phone when I'm at stopping.

I hope so.

I really, i really hope so i just don't even have any desire to do it it's like you're right though because it's so it's so old person coded now it's so i don't know music cliche boomerified you know like it seems like we're all living in their kind of i don't know decaying miss havisham like mind palace of yeah they call it facebook and yeah

It puts me in a bad mood so fast when I spend like two minutes scrolling through videos.

Like, have you ever done that where you

watch like an animal video that comes up on your feed and then you do the vertical scrolling thing?

It takes about,

I would say, the longest it takes is three minutes of doing that before I see something that just is so shoddily made and has such low expectations of anyone who will watch it that it just puts me in a bad mood for hours.

Like, I'll see something where it's like an AI voice recapping the plot of Crank because they think the people that watch it will be too stupid to watch.

Crank explained.

Yeah.

A YouTube video longer than the film Crank explaining what happens in the movie.

Yeah, there's just so the AI stuff in particular.

That is

so dreadful.

It's such a

really thought of it from that angle of the boomers colonizing all of this, but that is, I think, that's a very useful way to look at it.

There's a specific, specific type of like small-mindedness and like credulity

that is so specific to them.

And obviously, younger people can be small-minded and myopic and

stupid and hateful, but there's a specific type of like

something that only boomers do where the stuff where it's like, you remember when the sky used to be a better color?

Yeah, yeah, it just puts you in such a bad state.

Drinking some of the hose.

No, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, like they're drinking the hose stuff.

I'm talking about people who will just like take a photo of the sky and being like, look at what they're doing to us.

There never used to be clouds of this shape.

The moon used to be closer.

Yeah,

and then we drove it away.

It's crazy how common that shit is now.

Like a couple decades ago, that was universally regarded as like crazy person behavior.

Yeah, I said that.

It's insane person behavior.

If you have like crank beliefs about chemtrails and like the sun being a different size and like all this shit.

And now it's just so common and no one really pushes back on it.

Everybody just has these stupid theories and no one's really going to push back on you.

And if they do, you can just isolate yourself and only talk to other people who think that they're like, there are codes on the TV and you can find them everywhere.

Yeah, there are numbers everywhere with those for eyes to see them.

Once you start seeing numbers, you'll never stop.

There's no pushback other than people just pulling away from those people because they don't want to be.

Are siloing themselves in communities that like reinforce their delusions?

Yeah.

And like, I don't know, I guess like the younger Zoomer equivalent that's like very disturbing.

It's like, I don't know, like, I know it's a small amount, but like the kids who have just been groomed into being mass shooters by like neo-nazi

Satanists, I think that bears, that's concerning to me.

I will say, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Um, I think it's finally getting some exposure now, but the that entire 764 thing that is fucking horrifying.

Yeah.

Uh,

yeah, I don't, yeah,

one of the um dog kids was linked to that group, too.

The kid who got allegedly like beat up.

Big balls.

I think.

Yeah.

Big balls.

Well, like, you know, like Rudy Giuliani, he was just out late at night when he

decided to help some people on the street

and was beaten savagely as a result.

I guess one last thing, because you brought up Adam.

Did you guys see Adam's interview with Richie Torres?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, I thought he did a great job, but like, I bring it up because, like, you know,

I thought it had a lot of impact.

And I thought he was, you know,

I thought he was genuinely moving in the way he discussed the issue of

being raised as a Zionist and sort of like,

you know, just sort of cleaving himself from that and the way he feels about it now.

But I bring it up because it got a lot of positive feedback and reaction.

I think it definitely had an effect on people.

But I have been noticing that

the sort of free press part of the internet have now taken upon themselves to just do actual come-town style anti-Semitism to Adam.

Like post this photo and be like, look at this fucking disgusting, wretched bug and miser.

This weak, neurotic bug who's everything that people hate about Jews.

Yeah, I saw a lot of, I saw a post where it was like, basically just like, look at this sniveling little kite.

And I would go, oh, who, oh, is this like an Adam Boffin guy?

And I would go to their page and it was like author of the book, Jewish in Any Skin, One Jew's Journey Through Being Jewish in New York.

I think one post said that he had 4,000 years of anti-Semitism beaten into him.

Just like,

what?

Damn.

Jesus.

They're like,

I mean, they're doing like, yeah, like Dear Sturmer cartoons about Adam Friedland because he happened to like be like, I don't think, I don't think Zionism can be supported anymore because of how many people they're killing.

Yeah, like he's not Jewish and Richie Torres is yeah you know i mean like because that was the insane thing about the interview that richie torres who's like a dominican guy from the bronx was like telling adam that he's doesn't that he's doesn't know about being jewish in america or that he's like misinformed or is being anti-semitic or something like

and you know what like the thing is like i i thought i thought adam did a great job in the interview and like and richie torres of course comes across like a complete psychopath like just a robot like just yeah he should not have gone on that show well you say that It's a very weird choice by him.

Well, here's the thing.

Like, I think that's, like, was my first and obvious conclusion is that, like, why the fuck would he agree to do this interview?

And then he was like, oh, you're doing a gotcha interview.

And just like the robotic recitation of his kind of talking points in the face of someone who was like trying to, you know, like, was expressing genuine human emotion and, you know, anguish over like the, you know, mass murder of like hundreds of thousands of people done in his name.

And then like his just dead-eyed recitation resuscitation of facts, I was just like, God, like what a poor choice on his communication staff.

But the thing is, keep in mind that like Richie has been like sort of like the waffling or like a lot of the hardcore Zionist groups are sort of turning on him because like he made like tepid statements being like, I think it's bad to starve people.

But I think this was his way of reconnecting with them because like, I think the thing is, like, if you can maintain your demeanor of absolutely like robotic, ice-cold detachment from human life

in service of supporting the Zionist project.

I think that that's like him doubling down and like showing the people who support him and who, you know, donate money to him and fund his political career that, like, I still got it.

I've still got it.

Like, I don't experience shame.

I don't experience human emotion.

And, like, and in no way am I ever going to have a human feeling ever.

So you can rely on me to safely resuscitate your talking points and, you know, like to toe the line, essentially.

Yeah, it's like a test of discipline.

It's the same reason that hypocrisy doesn't really matter on the right.

Like J.D.

Vance saying Trump is a horrible person and he should never be president.

Like the fact that he did a complete 180.

That gives

credibility.

That gives him credibility in their eyes because they're like, oh, like here's someone who's willing to debase himself.

Yeah, he can be bought.

He can do someone who will debase themselves and have absolutely no limit to their cravenness in pursuit of power so long as it serves our agenda.

Yeah, that's a good thing.

That's what they want.

They want people like that, like dead-on psychopaths who will just, they'll toe the line.

They'll say whatever gets them ahead.

And like, and Richie doing that interview with Adam, like, it's like the equivalent of like Gary Busey's character in Lethal Weapon, where like he makes him do the demonstration of his loyalty by like just holding his arm over a fucking lighter for like a minute until the skin starts burning.

Like, I think that was like, that was the Zionist equivalent of that.

I think you would have to use a menorah.

Seven candles.

That would be the Zionist equivalent.

Seven or eight candles in a menorah.

Eight, right?

I don't know.

I don't know.

Yeah, yeah.

What is the Adam Sandler movie called?

Eight Crazy Nights.

Right.

Eight Crazy Nights, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It used to be seven until that movie came out.

Yeah.

They only had fuel for one crazy night, but it lasted for eight.

All right.

Well,

it wasn't actually oil.

It was sugar.

Sugar got the ancient Hebrews random.

Oh, they got so hyper.

That's where the macaroni

came out of.

It was red 40 and sugar.

they were like we only have enough sugar to get one guy random for one night but it was a they had eight nights of randomness oh man felix uh before we leave today uh felix do you have uh an announcement you'd like to make uh yeah my um the players club which will examine a different series of video games every season will be debuting this week for our first season me and brendan are going through the entire metal gear solid saga so beginning with mgs MGS1

and ending with the Phantom Pain.

We may do a bonus episode on Metal Gear Rising, even though it's not part of the Solid Saga, but is, you know, I think has gotten some unofficial canonicity by virtue of Raiden being an unlockable skin in Phantom Pain.

But

we're very happy with

everything that we have put together so far.

the shortest episode is like three hours.

So,

if you really love,

you know, just inundating your brain with white noise, just not thinking about it,

instead, talking about what the hallways looked like in the Arsenal gear.

We've got you covered.

You can listen to this back to back, and

you'll have white noise for days,

whether you're flying to Australia or you're being held prisoner somewhere, this will get you through it.

Well, I, for one, am very much looking forward to your

Players Club and your video game series, and particularly just and launching with Metal Gear Solid.

I mean, like, that's putting your best foot forward, Felix, because

there is so much to analyze and expound upon in those games.

And Brendan's been giving me updates on the recording, and I am very excited for that.

So, everyone, be on the lookout for the launch of Players Club, Felix's video game series, beginning with the Metal Gear Solid games, featuring Brendan James, the occluded Shoppo.

Yeah,

I am really excited for people to hear this.

And

yeah, no,

the only episode me and Brendan have left to do actually now is The Phantom Pain, the last one.

But

even just looking forward for after this one, there's just so many different series I want to do

and a lot of one-offs, like either games that didn't

get a full franchise behind them or are, you know, considered not really part of the main canon for one reason or the other.

I obviously, at some point, uh, we're going to have to do Resident Evil with you, Will.

Yeah, no, I'm very much looking forward to it.

In fact, like, I should start replaying those games now.

It's like, uh, sort of like bank that for when we, uh, ever, when we get to that.

But I would love, yeah, I would love to do the resident evil games with you so i'm very much looking forward to the uh the next series you do on this or i don't know like uh are like are there any other game series that you're considering uh like you know like i don't know you're not a final fantasy fan so you're probably not gonna get to that that might be that might be interesting though because i've never really played those i'm obviously kingdom hearts

That might be really interesting because I think those games are so fucking weird and I've never played them.

I mean, just as far as the straightforward stuff, I definitely am going to do Hitman because I think those are fascinating games and they're my favorite type of thing, which is when Europeans have to give their impressions of what they think America is like.

And they're weirdly kind of dead on.

I always think of in Hitman, Hitman Blood Money, where you have to go on the riverboat.

to kill the big fat riverboat crime boss who sexually harasses all of his waiters.

And that's just what they think the average American is.

It is my favorite voice line in the Hitman series.

Agent 47, your target is Samuel Clements, also known by the LES Mark Twain.

Well,

you can dress up like a waiter and he'll say to you, 47, he'll go,

do you have any cake?

It's a confectionery.

It was so good.

It always made me laugh because he just assumes that this weird bald man doesn't know what cake is.

But

I almost almost did Hitman first, but I realized that more people would probably want Metal Gear.

Obviously, we're going to do the from software games at some point.

I mean, yeah,

that's the big one.

That's the big one.

Yeah.

But I mean, yeah, there's just so many.

And

there's a lot of one-offs or things that like things like Max Payne, where there's only three games, but I would really like to talk about it at some point.

That

I mean,

there's no scarcity of content to

go after.

Well, you know, listener, if you've ever wanted Felix's thoroughly, like thoroughly detailed exegesis of the Metal Gear Solid games, it's coming this week to the Patreon.

So

that's very exciting.

Could not be looking forward to that more.

So once again, congratulations to Felix and Brendan for the Players Club Series 1 Metal Gear Solid.

All right.

Till next time, everybody, I want to thank Alex for joining us today and remind everyone to check out Fortune Kit and Chapo FYM.

Alex, you have anything else you'd like to plug?

Check out Bob Marley, Hotel California.

It's my YouTube video that has 1.2 million views.

It's footage of Bob Marley live, and then I edited Hotel California into it.

And it has like 2,000 comments of old people from all different countries all over the world saying this is fake.

And a lot of them thinking it's real, too.

And apparently, if you ask AI about it, it says it's real, and it cites that as a source.

And it's also like the sixth result for Hotel California, if you look it up.

So check that out.

Excellent.

We'll do.

All right.

That is the classic Alex gag.

Yeah.

Just the fact that Hotel California is a reggae song is so funny to me because like that was famously like one of the most cocaine fueled sessions of all time.

Like the band who came in afterwards, they had to clean cocaine out of the recording console.

Literally, they said that.

And

what they got out of it was this really long reggae song about weed.

Like a seven-minute reggae song about weed that's like super pretentious.

And it's like yacht rock.

It's like the ultimate yacht rock song, but it's also like a song that you would write when you're 15 and you smoke weed for the first time.

All right, well, links for all of that will be in the show description.

So, yeah, thanks again to Alex.

We'll talk to you soon, everybody.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

podor el sielo.

Encha se de una vera y mueltra de camimo.

Soy mosa coría, Lord, yo ta di cadicelo tel cal di foga.

Such a lovely place, such a lovely place, such a lovely place.

Such a lovely place, such a lovely place, such a lovely place.