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About this Episode
We discuss the team sport of politics, the misconceptions people have about others and how no one understands libertarians, mostly in the context of the war in the Middle East.
Transcript
Hello Liberty Lovers and welcome to the Liberty Mic Podcast broadcasting from an undisclosed
location in the heart of Dixie.
I am Michael and I am here with Liberty Larry.
How's it going?
I don't know how to answer that.
Yeah.
Not so great on your end of the table.
So my neck thing has flared up again badly.
I have barely moved from the couch the last couple of days.
So here we are for how long I'm not sure because my arm hurts so bad.
Maybe a short one tonight.
Might be.
And I definitely didn't get to do much research because when I was sitting at a computer I was
doing my job that I get paid for and I didn't spend extra time like reading up on things
for the podcast.
So sorry everybody but there's only so much pain I'm willing to withstand for the podcast.
Yeah.
I did however, at least it was a good time in the sense that this is at the end of the
March Basha of the grand sumo.
Oh really?
Yeah.
So it's in the Kyoto tournament.
You can watch that on TV though, right?
Well I plugged the computer in to the TV and that's how I watch it.
I'm just saying but you can do that without being uncomfortable.
Yeah, exactly.
That's my point.
And as of, I guess it was early this morning really because Japan's like 18 hours ahead
of us or something.
But anyway, Kira Shima won the U-Show officially, I mean not officially but nobody can catch
him at this point.
So everybody else is mathematically eliminated?
Exactly.
Yeah.
Exactly.
They'll still continue to fight.
Yeah.
It would have been, it would have been more interesting if he'd, if they'd gone into
the, because this is day 14 out of 15.
It would have been more interesting if Hoshori, the Yokazuna would have still been like
in the race potentially if he won and Kira Shima lost on the last day.
And then for Kira Shima to just win on the last day and make it like that.
Now I hope he wins on the last day just to say it wouldn't matter that Hoshori lost to
the Ozeki Kotazakura.
I like Kira Shima, so good for him.
So you've been enjoying Sumo then?
Yeah.
Here.
It's the only sport I watch.
But it's fun.
So I don't know, how do you want to start?
Start wherever you like.
Okay, I, this is what I would like from the audience is that if, if we have had any impact
on your thinking about any issue and all the time that you have listened to the podcast
in terms of like, you disagreed with us at first and we at least gave you a perspective
that you considered and like looked into and even if you rejected it in the end or whatever,
like if we've had any impact, I'd like you to email me at Michael at the LibertyMic.com
or put it on the Facebook or, you know, a comment on one of the other places, but put it
somewhere where we can get to it.
Yeah, I just, I'm feeling like kind of blackpilled about this whole thing right now.
I feel like it, and in some ways this applies to me too, or I'm sure that it seems to
be for people to interact with me regularly, that like people are so certain about their
own position that they don't listen to anybody else.
Yeah.
Now, you know that my position has been changed by listening to other people on, on things
in the past.
Yeah.
And like, and I am arrogant.
I recognize that there's, I would say confident, but, but other people, those words intersect
really closely sometimes.
Yeah.
I mean, other people have used the word arrogant, so, and I recognize that, like I'm, you
know, like I've put a lot of thought and generally a fair bit of research into the positions
that I hold.
Yeah.
So, and I'm, so you feel good about them.
I do.
And, and mostly I'm doing this podcast, and I feel like the podcast wouldn't have any
impact at all if I just just got up here and said, well, I don't really know, I mean,
it could be a bunch of other things, but this is what I think, no, I need, I need to present
these ideas with confidence.
Yeah.
Well, absolutely.
And I do that in my personal life too.
Yeah.
When I, when I interact with people, and I guess I don't really let anything go, which is,
which is a character flaw, maybe, but.
Well, it's, it's interesting that you bring this up at this moment in time, because I know
you said you read the resignation letter from Joe Kent.
Yes.
And so I listened to, I did read the letter, but I don't remember a whole lot about it.
I don't, I absorb knowledge, weird, but, but I listened to the interview that he did
with Tucker Carlson.
And I found it really, the thing I found really interesting about it, there were a lot
of things.
I highly recommend people get a listen to it, because it's definitely worth the time.
But the thing I found interesting was he's saying a lot of the same stuff that we've been
saying on this podcast.
The only differences is that he's been in the position to know the facts.
The same stuff we talk about that, that we've dug up and we've found and we've been talking
about, but it's coming from somebody that's been in the administration and had, had, knowledge
that we don't even have access to, um, saying this.
Yeah.
I mean, the main thing I remember from the letter was him saying, Iran, um, was no imminent
threat.
And he said that throughout the interview and, um, you know, we were doing this for Israel
sort of.
I mean, he didn't, that's not exactly how he said it, but it was like, you know, Israel
kind of pulled us into this thing that we don't need to be playing a part in.
And he goes into some detail in the interview about exactly that, about how Israel pulled
us into this and he's, he seems to really approach it from a real like straightforward
perspective.
He's like, he's not hateful towards Israel, which neither are we, by the way, but, um,
but I really kind of appreciated the fact that he was like, look, Israel has its objectives
and, and what it's in the neighborhood and wants to do, has, has certain things they
want to achieve.
And they don't line up with what we want to achieve over there.
Yeah.
And they can't achieve what they want without us either.
Exactly.
Um, and he goes into, and he goes into a lot of how it like, like kind of behind the scenes,
how it works in the administration and how, just kind of how we've gotten to where we're
at with some of us.
Um, it's, it's really interesting, but I, listening to it, like I felt like this podcast
was vindicated in a lot of ways just from, I mean, Tucker's one of the biggest platforms
out there right now.
I mean, it's like, only for one side.
Yeah.
I mean, still though, um, yeah, but who's the counter on the other side would be my question
to that?
Well, it doesn't matter because the other side doesn't listen to him at all to who to
Tucker to Tucker.
I mean, they're, they're hearing it.
I mean, they're, they're hearing it one way or the other.
I mean, it's, it's, even if they're not, they're giving you and Tucker and listening
to the whole thing.
They're, they're hearing snippets of it.
Yeah.
Um, that are carefully edited to present a particular, oh, absolutely.
It's, it's not the same thing.
You can't pull 15 and 32nd clips from a, you know, an hour or two hour interview.
Yeah.
And it really be representative.
Oh, I agree.
It's, it's too easy to manipulate it to have it say something else entirely.
Yeah.
I mean, I agree with all of that.
But I mean, at the same time, he's still, I mean, as far as podcast go, I mean, he's
the biggest him and Joe Rogan are the two biggest platforms there are.
Yeah.
I mean, as, I mean, when you, when you're looking at the media landscape, like the mainstream
media, I mean, nobody's really watching it anymore.
Um, and if they are, it's the same way as what you just described in a little, little snippets,
you know, I don't know, walking to my mom's house anytime.
Yeah, but that's, that's not the norm though.
Like that's, I'm just telling you, I mean, it is for certain demographics, I guess.
Yeah.
But that's, that's not, and those are the people that vote.
They, it's true.
I mean, that you're not wrong.
Um, but I don't know.
It's, it's, it's, it was, I just really appreciated here in that position on that platform.
Um, and I felt like it, like I say, it really vindicated us in a lot of ways.
Well, I, like, I've been thinking about this a lot since I, um, since I got back from
Europe and I spent that time with my cousin who is generally more on the left, although
I, even that's hard to say, he just really hates Trump.
That's really what it is.
But, um, well, there's,
I mean, I spent the, just plenty of good reasons to hate Trump.
Sure.
I, I don't, it's, well, I mean, it's what our podcast is concerned is just never enough.
As critical as we've been about Trump in this new administration, yeah, we're still
not satisfactorily denouncing Trump.
Yeah.
I mean, a lot of, a lot of people, and a lot of people feel that way.
I mean, I've, I've gotten some of that back before.
Well, I know, but the, the point is here that what I'm realizing is that everybody, or
most everybody has their team.
And if you disagree with them on any one point, then you must be on the other team.
I spent the first three days there convincing him that I wasn't a Republican, because I
didn't satisfactorily denounce Trump.
Yeah.
Well, I'm just going to put this out there.
It's a good thing I'm managing the Facebook page and not you because I get that.
Constantly.
Like, it's, I'm always on one team or the other, but it's, it's all, and I'm, by the way,
I'm a libertarian.
Like, and I say this all the time out there, like I'm not, I don't like Trump.
I was never voted for Biden.
Like Kamala Harris sucked.
Like they all suck.
Yeah, yeah.
Well, I mean, that's the point that I tried to make.
And of course, like the, the argument that, um, that I make that he's not, he's not
a unique evil.
He's no worse than any of the rest of them.
Absolutely.
Um, that falls absolutely flat with him.
Yes, he is a unique evil.
No, no, he's really not.
I mean, like get over it, man.
Um, but at the same time, you know, another thing that I was telling him is like, dude,
I live in the deep south.
I live in one of the most conservative states in the nation, if not the most conservative
state in the nation.
And I live in one of the most conservative counties in one of the most conservative states
in the nation.
And almost everybody that I talk to on a regular basis thinks I'm a raving liberal.
Yeah, yeah, trust me.
I know the feeling.
And, and so it goes back to that one point.
If you disagree with them on any particular policy issue, then you must be on the other
team.
Yeah.
And they don't, and it's like nobody understands that these two points of view aren't
the only two points of view available.
Yeah.
And it, I don't know, it's just frustrating to deal with.
And, but everybody's so entrenched with their side that I feel like whatever arguments
we make just kind of fall on death years, no matter which side of the argument that
we're on, yeah, we're either encouraging people like people don't look at anything with
any kind of nuance.
Yeah.
No, I mean, and, um, and that's the frustrating things like, you know, like have a deeper
understanding of what we're telling you.
Like don't, I mean, you know, I can give an example of like the real quickly.
We may come back to this later, but the, um, gender wage gap myth, yeah.
Like, okay, so I, I make a statistical argument about that the, the statistic that they're
presented, the way, the way that statistic was derived does not make the, is not evidence
to what they claim in, it's evidence of, right?
In terms of, um, that women are paid less for the same work.
Yeah.
Like 20% less for the same work as men, because that's just not what it presents.
The key in that is the same work.
Yeah, because that's how they present it.
Yeah, yeah.
And so, but because I say that, the argument gets turned to me as you're saying there's
no sexism.
Yeah.
No, I didn't say that at all.
Yeah.
That's not the point that I made it.
I just feel like every time I talk to anybody about anything, they straw man my argument.
Yeah.
Um, and then are you against a point that I'm not even making?
Yeah.
And it's because they're so certain about who's on what side about what?
Yeah.
So I must believe this because I'm not on their side about that.
Well, and that's what I find in, in trying to make these arguments.
As everybody is trying to put you in a box, because once you're in the box, they can
attack where they think you are, where they think you exactly where they put, they can
attack you from where they put you.
Um, and the problem they have that everybody has with us libertarians is we don't fit
in any of those boxes.
Yeah.
We need a new box like you can put us in a libertarian box and then fight us from there,
but you're going to lose.
Yeah.
And that's the problem.
Like, and I've tried to, to move the, um, the spectrum, I guess, from right to left
or conservative to liberal, um, to being a spectrum between authoritarian and liberty.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Because that's how we view things.
Yeah.
And, and, and from that point of view, there's not much difference between the Democrats
and the Republicans in this country.
They're both on the authoritarian side.
They both want the government to control you.
Yeah.
One hundred percent.
So it doesn't matter whether it's fascism or communism, they're two sides of the same
coin.
They're still authoritarian.
Yeah.
At the end of the day, it's still tyranny.
Um, and when I've had these discussions, particularly with this Iran war stuff is, it
becomes so, so clear, um, it's like, there's only this one perspective that's age old,
right?
Iran is bad because they wanted to destroy Israel because they have a radical Islamist
government.
And so they are trying to create nuclear weapons so that they can blow Israel off the
map.
Yeah.
That's the starting point, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Even though there's no evidence of the, the, and in, in, um, Joe Kent's letter, like that's
what he says is that there's, we, there's nothing to support that Iran was even close
to creating nuclear weapons.
Yeah.
And so the, there's this thing, okay, they're trying to create nuclear weapons because
they're a radical Islamist government that wants to destroy Israel.
Yeah.
They're like, yeah, but there's a, uh, fatwa, a religious decree from the supreme religious
leader and a successor, like the old Ayatollah and the new Ayatollah saying that they, that
it is against the tenets of Islam, the religion that they're radical about.
Yeah.
To use nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction.
Yeah.
And so then the response is, yeah, but their religion says that they can lie to infidels
to achieve their goal is like, okay, yeah.
If they're, you know, religious fundamentalists and one of the fundamental tenets of their
religion is that they can't use this, yeah, then it seems to fit inside of your argument
that they wouldn't be developing nuclear weapons.
Well, but then there's this other thing, oh, well, but they'll just lie to you because
it's a, it's a tenet of their religion to lie to people that don't believe in their religion,
which I've read the Quran.
Like there's some like in group out group stuff like that, but, yeah, um, and it's, you
know, so, but I don't remember that part.
I mean, I guess I'm not saying that it's not there, but I don't remember that part.
Just like with the Bible, though, I mean, these things are all open to interpretation.
And when you're talking about the radical aspects of it, like they're going to interpret
it in the most radical way to see their end, yeah, but it seems to me that even if you're
willing to lie to infidels, that the religious decree would be honest.
Yeah, because you're not talking to the infidels.
Yeah, you're talking to the end group then.
Yeah, um, and what is the goal?
The goal is to drop nuclear weapons on Israel, which would end their society entirely.
And I don't mean those, it would end the Israeli society too, but, um, but the response would
be complete destruction of Iran and their own religious society that they've built.
Yeah.
That's their goal?
Well, yes, they want to be martyrs and have their virgins in heaven or what, okay.
Like there's no arguing with you.
Yeah.
Um, well, as far as this war is concerned, I still feel like that's the weaker argument
versus our own government's assessments say that they're not doing this.
I mean, it's just to me.
Yeah, I mean, there's that too.
Like there's, there's no evidence that they've lied about anything, actually,
uh, since this war began exactly.
You know, like we were having that discussion with my mom the other night, and she,
she kept saying, well, just the fact that they have this giant arsenal,
yeah, shows that they're, they were planning something, right?
It was like, yeah, they were planning for this.
Yeah, well, and they made it very clear all along.
Like we have a big arsenal.
And if you attack us, then we're going to strike back in every way that we can.
Yeah, exactly.
I mean, they know they have hostile neighbors.
Um, that by the way, we're the hostile neighbors they have.
Our bases are peppered around their country.
Yeah.
You know, I mean, it's not like we've peppered them around their country.
Like, well, we're here to protect you from Israel.
No, exactly.
You know, I mean, that's, that's not the situation.
I mean, Trump's been threatening to destroy them.
At least he was honest about that, I guess.
Threatening to destroy them like all along.
And, uh, you know, and my mom's response was like, oh, so that's America's fault too.
Like, well, we're there.
They're not here.
Who's, who's in whose neighborhood?
Exactly.
I mean, how would we respond if China was popping bases all in Canada and in Mexico?
Cuba and, um, I don't know.
I just feel like we've seen this movie before.
Like, you know what's, you know how we would feel about that.
Yeah.
Um, no, I mean, China's a lot more powerful.
I mean, China's close to a near peer to us, but Israel isn't any,
we're close to a near peer to us.
No.
So how, I mean, how else would you expect them to respond that way?
And the thing that irritates me the most with this whole situation,
because the other one is, you know, this is a, this isn't a new war.
This war has been going on for 47 years.
Like, that's the thing I keep here.
And, um, and it's like, man, we've done nothing in 47 years to try to bring this country into the
fold.
Like, because that's that to me, that's the, like when goods cross borders, armies down.
Like, well, the other thing I hear is like, uh, they've been a problem, you know,
they've been a problem my entire life.
Like, they've been a problem for 47 years.
Like, what is Iran ever done to you?
Yeah.
Well, and ever done to you.
And the, the, the support for terrorism, like again, I think the argument that they're the
biggest state supporter terrorism has been totally debunked by anybody who pays any attention.
The, uh, it's Saudi Arabia is the biggest state supporter of terrorism.
Like most of the terrorism that we deal with anywhere in the world is Sunni terrorists.
Yeah.
And the, you know, the Iranians are Shiite.
Like, they, they do provide some support for Palestinians and his blah.
Yeah.
And, uh, the Houthis, uh, the Houthis are their own kind of thing.
Like, they're not really Sunni Shira, yeah.
Um, but the, you know, the others, like Palestinians are Sunni and so forth.
So there is some support for Sunnis because it's Muslim over whatever.
Yeah.
But, um, but they're not directing them.
Yeah.
And they're, you know, they're providing support in the same way that we're like providing support
for Ukraine or were at least until Trump.
And I would say that that hasn't actually ended, but yeah, it's just taken on a new form.
Yeah.
But yeah, so, you know, they don't want these peoples to be crushed by Israel.
Yeah.
And I'll say, again, like, to the things that they, that they claimed beforehand, um,
they said what they do if they were attacked, they told us that they had this arsenal.
The US didn't believe that it was that big.
It's part of it.
Yeah.
Um, so actually they're being proven to be telling the truth where our government didn't believe them.
Yeah.
Um, they, uh, they have their self-imposed, um, strike limit, distance limit.
Yeah.
Uh, and there's been no evidence that they have actually produced missiles that can go more than the,
however far it was.
I can't remember the exact number now.
Um, a couple hundred kilometers, they ain't coming here.
Yeah.
Um, and, uh, they're, uh, they're nuclear program is non-existent.
The IAEA, as long as they were able to come in, said that they'd never violated any of the terms of
either the NPT or the JCPOA.
Yeah.
Um, I just don't, yeah.
This is, I mean, and back to the Nuke program.
Like the, the, the US residents, anybody who's been alive for more than 30 years, believes this
is amazing to me because this is exactly how the last Middle East war started.
Is claims that they had nuclear weapons and, you know, they were going to drop a bomb on Israel
or New York or wherever and it was all a lie.
And why is it so hard to believe that it's a lie again?
Yeah.
It's, it's like Groundhall's day, man, like I don't, I don't, um, I don't know.
It's, it's to think that this will go any better than Iraq did is just crazy.
I mean, there's a reason we went into Iraq and not Iran at the time anyway,
because Iraq was going to be the easy one.
Um, I mean, and I, like, I remember that propaganda of how easy Iraq was going to be.
It won't, we're talking, um,
Well, it's right in greeted as heroes.
Yeah, like, well, it will be ours.
Yeah, it'll be paid for by oil.
Yeah, like all of the promises, man, and then none of it worked out.
Yeah.
Um, like the same stuff with Syria.
And that was the easy one.
Like, this is the hard one.
Yeah.
Like, uh, clearly, and the longer it goes on,
the better it is for Iran, except for the possibility of Israel getting fed up and dropping
their nuclear bombs because they actually do have them.
Yeah, that's, even though they're undeclared and illegal.
Yeah, exactly.
But we don't care about theirs.
Yeah, that, I tell you, that's, that's the biggest worry in this.
And I mean, my other worry, obviously, is, you know, the China aspect to us that,
you know, China's support in Iran.
And then, I mean, basically a proxy war like what we're looking at in Russia and Ukraine
right now.
Yeah, that one's so bizarre too.
Like, the whole idea that it's a resource war with China and that one of our problems here
is that Iran sells cheap oil to China.
And we want to put an end to that.
Well, we created that situation by our blockade of, and sanctions on Iranian oil.
Yeah, it just leaves the, uh, a few countries that are willing to take the risk of running
a fall of the United States to buy that oil.
And since Iran doesn't have a lot of buyers, they've got to sell it cheap.
They sell it to whoever they can sell it to, yeah.
So we created that situation too.
And that's part of the, what's so frustrating why the 47 years thing just really irritates me
that after 47 years, we couldn't come up with a way to bring Iran into the fold and let them,
I mean, put that oil on the market like it, it can only help, um, the oil market to have
that on the, on the, on the split, have it out there.
Yeah.
Um, even if it is all going to China, it's that's still the less that China's buying from other
places like the, the greater the supply, you know, lower the price, like this ain't rocket
science.
Yeah, that's the economics 101 right there.
Yeah, exactly, high school economics.
Yeah.
And the fact that we, um, we're just so antagonistic to, to this country, I just, I don't,
well, and then there's the, um, well, uh, Iran and Israel will never get along.
Well, yeah, there were allies 40 years ago.
Yeah, when, when we were supporting Saddam Hussein in their fight against Iran,
Israel and Iran were allied.
Yeah.
That's, that's what then that 47 year window is a matter of fact.
Yeah, now that you mentioned it.
Yeah, so yeah, I mean, these things can happen.
I mean, I'm not expecting them to be buddies overnight.
But I go back to it while I, when, when you start moving goods between countries,
like you, you become tied to one another and it, it, it creates a piece there.
Yeah.
If we weren't trading, if we didn't get so much wealth out of China in the form of goods,
um, we probably already would have gone to war with China.
Yeah.
Oh, it's just, it's, the, the problem is we're concerned that they are a near peer competitor.
We don't want any near peer competitors, even if they're in another region.
Yeah.
Like it's just, you know, great power.
We can't, we can't escape the unipolar, polar moment.
Like we've got to make it last forever.
Yeah.
And it was never going to last forever.
And it, it, it's not, it doesn't still exist now.
But we won't accept that.
Yeah.
But, um, the, the, uh, concerns about what would happen to our economy
if we cut off economic ties with China is probably the only thing that's kept
out of a war with China.
Oh, I believe that.
In the South China Sea, by the way, remember,
in their neighborhood once again, exactly.
Yeah.
It's the empire, man.
Like we, we, we want to be this empire.
And the, the most compelling argument to me, and there's plenty about why this deal with
Iran is so bad.
But it's just the, the simple economics of we can't afford this.
Yeah.
Um, like, and that's, that's going to affect
me, you and everybody that lives in this beautiful country of ours sooner than later.
I mean, it already is.
We broke it down pretty in depth on the last podcast of like, where this is going.
Um, and like, there's no putting that genie back in the bottle.
Like, I mean, other than just like pulling out now and changing course.
But we've seen no evidence from Trump.
I mean, he may end up doing that at some point because even he's going to have to,
there's going to become a point where he's going to recognize what's going on.
Yeah. Well, Israel continues to escalate too.
Yeah.
Um, because, you know, as they escalate, it keeps us involved longer.
It makes it hard to find an offering.
It's the same thing they did during the 12-day war.
Yeah.
Um, I mean, it's no different.
And when Trump got like visibly pissed about that.
Yeah.
Um, they recently blew up that gas, um, production facility, uh, which produces gas for the Iranians.
I mean, like for the citizens of Iran, uh, because, you know, we're of course so concerned about,
like, removing their government so that they can have a free and prosperous nation.
Well, this is like the root of their prosperity right here.
Yeah.
And you blew it up.
Yeah, exactly.
We don't care about them.
No.
And, uh, and I think Israel actually executed the attack, but there's no way they did it without
consent at the very least from the US, I think.
Well, I might disagree with you a little bit on that.
I really feel like Israel, a lot of times will act on its own.
And for things like that and just like,
better to ask for forgiveness and permission.
Well, it's fixing to say, yeah, exactly.
Um, because they're capable without us.
I mean, they're not, they can't do what they do without us,
but they're fully capable of bombing stuff.
Yeah.
And they do all the time, which is another point to make.
Because I know the older generations are still stuck on this Israel thing.
Um, less so the younger generations, but the, the, the Israel is the good guy over there somehow.
Yeah.
And, you know, I would say again, in, in almost every case where there's a conflict that Israel
is involved, Israel struck first.
Yeah.
Is the aggressor in an international conflict that Israel is involved?
I'll say because I know that October 7th would come up as the first example.
Well, if I say international, they actually claim that territory is there.
So it wasn't an international conflict.
And I would make the case that they had been,
that they had antagonized that as well.
Just because of their killing off a lot more Palestinians,
year over year than the Palestinians are killing Israelis, even before this.
Yeah.
So, but I don't want to get deep into that again.
Because, you know, it would require some knowledge of history.
And people just don't seem interested.
Yeah, yeah.
History started yesterday.
Yeah, it's always, you know, we ignore, what's the, um, I know Scott Horton took this from
somebody else, but I can't remember who it was that he took it from.
So, uh, but talking about truncating the antecedents in history, like you just ignore what happened
before, um, the particular point that you want to start from.
Yeah.
We start from the point that justifies my most recent action.
Yeah.
And that is it.
Yeah.
Nothing happened before.
No, nothing happened before that.
And I guess I like, I'm really disappointed in, in the Trump people generally on this.
And it's one of those, this is another black pill moment, like, that I have learned over time
doing this podcast primarily that, well, I say learned, I, I don't know that this is necessarily
true, but I get the feeling that people want a king.
Yeah.
People want to be told what to do.
People want, people don't want to bear the burden of choice or conscience.
They want everything to be on somebody else.
Yeah.
Um, well, they couldn't control it.
It was out of their hands.
Uh, well, it may be a terrible thing, but I didn't have anything to do with that.
Um, oh, well, and I think I'm actually going back to that, um, gender wage gap thing,
and like all the other claims of prejudice.
And again, I'm, I want to make this very clear.
I know that there's prejudice in the world.
Well, yeah, I know that there's sexism.
I know that there's racism, but truthfully in the United States,
no matter who you are, what you are, you have everything available to you.
And the, the, it's like,
and I've wondered about this a lot because the most pushback I've gotten
when arguing about those things is from the most successful women I know.
Yeah.
Like far more successful than me, women.
Yeah.
Um, who I get the most pushback from.
And I'm trying to figure out why?
Like, you've been a great success.
Like, how can you think that, you know, everybody's against you.
And then I started thinking about it more.
And I thought, well, maybe it's like, it's this like point of honor.
I want to feel like I achieved even more than I achieved because I had to get passed
all these barriers against me because I'm, because of something that's totally out of my control.
No, um, and what I would say is being success is hard.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Women, man, black, white, Asian, doesn't matter.
Being a success is hard.
It is hard to be successful.
Everybody who's been successful has had to work through a lot, has had tons of barriers
put in their way.
And they just persisted through.
That's why they're successful.
It doesn't have anything to do with what you are or who you are.
It is just difficult to be successful.
Yeah.
And not everybody's built for that type of success.
You know, I mean, it's just, it's, but you can make excuses all day long.
But the people that are successful push past all of that.
Yeah.
You know, and I think that, I think that a lot of that is like that kind of attitude,
though, is part of the, you know, want to be king.
Like, yeah, want to have a king.
I mean, um, is to, that you don't have to worry about, like, your failures are because
of somebody else.
Your successes are in spite of everything that was placed in your path.
Yeah.
And so then your successes are greater and your failures aren't your fault.
Yeah, yeah.
So easy to ship that blame.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Um,
I don't know what the psychology of all of that is.
I guess somebody had asked, but she'd probably be pissed.
I think there's definitely something to it.
Yeah.
Um, that's all I've got in me, man.
I can't sit here any longer.
So, uh, oh, you did have one.
Yeah.
I just wanted to close out real quick with, um, the latest Afro man news.
So I know there's a lot of people to listen to this podcast.
It's probably kept up with this.
Maybe even more than I have.
But I felt like it was kind of worth mentioning, um,
so a few years ago, a couple of years ago, something like that, um,
Afro man's house was rated, um, and like, the police came in,
knocked down the door, tours house up, hold, hold nine yards, um,
and no charges were pressed against him.
He wasn't arrested or anything like that.
And, um, so he produced some music videos and some songs
using the, um, using his security footage and, and like,
called the police officers like out by name in some of the songs and whatnot.
Um, well, he was sued by the officers that, um,
he used in his songs and he won his case yesterday.
Um, so it was a jury like, um, I guess it was like a civil trial or whatever.
But, um, yeah, they found in his favor.
Um, I don't know.
I just thought it was a really cool victory for free speech.
Yeah.
You know, because, um, could have went the other way, I guess, but, you know, um,
and I, I encourage people to, to at least go look at some of the video
from the, um, court that day because I mean, it was just cool to me.
Like, because we, me and my wife met Afro man, um, at one of the LP conventions.
And, um, he's a really cool guy, really down the earth fun.
And, um, it's just, it was, uh, having, have met him and spent some time with
them to see him in court, like in his American flag suit and American flag glasses,
like, given them hell, man, like, just given them hell.
It was, it's, I encourage people to go check it out.
Yeah.
Um, if, if you want to get like some of that, I don't know, like, whoo,
freedom feel, like, go check it out.
I enjoyed it.
So, all right.
Cool.
Well, something positive to end on there.
Yep.
After I just ranted for, well, 40 minutes.
When, when I came over and you said what we were going to talk about,
I was like, well, I definitely want to end on my thing.
Yeah.
Um, um, once again, people, if, if we've had any kind of effect on your thinking
about any of the topics that we've discussed over these last six or seven years,
however long we've been doing this, um,
let me know, like, let us know.
I like, it would be nice to know that we're not just like,
screaming into the void.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That, I mean, like, I, I, I certainly want to think that our listeners are people
that are, you know, consider it and, um,
like, have a deeper understanding or want a deeper understanding of what's going on in the world.
Um, so I, I definitely like to think that
that our audience has been influenced in, in some way, um, by our arguments, our assessments,
our opinions, et cetera.
But it's an interesting thing because I've been a libertarian for a really long time.
But there was a time where, like, thing, because we're pretty radical at this point,
as far as like pretty open-and-archist for the most part.
Yeah.
And, um, y'all listened to the early years of the podcast, too, where I was drag and gary.
Well, so that's the point I was going to make is like, as, even as a libertarian,
I wasn't where I'm at now, you know, um, and so it'd be interesting to hear from people and kind
of hear, like, did we have any kind of impact like that on you, you know, um, and yeah, it'd be
interesting.
Yeah.
I mean, and I know, like, my cousin, for example, she sent me a message at one point that she was
late in favor of continuing the Ukraine war until, um, we talked about, like, some of the
Minsk agreements and how the best thing for the Ukrainians was to bring it into this that the
longer it drags out, it just causes more.
And it, that it changed her thinking about the war.
And that made me feel real good.
Well, and, and that's what we try to do with this podcast because if you just listen to what
you're getting on the mainstream media, you're not getting the whole picture.
And so a lot of what we're trying to bring is, is like, a deeper dive into what's really going on
because if you just, and for so long, and I think a lot of people fall into this is like,
well, I watch the news a few times a week.
I know what's going on.
You don't.
Like, you know exactly what they want you to think.
And I use the day as like a broad like, you know, the, whatever you want to call the
greater thing out there, I don't know what say mainstream media.
Yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, you can't, you can't do that anymore.
And, and, and it takes podcasts like this that are willing to kind of go in and, and get that
information and give it to you.
You know, there's really other researchers anymore in the media.
It seems like research in the media now is go on Twitter and see what people, or X,
and see what people are saying about it.
Well, and it is wild because like, there's a hunger for that.
Like, people, people are interested in that type of thing, especially like if,
like, for the mainstream news organizations, like, I mean, there's a reason Tucker was as
big as he was because, you know, he went and had those conversations and found those people
and put that stuff out there.
You would think that there would, that somebody in the media would see that and be like, man,
I could be that guy. All I got to do is go find these stories and tell them.
Yeah. Well, there, there is certainly some desire for that kind of long form, more nuanced,
more in-depth coverage of things. But I think that there's a greater desire for like the
TikTok level of understanding. Yeah. No, you may be right.
Because that just, that doesn't take any effort. Yeah. No, you're not wrong.
And people have tried to talk us into doing like little shorts videos and stuff.
And well, there's some appeal of that to me. And my cousin was like, man, you got to get on
X. Like, that's where you pick up an audience. Like, you know, put your takes out there on X.
And like, yeah. And like, I see that, but I don't want to be a part of that. Yeah.
I like, I understand the appeal of it. Like, I get it. And there are some things that,
if we were doing shorts, like I can see, you know, some little rant about some, you know,
basic principle of economics. And we could, you know, put a little video together with
some charts and graphs or, you know, that come up in the video that you can see what we're talking
about. Like, I can see the appeal of that kind of thing. But talking about these,
um, especially foreign policy issues, like, there's just no way to condense it down that you
could, you can express to somebody either the, the underlying principle or causes or whatever,
or the potential outcomes in like a two or three minute video. Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Not. Not and give it any kind of, not that, not with any kind of value, I guess. Yeah. Yeah.
May as well just say, uh, we'll win. They'll lose lots of destruction.
There you go. Trump in the nutshell. Yeah. Pretty much. Okay. Let's wrap up because I cannot sit here
any longer. Um, so, uh, you can follow us on Facebook. You can subscribe on iTunes, YouTube,
Podbean, uh, like and share, comment. Um, we'd love to hear from you about how we've influenced
your thinking on anything, whether you agree with us in the end or not. Um, you can always email
me at Michael at the LibertyMic.com, uh, our website is the LibertyMic.com, um, where you can find
some other stuff there too. And, uh, let's see, we'll be back next week when we finally get this
right. And in the meantime, try to stay free. Live short, live free. Ciao. Later.
