Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore - A masterclass in destroying the internet's worst men (with Kat Abu) ｜ Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore

00:00:00.000 should there even be a joe rogan of the left no i used to when i worked at media matters i'd be

00:00:04.400 asked all the time how why do we not have a fox news for the left and i'm like why would you want

00:00:08.080 that that requires lying i mean joe rogan the reason he works is because he just sits there

00:00:13.280 and believes whatever the most recent person that was talking to him whatever they've just said

00:00:18.240 that's immediately his entire world view he has the object permanence of a baby

00:00:23.040 I'm Rachel Gilmore, your least favorite person's least favorite journalist.

00:00:30.080 Welcome to Bubble Pop, a weekly show where we break down the biggest headlines so you

00:00:35.240 don't have to doomscroll.

00:00:36.800 Then we'll dig deeper into something juicy that you should know about. 0.99

00:00:40.080 Today we've got Kat Abu on the show. 0.99

00:00:42.200 She watches conservatives for work but makes fun of them for pleasure and for the enjoyment 0.94

00:00:46.840 of her hundreds of thousands of followers on socials.

00:00:49.880 Kat and I will be talking about the dangerous rise of right-wing grifter media.

00:00:54.320 She's an American who has gone toe-to-toe with the worst of the worst,

00:00:57.640 so Kat knows a thing or two about how to handle these dweebs.

00:01:01.100 Elon Musk is effectively in charge of how America spends all of its money,

00:01:04.720 and he's decided things like school and social security are nanny state handouts,

00:01:09.200 unlike the billions in taxpayer dollars we've given him to create various exploding vehicles.

00:01:14.100 But first, the news.

00:01:15.820 Trump took a blowtorch to the international rules-based order this week,

00:01:21.680 slurping Putin's spa, uh, Nick, and seemingly throwing Ukraine to the wolves.

00:01:27.300 A German election is right around the corner,

00:01:29.440 the latest test of Elon Musk's push for global political influence.

00:01:33.600 Pierre Polyev is simping for right-wing media again

00:01:35.900 as he tries to tear down trust in journalists that actually hold him to account. 0.95

00:01:40.220 There are a group of terrifyingly brain-rotted Canadian simps 0.94

00:01:43.860 who actually want to live in the 51st state.

00:01:46.600 And finally, the full extent of Trump's ability to be truly autocratic

00:01:50.460 is getting much closer to being tested

00:01:52.700 as key cases wind their way to the Supreme Court.

00:01:55.900 Are you ready?

00:01:56.960 I hope so, because we're digging in either way.

00:02:01.680 U.S. President Donald Trump is lighting existing alliances 0.55

00:02:05.040 and international dynamics on fire with an embrace of Russia

00:02:08.720 and attacks on both Ukraine and Europe.

00:02:10.840 This is a very big deal for all of us

00:02:13.360 because he's basically changing the core dynamics of the international community.

00:02:17.840 So you really should care about this.

00:02:20.120 It started with a 90-minute phone call Trump had with Putin,

00:02:23.000 which shocked other leaders who had been using this strategy

00:02:25.700 of icing Putin out over his war on Ukraine.

00:02:28.920 Then the White House set up a meeting between top U.S. and Russian officials

00:02:32.720 in Saudi Arabia this week.

00:02:34.380 Meeting that, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,

00:02:37.740 according to reporting from Bloomberg, wanted Ukraine to be a part of,

00:02:41.620 but quote both the americans and the russians had insisted that they wanted to meet without

00:02:47.540 the ukrainians very cool stuff meanwhile as zelinski correctly accused trump of being

00:02:54.340 in a disinformation bubble trump has been proving him right even going so far as to blame the war

00:03:00.660 which started when russia invaded ukraine in february 2022 on ukraine yeah he actually did

00:03:06.980 that so take a listen but today i heard oh well we weren't invited well you've been there for

00:03:11.060 three years you should have ended it three years you should have never started it you could have

00:03:15.060 made a deal i could have made a deal for ukraine though i guess for a guy like trump blaming the

00:03:20.500 victim is nothing new meanwhile jd vance made sure that europe got the message that if they

00:03:25.140 had a nightmare scenario in mind for the trump administration's impact on the world it was

00:03:29.860 probably exactly right he basically told them he's less worried about russia or china than he

00:03:35.220 is about the actions of europeans themselves which he called quote the threat from within

00:03:40.580 The threat that I worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China,

00:03:46.280 it's not any other external actor. And what I worry about is the threat from within. The retreat

00:03:53.280 of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States

00:03:59.320 of America. Europe's values are actually going to be put to the test in a major way on Sunday.

00:04:04.260 And Elon Musk will see his efforts to not only dominate American politics,

00:04:08.520 but to influence them globally put to the test as well.

00:04:12.100 Because on Sunday, Germans will go to the polls

00:04:14.920 and choose how they want to remake their government

00:04:17.400 in a race that has seen Elon Musk throw his weight

00:04:20.280 behind a party called the AfD,

00:04:22.760 a far-right extreme party that used to be on the fringes

00:04:26.160 of Germany's political system,

00:04:27.940 but is now, incredibly, polling second

00:04:30.460 behind the country's center-right party.

00:04:32.820 The AfD is a virulently Islamophobic party

00:04:35.680 who pledge, if elected, to, quote, ban the burqa and the Muslim call to prayer and put all imams

00:04:41.580 through a state vetting procedure. And to give you a sense of their vibe, the party's former 0.71

00:04:47.880 parliamentary leader has said Germany has, quote, the right to be proud of the achievements of the

00:04:53.540 German soldiers in two world wars. Yes, he said two, which includes, you know, the big one. Musk

00:05:01.300 has been relentlessly posting supportive messages of the party he hosted its leader in a twitter

00:05:05.900 space that he pinned to his profile for his millions of followers to see at the time and

00:05:10.220 he spoke at the party's campaign launch late last month where he told the gathering of germans they

00:05:14.720 should move beyond quote past guilt meanwhile tens of thousands of germans recently took to

00:05:20.020 the street in berlin to protest the rising support for the country's growing far right

00:05:24.660 so these efforts from musk and the pushback from the german people will be put to the test on

00:05:30.380 sunday and what the people in germany decide could have huge consequences for trump's ability to

00:05:35.900 reshape the international dynamics of our world and which countries are willing to help him do it

00:05:41.660 speaking of reshaping dynamics conservative leader pierre polyev made a promise this week to pour

00:05:47.180 toxic sludge into our information ecosystem he said he not only wants to defund cbc while

00:05:53.820 potentially extending media subsidies to right-wing media sites because you know these

00:05:59.100 these grifters will scream about media subsidies 0.71

00:06:01.360 until they benefit from them,

00:06:02.700 at which point I guess we'll see

00:06:04.100 if their values go out the window.

00:06:06.200 But Poliev also signaled he'd like to open up

00:06:09.320 the parliamentary press gallery

00:06:10.780 to what he referred to as, quote, independent media,

00:06:14.160 which I don't think means independent media like me,

00:06:18.500 because he doesn't answer my emails anymore,

00:06:20.700 but he keeps giving his limited questions

00:06:22.700 at press conferences to so-called media outlets

00:06:25.160 like True North and Rebel News,

00:06:27.220 who asked him hard-hitting questions like,

00:06:29.820 what do you think of the booing at hockey games?

00:06:32.280 So, yeah.

00:06:33.380 On Thursday, he also repeatedly ignored a journalist

00:06:36.020 who kept asking him why he won't take questions from all media.

00:06:40.400 Take a listen.

00:06:41.380 Thank you.

00:06:41.880 We will now take questions from the floor, starting with True North.

00:06:44.460 Why aren't you sending questions from all media?

00:06:46.760 Hello, Mr. Poglia.

00:06:47.920 Noah Jarvis, True North.

00:06:48.820 Thank you.

00:06:49.360 Next question.

00:06:49.940 Why are you sending questions from all media here today?

00:06:51.880 Hey, this is Shubi from my media.

00:06:54.120 Thank you.

00:06:54.580 Next question.

00:06:55.160 Question.

00:06:55.540 Question.

00:06:57.220 Why don't you do that?

00:06:58.520 Why don't everyone ask a question?

00:06:59.920 Go ahead, sir.

00:07:00.600 You have it here.

00:07:01.100 You're up there.

00:07:01.520 Good morning, Mr. Paul Yeff.

00:07:06.920 David Menzies with Rebel News.

00:07:08.480 Thank you.

00:07:08.800 This will be the final question from Oxygen TV.

00:07:12.260 Good morning.

00:07:13.320 But I think I know why he gives so many of his limited questions to extremely friendly outlets.

00:07:19.240 He's scared.

00:07:20.500 So he's constantly training his audience to dismiss certain media out of hand

00:07:24.560 and dismiss the facts that these tougher reporters bring to the table.

00:07:28.920 Like Polyeb also recently granted an extremely rare one-on-one interview to the wife of a

00:07:35.240 Shopify executive, while simultaneously calling the Canadian parliamentary press gallery a

00:07:40.480 quote, small cabal of government approved mouthpieces. 1.00

00:07:44.200 Damn, sick burn. 1.00

00:07:46.540 It would be sicker if you weren't literally talking to your own approved media when you 1.00

00:07:50.440 said it though.

00:07:51.440 We need to remember that attacks on the media

00:07:53.440 from government are dangerous,

00:07:55.540 and you don't have to look very far

00:07:57.240 to find the proof of that.

00:07:58.380 When we look to the south of us,

00:07:59.580 we see that Trump is seriously tightening his grip on media,

00:08:03.120 threatening them with a lack of access

00:08:04.940 if they don't bend to his will.

00:08:06.620 He has banned Associated Press reporters

00:08:09.060 from the Oval Office and Air Force One indefinitely

00:08:12.460 because they won't call the Gulf of Mexico

00:08:14.580 the Gulf of America,

00:08:15.780 seeing as they're an international news agency

00:08:17.960 and other countries don't recognize that name.

00:08:20.100 very free speech of you guys the toxic sludge that currently exists in canadians information diets

00:08:25.860 has already apparently rotted some brains beyond repair because this week i found out there's a

00:08:32.180 tiny group of canadians who have decided that they actually do want to be the 51st state

00:08:37.700 yeah really i dug into it and learned that these people have a facebook group with more than 12

00:08:43.140 000 members they've also got an atrocious website that looks like it was designed by a sixth grader

00:08:49.140 but i noticed that when you go to donate on the website it says your money would be going to the

00:08:53.700 alberta usa foundation which based on social media posts linked to social accounts and some media

00:09:00.260 coverage seems to have been founded by a guy named peter downing an alberta separatist who

00:09:05.380 was the former leader of wexit canada which is now known as the maverick party so in news that

00:09:11.380 probably surprises literally no one it seems like alberta separatists still want to separate

00:09:16.340 and now they're leading this particularly brain-worby push. As a tiny group of Canadians

00:09:21.220 ignore the vast majority who are booing US anthems and buying Canadian in favor of fighting to be

00:09:27.060 cucked by the Trump administration, we're also about to discover just how cucked the United 0.97

00:09:31.780 States Supreme Court is and, by extension, how f***ed US democracy is. Trump's administration 0.98

00:09:37.940 just asked the Supreme Court to intervene in a lower court battle that's happening right now

00:09:42.340 over the fact that Trump fired Hampton Dellinger, the head of the office of an independent federal

00:09:47.100 agency that provides a, quote, secure channel for federal employees to blow the whistle by

00:09:51.860 disclosing wrongdoing, which is, you know, a slightly important job to keep free from political

00:09:56.940 influence. Anyways, Trump fired Dellinger, so Dellinger sued, saying you can't do that,

00:10:02.440 and a federal judge agreed with Dellinger, reinstated him, and now Trump is asking the

00:10:07.320 Supreme Court to weigh in. What they decide will be another major test of Trump's ability to get

00:10:11.660 away with overextending his powers, in this case, firing public officials. But that's not all.

00:10:17.820 Another key case is also headed for a major Supreme Court showdown, the one over birthright

00:10:23.420 citizenship. See, the 14th Amendment of the US Constitution grants American citizenship to anyone

00:10:29.580 born on US soil. But Trump wants to add an asterisk to that, denying that citizenship to

00:10:35.420 kids born to parents whose mothers aren't legally in the country and whose fathers aren't citizens

00:10:40.140 or permanent residence. A U.S. Court of Appeals just denied the Justice Department's request to

00:10:44.620 immediately reinstate that executive order, and that has basically teed it up for a Supreme Court

00:10:50.540 challenge. The result of that will, again, show us just how easily and how severely Trump can get

00:10:56.020 away with remaking the country in his image. But you know, according to Trump's social media on

00:11:00.780 Saturday, quote, he who saves his country does not violate any law. So I'm sure that won't

00:11:05.680 radicalize anyone, and no one will interpret that as a blank check to do whatever they want in

00:11:09.820 support of Trump, right? Trump also, for the record, just seemed to call himself a king.

00:11:19.020 Those are the big headlines from this week. After the break, we've got Kat Abu on the show. She's

00:11:23.380 an American internet icon who terrifies the worst men you can imagine and cuts down right-wing 1.00

00:11:28.040 grifter media types like it's an art form. And today, we're her students. We'll be right back.

00:11:32.900 right-wing media and horrible dudes of podcasts seem to be more powerful than ever i mean when

00:11:44.240 trump won the election people like joe rogan and theo vaughn got a special shout out on stage as

00:11:49.720 he celebrated his victory canada seems poised to follow in these footsteps i mean first off

00:11:55.000 according to podcast charts we listen to a lot of the same dudes and our homegrown right-wing

00:12:00.700 outlets have been getting an unsettling amount of access to conservative leader pierre polyad

00:12:05.820 as mainstream or more progressive media voices are attacked and shut out this has got people asking

00:12:12.460 where is the joe rogan of the left and how do we drown out the voices of these dudes who won't

00:12:17.820 shut up well today on the show we're going to explore these questions with the da vinci of

00:12:23.340 destroying right-wing men's egos the mozart of taking podcast bros to task she's an internet 0.75

00:12:29.500 icon a twitch streamer and has reported for media matters mother jones and zateo cat abu

00:12:35.200 welcome to bubble pop oh my god thank you for having me i'm actually blushing in my office

00:12:40.000 good good we aim to please here we aim to flatter so well thank you for having me on i'm very excited

00:12:47.240 to be on the podcast that's number six on canada's spotify podcast charts thank you so much yeah we're

00:12:54.340 super stoked it's a really good start and you know before long we'll dethrone joe rogan in canada

00:13:00.180 that's that's hot right okay so i want to start with a tough question for you because i'm gonna

00:13:05.380 maybe need you to not compliment them but be nice to these men for like a second i'll try

00:13:13.300 what are these guys getting right i think honestly i think that there's just like this huge demand

00:13:19.780 for men to feel like they have a community and i think they find it in right-wing media especially

00:13:25.380 like these podcasts where it feels like you're talking to a bud and like you're hanging out in

00:13:29.300 joe rogan's basement like i think that is a huge part of this i mean it was the same thing like

00:13:34.740 every right-wing movement you know um not to immediately pull out the nazi comparisons but like

00:13:41.140 hitler youth was like a big part of bringing young men into a very overtly fascist movement men seek

00:13:48.180 community and the modern capitalist western world actively tries to keep them away from it it's kind

00:13:55.940 of in the same way i think that wrestling is men's version of camp drag is gay but wrestling is very

00:14:04.900 manly but also camp but like wrestling is fun to watch it's goofy it's like watching drag race like

00:14:10.020 it's camp and uh so i i just genuinely think that that is a big part of it there's also you know

00:14:15.620 once you're in this sphere like we know you know how easy it is for people to get radicalized on

00:14:19.860 the internet once you're in there you're like oh it feels like i'm talking to my buddy or like wow

00:14:24.420 they have a lot of interesting points and like i just want to talk to someone i just want to have

00:14:28.420 a friend and then it's like oh now i you know think the 14 words are you know implanted in my

00:14:35.140 brain yeah exactly and you know and that's the thing right like these guys seem to be having

00:14:40.260 a real impact on us politics and institutions and you know one thing that they say is that when

00:14:46.500 america sneezes canada catches a cold so like i'd really appreciate it if you guys could start

00:14:50.740 covering your mouth when you cough me too yeah um but can you walk us through like why we should

00:14:57.220 care that these guys are being listened to like why shouldn't we dismiss them here in canada or

00:15:02.340 in the us so i think a lot of you know i used to uh cover fox news which is the biggest cable news

00:15:09.060 channel in the us um i think y'all have it up in canada too they certainly have a lot of canadian

00:15:14.260 guests to talk about how justin trudeau is making everyone trans up there or something yeah that's

00:15:19.700 exactly what he's doing is that what's happening that's so cool um tucker carlson was the top

00:15:26.100 rated cable news host when he was there he kind of took this entire uh world by storm when he came

00:15:31.700 on very suddenly after bill o'reilly's firing and bill o'reilly it's 8 p.m time slot basically gives

00:15:36.820 you millions of people, millions of eyes every single night. And that had its own influence

00:15:42.740 because the Republican Party in the US essentially used Fox as a way to push their agenda. And then

00:15:49.060 eventually it became Fox was using the GOP as a way to push their agenda. So these two things

00:15:54.200 were very interlaced. And I think that influence can't be overstated. And like, that's scary to

00:16:00.020 have this influence in government. But I think this podcast sphere, obviously, it's bleeding

00:16:04.200 more as you said like with the inauguration day and stuff like that it's bleeding more into that

00:16:08.700 overtly political space of having you know like legislative repercussions but it also bleeds into

00:16:15.800 the people you know and love your brothers your dads your uncles your nephews i guess i don't

00:16:23.400 think we've given enough attention to the nephews of the world yeah it's really sad they're overlooked

00:16:27.640 it's really sad my favorite chiron on fox ever was um concerned uncle of four and then he was

00:16:33.340 talking about like woke school board meetings oh my god it was amazing yeah um and so it's just

00:16:40.980 this influence i think the scariest part is how it affects the people day to day not just the

00:16:46.900 lunatics in power or insecure men in power or whatever it may be but how it can like warp the

00:16:53.660 minds of people that like you know that you grew up with that you know are rational loving people

00:16:58.760 but if you're living in an echo chamber all you'll hear is echoes yeah and i think that's

00:17:02.680 something that I run into a lot is I feel like with the approach that you and I take towards

00:17:08.920 these guys I think a lot of people think maybe we don't have empathy but like honestly the people

00:17:13.560 who are impacted by the top voices in these spheres are people that we care about and are

00:17:19.020 people who like others love you know and it's actually like out of caring for those people and

00:17:24.540 the people who they turn around and hurt that I think we kind of do what we do but you know I

00:17:29.320 i wanted to ask you in light of that like responding to these guys do you feel like

00:17:33.720 the mainstream media ecosystem and like the highest profile politicians have figured out

00:17:38.920 how to counter this like right-wing grifter sphere with the way that they communicate

00:17:44.120 oh i think we got really close last summer like when we had this kamala harris change candidate

00:17:49.640 vibe and we were calling all of them weird and we were like that's some real freak that you're

00:17:54.440 really concerned about children's people like you won't stop talking about children's people

00:17:58.600 is why are you so focused on this um and then they decided to abandon that because they don't

00:18:05.240 like winning i think just like taking that step away is the best way like individual one-on-one

00:18:12.520 like one of my favorite things is when someone says a really racist or sexist joke i'll just be

00:18:16.360 like i don't get it can you explain it to me and then all of a sudden that person is really

00:18:21.000 embarrassed and like wait no but what's the punch line like i don't understand the punch line can

00:18:26.140 you explain it waking up from that we're all immersed in this evil cesspool all the time and

00:18:32.420 just kind of stepping away from that for a second and pretending we're not can really help distance

00:18:37.380 you and your loved ones or whoever you're talking to from uh hell the hell we live in and like okay

00:18:44.540 do you feel like we even have um someone who's equivalent though on you know the progressive

00:18:50.680 side of things to the joe rogans and the theo vons like should there even be a joe rogan of

00:18:57.520 the left no i used to when i worked at media matters i'd be asked all the time how do why

00:19:01.200 do we not have a fox news for the left and i'm like why would you want that that requires lying

00:19:05.240 i mean joe rogan the reason he works is because he just sits there and believes whatever the most

00:19:10.320 recent person that was talking to him whatever they just said that's immediately his entire

00:19:15.960 worldview he has the object permanence of a baby and as for people like tucker carlson like they

00:19:21.720 rely on lies and the information that i want to communicate doesn't um and that's like the real

00:19:29.560 big difference there and it's easier when things are so confusing and messy and complicated to just

00:19:36.520 be like okay i'll believe this lie this is so much simpler it's so much simpler to believe that 0.88

00:19:41.160 But Jews sent space lasers to change the weather than to understand and really comprehend that 0.92

00:19:48.360 we have ruined our climate as much as we possibly can to this point through greed. 1.00

00:19:55.060 And so it's just, it's so much easier.

00:19:57.220 But I don't want to do that.

00:19:58.040 That's lame.

00:19:58.660 100%.

00:19:59.060 And, you know, and I think you're really effective at communicating and combating that.

00:20:03.860 And that's sort of the overall question that I think people really mean to ask when they

00:20:07.700 ask about their not being or they're needing a Joe Rogan on the left. 0.99

00:20:10.840 it's more like how do we deal with these liars and grifters and counteract their messaging in

00:20:16.780 an effective way and you know as i mentioned you really are an artist at that i mean so are you

00:20:23.200 oh my god thank you you know i learned from the greats so um uh so like what have you found

00:20:30.980 works for you in dealing with these guys i mean honestly and i'm sure you get this too rachel

00:20:36.540 there is like being a conventionally attractive woman does help a lot because it just instantly 0.66

00:20:43.360 triggers them like not in terms of success or making people listen but like they're so instantly

00:20:49.760 threatened by that that you're kind of starting with them on their back foot i mean i think about

00:20:56.560 mike davis who is just he's a guy on twitter for anyone who doesn't know and uh very in with all

00:21:03.960 these you know project 2025 guys like very deep in that sphere he was on the short list originally

00:21:09.640 to be the attorney general of the united states and uh one time he tried to get me fired and when

00:21:16.260 elon musk bought twitter to get me banned from the site because i tweeted that no billionaire could

00:21:22.620 get laid on a 40k a year salary when you make them feel insecure they either get violent or they get

00:21:29.140 really, really upset. And I think the meltdowns are how I handle it. And I'm just glad it hasn't

00:21:35.620 gotten violent. Yeah, you break their brains. Yeah, you don't do. I hope they don't break you 0.98

00:21:40.020 in turn. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Aggression violence. Woo, amazing. It's cool being a woman.

00:21:45.640 I love being a woman. It's so fun. That's the benefit of living in a skyscraper now. Like,

00:21:49.980 I live in a skyscraper. It's so hard to get to my apartment. And so, like, I feel really safe.

00:21:55.060 it's awesome grappling hooks to get you in light of that there's this new um personality on tick

00:22:01.060 tock that i've been seeing a lot lately her name's suzanne lambert and she's been like 0.55

00:22:05.140 making fun of republican women's makeup for example and yeah you know and so we've kind 1.00

00:22:09.940 of seen this debate come out about that like for lack of a better word mean girl approach

00:22:15.940 there's a lot of criticism that when dealing with these types like oh when they go low we should go

00:22:20.580 high you know what do you think and i feel like i maybe already know the answer to that but like how

00:22:25.220 do you respond to that oh my god no we're so beyond going high like we are so i mean michelle obama

00:22:31.700 the person who said that quote is so beyond going high uh like her speech at the dnc it was so clear

00:22:37.780 i think that there is something to be said like i don't like when people just constantly talk about

00:22:41.460 how like ugly or fat trump is i don't care there are a lot worse things about him but also i have 0.98

00:22:47.540 no problem clouding on these people like if you have no style if you get no bitches if you can't 0.99

00:22:54.740 post that is a you problem it's not because of your race or your gender your sexuality it's 0.98

00:23:00.500 because you as an individual are lame and i think they deserve to know that because there is nothing 0.93

00:23:06.420 conservatives want more than to be part of the culture to be cool and they just never will be 0.85

00:23:13.220 it's just not gonna happen they're cool in their bubbles but it's the same reason that they always

00:23:18.180 complain like they can't they don't have celebrities they'll be like these celebrities

00:23:21.620 are so woke or whatever and it's like you would kill you would kill your vice president to get 0.98

00:23:27.800 taylor swift to just post about you once in a positive light you would kill him on national 0.97

00:23:33.400 television so no this is not they're not too you're not too cool for them they are too cool

00:23:39.360 for you and they're very upset about that that's how we got the patriot awards on fox news i i

00:23:44.300 actually don't know that show and i think oh every year they have the patriot awards which are their

00:23:49.760 versions of the oscars and uh for example one year they had they have like usually about five awards

00:23:57.580 one year it was patriot of the year most valuable patriot the back the blue award and the 2022

00:24:03.160 patriotic badass award which went to the host and our new defense secretary pete hexeth oh

00:24:08.580 um yeah yeah it's a really cool show definitely very high standards meritocracy in action

00:24:16.660 meritocracy in action two years in a row hannity did the exact same impression of

00:24:21.540 bill clinton and mark levin he just did the same bit and thought no one would notice but

00:24:25.700 guess what rachel guess what i noticed yeah

00:24:29.700 well and that's that's kind of the the takeaway that i've had in dealing with these types too

00:24:48.580 is i feel like it comes down to in a lot of ways a power struggle right like it's um who

00:24:54.460 what these guys are responding to is not necessarily the the facts or alternative

00:25:01.140 facts or whatever like lies being said but they found a community and they feel as though they

00:25:07.840 are following a powerful person and i think that in some ways attacking those people as losers and

00:25:14.040 weird hits at that like core principle of what they're attracted to which is the power like do

00:25:19.780 you think that's a fair analysis yeah you hit the nail on the head exactly it's that's why they need 1.00

00:25:25.100 weapons that's why they're constantly blustering that's why the asshole you know at work has a 0.97

00:25:31.400 gigantic pickup trap despite never hauling anything in his life and we don't need to do like the small 1.00

00:25:36.820 penis you know comparisons it's just like a feeling of inadequacy makes you compensate by 0.82

00:25:42.460 being violent by hating others by lashing out they like when you know you have triggered libs 0.99

00:25:47.580 get really angry and talk about how awful this is and yeah all this shit is awful but i always say 1.00

00:25:53.120 you know fascism it's scary it's evil um it's terrifying it's also so stupid everything is so 1.00

00:26:00.620 stupid and you have to remember that yeah i think that that's maybe one of the things that's so 1.00

00:26:06.400 frustrating is it's all so stupid and they're winning like that that i think for now for now 1.00

00:26:12.560 exactly and that's actually what i wanted to ask you like how do you hold on to hope and like keep 0.98

00:26:17.680 the strength to like fight because i think a lot of people listening are probably feeling

00:26:22.240 really frustrated by like the headlines they see every day and like elon musk's 20 year olds being

00:26:26.660 able to ruin people's lives and take away their health insurance and like the snap of their

00:26:30.180 fingers so yeah how do you how do you keep going i mean i also say this fascism is antithetical to

00:26:37.120 the human condition you know i think about like the book 1984 so orwellian um but i think about

00:26:43.660 the book 1984 and it has you these nations that are just oh there's no escape there's no way to

00:26:48.920 escape the authoritarianism that truly just it can't happen forever as scary as that thought is

00:26:56.760 that can't be our reality because human beings just won't let it even if it takes a lot of lives

00:27:02.080 even if it takes god forbid bloodshed like the human nature just doesn't want to be ordered

00:27:09.020 around for eternity eventually they go too far and what we have to do in the meantime is just

00:27:15.080 try to make sure the fewest amount of people get hurt try to push through and help our own

00:27:21.560 communities and gain power in the meantime this isn't forever but it's gonna feel like it i mean

00:27:28.060 i feel like we've lived a year in this administration it's been one month so that's

00:27:33.200 cool yeah you know obviously like we're in another well i am in another country uh for now

00:27:40.460 being in the u.s you guys are obviously like kind of further down this slide than we are here in

00:27:46.820 canada but we're seeing a lot of like similarities and patterns that we're copying and we kind of

00:27:51.860 tend to do really similar things to you but we're just a few steps behind do you have any advice

00:27:55.800 for Canadians right now for like what you things you wish you had done like before this or things

00:28:01.480 you're glad you did yeah I mean I have no regrets on me because I personally am perfect but I do

00:28:07.600 wish our liberal quote-unquote liberal party was far more aggressive and progressive make sure you

00:28:14.800 get your passport I do have to say like here in America you know we go hard on a lot of things

00:28:19.600 like when we do something we're really doing it so this is this is far more accelerationist than

00:28:24.940 i expected and i was i mean i did a one hour video just talking about white christian nationalism

00:28:29.920 and like what to expect and even i have been like jesus they're going so fast so um just watch what

00:28:37.220 we're doing and try not to do that maybe 100 percent hopefully whatever america's doing do

00:28:43.100 the opposite but whatever cat is doing do the same do the same you guys get it yeah um in case we do

00:28:49.460 end up at war cat do you think you could kill me do you think you could take me in a fight oh my

00:28:54.100 god no i'm not gonna i'm not gonna be drafted i have narcolepsy oh my god congratulations 0.98

00:28:58.580 thank you yeah i have anxiety i don't think you should get narcolepsy it makes you miserable 0.92

00:29:04.740 and you fall asleep constantly sounds brutal could you kill me i mean kat let's be honest 0.88

00:29:12.360 just pure size difference i am pure size difference but if we're doing guns i'm a good 0.80

00:29:17.180 shot i'm a really good yeah i don't know grew up in texas yeah so as long as you just got to stay

00:29:23.120 out of arm's reach so yeah no but definitely you could stomp on me yeah 100 like i did actually

00:29:29.860 seriously want to ask you like how are normal americans responding to this 51st state stuff i

00:29:34.980 mean it is crazy are you guys even thinking about it because there's so much going on there there's

00:29:40.360 so much going on like i was uh calling my editor mother jones today and i was just like we were

00:29:45.400 talking about yon musk and all these other things and i was like oh my god and then there's the jd

00:29:49.300 advance nazi german stuff like the afd stuff and he was like i can't even think about that like

00:29:55.000 there are there are only so many thoughts in a day but as far as the canada stuff here in chicago i

00:29:59.840 feel like anytime i've talked to someone it's just been oh for sake like every time it comes up just

00:30:05.220 like oh jesus christ um but i mean i you know i would welcome you into my horrible terrible country

00:30:13.540 it's not horrible we have really wonderful people here but it's uh and uh democracy and such blah

00:30:21.620 blah blah but like this is you know horrible terrible things are happening and we are going

00:30:27.260 to try our best to stop them at least i am totally and i'm right there with you and i think a lot of

00:30:32.460 my listeners are too you got this rachel single-handedly save canada oh 100 i am big enough

00:30:38.600 i think i can do it you know in case you guys don't know who are listening i am six feet tall so

00:30:42.680 you know got a lot of muscle to uh fight for canada yeah y'all should know i have like the

00:30:47.380 biggest crush on rachel it's insane yeah as you said cat it's like it's a little weird but it's

00:30:52.240 okay you know it's we all have fans right so cat i uh that's pretty much everything that i wanted

00:31:01.800 to ask you and now that i've had you reveal to the audience how huge of a crush you have on me

00:31:06.520 and how attractive you find me i am sufficiently my ego has been stroked enough that we can kind

00:31:11.300 to wrap things up um but i did want to give you a chance um before i fully end the conversation

00:31:16.120 like is there anything since you're the wizard of defeating disinformation grifters like is there

00:31:21.140 anything that we didn't touch on in this conversation that you want to say it's totally

00:31:23.900 fine if there's not but um no but i would like to ask you a question yeah what's like something good

00:31:29.540 that's happened in you know the last week i think i asked you this when you were on my stream last

00:31:33.120 week but um i i like just asking people this question all the time that's a great question

00:31:37.700 oh my god you should be hosting this podcast oh i'd have to think you know what it snowed a ton

00:31:42.780 in canada and like eastern canada in the last week crazy amounts of snow oh yeah one of my

00:31:48.200 best friends sent me a picture from outside her window and it's like the entire door is

00:31:52.340 all piled up literally what i'm seeing behind my camera right now and but what's really great is

00:31:59.400 everywhere i walked around there were people helping each other there were people shoveling

00:32:03.520 themselves out of or shoveling each other's cars out and pushing each other's cars when they were

00:32:08.460 stuck. And like every time you heard wheels spinning in the snow, you saw everyone around

00:32:14.020 stop to make sure that person doesn't need help before they kept going. And there were even people

00:32:18.600 who turned the snow piles into a ski jump. So, you know, we saw people make the best out of a bad

00:32:25.080 situation in a very real way in the last week. And I think that just speaks to how resilient we all

00:32:31.500 are yeah how about you anything good happen to you um um you know it's tough asking an american

00:32:39.440 that question right now yeah and like especially when i've been working on scripts like i have a

00:32:43.820 whole script just being like this is why you should care about trans people existing um my

00:32:48.520 cat has been really cute this morning um i had allergies so bad that i had to i woke up at four

00:32:54.980 and couldn't get back to sleep and uh so we went out and hung out in the living room and um when

00:33:01.980 the sun rose she napped in a sunbeam oh it was lovely i honestly feel like this is the real way

00:33:08.340 that we survive everything that's going on right now is take those little moments and just hold

00:33:13.880 them close because they make a big difference right they just help you to remember what you're

00:33:20.120 fighting for and what actually matters in life so anyways on that super heavy note

00:33:25.180 kat abu thank you so much for coming on here and giving us a master class in taking down the worst

00:33:31.800 men on the internet and staying optimistic um i want to give you of course of course um i want

00:33:38.180 to give you the floor now to tell people where they can watch you in action where can people

00:33:42.540 find you uh you can find me on most platforms blue sky i'm kat m abu youtube i'm the same

00:33:49.560 tiktok i'm the same twitch i'm the same uh and then you can go on there to find my instagram

00:33:54.180 and other places um i have a really long last name i stream on twitch on thursdays at 2 30

00:34:01.960 central time i'm still getting used to time zones now i don't live on the east coast and uh you can

00:34:07.080 also sign up for my patreon if you want to support my work for one dollar a month you get a daily

00:34:10.880 picture of my cat and she's really cute her name is heater she is orange she has feline leukemia

00:34:16.320 virus and she's the love of my life that is a great deal folks so you better all subscribe

00:34:21.560 kat abu thank you so much for being on the show today it was an honor to have you here on bubble

00:34:27.260 pop thanks for having me rachel good luck with the rest of the pod thank you

00:34:31.740 thank you for listening to this episode of bubble pop i'm rachel gilmore your least favorite person's

00:34:40.180 least favorite journalist if you enjoyed this episode consider subscribing to bubble pop on

00:34:44.740 youtube patreon sub stack and wherever you like to listen you can also find me on tiktok instagram

00:34:50.780 twitch and blue sky i'd like to say a special thank you to hans vivian wenzel for making the

00:34:56.200 incredibly groovy music for bubble pop you can find more of his stuff on spotify under the artist

00:35:01.480 name hans lowercase h with an exclamation mark thanks again for spending this time with me doing

00:35:07.720 this is a dream and i couldn't do any of it without your support so i'll see you next time

00:35:14.740 I'll be happy..

Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore - February 21, 2025

A masterclass in destroying the internet's worst men (with Kat Abu) ｜ Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore

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