Unlearn16: Class is in Session - The One Where I Go Into The Past To Change The Future

00:00:00.000 class is in session welcome to unlearn 16 class is in session guys today i have probably one of

00:00:10.240 the most interesting amazing intelligent gentlemen that i have had the honor of speaking with we

00:00:17.160 sorry guys i'm just saying this because we had this great conversation that i didn't tape heaven

00:00:22.300 help me um but he is this amazing gentleman his name is abe gurko i'm going to give him a chance

00:00:28.320 to give you a vibe of who he is and then we're going right into discussion and i promise you

00:00:33.600 it'll be an interesting one how you doing today i'm great i'm so glad to be here i'm just gonna

00:00:39.520 at the at the try to be a sense of who i am to the people that watch your or listen to your

00:00:45.680 podcast this is my traditional traditional bio this is your press release give it to us

00:00:52.960 About Abe. When Abe packed his bags and moved from New York City to Hollywood,

00:00:58.720 he wasn't leaving a career in the fashion industry to chase the usual dream of becoming a movie star.

00:01:05.360 I wanted to be a mechanic to the machine called Celebrity. I wanted to know how it worked.

00:01:11.200 Over the next few years, he developed skills as a behind-the-scenes creative force by working

00:01:18.160 with arguably the coolest woman in Hollywood Carrie Fisher. There he acquired an intimate

00:01:24.560 knowledge of how the entertainment industry really works. I was like Alice careening through

00:01:30.080 the looking glass. Mad Hatter at the wall. And that is me. I like it. And you know what's funny?

00:01:38.320 I had no idea about any of that. We talked for how long and we were so specifically focused.

00:01:43.360 I had no idea why you went to Hollywood I had no idea you were from New York in fashion I had no

00:01:50.140 idea you're doing all that behind the scenes stuff because what connected you and I outside of we're

00:01:56.260 both on TikTok and I'll put all your information you know in the uh in the description where people

00:02:00.940 can find you right we I think we both meet on social justice issues and where you reached out

00:02:09.100 and I reached back out and had this conversation was my recent TikTok about the art project I did

00:02:16.780 in my world religions class surrounding the SS St. Louis about the Jewish refugee ship that was

00:02:22.540 turned away from Canada and the United States. And we had this amazing conversation because you

00:02:29.180 have created this incredible piece for HBO. When is that airing, by the way?

00:02:35.580 we haven't we haven't finished filming so it's just yeah you're in the midst of creating this

00:02:42.440 episode that speaks to your family lineage do you want to just give a snippet of that

00:02:46.720 well i just want to clarify that the piece that i sent you is uh a documentary that's in process

00:02:55.200 right my uncle who was killed in a concentration camp but he was a notable musician and he wrote

00:03:02.580 a song of resistance to the Nazis. And when he was murdered hours before the liberation,

00:03:09.180 the song was lost for 75 years. It was recently discovered kind of serendipitously the same week

00:03:16.960 the Nazis were marching in Charlottesville and the Holocaust Museum, who had found this piece

00:03:22.500 of music, contacted our family and said, hey, we found this piece of music. It's attributed

00:03:27.740 to your uncle and I wanted to take this piece of music that was written as a resistance song to the

00:03:34.340 Nazis and make it a current, relevant anthem for social justice today. So I've been on this journey

00:03:42.140 since like, you know, for the past couple of years. Sadly, we got shut down by COVID because

00:03:48.340 everything was shut down then. But fortuitously, I found TikTok and I used the message,

00:03:55.080 Won't Be Silent, which is the name of the song, to build an audience and to get my message out

00:04:02.220 that what better way to say I won't be silent than by voting, which is what was happening

00:04:07.560 when we were all stuck in lockdown. And I worked with, you know, used the piece of music

00:04:14.420 to do public service announcement with Voting Rights Alliance, which is an organization

00:04:18.840 in DC, and we were registering young people to vote. And, you know, look, am I taking credit

00:04:25.360 for getting that orange gross baboon out of the White House? Yes. 1.00

00:04:29.020 I think you should. Yes.

00:04:33.580 Thanks, Uncle Wolf. Anyway.

00:04:36.180 Yes, I am. Look, I had no... Sorry, go ahead. Yep.

00:04:40.620 But other than that, I have, you know, I have been an activist since, I mean, I stopped my

00:04:48.080 grade school from coming into school when the hippies were marching against the war on

00:04:54.140 Washington and the war, the, um, the moratorium to end the war in Vietnam in 1970, I was like

00:05:01.600 blocking, you know, the sixth grade, ninth graders, but we were seventh graders from entering the

00:05:07.300 school because my sister was doing it in DC. And I was like, yeah, let's do this. And, uh,

00:05:13.600 So I've been an activist, I guess,

00:05:16.700 when you feel like you're other,

00:05:19.240 which being Jewish and being raised in a town 0.59

00:05:23.700 of anti-Semites, which is lots of fun. 0.95

00:05:26.660 And then also, you know, being fat, 0.94

00:05:29.200 you feel like other and people make fun of you.

00:05:32.340 And then coming out, it's like,

00:05:35.460 I'm most comfortable in other.

00:05:39.540 And that's why I get along with whoever,

00:05:43.020 and I can be me exactly who I am,

00:05:45.520 because I don't have barriers.

00:05:47.620 I'm like, you know what I mean?

00:05:50.080 So I think that's actually,

00:05:51.500 it's the thing that that's which doesn't kill you,

00:05:55.340 just constantly makes you stronger.

00:05:58.260 And whether it's being hated or losing a family member,

00:06:02.100 where you kind of try to come to terms with loss

00:06:06.260 of family members, where that at the end it becomes,

00:06:10.460 well, that was my teaching moment.

00:06:12.660 am i learning so i know i kind of just jumped around but i just think it's all feeling yeah

00:06:19.780 i just feel like the thing that i think we connected on so intensely was something that was 0.98

00:06:26.420 so meaningful to you that was so kind of unexpected because usually people that are doing holocaust

00:06:37.140 related education are either part of an organization or a temple or an organization that's funded by

00:06:44.020 Jews and Jews and Jews and here you are one of the people that I just adore and you know we've

00:06:48.580 I've dm'd you over the years just how groovy I think you are anyway you know what I mean so I

00:06:55.060 felt comfortable to say oh my god I can't believe what you're doing what can I do you know and

00:06:59.780 holocaust or remembrance week coming up next week so you know it it was just a joy to see your

00:07:07.700 passion and knowing that students that are in high school crave wanting to be part of storytelling

00:07:15.300 and it just it's emotional for me because i am emotionally connected to telling my uncle's story

00:07:21.700 and actually my mother's story and my father's story but because my whole family survived the

00:07:26.340 the Holocaust, except my uncle, he was killed. But I'll be damned if I'll let him be just one 0.74

00:07:31.860 of the six million anonymous Jews. And the thing about my project is I am not doing a Holocaust

00:07:37.620 film. I am doing something that because this little piece of music that it was exhumed from

00:07:44.400 the ashes of the Holocaust is the opportunity for us to tell stories of what we are here together.

00:07:52.020 It's whether it's concentration camp, the cotton fields or the inner city streets.

00:07:58.460 We have our families have stories to tell. And if you're alive now, tell it, because if you're no longer here, that's a responsibility.

00:08:09.200 And I think that is what connects us. I mean, everybody can tell.

00:08:13.680 And this is what makes education, in my opinion, just essential.

00:08:19.100 it's not just telling the story it's not just the what it's not just the what i think we get trapped

00:08:26.180 a lot in the what when did it happen how many people died how did they get like the what right

00:08:32.320 and and we've gotten really good in education about memorizing the what but if you're intelligent

00:08:38.860 or if at all you're you're aware of the way history and people work it's never the what it's

00:08:44.320 the why it's the why and and to talk about the why means a it's subjective because everybody's

00:08:53.260 why is very different that's why we need every single person at the table describing it and then

00:08:58.060 the why matters because that's the only way you're ever going to get at people let's say because as

00:09:04.760 you're telling this and you're saying you know you connect to anyone who is othered well let's be

00:09:10.140 honest, the vast majority of this planet is othered in some way. And if we can figure out

00:09:17.300 how to connect to that in their heart, in their soul, I don't care if you live in Tennessee, 0.77

00:09:23.360 I don't care if you live in Zimbabwe, I don't care. That aspect, we can connect to that.

00:09:29.200 We can, you know, sort of gain some sort of, you know, solidarity surrounding that. And that is

00:09:38.460 powerful and then we get to the most important part which is how do we maintain accountability

00:09:46.060 how do we have change how does what happened matter today other than feeling bad that it happened

00:09:55.500 the why is the big thing i don't know i just want to say is this going to be on video or just on

00:10:01.740 video yeah yeah it'll be on video it'll look like it's not yeah it'll look like it's not

00:10:07.980 had a high resolution but when it processes it is yeah so you don't need to worry i just

00:10:13.020 him would i let you look bad on tv no no you're just you're so beautiful i didn't want it to be

00:10:21.020 pixelated the buzzword in hollywood now is why like why do you want to do this project if you

00:10:30.540 can't answer the why um i just that's that you're not getting a deal but i will say this

00:10:38.620 just to finish up about so the wolf project is called walking title is wolf story that's about

00:10:44.620 my uncle while we were in lockdown not only was i like looking for what to do but i ended up doing

00:10:52.200 a deep dive research on the history of protest music because this little piece of music was

00:10:57.340 written and protest. And the only way you could protest if you were in a concentration camp

00:11:02.260 was to keep your dignity and keep your strength and keep your, you know, stay silent and don't

00:11:07.980 let them take your dignity, you know. But I did a deep dive into the history of protest music and I

00:11:14.300 was able to put together a docu-series, which is called Won't Be Silent, where each episode is a

00:11:21.520 different reason why people have written protest music over the years and it spans the 20th century

00:11:28.020 for the most part and there's so much talent and there's so much great music that you wouldn't even

00:11:33.300 know is attributed to like in the 80s the rock people they were totally environmentalists and

00:11:39.340 so we put together a series so I was able to get uh the pilot sold which we just kind of

00:11:48.280 solidified. And that starts production now. And we're doing the women of protest music because

00:11:57.060 of what just happened with Roe v. Wade. Didn't I tell you about that the other day?

00:12:01.040 You did. Yeah, you told me a bit about it. Yeah, yeah.

00:12:03.580 So that's exciting. And Selena Gomez and Stacey Abrams are my co-producers. So I feel like...

00:12:10.780 like if only if only you had a few people back your project that had any sort of influence

00:12:19.260 whatsoever this is why anywhere i'm telling you right now when that one starts you tell me i will 0.70

00:12:26.220 fly anywhere to shake stacy abrams hand anywhere you are i will come there not that celine is not

00:12:32.780 beautiful and amazing and everything but stacy abrams as a sign of all of those things you just

00:12:39.500 spoke about is one of the most if not the most incredible women of this decade yeah i mean she's

00:12:48.940 awesome and i was on a known disclosure agreement for the whole past year and couldn't talk about

00:12:56.780 the whole thing until after the election so i couldn't you know what i mean so anyway um

00:13:03.260 not that i believe me i'd much rather have her be the georgia governor than my co-producer but

00:13:09.500 You know, if life is going to throw lemons, here's some lemonade, girl. 0.81

00:13:15.520 You know what?

00:13:16.560 Here's something interesting, because a lot of people ask me why I don't go into politics.

00:13:21.700 And I wonder sometimes, I wonder if Stacey Abrams in this role, in the roles that will

00:13:28.440 come, different roles, like I don't mean just obviously movie roles, but in the opportunities

00:13:34.300 she will have to speak and change the world, I wonder sometimes if it's not this tiny little

00:13:42.580 blessing, because there will be no constraints. There will be no compromise. There will be no,

00:13:50.860 I got to do this so I can get this, which is the world of politics. She's going to be able to speak 0.99

00:13:56.860 her truth no holds barred and i wonder if she will be able to do without being you know limited if

00:14:06.220 she will be able to do even more amazing things because i think people say why don't i join i'm

00:14:11.900 like whose table am i sitting at right right like up here we have three major parties but you have

00:14:17.820 to sit at a table right and and once you sit at that table you have to understand that you speak

00:14:22.860 for the table and once you speak for the table there's compromise at the table and i'm not very

00:14:28.380 good at that abe i'm not i can tell but it ties into what i said a few minutes ago which is that

00:14:37.260 life lessons happen based on good and bad so if it didn't happen that she's the governor

00:14:45.900 it's because whatever she's going to do next and i'm not even talking about my project

00:14:50.140 i'm just saying it's going to allow her to free up to do what her mission on earth is

00:14:57.260 which which i'm sure will tie into what she's been doing which is rallying people and engaging

00:15:02.860 people and you know i i whatever i just the fact that we were able to sign that on was like it's

00:15:10.220 amazing um you said something yeah sorry go ahead i don't know i just think

00:15:15.420 in the same way she teaches young people and people of color to know that their voice matters,

00:15:24.740 which is what she'd been doing for the 10 years down in Georgia, so that we could at least have

00:15:30.380 the two senators as a byproduct of her hard work. That's nothing to sneeze at. That's the same thing. 1.00

00:15:38.520 you know? Yeah. Um, you said something earlier that just caught me last night. I went to a

00:15:44.060 production of rent, which is my, I love rent so much. And I cry at rent all the time. It doesn't

00:15:49.980 matter. I, it doesn't matter who does it. I'm usually in tears at some point. And the part

00:15:54.980 that makes me, um, that, that you just said, and the part that ties everybody was, is that there's

00:16:03.180 a song and one of the lyrics goes, will I lose my dignity? Will someone care? And first of all,

00:16:10.920 I could cry right now, but I'm going to try not to. Will I lose my dignity? I think about that

00:16:16.700 as I was watching it last night, realizing that play was written in the night, you know what I

00:16:21.240 mean? A long time ago. And all of those issues are still renaissance today, but will I lose my

00:16:28.660 dignity. And I think of everybody today. And I think of all of the battles and what's at the

00:16:34.840 fundamental underpinning of all of it, human dignity and which humans we are willing to

00:16:42.340 dispose of, which humans we are willing to dehumanize, which humans we are willing to rip

00:16:49.080 that from to ensure they are less. And when I sit and I try to decide, because there's a lot of

00:16:57.940 people who will say, well, Joanna, do you, you know, do you hate all Republicans or do you hate

00:17:01.860 all conservatives? I said, absolutely not. But I need to know what your goal is. If your goal is

00:17:07.000 human dignity, we're just agreeing on how to get there. If your goal is the human spirit and love

00:17:15.980 and perseverance and empathy, I'm with you. I'm with you. If your goal is how to turn a country

00:17:23.340 into an economic corporation, I can't stand with you anymore. Because you are going to forgo

00:17:28.980 what I have just said. You have to. It's in the nature of capitalism, whether you love it or hate

00:17:34.460 it, I don't care. You have to admit. It's not about human dignity. It's about amassing money.

00:17:40.200 So when I think about human dignity, and I think about those words in that song,

00:17:45.560 as they were pertaining, obviously, to men and women with HIV at the time, 0.83

00:17:49.300 I think the way that we push people aside and trample upon them in order to gain something, which goes back to the Holocaust and Hitler. A lot of people talk about Hitler being this, you know, incredible anti-Semite. Obviously he was, but that wasn't his, his main thrust was what am I going to get?

00:18:10.080 Now, when I marginalize this group, when I imprison them, when I ghettoize them, when I take everything they have, that's not just about intolerance. That was about how do I then build myself up? It's always about that.

00:18:29.000 And that's why this notion of scapegoating is so horrifically damaging, because if I can rile people up and say it's their fault, and depends what country you're in, they mean something different. Right? You build animosity and anger and resentment. And then eventually, there's nowhere for that to go but violence.

00:18:52.380 Right.

00:18:52.840 And that's all about dignity. And that's all about what are you trying to get from that? Right?

00:18:57.660 Well, I'm going to make one correction to your statement when you said it is what we do. No, it's what they do. And you're not part of they, you know what I mean? Because philosophically, you're never going to get on the same page with that. 0.57

00:19:15.300 And yes, you don't want to think that you hate all the Republicans and hate all conservatives and whatever. It's not a matter whether you hate them or not, because hate is intrinsic in everyone. I mean, we just, the more sophisticated people don't let it move us and, you know, be our operating, it's not what motivates us.

00:19:36.380 Tribes. Right. But there's something innately extremely evil in what that is. It's that evil

00:19:45.680 that was the 30s and what was all about the Third Reich and what we as a country now innocently 0.92

00:19:54.340 might be looking at and thinking, oh, well, we could loosely blame that on them. But if you think 0.75

00:20:00.300 about Hungary in 1944 who said, oh, they're never going to come and get us. You know what I mean?

00:20:06.860 It's that blinders on that we all probably wear because we live in a country that we've been

00:20:13.120 lullabied into the sense of fabulousness because of fashion and beauty and all the gimmicks

00:20:22.140 of social media that really have propelled. I mean, the best thing that happened, again,

00:20:27.400 And which is why you and I are even having this conversation is that TikTok was a platform that allowed people to have honest conversations about politics and we could follow each other.

00:20:37.260 I mean, TikTok initially, I don't think it's still that way anymore.

00:20:40.280 I think that from 20 to 21, like that beautiful year where everybody kind of congealed together was what the Internet was initially for.

00:20:51.560 People of like mind creating community, you know.

00:20:54.600 And that's why if you look at my YouTube channel, when I first started on TikTok, I immediately started following the people who I was following. 1.00

00:21:03.720 I started interviewing and I just wanted this place where people can kind of feel like we're going to congeal and we're going to get rid of that gross baboon. 1.00

00:21:16.960 you know what I mean 1.00

00:21:18.060 you know cumulatively we have like

00:21:20.980 50 to 60

00:21:23.160 million followers you know what I mean

00:21:25.300 and

00:21:26.200 so just

00:21:28.740 I just needed

00:21:31.180 to correct the fact that

00:21:33.020 it's they not we

00:21:34.820 you know I constantly

00:21:37.220 here's what's interesting

00:21:39.180 I constantly remember

00:21:41.200 to include myself in the they

00:21:43.360 here's why

00:21:43.960 I'm still white

00:21:46.960 And I'm still privileged to a certain level. And I've still lived 47 years without consistent wisdom. Not that I have full wisdom now. I'm just saying, I remember, you know, I just, I like to take ownership and accountability. And I think it helps me connect with people who are still stuck in the mindset.

00:22:09.200 it. I like to take ownership and accountability of where I grew up, how I grew up, the blinders

00:22:14.800 that I used to wear very comfortably, didn't even know they were on my head so that I can more for

00:22:23.480 the most part, it's not to say I never get angry because sometimes I can't make TikToks in that

00:22:27.080 kind of state, but for the most part, I can still try to figure out a connected point so I can have

00:22:34.360 conversation so for example when i was in high school i was horribly homophobic awful really

00:22:42.360 i know well because i grew up in the 90s i wasn't gay in my whatever i was

00:22:52.040 not horribly homophobic like i'd go seek out like i never did anything but i remember the jokes i

00:22:58.200 remember the language i remember the vibe like when you look at movies that were made in the late 80s

00:23:03.960 early 90s the f word and i don't mean the you know the f word was consistently used as the worst

00:23:13.400 possible insult you could throw around and it was used free in a classroom free on the volleyball

00:23:20.280 court for every single movie right i watched the old teen wolf with michael j fox i think if you

00:23:27.080 had a drinking game with the f word in that movie you'd be shnammer that's what we grew up that's

00:23:33.240 what i grew up in so i have to i have to acknowledge that because what made me aware

00:23:40.440 which a lot of people don't have which is when i got shoved out of that bubble

00:23:46.040 i guess my own because i i came out right and all of a sudden i'm standing outside that bubble going

00:23:53.800 right and then i was old i was like 24. my dad had passed i went to um

00:24:02.840 This is funny because out here we have schools that are more right-wing, more left-wing, right?

00:24:08.720 I did my undergrad at a very right-wing school.

00:24:10.940 I wasn't really aware of it.

00:24:12.260 It's just the one I chose.

00:24:13.400 And then I did my grad school at a very left-leaning school.

00:24:18.160 And right away we went on strike.

00:24:20.800 And right away we went on strike.

00:24:23.180 So I'm walking the picket line and everybody on this line was using the word partner.

00:24:27.520 and so that in 2001 was usually was just reminiscent of people who were gay at the

00:24:37.640 time right they would use the word partner meanwhile everybody and I'm looking around

00:24:41.020 going is everybody gay that goes everybody's using and I found out later very few of them

00:24:48.400 were actually gay or bisexual whatever but they were being respectful with their language and all

00:24:53.760 of a sudden I started understanding not and this is so funny because a lot of people think well

00:25:01.900 well did you become gay no no I started seeing it as a legitimate possibility of something I was

00:25:08.840 missing that I never knew I didn't have right and then all of a sudden I started talking to people

00:25:14.440 and all of a sudden I went holy shit this this is you know and then I met a girl who crushed me in

00:25:21.600 too, which is pretty much how it all starts. 0.97

00:25:24.380 It becomes a Jesus moment.

00:25:26.860 Yeah, it was something.

00:25:29.940 But, you know, and so you come to that and then you get, you are pushed into a level

00:25:36.720 of perspective that I don't think many people are ever shoved into, you know, because I

00:25:42.440 think about people, especially in the United States and Canada too, that not only don't

00:25:47.920 leave their state, they don't leave their city, they don't leave their town. How are they ever

00:25:55.440 supposed to think outside of that bubble? They're not bad people. I don't think they're hateful

00:26:02.220 people. But how are they ever supposed to get and understand that perspective? When I grew up

00:26:08.380 in a town outside of Toronto, and I still didn't get it until I was shoved out. Do you understand

00:26:15.020 what i mean yeah no no i agree that that's interesting that uh i mean but everybody's

00:26:21.060 journey is unique to ultimately who they become and what they mean on earth to be you know what

00:26:30.220 i mean like i think not everyone is meant may sound gross but i don't think everyone is supposed

00:26:37.720 to have this impact on earth i think there's you know there's people who journey through and force

00:26:48.520 themselves to find themselves i mean that's like a not it's not an easy path to take whether you're

00:26:55.240 hurled into it and land and decide to accept it you know acceptance becomes a very important part

00:27:03.160 of the strength. I mean, if you, let's say just, you know, hypothetically speaking, had stayed not,

00:27:11.160 if you went to a conservative post-grad, you know what I mean? What kind of different teacher would

00:27:16.840 you be? It would have been horrible. And maybe you would have never done that assignment.

00:27:23.560 Probably not. You know what I mean? So it's almost like, you know, it's like that expression,

00:27:29.160 some quickly some slowly when people have to you know and and each each one of our journeys i mean

00:27:36.120 look i'm like on medicare already i'm finally reality that i want to do films and what you

00:27:42.120 know what i mean and and it's like i refuse to say it's over just because i'm over a certain age

00:27:48.760 you know but it's all of our journeys are unique there's so many millions of people that are voting

00:27:56.440 for blindly, whether it's Democrat or Republican, that are just purposelessly existing on the

00:28:04.640 planet. I don't need to. And this is very self-serving in a way, because I like the unique

00:28:12.420 gems of people in the many cases in the gay community that come and become just like heroes.

00:28:20.700 like it's about how not everyone's meant to be a hero i guess i'm trying to say

00:28:25.660 and and i'm not saying i'm a superhero or anything but i think it's heroic to want to tell stories

00:28:32.480 where you're giving somebody a platform that otherwise they wouldn't i don't know i just

00:28:38.500 think i don't have enough you know what and it's i'm a jaded old queen honey i don't have that much

00:28:44.240 faith in the average human being that lives in the united states because there's so many douche

00:28:49.580 yeah i don't know if i'm allowed to curse or not but all right ahead i don't think douche is gonna

00:28:55.060 get um you know but it's interesting because my fiance hates politics she hates politics the the 0.99

00:29:01.800 idea that i talk incessantly about politics and then she goes oh my god i can't i'm married to

00:29:07.680 that too she said something brilliant a while ago and i still haven't figured out how to get around

00:29:12.740 it she said listen the people that and she like politically she ally like sociologically and all

00:29:20.100 those things she agrees with everything i talk about she's just like the other side is better

00:29:24.480 at simplifying it and making it a quick fight she goes joe how do you make this into a 30 second

00:29:33.620 tiktok you need to the right makes it into a 30 second tiktok by saying things like you get all

00:29:40.100 the power. I'm going to reduce your taxes. Go and be a great individual. Done. It doesn't mean that

00:29:46.540 because to actually have that conversation takes way more than 30 seconds. But son of a gun,

00:29:52.260 if they haven't figured out how to simplify a message and how to whittle it down to a soundbite

00:29:59.320 so that people who don't understand politics, who don't understand economic, which by the way,

00:30:05.160 is a lot of people, not because they're not intelligent, but because it's horribly confusing.

00:30:10.100 if they don't understand that they go to the soundbite they like the soundbite they call it a

00:30:16.020 day right the left the left can't whittle it down because the left's trying too hard to be

00:30:22.780 honest about the complexities of every single decision that is the reason why democrats are 1.00

00:30:29.820 morons. I mean, my sister and I cannot say that. I mean, if you think about just the fact that 1.00

00:30:42.560 their inability, not only to concisely make a point in 15 seconds or less, you know, but

00:30:50.460 it's the unnecessary layers that they're trying to explain to what the issue actually is.

00:30:59.160 The thing is, it's like the case that just happened in Florida with the African-American studies.

00:31:07.340 Let's talk about that. Let's describe that real quick.

00:31:10.300 So there's an AP course. Yeah, let's describe it real quick, and then I'm going to let you go off.

00:31:14.420 Because this is at the crux.

00:31:16.160 When we talk about the Holocaust and we talk about the conditions that paved the way to that kind of horrific genocide,

00:31:23.920 are the conditions of of how do we censor how do we limit how do we and here's a really four

00:31:31.360 letter word that's not four letters well it is how do we omit how do we omit not not lie because

00:31:38.780 guess what lying doesn't get it done anymore because you can go fact check me on the computer

00:31:42.700 you can get it from lying so that's i am going to omit it as even a an intelligent line of

00:31:50.180 conversation. So Ron DeSantis has very quickly, without even looking at it, blocked an AP African 0.93

00:32:00.060 studies course that is multidisciplinary, that travels. This course incorporates music and

00:32:05.620 literature and history and economics and all of this amazing stuff in order to tell the story,

00:32:10.720 to tell a more full story of African-Americans in the United States. He has banned it from the

00:32:15.120 curriculum calling it what does he say it has no academic or intellectual value it is just crt which

00:32:24.600 heaven help me nobody even understands what that those letters mean it is just crt we are banning

00:32:29.800 it all together it's not going to be on the face that that's the fundamental issue not lies sorry

00:32:38.080 To clarify, omitting that fact from being allowed to be something that studies, something that people can raise their hand, alternative conversations about young people being brought into that marketplace of ideas is what is the beginning of the potential to not necessarily

00:33:07.860 create slavery again, but to keep them enslaved in a less successful cultural aspect of American

00:33:16.440 life, because they are going to minimize the next generation, at least in Florida, because I mean,

00:33:22.740 that's going to be very few states are going to sign on for that. But it just, it makes, it does,

00:33:28.080 it's, you know, my biggest word in life is respect. And it's the most disrespectful thing,

00:33:37.080 The omission is out and outright such disrespect to not only the people that were involved with bringing that to the forefront now, whether it's the 1619 Project or whoever, but it's a disrespect to the kids who haven't even been born yet.

00:33:54.120 It's like being born disrespected. It's bad. And if that gets to go ahead, I think it's actually going to blow up in his face. That's just good. But the feeling is there. The drive for that is there. The hate is still there.

00:34:13.840 And as we talk about the rise of anti-Semitism, see, my whole thing, again, my project is not a Holocaust story. It's like Blacks and Jews are currently under the eye of the hurricane of white supremacy. And that's here. It's not going away fast. It may never.

00:34:34.980 But unless we come together, along with the gay community and whatever other marginalized community to understand that power in numbers is strength, not I mean, this whole idea of and this is why the left is sort of its own worst enemy sometimes, which is why I could say sometimes Democrats are morons because they want everyone. 0.92

00:34:59.360 is so everyone is so compartmentalized for their own initial independence that your independence 0.82

00:35:06.800 is just going to end up being the ire i mean let's face it since george floyd it's it's there's more

00:35:14.960 racism as opposed to the other way should have gone because i think this is the case and this

00:35:20.800 is the this is the the crux of it and i want to come back to the to the idea of what's being

00:35:27.680 admitted from education because the right is really has a lovely little spin on this kind

00:35:33.680 of thing and this is what i think the left should be driving home but they're not um i think that

00:35:39.520 the the that the way every majority culture has ever run any country or any society in the history

00:35:46.400 of anywhere is divide and conquer is we have the power and instead of them fighting us because

00:35:52.240 there's way more of them than us we're going to make them fight each other so so what ends up

00:35:57.360 happening is you have different communities that have been oppressed fighting with each other to

00:36:03.120 see who's going to get that next step up the ladder not fully understanding because they've

00:36:08.000 been conditioned over generations to say you have to fight for what you need rather than understand

00:36:17.280 if i have less oppression it's because you have less oppression it it and it resonates for me with

00:36:25.800 and i know that i'm not going to speak to this issue on the whole because i'm not trans but

00:36:30.640 when i think about the trans argument and i think about all these women

00:36:34.260 talking about keeping trans women from being women and they're what they're doing well what

00:36:42.980 they're doing is they're protecting something they have, it has been fashioned that they have

00:36:48.420 fought for. And they think by giving trans women power and rights and support, they're going to

00:36:54.560 diminish their power, which it couldn't be further from the freaking truth. Every minority that takes 0.88

00:37:02.700 a step up, everybody takes a step up. Every step closer to justice is a step we all get to take

00:37:10.560 together even if it's not about your particular community or your particular issue no but you know

00:37:18.160 is destroying the power of building that community up because it's drawing a spotlight on it and

00:37:24.800 that's when the white supremacists feel like they're getting you know you know it's the media

00:37:30.560 is really not helping matters at all i think it's funny that the right and the left both hate the

00:37:37.520 the media yet the media is still doing whatever it is they're doing who's watching not me i don't

00:37:43.940 you know what i'm saying because then i also think i also think about the way they're right

00:37:48.920 we have jordan peterson up here heaven help us you guys have matt shapiro walsh you guys have

00:37:54.280 the sanus we're gonna ship him down to you pretty soon don't worry i think we're gonna take away his

00:37:58.420 uh his his license card and i think he's talking about florida good um exactly we should just

00:38:05.820 castrate the united states what an awful idea so they're talking about how education is so

00:38:14.300 left-leaning and it's all about cancel culture and it's all about this and that having said that

00:38:19.180 nobody on the left is talking about canceling courses nobody on the left is saying we shouldn't

00:38:26.620 be teaching this we shouldn't be teaching that everybody on the left is trying to widen the

00:38:31.660 margins. I've heard Jordan Peterson say, we shouldn't teach feminism courses, Marxism courses, 1.00

00:38:37.240 any of this leftist ideology, they all should be defunded. What? Excuse me? You have Ron DeSantis 0.97

00:38:45.040 keeping out AP courses on African American studies. You have all over the United States

00:38:50.100 keeping gender conversations out of the classroom. When what the left is talking about is

00:38:56.360 books and librarians becoming the enemy like what are we talking about here it's germany

00:39:05.400 yes it's talking about an expansion it's talking about a greater breadth of knowledge a greater

00:39:10.600 breadth of ideology of critical thought when somebody says to me we're not going to teach

00:39:15.000 feminism i say which one because if you really look at feminism they're all fighting with each

00:39:20.360 other and they have been since 1950 which is why we haven't gone anywhere significantly right you

00:39:26.760 want to get rid of all of it that doesn't make any sense we want to be expanding i want to learn 1.00

00:39:32.840 of the 12 different divisions within feminism and try to figure out why so many subsections

00:39:39.240 of a subsection have been created whereas the right are the people talking about we shouldn't 1.00

00:39:44.360 talk about that we shouldn't talk about that our kids shouldn't learn about that education

00:39:48.840 shouldn't be funded that way. When's the last time one of us has banned a book?

00:39:55.480 Please tell me. Never. That's not what we do. The left hasn't even banned Mein Kampf.

00:40:03.420 Because they understand that if we ignore that that existed, that disgusting piece of,

00:40:12.660 you know, I don't even want to call it literature. If we ignore it, if we don't talk about it,

00:40:17.860 if we don't show how clear it was and this path was created, we will just go back down on that

00:40:24.820 road. That's not the left. Remember when that, I think it was Kyrie Irving had reposted that

00:40:32.820 anti-Semitic film? Yes. I never saw it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was available on Amazon. The Jewish

00:40:39.260 organizations say, don't ban it. That's exactly what we don't want done. Two rights don't make

00:40:46.960 wrong. I mean, I personally am the old school, like, you know, not turn the other cheek. I'm

00:40:54.940 like, you know what I mean? I'm like, free Jesus, honey. I'm like, you know, you smite me, girl,

00:41:00.480 I'm smiting you bitch back, you know? But I have to just say one thing. Coincidentally, 1.00

00:41:06.340 there's a guy that I'm following on TikTok named Andrew Seidel, who wrote a book called

00:41:13.000 the founding myth

00:41:14.680 why Christian nationalism 0.68

00:41:16.880 is un-American and 0.97

00:41:18.900 the Christians are burning this book 1.00

00:41:21.240 he's this guy I'm going to interview 1.00

00:41:23.040 him for my podcast and then hopefully

00:41:25.100 the next week or so but it's kind

00:41:27.120 of like in this

00:41:28.720 what the left is not talking

00:41:31.040 enough about cohesively in

00:41:33.040 15 second jibs like

00:41:34.980 what you're saying for is how do

00:41:37.100 we destroy Christian nationalism 0.97

00:41:38.920 that's our job 1.00

00:41:40.720 destroy Christian

00:41:42.920 nationalism as a movement period i don't and and and why aren't we talking about like every time

00:41:50.660 somebody talks about cancel culture on the left every time or on the right every time somebody

00:41:55.740 says about how we are the dictatorial i i would simply ask the question what book have we banned

00:42:01.480 what course have we defunded what protest of you're talking about hateful um language you're

00:42:10.420 talking about pronouns jordan peterson you you're up here talking where you think critical theory

00:42:17.380 should be defunded from the universities and you think that is less of an imposition on our

00:42:24.840 freedoms than me telling you what pronoun to use when you talk to me we just need to be making

00:42:31.220 quick comebacks because it's making me freaking insane i mean personally i don't think we're

00:42:38.180 ever going to win the argument on the pronouns of those people i just say we need to just say we

00:42:44.020 need to destroy christian nationalism as an as as a as an official aspect of religious and

00:42:54.500 political power until we can minimize them they are gonna be the top story on fox which is and

00:43:04.740 and if you look like if you look there was just um marches in washington dc pro-life marches like

00:43:11.620 yesterday i think they were yeah thousands of young people i mean they're definitely growing

00:43:18.100 like everyone's like oh yeah the left we have the gen z yeah the left's problem is they relax

00:43:25.460 too soon into the war that we won this thing we don't have to bring out the big artillery

00:43:32.020 because we're going to win the immediate short conversation war for one minute and i'm telling

00:43:38.100 you go ahead we also assume that people we also assume that the way we win that war is through

00:43:47.940 education and we forget we forget the attacks on education yeah and by the uneducated yes

00:43:55.940 And even if the educated ones, it's the educated ones know that the uneducated ones are going to do whatever they say, because uneducated people need somebody to tell them what to do. 0.51

00:44:08.640 I mean, it's the Christian nationalists. It's it's the chain of command at the Christian national.

00:44:13.940 We have to cut them off. They're the snakes. And how do you get rid of a snake? You have to cut them off at the head. 1.00

00:44:20.100 The Jim Jordans, the Marjorie Taylor Greene's, they need to be not necessarily unalived, but voted out. 0.51

00:44:27.920 I mean, Jim Jordan.

00:44:29.880 Not necessarily.

00:44:34.380 Listen.

00:44:35.980 Not necessarily.

00:44:38.620 What they're really good at is conflating a beautiful personal faith with what they're doing.

00:44:48.780 Right.

00:44:49.160 So everybody who has a faith and they, and by the way, they're very smart to tap into the Judeo Christian faith. They, they're, they're smart about that, but they'll tap into that faith and they'll say this, the, the government's coming to take that from you. The government wants to destroy it. These are the people, these are the disgusting people that want to destroy your faith.

00:45:12.720 And all the while, they are using that stance in order to build a totalitarian dictatorship, in order to impart what they want us to act like and be like and all of those things.

00:45:27.220 but it's very hard and i find this hard all the time it's very hard to talk about creating a

00:45:35.380 secular society without making people of any religion to be perfectly honest feel like i

00:45:40.780 hate their religion right it's very hard it's a tightrope to walk that and say i respect your

00:45:47.580 faith i respect everything you believe but no it doesn't get to be law it doesn't get to have room

00:45:53.080 it doesn't get to have a space in the room to impact law it doesn't and people say but the

00:46:01.440 majority of people think it should right the thing is you said these despicable people these

00:46:07.100 disgusting people are making you're saying that they're saying that these disgusting people want 0.68

00:46:12.960 to do this that the other thing about us yeah disgusting people though the thing is we have to 0.99

00:46:18.580 the mirror up because they have to see that they're the disgusting ones. That's part of, 0.88

00:46:26.500 I'm telling you, it's like, if I was a Jew back in 1939 in Russia, in Germany, in whatever Poland or

00:46:34.900 wherever the country, I mean, I would like to think just based on now knowing history,

00:46:41.620 like that, what would I, would I have been part of the Warsaw Underground? Yeah, you know, the

00:46:47.060 Warsaw ghetto uprising. I'd like to think so. I'd like to think that what we all have to think like 1.00

00:46:52.260 now is underground. I believe that that is where the power is going to be in our diverse groups

00:47:01.140 of people. We have to think like the underground. We have to think about joining together,

00:47:07.540 finding out where they are. I mean, they're making all these plans and all these kind of

00:47:13.220 how did January 6th happen without the FBI or any intelligence know? These were plans going

00:47:25.220 all over the country. There's no way that that came together without hints and we saw it.

00:47:34.500 We need an underground because we are faced with not necessarily the same thing as Germany, 0.61

00:47:41.460 1933. But emotionally, it's coming from the same place. They want to be an Aryan race here,

00:47:50.980 the end. And they're the ones that came here, destroyed the indigenous people and their 1.00

00:47:57.600 lifestyle and their beauty and their simplicity and their elegance of who they were and made you 1.00

00:48:04.320 feel like unwelcome in their own home. I mean, please, it's those same people. It's that same

00:48:09.940 philosophy you know america organically intrinsically politically is a very we don't fund

00:48:18.780 easily things like art and design and you know you don't go to the government for that for the

00:48:24.760 most part all the european countries fund creative projects that way right when the puritans came

00:48:31.580 here it was all about a simple chair a simple table we don't need anything else just need to 0.97

00:48:36.460 pray to God and fuck off, you know, and that's like woven into the DNA of this country, which 0.99

00:48:43.960 is why they have felt empowered enough now to be saying things like Rhonda Sanders says like, 1.00

00:48:49.720 no, after finally everyone, because of what happened with George Floyd to understand how

00:48:55.660 intense it must be to be a person of color, knowing that your grandparents were like,

00:49:01.200 oh, you know what I mean? I know what that feels like, but I know what that feels like. 1.00

00:49:06.460 I just saw a post yesterday on Twitter talking about he had a heart attack.

00:49:12.160 It had nothing to do with where his knee was.

00:49:13.540 Still, they're still denying it.

00:49:16.680 They're still denying it.

00:49:18.040 They're still pretending as though it doesn't happen.

00:49:21.020 It's not a facet of American society.

00:49:23.720 Everybody's making it to be a facet.

00:49:26.160 And there is, when you deny, like if you can deny something you visually can see.

00:49:33.240 And let's not forget, African-Americans are only 12% of the United States population. 12%.

00:49:39.140 And Jews are free. So why are they free? 1.00

00:49:42.940 if we don't have a political system that is truly free like you cannot have a lot of people talk

00:49:51.620 about what a democracy is and they have no freaking idea because it's not majority rule

00:49:55.620 it's majority rule with always the respect and the founding principles of minority rights

00:50:03.320 it's not majority rule you do not live in a democracy when you vote for your population

00:50:09.560 to be enslaved. That's not a democracy. The United States wasn't even close to a democracy

00:50:13.980 until 1920, when 50% of its population could finally step up and vote. Not even close. Anybody

00:50:20.920 that talks about the United States being a democracy before then doesn't understand what

00:50:24.460 a democracy means, right? Canada, the same, right? We were in 1918, exact same. So a democracy doesn't

00:50:33.920 mean mob rule that is the degenerate form that is the broken form that's not democracy democratic

00:50:42.540 principles state you have a constitution that supports individual freedoms and rights and then

00:50:48.160 you have an election but this comes first and if this doesn't happen first your election means

00:50:54.060 nothing right i agree right your your election there's lots of elections in a whole bunch of

00:51:00.260 countries that aren't democratic nations, the United States would say, that's not a democratic

00:51:04.520 nation. Oh, but they just had an election. Right? But it's almost like everyone's been

00:51:10.880 loathed into just watching them. It's like watching a bank robbery and not doing anything

00:51:18.220 about it, which is what's happening now with the way the Republican Party is trying to

00:51:24.740 own not only own the libs but take control of power which they know they are losing

00:51:31.380 you know it's almost it's that it's so desperate that's why their language is so good because they

00:51:36.660 know how to they're so scared they have to get their message out they need to be heard

00:51:41.380 we're like and then we have this and then we have this group and then we can travel off

00:51:46.340 and we've opened up a museum and we're making rights and we're making strides 0.60

00:51:50.020 and there's six women now in congress and no it's like if the 12 black the three percent jews the

00:51:57.940 probably one percent asian american i don't know what percentage indigenous people like we have to

00:52:04.260 be a unified group of people it doesn't matter that one wins and one doesn't win it we have to

00:52:13.380 win we because when you get a right for one group somehow that seemingly applies just for them

00:52:20.020 is a win across the board. We need to start understanding that. It's not being told that way.

00:52:26.100 And that's what I think we're missing. Every time I teach the hall, right before I get to the hall,

00:52:34.340 every time I talk about Germany, I spend the longest amount of time talking about

00:52:40.260 Germany's democratic government and how their democracy was the most respected in the world

00:52:48.420 in 1920 whatever because it was considered the the template for a democratic structure to exist

00:52:58.680 that would never their main goal it will never allow a dictator to take office

00:53:04.240 people around the world looked at that and copied that and so when people say it'll never happen

00:53:10.860 I'm like, dude, Germany wasn't a dictatorship. They had this incredible separation of power

00:53:18.140 and democratic principles and this beautiful constitution that when they hit hard times,

00:53:24.100 which is why economic depressions scare the crap out of me. When you hit economic hard times and

00:53:29.320 people can't feed their kids or people can't heat their house or whatever, or you create,

00:53:35.500 which is exactly what's going on right now you create the the pretense that that's what's about

00:53:41.440 to happen you have a lot of very very scared citizens of that country willing to do anything

00:53:49.460 and blame anyone in order to avoid that reality and that's what the conservatives are playing on

00:53:58.760 they're playing on economic devastation they are playing and that's you hear it when it comes to

00:54:04.900 environment what do they say it's going to cost us everything when it comes to you know health care 0.61

00:54:09.780 what does it say it's going to bankrupt us when it comes to immigrants what do they say it's going to 0.97

00:54:13.940 cost us so much money their only conversation is about money scary and they're doing it to terrify 0.95

00:54:21.220 people yeah yeah um yeah i i just i lost i lost the thought but i just think there is i ran for

00:54:28.900 so long. It's okay. I think we're both guilty of that in our hearts and in our lives.

00:54:37.460 No, but the thing is, but again, the media, because how much fear did the media,

00:54:44.340 both sides of the aisle, scare everyone into thinking inflation? Inflation has been coming

00:54:50.500 down. Yes, we had inflation, the world had inflation, but the reality is they're keep

00:54:57.460 using the scare of money and inflation and you're not going to be able it's just scared yeah it's

00:55:04.020 the media and i'm the one thing i will always agree with donald trump about the media is the

00:55:09.700 enemy i just but you know what's funny i think it's not just the media is the enemy okay so let's

00:55:17.060 let's ignore for a second you know specific media outlets that are just driving candidates let's

00:55:23.540 for a quick minute because this has never changed the reality of the media is if it bleeds it leads

00:55:29.780 right and that's not just about murder that's not just about actual it is about carnage it is about

00:55:36.420 fear it is about extremities that's what we we buy into so abe is it them or is it us

00:55:44.660 well our hunger for that is nothing to be proud of either well they make money

00:55:52.100 based on us tuning in right so if they're making money based on us tuning in and they know

00:55:57.860 if it bleeds it leads they are going to be served economically which by the way is the founding

00:56:04.740 problem of a lot of our issues economically by either you know exaggerating terrible conditions

00:56:12.500 or by flat out making them up it doesn't seem to matter because that's what's going to get you to

00:56:17.380 turn into channel six whatever that is the evolution of our culture though because when

00:56:24.260 it was just country brinkley and just walter cronkite those were not for profit and aspects

00:56:32.020 of the corporate structure it was just the news it's the news now we've turned it into payment

00:56:39.460 and it's now infotainment and cnn and msnbc and well fox of course is all about who's our audience

00:56:47.780 how do we get the ratings then how do we get the advertising and the advertising here you know

00:56:53.300 of course you know and you said in the beginning money of course is the root of the problem in all

00:56:57.700 of this right and the truth is ad agencies are the always the ones that destroy everything beautiful 0.96

00:57:06.980 they destroyed magazines with all these fucking ads you're getting to get to the point of what 0.83

00:57:11.700 you bought the magazine for they've destroyed the internet was once the internet figured out 0.98

00:57:17.300 oh i could get like banner ads and whatever and now all of a sudden if you look at this

00:57:21.780 six other companies the similar stuff comes up so they ruined your internet experience

00:57:26.580 they ruined instagram and facebook through advertising and then allowing negative like

00:57:32.900 political ads being which is advertising again to ruin the facebook experience and then tick

00:57:38.820 tock again we had that purity of of simplicity of mind it was like people dancing and then talking

00:57:45.940 about how much we hate republicans he was like i hate republicans and you people are like

00:57:58.500 I think it's funny and it does.

00:58:05.420 It all comes down to,

00:58:06.440 and I don't need a big capitalism versus communism debate

00:58:10.060 or socialism.

00:58:12.180 Here's what is fundamentally interesting

00:58:15.020 and nobody really talks about this.

00:58:16.680 Everybody talks about how money and inflation

00:58:18.640 and this and that.

00:58:20.440 Let's never forget,

00:58:22.420 and I wish we could all understand this,

00:58:25.360 that money is a construct.

00:58:26.900 money's not finite it's not you could print as much as you want we decided how much it has value

00:58:35.240 based on finite things that we can buy with it things are finite resources are finite money

00:58:43.420 is a construct and we are allowing and this is what kills me about national politics and

00:58:49.300 globalized politics we are allowing our creation to be our master that's on us we've created

00:58:58.540 frankenstein right well dr frankenstein created the monster and now and now we're like it's not

00:59:04.840 my problem look it's just it's this for this is an individualized entity that controls the world

00:59:11.640 that inflation is this and this is doing this meanwhile you really start breaking it down

00:59:17.100 you see that inflation has nothing even to do with in a lot of the cases lack of supply it has to do

00:59:24.500 with profiteering from crisis yeah everything that was illegal during wartime we said oh go

00:59:30.600 right ahead we up here we have a bit of a problem because we have a company called loblaws and i

00:59:36.580 feel like galen weston owns that he owns loblaws and subsidiaries and he also owns choppers drug

00:59:42.880 Mark. So his monopoly is pretty significant outside of Walmart. Okay. And they've looked

00:59:51.140 into, and they've done this for a whole bunch of companies. What is inflation? What is caused by

00:59:55.820 rising cost? And how much more profit did you make this year in profit, not in money? How much

01:00:02.400 more profit did you make this year than last in the year before and the year before? And these

01:00:06.340 numbers are 70 60 to 70 percent based on higher profits right not that's it so when somebody

01:00:16.180 takes a picture have you seen the pictures of the hundred pound beef or whatever i've never seen

01:00:21.000 that but anyways then they're like look at what inflation is doing no no no no no that's what

01:00:25.500 your your grocery store just did so they're milking more profit but not necessarily higher

01:00:33.200 volume to get it's the same a dollar amount just to milk more profit and they're convincing

01:00:39.860 everybody it's covid and lockdowns and i can't get this stuff huge scammer on that honey it's

01:00:46.360 gross freaking brilliant it's no different than you know it's the value of anything we can

01:00:52.780 manipulate value by making it scarce i.e my favorite is diamonds right um is the fact that

01:01:00.520 De Beers, if that diamond company released all the diamonds they have stored, they would be worth

01:01:06.820 less than silver. It's a manufactured value. And diamonds actually have legitimate value

01:01:18.540 in a tool, kind of cut through glass, strong mineral kind of way. But on the ring finger,

01:01:26.420 They have this manufactured value that everybody's chasing and paying for.

01:01:33.080 Meanwhile, it's just a case of supply and demand, and they're controlling the supply.

01:01:38.260 They're mitigating the supply.

01:01:40.680 There's no genuine, you know, it's like supreme clothing.

01:01:44.460 It's like Jacob's handbag.

01:01:45.740 You know, people, they make you think that it's amazingly more valuable and put you get online to get it, 0.95

01:01:53.740 and they'll charge $8,000 for a freaking thing

01:01:57.080 that cost them a hundred bucks to make in India. 0.93

01:02:00.900 You know what I mean?

01:02:02.720 But that's the evolution of our culture

01:02:06.700 because chasing brands idea is like,

01:02:12.980 I mean, I was thrown into the brand experience

01:02:17.820 when I went to Boston University.

01:02:22.560 i'd never heard of gucci i never heard of any of this and bu was filled with the biggest bunch of

01:02:28.640 princesses from long island and they're all wearing gucci this night and i had no idea what

01:02:34.000 they were talking about and now look what it's become i mean over the past 40 50 years that's

01:02:41.040 how long i was from college whatever you know what i mean but um it's that it's the kardashianizing

01:02:50.720 of our culture you know and that led paved the way it started with yuppies which is trump

01:02:57.520 it's way before that right it's trump yuppies 80 early 80s uh rudy giuliani and trump where they

01:03:06.240 made the glitz and glamour and the rich and famous and that all became you know hollywood

01:03:12.160 was always amazing but nobody was like trying to you know hollywood was so great because it was like

01:03:17.840 you looked at it as it was a piece of art then all of a sudden it was like oh everybody could

01:03:22.640 do it reality teller and everyone's you know it's like level leveling the playing field to access 0.94

01:03:28.880 to wealth has bit us in the ass and has brought us to where we are which is all about the access

01:03:36.320 to wealth and that's what keeps that i i do believe that's the fundamental consistency and 0.97

01:03:43.360 And we can go back right to 1939 or 1933 to speak about it, because it's access to wealth

01:03:49.300 and access to resources that scares everybody, drives everybody.

01:03:54.560 And, you know, you drop a piece of meat in a room with a bunch of hungry dogs, they're

01:04:00.380 going to fight for it.

01:04:01.420 Right.

01:04:02.380 Rather than figuring out, why didn't you just give them all a piece of meat?

01:04:06.040 And again, I know I'm going to sound socialist when I say that.

01:04:08.680 And I'm not, I'm just saying, can we all admit that there's a fundamental flaw in the way in which we've organized money in this world?

01:04:19.500 When a brain surgeon gets paid $400,000 and Tom Cruise gets 30 million a picture, we have a problem.

01:04:26.100 Yeah. 0.99

01:04:26.300 I mean, capitalism is an imperfect structure, as was serfdom, as was, you know, the...

01:04:38.680 The regular kings with the wealth and everybody else is like on the other side of the moats desperate to eat. 0.64

01:04:47.600 I mean, it's proven, even though capitalism made it available for more people and that was kind of democratic and blah, blah, blah.

01:04:56.140 But at the end of the day, the human greed, the greed quotient of individuals that have power, sadly, is never going away.

01:05:06.020 And it's going to be in socialist governments too and communist governments.

01:05:10.160 Look who ran both of those governments.

01:05:12.420 These are the most corrupt, you know.

01:05:15.580 Oh, yeah, for sure.

01:05:17.040 Well, because at the end of the day, and this is what I think capitalism did, especially when it was globalized, is it just pushed poverty outside of my country.

01:05:26.160 Well, everybody's doing better in Canada.

01:05:28.940 Well, yeah, but that's because have you seen what's going on in India?

01:05:31.880 Have you seen what's going on in Bangladesh? 0.95

01:05:33.820 have you right well i don't see it it's not my right and so i get to sit in that kind of

01:05:41.440 privileged position is it much better is i don't know is that what's going on in canada where you

01:05:48.560 have less property what do you mean no i think no i think in canada you're starting when when we

01:05:55.560 talk about what capitalism has done right it's created wealth it's created excess it's create

01:06:01.940 Look at how much Canada has built itself and all of this, right?

01:06:07.040 Yeah, it's a strong job.

01:06:08.200 Because we've shifted the poverty.

01:06:10.820 Canada didn't necessarily have huge, not like the United States, huge levels because we've all, for the longest time, had a very socialized system.

01:06:19.660 Right.

01:06:19.960 But let's not forget what we were based on, too. 0.95

01:06:22.520 Stealing land from the indigenous people, stealing their businesses, making billions of dollars off of it, right?

01:06:29.720 I mean, we all had our own.

01:06:31.200 Is your homeless problem as bad as America's?

01:06:35.020 No, I don't think so.

01:06:36.560 But again, I would like to see what it is per capita.

01:06:39.000 It won't be as bad because two fundamental truths that I swear to God are being chipped away here.

01:06:46.880 Public education that is being gutted left, right and center and health care.

01:06:54.540 Free, accessible, universal health care.

01:06:58.460 these are foundational things that we say this is the basis also subsidized housing this is the basis

01:07:05.700 that you get now are taxes more of course because they're paying for that but don't don't make any

01:07:11.460 mistake i believe i i love living here and but what i see in order to make more money in order

01:07:19.320 to seem more fiscally responsible which are like two swear words i never want to hear again

01:07:23.860 they will chip away at the things that cost the most right and in provinces it's education and

01:07:30.380 health care big big ticket items nobody is talking about what happens when i chip away from

01:07:35.640 i'll give you one example and this is maybe a soundbite again i'm constantly thinking of

01:07:40.740 soundbites for the left that i can't come up with and it's driving me crazy our oh hip so our

01:07:46.540 ontario health care used to cover a genetic testing for a certain kind of cancer i don't

01:07:53.220 even know what the kind of cancer was they've defunded it so you can no longer if you want

01:07:58.820 that test you have to pay for it here's my question that test what is that costing now

01:08:06.100 what does that cost when somebody gets that cancer and then in a fully funded medical system

01:08:12.980 has to be on cancer treatments and surgeries and hospice care for the rest of their life

01:08:19.220 because i promise you this costs way more than the test but the government of the day that's

01:08:24.740 only elected for a five-year four-year term wants to save that money now so they look like a

01:08:29.780 superhero to hell with what happens 10 years down the road yeah well that's usually you say sounds

01:08:34.740 like republicans are they but that's why this has to be constitute there should be things that exist

01:08:42.740 that are fully funded come hell or high water because it doesn't make sense for us to judge

01:08:49.740 it in a four-year increment. It makes no sense. Well, you're clearly Canadian to think that way.

01:08:57.640 We can't even think like that. I mean, I'm on Medicare and that's an amazing thing

01:09:02.340 in America, but you have to become an old goat to get in there. You know what I mean? You have

01:09:07.620 help you survive all the other to get over you know but but we're just it's not a just society

01:09:17.540 currently there you go just you know so i think we have two roads and this is where you get to

01:09:24.660 you get to sit on whatever whatever side of the aisle you sit on or whatever whatever um

01:09:30.580 we have two goals we can either be a just society we can either have a goal of being a just society

01:09:36.580 and then and then build an economic system surrounding that or we can be a society fixated

01:09:43.780 on making money and assume a just society will follow in in my opinion those are the two even

01:09:52.020 though people can't articulate it like that those are the two roads one that's saying money will

01:09:57.140 bring everything you need and the other one says human rights will bring everything you need

01:10:00.900 because those are two very different roads well theoretically democrats try to

01:10:07.400 they try needle together you know the structure of politics is just you know the thing as you

01:10:14.000 said earlier you go people are always saying i should go into politics and they say it to me too

01:10:18.560 but do you want to know why i don't go into politics because if you and i were just having

01:10:23.820 a conversation this amazing conversation it wouldn't end with it was that was great thank

01:10:30.040 you very much it would end with like can you give me a donation you know what i mean and then it

01:10:34.800 becomes it takes away all the purity of together honest conversation and again i said it on our

01:10:44.320 last chat i defy judaism because i am the worst with money you know what i mean how i i've been

01:10:52.460 i was like the last of the hippies even though i was i'm a little younger than the hippies

01:10:57.320 But I watched the hippies, like I said, like, you know, the moratorium, when the war, the

01:11:04.300 moratorium was in the war in Vietnam, I was like, I want to be a hippie. 0.91

01:11:07.560 But the hippies went on to become freaking boomers.

01:11:11.720 And maybe, and I just never wanted to join the ranks of corporate America, and I haven't.

01:11:19.600 My only job, I've been freelance my whole life producing videos and fashion shows,

01:11:24.500 I've had a tremendous amount of fun, but my only job that I've ever had where I had to clock in

01:11:32.180 and go there and whatever was working for Carrie Fisher. Hello. It was like, it was like Alice in

01:11:38.340 Wonderland. You know what I mean? It was like, we traveled the world. We worked on film. That was

01:11:44.740 insane. But that was the only job I've ever really had. Everything else has been cobbling together

01:11:52.100 a project here a project there and and and bootstrapping my tits off because that's always 0.97

01:11:58.980 like oh i gotta pull them bootstraps again because but i've i i it stops me from becoming one of these 0.94

01:12:06.580 people like you'll never see me networking at an event you know what i mean anything the selena

01:12:11.860 the this and the everything that's been part of this project was just the miracle of this thing

01:12:17.300 the conversation and one thing led to another it wasn't like i was schmoozing up you know what i

01:12:22.180 mean that to me it and i'll say one other thing about me that i don't think you know about it yet

01:12:27.860 my when my dad died he i inherited his business which is why i had to drop out of college and go

01:12:34.820 back and work in like an auto parts business in new jersey that's what my dad did yeah oh yeah um

01:12:43.920 And it was as though I was like 19 years old

01:12:48.280 and I was like given the keys to that kingdom.

01:12:52.620 And it was like not the kingdom I wanted to live in.

01:12:54.980 So I did it for two years, it drove me into a loony bin.

01:12:58.180 But my mother's like, where are you going?

01:13:00.160 What are you gonna do?

01:13:01.000 I said, you know what, you guys survived the Holocaust.

01:13:04.100 I don't think I would survive suburbia.

01:13:06.640 You know what I mean?

01:13:07.820 I need to go out on a journey and find life

01:13:12.160 and experience, and fall, and pick myself up, and know that I come from the salt of the earth

01:13:19.840 to survive that, then I just need to, I'll get through whatever comes my way, which I have,

01:13:26.000 which I do, which I will, as long as I'm on earth. And none of that is like me wanting money, money,

01:13:32.100 money. And it's who I am. And it's, again, do I have a savings account? Nobody wants to kind of

01:13:39.160 like think that that's who you are whatever yeah no it's it's true and i mean everybody you know

01:13:47.720 wants to be safe wants to you know you have a home you have food on the table you have all of

01:13:54.820 this stuff it's not that every everybody needs that and that's a basic need but it's about how

01:13:59.920 much do we need to accumulate how big does that bank account need to be how much power should i

01:14:04.700 incur and should I suck out of the system, right? And at the end of the day, I think,

01:14:11.400 and this is a beautiful lesson, I think, to sort of wrap this conversation up, is the notion that

01:14:16.100 if we follow, if we can find our authentic selves, that's a big if, and we can follow that passion

01:14:24.560 and who we are, and if everybody could do that to their own degree, everything would get better

01:14:32.620 tomorrow. Everything. I truly believe that. I believe that everything would get better tomorrow

01:14:38.140 if people learned how to do that and also started learning that the structures that we pay such

01:14:45.780 homage to are really crumbling whether we want them to or not. They really are, which is exactly

01:14:51.820 why people can go off on a reality show and make hundreds of millions of dollars. So if all of

01:14:56.560 things are crumbling then we really need to start figuring out what inspires us what what makes us

01:15:04.960 proud what makes us powerful what leaves an imprint you know all the reasons why when people

01:15:12.400 i also think is you have to own how am i other absolutely you know that is something when

01:15:20.880 because then you're not alone because then everyone you look at is and then it's finding

01:15:25.600 your you said the word trust you know yeah that's and that's how you pull all that together and yeah

01:15:32.640 it's look we're all on this journey doing the best we can but not everyone is like that's that's my

01:15:38.960 point about other people like yeah i don't believe that everyone on earth in america let's just talk

01:15:44.880 about this country has the ability to have this conversation i mean that's a basic simple you know

01:15:53.520 So that's like a beautiful thing that not everybody wants to have.

01:15:58.560 It's like that mob mentality that is being cultivated and nurtured into this.

01:16:04.640 And I bring it back to white supremacy. 0.96

01:16:06.320 And I'm telling you, my parents here by the Holocaust, that I will live in a country that is run by fascists.

01:16:12.380 They are going to rue the day that they try to pull this off.

01:16:15.960 And we are going to have to pull together and create some kind of underground movement, even if it's just to defend.

01:16:23.520 against it. Everyone needs to get behind what just happened in Florida. Everybody. I believe

01:16:30.000 there's going to be a lot of rallies and things. But when Trump got into the office of the

01:16:37.220 presidency, and the next day, millions of people came to defend themselves. And the women's march 0.84

01:16:47.300 gave me hope. And we need that back. We need that back. And it needs to not be called the

01:16:53.580 Women's March. It's the People's March. I mean, we the people are getting shoved into different 0.63

01:17:00.600 corners and we can't let that happen. And I'm telling you, even though it's my own little

01:17:07.340 thing, but this project I'm doing is determined to at least make the statement that we are in

01:17:13.100 this together. We have to fight for this white supremacy. I mean, it's not going to be a political

01:17:18.960 piece, but it's about through music. Oh, my point is music. Look, if you go to a concert, you're not

01:17:26.240 thinking about if the person next to you is Republican, black or white or indigenous or

01:17:31.000 whatever. It's like you're listening to the music, music, music, music, music, music and art, music and

01:17:36.600 art. These are the things that you get out of yourself for five minutes and allow yourself to

01:17:42.160 be entertained and grow. And that's where I feel like we have to be on that track,

01:17:49.660 communicating through visual merchant materials that, okay, I'm just looking at this and I'm not

01:17:57.180 thinking about the fact that I hate Donald Trump. You know what I mean? That's two minutes and a

01:18:02.520 minute that you don't do it. Finding connective empathy. And I think that the way people do that,

01:18:08.380 I think you're absolutely right, is through art.

01:18:10.900 All forms of art is absolutely through art.

01:18:14.060 And I will push it.

01:18:15.000 You will push it.

01:18:16.140 We'll find out how many people will push it.

01:18:18.240 Before we end right now, can you tell everybody listening, watching,

01:18:21.820 where they can find you, where they can listen to you,

01:18:23.640 where your podcast is, the whole thing?

01:18:26.320 You can find me on TikTok at Won't Be Silent.

01:18:31.320 You can find me at YouTube, YouTube slash Won't Be Silent.

01:18:35.400 you can find my sub stack at abewontbesilent.substack.com and uh yeah i'm going to be

01:18:45.920 putting up a website for this film project called wolf song that'll be wolfsong.com it's being built

01:18:53.460 up for next week and yeah and and when the won'tbesilent.com when the women's that thing

01:19:00.540 happens I'll let you know and you can tell whoever it's going to be amazing I just feel

01:19:05.700 that there is that's I've always been committed to through COVID that music is going to be an

01:19:11.900 opportunity for us to tell stories and there are so many amazing stories through music there's

01:19:18.520 I did such a deep dive there was thousands I mean I could have three episodes just on women

01:19:25.560 You know what I mean? 0.98

01:19:26.960 I won't get that funded, but whatever.

01:19:30.180 You know what I mean? 1.00

01:19:31.680 But the fact that the women at this particular moment in time is so delicious. 1.00

01:19:37.220 Delicious.

01:19:38.620 Because I felt it was right.

01:19:40.560 Like I know in my heart, when I'm right, don't try to discuss anything else with me.

01:19:46.180 Right, right.

01:19:47.100 And I'm going to say this one last thing.

01:19:49.400 When I was in the meetings with everyone in Hollywood was on this call when we were finalizing the deal.

01:19:54.600 Right.

01:19:55.560 The thing is, what brought me to this project was the fact that my uncle saw on whatever, right? So by the time we were making deals with the lawyers and the agents, and there was Warner Brothers and Discovery Plus and my lawyer and their lawyer, production lawyer, and there's 10 people on a call. And they're all like, hey, we'll have the rights. We'll take the rights in perpetuity. And this is this. And I was like, okay, can I just say something?

01:20:20.980 I said, we are on this phone call because my uncle was killed in the Holocaust.

01:20:28.180 And that project needs to be somehow woven into this deal. 0.61

01:20:33.020 And maybe it's not going to be part of the women's thing because it doesn't make sense. 0.70

01:20:36.620 But you need to give me audience on this other project. 0.63

01:20:42.060 And they were like, we didn't really. 1.00

01:20:44.340 I mean, it was like, girl, don't. 0.81

01:20:47.480 There it is. 0.63

01:20:48.040 There it is.

01:20:49.180 that's amazing yeah and thank you so much for talking to me today we talked for a long time

01:20:56.320 I would love to have you back on I think we could talk for hours we can just pick different

01:21:00.840 subjects and go off on a tangent but I appreciate you and for our listeners I will put everything in

01:21:08.020 the bio down below so you can find him in all of his different places and see the documentary when

01:21:14.080 comes out and see the episodes when they come out but i appreciate you and for my listeners

01:21:19.120 you're the best and i'm posting our and i'll send it to you i'm posting our conversation that i added

01:21:25.440 your video at the end and it's thank you thank you if you want to put a title on there did you name

01:21:31.200 it yet it's a lot of pressure the worst i'm not very good with i'll come up with something today

01:21:38.720 I promise. I can see if I can add it in there. But for you, I think you have a project that

01:21:47.540 can become something else. But that's me putting pressure on you.

01:21:53.100 I'm with you. I'll just follow you in whatever.

01:21:56.860 I think there's something really fabulous about that pitch. I think you could get it funded. I

01:22:01.800 think you could go to the university in Toronto, to their film department and say, I want to do

01:22:07.280 a limited series for educational purposes.

01:22:11.700 They have cameras, they have editing,

01:22:13.840 they have diddly-diddly-doo.

01:22:15.220 This is the idea.

01:22:16.600 You come up with three or four other ideas,

01:22:18.720 whether it's an African-American,

01:22:20.440 an Indigenous story.

01:22:21.520 It's funny.

01:22:22.640 If you go far enough back, Abe,

01:22:24.340 we did a project last year on Rosa Parks,

01:22:27.940 an art project on Rosa Parks.

01:22:30.220 And last Indigenous Day in Canada,

01:22:33.620 we did this school-wide project

01:22:37.000 on truth and reconciliation so i i i would love that idea and i would love to talk to you about

01:22:43.720 off that off camera yeah all of that out i think that's doing it i'm feeling it like i'm sitting

01:22:49.680 and you know i'm always right mother

01:22:52.620 and for my listeners we will see you next tuesday same bat time same bat station have a great week

01:23:01.320 guys dismissed

Unlearn16: Class is in Session - January 24, 2023

The One Where I Go Into The Past To Change The Future

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