1 00:00:00,501 --> 00:00:03,346 Hello everyone and welcome back to The Overlap. 2 00:00:03,346 --> 00:00:04,618 I'm Joshua. 3 00:00:04,869 --> 00:00:05,986 And I'm Will. 4 00:00:05,987 --> 00:00:12,390 And if you're new here, if you've just found us through the algorithm, or if a friend passed us along, welcome to the bunker. 5 00:00:12,390 --> 00:00:17,102 We should probably explain that what we do here because we aren't your typical news commentary. 6 00:00:17,102 --> 00:00:18,772 We don't care about the horse race. 7 00:00:18,772 --> 00:00:19,993 We don't care about the polls. 8 00:00:19,993 --> 00:00:26,005 We don't care about the political theater that the cable news networks sell you to keep you angry and distracted. 9 00:00:26,256 --> 00:00:28,708 Right, we care about the machinery. 10 00:00:28,708 --> 00:00:37,292 We care about the systems, economic, political, social, that are designed to extract value from your labor and compliance from your mind. 11 00:00:37,493 --> 00:00:40,294 Usually we talk about how these systems work too well. 12 00:00:40,294 --> 00:00:43,436 We talk about how efficient the healthcare industry is at bankrupting you. 13 00:00:43,436 --> 00:00:46,808 We talk about how efficient the housing market is at keeping you renting forever. 14 00:00:47,195 --> 00:00:50,938 But today, today, we're doing something different. 15 00:01:06,254 --> 00:01:09,677 Today, we're going to talk about what happens when the machine breaks. 16 00:01:09,677 --> 00:01:12,859 We're going to talk about the end of the strongman. 17 00:01:12,859 --> 00:01:16,062 We are living in a moment of authoritarian drift. 18 00:01:16,062 --> 00:01:17,783 We see it globally. 19 00:01:17,783 --> 00:01:23,928 The rise of the illiberal democracy, the return of the dictator and the narrative they sell us. 20 00:01:23,928 --> 00:01:28,631 The narrative that seduces the working class is one of strength. 21 00:01:28,672 --> 00:01:30,493 I alone can fix it. 22 00:01:30,493 --> 00:01:31,663 I will bring order. 23 00:01:31,663 --> 00:01:37,603 It's a seductive lie for people who have been crushed by neoliberalism for 40 years. 24 00:01:37,604 --> 00:01:38,845 Exactly. 25 00:01:38,947 --> 00:01:42,814 When the factories close and the rent goes up, people look for a savior. 26 00:01:42,814 --> 00:01:44,036 They look for a dad. 27 00:01:44,036 --> 00:01:47,040 But here's the thing about dads and kings and dictators. 28 00:01:47,041 --> 00:01:48,282 They get old. 29 00:01:48,423 --> 00:01:50,516 They decay just like the rest of us. 30 00:01:50,717 --> 00:01:53,988 We rarely talk about how these regimes end. 31 00:01:54,169 --> 00:02:00,051 History tells us that fascism rarely ends in a glorious cinematic last stand. 32 00:02:00,152 --> 00:02:02,112 It ends with a wheeze. 33 00:02:02,213 --> 00:02:11,957 It ends with a confused old man wandering around a gilded palace that was built with stolen money, shouting at a television that isn't turned on. 34 00:02:12,118 --> 00:02:14,789 It ends in the gerontocracy. 35 00:02:15,040 --> 00:02:17,720 So today we're going to run a simulation. 36 00:02:17,961 --> 00:02:22,542 We're going to imagine a fictional, that's right, you heard that, fictional regime. 37 00:02:22,742 --> 00:02:25,042 We're going to call it Republic of Frump. 38 00:02:25,293 --> 00:02:27,133 Frump, with an F. 39 00:02:27,134 --> 00:02:29,295 And we're going to imagine a fictional leader. 40 00:02:29,295 --> 00:02:31,660 Let's call him, Shonald. 41 00:02:31,660 --> 00:02:33,616 Shonald Frump. 42 00:02:33,836 --> 00:02:35,076 The eternal president. 43 00:02:35,076 --> 00:02:36,556 The orange emperor. 44 00:02:36,576 --> 00:02:37,877 His highness. 45 00:02:38,037 --> 00:02:41,598 And we aren't looking at Shonald in his prime, if he ever had one. 46 00:02:41,598 --> 00:02:43,838 We're looking at Shonald in his twilight. 47 00:02:44,097 --> 00:02:49,977 We're going to ask what happens to a movement built on strength when the leader becomes the embodiment of weakness? 48 00:02:50,424 --> 00:02:53,264 All right, I want to set the scene. 49 00:02:53,284 --> 00:02:59,404 I want you to view this not through the eyes of a pundit, but through the eyes of the people in the room. 50 00:02:59,504 --> 00:03:01,724 The year is irrelevant. 51 00:03:01,844 --> 00:03:04,004 Time is a flat circle in the Republic. 52 00:03:04,024 --> 00:03:05,464 We are in a stadium. 53 00:03:05,464 --> 00:03:07,104 Maybe it's in the Rust Belt. 54 00:03:07,104 --> 00:03:08,824 Maybe it's in the Deep South. 55 00:03:08,824 --> 00:03:10,724 The air conditioning is broken. 56 00:03:10,724 --> 00:03:12,124 It's hot. 57 00:03:12,124 --> 00:03:17,044 The air smells like popcorn, diesel fumes, and sweat. 58 00:03:17,304 --> 00:03:20,271 There are 25,000 people here. 59 00:03:20,331 --> 00:03:22,272 And let's be clear about who they are. 60 00:03:22,272 --> 00:03:25,393 These are people who have been abandoned by the system. 61 00:03:25,393 --> 00:03:26,713 These are workers. 62 00:03:26,773 --> 00:03:30,454 These are people whose towns have been hollowed out by private equity. 63 00:03:30,454 --> 00:03:33,755 They're here because they were promised a voice. 64 00:03:34,116 --> 00:03:41,578 They were promised that this man was their retribution against the elites who destroyed their lives. 65 00:03:41,829 --> 00:03:43,530 They're waiting for the show. 66 00:03:43,531 --> 00:03:46,133 You know, they're waiting for the catharsis. 67 00:03:46,134 --> 00:03:51,239 Just like the old rock bands on their fourth, fifth, tenth, twentieth tour. 68 00:03:51,680 --> 00:03:53,321 The people want to hear the hits. 69 00:03:53,362 --> 00:03:54,662 The wall. 70 00:03:54,863 --> 00:03:56,184 Lock her up. 71 00:03:56,385 --> 00:03:59,197 They want to feel for one hour that they are winning again. 72 00:03:59,487 --> 00:04:01,877 And then the lights go down. 73 00:04:01,898 --> 00:04:03,398 The pyrotechnics go off. 74 00:04:03,398 --> 00:04:06,879 Boom, boom, shaking the cheap seats. 75 00:04:06,879 --> 00:04:09,419 And he walks out, shunned. 76 00:04:09,640 --> 00:04:22,123 He's wearing the uniform, the blue suit, the armor of the executive class, the red tie, the symbol of power hanging a perilous four inches below the belt line. 77 00:04:22,303 --> 00:04:23,823 He walks to the podium. 78 00:04:23,823 --> 00:04:25,084 He grips it. 79 00:04:25,084 --> 00:04:27,474 He leans into the microphone. 80 00:04:27,948 --> 00:04:30,863 The crowd screams, this is communion. 81 00:04:30,863 --> 00:04:32,970 This is the moment they paid for. 82 00:04:32,971 --> 00:04:34,502 He opens his mouth. 83 00:04:34,542 --> 00:04:36,403 He raises a finger. 84 00:04:36,724 --> 00:04:41,447 He begins to speak about the factories coming back, about the tariffs. 85 00:04:41,468 --> 00:04:46,992 We're going to build a dome, he says, a beautiful iron dome. 86 00:04:47,113 --> 00:04:50,615 And then silence. 87 00:04:50,996 --> 00:04:52,256 He stops. 88 00:04:52,657 --> 00:04:54,138 He freezes. 89 00:04:54,559 --> 00:04:59,022 His eyes go wide, staring at a point in the middle distance. 90 00:04:59,023 --> 00:05:01,044 He isn't looking at the crowd. 91 00:05:01,045 --> 00:05:03,586 He isn't looking at the teleprompter. 92 00:05:03,966 --> 00:05:05,947 He's looking at the void. 93 00:05:06,227 --> 00:05:10,889 For 10 seconds, 20 seconds, 30 seconds. 94 00:05:10,889 --> 00:05:13,650 The leader is buffering. 95 00:05:13,911 --> 00:05:15,331 He's offline. 96 00:05:15,582 --> 00:05:20,226 And I want us to focus on the crowd here because the media laughs at this. 97 00:05:20,226 --> 00:05:22,388 The liberals on Twitter a little laugh at it. 98 00:05:22,388 --> 00:05:25,750 But if you're in that room, this is not funny. 99 00:05:25,971 --> 00:05:31,014 It's terrifying because you pinned your entire hope for the future on this man. 100 00:05:31,015 --> 00:05:33,937 You alienated your family for this man. 101 00:05:33,997 --> 00:05:36,719 And now you're watching a malfunction in real time. 102 00:05:37,020 --> 00:05:38,741 The cheering dies down. 103 00:05:38,962 --> 00:05:40,432 It becomes this nervous murmur. 104 00:05:40,432 --> 00:05:44,005 They're looking at each other thinking, is this part of the act? 105 00:05:44,006 --> 00:05:45,965 Is this the 40 chess? 106 00:05:45,965 --> 00:05:48,070 Please God let this be the 40 chess. 107 00:05:48,551 --> 00:05:57,384 They're doing the mental gymnastics to protect themselves from the reality that the strong man is a fragile old man. 108 00:05:57,524 --> 00:06:00,045 And then the synapse fires. 109 00:06:00,045 --> 00:06:05,327 He blinks, he shakes his head and he shouts, drill baby drill. 110 00:06:05,327 --> 00:06:06,948 And the crowd erupts. 111 00:06:07,088 --> 00:06:13,050 They scream louder than before, not because they're excited, but because they're relieved. 112 00:06:13,050 --> 00:06:18,212 They are relieved that the illusion held together for one more minute. 113 00:06:18,463 --> 00:06:21,746 It's the out-breath after a collective gasp of denial. 114 00:06:21,907 --> 00:06:23,268 But the aides backstage? 115 00:06:23,268 --> 00:06:24,869 The people running the grift? 116 00:06:25,090 --> 00:06:26,210 They know. 117 00:06:26,351 --> 00:06:28,352 They know that glitch wasn't a pause. 118 00:06:28,453 --> 00:06:29,724 It was a preview. 119 00:06:29,725 --> 00:06:31,286 So let's diagnose this. 120 00:06:31,286 --> 00:06:33,327 Shonald is pushing 80. 121 00:06:33,327 --> 00:06:36,329 He lives on a diet of fast food and rage. 122 00:06:36,669 --> 00:06:40,851 And neurologically, we're seeing the fraying of the wiring. 123 00:06:41,052 --> 00:06:43,433 His campaign calls it the weave. 124 00:06:43,433 --> 00:06:44,654 Have you heard this? 125 00:06:44,674 --> 00:06:48,536 It's their attempt to rebrand senility as genius. 126 00:06:48,536 --> 00:06:55,370 They say, oh, he touches on five different subjects and weaves them together into a tapestry of truth. 127 00:06:55,371 --> 00:06:57,951 Let's take a look at one of these tapestries. 128 00:06:57,951 --> 00:07:00,291 He starts at a sentence talking about labor. 129 00:07:00,511 --> 00:07:02,491 The autoworkers are being killed by China. 130 00:07:02,491 --> 00:07:03,971 Okay, valid point. 131 00:07:04,171 --> 00:07:08,491 But then mid-sentence, no pivot, he's talking about electric boats. 132 00:07:08,531 --> 00:07:10,331 The boat's heavy because of the battery. 133 00:07:10,351 --> 00:07:11,851 The boat sinks, do you get electrocuted? 134 00:07:11,851 --> 00:07:13,531 Or are you eaten by the shark that's 10 yards away? 135 00:07:13,531 --> 00:07:14,491 I'll take electrocution. 136 00:07:14,491 --> 00:07:17,591 But Hannibal Lecter, great guy, he'd have you for dinner. 137 00:07:17,591 --> 00:07:21,651 And then somehow he lands back on, and that's why we need to ban wind turbines. 138 00:07:21,652 --> 00:07:24,614 It's a word salad, but here's the danger. 139 00:07:24,854 --> 00:07:26,996 It's not just that he's confused. 140 00:07:26,996 --> 00:07:32,079 It's that the state has to pretend this confusion is policy. 141 00:07:32,079 --> 00:07:34,881 This is the ultimate gaslighting of the public. 142 00:07:34,881 --> 00:07:44,927 When the leader says the sharks are the problem, the Department of the Interior has to waste millions of dollars starting an anti-shark task force. 143 00:07:45,107 --> 00:07:50,952 Resources that should be going to, I don't know, healthcare, infrastructure, maybe 144 00:07:50,952 --> 00:07:57,764 Education are being diverted to chase the phantoms of a dementia-riddled mind. 145 00:07:58,015 --> 00:08:02,576 It's the looting of the public trust to service the ego of the leader. 146 00:08:02,957 --> 00:08:10,119 And everyone, generals, senators, the media, is forced to participate in this shared psychosis. 147 00:08:10,199 --> 00:08:19,542 And the working class, the people at the rally, they're left trying to decipher if the shark is a metaphor for capitalism or if he just watched Jaws last night. 148 00:08:19,742 --> 00:08:22,473 Spoiler, he just watched Jaws. 149 00:08:22,847 --> 00:08:34,805 Now, we need to talk about the people running the show, because Seanhold, this fictional leader in our story, isn't sitting at the resolute desk reading policy papers. 150 00:08:34,805 --> 00:08:36,025 He doesn't read. 151 00:08:36,026 --> 00:08:38,467 So who's pulling all the levers? 152 00:08:38,528 --> 00:08:43,451 To understand the Twilight phase, we have to look at the evolution of his inner circle. 153 00:08:43,451 --> 00:08:45,032 Let's go back to season one. 154 00:08:45,032 --> 00:08:46,232 Who was in the room? 155 00:08:46,483 --> 00:08:50,255 In our fictional season one, it was the adults in the room. 156 00:08:50,256 --> 00:08:56,992 Tex Rillerson, General Hattis, General Pelley, Kerry Goan. 157 00:08:56,992 --> 00:09:02,575 ah You know, the adults that we all know and imagine from season one. 158 00:09:03,176 --> 00:09:05,378 Let's be clear about who these adults were. 159 00:09:05,378 --> 00:09:12,543 ah These were the titans of industry, the enforcers of empire, the grand moffs of the... 160 00:09:12,543 --> 00:09:13,007 uh 161 00:09:13,007 --> 00:09:17,027 the Trump administration, sorry, Trump administration. 162 00:09:17,278 --> 00:09:20,738 We had the CEO of... 163 00:09:22,039 --> 00:09:29,483 We have the CEO of uh oil and company whose job was to extract oil and crush unions. 164 00:09:29,524 --> 00:09:32,446 We have generals, we have power in the room. 165 00:09:32,446 --> 00:09:36,027 These are competent people who are competent at exploitation. 166 00:09:36,228 --> 00:09:40,030 They were competent in maintaining the status quo of neoliberal capitalism. 167 00:09:40,031 --> 00:09:40,921 Exactly. 168 00:09:40,921 --> 00:09:42,402 They weren't the good guys, right? 169 00:09:42,402 --> 00:09:45,902 They were just effective at running the machine. 170 00:09:46,283 --> 00:09:49,924 Their strategy with Shonald was containment. 171 00:09:49,984 --> 00:09:57,426 They wanted to use him as a useful idiot to cut taxes and deregulate while they kept the empire running smoothly. 172 00:09:57,646 --> 00:10:00,326 But Shonald realized the game. 173 00:10:00,367 --> 00:10:05,228 He realized that they were telling him no, and Shonald hates no. 174 00:10:05,268 --> 00:10:08,188 No is a constraint on his ego. 175 00:10:08,189 --> 00:10:09,959 So he purged them. 176 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:15,306 He fired the CEO of Exxon via Twitter while the guy was on the toilet. 177 00:10:15,306 --> 00:10:17,458 He humiliated the generals. 178 00:10:17,709 --> 00:10:18,580 The Game of Thrones. 179 00:10:18,580 --> 00:10:22,625 uh So the competent exploiters are gone now, right? 180 00:10:22,625 --> 00:10:24,847 And who replaces them in season four? 181 00:10:24,927 --> 00:10:27,270 Who comes in the room when the adults leave? 182 00:10:27,270 --> 00:10:29,011 Well, it's the sycophants. 183 00:10:29,192 --> 00:10:32,415 The wannabes, the grifters, the... 184 00:10:32,556 --> 00:10:34,177 Your pillow cabinet. 185 00:10:34,956 --> 00:10:40,440 So, Shonald starts hiring people based on one criteria, fealty. 186 00:10:40,441 --> 00:10:51,450 He watches TV, he sees a guy screaming about deep space state lasers and says, get me that guy, he loves me, let's make him Secretary of Defense. 187 00:10:52,071 --> 00:10:53,992 Sorry, Secretary of War. 188 00:10:54,936 --> 00:10:55,836 Right. 189 00:10:56,096 --> 00:11:05,158 Because, know, Shonald follows the current politics and decided that was a good name to adopt for his fictional branch of the government or department. 190 00:11:05,678 --> 00:11:08,639 So now you have a cabinet of absolute lunatics. 191 00:11:08,799 --> 00:11:14,140 You have a secretary of education whose only qualification is that she ran a wrestling federation. 192 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:19,401 You've got a national security advisor who's used to posting memes on 4chan. 193 00:11:19,702 --> 00:11:21,362 These people are not only 194 00:11:21,535 --> 00:11:23,216 evil, they're incompetent. 195 00:11:23,396 --> 00:11:31,960 But unlike the generals who never told Shonald no, if Shonald says nuke a hurricane, the generals would have said, sir, that violates the laws of physics. 196 00:11:32,140 --> 00:11:37,212 If the sycophants would say instead, brilliant idea, sir, very wet, very nuclear, we'll look into it right away. 197 00:11:37,674 --> 00:11:39,005 This is the paradox. 198 00:11:39,005 --> 00:11:42,926 For the working class, this is actually more dangerous. 199 00:11:43,047 --> 00:11:46,908 The generals were bad because they maintained a system of oppression. 200 00:11:47,109 --> 00:11:56,133 The sycophants are bad because they might accidentally collapse the entire food supply chain because they forgot to sign a paper. 201 00:11:56,173 --> 00:11:59,895 We have traded malicious order for malicious chaos. 202 00:12:00,146 --> 00:12:02,559 And this brings us to the engine of the regime. 203 00:12:02,559 --> 00:12:04,200 What is the motivation? 204 00:12:04,522 --> 00:12:08,266 If it's not ideology, because let's face it, they don't have one. 205 00:12:08,567 --> 00:12:13,572 If it's not governance, because let's face it, they can't govern. 206 00:12:13,814 --> 00:12:14,914 What is it? 207 00:12:14,915 --> 00:12:16,416 Well, that's what has always been. 208 00:12:16,667 --> 00:12:21,014 In a classic dictatorship like Nazi Germany, the secret police are terrifying zealots. 209 00:12:21,156 --> 00:12:22,438 They're true believers. 210 00:12:22,438 --> 00:12:25,623 In the twilight of Schönauld, the secret police are multi-level marketers. 211 00:12:25,624 --> 00:12:29,356 Let's imagine the head of the secret police. 212 00:12:29,777 --> 00:12:32,458 Let's call him Director Pash. 213 00:12:32,819 --> 00:12:34,199 Pash Katel. 214 00:12:34,620 --> 00:12:39,803 Director Pash goes on TV and threatens to arrest journalists. 215 00:12:40,004 --> 00:12:42,745 He talks about deportation forces. 216 00:12:42,825 --> 00:12:46,068 He sounds like a fascist. 217 00:12:46,068 --> 00:12:54,585 But Director Pash also has a podcast and Director Pash is selling a line of 218 00:12:54,585 --> 00:12:58,387 Patriot Vitamin Supplements on his Instagram. 219 00:12:58,608 --> 00:13:04,852 And director Pash has written a children's book about a brave tractor that builds a wall. 220 00:13:04,852 --> 00:13:07,429 Available now for $29.99. 221 00:13:08,432 --> 00:13:11,036 Wait, the head of the Gestapo is an influencer? 222 00:13:11,036 --> 00:13:14,217 Yes, that is the Twilight phase. 223 00:13:14,357 --> 00:13:19,918 Corruption eats the terror, but here is the solidarity angle. 224 00:13:19,918 --> 00:13:21,518 Who are they grifting? 225 00:13:21,699 --> 00:13:23,619 They aren't stealing from the elites. 226 00:13:23,619 --> 00:13:25,120 The elites are fine. 227 00:13:25,120 --> 00:13:27,340 They're stealing from the base. 228 00:13:27,400 --> 00:13:33,222 They're stealing from a grandma in Ohio who sends her social security check to the legal defense fund. 229 00:13:33,222 --> 00:13:39,863 They're stealing from the worker who buys the victory coins because he thinks it will save the country. 230 00:13:40,114 --> 00:13:41,866 It's a vampiric relationship. 231 00:13:41,866 --> 00:13:44,288 These guys aren't trying to build a thousand year Reich. 232 00:13:44,288 --> 00:13:45,370 They know the math. 233 00:13:45,370 --> 00:13:46,220 They look at Channel. 234 00:13:46,220 --> 00:13:47,342 They see the shaking hands. 235 00:13:47,342 --> 00:13:48,793 They see the confusion. 236 00:13:48,793 --> 00:13:51,196 They know his regime has an expiration date. 237 00:13:51,196 --> 00:13:54,619 So they're looting the building while it's still standing. 238 00:13:54,799 --> 00:13:55,860 They're selling pardons. 239 00:13:55,860 --> 00:13:57,282 They're selling access. 240 00:13:57,282 --> 00:13:58,743 They're cashing out. 241 00:13:59,027 --> 00:14:04,340 And that, that is the most dangerous moment for the people. 242 00:14:04,400 --> 00:14:08,063 Because you have a leader who is losing his mind. 243 00:14:08,063 --> 00:14:11,465 You have a staff that is incompetent. 244 00:14:11,465 --> 00:14:16,528 You have a police force that is greedy and the walls are closing in. 245 00:14:16,528 --> 00:14:21,271 When a regime like that feels cornered, it does not just fade away. 246 00:14:21,271 --> 00:14:24,142 It spasms and it lashes out. 247 00:14:24,393 --> 00:14:26,604 And in the next section we're going to talk about that spasm. 248 00:14:26,604 --> 00:14:29,845 We're going to talk about what happens when the wounded animal decides to bite. 249 00:14:29,845 --> 00:14:32,796 We're going to talk about the bunker mentality. 250 00:14:32,856 --> 00:14:39,939 And we're going to talk about the terrifying reality of weekend at bernie's policymaking where the whims of a dying man become the law of the land. 251 00:14:40,199 --> 00:14:40,980 Stay with us. 252 00:14:40,980 --> 00:14:42,525 The glitch is just the beginning. 253 00:14:42,861 --> 00:14:45,182 All right, welcome back to the bunker. 254 00:14:45,263 --> 00:14:47,835 In part one, we kind of established the baseline, right? 255 00:14:47,835 --> 00:14:53,929 We were looking at this uh fictional glitching leader named Shonald Frump. 256 00:14:54,210 --> 00:14:57,142 We looked at the grifting entourage. 257 00:14:57,142 --> 00:15:03,417 We looked at the weave that is really just a frayed wire. 258 00:15:03,738 --> 00:15:08,922 If you stopped the simulation there, you might feel weirdly comforted. 259 00:15:08,922 --> 00:15:11,924 You might think, okay, well, Shonald is old. 260 00:15:12,079 --> 00:15:13,031 He's tired. 261 00:15:13,031 --> 00:15:15,597 The people around him are just trying to sell vitamins. 262 00:15:15,597 --> 00:15:18,523 Maybe the regime will just peter out. 263 00:15:18,523 --> 00:15:21,628 Maybe they'll just golf until the clock runs out or something. 264 00:15:21,879 --> 00:15:24,110 That is the liberal fantasy. 265 00:15:24,311 --> 00:15:27,473 That is the fantasy of the professional managerial class. 266 00:15:27,754 --> 00:15:31,677 They think that because they would retire quietly, dictator will too. 267 00:15:32,077 --> 00:15:34,259 But that is not how power works. 268 00:15:34,259 --> 00:15:36,971 And it is certainly not how narcissism works. 269 00:15:37,222 --> 00:15:38,193 Exactly. 270 00:15:38,193 --> 00:15:43,977 We need to talk about what happens when the wounded animal realizes it's wounded. 271 00:15:43,977 --> 00:15:47,219 Because history tells us that dying regimes don't fade away. 272 00:15:47,219 --> 00:15:48,540 They spasm. 273 00:15:48,540 --> 00:15:56,926 When a strong man feels his own strength fading, when he feels the walls closing in, he doesn't reflect. 274 00:15:56,986 --> 00:15:59,868 He doesn't go to therapy and talk to a buddy. 275 00:15:59,868 --> 00:16:01,029 He panics. 276 00:16:01,029 --> 00:16:04,071 And how does a dictator soothe his own panic? 277 00:16:04,131 --> 00:16:05,422 He hurts people. 278 00:16:05,673 --> 00:16:12,088 Just in case we get a little too dark and heavy here, I can't help but remember the scene from Tommy Boy where they hit the deer. 279 00:16:12,109 --> 00:16:14,310 They put it in the back of the car, thinking it's dead. 280 00:16:14,771 --> 00:16:16,252 That's the spasm. 281 00:16:16,432 --> 00:16:20,876 When an animal, you they thought was dead is not. 282 00:16:21,156 --> 00:16:26,360 Getting back to the point here, cruelty is the only currency that the leader has left. 283 00:16:26,501 --> 00:16:33,987 When he can no longer command respect through competence, and he can no longer command love through charisma, he commands fear through violence. 284 00:16:34,388 --> 00:16:37,129 And this is where the solidarity angle becomes critical. 285 00:16:37,170 --> 00:16:39,651 Because who bears the brunt of the spasm? 286 00:16:39,671 --> 00:16:43,853 It's not the elites, it's not the donors, it's the vulnerable. 287 00:16:43,934 --> 00:16:46,715 The workers, the people at the bottom of the pyramid. 288 00:16:46,716 --> 00:16:50,310 So in part two, we're gonna look at the lashing out. 289 00:16:50,310 --> 00:16:54,674 We're gonna look at the terrifying mechanisms of weakened at Bernie's policymaking. 290 00:16:54,674 --> 00:17:02,882 And we're gonna look at the succession war, the knife fight in the nursing home that ensures no one is steering the ship while it heads for the iceberg. 291 00:17:03,133 --> 00:17:06,455 Let's start with the physical reality of Shonald Holden as Twilight. 292 00:17:06,455 --> 00:17:09,457 We have to understand his environment, understand his orders. 293 00:17:09,657 --> 00:17:10,918 He isn't traveling anymore. 294 00:17:10,918 --> 00:17:12,729 He's not doing road rallies like he used to. 295 00:17:12,729 --> 00:17:14,481 Maybe once a month he sits on a stool. 296 00:17:14,481 --> 00:17:19,834 ah But he's retreated to the golf course bunker at this point. 297 00:17:20,267 --> 00:17:23,678 Yeah, I want you to kind of visualize this place, right? 298 00:17:23,678 --> 00:17:27,379 This is a palace of tacky opulence. 299 00:17:27,399 --> 00:17:40,122 Gold leaf on the crown molding, uh chandeliers that are just entirely too big for the room, thick red velvet curtains that are always drawn because he hates the sunlight. 300 00:17:40,302 --> 00:17:45,123 It smells like hairspray, like fast food and old farts. 301 00:17:45,303 --> 00:17:47,377 And Shonald sits there. 302 00:17:47,377 --> 00:17:49,611 He sits at the head of the table. 303 00:17:49,611 --> 00:17:51,012 that is 30 feet long. 304 00:17:51,012 --> 00:17:53,364 This is the dictator's distance, right? 305 00:17:53,364 --> 00:17:55,786 We saw it with Putin, we saw it with Hitler. 306 00:17:56,107 --> 00:18:00,590 As the paranoia grows, the table gets longer. 307 00:18:00,691 --> 00:18:02,713 He doesn't want people close to him. 308 00:18:02,713 --> 00:18:04,534 He thinks they carry germs. 309 00:18:04,534 --> 00:18:07,066 He thinks they carry betrayal. 310 00:18:07,067 --> 00:18:14,405 So his advisors, the sycophants we talked about, have to shout to be heard, sir, the polls look great. 311 00:18:14,666 --> 00:18:20,832 And Seannald sits there staring at one thing he trusts more than any human being around him, the television. 312 00:18:20,833 --> 00:18:26,205 Yeah, that's going to be the Fox News feedback loop. 313 00:18:26,325 --> 00:18:29,326 This is the engine of the spasm. 314 00:18:29,506 --> 00:18:33,047 Shonald consumes fear for breakfast. 315 00:18:33,148 --> 00:18:37,249 He watches a segment about migrant caravans invading the suburbs. 316 00:18:37,249 --> 00:18:42,791 Now, you and I both know that segment is entirely manufactured outrage. 317 00:18:42,992 --> 00:18:47,413 It's designed to sell reverse mortgages to terrified senior citizens. 318 00:18:47,553 --> 00:18:49,717 But Shonald is. 319 00:18:49,717 --> 00:18:51,608 a terrified senior citizen. 320 00:18:51,608 --> 00:18:52,811 He believes it. 321 00:18:52,811 --> 00:18:59,558 He watches the screen, he sees the scary music, he sees the grainy footage, and he gets scared. 322 00:18:59,779 --> 00:19:06,566 But unlike your terrified grandfather, Shonald has the Department of Homeland Security on speed dial. 323 00:19:06,817 --> 00:19:08,568 So he picks up the phone. 324 00:19:08,869 --> 00:19:14,435 Or he picks up the tweet, the phone tweet, the tweeting phone, whatever the tweet phone is called. 325 00:19:14,535 --> 00:19:18,179 And he issues an order based on a hallucination he just saw in cable news. 326 00:19:18,299 --> 00:19:19,771 Deploy the National Guard to Topeka. 327 00:19:19,771 --> 00:19:21,222 The caravan is coming. 328 00:19:21,666 --> 00:19:31,133 And now down in the situation room, which is really just a conference room at Mar-a-Lego, the staff panics. 329 00:19:31,554 --> 00:19:34,816 They know there's no caravan in Topeka. 330 00:19:34,877 --> 00:19:38,939 Topeka is in Kansas, but they can't tell him that. 331 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:43,603 If they say, sir, that's fake news, they get fired. 332 00:19:43,744 --> 00:19:46,545 They become enemies of the deep state. 333 00:19:46,546 --> 00:19:47,477 So they have to act. 334 00:19:47,477 --> 00:19:50,543 They have to mobilize real troops. 335 00:19:50,543 --> 00:20:04,176 Real people spend real tax dollars and terrorize real communities in Kansas just to soothe the anxiety of one old man who got scared by the TV. 336 00:20:04,427 --> 00:20:08,630 This brings us to the mechanism of cumulative radicalization. 337 00:20:08,630 --> 00:20:10,110 It's not a weather term. 338 00:20:10,110 --> 00:20:13,052 It's a term historians use for the Nazi regime. 339 00:20:13,052 --> 00:20:14,813 But it applies perfectly here. 340 00:20:14,813 --> 00:20:16,454 Surprise, surprise. 341 00:20:16,454 --> 00:20:19,416 Because the leader's orders are vague and mumbled. 342 00:20:19,627 --> 00:20:21,197 There's something about the vermin. 343 00:20:21,457 --> 00:20:23,178 The underlings have to interpret them. 344 00:20:23,178 --> 00:20:29,862 And because the underlings are competing for favor, they always interpret the order in the most extreme, violent way possible. 345 00:20:30,319 --> 00:20:32,119 Let's introduce a character. 346 00:20:32,120 --> 00:20:36,620 Let's call him advisor Steve. 347 00:20:36,621 --> 00:20:38,301 Steve is 32. 348 00:20:38,721 --> 00:20:41,521 He wears a suit that's a little bit too tight. 349 00:20:41,961 --> 00:20:47,821 He used to run a right wing meme page called liberaltears.com. 350 00:20:47,822 --> 00:20:52,602 Steve has no security clearance, but he has the wifi password. 351 00:20:52,802 --> 00:20:58,242 He is standing next to Shonald while Shonald is eating a cheeseburger and shouting at the television. 352 00:20:59,785 --> 00:21:01,627 These judges, they're destroying us. 353 00:21:01,627 --> 00:21:03,308 Somebody should stop them. 354 00:21:03,749 --> 00:21:05,170 That's all he says. 355 00:21:05,291 --> 00:21:07,533 Someone should stop them. 356 00:21:07,533 --> 00:21:09,094 Then he goes back to eating. 357 00:21:09,345 --> 00:21:11,336 Now Steve has a choice. 358 00:21:11,816 --> 00:21:14,457 Does Shonald old mean file a legal motion? 359 00:21:14,695 --> 00:21:18,218 Or does Shonald old mean send a mob to the judge's house? 360 00:21:18,619 --> 00:21:19,839 Steve looks at the other aides. 361 00:21:19,839 --> 00:21:22,280 He sees director Pash watching him. 362 00:21:22,360 --> 00:21:25,542 If Steve chooses the legal motion, he looks weak. 363 00:21:25,542 --> 00:21:28,743 He looks like a rhino, Republican in name only. 364 00:21:28,883 --> 00:21:32,404 If Steve chooses the mob, he looks like a warrior. 365 00:21:32,485 --> 00:21:33,925 So Steve pulls out his phone. 366 00:21:33,925 --> 00:21:35,686 He drafts the tweet for Shonald. 367 00:21:35,686 --> 00:21:37,096 The corrupt judge must be stopped. 368 00:21:37,096 --> 00:21:38,827 Patriots, go to his house. 369 00:21:39,237 --> 00:21:40,567 And he hits send. 370 00:21:41,008 --> 00:21:42,748 Shonald didn't write it. 371 00:21:42,949 --> 00:21:45,609 Shonald might not even read it. 372 00:21:45,610 --> 00:21:58,645 We don't even know if Shonald can read, but the signal goes out and suddenly a thousand miles away, a real judge, maybe a guy who's just trying to uphold the law, a Republican 373 00:21:58,645 --> 00:22:01,496 principal has his windows smashed. 374 00:22:01,496 --> 00:22:06,688 His family has to go into hiding because Steve wanted a promotion. 375 00:22:06,939 --> 00:22:09,410 This is the chaos engine. 376 00:22:09,471 --> 00:22:17,015 Policy is not being crafted, it's being hallucinated by extremists trying to out crazy each other to impress the senile boss. 377 00:22:17,156 --> 00:22:19,837 And the consequences fall on the working class. 378 00:22:20,038 --> 00:22:22,199 Let's talk about the tariff spasm. 379 00:22:22,439 --> 00:22:23,840 Seanal wakes up grumpy. 380 00:22:23,840 --> 00:22:25,641 Maybe he saw a segment about Canada. 381 00:22:25,641 --> 00:22:27,349 He tweets, Canada's ripping us off. 382 00:22:27,349 --> 00:22:30,124 50 % tariff on maple syrup starting now. 383 00:22:30,125 --> 00:22:32,225 Again, he hits send. 384 00:22:32,366 --> 00:22:34,766 Now, think about the ripple effect. 385 00:22:34,766 --> 00:22:38,847 Think about the logistics manager at a trucking company in Detroit. 386 00:22:38,867 --> 00:22:45,549 He wakes up, he checks his phone, he sees this troth central tweet. 387 00:22:45,550 --> 00:22:50,912 His entire business relies on crossing that border every single day. 388 00:22:51,192 --> 00:22:53,473 But suddenly, the border's closed. 389 00:22:53,473 --> 00:22:54,853 The trucks are stopped. 390 00:22:54,853 --> 00:22:58,344 He has to fire 50 drivers in that afternoon. 391 00:22:58,402 --> 00:23:00,562 50 families lose their income. 392 00:23:00,562 --> 00:23:09,221 50 families can't pay rent next month, all because Shonald was in a bad mood and advisor Steve wants to look tough on trade. 393 00:23:09,472 --> 00:23:12,173 This is the anti-solidarity of the regime. 394 00:23:12,294 --> 00:23:21,118 They claim to be for the American worker, but they treat the economy like a casino where they play with the chips and the workers are the ones who get cashed out. 395 00:23:21,258 --> 00:23:23,639 The volatility is the violence. 396 00:23:23,799 --> 00:23:25,010 You cannot plan your life. 397 00:23:25,010 --> 00:23:26,301 You cannot build a union. 398 00:23:26,301 --> 00:23:31,493 You cannot organize when the rules of reality change every time the president touches his phone. 399 00:23:31,744 --> 00:23:36,485 And underneath the chaos of the policy, there's a deeper rot. 400 00:23:36,885 --> 00:23:38,545 The succession war. 401 00:23:38,966 --> 00:23:41,486 Everyone in the bunker knows the secret. 402 00:23:41,706 --> 00:23:43,387 They see the shaking hands. 403 00:23:43,387 --> 00:23:45,207 They see the weave. 404 00:23:45,207 --> 00:23:49,408 They can literally smell the decline on Fox News. 405 00:23:49,808 --> 00:23:52,869 They know, Shonald old is mortal. 406 00:23:52,949 --> 00:23:57,770 And in a personality cult, the death of the personality is the end of the world. 407 00:23:57,990 --> 00:24:01,351 Unless someone can inherit the crown. 408 00:24:01,602 --> 00:24:02,613 But who? 409 00:24:02,854 --> 00:24:05,858 Fascism is a monarchy without the bloodline rules. 410 00:24:05,860 --> 00:24:07,763 There's no Prince of Wales. 411 00:24:07,763 --> 00:24:09,525 There's only a pit of vipers. 412 00:24:09,967 --> 00:24:12,821 So let's meet the players in the game of phones. 413 00:24:12,822 --> 00:24:16,655 First, you have the princes of blood, Ron Jr. 414 00:24:16,655 --> 00:24:17,615 Jr. 415 00:24:17,616 --> 00:24:19,077 He's the loudest. 416 00:24:19,217 --> 00:24:21,318 He looks like he's vibrating. 417 00:24:21,578 --> 00:24:26,380 He's always shouting into a camera, eyes wide, talking about total war. 418 00:24:26,740 --> 00:24:30,702 He thinks he's the heir because he mimics the father. 419 00:24:30,702 --> 00:24:35,143 He does the voice, he does the insults, but he lacks the charisma. 420 00:24:35,223 --> 00:24:37,104 Shonald was a star. 421 00:24:37,124 --> 00:24:37,824 Ron Jr. 422 00:24:37,824 --> 00:24:38,505 Jr. 423 00:24:38,505 --> 00:24:39,845 is a cover band. 424 00:24:40,096 --> 00:24:41,156 Should that be Shonald Jr. 425 00:24:41,156 --> 00:24:41,536 Jr. 426 00:24:41,536 --> 00:24:42,956 or Ron Jr. 427 00:24:42,996 --> 00:24:43,596 Jr.? 428 00:24:43,596 --> 00:24:47,316 Right, okay, makes sense. 429 00:24:47,576 --> 00:24:55,236 looks at him with contempt because Shonald hates desperation and Ron is desperate for daddy's love. 430 00:24:55,456 --> 00:24:56,576 Then you have. 431 00:24:57,968 --> 00:25:05,095 If on let's just call her that the quiet accountant She's trying to distance herself. 432 00:25:05,095 --> 00:25:07,087 She's going to she goes to parties in the Hamptons. 433 00:25:07,087 --> 00:25:09,860 She tells the donors I'm the reasonable one. 434 00:25:09,860 --> 00:25:15,286 I'm the bridge to the future Meanwhile, she's quietly funneling campaign money into a private equity fund. 435 00:25:15,286 --> 00:25:18,149 She doesn't want to be shannell She wants to sell shannell. 436 00:25:18,149 --> 00:25:20,170 She wants to franchise the brand 437 00:25:20,421 --> 00:25:26,322 And then you have the pretenders, the outsiders who want to steal the mantle. 438 00:25:26,543 --> 00:25:38,245 We have to talk about the JP vents, the intellectual fraud, the guy who wrote a book about how much he hated Shonald old calling him America's Hitler. 439 00:25:38,245 --> 00:25:43,266 And then realizing that grifting pays better than integrity. 440 00:25:43,507 --> 00:25:45,167 Now he wears the eyeliner. 441 00:25:45,167 --> 00:25:47,027 He lowers his voice. 442 00:25:47,048 --> 00:25:49,448 He tries to sound profound. 443 00:25:49,449 --> 00:25:56,041 He thinks he can strip the chonaldism of the clownishness and make it efficient. 444 00:25:56,292 --> 00:25:59,994 He wants to be competent, Shammel, which is terrifying. 445 00:25:59,994 --> 00:26:01,935 But there's the problem for JP Vince. 446 00:26:01,935 --> 00:26:03,696 The base doesn't want competence. 447 00:26:03,696 --> 00:26:04,676 They want the clown. 448 00:26:04,676 --> 00:26:06,056 They want the show. 449 00:26:06,117 --> 00:26:10,059 JP Vince goes on stage and tries to give a lecture on post-liberal integralism. 450 00:26:10,059 --> 00:26:11,739 The crowd falls asleep. 451 00:26:11,860 --> 00:26:16,081 Shammel goes on stage and does a 10 minute dance to the YMCA and the crowd goes wild. 452 00:26:16,442 --> 00:26:19,673 You cannot intellectualize the id. 453 00:26:19,674 --> 00:26:24,045 So you have these factions sort of fighting back and forth, right? 454 00:26:24,045 --> 00:26:25,527 And they're fighting dirty, right? 455 00:26:25,527 --> 00:26:27,668 They're leaking stories to the press. 456 00:26:27,668 --> 00:26:30,379 Did you hear Junior Kick the Puppy? 457 00:26:30,379 --> 00:26:34,241 Did you hear JP Vince listens to NPR? 458 00:26:34,241 --> 00:26:36,843 The West Wing becomes a knife fight. 459 00:26:36,843 --> 00:26:42,225 And because they're so focused on killing each other, nobody is running the government. 460 00:26:42,476 --> 00:26:46,297 And you might think it's good because at least they're too distracted to be robbing the people blind. 461 00:26:46,297 --> 00:26:48,897 But this is administrative paralysis. 462 00:26:49,078 --> 00:26:50,768 Imagine a hurricane is heading for Florida. 463 00:26:50,768 --> 00:26:52,138 I know it's difficult. 464 00:26:52,138 --> 00:26:53,638 A real crisis. 465 00:26:53,659 --> 00:26:55,889 The head of FEMA needs a signature to release funds. 466 00:26:55,889 --> 00:27:03,891 He goes to the White House, but he can't get to Schommel because Junior's team is blocking Yvonne's team and advisor Steve is blocking everyone who isn't a subscriber to his 467 00:27:03,891 --> 00:27:05,001 substack. 468 00:27:05,001 --> 00:27:09,102 And the FEMA director sits in the lobby for six hours while the hurricane makes landfall. 469 00:27:09,362 --> 00:27:11,003 Nobody signs the paper. 470 00:27:11,203 --> 00:27:12,515 The funds don't move. 471 00:27:12,515 --> 00:27:13,630 People drown. 472 00:27:13,631 --> 00:27:18,393 the state has been cannibalized by the court intrigue. 473 00:27:18,534 --> 00:27:25,157 The safety of the public is secondary to the positioning of the heirs and Shonald loves it. 474 00:27:25,337 --> 00:27:27,018 He watches them fight. 475 00:27:27,058 --> 00:27:29,419 It makes him feel powerful. 476 00:27:29,739 --> 00:27:31,780 Look at them, he thinks. 477 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:33,901 They all want what I have. 478 00:27:33,902 --> 00:27:42,412 He will never name a successor because the name of successor is to admit that he's leaving and Shonald plans to live forever. 479 00:27:42,412 --> 00:27:43,933 in this fictional story. 480 00:27:44,184 --> 00:27:46,425 But there is a final darker stage to the spasm. 481 00:27:46,425 --> 00:27:47,796 I know it gets worse. 482 00:27:47,996 --> 00:27:57,020 As the end approaches, as the biological clock runs down, Shonl starts to sense that he might lose, not an election, but his life. 483 00:27:57,281 --> 00:28:00,723 And a narcissist cannot conceive of a world that exists without him. 484 00:28:00,723 --> 00:28:02,854 If he goes, everything must go. 485 00:28:02,854 --> 00:28:05,605 This is the neuro complex. 486 00:28:05,606 --> 00:28:09,772 He starts issuing orders that aren't just violent, they're suicidal. 487 00:28:09,854 --> 00:28:14,040 Burn it down, release the secrets, default on the debt. 488 00:28:14,302 --> 00:28:17,708 He wants to break the toys so no one else can play with him. 489 00:28:17,708 --> 00:28:19,640 He wants to leave a crater. 490 00:28:19,641 --> 00:28:23,561 And this is the moment of maximum danger for the Republic. 491 00:28:23,841 --> 00:28:32,181 When the order comes down, the big order, arrest the opposition, fire on the protesters, launch the missile. 492 00:28:32,481 --> 00:28:34,041 Does the machine obey? 493 00:28:34,321 --> 00:28:36,341 Does the grunt holding the rifle obey? 494 00:28:36,621 --> 00:28:40,741 Does the general appointed by a betting manufacturer probably obey? 495 00:28:40,992 --> 00:28:47,556 This is the cliffhanger, because we assume that in a dictatorship, an order is an action. 496 00:28:47,777 --> 00:28:55,341 But in a crumbling, geriatric, grift-filled dictatorship, the chain of command is kind of rusty. 497 00:28:55,402 --> 00:29:06,199 The phone lines might be cut, the general might be busy selling vitamins or a new protein supplement, and the soldier might just look at his phone, see that his paycheck bounced 498 00:29:06,199 --> 00:29:10,201 because of the chaos and decided, nah, I'm not doing that. 499 00:29:10,452 --> 00:29:12,916 In part three, we're going to explore that moment. 500 00:29:12,916 --> 00:29:15,298 We're going to talk about the great ignoring. 501 00:29:15,419 --> 00:29:19,144 How the most powerful weapon against a dying tyrant isn't a revolution. 502 00:29:19,144 --> 00:29:20,445 It's a shrug. 503 00:29:20,566 --> 00:29:25,342 It's the bureaucracy quietly unplugging the machine while the leader is still shouting at the screen. 504 00:29:25,343 --> 00:29:27,523 Stay with us, the silence is coming. 505 00:29:27,774 --> 00:29:28,914 Welcome back. 506 00:29:29,555 --> 00:29:33,418 In part two, we left you kind of at the edge of the cliff. 507 00:29:33,518 --> 00:29:36,100 We described a regime in a spasm. 508 00:29:36,360 --> 00:29:43,355 have Seanhold, our mysterious fictional character in this fictional scenario, hallucinating caravans. 509 00:29:43,355 --> 00:29:48,370 You have advisor Steve frantically tweeting orders to arrest judges. 510 00:29:48,370 --> 00:29:52,352 You have the princes of blood fighting a knife fight in the West Wing hallway. 511 00:29:52,352 --> 00:29:55,114 And then the order comes down, the big order. 512 00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,043 Deploy the 82nd Airborne to Chicago. 513 00:29:58,043 --> 00:29:59,490 Fire on the protesters. 514 00:29:59,490 --> 00:30:00,994 Nuked the hurricane. 515 00:30:01,245 --> 00:30:03,705 This is the moment Hollywood loves. 516 00:30:03,945 --> 00:30:10,265 In the movie, this is where the general stands up, tears off his medals and says, sir, I cannot obey this unlawful order. 517 00:30:10,465 --> 00:30:12,205 It's a moment of moral clarity. 518 00:30:12,205 --> 00:30:13,345 It's dramatic. 519 00:30:13,485 --> 00:30:14,365 It's heroic. 520 00:30:14,601 --> 00:30:15,741 kind of funny. 521 00:30:16,342 --> 00:30:22,325 And in the Republic of Frump, that never happens, because the generals are gone. 522 00:30:22,365 --> 00:30:25,227 The guy receiving the order isn't a hero. 523 00:30:25,587 --> 00:30:29,149 He's a guy named Acting Secretary Bob. 524 00:30:29,369 --> 00:30:31,671 Bob used to run a car dealership. 525 00:30:31,671 --> 00:30:35,192 He got the job because he donated to the Legal Defense Fund. 526 00:30:35,453 --> 00:30:41,966 Bob gets an order from advisor Steve, the president wants you to seize the voting machines in Arizona. 527 00:30:42,217 --> 00:30:43,758 Bob looks at the order. 528 00:30:43,819 --> 00:30:45,479 Bob looks at his pension. 529 00:30:45,640 --> 00:30:48,582 Bob wishes he and Steve had gone into real estate development. 530 00:30:48,783 --> 00:30:52,937 Bob looks at CNN poll numbers that show the regime is collapsing. 531 00:30:52,937 --> 00:30:55,669 And Bob goes to lunch. 532 00:30:56,129 --> 00:30:58,410 This is the great ignoring. 533 00:30:58,470 --> 00:31:00,170 It's not a revolution. 534 00:31:00,371 --> 00:31:01,381 It's not a coup. 535 00:31:01,381 --> 00:31:04,812 It's kind of a hashtag ghosted. 536 00:31:04,813 --> 00:31:10,895 The bureaucracy realizes that the cost of obedience is higher than the cost of defiance. 537 00:31:11,055 --> 00:31:18,038 If Bob seizes the voting machines, he might go to prison when the regime falls in six months. 538 00:31:18,138 --> 00:31:23,570 If Bob ignores the order, well, Shonald will probably forget he gave it by tomorrow. 539 00:31:23,571 --> 00:31:25,051 not by this afternoon. 540 00:31:25,291 --> 00:31:28,471 It's the weaponization of incompetence. 541 00:31:28,471 --> 00:31:31,011 Bob tells Steve, oh, we're working on it. 542 00:31:31,011 --> 00:31:33,651 We have a concept of a seizure. 543 00:31:33,791 --> 00:31:35,691 Sorry, we have a concept of a seizure. 544 00:31:35,691 --> 00:31:37,171 But we need to run it through legal. 545 00:31:37,171 --> 00:31:38,691 And legal's out sick today. 546 00:31:38,891 --> 00:31:39,871 He stalls. 547 00:31:39,871 --> 00:31:40,771 He delays. 548 00:31:40,771 --> 00:31:42,451 He misplaces paperwork. 549 00:31:42,631 --> 00:31:45,290 It's the pocket veto of the administrative state. 550 00:31:45,706 --> 00:31:46,966 But let's go deeper. 551 00:31:46,987 --> 00:31:52,409 Let's look at the guys with the guns, because acting Secretary Bob is a suit. 552 00:31:52,410 --> 00:31:54,431 What about the rank and file? 553 00:31:54,431 --> 00:31:56,612 What about the border patrol agent? 554 00:31:56,612 --> 00:31:58,793 What about the national guardsmen? 555 00:31:58,793 --> 00:32:02,194 They're the ones who actually have to do the violence. 556 00:32:02,435 --> 00:32:12,969 For years, the regime has fed them a steady diet of you are the warriors, you are the thin blue line, but in the twilight phase, the checks start bouncing. 557 00:32:13,220 --> 00:32:16,142 This is the material reality of the collapse. 558 00:32:16,163 --> 00:32:20,786 The grift economy we talked about in part one, it has consequences. 559 00:32:21,087 --> 00:32:25,971 Because the elites were looting the treasury, the budget for the actual enforcers has been hollowed out. 560 00:32:26,251 --> 00:32:31,275 The National Guard unit has deployed the border for a PR stunt, but they don't have food. 561 00:32:31,396 --> 00:32:32,797 Trucks are breaking down. 562 00:32:32,797 --> 00:32:34,678 They aren't getting paid on time. 563 00:32:34,679 --> 00:32:40,103 They're sitting in the desert sweating when Director Pash is on Instagram selling vitamins from a yacht. 564 00:32:40,104 --> 00:32:42,085 And that breeds resentment. 565 00:32:42,365 --> 00:32:44,646 Number one killer of relationships. 566 00:32:44,787 --> 00:32:48,169 Solidarity usually happens among workers. 567 00:32:48,169 --> 00:32:55,973 But in the final days of a regime, you see a weird kind of solidarity among the enforcers against the leadership. 568 00:32:56,133 --> 00:32:59,955 They look at Shonald and think, well, he doesn't care about us. 569 00:33:00,055 --> 00:33:02,136 He's using us as props. 570 00:33:02,196 --> 00:33:07,363 So when the order comes, crack down on that strike, the captain 571 00:33:07,363 --> 00:33:13,217 looks at his exhausted underpaid squad and says, you know what, we didn't see anything. 572 00:33:13,299 --> 00:33:15,523 Well, let's go patrol on the other side of town. 573 00:33:15,774 --> 00:33:17,795 It is compliance theater. 574 00:33:17,795 --> 00:33:19,755 They pretend to follow orders. 575 00:33:19,755 --> 00:33:21,176 They drive the trucks around. 576 00:33:21,176 --> 00:33:22,556 They make noise. 577 00:33:22,556 --> 00:33:24,257 But they stop engaging. 578 00:33:24,257 --> 00:33:26,968 They engage in what labor unions call work to rule. 579 00:33:26,968 --> 00:33:33,060 They follow the regulations so precisely, so slowly, nothing actually gets done. 580 00:33:33,320 --> 00:33:34,890 Sorry, sir, we can't arrest the dissidents. 581 00:33:34,890 --> 00:33:38,862 The prisoner transport van hasn't had its mandatory emissions inspection. 582 00:33:38,862 --> 00:33:40,192 Safety first. 583 00:33:40,193 --> 00:33:43,054 To see this in action, we need a flashpoint. 584 00:33:43,215 --> 00:33:47,667 Let's imagine a natural disaster, a real one, not a fake caravan. 585 00:33:47,667 --> 00:33:52,259 Let's say a massive cat five hurricane hits the Gulf Coast. 586 00:33:52,720 --> 00:33:55,011 In a functioning state, the gears turn, right? 587 00:33:55,011 --> 00:33:59,483 FEMA moves, the president goes on TV to comfort the nation. 588 00:33:59,603 --> 00:34:03,385 In the twilight of Schoenald, the gears are stripped. 589 00:34:03,386 --> 00:34:04,986 Hurricane makes landfall. 590 00:34:04,986 --> 00:34:06,586 Entire towns are underwater. 591 00:34:06,846 --> 00:34:08,246 The governor calls the White House, Mr. 592 00:34:08,246 --> 00:34:09,366 President, we need federal aid. 593 00:34:09,366 --> 00:34:11,066 We need the Army Corps of Engineers. 594 00:34:11,306 --> 00:34:12,846 But who answers the phone? 595 00:34:13,066 --> 00:34:14,266 Not Seanal. 596 00:34:14,266 --> 00:34:17,406 Seanal's watching a rerun of his own rally from 2016. 597 00:34:17,806 --> 00:34:24,426 It's advisor Steve, and Steve says, the president says that the third stage didn't vote for him, so good luck. 598 00:34:24,427 --> 00:34:27,480 It's the abandonment of the basic social contract. 599 00:34:27,480 --> 00:34:31,403 The state ceases to exist as a provider of services. 600 00:34:31,403 --> 00:34:34,266 And in that vacuum, something incredible happens. 601 00:34:34,266 --> 00:34:41,412 This is where the solidarity we talk about on this show stops becoming a theory and starts being a survival mechanism. 602 00:34:41,412 --> 00:34:43,834 The state is effectively gone. 603 00:34:43,834 --> 00:34:45,295 The police aren't coming. 604 00:34:45,476 --> 00:34:47,057 FEMA isn't coming. 605 00:34:47,197 --> 00:34:48,799 So what do people do? 606 00:34:48,799 --> 00:34:50,088 Do they turn into Mad Max? 607 00:34:50,088 --> 00:34:51,881 Do they start eating each other? 608 00:34:52,132 --> 00:34:53,444 Hopefully not. 609 00:34:53,444 --> 00:34:55,765 Hopefully they turn into the Cajun Navy. 610 00:34:55,806 --> 00:35:03,494 They get their own boats, they go save their neighbors, they set up mutual aid kitchens in the church basement, they organize distribution networks for water and diapers using a 611 00:35:03,494 --> 00:35:04,755 Facebook group. 612 00:35:04,836 --> 00:35:08,619 They realize in real time, we are the state. 613 00:35:08,880 --> 00:35:10,742 The government in the bunker is a fiction. 614 00:35:10,742 --> 00:35:14,175 The reality is the neighbor with the chainsaw helping you clear your driveway. 615 00:35:14,533 --> 00:35:23,661 Now we're going to break for a second from the fiction because the Cajun Navy is a very real thing that absolutely helps overwhelmingly during hurricanes. 616 00:35:23,661 --> 00:35:31,187 They pull up fishing boats and piro's and they actually get out there and help people and save them from collapsing structures. 617 00:35:31,187 --> 00:35:32,909 They save them from high water. 618 00:35:32,909 --> 00:35:37,553 They bring in loads of pets so that the pets can get the care that they need as well. 619 00:35:37,553 --> 00:35:38,373 This is a real thing. 620 00:35:38,373 --> 00:35:39,354 It's a real organization. 621 00:35:39,354 --> 00:35:40,495 I do suggest you look it up. 622 00:35:40,495 --> 00:35:43,317 It's a, it's a really cool thing to see people come together. 623 00:35:43,318 --> 00:35:44,211 Indeed. 624 00:35:44,808 --> 00:35:47,509 this is the most dangerous moment for the fascist, right? 625 00:35:47,509 --> 00:35:52,172 Because fascism relies on the idea that only the leader can save you. 626 00:35:52,172 --> 00:35:53,772 I alone can fix it. 627 00:35:53,773 --> 00:35:58,834 When the people realize they can fix it themselves, the spell breaks. 628 00:35:58,834 --> 00:36:04,548 They look at the TV where Shonald old is rambling about sharks and they don't feel anger anymore. 629 00:36:04,548 --> 00:36:05,959 They feel pity. 630 00:36:05,979 --> 00:36:07,159 They feel. 631 00:36:07,200 --> 00:36:08,560 Irrelevance. 632 00:36:08,560 --> 00:36:09,881 He isn't a monster. 633 00:36:09,881 --> 00:36:11,992 He's just a noise in the background. 634 00:36:11,992 --> 00:36:14,078 while they do the real work. 635 00:36:14,329 --> 00:36:18,800 But surely, surely Cox News is still spinning. 636 00:36:19,421 --> 00:36:21,982 Surely the propaganda machine can fix this. 637 00:36:22,162 --> 00:36:24,323 Here's the problem with the grift. 638 00:36:24,403 --> 00:36:25,983 It relies on a winner. 639 00:36:26,123 --> 00:36:31,205 The media ecosystem, the podcasters, the influencers, the pundits, they are sharks. 640 00:36:31,205 --> 00:36:34,667 And when they smell blood in the water, they don't try to save the swimmer. 641 00:36:34,667 --> 00:36:35,967 They eat them alive. 642 00:36:36,305 --> 00:36:38,356 Yeah, we start to see the rat line. 643 00:36:38,356 --> 00:36:40,676 The influencers start pivoting. 644 00:36:40,676 --> 00:36:48,099 The guy who spent four years screaming MAGA forever starts saying, well, you I've always had concerns about the spending. 645 00:36:48,119 --> 00:36:50,429 I was never really a shondled guy. 646 00:36:50,429 --> 00:36:52,520 I was a free thinker. 647 00:36:52,940 --> 00:36:55,021 They're preparing the lifeboats. 648 00:36:55,021 --> 00:36:56,221 They stopped defending him. 649 00:36:56,221 --> 00:36:58,752 They start auditioning for the next regime. 650 00:36:59,003 --> 00:37:00,903 And Chommel watches this. 651 00:37:01,004 --> 00:37:06,906 He watches his favorite host, the guy he had dinner with last week, go on air and say, is the president too old? 652 00:37:07,003 --> 00:37:10,347 And that betrayal, that cuts deeper than any protest. 653 00:37:10,627 --> 00:37:12,988 That is the moment the bunker becomes a prison. 654 00:37:13,008 --> 00:37:18,050 He starts firing the TV host in his mind, he screams at the screen, traitor, ungrateful. 655 00:37:18,050 --> 00:37:22,191 But he can't tweet about it because advisor Steve changed the password to protect him from himself. 656 00:37:22,192 --> 00:37:24,093 So we arrive at the final days. 657 00:37:24,093 --> 00:37:26,354 The bureaucracy has ghosted him. 658 00:37:26,415 --> 00:37:29,056 The enforcers are on a silent strike. 659 00:37:29,056 --> 00:37:32,198 The base is busy saving each other from the flood. 660 00:37:32,398 --> 00:37:35,120 The media is looking for a new star. 661 00:37:35,120 --> 00:37:37,041 Shonald is alone. 662 00:37:37,041 --> 00:37:39,823 He's wandering the halls of his residence at 3 a.m. 663 00:37:39,823 --> 00:37:42,214 He's calling numbers that don't answer. 664 00:37:42,214 --> 00:37:46,687 He's signing executive orders that nobody prints out or explains to him. 665 00:37:46,938 --> 00:37:49,152 I hereby order the moon to be painted gold. 666 00:37:49,152 --> 00:37:54,180 He signs it, he puts it the outbox, and the cleaning lady picks it up and throws it in the trash. 667 00:37:54,431 --> 00:37:59,818 It's pathetic, but it's also precarious because the regime in this state is like a rotting tree. 668 00:37:59,818 --> 00:38:07,007 It looks solid, still casts a shadow, but one strong wind, one little push, and it falls. 669 00:38:07,108 --> 00:38:08,891 And the question is, which way does it fall? 670 00:38:08,891 --> 00:38:12,575 Harmlessly onto the lawn or on the nuclear reactor? 671 00:38:12,826 --> 00:38:17,848 Because while Seanhold is irrelevant, the machinery he built is still there. 672 00:38:17,848 --> 00:38:20,569 The judges he appointed are still on the bench. 673 00:38:20,609 --> 00:38:23,410 The laws he signed are still on the books. 674 00:38:23,411 --> 00:38:28,753 The private equity ghouls who funded him still own the hospitals and the housing market. 675 00:38:28,833 --> 00:38:33,195 The system of control survives the figurehead of control. 676 00:38:33,195 --> 00:38:35,756 And the danger is not Seanhold. 677 00:38:35,756 --> 00:38:39,007 The danger is the competent successor. 678 00:38:39,258 --> 00:38:40,878 Remember JP Vince? 679 00:38:41,159 --> 00:38:42,481 The guy liner? 680 00:38:42,762 --> 00:38:47,418 He's watching this collapse and he's thinking, wow, Shonald will fail because he was sloppy. 681 00:38:47,499 --> 00:38:48,480 I won't be sloppy. 682 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:50,021 I won't tweet about sharks. 683 00:38:50,021 --> 00:38:52,824 I'll just quietly sign deportation orders. 684 00:38:52,824 --> 00:38:54,896 The system is waiting for a new operator. 685 00:38:54,897 --> 00:39:00,762 So the people, the ones in the boats, the ones in the mutual aid networks, they have a choice. 686 00:39:00,762 --> 00:39:06,206 Do they go back to sleep or do they say, woo, the orange guy is gone, back to normal? 687 00:39:06,206 --> 00:39:09,788 If they do that, JP Vince walks in the front door. 688 00:39:09,949 --> 00:39:20,257 Or do they take the power they just found, the power of the boat, the power of the chainsaw, the power of the neighbor, and do they decide to keep it? 689 00:39:20,258 --> 00:39:21,910 That is the cliffhanger. 690 00:39:21,910 --> 00:39:24,774 The strong man is dying but the shadow remains. 691 00:39:24,935 --> 00:39:27,778 In the final part we're going to talk to you about the exorcism. 692 00:39:27,899 --> 00:39:33,006 How do you just remove, how do you not just remove the man but remove the rod itself? 693 00:39:33,006 --> 00:39:37,141 How do you make sure that what crawls out under the statue isn't worse than the statue itself? 694 00:39:37,142 --> 00:39:38,097 Stay with us. 695 00:39:38,097 --> 00:39:39,984 The end is just the beginning. 696 00:39:40,235 --> 00:39:41,765 Welcome to the morning after. 697 00:39:42,206 --> 00:39:45,727 In our fictional simulation, the clock has run out. 698 00:39:45,727 --> 00:39:51,148 Shonald Frump, the eternal president, the orange emperor has finally left the building. 699 00:39:51,148 --> 00:40:00,450 Maybe he lost, maybe he was removed, or maybe biology finally did what the constitution couldn't and he simply stopped. 700 00:40:00,451 --> 00:40:02,371 The golf course bunker is quiet. 701 00:40:02,371 --> 00:40:03,891 The TV is off. 702 00:40:03,912 --> 00:40:06,552 The ketchup stains on the wall are drying. 703 00:40:06,552 --> 00:40:09,443 The era of the glitch is over. 704 00:40:09,444 --> 00:40:15,376 And the immediate feeling for the resistance, for the liberals, for the exhausted public is relief. 705 00:40:15,636 --> 00:40:17,517 Feels like waking up from a fever dream. 706 00:40:17,517 --> 00:40:20,257 You check Twitter and there are no all caps threats. 707 00:40:20,317 --> 00:40:23,698 You check the news and there are no stories about sharks or batteries. 708 00:40:23,719 --> 00:40:25,819 The silence is intoxicating. 709 00:40:26,079 --> 00:40:30,521 People pop champagne, they dance in the streets, say, we survived, the stress test is over. 710 00:40:30,521 --> 00:40:32,151 The institution's hell. 711 00:40:32,152 --> 00:40:34,953 This is the mission accomplished trap. 712 00:40:35,314 --> 00:40:43,458 This is the most dangerous moment in the entire timeline because while the man is gone, the machine is still plugged in. 713 00:40:43,778 --> 00:40:53,443 We spent the last three parts talking about how Shonald broke the machine, how his incompetence jammed up the gears, but the machine itself, the surveillance apparatus, the 714 00:40:53,443 --> 00:41:02,268 deportation force, the executive orders, the loyalists SCOTUS, that is all just sitting there and it's idling. 715 00:41:02,348 --> 00:41:04,723 It's waiting for a new operator. 716 00:41:04,974 --> 00:41:08,147 And Shonald, for all his evil, was a chaotic operator. 717 00:41:08,147 --> 00:41:11,430 He smashed buttons, he diet soda on the console. 718 00:41:11,430 --> 00:41:13,832 But waiting in the wings is someone who doesn't spill. 719 00:41:13,832 --> 00:41:16,174 Waiting in the wings is JP Vince. 720 00:41:16,174 --> 00:41:18,315 And he's walking toward the chair right now. 721 00:41:18,316 --> 00:41:19,787 Let's profile the successor. 722 00:41:19,787 --> 00:41:27,130 We introduced him earlier, the JP Vents, the guy with the eyeliner and the Silicon Valley backers. 723 00:41:27,151 --> 00:41:32,494 He watched the Shonald old regime collapse, but he didn't watch it with horror. 724 00:41:32,494 --> 00:41:34,514 He watched it with a notepad. 725 00:41:34,615 --> 00:41:36,796 He took notes on every mistake. 726 00:41:36,796 --> 00:41:39,597 Shonald old failed because he tweeted too much. 727 00:41:39,597 --> 00:41:43,359 Shonald old failed because he picked fights with the wrong people. 728 00:41:43,359 --> 00:41:46,721 Shonald old failed because he needed applause. 729 00:41:46,722 --> 00:41:48,674 And JP does not need a pause. 730 00:41:48,674 --> 00:41:50,655 He is a creature of the new right. 731 00:41:50,776 --> 00:41:53,058 He calls himself a post-liberal. 732 00:41:53,139 --> 00:41:54,600 He doesn't want to be a celebrity. 733 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:56,722 He wants to be CEO of the state. 734 00:41:56,883 --> 00:41:58,624 He walks into the Oval Office. 735 00:41:58,624 --> 00:42:01,226 He sees the chaos Shonald would left behind. 736 00:42:01,247 --> 00:42:02,688 He doesn't scream. 737 00:42:02,811 --> 00:42:04,590 He doesn't throw a burger. 738 00:42:04,791 --> 00:42:06,272 He sits down. 739 00:42:06,433 --> 00:42:08,094 He opens the laptop. 740 00:42:08,234 --> 00:42:10,316 And he starts executing the code. 741 00:42:10,567 --> 00:42:12,968 This is technocratic fascism. 742 00:42:12,968 --> 00:42:14,069 It isn't loud. 743 00:42:14,069 --> 00:42:15,590 It doesn't have rallies. 744 00:42:15,590 --> 00:42:16,690 It's quiet. 745 00:42:16,690 --> 00:42:17,971 It's efficient. 746 00:42:18,131 --> 00:42:22,833 Shonald tried to ban the vermin by screaming about it on TV. 747 00:42:22,834 --> 00:42:34,260 JP Vince bans them by changing a line of code in the Department of Labor's database using Grok AI that revokes their work visas automatically. 748 00:42:34,260 --> 00:42:39,282 No press conference, no trauma, just a silent digital purge. 749 00:42:39,533 --> 00:42:42,464 This is the software update of the dictatorship. 750 00:42:42,604 --> 00:42:45,406 Shonald was fascism 1.0. 751 00:42:45,406 --> 00:42:46,946 Open beta version. 752 00:42:47,126 --> 00:42:48,087 It was buggy. 753 00:42:48,087 --> 00:42:49,627 It crashed a lot. 754 00:42:49,888 --> 00:42:52,569 JP is fascism 2.0. 755 00:42:52,569 --> 00:42:53,969 Enterprise edition. 756 00:42:54,070 --> 00:42:55,630 He rehires the secret police. 757 00:42:55,630 --> 00:42:58,891 Not the grifters, but the efficient zealots. 758 00:42:59,072 --> 00:43:06,935 He purges the bedding guys, the your pillow guys, and replaces them with 28 year old law clerks from the Federalist Society. 759 00:43:06,935 --> 00:43:10,537 who know exactly how to write an order that won't get overturned by the Supreme Court. 760 00:43:10,538 --> 00:43:19,062 So the danger is that while the public is celebrating the end of the clown show, the real dismantling of democracy begins in the dark. 761 00:43:19,322 --> 00:43:27,236 The resistance goes to brunch because they think the war is over, but the wars just move from the battlefield to a spreadsheet. 762 00:43:27,487 --> 00:43:31,489 But there is a flaw in JP Vince's plan. 763 00:43:31,669 --> 00:43:33,490 And that flaw is the base. 764 00:43:33,910 --> 00:43:36,591 Shonald didn't just command a political party. 765 00:43:36,591 --> 00:43:38,272 He commanded a cult. 766 00:43:38,392 --> 00:43:41,313 And cults do not transfer their loyalty easily. 767 00:43:41,433 --> 00:43:45,415 When Shonald is gone, the followers won't automatically love JP Vince. 768 00:43:45,415 --> 00:43:46,796 In fact, they hate him. 769 00:43:46,796 --> 00:43:47,866 They see him as a suit. 770 00:43:47,866 --> 00:43:49,257 They see him as boring. 771 00:43:49,257 --> 00:43:50,017 He doesn't dance. 772 00:43:50,017 --> 00:43:51,708 He doesn't insult the sharks. 773 00:43:51,709 --> 00:43:55,893 This creates the power vacuum, the MAGA movement fractures. 774 00:43:56,093 --> 00:44:00,898 You have the true believers who think Shonald is still the rightful king. 775 00:44:00,938 --> 00:44:03,681 Maybe he's ruling from a secret submarine. 776 00:44:03,681 --> 00:44:09,326 You also have the nihilists who realize it's all a scam and drop out of politics entirely. 777 00:44:09,427 --> 00:44:14,131 And you have the mercenaries who side with JP Vince because the pay is better. 778 00:44:14,131 --> 00:44:16,293 This fracture is the opportunity. 779 00:44:16,294 --> 00:44:20,135 This is the moment where the solidarity movement has to step in. 780 00:44:20,135 --> 00:44:24,348 Because you have millions of working class people who are suddenly politically homeless. 781 00:44:24,689 --> 00:44:26,060 They are promised a savior. 782 00:44:26,060 --> 00:44:28,091 The savior failed. 783 00:44:28,251 --> 00:44:29,252 They're angry. 784 00:44:29,252 --> 00:44:30,332 They're broke. 785 00:44:30,332 --> 00:44:31,773 They're disillusioned. 786 00:44:31,833 --> 00:44:34,234 You can't win them over by saying I told you so. 787 00:44:34,235 --> 00:44:37,016 You can't win them over by lecturing them on MSNBC. 788 00:44:37,017 --> 00:44:39,358 You win them over by solving the problem. 789 00:44:39,358 --> 00:44:41,259 Remember the hurricane in part three. 790 00:44:41,259 --> 00:44:42,879 Remember the Cajun Navy. 791 00:44:42,939 --> 00:44:46,701 This isn't just a survival tactic, right? 792 00:44:46,701 --> 00:44:48,862 This was a political act. 793 00:44:48,862 --> 00:44:59,926 When the guy in MAGA with the hat on and, you know, t-shirt and all of that is drowning and the guy in the Bernie t-shirt pulls up to him in a boat, that does more 794 00:44:59,926 --> 00:45:05,928 de-radicalization in five minutes than a thousand op-eds or letters to the editor. 795 00:45:06,179 --> 00:45:08,282 Which brings us to our core solution. 796 00:45:08,282 --> 00:45:12,219 How do we stop fascism 2.0? 797 00:45:12,287 --> 00:45:14,088 We can't just vote harder. 798 00:45:14,229 --> 00:45:15,691 They've gerrymandered the map. 799 00:45:15,691 --> 00:45:17,212 They've rigged the courts. 800 00:45:17,333 --> 00:45:18,405 Voting is necessary. 801 00:45:18,405 --> 00:45:20,457 Don't get me wrong, but it's insufficient. 802 00:45:20,538 --> 00:45:22,219 We need dual power. 803 00:45:22,220 --> 00:45:24,902 Dual power is a concept from labor history. 804 00:45:25,023 --> 00:45:31,909 It means you build institutions that replace the state rather than just asking the state to be nicer. 805 00:45:31,909 --> 00:45:35,312 If the state won't fix the roads, we fix the roads. 806 00:45:35,372 --> 00:45:39,316 If the state doesn't feed the hungry, we feed the hungry. 807 00:45:39,316 --> 00:45:44,330 If the state won't protect the tenants, a tenants union protects the tenants. 808 00:45:44,331 --> 00:45:46,652 This may sound familiar from an earlier episode. 809 00:45:46,732 --> 00:45:48,413 We create a parallel state. 810 00:45:48,413 --> 00:45:51,114 We make the current state irrelevant. 811 00:45:51,154 --> 00:45:59,688 They can sign all the executive orders and do whatever they want, but if the community is organized, if the workers control the logistics, if the neighbors control the food supply, 812 00:45:59,688 --> 00:46:02,019 those orders are just paper. 813 00:46:02,279 --> 00:46:04,060 Power doesn't come from a signature. 814 00:46:04,060 --> 00:46:06,661 Power comes from the ability to make things happen. 815 00:46:06,861 --> 00:46:09,242 If we have the ability, we have the power. 816 00:46:09,493 --> 00:46:12,353 Let's go back to our acting secretary Bob example. 817 00:46:12,613 --> 00:46:17,153 This bureaucrat who ghosted Shonald, how do we turn Bob into an ally? 818 00:46:17,173 --> 00:46:19,273 We don't need him to be a socialist. 819 00:46:19,273 --> 00:46:21,253 We just need him to be a human being. 820 00:46:21,433 --> 00:46:33,013 We build networks inside the institutions, whistleblowers, leaks, slow walking strikes that make it impossible for the JP Vince to execute his clean digital fascism. 821 00:46:33,013 --> 00:46:38,797 We throw sand in the gears of the 2.0 machine, just like Shonald threw diet soda in the 1.0 machine. 822 00:46:39,048 --> 00:46:43,909 And then there's the interpersonal work, the aforementioned exorcism. 823 00:46:43,910 --> 00:46:48,652 How do we live with people who cheered for concentration camps and deportation camps? 824 00:46:48,652 --> 00:46:51,492 How do we live with the uncle who posted memes? 825 00:46:51,973 --> 00:46:55,034 The impulse is to purge them, to shun them. 826 00:46:55,394 --> 00:46:59,015 But you can't build a society by shunning 30 % of the population. 827 00:46:59,335 --> 00:47:02,056 That way leads to civil war. 828 00:47:02,057 --> 00:47:04,118 We have to offer them an off ramp. 829 00:47:04,358 --> 00:47:07,720 Shonald old offered them strength through cruelty. 830 00:47:07,721 --> 00:47:10,152 We have to offer them strength through solidarity. 831 00:47:10,152 --> 00:47:23,289 We have to show them that the elites that they hate the private equity, sob's, the pharmaceutical companies, the tech bros are the same people that JP Vince is working for. 832 00:47:23,349 --> 00:47:25,280 We have to realign their anger. 833 00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:26,491 You're mad at the system. 834 00:47:26,491 --> 00:47:27,071 Good. 835 00:47:27,071 --> 00:47:27,972 You should be. 836 00:47:27,972 --> 00:47:29,833 You're just mad at the wrong guy. 837 00:47:29,833 --> 00:47:30,943 The immigrant. 838 00:47:30,943 --> 00:47:34,128 didn't close your factory, the guy liner did. 839 00:47:34,379 --> 00:47:37,512 It's class consciousness disguised as neighborliness. 840 00:47:37,693 --> 00:47:41,356 It's fixing the pothole, sharing the generator during the blackout. 841 00:47:41,517 --> 00:47:45,140 It's providing day by day that we don't need a strong man to save us. 842 00:47:45,141 --> 00:47:46,582 We can save each other. 843 00:47:46,843 --> 00:47:49,175 This is the only thing that kills the desire for a dictator. 844 00:47:49,175 --> 00:47:53,529 If you feel safe in your community, you don't need a daddy or a savior to build the wall. 845 00:47:53,811 --> 00:47:56,222 So here's the ending of our simulation. 846 00:47:56,222 --> 00:47:57,523 Shonald is gone. 847 00:47:57,523 --> 00:48:02,184 JP Vince is trying to boot up the machine, but the machine is clogged with sand. 848 00:48:02,224 --> 00:48:04,465 The people are tired, but they're awake. 849 00:48:04,625 --> 00:48:06,126 They are in the boats. 850 00:48:06,126 --> 00:48:07,806 They are in the unions. 851 00:48:07,806 --> 00:48:10,167 The danger has not passed. 852 00:48:10,567 --> 00:48:12,688 It's just changed its shape. 853 00:48:13,028 --> 00:48:16,119 The gray wolf is dead, but the pack is still hungry. 854 00:48:16,370 --> 00:48:18,343 And that means our job is not done. 855 00:48:18,344 --> 00:48:19,446 We can't go back to sleep. 856 00:48:19,446 --> 00:48:21,028 We can't go back to brunch. 857 00:48:21,110 --> 00:48:22,513 The end of history isn't coming. 858 00:48:22,513 --> 00:48:24,968 History is a flat circle and it's trying to run us over. 859 00:48:24,968 --> 00:48:27,973 The only way to stop it is to put a brick in the road. 860 00:48:27,974 --> 00:48:29,646 And that's the show. 861 00:48:29,646 --> 00:48:34,089 We've simulated the collapse, the spasm, the rebirth. 862 00:48:34,350 --> 00:48:40,986 Hopefully, we managed to scare you enough to get you organized, but not enough to make you hide under your bed. 863 00:48:40,987 --> 00:48:44,894 And if we overshot and you are hiding under the bed, please come out. 864 00:48:44,894 --> 00:48:46,035 It's okay. 865 00:48:46,036 --> 00:48:48,580 And we need you to build a dual power structure. 866 00:48:48,580 --> 00:48:50,703 And it's hard to do that from under a mattress. 867 00:48:51,061 --> 00:49:00,697 If you enjoyed this deep dive into the twilight of tyranny, please do the things that help us keep the lights on in our bunker rate and review us on Apple podcasts and Spotify. 868 00:49:00,697 --> 00:49:04,539 The algorithm is a fickle deity and it demands sacrifice. 869 00:49:04,539 --> 00:49:09,801 Share this episode, send it to your friends who think the election is going to fix everything. 870 00:49:09,922 --> 00:49:15,104 Send it to your friends who think that the election has already been rigged. 871 00:49:15,305 --> 00:49:17,036 Send it to your friend who's doom scrolling. 872 00:49:17,036 --> 00:49:18,547 Send it to advisor Steve. 873 00:49:18,547 --> 00:49:19,827 If you have his number. 874 00:49:19,925 --> 00:49:20,407 Maybe not. 875 00:49:20,407 --> 00:49:23,761 He might be annoyed at the fictional world that we built. 876 00:49:24,012 --> 00:49:25,835 And you can also find us on the socials. 877 00:49:25,835 --> 00:49:27,698 BlueSky and Mastodon. 878 00:49:27,698 --> 00:49:30,502 Come tell us your theory on what Seanhold is doing in the bunker right now. 879 00:49:30,502 --> 00:49:31,903 We're taking bets. 880 00:49:32,004 --> 00:49:34,168 And check out our website for the reading list. 881 00:49:34,168 --> 00:49:39,325 We have links to books like The Banality of Evil, Dual Power, and How to Fix a Generator. 882 00:49:39,326 --> 00:49:42,523 We will see you next week, but until then, I am Joshua. 883 00:49:42,524 --> 00:49:43,801 and I'm still Will. 884 00:49:43,802 --> 00:49:46,822 Don't fear the glitch, if you're the guy who knows how to fix it. 885 00:49:46,822 --> 00:49:49,098 And for God's sake, stay in the boat. 886 00:49:49,349 --> 00:49:50,185 Bye!