April 15, 2025 • 33 mins
In this episode, Mary Katharine Ham and Karol Markowicz discuss the troubling rise of violent rhetoric in politics, particularly from the left, and the media's role in normalizing such discourse. They explore recent incidents of political violence, including assassination attempts, and emphasize the need for accountability and responsible reporting. The conversation highlights the dangers of glorifying violence and the implications for societal safety and political discourse. Normally is part of the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Podcast Network - new episodes debut every Tuesday & Thursday.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hey guys, we're back around normally the show with normalist
takes for when the news gets weird and you can
really count on it to be weird. I'm Mary Catherine Ham.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And I'm Carol Marco. It's I'm Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
How are you. I'm all right. We did have some
sort of incursion in my downstairs. I got a note
under my door while I was recording another podcast before
this that said, spider downstairs. Really big? What do we do?
The kids are on spring break, so they needed me
to help with this, but we're respectful of my recording
(00:36):
boundaries and they put it under a box, okay, which
is like a pretty good solution. Good job, gal.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, I'm not generally afraid of spiders. I in fact,
will save them instead of kill them if possible, because
I think they're useful in the whole ecosystem. But I
am now definitely afraid of the unknown under that box.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, I'll tell you. We had a snake in our
home in Florida a few months after we moved in,
and the fact that, of course that I still live
here is a testament to how much I love it,
I know. But we ran over to the neighbor's house
because we literally did not know what we should do.
And the guy came over and he put the box
on top, and then he slid the flat from another
(01:18):
box under it and flipped it over and took it outside.
So there's your solution. You need a second box.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I'm feeling like I might just be very heteronormative
and tell my husband to deal with it when he
comes home, right.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Of course, But I'm just saying, if you want to
suggest to him a second box.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Steve said. Steve said that he's disappointed in the children
because they should be fighting over who gets the kill.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
We have a designated bug person. It's my middle son.
He's he wants to catch them and put them outside.
That or lizard person or frog or any of the
other things we've had in the house. But yeah, he's
officially in charge.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
My firstborn used to be fearless about this, but she,
in her twin years, has decided that she's like not
into that anymore.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I hear her.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Anyway to be continued, Yeah, keep.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Us posted on how this turns out. So it was
a wild, wild weekend. Lots of things happened. The Left
is in this very violent rhetoric place, and I am
hoping that they snapped themselves out of it, but it
doesn't seem like that's happening time soon. Tayla Lorenz, who
(02:29):
was a reporter at the New York Times and then
at the Washington Post, gave it a very odd interview
to CNN where she talked about how amazing Luigi Mengioni is.
He's the guy, if you don't remember, who killed the
healthcare executive on the streets of Manhattan in cold blood
from behind because he didn't like our health insurance system.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, we have a clip from that, and it's pretty disturbing.
This is her talking to a CNN correspondent named Donnio Sullivan,
and hear hear her thoughts on what we're all missing
about the fandom of Luigi Manngiuni.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Hilarious to see these millionaire media pundits on TV clutching
their pearls about someone standing a murderer when this is
the United States of America. As if we don't lionize criminals,
as if we don't have you know, we don't stand
murderers of all sorts, and we give them Netflix shows.
There's a huge disconnect between the narratives and angles the
(03:34):
sort of mainstream media pushes and what the American public feels.
And you see that in moments like this, And I
can tell you I saw the biggest audience growth that
I've ever seen because people were like, Oh, somebody, some
journalists is actually speaking to the anger that we feel.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
The women who got her outside course in New York.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So you're going to see women especially that feel like,
oh my god, right, like here's this man who who's revolutionary,
who's famous, who's handsome, who's young, who's smart, He's a
person that seems this like this morally good man, which
is hard to find.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, I just realized women will literally dat an assassin
before they swipe right on me. That's where it's it's
something for sure, she's sick. I think that is sick.
And it's one thing to be this crazy. It's another
thing to be this crazy on CNN and have it
(04:34):
just be this like ha ha ha ha ha moment.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, and I was I was thinking, like, is there
some alia ameliorating fact here, Like maybe this guy is
a comedian who has a gig at CNN. He's not
like this isn't a news show he's a senior correspondent, right.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
He's like not a joke.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
No, for the intersection of politics and technology. This is
what he does. Uh. And the idea that this per person,
Taylor Lorenz, reached the pinnacle of media in this country, yeah,
is a problem. Like I have to believe that even
the the edge lords at this point are like, can
we get somebody, say, or to report on us, because
(05:13):
like this is problem attic And again like she's framing
it like I'm just sort of reporting on a phenomenon. No,
you're not. You're justifying the phenomenon. And if you're right
of center, yeah, you would not justify it.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It is.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It's wild to me to watch her do this. There's
a particularly the part where she says, a man of
good morals, ma'am pardon.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Which is hard to find and you can only find
it in a in an Assassin.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
There's a Flannery O'Connor short story called a Good Man
is Hard to Find, and in it, this family is
on a road trip and runs into a serial killer
who's out from his escape from His name is the Misfit,
and the grandmother on the trip has been trying to
warn them that they might run into this person and
when she encounters him and he's about to kill her
spoiler alert on that very old short story, she says,
(06:12):
I don't think you should call yourself the misfit because
deep down I can see you're a very good man.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And it's like girl, No, yeah, no, totally And at
her whole point that the media doesn't understand Mangione's appeal,
we completely understand. We all grew up with rich kids
in Shakavara t shirts. We get it. We understand that
leftist revolutionaries are very popular with a certain well to
(06:42):
do set in the American left, and those people pretend
that they are these revolutionaries too, and they support things
like killing healthcare executives in the street. The healthcare executive
was a father, and he had a real life and
he was a real person. And guess what, killing actually
didn't change our healthcare system whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
No, and the justifying of it and the glorifying of
it will lead to more crazy people looking around and
going is that the path for me? Because look, I
always want to be careful about saying your rhetoric causes violence,
because I want to protect the speech right. We can
all have all sorts of speech that's crazy and bad
(07:23):
and that I think is ill advised and not necessarily
lead to violence. But like y'all, yeah, you're explicitly telling
people on national television that if you do something like this,
you will have a fan club and be considered exactly handsome, revolutionary,
a good moral man, and then we'll all joke about it.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
It creeps me out.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, And look, we've talked about it in previous episodes,
but Democrats do say things that Republicans simply would never
be able to get away with Representative MacIvor saying we
are at war, or Representative Van holnds we have to
fight in the streets. And you know, these would be
three day stories if a Republican said it. And the
key part that I know I've said on the show before,
(08:09):
but it bears repeating, there would be a chorus of
people on the right to oppose this. There simply isn't
that same chorus on the left. Now, I'm willing to
be corrected, but has anybody on the left said anything
about Taylor Lorenz saying this kind of thing? Has anybody
said this is insane, we shouldn't have it. Has any
(08:29):
CNN employee said, this is inappropriate to have on our station.
I will not stand for it. Where are these people?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Did anyone in the many layers of editing a CNN go,
are we sure what we're getting out of this interview?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Nobody did. And this is the thing about coverage of
political violence, which I've been tracking for years as you have.
I think it really came to a head after the
shooting of Gabby Giffords when I watched in real time
time as the press alchemized this man into a right
(09:05):
leaning Palin supporter who had been driven specifically by a
piece of campaign literature with a target shaped shape on it,
and that this was what had happened. None of that
was true, and years the New York Times repeated it
just a couple of years ago, in error. And I
(09:26):
watched that in real time, and I thought, this, this
feels different. Although it turns out it wasn't that revolutionary,
because back during the Kennedy assassination, the press largely went
along with the lie that the right wing stew of
sentiment in Dallas was actually what got Kennedy killed instead
of the Kami who had defected and had come to
(09:49):
actually murder him. So it's been happened. It's happened a lot,
but it is so frustrating to watch them sort of
delete all lefty violence or turn it into right wing
violence right and then the other side gets completely different standards.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I'm very worried about this. I mean, the fact that
Trump has had two assassination attempts, active assassination attempts on
his life. I just can't see that this gets better
an attimp soon because of this kind of Again, you
can't blame rhetoric, but like you said, if you're celebrating
this murderer so openly as handsome and revolutionary and famous
(10:28):
and a morally good man, you are going to create copycats.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
It sure makes it look attractive. Yes. And speaking of
political violence, just this week, we have two more examples,
one really bad. In Harrisburg, PA. A man scaled an
iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police,
and broke into the Pennsylvania Governor's mansion, where he set
a fire that left significant damage and forced Governor Josh Shapiro,
(10:54):
his family, and guests to evacuate the building. Authority said Sunday.
The man captured later that day will face charges of
attempted murdered, terrorism, aggravated arson, and aggravated assault, authorities said.
Shapiro said he his wife, has four children, two dogs,
and another family had celebrated the Jewish holiday and Passover
at the residence on Saturday and were awakened by state
troopers pounding on their doors at about two am Sunday.
(11:17):
They fled, firefighters took care of it. No one was injured.
We have a little bit of Shapiro, who is the
popular Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, talking about this incident.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Don't know the person's specific motive yet, but we do
know a few truths. First, this type of violence is
not okay. This kind of violence is becoming far too
common in our society, and I don't give a damn
if it's coming from one particular side or the other,
(11:48):
directed it one particular party or another, or one particular
person or another. It is not okay, and it has
to stop. We have to be better than this. We
have a responsibility to all be better.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I get that it's a very tough moment for him,
and I don't want to criticize anything, but he is
a very mild mannered man, and not okay is really
just the bottom of it. It has to be more
than just not okay. I wish he had said that
(12:28):
we have to hold this kind of violence, not just
this kind of violence, but all political violence really accountable
under the law, and that these people need to be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and we
have to treat it much more seriously than we're treating it.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
To his credit, he has been consistent and had a
good statement immediately after the butler attempted assassination of Donald Trump,
and he was much better than other Democrats on his
rhetoric about that, which I very much appreciated at the time.
I'm so glad his family's safe. The damage looks very bad.
What we know about the perpetrator is is Cody Allan
(13:05):
Balmer thirty eight. His mother says that he is bipolar
and schizophrenic and off his meds. Obviously, the timing with
passover seems suspicious to be an interesting part of this.
His social media shows general dislike of politicians Biden and
Trump came in for criticisms on his social media and
(13:28):
basic and an actual quote is like everyone sucks. But
he specifically clearly had animus toward Shapiro and we'll find
out more about that. But again, there's this sort of
idea floating around on X today that's like, oh, the
conservatives are so mad when Tesla's are set on fire,
(13:49):
but they have nothing to say. Now that's not true.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeahly, my whole timeline is.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Uniformly yeah, people saying this unacceptable. We cannot have it right, I.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Would say more passionately than Governor Shapiro.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
In some cases. Maybe we also have this story out
of Wisconsin that what I wanted to note, which could
you could miss because generally these are not covered as
extensively as threats to democratic politicians, which is part of
the issue. A wisconsintine killed his parents to obtain the
(14:27):
financial means and autonomy necessary to assassinate President Donald Trump, authorities,
alleged in a recently released Federal affid David the FBI
the David Shed's light new light on the case against
Nikita Kisup, seventeen, accused of killing his mother, Tatiana thirty
five and stepfather Donald Mayor, fifty one, whose bodies were
found in the family's Waukesha home in February. Because it
(14:49):
faces two counts of first degree murder, two counts of
hiding a corpse, and theft among other charges in their deaths.
So that's three brewing or attempted assassination right on Trump,
plus the one by the Iranians. It's bad, feel good, guys, No, it.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Doesn't, because murders bad should be the bottom rung of
the ladder of our agreement. It should be something that
we're all on board with. This idea that I just
feel like is becoming more prevalent that you could just
kill whoever you disagree with is not good. Not good.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well, and like I said, you know, being careful to
draw the lines between rhetoric and acts. We do have
this like ladder that has been constructed that says, well,
your words are violence, and therefore my retaliation to those words,
to my bodily safety can be violence. That's what you
(15:50):
see as the justification on every college campus when all
of this turns bad, they go, well, like you were
endangering me with your words, that's right, right, yeah, and
that just creates a real bad cycle.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I would love some even handed like yelling at the
people doing this, even handed reporting on it, yes, or
even handed.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, even handed, don't do this kind of thing from Democrats.
I keep saying that the Democratic politicians have been just
inadequate on putting this kind of violent rhetoric down. And
again I don't see from the left this kind of
self policing that we would absolutely see on the right.
They have to do it. We can't do it for them,
(16:37):
They have to do it for themselves, and.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
We should note. I don't know if I noted on
this podcast that the attempted assassin of Brett Kavanaugh was
putt it guilty last week. Again, not a huge story,
but his attempt came in the wake of all of
the rhetoric post Dobb's decision being leaked, and his motive
(17:00):
was specifically because of the Dobs decision. Luckily he did
not make it to Kavanaugh's house. But like it's a
it's a bad scene out there, and you've got a
guy like Schumer who's the head of the party saying
these these specific Supreme Court members should reap the whirlwind
of their decisions.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That's right, that's just it's an unacceptable way to speak.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And Taylor standing it also she.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Uses the phrase standing on CNN when nobody listening knows
what she's talking about, and it's like slang from a
long time ago at this point.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
So I actually I love that. I was thinking the
exact same thing is She's like, she's she's trying to
look like a young commentator, but she's using this word
that is quite outdated at this point for the for
the youngs at any rate.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, that's again. I want to see people opposing it.
If I haven't seen, and you have, and you've seen
leftists coming out against Taylor Lorenz, please send it in. Yes,
let us know, you know, normally the pod at gmail
dot com. Let us know and we will correct it.
But so far, I haven't seen any of that. Man,
We'll be right back on normally. We talked about Donald
(18:19):
Trump inviting Bill Maher to the White House and it
was set up by Kid Rock. I said, Chris Rock
the last time, not Chris Rock. Kid Rock makes a
lot more sense. He made it happen and he had
them sit down, and Mayor Bill Maher on his show
this weekend, talked about how much he enjoyed meeting Donald Trump.
(18:40):
People didn't like that. That is something his some people,
some members of his audience did not enjoy.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Do we have that, Yeah, we have one minute of
him chatting a little bit about what he found in
his meeting with Donald.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Trump moving Israel's embassy to Jerusalem. Loved it. The border
did need to be controlled. I'm glad the cops are
getting them a rale back DEI had gone too far.
Biological men shouldn't be playing women's sports. Europe should pay
for their defense. And of course it makes sense that
Arab countries should take in Arab refugees, like the million
(19:13):
Syrians who wound up in Germany. When Saudi Arabia took none.
He said to me, you're right, they took none. I said, well,
you should remind your boyfriend in Saudi Arabia that the
next time you see him.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
He left.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,
And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I
would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I
was able to talk with Donald Trump. That's just how
it went down.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, I have to say I completely agree that Donald
Trump is himself and that is the thing that makes
so many people drawn to him. All the issues and
stuff are kind of a side note to the fact
that he makes people feel like they're talking to a
real person and not a political minded caricature, which a
(20:19):
lot of these politicians are. They don't let down their guard.
It's what makes him so appealing. And so I completely
understand what Bimar's talking about. Trump is super charming, super personable,
but again beyond all that, he is real and that
is a drop well.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
And he notes our notes throughout this, like he did
a twelve minute description of it, which is worth watching.
The whole thing. That he brought a list of insults
that Trump had doled out to him specifically to sign,
and then he holds up the list of insults and
Trump has signed it for him, as Trump of course
would do right right, He brought up several agreements with him,
(21:02):
joked about several things with him, and felt comfortable doing that.
His takeaway was like, I wish that this guy, who
doesn't seem as agitated as the guy I see in
public or in negotiations with other countries, would be around
more often. Like this guy's affable, this guy is willing
to listen to other viewpoints. And I think this is
(21:24):
what Democrats missed about Trump from the very beginning. Yeah,
if they had normalized Trump in twenty seventeen, and gone
into the Oval office and talked to him. Yeah, things
they wanted done, like he would have done many of
those things because he, in many ways is a New
(21:44):
York City, big city nineteen nineties. Democrats Still, yeah, they
didn't take that chance.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
No, they didn't because they could not. They did not
want to be seen as finding common ground with Donald Trump,
which is what Bill Maher is taking a risk here
doing that himself, although he is kind of known as
to be a little contrarian and a little different. But
Democrats did not allow themselves to get wins on the
board because that would mean that they were friends with
(22:14):
Donald Trump, and you just couldn't have that. And an
example that I use over and over again is Kim
Kardashian understood that lesson. She yes to the White House,
she posed for pictures, she got what she wanted, and
Democrats couldn't figure out a way to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
You know who also did is Van Jones on the
First Steps Act, which was a major criminal justice reform
that he wanted implemented and that he knew Trump was convincible.
Like this is if you meet with the man, you
get more chances. He's actually not super ideological as for
you and me is sometimes right right, But they never
(22:54):
did that. Interestingly, another Democrat took a chance on doing
that this week. That democrat is twenty twenty eight hopeful
and up and comer in the Democratic Party Governor of Michigan,
Gretchen Whitmer.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Well, gretch Oh, Gretchen.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
She came to the White House to talk about tariffs
because from her point of view, as a Democrat from Michigan,
where auto workers would like to have more jobs in Michigan,
this message is one that fits with her pitch. So
she comes to talk about this narrow issue meet with
the President. She thought, I believe that she was getting
a one on one, and she got a little bit
(23:31):
of that. But then she got invited to the Oval Office.
And when she was invited to the Oval Office, it
wasn't just to sit down in the Oval Office. Yeah,
which it's unclear how much she knew about what this
was going to look like. So she walks into the
Oval Office in her signature look by the way, which
is a questionable hoodie with a blazer over it. That's
(23:52):
like her thing, and I think she was wearing it there. Anyway,
she comes in, he starts signing executive orders because he
does that all the time. He's got the press in
the room, he's doing his rolling commentary as he always does,
and Gretchen Whitmer finds herself in the room thinking, oh, no,
Democrats and liberals are going to hate that. I'm here,
(24:14):
and here I am in this situation where he's, you know,
making criticisms. I don't necessarily agree with executive orders. I
don't agree with And she did the worst thing possible, Carol,
and that.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Was so embarrassing. She covered go ahead, yeah, yeah, which.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Is her face with her binders right in the Oval
office while a New York Times photographer was taking her photo.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
She can't see them, they can't see her.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
She tried to like shrink into the doorway and pretend
that she's not there, and look, I don't know. Yeah,
Gavin Newsom's career wasn't ended the fires and the response
to them in California, so she may escape this. But
that was one of the most instantaneously instantaneous downgrades of
(25:13):
an up and coming politician I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, it was wild. It just it was so unmature.
It was it made no sense. What did she think
was going to happen. They weren't going to take that
picture of her. They're like, oh, well, we can't see
her face, so we won't run these pictures. Instead, everybody
ran pictures of her covering her face with her binder.
It was just humiliating. I don't know how she recovers
from that. I don't think she's got a shot in
(25:38):
the next presidential election. I think that she is She
is that person. She's that person who thinks that she
can cover her face with the binder. And I just
don't see her being appealing to people. I don't like
avenuesom at all. I think that he's snaky in a
lot of ways, but he appeals to people, and he's
(25:59):
person in a way that she just isn't. And I
don't know, I just don't. I don't see a future
for her.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I think she's overestimated, Like I've never gotten it totally,
and I don't understand the appeal. And I've always thought, like,
why aren't people mad at her for letting her husband
go get his boat out of storage while everyone else
was told that they had to stay home during.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Cod not allowing selling seeds.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Classic So I think she's overestimated and I think this
shows that my gut was maybe right on that, because
I liken this to if you fall in the middle
school hallway, right, like, everybody's going to point and laugh
at you, because it's middle school, and like, if everyone's
already pointing and laughing, well, yeah, the worst thing you
(26:50):
can do is like, I'm just gonna pretend no one
can see me. The actual, the actual thing to do
is to own it and stand up and do a
dramatic bow right back at your Yeah, who laughed at yourself?
And like, if she had just leaned in, this would
have looked so much better and she would have gotten
something out of it, probably from Trump exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
He would enjoy that. Look, this is the advice I
give my kids to laugh at yourself, and then people
will have a harder time laughing at you. So yeah,
well yeah, take that advice, miss Whitmer.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
She's now a meme.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
We're going to take a short break and come right
back with normally. Our last topic is there was a
piece in the Atlantic by Elizabeth Brunneck about a pro
natalism conference and how the right wing is very interested
(27:42):
in getting people to procreate because our population is decreasing
and our birth rate is low and all of that.
But the key part of that story I saw this
on X and I just want to read a little
bit from this piece is why liberals can't say that
this is a problem. So quote. Liberals are reluctant to
(28:05):
wade into these matters. Talking about families may imply a
critique of other people's choices. Alice Evans, senior lecturer in
International Development in King's College, London, recently told me me
being grunnick, Some may believe, mistakenly, in my opinion, that
conceding that having children is good and ought to be
encouraged requires conceding that not having children is bad and
(28:26):
ought to be punished a kind of discrimination. And others
may be repelled by the growing association between the subject
the birth rates, and the political right, forming a kind
of feedback loop in which liberals avoid the topic because
it seems like a right wing fixation, thereby strength and
the existing association further. Whatever the source of liberal and
attention yielding to the far right, the notion that humanity
(28:47):
or ought to persist on this earth strikes me as absurd. Yeah,
uh huh. While they catch themselves in this kind of thing,
all the time, they end up having to say absurd
things because the right says that this and we have
to impose it. So it's interesting that having children is
good is something that the left can't say because it
(29:10):
implies and not having children is bad, which of course
it doesn't, but that's how they see the world.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, this is Bernick is right, the idea that perpetuating
the species is inherently good and infect largely the reason
we're here. Guys. If you can't say that, how do
you speak to normal people? And that's that's the well
(29:38):
we have senced themselves in to this weird academic world
that does not have a lot of relation to regular people.
And that's why when you see Donald Trump and you're like, well,
that guy's weird. Why do these people think that the
normy vote should be for him? And it's because you
guys made yourselves weird or right? Yeah, And to your
(29:59):
point earlier, he he seems like himself. He's not fenced
in by a bunch of requirements on his speech, right,
he doesn't listen to other people sometimes to his detriment,
on how he should talk about issues. And these guys
have just really handicapped themselves right, And the thing is that.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
They only have some language they can use describe why
this is happening. They obviously can't say that, like you know,
the right says what women working outside the home has
been has led to some of this because there's nobody
home with the kids and it's harder and you have
to hire somebody and.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
All of that.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
They can't say any of that, so and they can't
even entertain that. So they end up arguing that you
need more federal funding for this kind of thing, But
that just proves shows that it's not the case in
so many places where there is more spending. Yeah, look
at Europe, look at Canada, and you have all the
things that the left says will lead to birth rate exploding,
(31:00):
but it hasn't happened. So I think if the left
gave themselves permission to sometimes somewhat agree with the right,
which again, you don't need this on the right, you
have this all the time. You have like no, I
agree with my leftist friend on one, two, and three,
and that's okay, But your leftist friend can never agree
(31:20):
with you on anything. That's a problem, and that's a
problem for them.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Mostly well, and I think also there's a couple of
things here. We have icky facts that they cannot acknowledge
because they then feel like they're coded right if they
acknowledge the icky facts. But the exactly is that you
need a bunch of children to perpetuate exactly the kind
of social spending that they want to do. You can't
(31:45):
do that without people. I know that they think the
government can create resources, but actually people have to create
resources and then you can appropriate them from those people.
And then the other thing is that they never consider
and I think Brunick has spoken to this before. Liberal women,
liberal single women are some of the most unhappy in
(32:05):
every survey that there is of American of the American voter,
an American adult, And some of that I think is
just because their ideological strictures don't allow them to say,
maybe this path is good for me, right, Like it's
embarrassing for them to want that. It wasn't embarrassing for
us to want that because our peers think it's great
(32:27):
and fine. Yeah, right, And I think you get yourself
stuck not thinking about it and then getting to a
point in your life where you're like a little late
to the game, and it gets very stressful and hard,
and then you're then you're at the pro natalist conference
where no one can speak about children. That's right.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
You know it's okay to say I want my husband
to come deal with a spider in the box downstairs.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
That's what I'm saying. That's it, okay, I'm not ashamed.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Thanks for joining us on Normally. Normally airs Tuesdays and thirds,
and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get
in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail dot com.
Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act normally
Hey guys, we're back around normally the show with normalist
takes for when the news gets weird and you can
really count on it to be weird. I'm Mary Catherine Ham.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
And I'm Carol Marco. It's I'm Mary Catherine.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
How are you. I'm all right. We did have some
sort of incursion in my downstairs. I got a note
under my door while I was recording another podcast before
this that said, spider downstairs. Really big? What do we do?
The kids are on spring break, so they needed me
to help with this, but we're respectful of my recording
(00:36):
boundaries and they put it under a box, okay, which
is like a pretty good solution. Good job, gal.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
Sure.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Yeah, I'm not generally afraid of spiders. I in fact,
will save them instead of kill them if possible, because
I think they're useful in the whole ecosystem. But I
am now definitely afraid of the unknown under that box.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well, I'll tell you. We had a snake in our
home in Florida a few months after we moved in,
and the fact that, of course that I still live
here is a testament to how much I love it,
I know. But we ran over to the neighbor's house
because we literally did not know what we should do.
And the guy came over and he put the box
on top, and then he slid the flat from another
(01:18):
box under it and flipped it over and took it outside.
So there's your solution. You need a second box.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yeah, I'm feeling like I might just be very heteronormative
and tell my husband to deal with it when he
comes home, right.
Speaker 2 (01:30):
Of course, But I'm just saying, if you want to
suggest to him a second box.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Steve said. Steve said that he's disappointed in the children
because they should be fighting over who gets the kill.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
We have a designated bug person. It's my middle son.
He's he wants to catch them and put them outside.
That or lizard person or frog or any of the
other things we've had in the house. But yeah, he's
officially in charge.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
My firstborn used to be fearless about this, but she,
in her twin years, has decided that she's like not
into that anymore.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
I hear her.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
Anyway to be continued, Yeah, keep.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
Us posted on how this turns out. So it was
a wild, wild weekend. Lots of things happened. The Left
is in this very violent rhetoric place, and I am
hoping that they snapped themselves out of it, but it
doesn't seem like that's happening time soon. Tayla Lorenz, who
(02:29):
was a reporter at the New York Times and then
at the Washington Post, gave it a very odd interview
to CNN where she talked about how amazing Luigi Mengioni is.
He's the guy, if you don't remember, who killed the
healthcare executive on the streets of Manhattan in cold blood
from behind because he didn't like our health insurance system.
Speaker 1 (02:54):
Yeah, we have a clip from that, and it's pretty disturbing.
This is her talking to a CNN correspondent named Donnio Sullivan,
and hear hear her thoughts on what we're all missing
about the fandom of Luigi Manngiuni.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Hilarious to see these millionaire media pundits on TV clutching
their pearls about someone standing a murderer when this is
the United States of America. As if we don't lionize criminals,
as if we don't have you know, we don't stand
murderers of all sorts, and we give them Netflix shows.
There's a huge disconnect between the narratives and angles the
(03:34):
sort of mainstream media pushes and what the American public feels.
And you see that in moments like this, And I
can tell you I saw the biggest audience growth that
I've ever seen because people were like, Oh, somebody, some
journalists is actually speaking to the anger that we feel.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
The women who got her outside course in New York.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
So you're going to see women especially that feel like,
oh my god, right, like here's this man who who's revolutionary,
who's famous, who's handsome, who's young, who's smart, He's a
person that seems this like this morally good man, which
is hard to find.
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Yeah, I just realized women will literally dat an assassin
before they swipe right on me. That's where it's it's
something for sure, she's sick. I think that is sick.
And it's one thing to be this crazy. It's another
thing to be this crazy on CNN and have it
(04:34):
just be this like ha ha ha ha ha moment.
Speaker 1 (04:37):
Well, and I was I was thinking, like, is there
some alia ameliorating fact here, Like maybe this guy is
a comedian who has a gig at CNN. He's not
like this isn't a news show he's a senior correspondent, right.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
He's like not a joke.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
No, for the intersection of politics and technology. This is
what he does. Uh. And the idea that this per person,
Taylor Lorenz, reached the pinnacle of media in this country, yeah,
is a problem. Like I have to believe that even
the the edge lords at this point are like, can
we get somebody, say, or to report on us, because
(05:13):
like this is problem attic And again like she's framing
it like I'm just sort of reporting on a phenomenon. No,
you're not. You're justifying the phenomenon. And if you're right
of center, yeah, you would not justify it.
Speaker 3 (05:31):
It is.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
It's wild to me to watch her do this. There's
a particularly the part where she says, a man of
good morals, ma'am pardon.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Which is hard to find and you can only find
it in a in an Assassin.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
There's a Flannery O'Connor short story called a Good Man
is Hard to Find, and in it, this family is
on a road trip and runs into a serial killer
who's out from his escape from His name is the Misfit,
and the grandmother on the trip has been trying to
warn them that they might run into this person and
when she encounters him and he's about to kill her
spoiler alert on that very old short story, she says,
(06:12):
I don't think you should call yourself the misfit because
deep down I can see you're a very good man.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
And it's like girl, No, yeah, no, totally And at
her whole point that the media doesn't understand Mangione's appeal,
we completely understand. We all grew up with rich kids
in Shakavara t shirts. We get it. We understand that
leftist revolutionaries are very popular with a certain well to
(06:42):
do set in the American left, and those people pretend
that they are these revolutionaries too, and they support things
like killing healthcare executives in the street. The healthcare executive
was a father, and he had a real life and
he was a real person. And guess what, killing actually
didn't change our healthcare system whatsoever.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
No, and the justifying of it and the glorifying of
it will lead to more crazy people looking around and
going is that the path for me? Because look, I
always want to be careful about saying your rhetoric causes violence,
because I want to protect the speech right. We can
all have all sorts of speech that's crazy and bad
(07:23):
and that I think is ill advised and not necessarily
lead to violence. But like y'all, yeah, you're explicitly telling
people on national television that if you do something like this,
you will have a fan club and be considered exactly handsome, revolutionary,
a good moral man, and then we'll all joke about it.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
Right.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
It creeps me out.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Yeah, And look, we've talked about it in previous episodes,
but Democrats do say things that Republicans simply would never
be able to get away with Representative MacIvor saying we
are at war, or Representative Van holnds we have to
fight in the streets. And you know, these would be
three day stories if a Republican said it. And the
key part that I know I've said on the show before,
(08:09):
but it bears repeating, there would be a chorus of
people on the right to oppose this. There simply isn't
that same chorus on the left. Now, I'm willing to
be corrected, but has anybody on the left said anything
about Taylor Lorenz saying this kind of thing? Has anybody
said this is insane, we shouldn't have it. Has any
(08:29):
CNN employee said, this is inappropriate to have on our station.
I will not stand for it. Where are these people?
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Did anyone in the many layers of editing a CNN go,
are we sure what we're getting out of this interview?
Speaker 4 (08:44):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Nobody did. And this is the thing about coverage of
political violence, which I've been tracking for years as you have.
I think it really came to a head after the
shooting of Gabby Giffords when I watched in real time
time as the press alchemized this man into a right
(09:05):
leaning Palin supporter who had been driven specifically by a
piece of campaign literature with a target shaped shape on it,
and that this was what had happened. None of that
was true, and years the New York Times repeated it
just a couple of years ago, in error. And I
(09:26):
watched that in real time, and I thought, this, this
feels different. Although it turns out it wasn't that revolutionary,
because back during the Kennedy assassination, the press largely went
along with the lie that the right wing stew of
sentiment in Dallas was actually what got Kennedy killed instead
of the Kami who had defected and had come to
(09:49):
actually murder him. So it's been happened. It's happened a lot,
but it is so frustrating to watch them sort of
delete all lefty violence or turn it into right wing
violence right and then the other side gets completely different standards.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
I'm very worried about this. I mean, the fact that
Trump has had two assassination attempts, active assassination attempts on
his life. I just can't see that this gets better
an attimp soon because of this kind of Again, you
can't blame rhetoric, but like you said, if you're celebrating
this murderer so openly as handsome and revolutionary and famous
(10:28):
and a morally good man, you are going to create copycats.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
It sure makes it look attractive. Yes. And speaking of
political violence, just this week, we have two more examples,
one really bad. In Harrisburg, PA. A man scaled an
iron security fence in the middle of the night, eluded police,
and broke into the Pennsylvania Governor's mansion, where he set
a fire that left significant damage and forced Governor Josh Shapiro,
(10:54):
his family, and guests to evacuate the building. Authority said Sunday.
The man captured later that day will face charges of
attempted murdered, terrorism, aggravated arson, and aggravated assault, authorities said.
Shapiro said he his wife, has four children, two dogs,
and another family had celebrated the Jewish holiday and Passover
at the residence on Saturday and were awakened by state
troopers pounding on their doors at about two am Sunday.
(11:17):
They fled, firefighters took care of it. No one was injured.
We have a little bit of Shapiro, who is the
popular Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, talking about this incident.
Speaker 5 (11:28):
Don't know the person's specific motive yet, but we do
know a few truths. First, this type of violence is
not okay. This kind of violence is becoming far too
common in our society, and I don't give a damn
if it's coming from one particular side or the other,
(11:48):
directed it one particular party or another, or one particular
person or another. It is not okay, and it has
to stop. We have to be better than this. We
have a responsibility to all be better.
Speaker 2 (12:06):
I get that it's a very tough moment for him,
and I don't want to criticize anything, but he is
a very mild mannered man, and not okay is really
just the bottom of it. It has to be more
than just not okay. I wish he had said that
(12:28):
we have to hold this kind of violence, not just
this kind of violence, but all political violence really accountable
under the law, and that these people need to be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and we
have to treat it much more seriously than we're treating it.
Speaker 1 (12:42):
To his credit, he has been consistent and had a
good statement immediately after the butler attempted assassination of Donald Trump,
and he was much better than other Democrats on his
rhetoric about that, which I very much appreciated at the time.
I'm so glad his family's safe. The damage looks very bad.
What we know about the perpetrator is is Cody Allan
(13:05):
Balmer thirty eight. His mother says that he is bipolar
and schizophrenic and off his meds. Obviously, the timing with
passover seems suspicious to be an interesting part of this.
His social media shows general dislike of politicians Biden and
Trump came in for criticisms on his social media and
(13:28):
basic and an actual quote is like everyone sucks. But
he specifically clearly had animus toward Shapiro and we'll find
out more about that. But again, there's this sort of
idea floating around on X today that's like, oh, the
conservatives are so mad when Tesla's are set on fire,
(13:49):
but they have nothing to say. Now that's not true.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
Yeahly, my whole timeline is.
Speaker 1 (13:56):
Uniformly yeah, people saying this unacceptable. We cannot have it right, I.
Speaker 2 (14:03):
Would say more passionately than Governor Shapiro.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
In some cases. Maybe we also have this story out
of Wisconsin that what I wanted to note, which could
you could miss because generally these are not covered as
extensively as threats to democratic politicians, which is part of
the issue. A wisconsintine killed his parents to obtain the
(14:27):
financial means and autonomy necessary to assassinate President Donald Trump, authorities,
alleged in a recently released Federal affid David the FBI
the David Shed's light new light on the case against
Nikita Kisup, seventeen, accused of killing his mother, Tatiana thirty
five and stepfather Donald Mayor, fifty one, whose bodies were
found in the family's Waukesha home in February. Because it
(14:49):
faces two counts of first degree murder, two counts of
hiding a corpse, and theft among other charges in their deaths.
So that's three brewing or attempted assassination right on Trump,
plus the one by the Iranians. It's bad, feel good, guys, No, it.
Speaker 2 (15:10):
Doesn't, because murders bad should be the bottom rung of
the ladder of our agreement. It should be something that
we're all on board with. This idea that I just
feel like is becoming more prevalent that you could just
kill whoever you disagree with is not good. Not good.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
Well, and like I said, you know, being careful to
draw the lines between rhetoric and acts. We do have
this like ladder that has been constructed that says, well,
your words are violence, and therefore my retaliation to those words,
to my bodily safety can be violence. That's what you
(15:50):
see as the justification on every college campus when all
of this turns bad, they go, well, like you were
endangering me with your words, that's right, right, yeah, and
that just creates a real bad cycle.
Speaker 4 (16:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
I would love some even handed like yelling at the
people doing this, even handed reporting on it, yes, or
even handed.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Yeah, even handed, don't do this kind of thing from Democrats.
I keep saying that the Democratic politicians have been just
inadequate on putting this kind of violent rhetoric down. And
again I don't see from the left this kind of
self policing that we would absolutely see on the right.
They have to do it. We can't do it for them,
(16:37):
They have to do it for themselves, and.
Speaker 1 (16:38):
We should note. I don't know if I noted on
this podcast that the attempted assassin of Brett Kavanaugh was
putt it guilty last week. Again, not a huge story,
but his attempt came in the wake of all of
the rhetoric post Dobb's decision being leaked, and his motive
(17:00):
was specifically because of the Dobs decision. Luckily he did
not make it to Kavanaugh's house. But like it's a
it's a bad scene out there, and you've got a
guy like Schumer who's the head of the party saying
these these specific Supreme Court members should reap the whirlwind
of their decisions.
Speaker 2 (17:20):
That's right, that's just it's an unacceptable way to speak.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
And Taylor standing it also she.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Uses the phrase standing on CNN when nobody listening knows
what she's talking about, and it's like slang from a
long time ago at this point.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
So I actually I love that. I was thinking the
exact same thing is She's like, she's she's trying to
look like a young commentator, but she's using this word
that is quite outdated at this point for the for
the youngs at any rate.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
Yeah, that's again. I want to see people opposing it.
If I haven't seen, and you have, and you've seen
leftists coming out against Taylor Lorenz, please send it in. Yes,
let us know, you know, normally the pod at gmail
dot com. Let us know and we will correct it.
But so far, I haven't seen any of that. Man,
We'll be right back on normally. We talked about Donald
(18:19):
Trump inviting Bill Maher to the White House and it
was set up by Kid Rock. I said, Chris Rock
the last time, not Chris Rock. Kid Rock makes a
lot more sense. He made it happen and he had
them sit down, and Mayor Bill Maher on his show
this weekend, talked about how much he enjoyed meeting Donald Trump.
(18:40):
People didn't like that. That is something his some people,
some members of his audience did not enjoy.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Do we have that, Yeah, we have one minute of
him chatting a little bit about what he found in
his meeting with Donald.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Trump moving Israel's embassy to Jerusalem. Loved it. The border
did need to be controlled. I'm glad the cops are
getting them a rale back DEI had gone too far.
Biological men shouldn't be playing women's sports. Europe should pay
for their defense. And of course it makes sense that
Arab countries should take in Arab refugees, like the million
(19:13):
Syrians who wound up in Germany. When Saudi Arabia took none.
He said to me, you're right, they took none. I said, well,
you should remind your boyfriend in Saudi Arabia that the
next time you see him.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
He left.
Speaker 4 (19:42):
I never felt I had to walk on eggshells around him,
And honestly, I voted for Clinton and Obama, but I
would never feel comfortable talking to them the way I
was able to talk with Donald Trump. That's just how
it went down.
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Yeah, I have to say I completely agree that Donald
Trump is himself and that is the thing that makes
so many people drawn to him. All the issues and
stuff are kind of a side note to the fact
that he makes people feel like they're talking to a
real person and not a political minded caricature, which a
(20:19):
lot of these politicians are. They don't let down their guard.
It's what makes him so appealing. And so I completely
understand what Bimar's talking about. Trump is super charming, super personable,
but again beyond all that, he is real and that
is a drop well.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
And he notes our notes throughout this, like he did
a twelve minute description of it, which is worth watching.
The whole thing. That he brought a list of insults
that Trump had doled out to him specifically to sign,
and then he holds up the list of insults and
Trump has signed it for him, as Trump of course
would do right right, He brought up several agreements with him,
(21:02):
joked about several things with him, and felt comfortable doing that.
His takeaway was like, I wish that this guy, who
doesn't seem as agitated as the guy I see in
public or in negotiations with other countries, would be around
more often. Like this guy's affable, this guy is willing
to listen to other viewpoints. And I think this is
(21:24):
what Democrats missed about Trump from the very beginning. Yeah,
if they had normalized Trump in twenty seventeen, and gone
into the Oval office and talked to him. Yeah, things
they wanted done, like he would have done many of
those things because he, in many ways is a New
(21:44):
York City, big city nineteen nineties. Democrats Still, yeah, they
didn't take that chance.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
No, they didn't because they could not. They did not
want to be seen as finding common ground with Donald Trump,
which is what Bill Maher is taking a risk here
doing that himself, although he is kind of known as
to be a little contrarian and a little different. But
Democrats did not allow themselves to get wins on the
board because that would mean that they were friends with
(22:14):
Donald Trump, and you just couldn't have that. And an
example that I use over and over again is Kim
Kardashian understood that lesson. She yes to the White House,
she posed for pictures, she got what she wanted, and
Democrats couldn't figure out a way to do that.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
You know who also did is Van Jones on the
First Steps Act, which was a major criminal justice reform
that he wanted implemented and that he knew Trump was convincible.
Like this is if you meet with the man, you
get more chances. He's actually not super ideological as for
you and me is sometimes right right, But they never
(22:54):
did that. Interestingly, another Democrat took a chance on doing
that this week. That democrat is twenty twenty eight hopeful
and up and comer in the Democratic Party Governor of Michigan,
Gretchen Whitmer.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Well, gretch Oh, Gretchen.
Speaker 1 (23:10):
She came to the White House to talk about tariffs
because from her point of view, as a Democrat from Michigan,
where auto workers would like to have more jobs in Michigan,
this message is one that fits with her pitch. So
she comes to talk about this narrow issue meet with
the President. She thought, I believe that she was getting
a one on one, and she got a little bit
(23:31):
of that. But then she got invited to the Oval Office.
And when she was invited to the Oval Office, it
wasn't just to sit down in the Oval Office. Yeah,
which it's unclear how much she knew about what this
was going to look like. So she walks into the
Oval Office in her signature look by the way, which
is a questionable hoodie with a blazer over it. That's
(23:52):
like her thing, and I think she was wearing it there. Anyway,
she comes in, he starts signing executive orders because he
does that all the time. He's got the press in
the room, he's doing his rolling commentary as he always does,
and Gretchen Whitmer finds herself in the room thinking, oh, no,
Democrats and liberals are going to hate that. I'm here,
(24:14):
and here I am in this situation where he's, you know,
making criticisms. I don't necessarily agree with executive orders. I
don't agree with And she did the worst thing possible, Carol,
and that.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Was so embarrassing. She covered go ahead, yeah, yeah, which.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Is her face with her binders right in the Oval
office while a New York Times photographer was taking her photo.
Speaker 2 (24:44):
She can't see them, they can't see her.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
She tried to like shrink into the doorway and pretend
that she's not there, and look, I don't know. Yeah,
Gavin Newsom's career wasn't ended the fires and the response
to them in California, so she may escape this. But
that was one of the most instantaneously instantaneous downgrades of
(25:13):
an up and coming politician I've ever seen.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
Yeah, it was wild. It just it was so unmature.
It was it made no sense. What did she think
was going to happen. They weren't going to take that
picture of her. They're like, oh, well, we can't see
her face, so we won't run these pictures. Instead, everybody
ran pictures of her covering her face with her binder.
It was just humiliating. I don't know how she recovers
from that. I don't think she's got a shot in
(25:38):
the next presidential election. I think that she is She
is that person. She's that person who thinks that she
can cover her face with the binder. And I just
don't see her being appealing to people. I don't like
avenuesom at all. I think that he's snaky in a
lot of ways, but he appeals to people, and he's
(25:59):
person in a way that she just isn't. And I
don't know, I just don't. I don't see a future
for her.
Speaker 1 (26:07):
I think she's overestimated, Like I've never gotten it totally,
and I don't understand the appeal. And I've always thought, like,
why aren't people mad at her for letting her husband
go get his boat out of storage while everyone else
was told that they had to stay home during.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
Cod not allowing selling seeds.
Speaker 1 (26:28):
Classic So I think she's overestimated and I think this
shows that my gut was maybe right on that, because
I liken this to if you fall in the middle
school hallway, right, like, everybody's going to point and laugh
at you, because it's middle school, and like, if everyone's
already pointing and laughing, well, yeah, the worst thing you
(26:50):
can do is like, I'm just gonna pretend no one
can see me. The actual, the actual thing to do
is to own it and stand up and do a
dramatic bow right back at your Yeah, who laughed at yourself?
And like, if she had just leaned in, this would
have looked so much better and she would have gotten
something out of it, probably from Trump exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:10):
He would enjoy that. Look, this is the advice I
give my kids to laugh at yourself, and then people
will have a harder time laughing at you. So yeah,
well yeah, take that advice, miss Whitmer.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
She's now a meme.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
We're going to take a short break and come right
back with normally. Our last topic is there was a
piece in the Atlantic by Elizabeth Brunneck about a pro
natalism conference and how the right wing is very interested
(27:42):
in getting people to procreate because our population is decreasing
and our birth rate is low and all of that.
But the key part of that story I saw this
on X and I just want to read a little
bit from this piece is why liberals can't say that
this is a problem. So quote. Liberals are reluctant to
(28:05):
wade into these matters. Talking about families may imply a
critique of other people's choices. Alice Evans, senior lecturer in
International Development in King's College, London, recently told me me
being grunnick, Some may believe, mistakenly, in my opinion, that
conceding that having children is good and ought to be
encouraged requires conceding that not having children is bad and
(28:26):
ought to be punished a kind of discrimination. And others
may be repelled by the growing association between the subject
the birth rates, and the political right, forming a kind
of feedback loop in which liberals avoid the topic because
it seems like a right wing fixation, thereby strength and
the existing association further. Whatever the source of liberal and
attention yielding to the far right, the notion that humanity
(28:47):
or ought to persist on this earth strikes me as absurd. Yeah,
uh huh. While they catch themselves in this kind of thing,
all the time, they end up having to say absurd
things because the right says that this and we have
to impose it. So it's interesting that having children is
good is something that the left can't say because it
(29:10):
implies and not having children is bad, which of course
it doesn't, but that's how they see the world.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Yeah, this is Bernick is right, the idea that perpetuating
the species is inherently good and infect largely the reason
we're here. Guys. If you can't say that, how do
you speak to normal people? And that's that's the well
(29:38):
we have senced themselves in to this weird academic world
that does not have a lot of relation to regular people.
And that's why when you see Donald Trump and you're like, well,
that guy's weird. Why do these people think that the
normy vote should be for him? And it's because you
guys made yourselves weird or right? Yeah, And to your
(29:59):
point earlier, he he seems like himself. He's not fenced
in by a bunch of requirements on his speech, right,
he doesn't listen to other people sometimes to his detriment,
on how he should talk about issues. And these guys
have just really handicapped themselves right, And the thing is that.
Speaker 2 (30:20):
They only have some language they can use describe why
this is happening. They obviously can't say that, like you know,
the right says what women working outside the home has
been has led to some of this because there's nobody
home with the kids and it's harder and you have
to hire somebody and.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
All of that.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
They can't say any of that, so and they can't
even entertain that. So they end up arguing that you
need more federal funding for this kind of thing, But
that just proves shows that it's not the case in
so many places where there is more spending. Yeah, look
at Europe, look at Canada, and you have all the
things that the left says will lead to birth rate exploding,
(31:00):
but it hasn't happened. So I think if the left
gave themselves permission to sometimes somewhat agree with the right,
which again, you don't need this on the right, you
have this all the time. You have like no, I
agree with my leftist friend on one, two, and three,
and that's okay, But your leftist friend can never agree
(31:20):
with you on anything. That's a problem, and that's a
problem for them.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Mostly well, and I think also there's a couple of
things here. We have icky facts that they cannot acknowledge
because they then feel like they're coded right if they
acknowledge the icky facts. But the exactly is that you
need a bunch of children to perpetuate exactly the kind
of social spending that they want to do. You can't
(31:45):
do that without people. I know that they think the
government can create resources, but actually people have to create
resources and then you can appropriate them from those people.
And then the other thing is that they never consider
and I think Brunick has spoken to this before. Liberal women,
liberal single women are some of the most unhappy in
(32:05):
every survey that there is of American of the American voter,
an American adult, And some of that I think is
just because their ideological strictures don't allow them to say,
maybe this path is good for me, right, Like it's
embarrassing for them to want that. It wasn't embarrassing for
us to want that because our peers think it's great
(32:27):
and fine. Yeah, right, And I think you get yourself
stuck not thinking about it and then getting to a
point in your life where you're like a little late
to the game, and it gets very stressful and hard,
and then you're then you're at the pro natalist conference
where no one can speak about children. That's right.
Speaker 2 (32:47):
You know it's okay to say I want my husband
to come deal with a spider in the box downstairs.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
That's what I'm saying. That's it, okay, I'm not ashamed.
Speaker 2 (32:56):
Thanks for joining us on Normally. Normally airs Tuesdays and thirds,
and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts. Get
in touch with us at normallythepod at gmail dot com.
Thanks for listening, and when things get weird, act normally
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