February 2, 2022 • 62 mins
Maybe A Little News And The Thrilling Conclusion To Ben's Terrible Dystopia Short Story
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Welcome Together Everything, So don't don't don the pod
(00:21):
the cast, the pot of the cast is the cast
of the podcast about Cast podcast podcast podcast on recorder
show Now, it's not great this year so far, A
(00:44):
lot of a lot of people dead from COVID, the
most ever in this country. Canada has been shut down
by fascists and trucks, or at least part of Canada, Ottawa.
You know they've they've been Canada's dealing with UM. I
don't know, literally the exact same thing that happened to
Portland a couple of years ago. UM. And uh, you know,
the year isn't the best ever, I would argue, I
(01:06):
think people would agree. Certainly does not um rack up
on my Verse first ever Best Ever list, But but
you know what, we are one month down officially congrat
If I was going to pick the best year, it
would probably be somewhere between Simpson's Season two and eight.
(01:28):
I think that's pree times personal people. Nationally, Yeah, all
that matters is that Simpsons was doing well. But I
think my best year, I think my whole life peaked
at a Disneyland trip. I took in nineteen to Mushrooms
pretty recent. Yeah, well, I mean it was. It was
(01:50):
one of the best experiences of my life, all downhill
swiftly from their late en Um, did you get to
see two in town? I've only been in Disneyland. Town
was closed when I got there. It was really really upsetting. Well,
you know, Tunetown isn't all it's made out to be.
What you just gotta You got a mosey over to
(02:12):
California Venture and check out the car Land. That's what's
up anyway, tunes, That's not what we're here to talk
about today. We're gonna, I guess sit chat about some
news items and then back to Ben the boot. Oh,
the eight page masterpiece. Coming to a conclusion. Well are
(02:37):
we crawling? Yeah, yeah we are. But first we're first.
I said, First, we'll talk about the news a little bit.
We're teasing. It's a tease everybody with something that I
will probably deal with a little more later on. It
could happen here, but I think is worth talking about,
which is redistricting. I found it an interesting I've been
(02:59):
reading a couple of things like uh, because I think,
like most folks, there was an assumption on all of
our behalfs based on a good amount of evidence that
redistricting was going to be a fucking disaster for the
Democratic Party. UM. That was like that that that the
right would do even more of the jerrymandering they did
in two thousand and eleven after the Tea Party wave,
and it was going to be um uh. There there
(03:22):
was a lot of talk about how the Dems could
lose the House entirely through redistricting. UM and boy, hatty,
that's really not what's what's going down so far. There's
a good article from December one in the New York
magazine UM Intelligence or UH that is about like how
the redistricting process has gone and it's continue to go
(03:44):
pretty well for the Democratic Party. Um, like, despite the
fact that Republicans have sole authority over a drede congressional
districts and Democrats have ninety four uh. With more than
half of the redistricting finalized at this point, UM, it
looked like it's still going to be tilted in favor
of the GOP, but significantly less than it was before
(04:06):
than it was after the Tea Party wave. And it's
possible that the whole map is actually gonna wind up
tilted kind of in Democratic favor. There's a number of
reasons for this. Some of them are that basically after
the Tea Party wave, the redistricting, the jerrymandering the Republicans
engaged in was so sweeping there really wasn't much more
to optimize, and so the Democrats actually had kind of
(04:26):
more moved room to improve things because that the Republicans
had kind of jerrymandered about as fucking hard as they can. Um. Yeah,
we've seen Cranshaws districts. Yeah, it's some of them is
that previously Democrats were less prone to jerrymandering than Republicans were,
and so there were states like Oregon and California that
hadn't done it as hard as a lot of other
(04:48):
states had, and they have all jerrymandered pretty hard in
favor of Democrats, which has wiped out some Republican seats. Um.
And so that's that's a chunk of it. Um. And
some of it's obviously just demographics. There's less Republicans every
year because it's a deaf cult um. And uh yeah,
so it at the moment, like this article that I
(05:09):
found in the Intelligence which I thought was pretty enlightening.
Um kind of ends on this note. Uh quote, there
are two big wild cards left in the redistricting fight,
Ohio and North Carolina. In both those states, Republican trifectas
have prepared extreme partisan jerrymanders that are currently facing legal challenge.
North Carolina Supreme Court has a four three Democratic majority.
(05:29):
Ohio's has a four three Republican majority, but one of
the GOP justices is a relative moderate, and at oral arguments,
the Ohio justices seemed displeased that the Republican map blatantly
ignored the state's constitutional amendment against jerrymandering. Um. And so
like right now, if I'm not mistaken, lintable check. Yeah,
in North Carolina they upheld the Republican jerrymander. Yeah. And
(05:50):
in Ohio it got struck down just recently, like a
couple of days ago. So like one of these went
for the GOP and one of these states didn't. And
so um, you know, at the moment, like the calculations
kind of when this article is written in December, was
that if both of those things, both of those rulings
went in favor of the Democratic Party, that map might
tip to be more democratic as a whole than the nation. Um.
(06:14):
Both of them are not going the way of the Democrats,
but one of them did, which means that like this
is actually the House map is actually significantly less gerrymandered
now in favor of the Republicans than it has been
for the last like twelve years. That's news, which is interesting. Yeah,
And I think a case of like we get it's
very easy to get doom ray a lot, especially because
(06:35):
the Republican or the Democratic Party um has not been
knocking it out of the park by most admissions, but
but not everything that the Republicans have not entirely been
having their own way, and jerrymandering is like it not
a good thing. But I guess I'm not going to
whine about frustrating because it is like, well, yeah, it's
(06:59):
all bad. It shouldn't exist, and uh it should the
master just shouldn't look like that. And we're now in
this sort of back and forth of like, well you're
doing it to us really really extremely so we're gonna
like defend ourselves and kind of push back a little,
but it's still fucked. It's still ridiculous. It's also though,
like what are you gonna do? Just let them do
it exactly, Like no, this is this is kind of
(07:22):
the dims doing the thing that like we've all been
pissed at, which is like, you guys never actually play
the same game. Here they are and they're doing good.
So I guess part of me is also like, so
when we lose the House in like, it's not because
jerrymandering necessarily, like that will be the issue. There is
(07:43):
this article I've been reading from the New York magazine.
One does end with the note um, the biggest threat
to Democrats House majority in twenty two is no longer
Republican jerrymandering, but rather the combination of the opposition parties
inherent and turnout advantage in mid terms and Joe Biden's
dismal poll numbers. So you know, one of those things
you can never do anything about, right, This is just
like for decades it's been this way that like, yeah,
(08:05):
the the the opposition party does well in the mid
term after the election, it's wild. It never this is
neither here nor there, well somewhere. Uh, We're at the
mid terms and Biden has been in office for a year,
Like I know the election was and so but right
now January two, he's been in office for a year
(08:29):
and it's time to start. Oh yeah, I mean every
it never ends, it all bleeds together. I mean it
started in a second. In a year, we're gonna start
talking about primaries. Yeah, it's like an unlivable situation. Um,
politics is. But I don't know, so that's that's worth
going so again, like one of those things that might turn.
(08:51):
Basically kind of a year ago, I was looking at it,
it's like, all right, well, the things that are going
to cost the Diym's the House are jerrymandering, Biden and
the Democrats sucking up and not achieving much in the
way of popular support because they won't do what they
need to do and just kind of the inherent advantage
that the opposition party has a midterms. And now it's
(09:12):
a bit different. The Dems did not hump a bunk
when it came to redistricting. Um they did. They did
completely ship the bed when it came to being a
popular governing this list. Yeah, so bright side one. I
mean yeah, I mean, look, I don't know, and I
(09:34):
try not to do this thing that other people who
kind of share a lot of my political beliefs and
our political beliefs do where you you look at everything
through that lens. You should try to watch things kind
of objectively, like how are they playing the game? Um,
and in in this area, they played the game a
lot better than I think we were initially giving them
credit for, certainly than I was. And that's that's worth noting.
It's worth noting. Um. Yeah, And the other the other
(09:57):
thing that is definitely going to be at play this
year in the mid terms, it would be inflation and
that whole conversation and what's happening right now a lot
going on, and whether or not we them have done
the right thing for inflation, but that it's also about
like stimulating the economy. You need to do that, you
need to you know, and and um uh you know,
(10:21):
and they get flak four things and how that might
affect inflation, but you know, missing the point that all
of the different pieces of a pandemic and a supply
chain issues and etcetera, etcetera are also anyway you guys
get it. It's frustrating. Um, it will be frustrating and
things can change so quickly they can who knows where
(10:43):
it is February also well, also it's uh, we're gonna
see a lot more of it, and it's going to
be hell because we should be done with him. He
should just be a dead guy. Um Tum's gonna do
more and more rallies and more and more explicit things
of like if I, if I run in us to
do this and so then we're going to sort of
see like who in the GOP is going to like
(11:06):
hop on board those promises, yeah, and be like, oh,
oh that's that's the one we gotta we gotta do. Yeah,
I pardon the capital writers. I'm gonna in democracy all
this stuff. Yeah, all these things, and like who's going
to adopt those uh, those those points from him? Um
and ride them through the mid term. Yeah, it's going
to be fun happening. So, you know, I think we're
(11:30):
all in agreement here that the number one thing we
both support, we all support is a nice, quiet, natural
passing in bed for for both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Wouldn't that be nice? Look, they've lived well beyond the
average lifespan of an American citizens. They just slip sweetly
into sleep. Yeah, just a nice peaceful passing as together Titanic,
(11:56):
just step off the edge of a boat together that
might heal the country. Yeah, televise it. We all learned
they've been fucking this whole time. Learn that would be
that is a fair prediction. That would be really fun.
Oh yeah. Well, there's this group in Portland called the
Portland Business Alliance, which is we talked about this on
a few episodes. They control a significant chunk through these
(12:19):
kind of business improvement district thing, a decent chunk of
the the policing in downtown Portland's. Um. They used to
have their own d A that was they were fun.
Did they get to levy taxes? Um. The Portland's Business
Association is like all of the rich business owners in Portland, UM,
who have been operating a series of campaigns against the
left and against you know, in favor of the ship mayor.
(12:41):
We've got ted Wheeler. They're just trash. Um. They want
to give a shipload of money to the police and
put the homeless people into camps. Um. They're not nice folks.
I don't like them. Um. Every now and then they
put out a poll that seems to be showing that
everything they say is right. So like today, say, quality
of life in the city is getting worse. Port Pole
(13:01):
Pole finds, which was uncritically reported in an article by
k A. T U to ABC and a number of
other local news agencies. Because local journalists are generally pretty
bad at what they do. Local journalism is critical. I've
known a lot of local journalists. Most of them suck um.
Katu sucks um. So yeah, here's what ka Tu writes
(13:21):
about this. Um, most Portlanders feel the quality of life
is getting worse. A new pole from the Portland Business
Alliance found with the majority saying the city is heading
on the wrong track. The Portland Business Alliance said that
the pole, conducted by d H and Research, found pessimism
at the Rose City at an all time high and
the approval of the city council at a historic low.
So yeah, this is this is what they And then
(13:42):
they just kind of report did they take the poll
on next door? I'm about to talk about how they
any percent of voters say that quality of life is
getting worse? Up from a lot of really stark stuff.
At no point is k E tu actually analyze the
nature of the study. You guys want to us how
many people were surveying for this wonderful study. Um, no, no,
(14:04):
it was more than that. It was five hundred people,
but only all of them lived in the City of Portland. Yes,
lived in the counties and like the areas around it. Um,
so it was it was people who did not did
not live in Portland, down from the outskirts of the city. Um.
The Portland Business Alliance shares us this is a sufficient
(14:26):
sample size to assess voter opinions. Gin. Where where did
they get the people from? Like where they gathered outside
from the most from where the cops live in a
lot of Yeah, um, from these counties that fucking hate Portland.
The margin of error for the full sample is plus
or minus four point four percent, and the margin of
(14:47):
error for the City of Portland's sample for the actual
people who live in Portland is six is six point
to percent plus minus um. So it's I don't know.
I think it's bad. Uh sounds bad. Yeah, sounds inaccurate. Also,
I feel like there's an element of like, must remind
people that this the pandemic. So like things. I think
(15:10):
people generally think things have gotten worse. Um, also gotten worse,
but rather on the wrong track. You know, people are
frustrated by everything in life, the pandemic this that they're
reacting to news headlines. They blame it on city council
(15:30):
or whatever, some reaction to progressives. You know, they bundle
all of their complaints up at something that they that
has nothing to do with it necessarily. Well, so it's
like there's a thing about the a trend of sort
of framing for people outside of the city that the
actual city is like crime written and hellhole and covered
(15:51):
in garbage, and so it sells this sort of narrative
of what the city is like inside two people outside
they don't actually know what it is that they talk about.
But I don't live in Portland, so I can't really
speak to this. So I would be one of the
other people who said, yeah, maybe me too, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
So they like one of the sites I'm finding. Again,
(16:13):
not a statistics expert is saying that, like, in a
population of two thousand people, a pretty good sample size
would be about a thousand folks um. So that's four
times were sampled for a city three times that long,
and and and for a journalist for an article to
cite a study like that, it's so irresponsible. And they're
(16:34):
trying to claim that their sample group is like people
who live on the outskirts of town. But they're kind
of ignoring the really the really stark political biases and
the fact that those people don't live in Portland, and
I like, those are the people who were like in
some cases, setting up armed checkpoints during the fires because
they thought ANTIFO was lighting their forests on fire. Um.
(16:54):
It's just a nice big asterisk. But it's a study
calculated to and this this of course, it's it's calculated
to present a side that's supposed to create more people
that agree with that side. It's you know, anyway to
talk about Barry Weiss, I don't I made we made
(17:16):
a show. I made a joke before we recorded that
we should talk about the news, particularly about one woman
who went to a liberal college for a while and
then I didn't like the vaccine mandate and went to
another college. And that's the news. Um uh, but I've
no I have nothing more to say about it than
(17:37):
that description of the article. Good that that's the thing
that happened very wise on her little kick of like
finding these this anecote and then ballooning it to Um.
This trend, this worldview shift in trend, it's consuming our
colleges it's like, well, I don't know. It seems like
she didn't want to get the vaccine and then spent
(18:00):
seventy on another school scholarship that she got for the
other school her body or her choice. It's true. I mean, yeah,
there you go, what she had to do. It is
not news, is my point. Yeah, no, it's not. But
at the same time, it is the only news that exists,
which is culture war news, because that's the only thing
actually going on while while the climate continues to spiral
(18:23):
and our food supply gets ever more fragile into plague spreads,
all that's really happening in a way that is monetize
able by news agencies is the culture war. Yeah, well
I can't. I can't fuck the eminem or Mickey Mouse
or Mini Mouse anymore. So I can. You absolutely can.
You can't. I have to unbutton you just have to
(18:45):
unbutton her pants. Honestly, the only thing I really have
faith in in this world is that you could fuck
the eminem if you really tried. Thank you had? Wow.
Can we end this early? Yeah, well we can, and
we just want to end of the thing. Yeah, you're
not going to go You're not gonna go fucking eminem. No. No,
(19:07):
we're going to take a break for the perfect perfect
Now we're going to come back for some buds together everything.
So don't oh yeah, yeah, you don't know how. That's
(19:35):
how we do it. Yeah, like butter Cody, O, how's
our how's our? How's our? Big? But it been big boy?
But hey been. Oh he's good. He's writing his stories,
he's chilling doing art for people. He's he's getting his
ideas out there via arte. You got to have a
(20:00):
special boy to look at a shooting star and break
free from the chains of authoritarianism, which is everybody gets
fruits and vegetables in their fridge. You get to regulated
double pane windows. Anyway, when last we left our hero,
(20:22):
I guess is what we would call him. Uh, he
left the bubble capital B and he is now walking
towards the mountain capital wing. Yeah. You's something not related
to the story at all, But I got it, No, no,
because I said, like, do the previously on and I
just remembered something that I wanted I've always wanted to
(20:44):
talk about, or for a while I have. It's not
a big deal, and in fact, I've built it up
too much. Already. When you are watching a show, when
it's a streaming show, my opinion, you either get a
previously on or you get a dope long intraste once
you do not get both. We don't need both. I
don't need to see the recap and then three minutes
(21:06):
of an intro sequence. Give me a quick, sharp intro again.
It sounds like a show has been bothering. You know,
it's it's not one specific show, just a it's just
a thing, okay, whatever. No one's jumping on this bay.
I think it's a pretty I bet that someone listening
(21:27):
when you when you talk about Netflix, I know you
can always skip the intros, so you can't. I'm not
talking about Netflix, I'm talking about any other numbers. And
sometimes it's yeah, okay, no one wants to get on
the shide with me. It's fine. I steal all my shows,
steal them. I guess it's fine. Dot com so I
(21:48):
don't get any any any of the programmed and stuff.
The bullshit tell us about Ben. I've detoured us enough.
He's doing really thought it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm
sure you're right. It's fine. We can deal with it later.
Off the show we will deal with this later by
(22:12):
the time, I mean there is Apparently someone in the
subreddit noticed that Ben Shapiro's launched to paid access book club,
and I did see that He's told his fans that
he's going to be publishing a dystopian sci fi novel
at some Oh my god, we have to join the
first book his book club is going to read together.
(22:32):
Is n O my god, I think that we should join.
I will not get the money for that, I mean,
we couldn't do. Jamie Loftus styled deep dive investigation into
Ben Shapiro's book club. Um well, I would love to
look into it to some extent that other certainly will
(22:54):
read his terrible science picture. Absolutely, that's going to be
the best thing that's ever happened to us. I hope
it's just this but longer. Um, he just flushes it
out a bit. Yeah, just like, yeah, maybe takes our notes.
You know, he's been maybe he's been listening. When did
he launch this? Has he been listening and taking notes?
(23:16):
I think? Hes Okay, okay, let's get started. Okay, all right, okay, okay, okay,
you know what, Okay, all right, okay, Yeah, Robert's brandishing
a war club right now. For the people at home, obviously,
it's like, is he going to deny that he's not.
It's just a club in case I gotta club somebody. Yeah,
(23:39):
you never know, speaking of club, book club, speaking of
book club, books, thinking of books, not this, but we're
gonna read it anyway. By the time he approached the
light on the mountain, he was dirtier than he had
ever been in his life, at least. Remember there was
a light on the mountain. Yeah, there's a light in
the mountain. Yeah. Yeah. So the last the last section,
(24:00):
he's looking at the mountain, which is closer to the
bubble than he thought. A light shone on the mountain,
winking in the distance, the bubble shut behind him. He
walks towards the mountain. I can't wait for this to
be somehow both a rip up, rip off of ur
and the Giver and yeah, yeah, yeah, it's definitely got
(24:21):
Giver vibes coming up. Good Lord, all right, let's do it.
By the time he approached the light on the mountain,
he was dirtier than he had ever been in his life,
at least so far as he remembered it. That's kind
of awkward. Grime and ash coated his face. His skin
felt gritty, as though each poor were individually rubbing against
the others. He could feel the dirt particles between his
(24:42):
fingers underneath his uniform in his ears. He radiated from
the mountain like an enormous kiln Um. I have a question.
Has he mentioned his uniform yet? No? No, I don't
think he's described that at all. I want to know
what the fucking uniform looks like, what the man he
would like to write a book. Maybe maybe there was
(25:04):
a reference to regulation clothes. But I don't know. Fucking
maybe I'm doing a search in this. I'm sorry, Yeah,
I'm sorry. It is the first time I've heard of
a goddamn uniform. She was not beautiful and she was
not ugly. She wore the blue uniform of the Ministry
of Personal Needs. Described how the women dress. Yeah, um,
(25:25):
that's okay. This is the only the second and only
other Refort described anything about how he was dressed. No,
he absolutely what else was dressed? No, um, but whatever
it looked like, who knows, But whatever it looked like,
it's got dirt underneath it under that uniform. That is
an appearance of some kind. The mountain was rocky, far
(25:48):
less smooth than it appeared from a distance, like all things.
That's just me adding that. Sorry, oh well, I mean
the mountain was rocky, far less smooth than it appeared
from a distance, to which I added, yeah, like all
things are like, yeah, it's like murry from a distance.
(26:09):
He's like, yeah, it's more detailed now whatever. Anyway, the
darkness of the mountain concealed it's craggy surfaces. Now, as
he climbed down into a crevice, the light disappeared for
a moment. When he climbed up again, it stood before
him a door in the ledge. Above the door, an
inscription had been pounded into the flat black rock, all caps,
(26:35):
the creed of ignorance. Wait, so is the light the door? Yeah,
coming from the door. It's coming from the door the
door in the ledge, which is like the ledge of
some ledge he's on, really really like just like a
(26:55):
terrible description of climbing a mountain. Yeah, time, it's just
like three he gets there. The mountain was rocky, far
less smooth than it appeared from a distance. The darkness
of the mountain concealed his craggy services. Now as he
climbed down into a crevice. The light disappeared for a moment.
When he climbed up again, it stood before him a
(27:16):
door in the ledge. That's it. It's really bad, really bad.
So the mountain, the mountain is rocking, you can't tell
from a distance. And then got there. But at his
first description of climbing up the mountain included climbing down.
So it's confusing, like you're supposed to like it's there's
(27:36):
there's nothing wrong with including that detail. But you haven't
told me that you started. Oh yeah, no, he didn't
start exactly like I climbed down, then back up? Were
you climbing up? Okay, and the like. Yeah. In the
middle of describing what the mountain looked like closer up
than from a distance, he's saying, now and now I'm
climbing down to a crevice. It's just very awkward and weird.
(27:57):
But Ben she clunky, clunky, the creed of ignorance. He
gazed up at it, wondering, do you understand it? The
voice came from inside the door. It beckoned him closer, No,
he answered, good, said the voice, come in. Don't be afraid.
(28:21):
He edged through the door, hot that does fund. You
gotta get that. The light inside was extraordinarily bright, oddly harsh.
It illuminated a sparse marble room lined with a wall
of books. He had never seen so many books. Actually,
he had never seen a book at all. They were
(28:47):
that's my favorite. You know what it is? Then, okay,
look include lines that make the entire story derail as
you underway, how I have to say. I mean, he's
done this a million times already in this one, like
referring to things like that that he that he doesn't know.
(29:10):
He does know, like because like the mountain, which I've
never seen before, like or the Ministry of Education, which
I don't because like the narrator is omniscient. It's the
third person narrator, so it's not necessarily from the character's
point of view. It's just awkward and weird to say
that kind of stuff because he's done it, did it bad,
(29:30):
and he did it wrong. He did about it wrong.
But also when he's saying, actually, you've never seen a
book at all. They were obsolete. He had been told,
so he like knows the word book. He's been told
books are obsolete, but like he doesn't know what it is.
There's so many questions. It's the ship that is so
consistently fascinating about the badness of Ben's story. Um, where
(29:55):
you can what what's actually going on is he's realizing
as he's whiting. He's like punching it up as he's writing,
but he doesn't like go back and edit anything to
make it flow. So he's like the wall was lined
in books. Oh you know what he should not know
when a book is at all I'll just include that
after him say that's what I mean is that I
sometimes feels like or to me, it feels like maybe
(30:17):
one person read it, and he just sloppily adds in
extra sentences to like, maybe this is a spot where
I can do something about books. So it's not well
thought out, it's just thrown in. That is, if he
even let somebody read this, you know that maybe one
round of notes and was like, oh, I'll do it
(30:39):
here where they put the note not think He's like,
he's not easy. I got this. I can knock it
out in a half hour, and he types it in. UM. Anyway,
after he hotly edged through the doorway. Uh, he saw
the books. They were absolute he had been told, so
he'd never seen one all, but he knew that there
(31:01):
were books. I guess, I don't know. It's not clear
if the narrator knows it or not. But a small
wooden table marked the corner of the room. A bed
lay along the opposite wall, and in that bed was
a tiny man, wrinkled with age, weak with decay. His
mouth his mouth grinned. Oh, I see what he's doing.
(31:22):
His mouth grinned, his eyes did not. Is he dead?
Who are you? The man demanded. He didn't know what
to answer. He had never been asked. I see, said
the man. And what are you doing here? Silence? But
(31:43):
you are out here? Are you not? Outside the bubble?
He pointed out the door, the velvety purple beyond where
the meteor continued to burn brightly across the night sky.
What yeah, what's up with that meteor? How long has
it been there? This is the first and only time
he uses the word meteor in this story. And he
(32:06):
saw this shooting star, which is not the same thing star.
I mean, presumably that's what this person is referring to.
So he didn't know there was a bubble around him.
And he's got the word for anyway again, narratoring back
(32:27):
and forth. It's all bullshit. Um, it's not great, like
it's yeah, it's it's just not good because like he
he he saw the shooting star and then left it
at that, and then pages and pages later talking about
a meteor. They are technically the same thing, but it's
like the shooting star. Shooting star is visible briefly, that's
(32:48):
the whole. Yes, that's why we call it that. It
is a meteor that is seen briefly. So like and
so if there was an ear, he would If there
was a meteor and we're or that something we're supposed
to be continuing to see, why haven't we continued to
see it? Why hasn't continued? Like that's a guide. He
would notice it. If you star, he would notice that
(33:10):
it's still there away. Yeah, I mean again, I don't know.
That probably would have made it a better story, but
this is confusing. It wouldn't have made me stop when
I read that there's a meteor in the sky. Yeah,
just throwing it in there suddenly. Yeah, it would have
(33:30):
been better if you'd at least tried to make it
a theme, you know, that would have made sense to
within being all weird about Judeo Christianity. Um, yeah, I
can see that it would have worked better than what
he did. Okay, Yeah, it's like the phrase the meteor
continued to burn brightly, like, wouldn't continued? Yeah, all right,
(33:55):
because we haven't had this introduced before unless unless well,
well we're going to find a little bit out about
what this meteor is after this ad break. Oh really,
so yeah, together everything back with that meteor. Oh, we
(34:28):
can't wait to find out what the meteor is. What
the shooting star that he saw in the sky that
no one's ever seen before. He's the only one that
saw it, and it made him wake up, and then
he escaped the bubble, which has never happened before except
for maybe this old tiny man who's in this room
in the mountain that was bright in the distance, and
now he's up close after climbing down the crevice and
(34:50):
then back up it all right. He pointed out the
door to the velvety purple beyond, where the meteor continued
to burn brightly across the night sky. The man side. Ah,
that better. Hallie's comment, I know you don't know what
it is. Not my mind about that, suffice it to
say that it shows up once every seventy five years.
(35:11):
Your father and mother must have seen it at some point. Okay,
I mean I'm consuming a lot of things about his age,
his parents age, Like your father and mother must have
seen it at some point. If wait a minute, is
it is it? Is it Hayley's comment, it's those the
(35:31):
same things. So they just referenced it as a meteor,
and then the next line it's a comment. Well, I'm
not sure how distinctly different those things are. It doesn't matter,
it doesn't matter. It's it's mostly this. It's based on
the size, it's mostly the size whatever. Whatever. I'm just saying,
(35:52):
we're all over there. We've got a year, We've got comment.
A shooting star, more often than not, is a very
time like ball of like ice and a rock. It
burns up in the atmosphere. It's why it turns bright.
So why we can see it. Um, Usually they don't,
like you don't see a shooting star and then it
continues off into the sky. Um, it's because of its
(36:13):
like interacting with the atmosphere that we see it. Um.
It is technically a meteor. Um. A comet is tend
to be much larger comets. Uh, do these cycles, they were,
they returned. Holley's common is a comet. It's a very large,
uh piece of rock and ice, um that has been
on a long journey through space. Um. And it's just
(36:34):
it's just not clear that he was referring to a comet,
but rather a shooting star, which you see regularly in
the sky if you can see a clear sky like,
oh look, briefly shooting star that's burnt up. Anyway, it's fine,
it's fine, it continue. I'm just stuck on this like
(36:55):
assumption that like, your father and mother must have seen
it at some point if they were if the seventy
five and over, and even then they saw it when
they were a baby whatever. At that he spoke, does
he know his parents? Like, that's what it implies. But
but no, I don't think it's the rest of it.
What this story is kind of implies the concept of
(37:16):
the family has been eliminated. Yeah, like in nine Okay, well,
so here we go. Your mother and father must have
seen it at some point. At that he spoke, I
never knew my mother and father. Okay, okay, there we go,
or father and mother is what he says. But you
remember the comment, I don't know what. I remember mostly
(37:37):
nothing but something what I see? The man nod at
his lip, and you came out here. I had to
I am not like the other Hey, you yo, you
Why wouldn't you remember the comment I don't know some
fucking magic that we're going to learn about um Because
(37:57):
he's not like the others. He's just right said, right there.
He's not like you don't remember your parents, but you
remember the comment. Well, he's not like the others. It's
not like the others. The man gestured to the chair
and propped himself on one arm. He looked a little
like a gnome, withered and malevolent. Let me tell you
a story he began many years ago. Humanity was diverse.
(38:23):
There were men and women of various races, ethnicities, abilities,
and they were all did you say various or nefarious?
We're getting a little bit of Harden Harrison berger on
rip off here too. There we go, here we go.
It's happening various various races, ethnicities, abilities, and they were
all unhappy. For no matter what measures governments tried, inequality remained.
(38:48):
Redistribution of resources merely masked the problem. Laws directed toward
helping particular groups often ended with them being strangely disadvantaged.
Pretty sure he's talking about Civil Rights Act h different abilities, bread,
(39:09):
different values, different belief systems. Those values and systems caused conflict.
We tried everything to solve it. We tried education, we
tried genetic treatments designed to raise the average intelligence, but
each i Q point meant a massive difference in out.
(39:30):
Oh god, yeah, the man looked at him and he
really didn't have to work hard to get a bunch
of answers? Did he also, does this guy know what
i Q is? That's not being explained? Like this would
just be moon man talk to him his wall of
books that he will when they read. Oh yeah, him like, yeah,
what is that Q? I don't know what you're talking about?
Exactly right. Again, if you're you rather have the character
(39:54):
like not understand any of these words, and like, you know,
maybe that leads to a moment where this man like
allizes how different he's made and he could celebrate like
it's such a success that you don't understand any of this,
Like it means you know, we've worked or whatever it worked,
or you could have like him speak differently and be
like we tried to make people more intelligent. But you
(40:15):
know then that led to this and it does obvious
and on the nose is yeah, how lazy. I mean,
you are all listening, you know it hurts almost. It's
incredible that this is what he has arrived at. It
isn't like I'm pretty when I watched something really embarrassing
(40:37):
or whatever. Cringe. It really makes my insides get squidgy.
We'll strap in and hopping the walk in freezer to
get that squidg ice rock gord. Okay, what's up? What's next?
Al Right? So he edged through the door. The man
(40:59):
looked at him, peered at him. Do you know, said
the man, good lord, what it is that makes us happy?
He shook his head. Nothing makes us happy, ha ha.
But it is desire, aspiration that makes us unhappy. Ambition, jealousy,
(41:21):
these make us unhappy. The man who reaches for the
stars is sure to fall short. The man who reaches
out to the divine is sure to remain lonely. The
man who reaches for his toothbrush, provided that his toothbrush
is in its proper place, is satisfied. No dreams means
no unhappiness, or at least equal unhappiness, and if no
(41:45):
one has experienced true joy, the joy of achievement, then
no one knows what they are missing. Then no one
knows that they are missing it's typo, sorry, not my fault,
my fault. Then no one knows that they I'm missing
should be what it's not. It continues, all right, equality
(42:06):
is the key. Equality cannot be achieved in excellence, It
can only be achieved in mediocrity and love that the
message of this is ultimately anti equality quality. He's also
I think, taking a shot at Buddhism. Yeah, yeah, with
the desire. There's a lot here, but most of it
(42:30):
being that Ben is such a like just to think
about it, like existentially, such an offensive place to take
an opposition to the reality that not everybody is afforded
equal opportunities and people are dying because of it. Like
but if you, uh sorry, if you help any particular group,
(42:51):
it ends with them being strangely disadvantaged. Huh yep. Like again,
I have to assume he's talking about the civil rights
um that clip that's going around of him on social
media with him with the kids, Oh god, the beautiful moment. God. Alright,
(43:13):
uh story talk about that on even more news equality
is the key. Equality cannot be achieved in excellence. It
can only be achieved in mediocrity. And we have achieved
it within the bubble. All are equal, all want nothing,
aspire to nothing. It is perfect. It is stasis. It
(43:34):
took generations, three generations to breed out the intelligent, to
select out the unique. We have more disease now, but
we have no unhappiness, more poverty now, but shared by
all the secrets of science that once made men look
to the heavens have been lost to us. There were
(43:56):
some left over from the purge. Purges cap but lies. Sorry,
Katie want something to say, nothing, No, it's it's funny,
like he's uh thinks that like this is the the
like this is the goal of like yeah, yeah, yeah,
(44:17):
That's what I was thinking too, is just like, oh,
this is this is what you think we want? You
think that this is the goal? What he well, I
think he would say he thinks that, like right, right,
but also yes, the intention is not this, but it's
the inevitable. This is what liberals want when they complain
(44:38):
about inequality, is they just want everybody to to live
in It's also funny that like okay, so Ben in this,
in this, in this world you've set up, you say,
you have more poverty now than they did before they
broke the whole world. But also you haven't shown us
any poverty and everyone has the same stuff, but everybody
seems to be fine. Yeah, it seems like there's plenty
(45:02):
of food. They all have balconies, like, yeah, what what
where is the poverty? Right like you? And again it's
easy to establish that Night four is a good job
of it, of like talking about the terrible swill that
they drinks beer, and like how it would require much
more thought, just like write a book. I guess he is,
you know, mentioned that there's holes in the pants or
(45:23):
something like, I don't know anyway, No, he can't mention
that because I would require him describing the uniform that
he is apparently wearing anyway. Uh oh, yeah, So there
was some left over from the purge. Again, purges capitalized,
(45:43):
We operated on them. Most remained as they were a
few and unlucky few reverted their brains, taking over functional
operation from their damaged areas. Those Yeah, what does that mean?
Damaged areas as? Areas capitalized their brains taking over functions
from Okay, I don't understand what he's saying here, but
(46:06):
it's I don't know it make sense. It operated on them, Uh,
some unlucky you reverted because their brains took over functional
operation from their damaged areas. Yep, alright, moving on those
we eliminated. We have achieved what no one ever thought possible,
(46:29):
an end to unhappiness. I'm sorry, man, you just said
that there's unhappiness. It's just everybody shares it. You can't
say this. You're very inconsistent about what the goal. Did
he say there is happiness, but everybody would share it,
or there's poverty? He said that there is. It also
doesn't matter. No no dreams means no unhappiness or at
(46:51):
least equal unhappiness. Like you had him admit the thing,
So just like, have him still understand what he's saying. Whatever, man,
unhappiness ra al right. The man peered at him again,
seemed to look beyond him. Just use the word and
fuck man like sorry, The man peered at him again.
(47:14):
Comma seemed to look beyond him. But one man can
destroy the system. It's him. But one man can destroy
the system, one man who believes he is different, one
man who dreams, who aspires? Who wants more? Who even
feels that want? Two shadows leapt onto the wall behind him,
(47:36):
he glanced quickly. Flanking him were two enforcers. The withered
man pushed himself up from the bed. Are you unhappy?
Said the man? He nodded. I will say that he
really should have given this fucker a name, Like every
time he says he it's after he describes this other man,
(47:57):
and it's just like, just like, give him a name,
have him introduced himself. Yeah, he nodded. That is unfortunate,
the man said. He hesitated, Not the man but him.
He hesitated, his eyes closed, burned behind his eyelids was
that image, the star crossing the heavens, blazing its way
through the solid soft curtain. His heart pounded in his
(48:20):
chest when he opened his eyes. The enforcers stood on
either side of him. No, he said, it is happiness
to be so unhappy. Who the guy the main He's
been saving that, Yeah, Ben does, He's been saving that
for the entire time, One more time to say it again. No,
(48:40):
he said, it is happiness to be so unhappy. Yeah,
kind of it, okay, sure, trying to thanks, trying to
thing one might describe it as a bit of a stinker,
but I might enjoy it. I don't know. I don't
think anyone did. That's what he told me. Now pretends
he never wrote it right that it is funny that
(49:04):
he did eventually come to realize what a ship. Yeah,
by the I found a bright Bart review of these,
this book of short stories. There is Oh, it's it's
it's like cloying lee positive. Obviously, it's very funny. That
was before he did the one good things every time
was leave bright Bart because of did the review journalists abused? Um? No, No,
(49:31):
you're right though. That is like the one moment where
Ben Shapiro actually made a moral stand that took courage. Yeah,
I made a decision, did it? It was probably tough
for him? Yeah, fucking too much? Six minutes already. Oh no,
So we're on the second to last page. Oh good, Okay,
let's do it. Let's finish power thrills, do it, let's
do alright, we're at the climax. I guess you'd call it.
(49:56):
After he says it is happiness to be so unhappy,
the man nodded. The enforcer on his right hand grabbed
him by the arm, pinioning it to his side. Okay,
but he was too fast. His brain now moving faster
(50:17):
than those of the enforcers. What, of course, his brain
now fast. His brain now moving faster than those of
the enforcers, got real fast brain speeding up the action.
So it's like reverse bullet time. I guess what's going on.
(50:38):
It's actually not Also not how people like think about
actions or whatever. You know, there's a thousand ways to
write it, but not that that's the one way. This
is the this is the thousand and one. Yeah, anyway,
it speeds up the action. He shot his foot forward. Uh,
he shot his foot forward, tripping the enforcer, and he
(51:00):
then he kicked him in the head. Okay. The enforcer grunted,
then lay still, then lay still. It's just so easy.
Every obstacle is so easy. Anyway, he leapt to the bookcase.
His hand gripped a volume, the pentitukee it said, and
(51:21):
he pulled it from the bookcase. The withered man was screaming,
now in anger or despair, he could not tell. He
swung the heavy volume, metal edged at the other enforcer,
who was moving toward him with a slow certitude. The
book crunched into the enforcers skull and he toppled to
the floor with a crash. Okay, so there are terrible
(51:44):
I have to explain, like why this is bad, like
why this is not not good action writing? Like why
why this is deeply unsatisfying? And it's again because Ben
never does the thing that is fundamental to storytelling, which
is set up and pay off. Right, everything that is
good about a story comes down to set up and
pay off. So if you want to set up him
beating an enforce her to death with a book and
(52:04):
haven't mean anything at all, you have to set up
a couple of things. Number One, previously to him walking
into this room, he has to be broadly aware of
the idea of books and that he's forbidden from them. Now,
there's a number of ways to do this. You could
do it like in the movie Equilibrium, right where he
turns a friend in when he realizes they have banned books,
but then like it haunts him and he regrets it
or something. Or you could have him find stumble upon somewhere.
(52:27):
Maybe he's doing like cleanup work and he finds in
this old ruined house like a book and he he
reads a little from it, but then it gets spotted
and taken from him and he's punished. You know, you
could do it that way, Um, but you need to
set up that books that they mean anything at all
to this person because at this point we don't know
that he knows anything about what a book is supposed
to be but a club, right, Like he's not aware
(52:48):
that they contain knowledge. He's never seen one before. Um No,
he just knows that they're obsolete. Yeah, that they're obsolete,
but like for what what? Here's the other here? We
are all also slipping between the narrator and this guy's perspective,
so that when it's just the narrator saying he picked
up a book, but then you need to at least
(53:10):
establish like he wasn't sure what this was, he never
held one before, but like it seemed like a something
that you, whatever it is, that you can do. The
other thing we would need to set up because this
action has there's nothing that's at all satisfying about a
guy beating up some dudes and just being being good
at it, particularly he just takes him. Yeah, what would
(53:33):
be satisfying or could potentially be satisfying if written competently
is he has an altercation with the guards before, maybe
when they're taking away this book that he's found, um,
and he tries to fight them and they just brutalize
him um and he can't really react because he can't
even visualize the things that would be necessary to physically
defend himself. Um. And you know, throughout the course of
the story, he's kind of breaking down this internal programming
(53:55):
and that's what allows him to actually think and fight
more effectively because he can strategized because he's broken through
the and all they can do is kind of walk
forward and hit, and he's capable of like trapping them
and tricking them. And like you you again set it up.
This is why, like if you look at like I
don't know whether you're talking about like the hero's journey
(54:15):
or like, you know, the stuff like Dan Harmon's story circle,
there's always this moment where like the hero tries and
fails to do the thing that he then does at
the end of the book. That is, like the thing
that people like most is to see growth, is to
see something something fail and then succeed again. Because that's
(54:37):
also the most satisfying thing in life, to try something,
to fail and then to get better at it and
try again and succeed. Like that's kind of the entire
human motivation for all of society and art and inventiveness.
Um so you might want to include a little bit
of that in your story anyway. That's why this is bad.
So let's let's finish this crap spackle. Yeah. So he
(55:01):
boringly crunched an enforceder skull with a book that meant
nothing to him. Uh to recap he faced the withered man.
Is there anything out there? He said, or asked whatever? Uh? No,
said the withered man, there isn't. How can you be
so certain? I can't. But man has been searching for
(55:26):
so long and he has never found it. He moved
towards the withered man and stood over him. You took
my chance to search from me, from us all. It
was my right. The word popped into his head. Unbidden
our right to search. I protected you, the man protested.
(55:47):
A swell of pain touched his chest. He's so specially
he remembers the word right. A swell of pain touched
his chest. Pity. He had heard the word but did
not know its meaning. What did he hear the word
from some enforcer? I guess, Yeah, where did he hear
the why did he hear? What was the again? Don't
say that have him hear the word earlier in some
(56:08):
sort of context that no, write a story. We gotta
do it now, Like I mean, at no point has
he even really like people don't really socialize even Okay, yeah,
I would like this stargazing together and fuck so maybe
they are they play cards once a week. Anyway. He
(56:32):
apparently heard the word pities sometime, but it doesn't matter where,
because nothing matters. Who cares. He pushed the man down
onto the mattress, reached for the man's pillow, placed it
over the man's face, used the word and then once
in your fucking life, all right? He pushed the man
down onto the mattress. Comma reached for the man's pillow.
(56:54):
Comma placed it over the man's face. Period. The man gasped.
He at the last as his old body shuddered. He grunted.
What he's trying to Okay, the man gasped, He fought
at the last. He's referring to the gasp, But there
(57:16):
is another sentence between the fucking the man gasped and this. Okay, sure,
I'm calming myself down. As his old body shuddered, he
grunted something that sounded like a plea a last hope. No,
wait no, he said, as the man drew his last breath.
(57:38):
You protected us from our humanity, from our possibility. May
God the word jumped again to his mouth. God damn it. Okay,
share ben, May God forgive you. When the man was dead,
he dragged him outside onto the mountain. Haley's comment, uh, huh,
(58:01):
because he suddenly knows now huh. Well, also because it's
Hallie's comment, right, you're the one. How does he spell
it h A L E? Y Oh yeah, it's h
l L It was correct originally. Yeah, okay, that's just funny. Yeah,
(58:21):
this is funny. Um, this is the one of the
two times he fucking referenced the fucking one real thing
we all can google anyway. Hayley's comment still glowed in
the sky. It's after trail, burning the night into brightness.
He buried the man on the okay. Then, using the
(58:45):
comment capitalized as his guy, he turned his back on
the bubble and began walking. He did not look back.
Where's the So he's going to die in the woods
because he has no survival skills or knowledge. I guess
I guess been saying that his God filled his mind
with all this knowledge. So I'm sure he's going to
be a new Abraham and whatnot, special special cut boy.
(59:08):
But like nothing that Ben has established would make him
even remotely capable of saying the thing that he said
to the guy at the end, because he doesn't know
any of that stuff. No, it needs to be divine intervention. Um. Yeah,
which is fun and and bad and it's just a
bad it's a bad story, bad story. Oh it's over,
(59:28):
that's the that's done. Oh yeah, he well he began
walking away from the bubble and he did not look back,
and that is the end of that. Well, I'm happy
it's over all, aren't we? All? Said? The man boy?
He not the man the main character did something else.
All of these things are so disappointing, even for Ben. Um.
(59:52):
I think they met my expectations, in some cases exceeded
them by being so good. I just wanted to write
his full length sci fi novel. I know we're going
to and I desperately desperately wanted to just be this
but longer, like it would be so freaking funny if
you couldn't even come up with a second idea. We're
(01:00:14):
going to get someone on the inside this, I promise you. Yeah,
I swear by Haley's comment. We promise. Yes. I was
gonna say, actually it's Haley's comment. No, you did you
did it wrong rightly? Oh boy, this has been fun.
I guess it's back to our normal bullshit next week.
(01:00:34):
The Shooting Star of podcasting, that's what they call us,
and the media and the comment and it's in the
sky and it's very bright and lighting up the mountain
with our pods and casting. All right, cool, we did it,
We did it, We did it. Hooray. I love you all. Yeah.
(01:00:55):
Oh yeah, well this will probably be it for us
and Ben Shapiro until he comes out with that dystopian
science fiction novel which Hugo Award winning. It is the
only thing that I now look forward to in life. Yeah,
we're gonna we're gonna get our our paws on it first,
get the band back together again to do this. Yeah,
(01:01:18):
that's going to come out in six months, and we're
gonna have to slowly gather you up like the Avengers.
We'll find Cody fly fishing outside of Montana, Katie, You're
going to be planning an elaborate bank heistuh with a
with a cast of of of Cluney esque characters. Oh
my god, it's going to be great. Sophie's going to
(01:01:41):
be designing the lunar Lander. Um, it's it's gonna be
We'll have like a fun little little montage as we
have to grab everybody and well because we have to.
It was out. Yeah, well I'm pulling you back in
that sort of stuff exactly. We gotta we gotta break
into uh Sophie's new place of business, uh, to steal
(01:02:04):
the lunar Lander, because we're going to fly Moon and
it's the only way to it's the only way to
get to the last copy of Ben Shapira's dystopian science fiction.
We could make a whole career and a hit show
off of just you know, Oceans eleven. But we're just
trying to find the drafts that Ben doesn't want anyone
to see. If he wor right, I think yeah, I
(01:02:25):
think we're onto something all right. For now, we're gone.
We're out of here. Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh,
you're right, we're out of here. Everything everything worst Year
(01:02:48):
ever is a production of I heart Radio. For more
podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Worst Year Ever, a production of I Heart
Radio Welcome Together Everything, So don't don't don the pod
(00:21):
the cast, the pot of the cast is the cast
of the podcast about Cast podcast podcast podcast on recorder
show Now, it's not great this year so far, A
(00:44):
lot of a lot of people dead from COVID, the
most ever in this country. Canada has been shut down
by fascists and trucks, or at least part of Canada, Ottawa.
You know they've they've been Canada's dealing with UM. I
don't know, literally the exact same thing that happened to
Portland a couple of years ago. UM. And uh, you know,
the year isn't the best ever, I would argue, I
(01:06):
think people would agree. Certainly does not um rack up
on my Verse first ever Best Ever list, But but
you know what, we are one month down officially congrat
If I was going to pick the best year, it
would probably be somewhere between Simpson's Season two and eight.
(01:28):
I think that's pree times personal people. Nationally, Yeah, all
that matters is that Simpsons was doing well. But I
think my best year, I think my whole life peaked
at a Disneyland trip. I took in nineteen to Mushrooms
pretty recent. Yeah, well, I mean it was. It was
(01:50):
one of the best experiences of my life, all downhill
swiftly from their late en Um, did you get to
see two in town? I've only been in Disneyland. Town
was closed when I got there. It was really really upsetting. Well,
you know, Tunetown isn't all it's made out to be.
What you just gotta You got a mosey over to
(02:12):
California Venture and check out the car Land. That's what's
up anyway, tunes, That's not what we're here to talk
about today. We're gonna, I guess sit chat about some
news items and then back to Ben the boot. Oh,
the eight page masterpiece. Coming to a conclusion. Well are
(02:37):
we crawling? Yeah, yeah we are. But first we're first.
I said, First, we'll talk about the news a little bit.
We're teasing. It's a tease everybody with something that I
will probably deal with a little more later on. It
could happen here, but I think is worth talking about,
which is redistricting. I found it an interesting I've been
(02:59):
reading a couple of things like uh, because I think,
like most folks, there was an assumption on all of
our behalfs based on a good amount of evidence that
redistricting was going to be a fucking disaster for the
Democratic Party. UM. That was like that that that the
right would do even more of the jerrymandering they did
in two thousand and eleven after the Tea Party wave,
and it was going to be um uh. There there
(03:22):
was a lot of talk about how the Dems could
lose the House entirely through redistricting. UM and boy, hatty,
that's really not what's what's going down so far. There's
a good article from December one in the New York
magazine UM Intelligence or UH that is about like how
the redistricting process has gone and it's continue to go
(03:44):
pretty well for the Democratic Party. Um, like, despite the
fact that Republicans have sole authority over a drede congressional
districts and Democrats have ninety four uh. With more than
half of the redistricting finalized at this point, UM, it
looked like it's still going to be tilted in favor
of the GOP, but significantly less than it was before
(04:06):
than it was after the Tea Party wave. And it's
possible that the whole map is actually gonna wind up
tilted kind of in Democratic favor. There's a number of
reasons for this. Some of them are that basically after
the Tea Party wave, the redistricting, the jerrymandering the Republicans
engaged in was so sweeping there really wasn't much more
to optimize, and so the Democrats actually had kind of
(04:26):
more moved room to improve things because that the Republicans
had kind of jerrymandered about as fucking hard as they can. Um. Yeah,
we've seen Cranshaws districts. Yeah, it's some of them is
that previously Democrats were less prone to jerrymandering than Republicans were,
and so there were states like Oregon and California that
hadn't done it as hard as a lot of other
(04:48):
states had, and they have all jerrymandered pretty hard in
favor of Democrats, which has wiped out some Republican seats. Um.
And so that's that's a chunk of it. Um. And
some of it's obviously just demographics. There's less Republicans every
year because it's a deaf cult um. And uh yeah,
so it at the moment, like this article that I
(05:09):
found in the Intelligence which I thought was pretty enlightening.
Um kind of ends on this note. Uh quote, there
are two big wild cards left in the redistricting fight,
Ohio and North Carolina. In both those states, Republican trifectas
have prepared extreme partisan jerrymanders that are currently facing legal challenge.
North Carolina Supreme Court has a four three Democratic majority.
(05:29):
Ohio's has a four three Republican majority, but one of
the GOP justices is a relative moderate, and at oral arguments,
the Ohio justices seemed displeased that the Republican map blatantly
ignored the state's constitutional amendment against jerrymandering. Um. And so
like right now, if I'm not mistaken, lintable check. Yeah,
in North Carolina they upheld the Republican jerrymander. Yeah. And
(05:50):
in Ohio it got struck down just recently, like a
couple of days ago. So like one of these went
for the GOP and one of these states didn't. And
so um, you know, at the moment, like the calculations
kind of when this article is written in December, was
that if both of those things, both of those rulings
went in favor of the Democratic Party, that map might
tip to be more democratic as a whole than the nation. Um.
(06:14):
Both of them are not going the way of the Democrats,
but one of them did, which means that like this
is actually the House map is actually significantly less gerrymandered
now in favor of the Republicans than it has been
for the last like twelve years. That's news, which is interesting. Yeah,
And I think a case of like we get it's
very easy to get doom ray a lot, especially because
(06:35):
the Republican or the Democratic Party um has not been
knocking it out of the park by most admissions, but
but not everything that the Republicans have not entirely been
having their own way, and jerrymandering is like it not
a good thing. But I guess I'm not going to
whine about frustrating because it is like, well, yeah, it's
(06:59):
all bad. It shouldn't exist, and uh it should the
master just shouldn't look like that. And we're now in
this sort of back and forth of like, well you're
doing it to us really really extremely so we're gonna
like defend ourselves and kind of push back a little,
but it's still fucked. It's still ridiculous. It's also though,
like what are you gonna do? Just let them do
it exactly, Like no, this is this is kind of
(07:22):
the dims doing the thing that like we've all been
pissed at, which is like, you guys never actually play
the same game. Here they are and they're doing good.
So I guess part of me is also like, so
when we lose the House in like, it's not because
jerrymandering necessarily, like that will be the issue. There is
(07:43):
this article I've been reading from the New York magazine.
One does end with the note um, the biggest threat
to Democrats House majority in twenty two is no longer
Republican jerrymandering, but rather the combination of the opposition parties
inherent and turnout advantage in mid terms and Joe Biden's
dismal poll numbers. So you know, one of those things
you can never do anything about, right, This is just
like for decades it's been this way that like, yeah,
(08:05):
the the the opposition party does well in the mid
term after the election, it's wild. It never this is
neither here nor there, well somewhere. Uh, We're at the
mid terms and Biden has been in office for a year,
Like I know the election was and so but right
now January two, he's been in office for a year
(08:29):
and it's time to start. Oh yeah, I mean every
it never ends, it all bleeds together. I mean it
started in a second. In a year, we're gonna start
talking about primaries. Yeah, it's like an unlivable situation. Um,
politics is. But I don't know, so that's that's worth
going so again, like one of those things that might turn.
(08:51):
Basically kind of a year ago, I was looking at it,
it's like, all right, well, the things that are going
to cost the Diym's the House are jerrymandering, Biden and
the Democrats sucking up and not achieving much in the
way of popular support because they won't do what they
need to do and just kind of the inherent advantage
that the opposition party has a midterms. And now it's
(09:12):
a bit different. The Dems did not hump a bunk
when it came to redistricting. Um they did. They did
completely ship the bed when it came to being a
popular governing this list. Yeah, so bright side one. I
mean yeah, I mean, look, I don't know, and I
(09:34):
try not to do this thing that other people who
kind of share a lot of my political beliefs and
our political beliefs do where you you look at everything
through that lens. You should try to watch things kind
of objectively, like how are they playing the game? Um,
and in in this area, they played the game a
lot better than I think we were initially giving them
credit for, certainly than I was. And that's that's worth noting.
It's worth noting. Um. Yeah, And the other the other
(09:57):
thing that is definitely going to be at play this
year in the mid terms, it would be inflation and
that whole conversation and what's happening right now a lot
going on, and whether or not we them have done
the right thing for inflation, but that it's also about
like stimulating the economy. You need to do that, you
need to you know, and and um uh you know,
(10:21):
and they get flak four things and how that might
affect inflation, but you know, missing the point that all
of the different pieces of a pandemic and a supply
chain issues and etcetera, etcetera are also anyway you guys
get it. It's frustrating. Um, it will be frustrating and
things can change so quickly they can who knows where
(10:43):
it is February also well, also it's uh, we're gonna
see a lot more of it, and it's going to
be hell because we should be done with him. He
should just be a dead guy. Um Tum's gonna do
more and more rallies and more and more explicit things
of like if I, if I run in us to
do this and so then we're going to sort of
see like who in the GOP is going to like
(11:06):
hop on board those promises, yeah, and be like, oh,
oh that's that's the one we gotta we gotta do. Yeah,
I pardon the capital writers. I'm gonna in democracy all
this stuff. Yeah, all these things, and like who's going
to adopt those uh, those those points from him? Um
and ride them through the mid term. Yeah, it's going
to be fun happening. So, you know, I think we're
(11:30):
all in agreement here that the number one thing we
both support, we all support is a nice, quiet, natural
passing in bed for for both Joe Biden and Donald Trump.
Wouldn't that be nice? Look, they've lived well beyond the
average lifespan of an American citizens. They just slip sweetly
into sleep. Yeah, just a nice peaceful passing as together Titanic,
(11:56):
just step off the edge of a boat together that
might heal the country. Yeah, televise it. We all learned
they've been fucking this whole time. Learn that would be
that is a fair prediction. That would be really fun.
Oh yeah. Well, there's this group in Portland called the
Portland Business Alliance, which is we talked about this on
a few episodes. They control a significant chunk through these
(12:19):
kind of business improvement district thing, a decent chunk of
the the policing in downtown Portland's. Um. They used to
have their own d A that was they were fun.
Did they get to levy taxes? Um. The Portland's Business
Association is like all of the rich business owners in Portland, UM,
who have been operating a series of campaigns against the
left and against you know, in favor of the ship mayor.
(12:41):
We've got ted Wheeler. They're just trash. Um. They want
to give a shipload of money to the police and
put the homeless people into camps. Um. They're not nice folks.
I don't like them. Um. Every now and then they
put out a poll that seems to be showing that
everything they say is right. So like today, say, quality
of life in the city is getting worse. Port Pole
(13:01):
Pole finds, which was uncritically reported in an article by
k A. T U to ABC and a number of
other local news agencies. Because local journalists are generally pretty
bad at what they do. Local journalism is critical. I've
known a lot of local journalists. Most of them suck um.
Katu sucks um. So yeah, here's what ka Tu writes
(13:21):
about this. Um, most Portlanders feel the quality of life
is getting worse. A new pole from the Portland Business
Alliance found with the majority saying the city is heading
on the wrong track. The Portland Business Alliance said that
the pole, conducted by d H and Research, found pessimism
at the Rose City at an all time high and
the approval of the city council at a historic low.
So yeah, this is this is what they And then
(13:42):
they just kind of report did they take the poll
on next door? I'm about to talk about how they
any percent of voters say that quality of life is
getting worse? Up from a lot of really stark stuff.
At no point is k E tu actually analyze the
nature of the study. You guys want to us how
many people were surveying for this wonderful study. Um, no, no,
(14:04):
it was more than that. It was five hundred people,
but only all of them lived in the City of Portland. Yes,
lived in the counties and like the areas around it. Um,
so it was it was people who did not did
not live in Portland, down from the outskirts of the city. Um.
The Portland Business Alliance shares us this is a sufficient
(14:26):
sample size to assess voter opinions. Gin. Where where did
they get the people from? Like where they gathered outside
from the most from where the cops live in a
lot of Yeah, um, from these counties that fucking hate Portland.
The margin of error for the full sample is plus
or minus four point four percent, and the margin of
(14:47):
error for the City of Portland's sample for the actual
people who live in Portland is six is six point
to percent plus minus um. So it's I don't know.
I think it's bad. Uh sounds bad. Yeah, sounds inaccurate. Also,
I feel like there's an element of like, must remind
people that this the pandemic. So like things. I think
(15:10):
people generally think things have gotten worse. Um, also gotten worse,
but rather on the wrong track. You know, people are
frustrated by everything in life, the pandemic this that they're
reacting to news headlines. They blame it on city council
(15:30):
or whatever, some reaction to progressives. You know, they bundle
all of their complaints up at something that they that
has nothing to do with it necessarily. Well, so it's
like there's a thing about the a trend of sort
of framing for people outside of the city that the
actual city is like crime written and hellhole and covered
(15:51):
in garbage, and so it sells this sort of narrative
of what the city is like inside two people outside
they don't actually know what it is that they talk about.
But I don't live in Portland, so I can't really
speak to this. So I would be one of the
other people who said, yeah, maybe me too, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
So they like one of the sites I'm finding. Again,
(16:13):
not a statistics expert is saying that, like, in a
population of two thousand people, a pretty good sample size
would be about a thousand folks um. So that's four
times were sampled for a city three times that long,
and and and for a journalist for an article to
cite a study like that, it's so irresponsible. And they're
(16:34):
trying to claim that their sample group is like people
who live on the outskirts of town. But they're kind
of ignoring the really the really stark political biases and
the fact that those people don't live in Portland, and
I like, those are the people who were like in
some cases, setting up armed checkpoints during the fires because
they thought ANTIFO was lighting their forests on fire. Um.
(16:54):
It's just a nice big asterisk. But it's a study
calculated to and this this of course, it's it's calculated
to present a side that's supposed to create more people
that agree with that side. It's you know, anyway to
talk about Barry Weiss, I don't I made we made
(17:16):
a show. I made a joke before we recorded that
we should talk about the news, particularly about one woman
who went to a liberal college for a while and
then I didn't like the vaccine mandate and went to
another college. And that's the news. Um uh, but I've
no I have nothing more to say about it than
(17:37):
that description of the article. Good that that's the thing
that happened very wise on her little kick of like
finding these this anecote and then ballooning it to Um.
This trend, this worldview shift in trend, it's consuming our
colleges it's like, well, I don't know. It seems like
she didn't want to get the vaccine and then spent
(18:00):
seventy on another school scholarship that she got for the
other school her body or her choice. It's true. I mean, yeah,
there you go, what she had to do. It is
not news, is my point. Yeah, no, it's not. But
at the same time, it is the only news that exists,
which is culture war news, because that's the only thing
actually going on while while the climate continues to spiral
(18:23):
and our food supply gets ever more fragile into plague spreads,
all that's really happening in a way that is monetize
able by news agencies is the culture war. Yeah, well
I can't. I can't fuck the eminem or Mickey Mouse
or Mini Mouse anymore. So I can. You absolutely can.
You can't. I have to unbutton you just have to
(18:45):
unbutton her pants. Honestly, the only thing I really have
faith in in this world is that you could fuck
the eminem if you really tried. Thank you had? Wow.
Can we end this early? Yeah, well we can, and
we just want to end of the thing. Yeah, you're
not going to go You're not gonna go fucking eminem. No. No,
(19:07):
we're going to take a break for the perfect perfect
Now we're going to come back for some buds together everything.
So don't oh yeah, yeah, you don't know how. That's
(19:35):
how we do it. Yeah, like butter Cody, O, how's
our how's our? How's our? Big? But it been big boy?
But hey been. Oh he's good. He's writing his stories,
he's chilling doing art for people. He's he's getting his
ideas out there via arte. You got to have a
(20:00):
special boy to look at a shooting star and break
free from the chains of authoritarianism, which is everybody gets
fruits and vegetables in their fridge. You get to regulated
double pane windows. Anyway, when last we left our hero,
(20:22):
I guess is what we would call him. Uh, he
left the bubble capital B and he is now walking
towards the mountain capital wing. Yeah. You's something not related
to the story at all, But I got it, No, no,
because I said, like, do the previously on and I
just remembered something that I wanted I've always wanted to
(20:44):
talk about, or for a while I have. It's not
a big deal, and in fact, I've built it up
too much. Already. When you are watching a show, when
it's a streaming show, my opinion, you either get a
previously on or you get a dope long intraste once
you do not get both. We don't need both. I
don't need to see the recap and then three minutes
(21:06):
of an intro sequence. Give me a quick, sharp intro again.
It sounds like a show has been bothering. You know,
it's it's not one specific show, just a it's just
a thing, okay, whatever. No one's jumping on this bay.
I think it's a pretty I bet that someone listening
(21:27):
when you when you talk about Netflix, I know you
can always skip the intros, so you can't. I'm not
talking about Netflix, I'm talking about any other numbers. And
sometimes it's yeah, okay, no one wants to get on
the shide with me. It's fine. I steal all my shows,
steal them. I guess it's fine. Dot com so I
(21:48):
don't get any any any of the programmed and stuff.
The bullshit tell us about Ben. I've detoured us enough.
He's doing really thought it. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm
sure you're right. It's fine. We can deal with it later.
Off the show we will deal with this later by
(22:12):
the time, I mean there is Apparently someone in the
subreddit noticed that Ben Shapiro's launched to paid access book club,
and I did see that He's told his fans that
he's going to be publishing a dystopian sci fi novel
at some Oh my god, we have to join the
first book his book club is going to read together.
(22:32):
Is n O my god, I think that we should join.
I will not get the money for that, I mean,
we couldn't do. Jamie Loftus styled deep dive investigation into
Ben Shapiro's book club. Um well, I would love to
look into it to some extent that other certainly will
(22:54):
read his terrible science picture. Absolutely, that's going to be
the best thing that's ever happened to us. I hope
it's just this but longer. Um, he just flushes it
out a bit. Yeah, just like, yeah, maybe takes our notes.
You know, he's been maybe he's been listening. When did
he launch this? Has he been listening and taking notes?
(23:16):
I think? Hes Okay, okay, let's get started. Okay, all right, okay, okay, okay,
you know what, Okay, all right, okay, Yeah, Robert's brandishing
a war club right now. For the people at home, obviously,
it's like, is he going to deny that he's not.
It's just a club in case I gotta club somebody. Yeah,
(23:39):
you never know, speaking of club, book club, speaking of
book club, books, thinking of books, not this, but we're
gonna read it anyway. By the time he approached the
light on the mountain, he was dirtier than he had
ever been in his life, at least. Remember there was
a light on the mountain. Yeah, there's a light in
the mountain. Yeah. Yeah. So the last the last section,
(24:00):
he's looking at the mountain, which is closer to the
bubble than he thought. A light shone on the mountain,
winking in the distance, the bubble shut behind him. He
walks towards the mountain. I can't wait for this to
be somehow both a rip up, rip off of ur
and the Giver and yeah, yeah, yeah, it's definitely got
(24:21):
Giver vibes coming up. Good Lord, all right, let's do it.
By the time he approached the light on the mountain,
he was dirtier than he had ever been in his life,
at least so far as he remembered it. That's kind
of awkward. Grime and ash coated his face. His skin
felt gritty, as though each poor were individually rubbing against
the others. He could feel the dirt particles between his
(24:42):
fingers underneath his uniform in his ears. He radiated from
the mountain like an enormous kiln Um. I have a question.
Has he mentioned his uniform yet? No? No, I don't
think he's described that at all. I want to know
what the fucking uniform looks like, what the man he
would like to write a book. Maybe maybe there was
(25:04):
a reference to regulation clothes. But I don't know. Fucking
maybe I'm doing a search in this. I'm sorry, Yeah,
I'm sorry. It is the first time I've heard of
a goddamn uniform. She was not beautiful and she was
not ugly. She wore the blue uniform of the Ministry
of Personal Needs. Described how the women dress. Yeah, um,
(25:25):
that's okay. This is the only the second and only
other Refort described anything about how he was dressed. No,
he absolutely what else was dressed? No, um, but whatever
it looked like, who knows, But whatever it looked like,
it's got dirt underneath it under that uniform. That is
an appearance of some kind. The mountain was rocky, far
(25:48):
less smooth than it appeared from a distance, like all things.
That's just me adding that. Sorry, oh well, I mean
the mountain was rocky, far less smooth than it appeared
from a distance, to which I added, yeah, like all
things are like, yeah, it's like murry from a distance.
(26:09):
He's like, yeah, it's more detailed now whatever. Anyway, the
darkness of the mountain concealed it's craggy surfaces. Now, as
he climbed down into a crevice, the light disappeared for
a moment. When he climbed up again, it stood before
him a door in the ledge. Above the door, an
inscription had been pounded into the flat black rock, all caps,
(26:35):
the creed of ignorance. Wait, so is the light the door? Yeah,
coming from the door. It's coming from the door the
door in the ledge, which is like the ledge of
some ledge he's on, really really like just like a
(26:55):
terrible description of climbing a mountain. Yeah, time, it's just
like three he gets there. The mountain was rocky, far
less smooth than it appeared from a distance. The darkness
of the mountain concealed his craggy services. Now as he
climbed down into a crevice. The light disappeared for a moment.
When he climbed up again, it stood before him a
(27:16):
door in the ledge. That's it. It's really bad, really bad.
So the mountain, the mountain is rocking, you can't tell
from a distance. And then got there. But at his
first description of climbing up the mountain included climbing down.
So it's confusing, like you're supposed to like it's there's
(27:36):
there's nothing wrong with including that detail. But you haven't
told me that you started. Oh yeah, no, he didn't
start exactly like I climbed down, then back up? Were
you climbing up? Okay, and the like. Yeah. In the
middle of describing what the mountain looked like closer up
than from a distance, he's saying, now and now I'm
climbing down to a crevice. It's just very awkward and weird.
(27:57):
But Ben she clunky, clunky, the creed of ignorance. He
gazed up at it, wondering, do you understand it? The
voice came from inside the door. It beckoned him closer, No,
he answered, good, said the voice, come in. Don't be afraid.
(28:21):
He edged through the door, hot that does fund. You
gotta get that. The light inside was extraordinarily bright, oddly harsh.
It illuminated a sparse marble room lined with a wall
of books. He had never seen so many books. Actually,
he had never seen a book at all. They were
(28:47):
that's my favorite. You know what it is? Then, okay,
look include lines that make the entire story derail as
you underway, how I have to say. I mean, he's
done this a million times already in this one, like
referring to things like that that he that he doesn't know.
(29:10):
He does know, like because like the mountain, which I've
never seen before, like or the Ministry of Education, which
I don't because like the narrator is omniscient. It's the
third person narrator, so it's not necessarily from the character's
point of view. It's just awkward and weird to say
that kind of stuff because he's done it, did it bad,
(29:30):
and he did it wrong. He did about it wrong.
But also when he's saying, actually, you've never seen a
book at all. They were obsolete. He had been told,
so he like knows the word book. He's been told
books are obsolete, but like he doesn't know what it is.
There's so many questions. It's the ship that is so
consistently fascinating about the badness of Ben's story. Um, where
(29:55):
you can what what's actually going on is he's realizing
as he's whiting. He's like punching it up as he's writing,
but he doesn't like go back and edit anything to
make it flow. So he's like the wall was lined
in books. Oh you know what he should not know
when a book is at all I'll just include that
after him say that's what I mean is that I
sometimes feels like or to me, it feels like maybe
(30:17):
one person read it, and he just sloppily adds in
extra sentences to like, maybe this is a spot where
I can do something about books. So it's not well
thought out, it's just thrown in. That is, if he
even let somebody read this, you know that maybe one
round of notes and was like, oh, I'll do it
(30:39):
here where they put the note not think He's like,
he's not easy. I got this. I can knock it
out in a half hour, and he types it in. UM. Anyway,
after he hotly edged through the doorway. Uh, he saw
the books. They were absolute he had been told, so
he'd never seen one all, but he knew that there
(31:01):
were books. I guess, I don't know. It's not clear
if the narrator knows it or not. But a small
wooden table marked the corner of the room. A bed
lay along the opposite wall, and in that bed was
a tiny man, wrinkled with age, weak with decay. His
mouth his mouth grinned. Oh, I see what he's doing.
(31:22):
His mouth grinned, his eyes did not. Is he dead?
Who are you? The man demanded. He didn't know what
to answer. He had never been asked. I see, said
the man. And what are you doing here? Silence? But
(31:43):
you are out here? Are you not? Outside the bubble?
He pointed out the door, the velvety purple beyond where
the meteor continued to burn brightly across the night sky.
What yeah, what's up with that meteor? How long has
it been there? This is the first and only time
he uses the word meteor in this story. And he
(32:06):
saw this shooting star, which is not the same thing star.
I mean, presumably that's what this person is referring to.
So he didn't know there was a bubble around him.
And he's got the word for anyway again, narratoring back
(32:27):
and forth. It's all bullshit. Um, it's not great, like
it's yeah, it's it's just not good because like he
he he saw the shooting star and then left it
at that, and then pages and pages later talking about
a meteor. They are technically the same thing, but it's
like the shooting star. Shooting star is visible briefly, that's
(32:48):
the whole. Yes, that's why we call it that. It
is a meteor that is seen briefly. So like and
so if there was an ear, he would If there
was a meteor and we're or that something we're supposed
to be continuing to see, why haven't we continued to
see it? Why hasn't continued? Like that's a guide. He
would notice it. If you star, he would notice that
(33:10):
it's still there away. Yeah, I mean again, I don't know.
That probably would have made it a better story, but
this is confusing. It wouldn't have made me stop when
I read that there's a meteor in the sky. Yeah,
just throwing it in there suddenly. Yeah, it would have
(33:30):
been better if you'd at least tried to make it
a theme, you know, that would have made sense to
within being all weird about Judeo Christianity. Um, yeah, I
can see that it would have worked better than what
he did. Okay, Yeah, it's like the phrase the meteor
continued to burn brightly, like, wouldn't continued? Yeah, all right,
(33:55):
because we haven't had this introduced before unless unless well,
well we're going to find a little bit out about
what this meteor is after this ad break. Oh really,
so yeah, together everything back with that meteor. Oh, we
(34:28):
can't wait to find out what the meteor is. What
the shooting star that he saw in the sky that
no one's ever seen before. He's the only one that
saw it, and it made him wake up, and then
he escaped the bubble, which has never happened before except
for maybe this old tiny man who's in this room
in the mountain that was bright in the distance, and
now he's up close after climbing down the crevice and
(34:50):
then back up it all right. He pointed out the
door to the velvety purple beyond, where the meteor continued
to burn brightly across the night sky. The man side. Ah,
that better. Hallie's comment, I know you don't know what
it is. Not my mind about that, suffice it to
say that it shows up once every seventy five years.
(35:11):
Your father and mother must have seen it at some point. Okay,
I mean I'm consuming a lot of things about his age,
his parents age, Like your father and mother must have
seen it at some point. If wait a minute, is
it is it? Is it Hayley's comment, it's those the
(35:31):
same things. So they just referenced it as a meteor,
and then the next line it's a comment. Well, I'm
not sure how distinctly different those things are. It doesn't matter,
it doesn't matter. It's it's mostly this. It's based on
the size, it's mostly the size whatever. Whatever. I'm just saying,
(35:52):
we're all over there. We've got a year, We've got comment.
A shooting star, more often than not, is a very
time like ball of like ice and a rock. It
burns up in the atmosphere. It's why it turns bright.
So why we can see it. Um, Usually they don't,
like you don't see a shooting star and then it
continues off into the sky. Um, it's because of its
(36:13):
like interacting with the atmosphere that we see it. Um.
It is technically a meteor. Um. A comet is tend
to be much larger comets. Uh, do these cycles, they were,
they returned. Holley's common is a comet. It's a very large,
uh piece of rock and ice, um that has been
on a long journey through space. Um. And it's just
(36:34):
it's just not clear that he was referring to a comet,
but rather a shooting star, which you see regularly in
the sky if you can see a clear sky like,
oh look, briefly shooting star that's burnt up. Anyway, it's fine,
it's fine, it continue. I'm just stuck on this like
(36:55):
assumption that like, your father and mother must have seen
it at some point if they were if the seventy
five and over, and even then they saw it when
they were a baby whatever. At that he spoke, does
he know his parents? Like, that's what it implies. But
but no, I don't think it's the rest of it.
What this story is kind of implies the concept of
(37:16):
the family has been eliminated. Yeah, like in nine Okay, well,
so here we go. Your mother and father must have
seen it at some point. At that he spoke, I
never knew my mother and father. Okay, okay, there we go,
or father and mother is what he says. But you
remember the comment, I don't know what. I remember mostly
(37:37):
nothing but something what I see? The man nod at
his lip, and you came out here. I had to
I am not like the other Hey, you yo, you
Why wouldn't you remember the comment I don't know some
fucking magic that we're going to learn about um Because
(37:57):
he's not like the others. He's just right said, right there.
He's not like you don't remember your parents, but you
remember the comment. Well, he's not like the others. It's
not like the others. The man gestured to the chair
and propped himself on one arm. He looked a little
like a gnome, withered and malevolent. Let me tell you
a story he began many years ago. Humanity was diverse.
(38:23):
There were men and women of various races, ethnicities, abilities,
and they were all did you say various or nefarious?
We're getting a little bit of Harden Harrison berger on
rip off here too. There we go, here we go.
It's happening various various races, ethnicities, abilities, and they were
all unhappy. For no matter what measures governments tried, inequality remained.
(38:48):
Redistribution of resources merely masked the problem. Laws directed toward
helping particular groups often ended with them being strangely disadvantaged.
Pretty sure he's talking about Civil Rights Act h different abilities, bread,
(39:09):
different values, different belief systems. Those values and systems caused conflict.
We tried everything to solve it. We tried education, we
tried genetic treatments designed to raise the average intelligence, but
each i Q point meant a massive difference in out.
(39:30):
Oh god, yeah, the man looked at him and he
really didn't have to work hard to get a bunch
of answers? Did he also, does this guy know what
i Q is? That's not being explained? Like this would
just be moon man talk to him his wall of
books that he will when they read. Oh yeah, him like, yeah,
what is that Q? I don't know what you're talking about?
Exactly right. Again, if you're you rather have the character
(39:54):
like not understand any of these words, and like, you know,
maybe that leads to a moment where this man like
allizes how different he's made and he could celebrate like
it's such a success that you don't understand any of this,
Like it means you know, we've worked or whatever it worked,
or you could have like him speak differently and be
like we tried to make people more intelligent. But you
(40:15):
know then that led to this and it does obvious
and on the nose is yeah, how lazy. I mean,
you are all listening, you know it hurts almost. It's
incredible that this is what he has arrived at. It
isn't like I'm pretty when I watched something really embarrassing
(40:37):
or whatever. Cringe. It really makes my insides get squidgy.
We'll strap in and hopping the walk in freezer to
get that squidg ice rock gord. Okay, what's up? What's next?
Al Right? So he edged through the door. The man
(40:59):
looked at him, peered at him. Do you know, said
the man, good lord, what it is that makes us happy?
He shook his head. Nothing makes us happy, ha ha.
But it is desire, aspiration that makes us unhappy. Ambition, jealousy,
(41:21):
these make us unhappy. The man who reaches for the
stars is sure to fall short. The man who reaches
out to the divine is sure to remain lonely. The
man who reaches for his toothbrush, provided that his toothbrush
is in its proper place, is satisfied. No dreams means
no unhappiness, or at least equal unhappiness, and if no
(41:45):
one has experienced true joy, the joy of achievement, then
no one knows what they are missing. Then no one
knows that they are missing it's typo, sorry, not my fault,
my fault. Then no one knows that they I'm missing
should be what it's not. It continues, all right, equality
(42:06):
is the key. Equality cannot be achieved in excellence, It
can only be achieved in mediocrity and love that the
message of this is ultimately anti equality quality. He's also
I think, taking a shot at Buddhism. Yeah, yeah, with
the desire. There's a lot here, but most of it
(42:30):
being that Ben is such a like just to think
about it, like existentially, such an offensive place to take
an opposition to the reality that not everybody is afforded
equal opportunities and people are dying because of it. Like
but if you, uh sorry, if you help any particular group,
(42:51):
it ends with them being strangely disadvantaged. Huh yep. Like again,
I have to assume he's talking about the civil rights
um that clip that's going around of him on social
media with him with the kids, Oh god, the beautiful moment. God. Alright,
(43:13):
uh story talk about that on even more news equality
is the key. Equality cannot be achieved in excellence. It
can only be achieved in mediocrity. And we have achieved
it within the bubble. All are equal, all want nothing,
aspire to nothing. It is perfect. It is stasis. It
(43:34):
took generations, three generations to breed out the intelligent, to
select out the unique. We have more disease now, but
we have no unhappiness, more poverty now, but shared by
all the secrets of science that once made men look
to the heavens have been lost to us. There were
(43:56):
some left over from the purge. Purges cap but lies. Sorry,
Katie want something to say, nothing, No, it's it's funny,
like he's uh thinks that like this is the the
like this is the goal of like yeah, yeah, yeah,
(44:17):
That's what I was thinking too, is just like, oh,
this is this is what you think we want? You
think that this is the goal? What he well, I
think he would say he thinks that, like right, right,
but also yes, the intention is not this, but it's
the inevitable. This is what liberals want when they complain
(44:38):
about inequality, is they just want everybody to to live
in It's also funny that like okay, so Ben in this,
in this, in this world you've set up, you say,
you have more poverty now than they did before they
broke the whole world. But also you haven't shown us
any poverty and everyone has the same stuff, but everybody
seems to be fine. Yeah, it seems like there's plenty
(45:02):
of food. They all have balconies, like, yeah, what what
where is the poverty? Right like you? And again it's
easy to establish that Night four is a good job
of it, of like talking about the terrible swill that
they drinks beer, and like how it would require much
more thought, just like write a book. I guess he is,
you know, mentioned that there's holes in the pants or
(45:23):
something like, I don't know anyway, No, he can't mention
that because I would require him describing the uniform that
he is apparently wearing anyway. Uh oh, yeah, So there
was some left over from the purge. Again, purges capitalized,
(45:43):
We operated on them. Most remained as they were a
few and unlucky few reverted their brains, taking over functional
operation from their damaged areas. Those Yeah, what does that mean?
Damaged areas as? Areas capitalized their brains taking over functions
from Okay, I don't understand what he's saying here, but
(46:06):
it's I don't know it make sense. It operated on them, Uh,
some unlucky you reverted because their brains took over functional
operation from their damaged areas. Yep, alright, moving on those
we eliminated. We have achieved what no one ever thought possible,
(46:29):
an end to unhappiness. I'm sorry, man, you just said
that there's unhappiness. It's just everybody shares it. You can't
say this. You're very inconsistent about what the goal. Did
he say there is happiness, but everybody would share it,
or there's poverty? He said that there is. It also
doesn't matter. No no dreams means no unhappiness or at
(46:51):
least equal unhappiness. Like you had him admit the thing,
So just like, have him still understand what he's saying. Whatever, man,
unhappiness ra al right. The man peered at him again,
seemed to look beyond him. Just use the word and
fuck man like sorry, The man peered at him again.
(47:14):
Comma seemed to look beyond him. But one man can
destroy the system. It's him. But one man can destroy
the system, one man who believes he is different, one
man who dreams, who aspires? Who wants more? Who even
feels that want? Two shadows leapt onto the wall behind him,
(47:36):
he glanced quickly. Flanking him were two enforcers. The withered
man pushed himself up from the bed. Are you unhappy?
Said the man? He nodded. I will say that he
really should have given this fucker a name, Like every
time he says he it's after he describes this other man,
(47:57):
and it's just like, just like, give him a name,
have him introduced himself. Yeah, he nodded. That is unfortunate,
the man said. He hesitated, Not the man but him.
He hesitated, his eyes closed, burned behind his eyelids was
that image, the star crossing the heavens, blazing its way
through the solid soft curtain. His heart pounded in his
(48:20):
chest when he opened his eyes. The enforcers stood on
either side of him. No, he said, it is happiness
to be so unhappy. Who the guy the main He's
been saving that, Yeah, Ben does, He's been saving that
for the entire time, One more time to say it again. No,
(48:40):
he said, it is happiness to be so unhappy. Yeah,
kind of it, okay, sure, trying to thanks, trying to
thing one might describe it as a bit of a stinker,
but I might enjoy it. I don't know. I don't
think anyone did. That's what he told me. Now pretends
he never wrote it right that it is funny that
(49:04):
he did eventually come to realize what a ship. Yeah,
by the I found a bright Bart review of these,
this book of short stories. There is Oh, it's it's
it's like cloying lee positive. Obviously, it's very funny. That
was before he did the one good things every time
was leave bright Bart because of did the review journalists abused? Um? No, No,
(49:31):
you're right though. That is like the one moment where
Ben Shapiro actually made a moral stand that took courage. Yeah,
I made a decision, did it? It was probably tough
for him? Yeah, fucking too much? Six minutes already. Oh no,
So we're on the second to last page. Oh good, Okay,
let's do it. Let's finish power thrills, do it, let's
do alright, we're at the climax. I guess you'd call it.
(49:56):
After he says it is happiness to be so unhappy,
the man nodded. The enforcer on his right hand grabbed
him by the arm, pinioning it to his side. Okay,
but he was too fast. His brain now moving faster
(50:17):
than those of the enforcers. What, of course, his brain
now fast. His brain now moving faster than those of
the enforcers, got real fast brain speeding up the action.
So it's like reverse bullet time. I guess what's going on.
(50:38):
It's actually not Also not how people like think about
actions or whatever. You know, there's a thousand ways to
write it, but not that that's the one way. This
is the this is the thousand and one. Yeah, anyway,
it speeds up the action. He shot his foot forward. Uh,
he shot his foot forward, tripping the enforcer, and he
(51:00):
then he kicked him in the head. Okay. The enforcer grunted,
then lay still, then lay still. It's just so easy.
Every obstacle is so easy. Anyway, he leapt to the bookcase.
His hand gripped a volume, the pentitukee it said, and
(51:21):
he pulled it from the bookcase. The withered man was screaming,
now in anger or despair, he could not tell. He
swung the heavy volume, metal edged at the other enforcer,
who was moving toward him with a slow certitude. The
book crunched into the enforcers skull and he toppled to
the floor with a crash. Okay, so there are terrible
(51:44):
I have to explain, like why this is bad, like
why this is not not good action writing? Like why
why this is deeply unsatisfying? And it's again because Ben
never does the thing that is fundamental to storytelling, which
is set up and pay off. Right, everything that is
good about a story comes down to set up and
pay off. So if you want to set up him
beating an enforce her to death with a book and
(52:04):
haven't mean anything at all, you have to set up
a couple of things. Number One, previously to him walking
into this room, he has to be broadly aware of
the idea of books and that he's forbidden from them. Now,
there's a number of ways to do this. You could
do it like in the movie Equilibrium, right where he
turns a friend in when he realizes they have banned books,
but then like it haunts him and he regrets it
or something. Or you could have him find stumble upon somewhere.
(52:27):
Maybe he's doing like cleanup work and he finds in
this old ruined house like a book and he he
reads a little from it, but then it gets spotted
and taken from him and he's punished. You know, you
could do it that way, Um, but you need to
set up that books that they mean anything at all
to this person because at this point we don't know
that he knows anything about what a book is supposed
to be but a club, right, Like he's not aware
(52:48):
that they contain knowledge. He's never seen one before. Um No,
he just knows that they're obsolete. Yeah, that they're obsolete,
but like for what what? Here's the other here? We
are all also slipping between the narrator and this guy's perspective,
so that when it's just the narrator saying he picked
up a book, but then you need to at least
(53:10):
establish like he wasn't sure what this was, he never
held one before, but like it seemed like a something
that you, whatever it is, that you can do. The
other thing we would need to set up because this
action has there's nothing that's at all satisfying about a
guy beating up some dudes and just being being good
at it, particularly he just takes him. Yeah, what would
(53:33):
be satisfying or could potentially be satisfying if written competently
is he has an altercation with the guards before, maybe
when they're taking away this book that he's found, um,
and he tries to fight them and they just brutalize
him um and he can't really react because he can't
even visualize the things that would be necessary to physically
defend himself. Um. And you know, throughout the course of
the story, he's kind of breaking down this internal programming
(53:55):
and that's what allows him to actually think and fight
more effectively because he can strategized because he's broken through
the and all they can do is kind of walk
forward and hit, and he's capable of like trapping them
and tricking them. And like you you again set it up.
This is why, like if you look at like I
don't know whether you're talking about like the hero's journey
(54:15):
or like, you know, the stuff like Dan Harmon's story circle,
there's always this moment where like the hero tries and
fails to do the thing that he then does at
the end of the book. That is, like the thing
that people like most is to see growth, is to
see something something fail and then succeed again. Because that's
(54:37):
also the most satisfying thing in life, to try something,
to fail and then to get better at it and
try again and succeed. Like that's kind of the entire
human motivation for all of society and art and inventiveness.
Um so you might want to include a little bit
of that in your story anyway. That's why this is bad.
So let's let's finish this crap spackle. Yeah. So he
(55:01):
boringly crunched an enforceder skull with a book that meant
nothing to him. Uh to recap he faced the withered man.
Is there anything out there? He said, or asked whatever? Uh? No,
said the withered man, there isn't. How can you be
so certain? I can't. But man has been searching for
(55:26):
so long and he has never found it. He moved
towards the withered man and stood over him. You took
my chance to search from me, from us all. It
was my right. The word popped into his head. Unbidden
our right to search. I protected you, the man protested.
(55:47):
A swell of pain touched his chest. He's so specially
he remembers the word right. A swell of pain touched
his chest. Pity. He had heard the word but did
not know its meaning. What did he hear the word
from some enforcer? I guess, Yeah, where did he hear
the why did he hear? What was the again? Don't
say that have him hear the word earlier in some
(56:08):
sort of context that no, write a story. We gotta
do it now, Like I mean, at no point has
he even really like people don't really socialize even Okay, yeah,
I would like this stargazing together and fuck so maybe
they are they play cards once a week. Anyway. He
(56:32):
apparently heard the word pities sometime, but it doesn't matter where,
because nothing matters. Who cares. He pushed the man down
onto the mattress, reached for the man's pillow, placed it
over the man's face, used the word and then once
in your fucking life, all right? He pushed the man
down onto the mattress. Comma reached for the man's pillow.
(56:54):
Comma placed it over the man's face. Period. The man gasped.
He at the last as his old body shuddered. He grunted.
What he's trying to Okay, the man gasped, He fought
at the last. He's referring to the gasp, But there
(57:16):
is another sentence between the fucking the man gasped and this. Okay, sure,
I'm calming myself down. As his old body shuddered, he
grunted something that sounded like a plea a last hope. No,
wait no, he said, as the man drew his last breath.
(57:38):
You protected us from our humanity, from our possibility. May
God the word jumped again to his mouth. God damn it. Okay,
share ben, May God forgive you. When the man was dead,
he dragged him outside onto the mountain. Haley's comment, uh, huh,
(58:01):
because he suddenly knows now huh. Well, also because it's
Hallie's comment, right, you're the one. How does he spell
it h A L E? Y Oh yeah, it's h
l L It was correct originally. Yeah, okay, that's just funny. Yeah,
(58:21):
this is funny. Um, this is the one of the
two times he fucking referenced the fucking one real thing
we all can google anyway. Hayley's comment still glowed in
the sky. It's after trail, burning the night into brightness.
He buried the man on the okay. Then, using the
(58:45):
comment capitalized as his guy, he turned his back on
the bubble and began walking. He did not look back.
Where's the So he's going to die in the woods
because he has no survival skills or knowledge. I guess
I guess been saying that his God filled his mind
with all this knowledge. So I'm sure he's going to
be a new Abraham and whatnot, special special cut boy.
(59:08):
But like nothing that Ben has established would make him
even remotely capable of saying the thing that he said
to the guy at the end, because he doesn't know
any of that stuff. No, it needs to be divine intervention. Um. Yeah,
which is fun and and bad and it's just a
bad it's a bad story, bad story. Oh it's over,
(59:28):
that's the that's done. Oh yeah, he well he began
walking away from the bubble and he did not look back,
and that is the end of that. Well, I'm happy
it's over all, aren't we? All? Said? The man boy?
He not the man the main character did something else.
All of these things are so disappointing, even for Ben. Um.
(59:52):
I think they met my expectations, in some cases exceeded
them by being so good. I just wanted to write
his full length sci fi novel. I know we're going
to and I desperately desperately wanted to just be this
but longer, like it would be so freaking funny if
you couldn't even come up with a second idea. We're
(01:00:14):
going to get someone on the inside this, I promise you. Yeah,
I swear by Haley's comment. We promise. Yes. I was
gonna say, actually it's Haley's comment. No, you did you
did it wrong rightly? Oh boy, this has been fun.
I guess it's back to our normal bullshit next week.
(01:00:34):
The Shooting Star of podcasting, that's what they call us,
and the media and the comment and it's in the
sky and it's very bright and lighting up the mountain
with our pods and casting. All right, cool, we did it,
We did it, We did it. Hooray. I love you all. Yeah.
(01:00:55):
Oh yeah, well this will probably be it for us
and Ben Shapiro until he comes out with that dystopian
science fiction novel which Hugo Award winning. It is the
only thing that I now look forward to in life. Yeah,
we're gonna we're gonna get our our paws on it first,
get the band back together again to do this. Yeah,
(01:01:18):
that's going to come out in six months, and we're
gonna have to slowly gather you up like the Avengers.
We'll find Cody fly fishing outside of Montana, Katie, You're
going to be planning an elaborate bank heistuh with a
with a cast of of of Cluney esque characters. Oh
my god, it's going to be great. Sophie's going to
(01:01:41):
be designing the lunar Lander. Um, it's it's gonna be
We'll have like a fun little little montage as we
have to grab everybody and well because we have to.
It was out. Yeah, well I'm pulling you back in
that sort of stuff exactly. We gotta we gotta break
into uh Sophie's new place of business, uh, to steal
(01:02:04):
the lunar Lander, because we're going to fly Moon and
it's the only way to it's the only way to
get to the last copy of Ben Shapira's dystopian science fiction.
We could make a whole career and a hit show
off of just you know, Oceans eleven. But we're just
trying to find the drafts that Ben doesn't want anyone
to see. If he wor right, I think yeah, I
(01:02:25):
think we're onto something all right. For now, we're gone.
We're out of here. Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh,
you're right, we're out of here. Everything everything worst Year
(01:02:48):
ever is a production of I heart Radio. For more
podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.