The 'both sides' narrative in mainstream media serves a psychological function by reassuring audiences that they can remain intellectually comfortable without making difficult political judgments, effectively creating a 'will to ignorance' that prevents people from confronting uncomfortable truths about political reality. This media strategy, exemplified by PBS's Friday night panel discussions featuring commentators like David Brooks, creates a ritualized environment where calm, measured disagreements are presented as wisdom, while actually avoiding substantive accountability for political failures. The hosts argue that this approach has become a self-protecting cartel that maintains authority by preventing any single side from being uniquely held accountable, thereby perpetuating a cycle where institutions reward the worst actors and produce more of them.
Ep 1000: For Your Consideration...
Added:There, you can listen to the professional laugh, wherever you get your podcast. No?
No?
>> Whatever. It's It's a thousand episodes.
I say whatever you want to do, Drift Glass.
>> What's she going to do, huh? What's she going to do about it, huh?
>> [laughter] >> Send me money?
>> old man.
>> An old man, a cranky old man. We lived through tornadoes again today. So, you can listen to the Professional Left podcast wherever you get your podcast.
We don't know where you get them, but we get them on Netroots Radio or on our website, proleftpod.com, where you can also contribute to this podcast. There's a PayPal button at our website, or you can mail us a letter and/or contribution at P.O. Box 9133, Springfield, Illinois 62791.
>> And thank you to those of you who are sending us contributions, however you're doing it. We love you.
>> Yes. We love We love all of you.
>> All of you.
>> You're all the people who do, the people who don't, the people in between. You're all just >> to us, the people comment. We We so appreciate you.
>> We do. We really do.
>> And this is the podcast for the week of June 12th, 2026, and it's not safe for work.
>> Recorded live from the cornfield resistance, where the countdown is over because this is in fact the 1000th episode of the Professional Left podcast with Drift Glass and Blue Gal. And you all know what happens when the countdown HITS ZERO.
>> PRECIOUS.
>> [screaming] >> I CAN WALK.
>> [music] >> IT'S BEEN QUITE A DAY, BLUE GAL.
>> YEAH, and I want to start off by reading this tweet that was put up. I'm sorry, it's a Blue Sky post that was put up because it's right right on target with Mein Führer, I can walk.
>> Okay. And if you [laughter] don't know where that's from and why that's funny, I really feel sorry for you.
>> Yeah, you need to go and look at the Criterion Collection. I think it's in there. Uh that is from Dr. Strangelove.
And it's a movie you should definitely watch. Uh this is from elected representative Brandon Gill who was on Fox >> Yeah.
>> Business.
And [clears throat] and we thank Ten Grain and Aaron Rupar for sharing this.
>> Oh, yes.
>> Uh Here here is uh congressional representative Brandon Gill. He looks like a used car salesman like they all do.
>> Yes.
>> Quote, "We particularly need the left to tone down the rhetoric."
>> Yes. Nope.
>> "Somebody is going to listen and [clears throat] believe they are the next Dietrich Bonhoeffer >> [laughter] >> and act on that and that's what we're seeing here."
>> Wow.
Wowee wow wow. Do you know what you just said, Brandon Gill? Do you know who you just [laughter] compared your dear leader to, Brandon Gill? I don't think you know.
>> how much of an international hero >> Yes.
>> Dietrich Bonhoeffer is to Christians and non-Christians around the world?
>> Yes. That's >> guy who tried to kill Hitler.
>> Yes, and went to prison for it.
>> And got and got ex- ex- executed.
>> He he he was uh he left Germany.
>> Mhm.
>> He came to the United States. He got his religion his new religion, his understanding in Harlem.
>> Harlem, New York City, Harlem, black community, black churches.
>> He's like, "Holy crap, this is this is the real deal."
And he went back to Germany and he's the person we quote not just because he tried to kill Hitler, which is an admirable and wonderful thing to do and too bad he didn't succeed, but um the uh the notion of of cheap grace >> Yep.
>> which he talked about many many times over the last thousand episodes. Cheap grace being, "I don't want to apologize for anything. I don't want to admit I was wrong. I just want you to forgive me."
>> me in the blood of the lamb and I'm forgiven no matter what I do.
>> And we have said, "No, that it doesn't work that way. It doesn't work that way at all. It It doesn't work that way with um liberals.
>> Yeah, no.
>> We are never forgiven for our for being right all along, ever. And we're not going to apologize for it, but um I also want to talk about a little bit about before we go into uh into the show proper. We're just in the in the anteroom right now.
>> Yeah, and and I I do want to say one more thing about Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was not a liberal.
>> No. No, no, no, he was not.
>> So, yeah, don't don't [clears throat] mistake wanting to kill Hitler >> No.
>> meaning that he's a hippie, or that he's progressive, or anything like that. He was a deeply religious person.
>> Yes.
>> Deeply uh old-school, old-book Christian person.
>> Yes, he was.
>> German Christian person.
And and he was inspired by the black church in Harlem, which was also biblically conservative.
>> Yes, and still is.
>> And yes, and many many still are. And so, that doesn't mean they're socially conservative, but biblically and in terms of your duty to God.
>> Yeah. Take that seriously.
>> And so, I don't people get confused by that, I think, and they try to put Dietrich Bonhoeffer like Che Guevara, you know, like, oh, he's a communist just like me. No.
>> No.
>> Not not happening. I just want to make sure we get our history accurate here.
>> And by the way, when we get back >> a Republican congressman would, first of all, say the left needs to tone down their rhetoric.
>> Yeah, well.
>> And on Fox Business, of course, and then say, you know, we don't want another Dietrich Bonhoeffer out there.
>> Mhm.
>> You're admitting that your leader is Hitler.
>> Yeah.
>> [laughter] >> Way to go, man.
Way to go. Yeah, and and I I By the way, thank you to Nicole Sandler again for inviting me on the show today. It was a good show today. On Wednesday, we're recording this on a Wednesday. Um and uh we did get to talking about um um the old days.
>> Mhm.
>> Old times and what what we were thinking and talking about back in the good old days.
>> Yeah. And you were remembering dearly and fondly the days of Newt Gingrich as House Speaker, I think.
>> Exactly. We [laughter] were and I'm not sure quite sure because my train of thought just jumped because I'll jump back on the track in about 20 minutes. Don't worry about that.
Because we have had a heck of a day.
>> Yeah.
>> It is it has been as you as you regular listeners know, last week we were interrupted by a tornado siren.
>> Yeah.
>> And we went to the basement with the 70 mile hour straight line winds. I don't know that there was an actual tornado, but it was tornado >> Not in Springfield, but in the general area. I think was it Wednesday night?
There were four tornadoes.
>> We had two nights back to back.
>> Yeah.
>> With with >> sirens for sure.
>> four tornadoes and one with straight line winds that were might as well have been tornado. And so we had to go to the basement. And today guess what? This is why we're recording this later than we usually do. Uh >> But also earlier.
>> Yeah. Also >> earlier.
>> Because we had a an awful lot of weather as we say around here. We had a tornado. The sirens went off. We had a tornado up on the north side of Springfield. There's tornadoes right now I believe in Effingham.
There's there's just it is a really really aggressively weather weather weather day.
>> Remind me, how far is Effingham from us?
It's 2 and 1/2 hours east?
>> about an hour and a half.
>> Hour and a half east.
>> Yeah.
>> We went to Effingham for dinner.
>> Yeah, one of our favorite restaurants for special special occasions is there.
But yeah, it's it's just a wild weather day. If you get a chance to see just the visuals of the supercells of the of the clouds, they're they look like AI. They look they can't possibly be real these gigantic storms. So I went to the basement. I took 10% of all of our household goods down there with me because >> [laughter] >> the The we were getting for the last like week was this is very bad. This is a once-in-a-decade thing. This is going to be, you know, really you could be stuck in your basement for a day or two.
You could be without a home, etc. So, we take that seriously in the Midwest.
>> Yeah, we do take that seriously. When we hear the siren, we take it very seriously.
>> And so you were at work >> People People die in these storms. They do.
>> Uh you were at work and I was at home and we said, "Okay, well, you just stay where in that cinder block where you work."
>> Well, and I was in my my uh I and my one co-worker were in the office, the call center at the hospital center where I work, medical center where I work. And uh supervisor stuck her head in said, "Do you guys want to go to the basement?" And I looked at her and said, "We're in a windowless office." [laughter] >> Yeah, we're fine.
>> We're as you say, surrounded by cinder blocks.
>> Yeah.
>> Uh if fairly much in the center of the building. I don't think that we are in an exterior wall where we're located.
So, we were like, "I I'll just stay here."
And then you talk to me, texted me.
>> Did.
>> And uh 5:00 rolled around and we had not had any calls in the call center for 40 minutes because the sirens went off. Everybody went to the basement and wasn't going to try to change their Everybody had called that morning to change their doctor appointments.
>> Yeah.
>> You know, we were busy in the morning with that.
>> check in with all the kids, making sure, you know, cuz they live in >> Charge your phones, kids.
>> Yeah, they live in the St. Louis area.
So, you know, two of them do. And and that's another place where storms are hitting. So, this is And and you made a really good observation about um >> Max velocity?
>> Max velocity. And the storm First of all, it's amazing storm coverage. This guy has a network of >> This guy needs to win. I said to Driftglass tonight, he needs to win a MacArthur genius grant.
>> Yeah. What he does.
>> provide he and his team provide better non-stop weather coverage of tornadoes.
>> Yeah.
>> And damaging stor- storms that are a threat to life.
>> Right. Then anybody >> than anyone.
>> Yeah.
>> And he does it for free on YouTube.
>> Yeah.
>> And uh he's built a community. I think he has 2 million followers now.
>> Something like that. Some amazing We're subscribers cuz it's >> Yeah, we're subscribers because we want to support what he's doing cuz when there's you know, when the sirens are going off and the sirens stop going off, you want to turn on Max Velocity to find out where that storm is and if the next one's coming.
>> And And these are These are a bunch of nerds. These are a bunch of >> weather nerds.
>> Weather nerds. And I find it so refreshing >> That's the other thing. He has actual connections with these crazy storm chaser car people.
>> Yeah.
Yeah.
>> That, you know, and these guys now have drones that they set off to go into the tornado.
>> That's what he does.
>> Very high-powered uh strong uh reinforced drones.
>> Military grade, yeah.
>> Military grade drones that they toss up in the air to go >> Mhm. Check >> get a closer look at what that tornado's doing.
>> And And somehow he's gotten access to traffic cameras all over the Midwest.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> And >> Well, I think those are a lot of those are online.
>> Yeah.
>> But he has instant ac- Like he's set up a network and a and a whatever kind of connection page to all of the links to those >> Mhm.
>> and has so much digital video capability um you know, [clears throat] it is almost I I wouldn't say this seriously, but it is almost how Sparks eat your heart out.
>> It really is cuz it really And just I'm online, we're doing the stuff, and he everyone's like in their 20s or 30s.
>> Yeah.
>> And they're total nerds.
>> And they're bringing all these screens up to the forefront multiple times every every 5 minutes.
>> are people we relate to cuz they're absolute >> Cuz they're on the spectrum.
>> the spectrum, and they love what they do, and they're really, really good at it.
>> And they get up in the morning thinking about their passion, which in this case is meteorology.
>> And the degree of I mean accuracy, which is if you're at the corner of Ash and South Grand, get to shelter right now.
If you If you're near the Chuck-E-Cheese, etc., etc. They They dial it right down to the building and the people and the street and etc. and say, "You need to get to shelter right now because there's a big ass storm."
>> Right. If you're near the Dollar Tree on West Ash Street, >> Yeah.
>> hurry up and get to shelter and get as many walls between you and the outside as possible. You know, and and this is what I said to Driftglass while we were watching this, which is this is the most coverage that rural small towns in the Midwest ever get.
>> Ever get for any reason.
>> And he speaks of them with an intimacy >> Mhm.
>> because he's looking at Google Maps and and checking to see where the you know, it's not his interest in the granular details of Main Street USA.
It's granular interest in storms and how they move.
>> Yeah.
>> But he is also interested in saving lives.
>> That's exactly right. Exactly right. And I'll tell you >> he makes it a granular discussion in order to wake people up because locally people know where the Baskin-Robbins is.
They know where the Dollar Store Dollar Tree store is.
>> Yep.
>> And they'll go, "Oh my god, Dollar Tree, that's across the street from Aunt Minnie. You know, I need to call her and get her tell her to get to the basement." You know, he's interested in making sure people don't die in these very dangerous storms.
>> And there were there were actually two different storms that hit today. This is not the Weather Channel, so we're going to get through this just a second.
>> Yeah, we're going to get on to other things, but this was our day. So, >> But the first the first wave came through and I'm I'm I tune into the to the Weather Channel because I'm I'm working at home and I'm I'm trying to do a a of things and there's a lot to be organized if we're going to live in the basement for a day. And I look and they're like the storm the storm chaser that's headlining it is in Springfield.
>> Yeah, Sangamon County.
>> No, no, no, in Springfield, in the city of Springfield.
I there were storm chasers in Springfield like at Casey's in Springfield. And then nothing quite, you know, dials you into, "Oh, this is really bad and this is in my backyard and I should really, really take this seriously."
>> Yeah, and >> I I noted that there were more storm chasers rolling through Springfield streets than there were as many as New York Times vans driving around Ohio looking for a diner. You know, they were just looking for >> MAGA hat, right?
>> Yeah.
>> [laughter] >> Yeah. He's like, "There's a There's several storm chasers in our town right now saying, 'This is going to be the epicenter of the storm of the decade.'"
Like, "Okay. All right, I get it."
>> I need to now move my entire life, including a change of clothes, >> Yeah.
>> to the basement.
>> And herd cats. Um, but that's >> I did want to say that that it reminded me I didn't get to watch Max Velocity at work until the sirens went off at about 4:20.
>> Yep.
>> Blaze it. And >> [laughter] >> I had to say that for one of my kids.
Um, but around 4:20 the sirens went off and at that point our phones stopped ringing cuz people were going to their basement.
>> Yep. Yep.
>> And so I was able to put on Max Velocity on my computer and that's when my supervisor said to me and said, "You guys can go to the basement if you want." So forth and so on.
And I saw Max Velocity had Sangamon County on the ban which is our county on on the banner below his T his screen.
And I was instantly taken back to May 4th, 1970 when I came home from school in Kent, Ohio and Walter Cronkite was on TV talking about Kent.
>> Kent State.
>> And my dad taught at Kent State, and my grandfather taught at Kent State, and my mother got her undergraduate and master's degree from Kent State.
>> Mhm.
>> Um so that was Kent was my home until 7th grade, and that surreal feeling for a minute of wait, I live here. This is a real place.
This isn't TV.
And you you feel important all of a sudden, but at the same time scared.
>> In the worst way possible, yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> And this is something that if you are a member of the prestige or legacy media, uh of course you're talking about New York all the time. You're talking about DC all That's where you live. And so it's no big thing to talk about those places.
That's just the center of the universe.
>> Mhm.
>> But there's a whole big country out here >> Mhm.
>> that never gets that kind of coverage, never gets consideration at of any kind.
And that's uh you know, in our own small way one of the things we do, which is we try to tell you what's going on before you don't need to go to a focus group to to figure out what the MAGA people are thinking cuz we live next door to them. We can tell you exactly what they're thinking, and and without the veneer that they put on for a focus group of civility. We can tell you what they're really doing. One of the thing about uh today, and then we'll move on to to the proper thing, which is a generational story which cracked me up because I was on um again, I was I was chatting with with the storm chasers on YouTube. I drop in comments and make little jokes and stuff cuz they're they're bored and they're driving around. And I said, you know, explaining to our kids what life was like before GPS was entertaining. Cuz it was just unfathomable to them that they're cuz these guys are in the car, storm chasers are in the car, and there's you can hear the GPS voice talking to them.
>> About where where our next left is cuz they need to be they can't just drive straight over a cornfield to the tornado. They need to know where these rural roads are, right?
>> same in the same computer lady voice that we have in our cars telling them take route number two on to I I 72 in 300 ft. So, I'm listening to that going, you know, this is a miracle of modern technology which which nobody uh which everyone takes for granted. This is just the way things are. And so, I said, you know, when we had to explain to our kids what it was like before GPS, it was kind of wild. And the young man who was in the car caught my comment and laughed and said, "Yeah, boy, I can feel you, you know, because uh when I was a kid, we would have to print out the MapQuest map."
>> [laughter] >> And we would used to fight over who got to read the MapQuest map. I'm like, "Oh god, I missed you by an entire generation, didn't I?"
>> Yeah. No, no, no, I'm talking about the >> had the Sunoco map in our car.
>> the Texaco, [laughter] the Rand McNally, the thing that folded out for the the size of Iowa. And you had to know how to read them. I'm like, "Oh, but that was just a kind of thing." To him, those were the old days.
>> Mhm.
>> And and that is, you know, I mean I don't mean to segue, you know, awkwardly, but a lot of what we discover here is what people don't know.
>> Mhm.
>> Um I was listening to a >> what people don't know in New York City and Washington, D.C.
>> Yeah. And and >> Because they they don't come out into the center of the country unless they it's the Iowa caucuses.
>> Right. Or or they're in their 20s and 30s.
And they just don't know. They just are unaware. There's a um uh I listened to a uh a gamer named Destiny. The guy's got like two or three million followers. He's a he's a a streamer. Nice seems like a perfectly nice guy, but was was saying, you know, "Are you are you Did you know about this thing where Democrats are the only people who have agency, it seems like, and Republicans have no I'm like, "Yeah, I've been writing He wasn't talking to me, but I'm overhearing them discovering things."
>> Yeah. Discovering things that And he You know what really pissed him off? These [ __ ] all call themselves independent. They're not independent.
They're just Republicans. [ __ ] sake.
And I'm listening going, "First of all, excellent. That's great.
>> Thank god. Yes, the message getting out to a place where it might resonate and and be heard. Yeah. Yeah.
>> But it's also a little sobering that the thing you've been talking about for 20 years >> and a thousand episodes.
>> Some people are just like just catching up now, which I appreciate, but it's also a little >> thank god they're using their >> [clears throat] >> large platforms.
>> Yes, exactly.
>> To to speak some basic truths.
>> Yeah.
>> Now, if I was president, I would be changing my job and living in the state capital of every state in the union.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Every month I would move just so that there would be national representation for each state. And I think the reason they don't do that is safety.
>> Yeah, I think I think you're right.
>> There are some states where that cannot provide enough security >> Mhm.
>> to keep frankly, the president from getting shot.
>> Mhm.
>> By by some anti-government I'm not getting into parties here.
>> Mhm.
>> Some anti-government [clears throat] There are places where there are just enough anti-government loons to who have guns.
>> Mhm.
>> Anti- but hate the government who would see that as an opportunity to become a hero. Yeah.
>> and that that gap of understanding there, >> Yeah.
>> that's that's really that is our job.
>> Yeah.
>> Because we it is it is terrifyingly confusing to people who wake up and have no idea what the hell is going on and why things are the way they are.
>> Mhm.
>> And there are people out there providing them answers. The people on the right tell them it's all the liberals who are destroying your life. The people in the center, who we're going to talk about in some detail today, are all saying, "Well, you know, it's both sides. It's both sides." And they have the advantage of having huge microphones and huge megaphones, and they can tell these people who are looking for answers, "The problem is it's both sides. It's left and right.
It's left and right." And if you repeat that enough times, they believe it. And our job is to contextualize why we are where we are and to explain to them why both of those answers are wildly incorrect and they're and they're codependent.
>> Mhm.
>> So, let's talk about PBS, shall we?
>> Yeah, and and anyone who wants some of this in writing, Driftglass has put up something at his blog with a lovely we're we're calling [clears throat] them hybrid images.
>> Yes.
>> Both of those start sometimes admittedly start an image with AI stuff.
But zhuzh it because we can't leave it alone. It's never good enough.
>> [laughter] >> And if if anyone out there would like to do artwork for us on the fly which we will then say fix this, fix this, fix this, change that, change that cuz we're fussy people and that's how we are.
For free, that'd be great. But [laughter] we don't have the time or the talent to do that >> Or the money.
>> Or the money.
>> [laughter] >> So, we take advantage of the tools that are available.
>> Yeah, and I know that some people object to using AI.
But please be aware we're very creative people and we do our own artwork a lot.
>> And and I've been doing and you've been doing graphics since the Bush administration.
>> Before we had good Photoshop at all.
>> Just just crude, you know, just bearskins and stone knives, baby. And so, we're not it is simply an expedient matter. By the way, I also use AI to check my work.
>> Mhm.
>> You know, go through this thing for spelling errors and continuity mistakes and and tell me with flag there the anything that's that's weird, which is exactly what I would do if I had the time to set it aside for 3 days and reread it myself, which I don't.
>> Yeah.
>> But it's just the the >> Well, there there are tools that I think are going to be very useful. There's an industry that needs to be heavily regulated Yes, yes. And those two things can be true at the same time.
>> Absolutely. Absolutely.
>> And the people have the power. So, let's use it.
>> Exactly.
All right, but Driftglass does have a a composite image on his blog of the PBS steel cage death match.
>> I do.
>> That you should go look at at driftglass.blogspot.com.
And by the way, PBS steel cage death match are words no sensible person would ever put together into a sentence.
>> [laughter] >> Because anyone who has watched PBS panels for more than a minute can identify their unique set of cultural expectations.
>> Mhm.
>> Avoid profanity.
Make room for the cruise elegant cruise ad in between, right?
>> Oh, I'm so old I remember.
>> Yeah, oh, Viking Cruises. You got to We got to wait for the Viking Cruise ad to be over.
>> Remember when there were no ads on PBS, Blue Gal?
>> Yeah, I remember that.
>> Yeah.
>> Then once the Viking Cruise ad is over, there is no muttering aside about uh not going on cruises and also what a dumb [ __ ] so-and-so is. You're not allowed to say that.
>> No.
>> Uh >> [clears throat] >> no reality TV confessionals after the panel where a participant can really cut loose.
>> Mhm.
>> You must always be collegial even when your colleague is lying their ass off.
>> Yes. And above all, above all, no shouting. No shouting. Business must always be conducted in the proper tone.
Interactions kept within the 50-to-60 decibel quiet conversation range. Maybe jump it up to 65 decibels when propping up someone's lame joke with some of that PBS brand jolly laughter. Oh, we're all Oh, so nice. Yeah, you're very funny.
>> But however hard they work to sand down any differences then pack those differences in the cotton batting of PBS-speak.
>> Yes.
>> There are moments, more and more frequently, when it's clear that the left side of the panel would very much like to call the right side of the panel out for being a lying son [ __ ] >> Yeah.
>> But they can't because there are PBS rules of engagement.
>> Very clear rules of engagement. So let's leave PBS for a moment and to talk about the corporate sponsored UFC fascist spectacular that took place across Washington D.C. over the weekend.
>> Yeah, over the weekend. This was from Trump using the Armed Forces full honor cordon soldiers who escort fallen heroes and heads of state to usher UFC fighters past Abraham Lincoln's statue as if they were victorious warriors returning from battle to the pathetic roided out slab of stupid who called Michelle Obama a {quote} man.
I wish I was a man Driftglass.
Cuz I had something to say to this guy.
And then they called on America to agree with him.
>> Mhm.
>> This was the trash people victory over the libtards extravaganza that the Republican base has been craving for decades. It was everything Trump was tacky stupid bloated hollow and of course it was a cash grab.
>> Of course. As many people on social media noted it looked like a family on meth that just moved into the White House and the rubble of the East Wing looked like what was left of the meth lab after it exploded. And just down the way a little bit the algae had returned to the reflecting pool with a vengeance.
Another of Trump's signature massive cost overrun grift that immediately turned to [ __ ] and I'm and I'm going to shout out uh uh uh Lower Manhattanite >> Mhm.
>> who said MAGA now stands for Make Algae Grow Again.
>> Aw.
>> Aw. He's a good writer.
>> Yeah.
>> Mhm.
>> And when you contrast the ecstasy which which the MAGA meatheads greeted this travesty with a fury these same meatheads whipped themselves into over Obama White House Christmas tree decorations or the time Obama ordered a burger with mustard or the widespread conservative shock and outrage over Obama putting his feet on his desk. You realize the futility of trying to engage with these people as functional adult human beings. The tan suit drift glass.
>> The tan suit and I could have pulled 20 more examples.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> And the shoes on the desk one really because that was all about respecting the office.
>> Yeah. Yeah, and the resolute desk.
Respect the resolute desk.
>> Respect the building and the office cuz this is the god damn White House. And then people started pulling up well here's Gerald Ford with his feet up and here's here's George W. Bush with his feet up and here's Reagan and then suddenly they didn't say they were wrong. They just found something else to get mad about cuz they're a bunch of [ __ ] racist.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> was the thing. So, they really are truly are just reprogrammable meat bags which is why unlike many other podcasts neither of us feel the need or felt the need to go live with our feelings about this travesty to quickly shoot some you know professional left reacts video and then post with all caps yellow captions screaming shock and outrage emblazoned across it.
>> Yeah. If that's your thing, great.
>> Yeah.
>> And and I click on those every once in a while to get someone's reaction. I'm not going to lie. Uh and of course if you want that all the time you have a lot of options to choose from.
>> Yes, you do.
>> Many many options.
>> Yes, you do.
>> However, one of the occupational hazards of having done this podcast for a thousand episodes and having started blogging during the middle of the George W. Bush administration is that we've been to this rodeo before. Many times.
>> Mhm.
>> And there's very little new under the sun.
>> Yeah.
Cuz we already know how bad things are.
We don't need someone to tell us.
And we are cursed with knowing how they got that way.
With seeing it coming from a long way off and being laughed out and ignored as we warned the danger was real and it was getting closer.
>> Yeah. So, we don't need a reaction video um of anyone else or us saying, "Wow, this is so crazy."
Uh you know, have you ever seen anything this crazy? It's so crazy.
>> It's insane, Blue Gal. This is insane.
Do [laughter] you notice how insane it is? It's so insane.
>> Trump owns stock in the UFC.
>> Yeah.
Yeah.
>> And didn't he pay the people in crypto?
>> That's my understanding. I haven't confirmed that, but that is my understanding. In Trump family crypto.
>> Oh, god.
>> Yeah.
>> I did see video of like the whole all the Trump kids there.
I don't I don't know if Ivanka was there, but I did see Melania and the boys were there and they you can tell from their faces they know this is the last time.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> You know.
Uh but every time Trump amputates another vital limb of democracy, we're not going to come on the air and say, "It's so crazy."
>> Uh we don't need people validating what we already know.
>> Right. Right. Was trailer trash Woodstock on the White House lawn disgusting? Well, yeah, it was.
>> Of course it was. Was it also a physical manifestation of the kind of garbage Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have been spewing on a thousand radio stations across the country for 30 years? Yes, it was.
>> Was that [ __ ] yelling about Michelle Obama being a {quote} and {unquote} a man sickening? Yeah, it was.
>> Of course it was. Was it also a manifestation of the misogyny and bigotry of the Republican base which has been on a public display for decades?
Yes, it was that, too.
>> And is Trump siccing the DOJ on his political enemies and a "pollutingly fascist" abuse of power?
Obviously, it is. This is from the Associated Press, June 15th, that's Monday.
>> Mhm.
>> [clears throat] >> Quote, California Governor Gavin Newsom says Trump's Justice Department is investigating him and his wife.
Unquote. But other than which Republican is doing it and what legal instrument they're using, how is this really different than Newt Gingrich and House Republicans going on a four-year-long fishing expedition looking for some way to [ __ ] the Clinton administration and drive him from office?
>> Oh, yeah.
>> They had no evidence to start any investigations.
>> No, it and it's really not fair you remember stuff, Blue Gal. It's very [laughter] very unfair cuz if you're of a certain age, you may remember that there were actually two Whitewater special investigators, not just one, there was two. That's right, there was the corrupt hack named Ken Starr who was given an unlimited budget and a mandate to find something, find anything Republicans could use to destroy Bill Clinton. But before Starr, there was Robert B. Fiske Jr., a widely respected prosecutor and attorney and at the time of his appointment, Fiske was almost universally praised by members of the Republican Party because they were so damn sure that Clinton was out there doing all the crimes they were hearing about on hate radio. So, go get him cuz there's there's a just a sackful of crimes. Just just poke a sticky in it, you'll get him.
>> Yeah, he has to be impeached cuz reasons.
>> Things. [laughter] >> If you're hearing strong echoes of the Epstein files, right-wing media, remember this?
>> Mhm.
>> Right-wing media in 2024 >> Mhm.
>> demanding full disclosure of something because they're 100% QAnon sure that in there somewhere will be the key to destroying the Democrats once and for all. And then oopsie.
>> Yeah. And then what happened, Blue Gal?
>> You're You're not alone.
>> Yeah. This is all >> [laughter] >> This is all real familiar territory to us. Fiske was appointed in January of 1994 by Attorney General Janet Reno to serve as to the special counsel during a gap in the Independent Counsel statute.
Now, Fiske's key findings, released in mid-1994, exonerated Clinton on the central allegations. No evidence that Bill or Hillary Clinton engaged in a criminal wrongdoing in the Whitewater matter. No evidence linking Whitewater to the death of White House counsel Vince Foster, which was ruled a suicide. No evidence of improper interference by the White House in related federal investigations.
In short, Fiske concluded there was insufficient evidence of criminal conduct by the Clintons.
>> You know what Whitewater was? It was a land deal in which the Clintons lost money, but it was also one of the early examples of a three-syllable unusual word.
>> Yes.
>> That Fox could repeat forever, all day long.
>> Well, had had the word It had the word water in it, too.
>> Yeah. Yeah, like Watergate.
>> Whitewater, you know, hey, everybody remember that? Remember that? How bad that was?
>> But those three-syllable words, Whitewater, Solyndra, of course, Benghazi.
>> Benghazi.
>> They tried it with Auto Pen.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> And Auto Pen wasn't quite exotic enough.
It didn't have water in it.
>> No.
>> Like, you know, which at that time was Watergate was still not as as distant a memory as it is now.
>> Yeah.
>> Um but watch for those. Three-syllable words that Fox repeats hundreds of times a week. And you have a sense that And they always What they always mean is hate Democrats.
>> D E I >> Yeah.
>> C R T. Simple. Simple, simple, simple.
Good for simple people with simple brains.
>> doesn't mean what it doesn't have to mean anything. In fact, it's better if it doesn't. And so, uh, because what it's going to mean is, "Look at these Democrats."
>> Well, it it's an empty vessel. It's an empty vessel you can fill with your hatred and your paranoia. That's that's what they want.
>> So, yeah, Fisk concluded there there wasn't sufficient evidence against the Clintons. And you know what? That just wouldn't do.
>> Nope.
>> And right around this time, the independent counsel statute was reauthorized. So, out goes Fisk and in comes Republican henchman Ken Starr.
Fun fact, Ken Starr's loyal deputy was an ambitious young Republican named Brett Kavanaugh.
>> Who Susan Collins is sure will do make a fine, you know, won't he won't touch >> They asked her today did she regret the vote? She said, "No."
>> No. Because she's got to go. Of course, 30 years ago, this is a long time ago.
This is a generation ago. Republicans felt they needed to heart up their political witch hunts with grandiose puffery about morality and the Constitution and the sanctity of the rule of law, which history has shown us none of them actually believed in.
But it gave the rubes cover to root for a Republican coup against the Clinton administration.
>> However, if you're too young to remember Whitewater, Monica, and the blue dress, maybe you remember the Republicans' Benghazi show trials.
>> Mhm.
>> Very subtle word.
That dragged Hillary Clinton through the mud, produced no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Hillary Clinton, and ended up reinforcing an already established official record >> [laughter] >> rather than overturning it.
>> Oops. Again, oopsie.
>> What was the point of having these ridiculous public Benghazi, Benghazi, Benghazi spectacles drag on for 2 years?
>> Well, I've good news for you, Bluegirl.
I have an answer to that question because the Republican Party has been on a steady downward trajectory for decades, getting louder and stupider every year, no surprise that 20 years after their failure to take down Bill Clinton, we find disgraced former Republican speaker and Trump bootlicker Kevin McCarthy on Fox blurting out the truth to try to curry favor from Sean Hannity.
>> What you're going to see is a conservative speaker that takes a conservative Congress that puts a strategy to fight and win. And let me give you one example.
Everybody thought Hillary Clinton was unbeatable, right? But we put together a Benghazi special committee, a select committee. What are her numbers today?
Her numbers are dropping. Why? Cuz she's untrustable.
>> Again, how is any of this materially different from Trump using the instrumentality of the DOJ to persecute James Comey, Mark Kelly, Letitia James, Adam Schiff, Lisa Cook, Tim Walls, Jack Smith, Anthony Fauci, and Governor Newsom and his wife?
>> Yeah, it's not. There's no difference at all. The The scale is different, but the motivation and methods are entirely consistent, as is the loud, angry approval of the Republican base.
>> And recognizing that this is just Republicans being Republicans, except stupider, louder, and more openly fascist, is the mixed blessing of being at this for so long.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I recognize that. I know what that is. I've seen that before.
Yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> Remember in the original classic 1968 Planet of the Apes, if you haven't seen it, go watch it right now, where there's this axiom, I didn't notice this until I was putting together thoughts about the show. I never noticed this discontinuity before. An axiom that's repeated twice in the movie, once by Dr. Zaius in the second half of the movie, and once by Taylor in the first half.
And it's an elegant bit of screenwriting by screenwriters Rod Serling and Michael Wilson. When Taylor and his crew discover one flower growing in the desert by itself, what conclusion do they immediately reach?
Where there's one, there's another, and another, and another. Let's find them.
And when Dr. Zaius is interrogating Taylor, who he is sure is a dangerous mutant, the conclusion that he jumps to is >> You're a mutant.
>> That's what Zira and Cornelius claim.
You're talking heresy, doctor.
>> [clears throat] >> Of course. But suppose I am a mutant.
How can the appearance of one mutant send you into a panic?
>> Because you're not unique. There's the one you call Landon.
>> Oh, then you admit that >> I admit that where there's one mutant, there's probably another and another and another, a whole nest of them.
>> This is nothing more exotic than plain old deductive reasoning. And it's a very good find. I don't know if anyone's ever written about that before. That parallel structure.
>> I'm sure in a year and two years um Rick Wilson will.
>> [laughter] >> Maybe 2 months.
>> Yeah, and what a genius he is. So, yeah.
Yeah.
>> And once the Republican Party made its escalating series of Faustian bargains, launching its Southern strategy, inviting white conservative fundamentalists to the table, and making a partnership of convenience with hate radio, then they had doomed themselves to a gradual devolution to the lowest common denominator.
>> And not to oversimplify it, but if you squint just a little, you can see a straight line running between George H.
W. Bush trying to suck up to Rush Limbaugh in 1992 by inviting that racist degenerate to the White House for a Lincoln bedroom sleepover and then personally carrying Limbaugh's baggage into the White House.
You can see a straight line connection between that and the destruction of the East Wing and the staging of trailer trash Woodstock at that same White House by another Republican president.
>> Mhm. The lesson is always the same. Once institutions begin rewarding the worst people, they inevitably produce more of them.
Where there's one, there's another and another and another.
So, once you allow one Rush Limbaugh inside the inner circle, there will be another and another and another. And soon you have a group of internet influencers carrying, you know, the Epstein binder part one out of the White House. And they're garbage people.
This is not an alliance when they especially when they had Rush Limbaugh in there. It was appeasement.
>> Mhm.
>> And we all know where appeasement inevitably leads.
>> Yeah, and more quickly than they ever expected, the Republican Party, their policy of appeasing its right-wing at any cost, led to the embarrassing spectacle of party chairman Michael Steele groveling to Rush Limbaugh in 2009 before Trump was ever there, begging Rush Limbaugh for forgiveness.
>> It led to Kevin McCarthy in 2015 blurting out the GOP's rat-fucking strategy on live television. Not very [clears throat] bright. He's not very bright.
>> Cost him his job.
>> Yeah. Because he was trying to get back into Sean Hannity's good graces. And what was Sean Hannity mad at him about?
>> Mhm.
>> He wasn't going after Hillary Clinton enough.
>> That's right. Not hard enough. Got to got to get tougher with her.
>> Yeah.
>> It led to Donald Trump awarding scumbag Rush Limbaugh the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom during his February 4th, 2020 State of the Union address.
>> Not to mention that he he was given a plaque that called the majority maker by an earlier Congress.
>> That was 1994. Yeah. No, this is this is absolutely continuous. It's a it's a continuum of behavior you can trace back if you are inclined to do so, which so many people are not because there so many people who are complicit in this, who don't want to talk about the past because that's their past.
>> Yeah.
>> They don't want to talk They don't want to talk They They want to get back to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. They want the cheap grace.
>> They want cheap grace.
>> They do.
>> Yep. Washed in the blood of the lamb, put a prayer on it, and move on.
>> Mhm. [clears throat] >> Yeah.
Uh Uh you know, and and along with a a thousand other Republican insults and injuries to American democracy, it has led to trailer trash Woodstock on the White House lawn.
>> Yeah. And as Rudyard Kipling wrote in his Danegeld poem 115 years ago, maybe Danegeld poem.
>> I think it is Danegeld, yeah.
>> Quote, "And that is called paying the Danegeld, but we've proved it again and again that if once you've paid him the Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane." Unquote.
>> Yep. And over on PBS every Friday at the other end of the decibel and linguistic spectrum, Driftglass, there's a ritual [clears throat] almost as performative as a UFC steel cage match staged on the White House lawn. It is certainly as scripted.
>> Mhm.
>> As see, we told you we'd get back to PBS.
>> Promise. We keep our prom We make promises, then we keep our promises.
That's what Mark Twain explained about how to write a novel.
>> Yeah.
>> Make a promise in the first chapter, you you fulfill in the second. I make a second promise in the second chapter, and so on and so forth until you have their money in your pocket and you can retire.
>> Oh, that's what it's all about.
>> Oh, [ __ ] yeah. Who cares about literature? It's all about cash grab, honey.
Now, oddly enough, both spectacles serve roughly the same purpose. Weird, huh?
The White House cage match nonsense is there to entertain the Republican base.
It's designed to make the MAGA faithful hoot and holler and feel patriotic and feel tribal, feel like they're winning, and ideally distract them from all the many, many, many ways Donald Trump is screwing them.
>> And PBS performs a different version of the same service for a different audience.
>> Mhm.
>> And every Friday on PBS a 15-minute ritual is performed that we find utterly ludicrous. It is empty kabuki, seemingly beamed in from some alternate universe where it's still the 1980s or maybe the 1950s, I don't know. C-SPAN was running the Iran-Contra hearings, and PBS is where America went to watch Charles Ogletree facilitate discussions about ethics in America.
>> Ah.
>> And get the skinny on the markets from Wall Street Week with Louis Rukeyser and his elves.
>> And his elves and his hair and >> Oh my god.
>> I And I You and I lived through those days.
>> We did.
>> And there it's it is it is comforting and incredibly tragic to think that that that is now a dim and distant memory.
It's like a different universe. So So how can such things be? Well, many long years ago, when I lived in Chicago in the mid-80s, I had cause cause to visit an adult toy store. Where they sold adult toys.
>> Oh.
>> Like sex toys?
>> Like sex toys, yep. Went there. I went there. Walked walked right in the front door. I don't care.
Um I was not at the time a hick from the sticks, but it did surprise me uh the size and variety of what was available on the shelves. You know, entire forearms and fists made out of made out of foam rubber or made out of >> you told me there were things that were there were almost the size of fire hydrants.
>> Yeah, I was like, "Really?" Guy I wasn't [laughter] like I didn't I wasn't making a moral judgment. I was just I never occurred to me that And And you know what? I asked the owner about it, and I got the most capitalist answer ever.
"Dude, it's if it's on the shelf, it's because it sells.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. I do this for money.
>> Yeah. And this is if it if it didn't sell, it wouldn't be on the goddamn shelf. Period.
>> Yeah.
>> Nothing Nothing more complicated than that, really.
>> Yeah. No, that's a good analogy.
>> Yeah.
>> The reason the ludicrous ritual is performed for 15 minutes every Friday and Friday night on PBS is that it sells.
>> It sells. Mhm.
>> It is a ritual designed to reassure the people in the middle. The people who desperately want to believe that both sides are equally bad.
>> Mhm. [clears throat] >> That every controversy has two equally valid perspectives.
>> Yes.
>> That if everybody would just dial back the extremism, you know, be a little more like Edmund Burke and meet in the middle, then everything would be fine. And there right on schedule are two men wearing suits >> Mhm.
>> calmly discussing the issues of the day from two perspectives.
>> From two perspectives. And nobody raises their voice above about 50 or 60 decibels, roughly the volume of a quiet conversation between two people sitting across a dinner table. No shouting, no visible anger, no disruption, just calm, measured disagreements.
And for the viewers who take this ritual seriously, this is profoundly reassuring.
>> Mhm.
>> This is Louis Rukeyser again. This is Charles Ogletree again.
It's the good old days again.
>> However, this is not what we see.
>> No.
>> What we see is one more visible symptom of a much larger and much more destructive disease that has been eating away at American political journalism for decades. A disease that helped create the conditions under which the UFC steel cage garbage crowd ended up running the whole damn country in the first place.
>> And the thing is we've been talking about this for nearly a thousand episodes. Well, as of today a thousand episodes because it remains in our view one of the most underreported stories in modern American political history. And it will remain so because the people charged with covering politics generally don't want to discuss it because they are the problem.
>> Yeah.
It's not just two guys here. There's a moderator there as well.
>> There's a moderator. There's a whole >> PBS employee >> Yeah.
>> there to keep the peace >> Mhm.
>> keep things moving on. And while people like us who do want to discuss it are never invited into conversation with institutions that shape mainstream political coverage. So, we find our way to poke in every once in a while.
>> Right. That's That's That's That's this.
This is our job. This is what we do.
Which is why we're here. Because this has always been our job talking about the things the legacy media refuses to talk about and providing the historical context those institutions routinely leave out.
>> So, getting more specific, what happened on PBS last Friday was by itself trivial, uh, banal, boring, you know, and that's one of the things that differentiates us from most other political >> That's right, Blue Gal. That's >> podcasts.
>> In a world competing for your attention by yelling how shocking and outrageous and how destroyed we did it. Uh, it's it's all louder and louder every day. We dare to tackle the boring stuff, Blue Gal.
>> [laughter] >> We dare to go after the boring [ __ ] >> that ablum >> Yeah, there is.
>> important to talk about.
>> almost no one else notices, but which unlocks so many of the answers to why things are the way they are.
>> Because by and large we know and our listeners already know what's wrong with this country.
>> We know things are bad, worse than bad.
They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we're living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, "Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms."
>> Which is why what interests us are the elements of the legacy media, which even at this late date continue to act as if it were still 1988.
>> Right. So, this is the exchange on PBS Friday night, last Friday, >> Mhm.
>> between Mr. [clears throat] David Brooks and Mr. Jonathan Capehart. And David Brooks said this, {quote} The Trump thing is just weird. He's just He appoints Bill Pulte, who's clearly not even close within a Pacific Ocean of being qualified for this job.
And then he turns around and to make the permanent acting, not acting, but the permanent director of the DNI, Jay Clayton, who's totally like superstar level by Trump standards. So, how does the same guy pick two people, one with such radically different qualifications?
The one thing I should add is that I don't like what Democrats doing here.
>> Mhm. [clears throat] >> I can't. I Okay, this is This is going back to David Gregory.
>> Right.
>> When the House of Representatives and the Republican side of the house was absolutely [ __ ] their bed every hour on the hour, over and over again, 14 I think it was 14 ballots >> For speaker.
>> Yeah.
>> And the Democrats sat there and voted unanimously for Hakeem Jeffries >> Yeah.
>> all 14 times.
>> No no-brainer.
No-brainer.
>> Right.
>> Easy, right?
>> And happy to have three Republicans come over and vote for Hakeem Jeffries and we can go home.
>> Yeah, it's problem solved.
>> He's He's qualified.
>> Right.
>> He knows how to run this place. Let's do it.
>> And what did David Gregory do instead?
>> David Gregory said, "I want to know what the Democrats are going to do about this."
>> Yeah.
>> I'm sorry, what?
>> What What What?
>> What?
>> goes back to the question that question that that that gamer was asking, agency.
Noticing that Republicans don't have any agency. Chaos is fine if they're doing it.
>> It It It's like a >> Democrats' job to be mommy and clean up the kitchen after them every day.
>> To To To pull from today's news, Democrats are Republicans are just a tornado. They just They just show up. They destroy things.
>> steer it.
>> You can't >> It's going to destroy things, and you can't You can't make it stop.
>> Right, and you can't blame it for being a tornado because it's just a tornado.
>> And when the tornado's over, then or or or leaves damage in its wake, it's the Democrats' job to come in and do something about it.
>> That's right. Goddamn right.
>> Yeah. Yeah, so this is David Brooks saying, Again, one thing I should add is that I don't like what Democrats are doing here.
I understand you don't like Bill Pulte.
I understand you think he should not have been appointed. And on And that you absolutely 100% correct. You're 100% correct.
>> Mhm.
>> But the FISA program works well. We are now, as Speaker Johnson made the point, we're now We got the World Cup here. We got the Iranian thing going on. We need all the intelligence I can get. And that FISA program supplies, I'm told, half the president's daily intelligence brief.
>> Mhm.
All two pages of it.
>> He doesn't read it.
>> No, pictures. Big pictures.
>> Yeah.
Of him.
>> Yeah. [laughter] >> Uh That's a lot of information and valuable information. It's a very well-working program, and the Democrats are not not repeal or not renewing it sort of in my view out of spite, but they're making us less safe.
Unquote.
>> Yeah. Let's sit with that for a minute.
The moderator then turns to Jonathan Capehart who asks a very obvious question. This is Jonathan Capehart, quote, "How this became the Democrats' fault is curious to me. One, a couple of things to keep in mind. One, even though the law has expired, it was reauthorized by a FISA court in March of 2026, this past March, which goes through March of 2027.
So, Congress has time to come back and reauthorize it, do whatever they need to do because it's not just Democrats who have concern about the law, Republicans have as well. So, I don't think it's right to say it's all the Democrats' fault, especially when they're not even in the majority in either house.
Unquote."
>> And who is he talking to? He's not talking back to David Brooks. Cuz that's PBS, that's against PBS rules.
>> No.
>> He's just talking directly to the moderator, Jeff Bennett.
>> Mhm.
>> Who, by the way, after Jonathan Capehart says that about this isn't can't possibly be the Democrats' fault, they're not in the majority, >> Mhm.
>> he changes the subject because he always changes the subject.
>> changes the subject. That's right.
>> Yep.
Which is you know, that's what the moderator does whenever there is the slightest minuscule danger of David Brooks being made a fool of by someone who comes armed with facts.
>> So, rather than pursuing a very obvious question like, "Hey, why the hell are you blaming Democrats when they don't control anything?" we get this, quote, "In the time that remains, David, do your Sunday night plans involve being at the White House for the UFC match by chance?
That was so so funny.
>> Politic Potential unpleasantness averted.
>> Yes.
>> Allegiality restored. Audience soothed.
>> And we understand this is trivial, right? This is hardly worth mentioning, right? And we wouldn't have mentioned it were it not for the fact that it is one more example of this unholy ritual performed over and over and over again on that set involving the same people operating according to the same assumptions.
>> For example, you will undoubtedly remember that one day after one of Trump's ice goons murdered Renee Good in cold blood on camera on multiple cameras.
>> Yep.
>> The same Messrs Brooks and Capehart were invited to share their opinions about that murder.
>> And David Brooks did his thing like a man dispatched from centrist thought HQ with a very important mission. Whatever the question is, the answer must always be both sides are basically the same kind of confused, noble, tragic souls squinting at reality through his fogged-up moral lenses. And in this case, the prompt is not subtle. It's a video of a woman being shot in Minnesota, a real-world, immediate, ugly, concrete thing. The sort of thing that historically speaking usually calls for at least a directional opinion.
>> Mhm.
>> Instead, Brooks just doesn't just bend over backwards. He gives it the full Cirque du Soleil routine of intellectual contortion, folding himself across multiple dimensions just to avoid saying plainly what he thinks of what people of what people just saw.
>> And he wouldn't have to bend at all if it was a black woman who got shot, by the way.
>> No. Cuz that wouldn't come up. It wouldn't even be mentioned.
>> Right.
>> And you could almost hear the gears turning in his head. How do I not take a position, but still sound like I'm wisely refusing to take a position?
>> Mhm.
>> So he doesn't say I'm not taking a side.
No, no, no, that would be too simple.
That would be too honest. Instead, he goes searching through the attic of America's memory and drags down a dusty old artifact, a 1951 football game film. A film college football game where both teams watched it afterwards and each concluded the refs had screwed them differently, which apparently is now the master key to understanding modern political violence.
The argument emerges in its full Brooksian bloom. People interpret reality through bias. Everyone sees what they want to see. Therefore, everything is politics. Therefore, no interpretation is more grounded than any other. Therefore, it is wise to posture is the wise posture is eternally suspending your judgment.
>> This is the same No one can ever really know why those bullets penetrated Renee Good's body.
>> No. And we can never know what was in the heart of the person who did it, even though he's he called her a [ __ ] immediately after he shot her.
>> Mhm.
>> This is the same [ __ ] column David Brooks has been writing for 24 years.
Different props, same stage play. Swap in Iraq, swap in Trump, swap in the shooting in Minnesota. It doesn't matter. The conclusion is always hovering in a non-existent happy middle ground.
>> Meanwhile, sitting across from him is Jonathan Capehart. And it's a good thing it was Jonathan Capehart and not Blue Gal.
>> Yeah.
Or or Driftglass.
>> Or Driftglass. Especially Driftglass.
Yeah.
Uh cuz first of all, Driftglass would start remembering every single time that David Brooks had done this.
>> Well, no, I would I would >> them off.
>> I would do the Jesus thing and flip the table over.
>> [laughter] >> But instead, Jonathan Capehart did that very modern cable news thing where you are professionally required to witness something grotesque and surreal and respond with PBS impassivity.
>> Mhm.
>> You could see the the uh um are you hearing this [ __ ] >> [laughter] >> Energy radiating radiating off of him.
The body language of someone who is one sentence away from standing up and walking out. It's like I'm done.
>> I'm done. Can't no.
>> But he's restrained by the invisible PBS paycheck leash or something that says uh in your contract it says we will discuss your feelings but only in approved tonal ranges. Remember you signed that.
>> That's right. The tone police are always on guard at PBS.
>> And it's in their contract, right?
>> Yeah.
>> And and when he tries he tries actually to steer it back towards something resembling the actual subject. Because the question was not what does 1951 college football teach us about epistemology?
The question was what do you think about this shooting?
>> Yeah, that's on film. That you can see with your own two eyes. But David Brooks >> you tie it to Dietrich Bonhoeffer?
>> [laughter] >> Yeah.
Yeah.
But >> Yeah, no. It's not about that. It's about this event in time that happened this week. And what does it mean?
>> And and you can tell that Brooks rehearsed this.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> He knew this question was going to come up so he dug around and looked for some way to deflect from any discussion of what actually happened and deflect it back on everyone's different, everyone's biased, everyone's this, everyone's that, everyone's equally wrong.
So after Jonathan Capehart tries to steer the conversation back to what actually happened. Brooks is already gone. He's already left the room. He's back in his seminar mode on on the sociology of perception. Concluding that all humans are basically trapped in an interpretive fog banks and therefore surprise we should all be very cautious about concluding anything at all.
Which is how you end up in that very familiar elite media cul-de-sac where something happens in the real world, it is immediately translated into a meditation on perception.
The meditation conveniently avoids any judgment about the thing that just happened, and the absence of judgment is reframed as wisdom.
>> Now, he he wasn't able to do that with Katrina.
>> No. Because there just wasn't any way around it.
>> Yeah.
>> It cuz it it lasted it went on too long.
It it was too naked. It was too too many bodies literally floating in the streets of New Orleans.
And and Bush was too much of a [ __ ] to to cover it up.
>> Yeah.
>> Yep.
>> To make to make to have any competence about managing.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
But this particular segment lands where it usually lands.
>> Mhm.
>> In that posture of cultivated detachment that looks from the outside less like intellectual humility and more like refusal to face reality.
>> Yeah. Just desperate panic at the thought of answering a question clearly and concisely about something that >> to say this brings me back to my dad.
>> Yeah.
>> And feeling sad about it.
>> Uh-huh.
>> Because this used to be watching the PBS NewsHour with MacNeil and Lehrer >> Yeah.
>> used to be what a calm rational disinterested consumer of news >> adult >> wanted a civilized >> a civilized adult. That's where you got That was the apex of the civilized news.
That's >> When Walter Cronkite retired, >> Yeah.
>> people went and watched MacNeil-Lehrer.
>> Yeah. Well, this I mean Charles Ogletree did um did preside over this ethics and I loved that series.
>> Mhm.
>> Cuz it asked these really complex moral questions about the the duty of civilians, the duties of citizens, the duty of reporters, and so on and so forth. And it was enlightening and it was interesting and it was and and it it might as well been been speaking, you know, ancient Greek at this point.
That's how totally removed from our reality that they are.
>> Yeah.
>> And you will also remember that these same people on the same stage back in August of last year Brooks both sides Trump ordering Texas to gerrymander him five brand new congressional seats out of thin air and Gavin Newsom fighting back with the only weapon he had.
>> Yeah, he also bitched that no one is marching in the streets over this [ __ ] He didn't say [ __ ] >> No.
>> He said no one's marching in the streets.
>> Why aren't they marching in the streets over this stuff? Yeah.
>> Because apparently from the Acela corridor quiet car, he can't see the millions who have been out in the streets in all kinds of weather for all kinds of marches. Or maybe he's just a legacy media troll who should have been given the hook 20 years ago.
>> And the reason we bring this up is that it's not any one of these examples cuz there are dozens more from PBS alone and I have archives full of this [ __ ] Hundreds more from Brooks over the years all by himself and hundreds of thousands more across all legacy media platforms over the decades.
It's not one example or two, it's the collective weight of all of them.
The relentless repetition of variations of this one lie that has incepted that lie as an axiomatic truth into the subconscious of millions and millions of our fellow citizens.
>> And this is when we should pause and thank the listener from Brooklyn who sent us a check um to get you to not have an espresso-based beverage, but to get you an espresso machine so you can spend [laughter] more time railing against David Brooks.
>> Yeah, there are there's a small >> go out for your coffee anymore.
>> There's a small but vocal contingent who's like go after him again. Why I've heard enough about Dude, I've been writing about David Brooks for 21, 22 years now.
>> Yeah, I think I think 3/5 of our listeners would like less David Brooks.
>> Yes, and we've been good about >> that 2/5.
>> Yep. We've been good about I've been good about talking and here's the thing.
>> Yeah.
>> It It is It has never been about him. It has been about him as an avatar for my for for a point of view, for a kind of journalism that is absolutely toxic.
>> And that is at the Washington Post, it's at the New York Times, it's out in the hinterlands of where we are.
>> Yeah.
>> And it it has infected our conversation about how we're going to fix this country.
>> Because you can't ever move past we got to balance we got to both sides we got to balance. You must have both sides.
And >> This has to be bipartisan. Every bill has to be bipartisan when Democrats are in charge.
>> Yeah. Every single one.
>> one.
>> Yeah.
Yep.
>> Yeah. So, and and that's David You're right. David Brooks is just an avatar for that thought.
>> Yeah.
>> And it's not true when Republicans are in charge.
>> And he's such a [ __ ] up. He He writes He does so many dumb inexcusable things that would get anyone who had that job fired from that job in a minute.
Except you can't fire these people.
These people are [ __ ] bulletproof.
And And that's the great [clears throat] mystery, which is why the hell is this cohort of 20 or 30 people >> Mhm.
>> completely protected from the from the vicissitudes of marketplace competition.
>> Yeah.
>> And why are they so [ __ ] revered by their peers? And the answer is they're all sticking together. Because this is a [clears throat] self-protecting group.
This This is a a cartel >> Mhm.
>> of a certain kind of political dialogue and they don't want anyone screwing with it because you the minute you poke a hole in it it deflates. The minute you get in there and say, "Well, this is the No, both sides aren't equal." And here's a whole bunch of proof. That deflates the entire argument.
>> Yeah.
>> And that's when things get really scary because then you have >> authority diminishes and they can't have that.
>> are just millions and millions of people out there who are freaking addicted to this stuff.
>> Yeah.
>> And and and they >> them feel intellectual. That's why. It makes them feel smart.
>> Well, it makes them feel >> and safe.
>> Safe, exactly. Exactly right word. Makes them feel safe because they don't have to choose. They don't have to make a decision because they can just feel smart and lean back and say, "Well, you know, I saw this guy on PBS. He explained the whole thing. It really is both sides." And you know, >> Yeah.
>> And just and yeah.
But you're being lied to every day every day you believe that you're being lied to for money.
>> Yeah. So, if you're not one of those people infected with the both sides mind virus, if you watch this crap long enough, eventually you start asking yourself, "Why are they doing this?"
>> Why are they doing this? And why does it feel so artificial?
>> And why does it feel so disconnected from observable reality?
>> Yeah. And and the answer is actually pretty simple.
Legacy media, PBS included, remains deeply committed to promoting commentators like David Brooks, whose central function is to reassure a shrinking audience that somehow it is still both sides.
>> Yep. It has to be both sides because by now they're addicted to it. If any Republican atrocity isn't automatically discounted by blaming both sides or, you know, as David Brooks did last Friday night, holding Democrats responsible for part of this.
>> Or or everyone's responsible.
>> Yeah.
>> Mhm.
>> Uh these independent centrist both sides goofs react like Roger Rabbit reacts when he hears shave and a haircut, but not two bits.
>> Mhm.
>> That's another movie you should go watch. Um it is a gap in their mental circuitry screaming to be closed.
>> Yeah, I was looking for a clip of Christopher Lloyd doing that, but you can't There's no 30 seconds that explains it, but it as a concept >> Yeah.
>> you see Roger Rabbit just losing his mind >> Yeah.
>> because he's he's trying to hide from the bad guy, but the bad guy knows he can't resist closing that circuit. He can't resist >> He just starts on the other side of the wall shaving a haircut, shaving a and it's like Too [laughter] bad. He can't.
>> He can't. And the problem of course is that we live in a reality where Donald Trump is so cartoonishly corrupt and so openly authoritarian and so surrounded by people who are so spectacularly unfit for public office that maintaining the illusion of equivalence requires increasingly absurd intellectual gymnastics.
>> Which means people like Brooks have to dig deeper and deeper every year for newer and stupider explanations for why Democrats are somehow to blame also.
>> Yeah.
And poor Jonathan Capehart by the customs and traditions of PBS that apparently is required to sit there politely while Brooks wanders through another maze of tortured analogies and false equivalences.
>> Well, it's in his contract, too. It's not just customs and traditions.
>> No.
>> He signed a piece of paper.
>> Yes, he did.
>> To be this way.
>> Mhm.
>> To go along with his funny. And so I admire Jonathan Capehart in some ways.
In other ways I'm like, "Dude, you've you've literally literally signed up for this."
>> Yeah. You you enable this. Your presence >> Yeah.
>> validates this.
>> Yeah. And you literally signed a piece of paper saying I'll continue >> Mhm.
>> to enable David Brooks by being on the other side of the table.
>> Mhm.
>> The remarkable thing is that this act should have collapsed 20 years ago.
>> Yep.
>> Should have collapsed after Katrina and the Iraq war. Back around 2005 and 2006 reality began systematically demolishing the intellectual framework Brooks and his colleagues has spent years constructing. George W. Bush was failing, Iraq was a disaster, Katrina exposed staggering incompetence, the deficit was exploding, corruption scandals multiplied, the Republican Congress was imploding. At some point it became impossible to plausibly argue that liberals were responsible for what Republicans were doing.
>> Yeah. However, admitting that would have required acknowledging that the conservative movement itself was a failure.
>> Yeah.
>> And that was never >> failed, Driftglass.
>> only be failed. It can only be failed by bad people. And that's why you might remember that we did this like I don't know, 20 years ago on this podcast or maybe six months ago. We went through all the isms that people have attached to Well, it isn't Republicans. It's It's Tom Delay-ism.
>> Yeah, Trump-ism.
>> It's like No, no, no. It's the Republican Party. But no, no. It It can't be the Republican Party cuz I'm a Republican. It can't be conservative cuz I'm a conservative. So, it must be some alien thing that is temporarily >> to do with.
>> Yeah, it's it's something-ism that is completely separate from the pristine, beautiful thing that I believe in.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> And acknowledging that the conservative movement has been a failure is never going to happen. So, instead of re-examining their assumptions, they simply move to a different argument.
Republicans can no longer be defended on the merits, so the conversation shifted towards explaining why Democrats were somehow also responsible.
>> And once you've committed yourself to the proposition that Republicans can never be held uniquely accountable for Republican actions, your options become very limited.
>> Yes, they do.
>> This is Merk's Law, >> It is.
Absolutely.
>> So, you either abandon the premise or you invent increasingly baroque reasons for why everything is still both sides.
This is what The New York Times pays David Brooks to do, Driftglass.
>> they used to. Cuz now he works for The Atlantic.
>> He works at The Atlantic.
>> Yeah, he doesn't work at >> stories about ethics.
>> He doesn't work at McDonald's upselling uh hot apple pies, which is where he should could >> [laughter] >> He works for The Atlantic because they find merit in paying him to write long-form versions of this garbage.
And the reason so many continue to opt for both sides is a whole lot more complicated and insoluble than shoveling mountains of evidence to people who don't want it and will get angry at you for persisting in offering it.
>> Yep. It And And here's the point, we're not fighting ignorance. We're fighting what Nietzsche calls the will to ignorance.
>> [laughter] >> Quote, "From the beginning we have contrived to retain our ignorance in order to enjoy an almost inconceivable freedom, thoughtlessness, imprudence, hardiness, and gaiety in order to enjoy life.
And only on the solidified granite-like foundation of ignorance could knowledge rise so far. The will to knowledge on the foundation of a far more powerful will, the will to ignorance, to the uncertain, and to the untrue."
Unquote. That is an astonishing quote.
>> It is.
>> I know so many people like that.
>> Oh, yeah. Abs- Once you hear >> their conversation with, "I'm not political. I don't want to get political."
>> Yeah. I want to stay ignorant. I I'm really I'm I'm working real hard to stay ignorant.
>> Yeah. Yeah.
>> It It's exhausting to stay this ignorant, but I'm willing to do it because I don't want to be sad >> No.
>> about my country or the people in it.
>> Right.
>> And this is even true of saints, Blue Gal, even of saints.
I know this is treading in your territory, in the Bible Belt territory, but but in book eight of his Confessions, St. Augustine of Hippo speaks about how, as a young man struggling with, let's call them worldly temptations, or an adult toy store, you know?
Um [laughter] >> With a With a fire hydrant toy in it?
>> With a fire hydrant toy It could be. We don't know. He notoriously prayed, "Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet."
>> Uh-huh.
>> And Augustine knows what he should be doing in this in this moment. He knows the right thing because he sees it literally as God's will. But the right thing is also the difficult thing. It would mean giving up something he really, really likes doing, which is having sex and fooling around.
>> [laughter] >> Having sex with a fire hydrant.
>> Well, let's just I was I was wrong of me to drag the fire hydrant into this.
>> I think I did, actually.
>> you did, too.
>> [laughter] >> But he Whatever he's doing, he really enjoys it and doesn't want to give it up. So he fends off that self-knowledge while he parties and then prays over it when his conscience sneaks up and reminds him of what he knows he should be doing.
>> As as one uh priest, I think, >> Mhm.
>> pointed out to me when I was in graduate school at a at a divinity school that that shall be nameless.
Um someday we will achieve uh what what's enlightenment?
>> Mhm.
>> But who wants to now?
>> Right. Now. Now. I'm having too much fun doing it.
>> to? No, no.
>> I'm busy now. Exactly.
>> Right. Right. Right. Uh with the both sides mind virus, reality and self-knowledge are so much easier to keep at bay.
>> Mhm. [clears throat] >> After all, there are sober men in suits on TV telling you every day that you're thinking the right thing. There are also sober, respectable people in sober, respectable newspapers telling you the same thing.
>> Mhm. And then, instead of God's will, there's your peer group. The vox populi, when it will almost always be so much easier to go along with blaming the government or Congress or politicians than it would be to push back against the lazy consensus and alienate your peer.
>> Or or sound like you're being contentious at a bar and points off for not mentioning Washington.
>> Right. Oh, I'm sorry. I should have mentioned Washington. Politicians in Washington.
>> Yes, right. Right. And if you want to know just how much sustained pushback you can expect when you tell the masses what they do not wish to hear, we can highly recommend Henrik Ibsen's play The Enemy of the People.
>> [clears throat] >> Or Or if that's too much for you, just watch Jaws again.
>> Look, we depend on the summer people here for our very lives.
>> And if you close those beaches, we're going to have TO CLOSE THE BEACHES.
WE'RE NOT ONLY GOING TO HAVE TO CLOSE THE BEACH, WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO HIRE somebody to kill the shark. I mean, we're going to have to tell the Coast Guard >> problems.
>> Uh I think that I am familiar with the fact that you are going to ignore this particular problem until it swims up and bites you on the ass.
>> And finally, a reminder, the News Roundup will return someday.
>> Someday soon.
>> Someday soon. Probably next week.
>> Uh each week we post to our Patreon page and website an internet kitty sent in by you the listeners, but this week's internet kitties for the 1,000th episode are our own kitties.
>> Yes.
>> Barack Hussein, the Kenyan usurper, who is now 14 years old. We got him as a kitten in 2012.
>> Mhm.
>> And we had been podcasting for 2 years at that point.
>> Mhm.
>> Bosco, who many of you know from his social media stardom and crypto empire.
>> Yes. Yes. [laughter] He's a He's a force to be reckoned with.
>> Yes, he is. And Olive. Olive was a feral kitten who came to our house one day and said, "I'll live here."
Meaning Olive here.
>> Mhm.
>> So, Olive has blessed our home ever since >> Yes.
>> he showed up at our doorstep. And of course, the professional left kitties eat freshly poured cat food, our fake sponsor, whether you serve pet store perfection or dollar store dreck, your cats will circle you like sharks.
And believe me, they do.
And demand that the food they eat is ONLY FRESHLY POURED.
>> [screaming] >> YOU CAN VISIT THE PROFESSIONAL LEFT kitties at our Patreon page, patreon.com/proleftpod, or our website, proleftpod.com, and you can send your internet kitty, dog, or any other pet to us at our email address, [email protected], where you can also write to both of us.
Feel free to write to us. We do love hearing from you. Thank you for being with us for a thousand episodes, or if this is your first episode, we love you and welcome you.
>> Welcome.
>> Be aware that if you write to us at any of our addresses, we reserve the right to read your email or US Postal Service, go postal, unions, letter on the air unless you say otherwise.
>> And we have this thing called the gourmet coffee guideline, where you can afford to buy an espresso-based beverage for yourself, you can buy one for us at patreon.com/proleftpod, or if you want to buy us an entire espresso machine, that's cool, too.
>> [laughter] >> It gives Driftglass more time to go after David Brooks. Yes, it does.
>> Yeah, I'll just bolt that to my desk and you know, I'll never leave. Except the siren. When the siren sounds, I will be in the basement.
>> You're going to have to find a way to move that espresso machine to the basement.
>> When the siren sounds, I cover a lot of territory real fast. I got long legs. I know I know where I'm going. Um because this is not charity. In fact, this isn't our job and we do it every week with your help and support. You can also help us by continuing our mission of growing this podcast by sharing the show on social media. If you love this podcast, introduce it to a friend and thank you so much for helping us spread the word.
>> Hey Driftglass, how are the internet kitties doing this week?
>> Well, funny you should ask, Blue Gal.
The internet kitties want to thank all of our listeners, the old-timers and the new arrivals for their support and kind words. And here's hoping that by episode 2000, all of this will be a distant memory and the work of rebuilding our country will have begun in earnest.
>> [music] [music] [music] >> The Professional Left Podcast is produced [music] and recorded under a Creative Commons license. Copyright DGBG [music] Productions. proleftpod.com
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