#1697 - Zuby

[0] Joe Rogan podcast, check it out.

[1] The Joe Rogan Experience.

[2] Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

[3] Hello, Zubi.

[4] Joe.

[5] Good to see you, man. Good to see you again, bro.

[6] How are you?

[7] How difficult was it to travel across the pond, as it were?

[8] I had to spend 15 days in Istanbul before I flew over to Houston.

[9] Really?

[10] Yeah, you have to get outside the Schengen zone.

[11] You can't fly from anywhere.

[12] You can't fly from the UK direct to the U .S. or from any of the Schengen zone European countries.

[13] What is the Schengen zone?

[14] Schengen zone is the majority of the EU with exclusions.

[15] It excludes places like Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania.

[16] What does the word mean?

[17] Schengen.

[18] Schengen, I think it's a trading.

[19] Is it a trading zone?

[20] Oh.

[21] It's called the Schengen area.

[22] So it's most of the EU, but there's a couple exceptions.

[23] So since March 2020, you remember when Trump put in that travel ban?

[24] Yeah.

[25] That was never lifted.

[26] A lot of people don't realize that was never lifted.

[27] So up until now, you still can't fly direct from the UK or most European countries to the U .S. But you can, there it is, the Schengen.

[28] I've never heard of it either.

[29] Huh.

[30] There you go, yeah, the Schengen zone.

[31] That sounds like China.

[32] So I flew from the - Doesn't that sound like way too much like China owns it?

[33] Yeah, so I mean, maybe it's not, but it sounds like it.

[34] Yeah, so I was in Turkey for two weeks, and then I went from Turkey to Texas.

[35] So do you have to quarantine in Istanbul?

[36] Is that the idea, or do you just, were there to hang out?

[37] Not a quarantine.

[38] I was just on vacation there.

[39] I was hanging out.

[40] I had a great time.

[41] Istanbul was amazing.

[42] What is that place like?

[43] Istanbul was amazing.

[44] Yeah?

[45] Yeah, great place.

[46] It was really cool.

[47] So, you know, I grew up in the Middle East.

[48] Right.

[49] And it's a real interesting combination between the Middle East and Europe.

[50] So you're walking down the street and you're seeing women fully covered up in burkas right next to girls and like hot pants and mini skirts and stuff in the same place.

[51] I'm used to seeing both of those, but not usually in the same place.

[52] Do they get harassed?

[53] No. Everyone's cool.

[54] It was like super duper tolerant.

[55] Some people wearing masks.

[56] Some people weren't.

[57] No one was mine.

[58] Everyone was minding their own business.

[59] Interesting.

[60] It was just like, yeah, I'd never been there before, but I'll definitely go back.

[61] So you can't fly from the U .K. to the U .S., but you can fly from the U .S. to the U .S. to the U .S. to the U .K .s. Red List, which means that if you come in, you have to spend 10 days in a quarantine hotel.

[62] And you have to pay for the privilege of that.

[63] Do you think this is ever going to go back to normal travel?

[64] Honestly, I think it really depends on the people.

[65] I think all the way through this, everything's dependent on the people.

[66] It depends on how people respond and how much they're willing to take.

[67] And I think people have been willing to take far too much, which is why it's gone this far.

[68] And I think that's really what it's dependent on.

[69] Same thing goes with these new mandates they're bringing in.

[70] I thought the same thing with the masking policies, the lockdown policies, etc. I think it ends when people end it.

[71] That's what I think.

[72] The people that I feel sorry for genuinely are the people that have to be, consistent contact with new people in close quarters, like airline attendants.

[73] Like airline attendants, like, they are, they have no idea what's on that plane.

[74] You know what I mean?

[75] Like, like, they're taking a chance.

[76] They have no idea how many people are infected.

[77] They don't, no idea how badly they're infected or what they're infected with.

[78] That's only domestically, though, because internationally, you already know everyone on the plane has tested negative.

[79] Right.

[80] Yeah.

[81] Internationally, you have to have a negative test.

[82] but within how long, how many hours?

[83] 48 hours for most places.

[84] See, here's a deal with that.

[85] Someone I know was negative on a day and then was coughing later on that day and infected everybody and then turned out to be positive that night.

[86] But the day, during the day, he was negative.

[87] He was tested negative.

[88] So 48 hours is it stupid.

[89] It's the best they can do, I think.

[90] Unless they test you at the airport and then you'd be like, yeah but this is the thing because people make travel plans as well you pay all this money people have accommodation whatever if someone were to test positive at that point i mean even with the 48 hours window traveling with that it's very very tight but still 48 hours is a fucking roll of the dice yeah a lot of shit can change in 48 hours it's true it's true but you know i think this goes across everything right human everything has risk yeah life has risk you know we were not immortal prior to 2020 what Who is this, man?

[91] Viruses had been around, and no one was there thinking, oh, my gosh, this person could have a flu or could have tuberculosis or could have this or could have that.

[92] So I think globally, we've created a pandemic of people who are hypochondriacs and people who have munchausen bioproxy, et cetera.

[93] It used to always be healthy until proven sick.

[94] Now it's like assumed everybody is sick until they're proven healthy or, you know, it's weird.

[95] I wonder how much of an effect that is happening on people, having on people.

[96] the uh just the stress and the anxiety like when people get sick normally like two years ago three years ago if you got a cold you'd be like uh i feel like shit i'm just gonna like watch tv now people are freaking the fuck out and their anxieties off the charts and if they have covid even if they have mild symptoms and they have covid a lot of times they're under like heavy anxiety which can absolutely exacerbate anything you have going on with your body.

[97] Yeah.

[98] If you're under extreme anxiety, you know, your body's stressed, your immune system's compromised, you're, you're going to freak the fuck out.

[99] And if you freak out, you're probably not going to sleep well because you're going to be freaking out, which is going to fuck your immune system up even more.

[100] Just that mental toll is how long is it going to take for people relax?

[101] I don't know.

[102] The truth is that there are a lot of people out there, especially in politics and the media, who are very specifically pushing for people to be afraid and to stay afraid.

[103] And they've been doing this now for over 18 months.

[104] So essentially, we've got two different realities now where, you know, there are people who think that the hospitalization rate of COVID across the general population is as high as 50%.

[105] There's people who think this thing has a 10 % death rate, right?

[106] People don't actually know.

[107] I've heard people say that.

[108] Yeah.

[109] There's people who don't know.

[110] What the fuck are you talking about?

[111] Yeah.

[112] There's people who don't know the facts and don't know the data.

[113] And so the level of the proportionality of the response to the actual threat itself from the beginning, and especially at this stage, is so out of whack.

[114] Like, we've known from the beginning that children, thank God, are hardly affected by this.

[115] I'm not aware of a single child worldwide, single healthy child worldwide who has died directly in COVID -19.

[116] Children have died from it, but it's primarily children with comorbidities.

[117] Okay.

[118] In the UK, under the age of 20, sorry, in England, according to official NHS data, there have been nine COVID -related deaths of people under 20 with no comorbidities.

[119] With comorbidities, I think it's 47.

[120] This is over the whole 18 -month period.

[121] And this is people.

[122] And that's people under 20.

[123] We're not even specifically talking about children.

[124] And the way they count debts in the UK is deaths within 28 days of a positive test.

[125] So we don't even know what the numbers are.

[126] It's crazy.

[127] There's so much stuff we don't know.

[128] We don't actually know how many people have died directly of this particular virus because the way they count the numbers and all the different places, you know, leaves a lot of room and a lot of margin for error and interpretation.

[129] Sure.

[130] It's a strange time.

[131] It's a very strange time.

[132] Yes.

[133] And adjusting to this new strange time.

[134] One thing that I do think it's doing that's good is it's massively changing the way people trust media, massively.

[135] Because we're seeing the narratives that they play out, and we're seeing the way these reporters are describing things, and we're seeing that there's a real benefit to getting people terrified.

[136] There's a real financial benefit from the media because that's how they make their money.

[137] Yes.

[138] If they get scared the shit out of you and keep you scared, they're going to keep you tuned in.

[139] If they keep you tuned in, they're going to make a lot of money.

[140] And they realized that when Trump left office, the numbers on CNN are through the floor.

[141] I mean, it's wild to watch, man. Like, they literally were making massive amounts of money just getting people angry about Trump.

[142] Yep.

[143] And I think people also need to understand that a part of the hysteria that's been going on over the past 18 months, this has been building up for several years, right?

[144] And I've noticed that the same people who freaked out about Trump and or Brexit tend to be the same people who freak out about the climate change narratives, who tends to be the same people who are freaking out.

[145] about this particular pandemic situation.

[146] And so the media is preying upon people's fears for profit.

[147] And I don't think that's something that's brand new, but I think at this sort of level, it's, to me, it's very clearly unethical.

[148] And they keep shifting the narrative and moving the goalpost to constantly keep people scared.

[149] It's like, okay, that narrative is not scaring people enough.

[150] We need to switch to that one.

[151] We need to switch to, you know, this.

[152] The death numbers are so low in so many, countries and have been for months now, that now they talk about cases, right?

[153] Cases don't matter.

[154] Cases have never mattered.

[155] What matters is hospitalizations and deaths.

[156] But now it's like, oh, well, the case numbers are going up.

[157] I've got people like, oh, my gosh, Zubi, you're in Texas, you're in Florida.

[158] I've heard that, I've heard that, you know, the case numbers are there are going crazy and it's skyrocket.

[159] I'm like, dude, it's totally normal here.

[160] This is the most normal place I've been to in this whole period.

[161] But a lot of people catching COVID here.

[162] That's fact.

[163] That's fine.

[164] But the thing is, that's, look, if people are catching COVID, this is the thing.

[165] If case numbers are going up, but deaths and hospitalizations are not, that's good.

[166] Yeah, that means they know how to treat it now.

[167] Yeah, and it means more people are getting immunity.

[168] Like, a virus is going to be a virus.

[169] You know, viruses do what they do.

[170] There's very little you can do within reason and within ethical boundaries that's going to stop any sort of coronavirus in its tracks.

[171] What's the difference between the way people approach it or feel about it in the UK versus over here?

[172] So in the UK, the mentality, I think, is maybe closer to the blue state mentality here, I guess I could say.

[173] Because in the U .S., there's been a big split, really, both in response and reaction between the blue states and the red states.

[174] You've got places like Texas, Florida, South Dakota, which have been open for, in some cases, over a year.

[175] And then you've got places like California, New York, New York, and other places.

[176] places which are still locked down, still having mask mandates, got people wearing masks outside, so on and so forth.

[177] For most of the UK, I think it's been closer to the latter.

[178] I think one of the fundamental differences between the UK and the U .S. is the whole concept of rights and the relationship between the people and the government.

[179] So in the U .S., traditionally, things are largely based off the concept of negative rights.

[180] This is how everything works from the First Amendment to the Second Amendment, et cetera.

[181] As an American...

[182] What do you mean by negative rights?

[183] So, as an American, it's believed that your rights come from God.

[184] You have inalienable rights.

[185] They come from God or a natural law.

[186] And you, as an American, are born with these rights.

[187] And the job of the government is to protect your rights and not infringe upon them, right?

[188] The Second Amendment isn't the government giving you the right to own a gun.

[189] It's saying you have the right to bear arms and the government shall not infringe upon that.

[190] You have the right to freedom of speech.

[191] The government shall not infringe upon that.

[192] Whereas in the UK and lots of other European countries, the mentality is different.

[193] And I think this permeates the entire culture and society, whereas there's the notion that your rights come from the government.

[194] And if your rights come from the government, then the government can also take away those rights and people don't put up the same level of fight because the relationship is very different.

[195] And so that's like a real core difference between the USA and other.

[196] Anglos for your countries and also Europe in general.

[197] Now there are people in Europe who have more of that American mentality towards rights, but it's certainly not a majority.

[198] Interesting.

[199] So do you think, so essentially like England has an attitude that's similar to California.

[200] Have you been to California why you've been out here?

[201] Not yet.

[202] End of September I'll be there.

[203] It's weird.

[204] Yeah.

[205] I just went back.

[206] Okay.

[207] I was like, Jesus Christ.

[208] You've seen people wearing masks outside and they just They look weirded out.

[209] Yeah.

[210] Weirdest place I've been to during this is Portugal.

[211] Portugal.

[212] Yeah, I was in Portugal two months ago.

[213] I thought I'd go there and it would be more relaxed and chilled out than the UK because I was getting tired of how things were in the UK and good grief.

[214] It was worse.

[215] Really?

[216] Yeah, it was worse.

[217] My first day there, I had three people outside yell at me for not wearing a mask.

[218] Outside?

[219] And about 95 % of people outdoors were wearing masks, literally about 95%.

[220] Well, Portugal is very liberal.

[221] I mean, Portugal decriminalized all drugs.

[222] quite a long time ago.

[223] They did.

[224] And they had a great result with it.

[225] Yeah.

[226] The thing, here's another thing that's really interesting is this inversion with what the word liberal means, right?

[227] There's nothing liberal about lockdowns.

[228] There's nothing liberal about forcing masks on people, let alone trying to force vaccines on people.

[229] There's nothing liberal about censorship and trying to restrict freedom of speech, et cetera.

[230] And so we're at this weird time period where, you know, firstly, this, I think it's a shame that this thing has been so politicized to begin with.

[231] but I think it's fascinating that from country to country, people who call themselves liberals have actually had, and what to me is an extraordinarily conservative, like hyper -conservative approach to this whole thing.

[232] Yeah, very authoritarian, very, like, if you think of what the word liberal is supposed to mean, I'm here like, man, the conservatives are being more liberal than liberals for the most part.

[233] Well, Republicans in this country, the people on the right have always been, at least allegedly been for smaller government.

[234] And the liberals, the liberals have been for big government.

[235] They've been for more bureaucracy, more government programs and mandates that are going to fix all of our problems.

[236] That clearly doesn't work.

[237] We're finding this.

[238] One of the things we're finding out during the pandemic is it's very important who your fucking governor and your mayor are.

[239] I didn't think it was important.

[240] I didn't give a shit before.

[241] Whoever the mayor of Los Angeles was or the governor of California was, I didn't think about it until they were shutting things down.

[242] And then, you know, the hypocrisy, right?

[243] You'd see them dining, maskless, and pretending they're outdoors, and there's a fucking chandelier over the table.

[244] Newsom was particularly egregious.

[245] But it's just that sort of this will take care of you notion is from people that there's no fucking way I would ever listen to that guy for anything, any advice.

[246] If I was talking to him and he's a buffoon.

[247] the same as the governor or the mayor of new york gosh terrible the mayor of new york city is a fucking buffoon a goofy soft jello fucking roll of a man he's just goofy they voted for him oh my god well i think they voted for him because he stands for a lot of progressive ideas which really kind sensitive warm -hearted people who are compassionate they would like those those ideas of inclusiveness and of open -mindedness, and they'd like that to sort of exemplify how they would like their society to behave, that they would love for people to be compassionate, open -minded, and enable free thinking, and people to do whatever they want, the cultures from all over the world to mix together in the biggest melting pot in all of the United States, which is New York City.

[248] And this guy sort of represented that to them.

[249] But what they didn't get is he's a dummy.

[250] Yeah.

[251] And what he's doing is dumb.

[252] What he's doing is the opposite.

[253] You know, what's clear is that more than any left -right thing, the authoritarian, libertarian axis is far more important.

[254] It's far more important.

[255] And I think that's what you're seeing.

[256] I think that's why you're seeing sane conservatives, sane centrist, sane liberals, just sane libertarians sort of in this growing center and sort of looking around like, you know, I think there are a lot of people.

[257] who maybe thought they didn't have much in common with other people within that group now who were just like whoa okay this is like the group of sane people who are even willing to have conversations like just being willing to sit and listen to us having this conversation like there's people who wouldn't even come and sit down here because they're so i don't know afraid of conversation or having their ideas challenged or whatever it is they don't truly believe in free thinking they don't truly believe in free speech that's why they're trying to shut everybody down de -platform people, kick people off of platforms, so on and so forth.

[258] And that's very concerning.

[259] It's very illiberal, as I said.

[260] Yeah, it's very illiberal.

[261] It's concerning because then you can't solve problems and you just create more animosity.

[262] My biggest concern with this whole thing that's been going on and everything that's ramping up is this pitting of neighbor against neighbor.

[263] Family member against family member, friends against friends.

[264] So many relationships have fallen out over these past few months because this person doesn't want to get a vaccine or this person has a different view on lockdowns or this.

[265] And I'm just like, it was bad enough when people were losing friends over Trump and Brexit, et cetera.

[266] And now, now I'm just like, guys, what is what is going on?

[267] And you're, you're being manipulated, you're being played.

[268] And you're maybe there's a right to be angry and anxious, but people are angry and anxious at the wrong things and at the wrong people.

[269] There's been a lot of stuff that's happened over the past 18 months that people should be pretty outraged about.

[270] But it's not their neighbor, not wanting to wear a mask in the grocery store.

[271] It's not another person not wanting to take a shot, despite the fact that this person here has already taken the shot and has therefore got the protection that they're going to get from it.

[272] And people just are not thinking.

[273] And I think when people are fearful, anxious, and angry, it shuts down their ability to just think calmly and rationally and to take in facts and to listen to different arguments.

[274] It just becomes this thing.

[275] And then you've got the tribalism.

[276] It's become a team sport.

[277] And it's not healthy.

[278] And I think it could lead to a very dark place.

[279] And that's what I'm concerned about more than any more than any virus or anything like that.

[280] It's almost like it's all designed to show you that it's pointless.

[281] I mean, it's not, I'm not claiming some grand conspiracy.

[282] see, but there's something about the buffoonery of the government and the way they've handled this.

[283] Like, again, with the New York City thing, when de Blasio was on TV, talking about how you can get a free burger when you get vaccines, eating this burger.

[284] Oh, this is delicious.

[285] That shit's terrible for you, you fuck.

[286] Terrible.

[287] Like, you're telling people to eat the very thing that has ruined their health and made them more susceptible to diseases.

[288] and responsible for a host of other diseases, not just COVID, but all sorts of other horrible problems that people have with their bodies because of that.

[289] And there's many more of those examples.

[290] They're offering free donuts.

[291] They're offering free lottery tickets.

[292] You can get in the lottery.

[293] Hey, get a gambling addiction while you're getting shot with this jab.

[294] It's fucking crazy.

[295] It's very weird.

[296] And it's also like, I have a friend who works on the COVID commission in Los Angeles and they were closing down outdoor dining.

[297] And when they were closing down outdoor dining, he had an objection.

[298] He said there is no evidence that there's a spread from outdoor dining.

[299] Why are we doing this?

[300] And the woman said, it's all about the optics.

[301] Oh, well, at least she was honest.

[302] But imagine, but she's only honest with him and it's not a public discussion.

[303] But imagine saying that when you're going to close down thousands and thousands of businesses that are barely hanging on because they've been mostly closed for the entire pandemic.

[304] Meanwhile, you'll make phone calls to your friends in Texas, and, like, you can eat indoors.

[305] Like, I've had people come here to visit me, and they're like, we're eating indoors.

[306] I'm like, yeah, we're eating indoors.

[307] This is normal.

[308] This is how people normally are.

[309] Take care of yourself.

[310] Be healthy.

[311] It's nutty.

[312] It's nutty.

[313] And places like Texas and Florida have fared just as well, if not better, then what are the two states with the highest death rates?

[314] New York and New Jersey, right?

[315] Yeah, but see.

[316] Like per person.

[317] The problem with the New York thing is like the fucking nursing home thing.

[318] That nursing home thing, which is crazy, which is, I mean, which it seems like he's not even getting it in trouble for, which is wild.

[319] No, they totally ignored that.

[320] And, you know, now they've got him on something else, which again says a lot about our society.

[321] Yeah.

[322] It says a lot that that was the thing that people cared about, you know.

[323] Well, that thing is not good either.

[324] No, it's not.

[325] But if I were to, if I would say that, you know, creating a policy that directly leads to the death of thousands of elderly people in nursing homes, I would objectively say that that is worse.

[326] than groping a woman.

[327] That is not saying groping a woman is a good thing, but I think the former is a much greater sin.

[328] There's also this complete distrust in the accounting of the cases, the accounting of the deaths.

[329] There's people that think that there's more deaths from COVID than were reported because a lot of people just died and they were never tested.

[330] There's people that think there's way more deaths attributed to COVID than were actually COVID deaths.

[331] And it's like this fog.

[332] It's like, you know, the fog of war.

[333] This is like the fog of pandemic.

[334] Yep, yep.

[335] It's interesting.

[336] I mean, in the UK, it's clear because the NHS has been putting out the numbers weekly.

[337] Most people don't even bother looking at this because they don't really care about the facts and the data.

[338] But I've been keeping an eye on this.

[339] And in England, let me say England specifically, the numbers, it all speaks for itself.

[340] So firstly, like I said, what is classified as a COVID death is a death within 28.

[341] days of a positive test in an NHS hospital, right?

[342] So that's, that in itself is a nutty way to describe a COVID death.

[343] It's ridiculous.

[344] Right?

[345] Yeah.

[346] So you already know when they have that number, I think the official count is something like 140 ,000 COVID related deaths.

[347] That number is already wrong.

[348] Out of that, we don't know what percentage of that is people who actually died directly from COVID.

[349] Right.

[350] They could have got infections.

[351] Exactly.

[352] Cut.

[353] Exactly.

[354] They got staff.

[355] They could have got, yeah.

[356] And of that, over 90 % of those deaths are people over 60 with comorbidities.

[357] Yeah.

[358] So, again, when people are talking about these numbers on a local or global scale, it doesn't, you have to look at the other factors.

[359] You like, what's the average age?

[360] In the UK, the average age of death with COVID is around 82.

[361] The average life expectancy in the UK is 82.

[362] So why is the life expectancy so much higher there?

[363] You guys have, like, what is the life expectancy here?

[364] I think here are maybe about 78 or so.

[365] What are you guys doing different that allows those old people to squeak out a few extra years?

[366] I don't know, slightly lower obesity rates, I guess, is a factor.

[367] I think it's 78 here.

[368] Yeah, okay, I'm right.

[369] Look at you guys.

[370] Yeah, 81.

[371] India's fucked.

[372] 69.

[373] Wow.

[374] They're dying early in India.

[375] Yeah.

[376] I think it's probably food and lifestyle related largely.

[377] And perhaps obesity.

[378] So with us, I think the majority of COVID deaths were actually people.

[379] older than the average death life span?

[380] In the U .S.?

[381] Yeah, what is the average age of COVID death in the U .S.?

[382] I think there's more people that died older than the average age of death.

[383] Yeah, and that matters.

[384] Yeah, does.

[385] That really, really matters.

[386] If we're talking about a disease where the average age of people dying is like 30 or even 40, that's really, really different to a disease where the average age of death is 80.

[387] Is the average age of death?

[388] Yeah, exactly.

[389] it's totally different so here it goes so 85 years and older is predominant that's more deaths 179 ,000 okay 75 years and older is 165 ,000 65 years and older is 135 ,000 50 years and older is 135 ,000 50 years and older is 96 ,000 so then it gets really low yeah yeah and of that and of that what percentage of those have comorbidity probably 80 to 90 percent yeah most people they're the average is four Average is four comorbidities, which is wild.

[390] Yeah.

[391] So this matters.

[392] And this is the thing.

[393] So when people are just saying, oh, my gosh, you know, 600 ,000 people in the USA died or, oh, my gosh, 140 ,000 people in the UK or 4 million worldwide, it's like, okay, firstly, that's likely to be a maximum because of the way that numbers are actually counted.

[394] But then beyond that, it's like, okay, well, let's drill into that a little bit.

[395] And then people start the, you know, it starts with the emotional blackmail.

[396] Oh, you don't care about old people.

[397] What, you know, it's like, I'm like, bro, people die.

[398] People die.

[399] I think our society has maybe, I think we have a really uncomfortable relationship with death.

[400] I think people have a really uncomfortable relationship with it.

[401] Well, we certainly have a distorted relationship with death.

[402] Like, what are the numbers of people that die from heart disease every year?

[403] Let's look at that.

[404] I was like, guarantee you, it's pretty fucking high in America.

[405] I think globally, I think globally.

[406] So here's some interesting info.

[407] See what it is from America.

[408] So globally, in an average year, about 60 to 65 million people die globally.

[409] every year, right?

[410] So, firstly, that frames it because when people are saying, oh, my gosh, two million people died of this disease last year, it's like, okay, but 58 to 60 million died of everything else.

[411] Number one, heart disease, right?

[412] Number two, cancer, boom.

[413] Here we go.

[414] As of 2018, 30 .3 million adults are diagnosed with heart disease.

[415] Each year, about 647 ,000 Americans die from heart disease.

[416] So even without, even with the exaggerated count of COVID.

[417] There's more people die of heart disease in this country than die of COVID.

[418] And no one is doing anything to stop people from eating burgers.

[419] In fact, you're encouraging it.

[420] Or donuts.

[421] They're encouraging it.

[422] And no one's telling you to exercise.

[423] No. And of course, you know, people will say like, oh, well, it's different because, you know, one is transmissible.

[424] But it's like, look, if the goal is to save lives, then there's more diseases.

[425] People have been acting as if there's one disease in the world now.

[426] Well, not only that.

[427] If you fix this one, it helps fix the other one.

[428] Of course.

[429] This is the big one.

[430] The heart disease one.

[431] If you can get people healthier, I mean, you will radically increase their ability to withstand all sorts of things.

[432] Everything.

[433] Yeah.

[434] And, you know, various types of cancers, heart disease itself, this particular virus, COVID, etc. And I'm COVID -ed out, man. Yeah, no. I hear you, man. I hear you.

[435] It is tiring, man. It hurts my brain.

[436] Like I say, I just want.

[437] It's the division that is really concerning me at this point.

[438] Because I think the genuine threat that existed, say, 14, 15, 16 months ago is, you know, we're in a very different situation to we are when you did that podcast with it.

[439] Was it Robert Osterholm?

[440] Is that his name?

[441] Michael.

[442] Sorry, Michael Osterholm.

[443] That freaked everybody the fuck out, didn't it?

[444] Yeah, but that was a very, when was that?

[445] Like March or April?

[446] I believe that was April of last year.

[447] March.

[448] March.

[449] It was literally like.

[450] Like right before the locker?

[451] Yeah, like two days before or something like that.

[452] Yeah, about a year and a half.

[453] So we're in a totally, when you did that, there was no vaccines.

[454] Right.

[455] We didn't have all this global data of, you know, who's getting affected, et cetera.

[456] That's a dirty trick they're doing.

[457] There's a statistic that they keep throwing around about the number of deaths, and Fauci's done this himself, about the number of deaths of the unvaccinated people, that the vast number of deaths were unvaccinated.

[458] But what they're not telling you is when you're counting this up, the vast majority of those people are from the time where there was no vaccine.

[459] Yes, exactly.

[460] It's a dirty little thing they're doing.

[461] So they're making it seem like all these people are dying because they're unvaccinated.

[462] And if you get vaccinated, you're not going to die.

[463] That's a fucking dirty trick.

[464] They're doing a lot of dirty tricks.

[465] I also saw another thing.

[466] I don't know if it was a particular state, but they may be doing this around, where when they are now, now, right now, when they're counting the deaths and hospitalizations now, you're considered unvaccinated until after two weeks of the second dose, right?

[467] So someone could have been, you know, had two shots, but they're still in the unvaccinated category until that two weeks passes, which is really shady.

[468] But it's not that shady, really, in that case.

[469] No, because the vaccine takes time to work.

[470] Your body has to build the antibodies, and you're a little bit vulnerable during that period.

[471] But to define that as someone who, but to call that person unvaccinated.

[472] Because it's not effective yet.

[473] It's, I get that, but that if you're looking at the top level thing or the headlines, right?

[474] And they're saying that 80 % of the people in hospital aren't vaccinated, right?

[475] Of course, everyone thinks they literally haven't.

[476] They think they literally haven't had the vaccine, right?

[477] But actually a huge chunk of them are saying, okay, they had it, but it hasn't kicked in yet fully.

[478] There's certainly a number that have had adverse vaccine reactions that are in that group.

[479] Yeah.

[480] So there's a little bit of that.

[481] Yeah, it's just a slight of hand, you know, it's like.

[482] I don't know anybody who doesn't know someone who's had a bad reaction.

[483] There we go.

[484] But you're not supposed to talk about that.

[485] You're not supposed to talk about it.

[486] And I know people that are hesitant to talk about it because they're afraid of blowback.

[487] Yeah.

[488] I'm like, man, you're in the hospital for a vaccine.

[489] You're afraid to talk about it.

[490] But they're afraid to talk about it amongst their liberal friends because they don't want to be thought of as an anti -vaxxer.

[491] We were talking about Eric Clapton.

[492] The LA Times wrote a story that Clapton is not God.

[493] He's just another vile antivaxor.

[494] Who bought the vaccine?

[495] Who's been vaccinated and had a horrific reaction to the vaccine?

[496] And they started blaming his horrific reaction on autoimmune diseases that he may or may not have had or something that he may or may or may have had, and then plus his years of alcoholism, which I don't think he's drank in a long fucking time.

[497] But it's just like this sort of reaction is why people are terrified of talking and discussing it.

[498] The fact that a newspaper like the L .A. Times can call him a vile antivaxer when he's been vaccinated.

[499] It's really crazy.

[500] It's just like such a gross take that, you know, it's designed to speak to the people that already have that same mindset this this this they're they're you know they're preaching to the choir yep it's become insanely tribalistic yeah insanely tribalistic to the point where you know it's hardly about a virus anymore or trying to do this it's just a team sport and you see this when you're trying to when they're trying to push I mean hundreds of millions of people at this point have acquired antibodies naturally that's the weird thing is those antibodies don't count They want you to get a vaccine, even though you have the natural antibodies.

[501] That shows that it's not about logic and sense and, you know, actually helping people's health.

[502] Otherwise, that would be obviously accounted for.

[503] Not only does Jamie have antibodies, but Jamie somewhere along the line must have encountered COVID again for a second time, fought it off and developed more antibodies.

[504] So they, look at that, flexing over there.

[505] So they did a test on Jamie recently.

[506] like your antibodies were so strong there is no way they were from a year ago right i mean i don't know how that worked yeah maybe but yeah just it was showing up maybe like faint before and the line just got more it's like more visible or more obvious or however that works it's super thick but do you know of a time where you were exposed not necessarily i was i've been around people that i've gotten you know tested positive since then but the time period at i don't know about the incubation time period there is a day or two, I felt like, hmm, well, am I sick?

[507] And then a couple hours or a day goes by, I'm like, no, I'm all good.

[508] That's probably what it was.

[509] Yeah.

[510] It burned through so many people we know.

[511] It did.

[512] It did.

[513] I just want people to realize, just the temperature just needs to come down, man. Like, they're really, really, you know, and with this whole vaccine passport, COVID -Pass, green pass thing that they're, you know, trying to roll out in certain cities and countries.

[514] I'm just like, that is not going to, it's not going to, it's not going to, end well and it's so obvious to me. It's so obvious to you because you pay attention to these authoritarian ideas and how to get implemented.

[515] But for a lot of people, like, yeah, I got the vaccine.

[516] I should be able to get a better position and I should be treated better because I'm vaxed.

[517] Yeah.

[518] And they're so fucking, they're so excited about the fact they're vaxed.

[519] Meanwhile, they're catching it.

[520] Yeah.

[521] The look on people's faces when they found out that you can get vaccinated.

[522] Like I've talked to people and they go, you know, you can still get sick, even though they've been vaccinated.

[523] They're like, what?

[524] Yep.

[525] Most people did not know that.

[526] Yep.

[527] And that literally four months later, you're getting sick.

[528] To be fair, from the beginning, they never said that it was going to stop people from getting it or transmitting it.

[529] They were saying like 90, 95%.

[530] Maybe the messaging was different here.

[531] In the UK, if you actually looked at the information, they never said that it was going to stop you from getting it or spreading it, but they would have a therapeutic effect.

[532] So massively reduce the chances of hospitalization of death.

[533] I think they're a little bit more honest about.

[534] The numbers over there as well.

[535] Yeah, maybe so, maybe so.

[536] What they're saying here is now they're trying to push a third shot around September.

[537] It's just weird, man. It's just, it's so odd to me. I feel like society is running towards this cliff, and those of us who are trying to make sense and to stop people running off this cliff are being denigrated and being called names and everything's been polarized.

[538] Either your pro -vax or your anti -vax, as if those are the only two.

[539] Suddenly, I've never been called anti -vaccin my entire lifetime up until a few months ago.

[540] Now, suddenly...

[541] It's not really a vaccine in the regular sense.

[542] It's a genetic therapy, right?

[543] I mean, isn't that what it is?

[544] I mean, isn't that exactly how it was described?

[545] Yeah, I think with the exception of the...

[546] I think the Johnson and Johnson one is more of a traditional -style vaccine, but the Pfizer and Moderna, from what I understand, those are the MRNA ones.

[547] So that's the new technology.

[548] But don't they refer to them as gene therapies?

[549] On the website, I think they might.

[550] I think that's how they refer to them.

[551] I mean, it's more of a treatment than anything.

[552] It's a treatment, yeah.

[553] Because if you have to get a shot again, six months later, which is what they're saying now.

[554] Which is fine.

[555] It's like, look, if you need slash want it, then go get it.

[556] I think it should be available to anyone who wants it.

[557] Shouldn't there be some long -term studies on what happens if you do get a third or a fourth shot?

[558] There absolutely should be, but the trials for these don't end until 2023, I believe.

[559] And so by definition, people get very mad when you use the term experimental, but they are still in trial, right?

[560] They get mad because of their personal attachment to the idea of being vaccinated.

[561] Sure.

[562] Their personal, like, celebration of the vaccine.

[563] Yeah.

[564] I mean, how many people out there got Pfizer tattoos?

[565] Too many.

[566] One is too many.

[567] A lot.

[568] I bet a lot.

[569] One is too many.

[570] I saw people singing.

[571] Is so many people, like, proudly.

[572] put, showed their band -aid, like, wow.

[573] Yeah, it's odd.

[574] I've seen people get the, you know, the vaccination card tattooed on the, it's all weird because one thing that always makes me notice something is when people are suddenly behaving in a way they never, ever, ever did before, right?

[575] So prior to 2020, any of this behavior would have been absolutely nuts.

[576] Everyone would have thought it was nuts, right?

[577] Everyone would have thought it's insane, right?

[578] Which, what behavior specifically?

[579] All of it, everything from the bizarre mask behavior to running around asking people about, like, oh, did you, has anyone, you know, did you get the, did you get your flu shot this year?

[580] Did you get, you know, did you do this?

[581] If you don't get your flu shot, you're killing kids.

[582] But no one spoke like that.

[583] No one did that.

[584] No one was getting.

[585] But the flu shot did kill kids.

[586] That's what's fucked.

[587] This is, this is what's up.

[588] No one checked anybody for the flu at school.

[589] No. And it would have, and it was never socially acceptable to ask somebody.

[590] Right.

[591] about their medical procedures or what medicines they're taking, et cetera.

[592] Now, suddenly, this is being normalized, right?

[593] If I went back to January 2020 and I suggested that, okay, I've gotten an idea, like, you shouldn't be allowed to fully participate in society unless you get, like, a flu shot or a chicken pox shot.

[594] People would be like, what?

[595] Like, are you crazy.

[596] Even rational people are saying this on Twitter, which is really strange.

[597] Like previously considered rational people, they're saying, you know, you should be denounced.

[598] medical care you should it's so vindictive yeah it's very very vindictive i think also you know there's this thing with human beings where people like to have their ideas and their actions validated right so if someone is smoking they want other people to smoke because then they feel like right know their ideas socially validated whatever so i think this is also going on with this whole vaccine situation where someone has you know someone takes the shot and they don't really feel 100 % confident in their decision unless everybody else does.

[599] I mean, there's no logical reason why if you're protected.

[600] I've used the metaphor of an umbrella, right?

[601] If I have an umbrella and it's raining, I'm protected from the rain.

[602] Well, there's the thought that the unvaccinated are causing variants and the variants are eventually going to come get them.

[603] That that's just, that's like a hypothesis.

[604] In fact, I've heard it the other way around, even from virologists who have said that actually mass vaccination during a pandemic situation is going to drive the creation of new variants.

[605] What is correct, I do not know.

[606] Well, drive, I think what they think is it drives selection.

[607] Yeah.

[608] It's drive selection of more aggressive variants.

[609] The thing about vaccination is it has to kind of happen simultaneously if you're really going to kill it.

[610] Like, I think they would have to vaccinate everybody at the exact same time.

[611] I don't think you can kill it, though.

[612] I've just accepted a long time ago, hey, this disease is here to stay.

[613] It's a coronavirus.

[614] Coronavirus isn't going anywhere.

[615] They have animal vectors as well.

[616] Like, they're not going anywhere.

[617] You can reduce how bad it gets.

[618] But just like we've never eliminated the flu.

[619] People always forget that how people also have forgotten that the flu is actually bad, right?

[620] You know, when you compare this disease to the flu, people get angry?

[621] Yeah.

[622] And I'm like, the flu is not pleasant, right?

[623] The flu is not just the cold.

[624] Well, the flu is more dangerous to children.

[625] It is.

[626] It is.

[627] In fact.

[628] And the flu kills dozens of thousands of people.

[629] a year, right?

[630] I think globally, hundreds of thousands of people, but I think because it's not new, it's not novel, and maybe even the name, you know, the word COVID sounds more scary than flu, right?

[631] Flu sounds kind of like, oh, you know, whatever, and people can flake flus with colds.

[632] And I'm like, no, the flu's nasty, right?

[633] The flu can be pretty bad.

[634] Yeah.

[635] And...

[636] I wonder people are going to get upset if you don't take the flu shot now.

[637] I don't know.

[638] I'm not in favor of this medical bullying and medical apartheid which people are pushing for i don't think there's ever been a time in society where you have a two -tier society where some people have certain rights and privileges and others don't well people are tribal about what cell phone they use sure but no one that's just how people are i've never had someone try to say i shouldn't be allowed to eat in a restaurant because i have an android right but but but it is that same sort of division it's the same mentality there's a same sort of thing that people do with everything they get mad if you drive a Chevy and they love Ford they get mad people are weird you know they get they get and especially under duress yes I think in a crisis whether it's real manufactured or imaginary one thing that happens is it forces people to play their play their hand forces people forces people to show what their character looks like when they're tested by adversity exactly and some people just do not know how to handle it and they We want to, they're on Twitter all day just screaming.

[639] Yep.

[640] And it's, it's a wild shit show of a fucking mental health institute.

[641] It does.

[642] That's what it's like down there.

[643] You know, and I often say like, you know, the true judgment of character and kindness and compassion to me is really, really revealed in the face of people who disagree with you.

[644] Yeah.

[645] Right.

[646] So it's very easy to be tolerant and, you know, kind and compassionate and whatever towards people who are on your team.

[647] whatever that might be politically, religiously, you know, supporting the same football team, whatever it is, whether it's bigger, it's small.

[648] But actually, I think what really reveals people's kindness and humanity or lack of is, okay, how do you respond when someone doesn't make the exact same decisions as you or believe in the exact same things, et cetera.

[649] And I think this situation has, honestly, it's given people an excuse to be a -holes and to act as if, they're doing it for some greater good or whatever and it's like no you're just being a jerk yeah that's the mask thing when people yell at you from across the street that's what that is that has nothing to do with the virus it can't it doesn't even make sense logically they just they can now get away yeah you can now get away with that kind of behavior and still pretend you're the good guy react to that you know you're supposed to just put a mask on or you have to deal with it whereas you would in normal situations someone yelled at you like that'd be like fuck you yeah or you'd yell back or you'd walk across the street and smack them yeah now they get away with it for some reason.

[650] Yeah, exactly.

[651] And, you know, I was a big fan of how things used to be.

[652] I think the old ways of a society was the way better.

[653] Yeah.

[654] I hope we get through this and people realize how important it is to take care of your body.

[655] Yes.

[656] And I know you're a very physically fit guy and you exercise all the time.

[657] And I've been trying to promote that as much as I can just for just not just for physical health, but just for mental health.

[658] It's so important.

[659] So important to exercise.

[660] Changes everything.

[661] Changes what you feel about things.

[662] changes the way your body works me you literally have the ability to put more horsepower in your physical race car just by effort just by effort just by getting to the gym and forcing your body to do things that are uncomfortable and doing it over a long period of time you see a massive change in what your body can do and these fucking people that have never done that are now giving advice on health and wellness and to me that's offensive I I get crazy with it and I try not to lash out I don't want to lash out at them but I just wish they would understand how ridiculous it is when I see a doughy sloppy person who doesn't work out or who does work out but fucking barely and they're giving health advice and their their advice is to now trust a pharmaceutical company that is a habitual line steper yep it's moral grandstanding That's what it is.

[663] You know, it's now trendy to pretend to care about health, right?

[664] So there's now millions of people who literally never, ever cared about health for all the years and decades before.

[665] Right.

[666] And now that health is as simple as throwing on a mask and taking a shot, right, not actually doing any work or changing your diet or exercising or anything, right?

[667] Then these people now feel like they can morally grandstand and scream and shout at other people.

[668] And I think this conflation between health and medicine is also an interesting thing, right?

[669] So I've seen from some of your previous podcasts, you know, you've had people, I know you don't follow all this so much, which is a wise idea.

[670] But, you know, when people start, you're like, oh, Joe Rogan is not a doctor.

[671] Joe Rogan is not a virologist, whatever.

[672] I'm like, bro, Joe Rogan knows more about health than 99 % of the people, right?

[673] Health and medicine are not the same thing.

[674] Not every medical expert is a health expert.

[675] And that might sound weird to somebody, but just by a lot of fat doctors.

[676] Yeah, just by someone being a doctor doesn't mean that holistically they truly understand, let alone practice good health in terms of nutrition, exercise, lifestyle choices, et cetera.

[677] So when it comes to the ins and outs of how the human body works or, you know, a surgeon will know all this stuff about anatomy, a virologist knows all this about, you know, viruses, et cetera, then sure, they're the experts in that regard.

[678] But in terms of general holistic health, this assumption that, you know, Dr. Fauci is like a general health expert or lots of these other approved governmental doctors, et cetera, to me, that's just nonsense.

[679] It's nonsense.

[680] And I generally am a fan of people practicing what they preach.

[681] It doesn't matter what it is in the world.

[682] But I'm not going to sit here and take, you know, general health advice from someone.

[683] who clearly is not in good shape themselves and has never been, like, to me, that's just a mockery.

[684] I don't care if they're wearing a lab coat.

[685] Well, it just requires a lot of time and a lot of effort and most people are lazy.

[686] It's hard.

[687] It's hard.

[688] It's hard to do.

[689] Yeah.

[690] And, you know, and I think this is one of the biggest problems in modern Western society is that people always want to take the path of least resistance.

[691] They always want to take the path of least resistance and do what looks good or sounds good without actually caring so much about how effective it is, right?

[692] So you get a lot more virtue and moral points for throwing a mask.

[693] You can even put a mask on in your profile picture on social media and put hashtag wear a mask.

[694] Hashtag what's the vaccine one now?

[695] They put, you know, get hashtag, get vaccinated, hashtag fully vaxed, whatever.

[696] And now you feel like you're this moral authority because you can.

[697] can just go and just be tweeting all day about this and yelling at people and calling people anti -vaxxers and whatever.

[698] Meanwhile, this person has never stepped foot in a gym and they're 70 pounds overweight and they're smoking and they're drinking and whatever.

[699] And I'm just like, dude, you know, there's more to, health is holistic.

[700] Health is holistic.

[701] It's not as simple as, okay, just take a shot.

[702] Take a shot and you're done, man. Yeah, I mean, there's so many people that they take a shot and their immune system is still compromised.

[703] Of course.

[704] I mean, you're not going to fix this entire broken system with one pharmaceutical intervention.

[705] It's not the way it works.

[706] No. And it's even more intriguing given that with this particular virus, again, the hospitalization rate, if you are obese, is something like 70 to 80 % of people who get hospitalized have been, I'm not sure if it's overweight or obese or the combination of the two.

[707] I wonder if that's still true because someone told me that's changed let me what percentage of the people because i had read that it was 78 % of the people that were in the ICU uh for covid were obese maybe it's changed recently someone told me now it's dropped which is interesting but age and obesity are and other comorbidities have been you know the big the primary yeah the predictive factors so to totally ignore that especially when we've had 18 months now let's see what the number is take a guess think it's still 80 what do you guess um more than half certainly.

[708] Yeah, I think more than half.

[709] If we can find that data.

[710] By the way, I want to give a big shout out to everybody who has taken the time over this past 18 months to actually improve their diet and their lifestyle and to lose weight, et cetera.

[711] Yeah, those people should be congratulated.

[712] Yeah, absolutely.

[713] That's a giant move.

[714] And there's a lot of people that, you know, my friend Laura Bites, who I take with me on the road sometimes, she's lost, I think she's lost 50 pounds.

[715] It's fantastic.

[716] Yeah, and she just realized, like, she's pretty, you know, blunt about it.

[717] She's like, well, I'm fat.

[718] Yeah.

[719] And if I'm fat, I got a more of a chance of dying.

[720] Well, fuck that.

[721] I got to just wait.

[722] That should have been a message.

[723] Yeah.

[724] That should have been a message put out there.

[725] Both of my parents have lost, I think, over 30 pounds each.

[726] That's awesome.

[727] My mom had been diabetic for five years.

[728] She reversed her diabetes last year.

[729] Whoa.

[730] That's amazing.

[731] And fear.

[732] It's a motivator, right?

[733] Yeah.

[734] And I also think with all the lockdown.

[735] or whatever.

[736] They're like, you know what, now's the time to do this.

[737] Get something done.

[738] Yeah.

[739] What do you got, Jamie, anything?

[740] I found the study that said 78 % but that's from March.

[741] I'm trying to find something.

[742] Is that March this year?

[743] Yeah, so there was a study that said 78 % but, you know, here we are in August.

[744] This was published March 9th, but it says it was.

[745] 78 % of COVID -19 patients, hospice in the U .S. overweight or obese CDC finds.

[746] It says of people from last year that though.

[747] But this is March of 2021.

[748] Right, but it was a study from people from last year.

[749] It wasn't people from this year.

[750] Is there a particular reason why it would have drastically changed?

[751] More data.

[752] I don't know.

[753] That's the problem.

[754] I'm trying to find something updated.

[755] Well, if anything, the Delta variant, which here's the thing.

[756] All my friends who have tested COVID, I've 13 friends have tested positive for COVID recently.

[757] None of them, they found out what variant it was.

[758] Yeah, they don't know.

[759] They keep saying the Delta variant.

[760] They didn't ask.

[761] They didn't run tests.

[762] They just swab their nose.

[763] They found they have COVID and they treated them accordingly.

[764] You know, some vaccinated, some unvaccinated.

[765] Yep.

[766] You know, I have had unvaccinated friends who got hit hard and then unvaccinated friends who breeze through it.

[767] And vaccinated friends, they got hit hard.

[768] And vaccinated friends that breeze through it.

[769] And the thing that is a factor in all these is how healthy they are.

[770] Yeah.

[771] That's the big deal.

[772] The fat ones that were.

[773] unvaccinated and vaccinated got hit hard.

[774] Interesting.

[775] The healthy ones that were unvaccinated or vaccinated breeze through it.

[776] Yeah.

[777] You know, if anything, this, again, if we lived in a society that was more serious and really valued personal responsibility, then this would have been the biggest wake -up call to deal with a much wider pandemic that we're dealing with, which is obesity.

[778] Not just obesity, but just poor health in general.

[779] Poor diet in general.

[780] And I think it would have been wonderful if someone in the media or someone in the government, rather, devise some sort of a program to encourage people.

[781] If the government had a YouTube channel where imagine if the president, like obviously Biden can't do this, he dropped dead, but Obama could have done it.

[782] You know, if someone of that, like Obama's always been fit and healthy, someone like him decided to put out like a daily workout routine.

[783] Just a simple body weight workout routine.

[784] Someone in government.

[785] Hire someone.

[786] Say, look, this is the government's YouTube channel.

[787] We're going to have a free daily workout routine.

[788] Basically, everybody in the country at least has some sort of access to internet.

[789] If you're not homeless, even a lot of homeless guys have phones.

[790] It's a wild time, right?

[791] But if you just had something where, you know, you can tune in at a particular time and you can do it live with us or it'll be archived.

[792] Just follow along.

[793] Yeah.

[794] And you follow along.

[795] It's a, do it at your own pace, simple stuff.

[796] Push -ups, jumping jacks, sit -ups.

[797] Yep.

[798] Simple shit.

[799] The government's not going to do that, man. I don't, I don't, and honestly, I don't expect them to.

[800] Wouldn't it be nice?

[801] It would be nice.

[802] A lot of things would be nice.

[803] I mean, part of why I'm, I don't like to label myself politically, but a big reason why I'm largely libertarian is because I've just come to the conclusion that besides aiming guns at people, dropping bombs and taking and blowing money, the government is not good at most things.

[804] Here's the problem with the government.

[805] The government is run by people so dumb they're in the government.

[806] Why would you want to do that job, right?

[807] This is the problem.

[808] Unless you're called, unless you realize like, God damn it, someone's got to fix this.

[809] Yeah, but then even when you get those people, they tend to be too honest and genuine to go as far as they could.

[810] Speaking of honest and genuine, have you been paying attention to this fucking Q &N documentary series on HBO?

[811] I haven't, no. Oh, my God.

[812] What's this?

[813] I'm on episode four now, Jamie.

[814] I've changed my tune.

[815] I changed my tune.

[816] I was saying yesterday I had Lex Friedman on.

[817] I was saying that I don't think that kid, what's his name, Robert?

[818] I don't think he was Q &N.

[819] Now I think he is.

[820] Now I'm in episode four, I'm like, yeah, he's guilty, the little fuck.

[821] I never followed the Q &N thing.

[822] I had a lot of people try to get me into it, and I'll, It's just like, no, that's one rabbit hole too many.

[823] You should watch the HBO series.

[824] It's called Into the Fire.

[825] Into the storm?

[826] Into the storm.

[827] It's like Q, Into the storm.

[828] It's a lot of it relates to the attack on the Capitol in January 6th, and a lot of it just relates to the internet culture of these outcasts and misfits and that this person purporting to be a governmental insider who provides all this secret information about what's going down, what they know.

[829] This is the gentleman.

[830] A possible QAnon's slip -up suggests the truth of Q's identity was right there all along.

[831] What is that?

[832] What are they saying there?

[833] Click on that.

[834] Is that that that dude?

[835] But I mean, is that what they're saying?

[836] Isn't it funny that you're allowed to talk about Q &N now?

[837] Yeah, you're allowed to.

[838] But it's Ron Watkins, yeah, a longtime administrator of the message board.

[839] In a final scene after Watkins talked about how he had shared voter fraud conspiracy theories after Trump's loss in the 2020 elections he told Holbeck Hoback it was basically three years of intelligence training teaching Normies how to do intelligence work.

[840] It was basically what I was doing anonymously before but never as Q oh so he kind of admitted it.

[841] So who's that guy in the photo?

[842] That's the guy that everybody thinks is Q and I didn't think he was until episode three.

[843] Episode 3 I only watched two episodes when Lex and I were talking.

[844] And Lex was like, yeah, he's definitely it.

[845] I go, really?

[846] I didn't think so.

[847] And then I watched episode three.

[848] I was like, oh, this motherfucker, he got me. He got me. Him and his dad.

[849] His dad's slimy, too.

[850] His dad was the guy who was running 8chan.

[851] And the founder of 8chan, that guy, Fred, he's an interesting character.

[852] The whole thing is very interesting.

[853] Okay.

[854] You should watch it.

[855] It's fascinating.

[856] Yeah.

[857] I never followed the Q thing.

[858] Like, how could you not?

[859] I didn't, I just, I couldn't deal with it.

[860] I mean, I had a lot, I definitely had a lot of followers who were like really into it and were, would send me these weird links and whatever.

[861] And I was just like, this is.

[862] You know that one Congress lady who looks like she's drunk all the time?

[863] What's her name?

[864] Marjorie Taylor Green.

[865] Marjorie Taylor Green?

[866] Yeah.

[867] She always looks like she's out of it.

[868] Like, that lady is in the documentary.

[869] She was a giant Q supporter.

[870] Yeah.

[871] And she's like, Q's a Patriot.

[872] that mean?

[873] Like, what does that mean?

[874] Well, here's the thing.

[875] What it is, this person was making these like very cryptic posts on this internet message board, 8chan.

[876] Okay.

[877] And 8chan is like response to 4chan being monitored when 4chan was monitored and while it was, uh, where they were using people that, that's there, Marjorie Taylor Green.

[878] I only believe some of what QAnon says about Dems being satanic pedophile cannibals, okay?

[879] That lady always looks like she's had like two chardonnays, too many, and she's just talking shit.

[880] Doesn't she?

[881] She always looks a little lit to me. The politicians, you guys have some wild politicians over here, just in general, just in general.

[882] That lady's, you know, the Democrats.

[883] In the UK, they're all boring.

[884] Are they?

[885] Most of them.

[886] The guy Boris Johnson, though, you're Trump guy.

[887] Boris Johnson's not Trump.

[888] What's his fucking hair?

[889] Yeah, he's got there.

[890] the hair.

[891] He's like a British Trump.

[892] He's not.

[893] He's not.

[894] What is he?

[895] I think that's what people hoped for.

[896] But he's a disappointment.

[897] That's what he is.

[898] How's he disappointment?

[899] I mean, all of this nonsense that's happened has happened under his government.

[900] You know, you know, the U .K. was going to take the Swedish approach.

[901] Really?

[902] Yeah.

[903] Why did they not?

[904] He basically got pressured in by the, you know, he kind of capitulated to certain loud mouths in the media who were seeing that.

[905] But he caught COVID though.

[906] And he also, yes, I think also.

[907] Yes, he got hospitalized.

[908] And I think, that also freaked him out a little and made him totally change.

[909] He lost, but he allowed the emotion to take over rather than, his initial plan was a lot more rational, right?

[910] And it wouldn't have led to all the job losses and the closures of businesses, etc. And I don't think any more people would have died.

[911] But he then saw that, got the pressure from the media, had his own personal anecdotal experience, and then other countries.

[912] Well, you're saying anecdotal experience, but he almost fucking died.

[913] His, yeah, but it's still.

[914] That's a big, that's a shift in, like, if you have this idea that's not that big of a deal, and then you almost die, and you're like, oh, shit, this is legit.

[915] But that doesn't mean shut the whole country down.

[916] No, no, it doesn't.

[917] It shouldn't mean shut the whole country down, right?

[918] It's still an emotional response, right?

[919] I know people who have, you know, if you've almost been in a car accident, it wouldn't make sense to then say, no one should drive cars.

[920] Exactly.

[921] It would be irrational, or we need to lower the speed limit to 30 miles per hour.

[922] And it's like, that would save lives.

[923] That would absolutely save lives.

[924] Right.

[925] But we understand in society, you know, we're constantly doing risk analysis with absolutely everything, absolutely everything.

[926] And that's why it was really silly when people started doing the, if it saves one life, it's worth it.

[927] Yeah.

[928] It's like, if we thought about that with everything, then we just have to nerf the entire planet.

[929] Yeah.

[930] Because you can die from a lot of things.

[931] And you shouldn't eat because you could choke on your food.

[932] Exactly.

[933] Yeah.

[934] You shouldn't do much.

[935] You really shouldn't do much if you're, and this is the thing, you know, people have been so scared of, scared of death that they've stopped living.

[936] You know, there's a difference between living and existing.

[937] And I think a lot of people are just now existing and that's a shame.

[938] I'm just resentful that this one thing has become such a primary focus of all of our lives for so long.

[939] And it's for a lot of people, it's become their entire identity.

[940] It's because it's unavoidable.

[941] It's unavoidable.

[942] And it impacts people, right?

[943] So I would love to, like, I don't enjoy talking about it or I don't really enjoy tweeting about it or whatever.

[944] It's just that I can't really stop as long as it's infringing upon so many other people.

[945] And again, I'm not even talking about the virus.

[946] I'm talking about the response, right?

[947] The response.

[948] It's like you've had millions of people lose their jobs, millions of businesses shut down.

[949] You've got effects on children, people's mental health, people's physical, all of this stuff.

[950] And they keep, they're still not, they're still going and going and going.

[951] And I'm just like, look, guys, like, we can draw that line, like, the battle has been fought and is one.

[952] We should actually really be in celebration mode right now.

[953] We should really be in celebration mode.

[954] People should be, like, awesome.

[955] Like, the numbers are, look at, this thing has been crushed.

[956] The curve has been absolutely flattened, right?

[957] This thing was over, you know, hospitals were, you know, I know, in the UK, like, it peaked, you know, December, January.

[958] Well, I think I don't hear right about that.

[959] I think the hospitals are, they got hit pretty hard here recently.

[960] Okay.

[961] Yeah, there's been a big uptick in cases, and a lot of the people that I know that actually work in hospitals have said there's quite a few people in the ICU now.

[962] Quite a few.

[963] What is that?

[964] Well, a lot more than they had just a few months ago.

[965] There was a big uptick.

[966] But again, a lot of them with comorbidities.

[967] A lot of them are obese.

[968] This is anecdotal, but from my friend who's a nurse, they were saying that so many of these people are just, they're just super unhealthy people.

[969] People.

[970] This is the thing.

[971] I don't know, man. I don't know.

[972] I just want later, I just want people to be able to just, my thing from the beginning is just like, look, people should be free to make their choices, assume their own risk.

[973] If you want to take a specific medicine or a vaccine or whatever you should have access to it, you should be able to get it.

[974] If you don't want to take it, you should be free to assume whatever risk you need.

[975] Everyone has a different situation, different demographics, different history.

[976] It would be a different case.

[977] Simple.

[978] If the vaccine, stop people from getting and transmitting it, but which it doesn't.

[979] No. It doesn't.

[980] And it would be different if they would leave people alone that have already, especially recovered from the disease.

[981] That's the big one.

[982] They want them to get vaccinated too, which is like, yeah.

[983] I mean, just, that's not scientific.

[984] It's not, it's not based on what we know about viruses and immunity and no antibodies.

[985] And the thing is, here's something really interesting, because I've had people say, man, if they can do all this with a disease with a, you know, a 99 % plus survival rate?

[986] Yeah.

[987] What if it was something with a, you know, 10 % mortality rate?

[988] Do you know what's interesting is I think it would be far less divisive?

[989] Why you say that?

[990] For a lot of reasons.

[991] Number one, you wouldn't need to mandate stuff.

[992] How so?

[993] Because people are self -preserving, right?

[994] If you knew, okay, if I go out and I kind of live my life normally, like, If I can track this disease at a 10 % or 20 % chance I'm going to die, you will naturally take every precaution necessary.

[995] You don't need lockdowns.

[996] You don't need mask mandates.

[997] I think you're wrong and I think it would be worse.

[998] I think people would be crying out for more authoritarian restrictions.

[999] They would be asking big government to take care of them.

[1000] I think it would be far more united.

[1001] I think it would be far more united.

[1002] If everybody, oh my gosh, like everyone knows somebody who's died, kids are dying everyone like there's people who don't even still be people that were would be anti -maskers there's still be people that would like say it's a hoax I don't know I think if you need to watch this Q &A document I realize how fucking stupid some people are I don't know I don't know I think it would be less I think it would be far more united like if it were a true because at the moment it's like it like it's not at the moment everything is still debatable right everything is debate like to this day we don't know There's still no real -world evidence that masks help.

[1003] There's no real -world evidence that masks make a difference.

[1004] How much do they help?

[1005] Like, if you have one on and someone doesn't have one on, why would you be upset that they don't have one on if it worked for you?

[1006] Is it supposed to be you need to have one and I need to have one and then we're fully protected?

[1007] But the thing is as well is you can't transmit a virus you don't have.

[1008] So if unless somebody, wearing a mask if you're not sick is assinine.

[1009] Right?

[1010] Like if you don't have the virus, you can't spread it.

[1011] But the idea is you could be asymptomatically spreading it.

[1012] Which we have known forever is not really a major driver.

[1013] It's not a major driver, but even if it's a minor driver and people get sick from asymptomatic spread.

[1014] That's always existed.

[1015] We've never worn masks.

[1016] Right, but we haven't been in a pandemic before.

[1017] Yeah, we have.

[1018] But not like this.

[1019] We haven't been in a pandemic in the last hundred years like this.

[1020] Why wasn't, but we've had coronavirus pandemics in our lifetime and they never recommended masks.

[1021] Even on the who, they never recommended masks before.

[1022] When did we had a coronavirus pandemic during our lifetime?

[1023] Bird flu?

[1024] Yeah, but that never made its way to America.

[1025] And that was isolated.

[1026] Swine flu.

[1027] Swine flu killed 10 ,000, tens of thousands of people in America.

[1028] Yeah.

[1029] That was in 2009, right?

[1030] Yeah.

[1031] There was never, it wasn't even, lockdowns, mask mandates, they were not even suggested.

[1032] In fact, the WHO itself was always against them.

[1033] Yeah, it was a, it was a flu.

[1034] That's what it was.

[1035] People looked at it like something that they had already heard of.

[1036] Yeah.

[1037] You know, but it's, it's, I think people are, but, but with the mask thing, I mean, there's no evidence that mask mandates have help.

[1038] There's no evidence.

[1039] We're 18 months in.

[1040] How do you get those, though?

[1041] How would you get?

[1042] If you have everyone masking up, the entire country, the only evidence that we have is about the lower numbers of the flu, right?

[1043] We have a lowered incidence of, at least recorded incidents of flu in the last year.

[1044] It was a lot lower.

[1045] I think that's what?

[1046] I'm not sold on that.

[1047] You're not sold on it.

[1048] How so?

[1049] In what way?

[1050] I think they, I think they.

[1051] rebranded.

[1052] I think they're they're classifying a lot of flu cases as COVID personally.

[1053] That's what I think.

[1054] It doesn't make sense what they're saying with that.

[1055] Well, they do know that they fucked up with the PC.

[1056] They did have an issue with the PCR tests.

[1057] Didn't the CDC?

[1058] Didn't they pull the...

[1059] They're pulling it at the end of the year?

[1060] At the end of the year.

[1061] They're pulling the PCR tests because too many of them have tested positive for COVID but it was actually the flu or other things.

[1062] Nobody's testing the flu.

[1063] Nobody's been testing for the flu over the past 18 months.

[1064] Well, they have tested.

[1065] That's why they have a lot of cases.

[1066] There's recorded cases of the flu.

[1067] Very little.

[1068] What is the number?

[1069] Very little.

[1070] Everyone's getting tested for COVID.

[1071] They're not being tested for COVID.

[1072] It's not nearly as much as it normally is.

[1073] Yeah, for sure.

[1074] But they did get tested enough that there are recorded cases.

[1075] Yeah.

[1076] I don't know anyone who's out of had a flu test throughout this whole thing.

[1077] I don't either, but I don't know anybody who ever gets a flu test unless it's sick.

[1078] I don't, I don't know.

[1079] Like, this is the problem, though.

[1080] There's so much that we don't know.

[1081] And the thing is, as well, is, you know, people, these conversations are necessary.

[1082] Like, these conversations and questions we're asking and numbers we're looking at.

[1083] I'm like, man, all throughout, this should have been happening.

[1084] They're exhausting.

[1085] I don't want to have these conversations anymore.

[1086] No, okay.

[1087] We can switch topics, man. I'm happy to talk about other things.

[1088] Very happy to talk about other things.

[1089] I can't fucking do it anymore.

[1090] We talk about it every day.

[1091] Yeah, let's switch it up, man. Just it keeps coming up.

[1092] Let's switch it up.

[1093] Okay.

[1094] What do you want to talk about?

[1095] about man what else is going on in the world you want you to watch that what else is going on what else is going on stupid documentary I will check it out it's not stupid it's actually good yeah what else is going on the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan that's a creepy one looks weird um you see the people falling from the plane I did that's wild it's it's weird it's rushing the plane trying to get on board and trying to get rescued and taken out of the country it's like fuck it's so odd you know I was having a conversation with with friends just yesterday and I was saying I literally had forgotten like I was like why was the US in Afghanistan again it had been so long I was literally trying to remember what the initial reason for going in there was yeah but I mean I'm no foreign policy expert and not going to pretend to be but it seems very obvious that the way they withdrew was crazy and leaving all the all the weapons and ammunition and vehicles and stuff like that for the Taliban to just come and scoop up.

[1096] If one was a legit conspiracy theorist, like a real tinfoil hatter, you would look at this and go, this is probably the best way to ensure the support of a reinvasion.

[1097] Like leave a bunch of weapons behind, make the whole thing disastrous, have the Taliban take over the entire country in a short period of time.

[1098] start executing women mayors, do all the crazy shit that they're probably going to do, and then, you know, have some real public outcry.

[1099] So weird.

[1100] People are, I still get people who are confused as to why I do not generally trust the government.

[1101] And I don't know how many examples I need to pull out from recent times and from further history to just be like, look, whether this is malice or its incompetence or, um, it's, with, Some things, it doesn't matter, all right, whether it's malice or incompetence.

[1102] It seems more like incompetence and anything.

[1103] But with certain things, I'm like, how can it be?

[1104] Like, it's so obvious, right?

[1105] It's so obvious what is going to happen in a certain situation.

[1106] And then you do it anyway.

[1107] And I don't understand that.

[1108] One person can be incompetent, but it's like, it's not just one person who makes all these ideas.

[1109] They've got actual people who are supposed to be experts and advisors, et cetera.

[1110] I mean, you even had people in the media last month, and the media is pretty friendly towards Joe Biden here for the most part.

[1111] And people in the media are saying, hey, if you do this, aren't the Taliban going to just take over everything?

[1112] He's like, no. And he's like, no. No, there's a 300 ,000 Afghanistan armed soldiers, only 75 ,000 Taliban.

[1113] Meanwhile, they took it over in a day.

[1114] And they just did it.

[1115] Yeah.

[1116] Yeah.

[1117] And there was no gunshots fired.

[1118] It's, no, I just, I just think the whole thing's a disaster.

[1119] The whole, this nation building idea is a disaster.

[1120] And Afghanistan itself has never been a traditional country in the sense of like a central leadership.

[1121] It's like, it's basically, for most of history, has been run by a warlords.

[1122] It's like warlords that controlled regions.

[1123] Here's a question, Joe.

[1124] Oh.

[1125] This is something I wonder about a lot.

[1126] both on an individual level and on a on a nation level how much and at what point should say a country get involved with the affairs of another one where it's a good question well it's it should be probably at a we should have levels of atrocity that are intolerable right where it's like nazi germany type levels but if that's the case why are not invading north Because North Korea, if you talk to Wynomi Park or any of the people that have escaped from North Korea, it's essentially a form of holocaust.

[1127] There's people that are in concentration camps.

[1128] They've lived their whole lives there.

[1129] Their children will be born there.

[1130] There's people that are starving to death.

[1131] There's people that are cannibalizing people.

[1132] It's a weird, fucked up, horrific situation over there.

[1133] Yeah.

[1134] And there's no. there's no plan to do anything about it.

[1135] Yeah.

[1136] But yet we keep talking about doing things in the Middle East and there's a lot of resources in the Middle East that may or may not be a motive to being there.

[1137] One of them is drugs.

[1138] It's up until the invasion of Afghanistan, I mean, I'm not sure what the number is now, but Afghanistan, once we invaded, I think they were the supplier of 90, 94 % of the world's opium.

[1139] Oh, I didn't know that.

[1140] Oh, yeah.

[1141] I didn't know that.

[1142] Well, the fucking United States troops were guarding poppy fields because these people that were there, that was their main way of making a living.

[1143] And the U .S. troops were guarding the poppy fields.

[1144] It's fucking crazy.

[1145] Let's let's find out what the actual number is as of today.

[1146] But I believe that I think that was the number at one point in time that 94 % of the world's opium supply was from Afghanistan.

[1147] Afghanistan specifically, wow.

[1148] There's also a massive supply of minerals, of conflict minerals, ironically.

[1149] In 2014, the estimated opium production was 6 ,400, what is an M .T. Yet in 2017, production climbed to a new record of 9 ,000 MT