0:00

They showed up in force for a

0:02

fiery face-off in the heart

0:04

of Hollywood. Two opposing groups

0:06

of demonstrators, pro-Palestinian

0:09

and pro-Israel, disrupted a star

0:11

presentation ceremony on the Hollywood

0:14

Walk of Fame this Tuesday.

0:16

That's because the recipient was

0:19

Wonder Woman herself, Israeli actress

0:21

Gal Gadoat. It takes Wonder

0:24

Woman to help us get

0:26

through this, so please come

0:29

up onto the stage. The

0:31

Dote also stars as the

0:34

evil queen in the newly

0:36

released version of Snow White.

0:38

You know, I really don't

0:41

remember you being this opinionated.

0:43

In her speech, she avoided

0:45

politics and did not acknowledge

0:47

the commotion outside the tent,

0:50

which shielded her somewhat from

0:52

the growing tension around her.

0:54

Standing here today on

0:56

this street, Iran, 15

0:58

years ago, we came

1:00

here and we were

1:02

driving by this boulevard

1:04

who would ever get

1:06

such an honor. The

1:09

long-awaited honor tarnished to

1:11

a degree. Godote has

1:14

been an outspoken advocate

1:16

for her native country

1:19

denouncing the deadly Hamas

1:21

attack on Israel on

1:23

October 7th of 2023.

1:26

Now, escalating conflict in

1:28

the Middle East is

1:30

leading to growing confrontations

1:33

here in Southern

1:35

California. Welcome

1:42

to struggle session. On

1:44

today's episode, Superstar Journalist

1:47

Taylor Lorenz joins us

1:49

to discuss current events,

1:51

Galgado's acting, legal wars,

1:53

insecure group chats, all

1:56

that, and more on

1:58

today's struggle session. tell

2:00

me about user mag yeah so user

2:02

mag is my sub stack it's user

2:05

mag.co and it comes out

2:07

usually two to three times

2:09

a week unless it's busy

2:11

in which case it comes

2:13

up more it's a newsletter

2:15

about sort of everything happening

2:17

on the internet it's about

2:19

how the internet is affecting

2:21

politics business and culture positively

2:23

is mostly how it's affecting

2:25

everything right Yeah, it's so great. Yeah,

2:27

it's not super dark. I write a

2:29

lot about like internet cultures and communities and

2:32

so a lot of it is about like

2:34

weird internet phenomena, but then a lot

2:36

of it ends up being politics too, which

2:38

is the more dark stuff I guess lately

2:41

because the internet has not been so

2:43

great for our political system in some ways.

2:45

In other ways it has been, I

2:47

write a lot about free speech and free

2:49

speech issues related to free speech and they

2:51

need to preserve free speech online. I care

2:54

a lot about that topic. Yeah, so

2:56

the topics we're talking about today,

2:58

some hot topics in the news

3:00

that deal with all those issues,

3:02

you know, free speeds, the internet,

3:04

what's hot on the internet, one

3:06

thing. that a lot of people

3:08

are talking about and then is

3:10

right up our struggle the struggle

3:12

session alley something that we've been

3:15

talking about for a while there's

3:17

been a brand new hit piece

3:19

put out on a young actor

3:21

who has upset some executives in

3:23

Variety magazine and we've covered this

3:25

topic a few times when it

3:27

happened to Ray Fisher and a

3:29

couple other people but is this

3:31

recurring pattern and is usually

3:33

involved as journalists named Tatiana

3:35

Siegel who wrote this article

3:38

title Inside Disney's Snow White

3:40

Fiasco death threats beefed up

3:42

security and a social media

3:44

guru for Rachel Ziegler. Now

3:46

from that title you think

3:48

it might be about how

3:50

Rachel Ziegler had to deal

3:53

with you know death threats

3:55

and had needed beefed up

3:57

security because of her outspokenness

3:59

relatively speaking about Palestine, but no, no,

4:01

no, that's not what the article is

4:03

at all. Yeah, the article is, hit

4:06

piece is a great word for it

4:08

and I don't use that word lightly

4:10

because I hate when people call things

4:12

hit pieces where it's just critical reporting.

4:14

But this article just attacks Rachel Ziegler,

4:16

as you mentioned, it's written by this

4:18

journalist who has a history of carrying

4:20

water for bad people. She has basically

4:22

lambasted others for speaking out against Palestine.

4:25

She's run cover for a lot of

4:27

sort of like Zionist propaganda, frankly, in

4:29

the media. And now this article, they're,

4:31

yeah, they're basically trying to make a

4:33

make a example of... Ziegler and sort

4:35

of chastise her for speaking out.

4:37

They talk about how she's like

4:39

unhinged online and had the goal

4:41

to say free Palestine and you

4:43

know that what it's like that.

4:45

Like literally I'll read from the

4:47

article. So to lay out the

4:49

context a little bit, Snow White

4:51

is the latest big flop in

4:53

Hollywood. It costs a bunch of

4:55

money. It ends up not making

4:57

that money back and the blame

4:59

game starts and this one is

5:02

particular is focused on this the

5:04

one actor in this movie and

5:06

it's a ridiculous attempt to blame

5:08

her one or two tweets mentioning

5:10

Palestine for this movie not being

5:12

popular and successful when there's plenty of

5:14

other reasons why it wouldn't be and

5:16

I had literally not heard of this

5:19

at all until after the movie came

5:21

out. It's framed as as she's the

5:23

problem because she called attention to

5:25

a free Palestine in a single

5:27

tweet. Never mind that Galgado co-stars

5:30

in the movie who is a

5:32

very vocal Zionist. She's an Israeli

5:34

actress, you know, served an IDF,

5:36

like, so many people didn't want

5:38

to see the movie because of

5:41

that and didn't want to support

5:43

the movie because of Galgudow's open

5:45

support for Israel. Yeah, on

5:47

August 12th, 2024, three days after

5:50

racial Ziegler hit the stage

5:52

at Disney's D23 fan event

5:54

to introduce the first official,

5:56

official trailer of Snow White.

5:58

She thanks supporters if ex

6:00

post for driving the teaser

6:02

to 120 million views in

6:04

24 hours. One minute later,

6:06

she added an afterthought in

6:08

the same thread and always

6:10

remember Free Palestine. That addendum,

6:12

which amassed 8.8 million views,

6:15

which is like not that,

6:17

which is much, much less

6:19

than, you know, people who

6:21

saw the trailer, quickly made

6:23

the rounds and the Disney

6:25

executives, the story continues or

6:27

were. completely upset about it.

6:29

Mark Platt, who we can talk

6:31

a little bit about him, he's

6:33

a producer of this film, he's

6:35

a long time Disney producer, Disney

6:37

executive raised the studio's concerns with

6:39

Ziegler's team, while the film's producer,

6:41

Mark Platt, flew to New York

6:43

to speak directly with her over

6:46

just the tweet, but she apparently

6:48

did not back down as she

6:50

did not delete. Good for her.

6:52

Which is awesome, I love that,

6:54

but it's so bizarre like this

6:56

one little line. when at when

6:58

we've talked about on the show

7:00

before what once October 7 happened

7:02

dozens and dozens of celebrities making

7:04

these explicitly like genocidal comments and

7:06

posts you know completely would have

7:08

been completely beyond the pill before

7:10

then none of them basically none

7:13

of them face any sort of

7:15

repercussions in fact their careers have

7:17

improved I think Jenny Nicholson the

7:19

guy the woman who's married to

7:21

the guy who fucked the pie

7:23

in American pie like they have

7:26

like a like a movie like

7:28

a TV movie show on TBS

7:30

now like after her making

7:32

like like you never get

7:34

punished on that side but

7:36

this one little tweet prompted

7:38

Mark Platt and this is

7:40

not the first time this

7:42

producer has done something like

7:44

this he tried to get

7:46

boots Riley fired from his

7:48

agency because boots Riley is

7:50

outspoken about Palestine. He's gone

7:52

on his son's podcast and

7:54

talked about the fact that

7:56

he goes and like confronts

7:58

actors on like on the set

8:01

of wicked if they were tweeting

8:03

about free Palestine and explaining to

8:05

them why actually that's, you know,

8:07

you don't have the full context

8:09

and you don't understand. Several members

8:12

of the wicked cast, including Ariana

8:14

Grande, Cynthia Rivo, Bo and Yang,

8:16

have been active at least online

8:18

in their opposition to Israel, artists

8:20

for a ceasefire, someone who

8:22

cares so much about your

8:25

professional relationships and the product

8:27

you're making on set. How do

8:29

you navigate that? I talk

8:31

to people and I think,

8:33

particularly in those instances, people

8:35

are told that something is

8:37

about something in a very

8:40

reductive way and it feels

8:42

like who doesn't care about

8:44

innocent tragedy, innocent civilians,

8:47

nobody wants, no decent

8:49

human being, wants any

8:52

suffering in humanity from

8:54

decent people. What happens

8:56

in instances as individuals

8:58

ascribe their names to something

9:00

where they're not being

9:02

completely informed and the messaging to

9:05

them is they're suffering here.

9:07

We have to speak out for suffering.

9:09

The message doesn't include there's

9:11

also suffering over here or

9:14

they're suffering that was prompted

9:16

or instigated by an act of

9:18

terror or an act of evil or there's

9:20

a terrorist group in place

9:22

that wishes for the annihilation.

9:24

of a whole group of people. That

9:27

gets left out of the

9:29

conversation. And so my way of dealing

9:31

with is when the moment is right,

9:33

is to have that conversation.

9:35

So this is like a. producer who

9:38

goes around places his foot on a

9:40

scale, but that's not the story in

9:42

variety. The story is that he was

9:44

forced to do this, you know, he

9:47

had to go out of his way

9:49

because he just hates and it frames

9:51

it like Ziegler is the one who's

9:53

politicizing this while every all the politics

9:56

that everybody else is doing is just

9:58

how it's supposed to be. And that's

10:00

what makes us such an incredibly biestarticle.

10:02

And it's just been so disturbing also

10:04

just to see the reaction to it

10:07

and the way that the right has

10:09

really come for her. I mean, this,

10:11

as you mentioned, the headline is talking

10:13

about death threats. It doesn't talk about

10:15

the hate and abuse and targeted harassment

10:17

that Rachel has received for speaking out.

10:20

It actually frames Galgado as a victim

10:22

at all. Galgado is the one pushing

10:24

this genocidal rhetoric rhetoric against. Palestinians.

10:27

She was an idea of soldier.

10:29

I think this fair game for

10:31

her to be criticized. But the

10:33

article says behind the scenes death

10:35

threats towards Ziegler's co-star Galgado. Who

10:37

is Israeli, I guess which is

10:39

a protected class now, spite and

10:41

Disney had to pay for additional

10:44

security for the mother of four?

10:46

She didn't, this is a quote,

10:48

she, she being Ziegler, didn't understand

10:50

the repercussions of her actions as

10:52

far as what that meant for

10:54

the film, for gal, for anyone,

10:56

says one insider. Again, I love

10:58

how it's an anonymous, it's always

11:01

the anonymous insider. Who the heck is

11:03

the insider, some random person that Tatiana

11:05

called a... up. There's no attribution. And

11:08

this is the hallmark, by the way,

11:10

of bad reporting and what so

11:12

many bad reporters do. Like so many

11:14

of these bad lazy media reporters, especially

11:17

entertainment reporters. They know, I mean, David

11:19

Full Conflict at NPR is a perfect

11:21

example of this. Same with Dylan Byers

11:24

at Puck. You know, these are people

11:26

that make a living, publishing false

11:28

information and lies and framing stories and

11:30

manufacturing controversy. And what they do is

11:33

they sort of rely on these anonymous

11:35

sources and... you know, insiders say, da

11:37

da da. Of course, it's never attribute.

11:39

There's no attribution. It's like, okay, well,

11:42

if you're an insider, say it. And

11:44

why are you granting these people anonymity

11:46

to shit-talk their colleagues? You grant people

11:49

anonymity when they're in danger, when they

11:51

are revealing state secrets or something. You

11:53

don't just grant anonymity because you want

11:56

to anonymously allow somebody's colleague to shit-talk

11:58

them. But that's the standard. today in

12:00

journalism. I mean that's unfortunately what

12:02

these outlets accept as journalism because

12:04

it's not about journalism, it's not

12:07

about reporting, it's about pushing a

12:09

narrative at all costs and it's

12:11

about punishing anybody that speaks truth

12:13

to power which is what Rachel

12:15

did. Yeah absolutely like I love

12:17

that you mentioned like the standards

12:19

for when you provide anonymity and

12:21

how this does not apply at

12:23

all like like Takiana Siegel's eagles

12:25

specifically will say like an anonymous

12:28

executive. Why would you grant an

12:30

executive from a from any sort

12:32

of anonymity? He's not under threat,

12:34

you know, they're usually talking about

12:36

like, complaining about like actors like

12:38

Ray Fisher or Michelle Barrera or

12:40

you know, all actors and workers

12:42

are all crashed in these media

12:44

hit pieces that don't seem to

12:47

serve any news purpose other than

12:49

it pleases the sources of Tatiana

12:52

Siegel. And obviously these are important

12:54

sources to have if they're if

12:56

they're if they're top executives in

12:59

Hollywood. Well, yeah, but it's also

13:01

like she doesn't care about the topic

13:03

executives in Hollywood that are going to

13:05

speak out on behalf of Rachel. It's

13:08

just about pushing a narrative. And again,

13:10

that's what these lazy entertainment journalists and

13:12

media journalists do. They have a narrative

13:14

in their head. They want to manufacture

13:17

controversy and they want to punish and

13:19

stigmatize anybody that speaks out. And so

13:21

they will make these unsourced sort of

13:23

stories basically that that grant people anonymity.

13:26

Now, by the way, what they say

13:28

like an insider or an executive. It's

13:30

probably not even what you and I

13:32

think of as when we think of

13:35

as an insider and executive. This could

13:37

literally be an executive, you know, in

13:39

the entertainment industry that has absolutely no

13:41

knowledge that has never even worked in

13:44

the movie business, but is an entertainment

13:46

executive, you know, in the entertainment industry

13:48

that has absolutely no knowledge that has

13:51

never even worked in the movie, but

13:53

I think the lack of that context

13:55

is very telling. that had knowledge of

13:57

the project, they'll say that. But like...

14:00

I just think they use all of

14:02

these like terms that make you think

14:04

that it's they've spoken to somebody that

14:06

actually has knowledge of a situation when

14:09

they haven't. Yeah. And one other

14:11

thing I want to mention before

14:13

we move on from this about

14:15

a gal Godo because we've kind

14:17

of covered her but in this

14:19

article she's described as this for

14:21

her part Godo. kept her comments

14:23

on geopolitics limited to offering support

14:25

for the civilian hostages taking during

14:27

the October 7th Hamas attack and

14:29

did not mix that message with

14:31

the promotion of the film. What?

14:33

First of all, Palestinians are innocent.

14:35

Like these innocent Palestinians that are

14:37

being slaughtered, they're innocent. I don't

14:40

know where this is coming from

14:42

that like only the Israeli hostages

14:45

are innocent. What about the thousands

14:47

of innocent Palestinians that Israel has

14:49

captured? even before October 7th, like

14:52

Israel has been committing genocide against

14:54

the Palestinians for a long time,

14:57

repeatedly. And so it's just the

14:59

framing is absurd. Yeah, and absurd

15:01

for another reason, because that article

15:04

came out yesterday, March 25th, so

15:06

it says Gado kept her comments

15:08

on geopolitics limited, but on... March

15:11

10th. Also in Variety, an

15:13

article by Kapsi Stefan called

15:15

Gal-Gado's Walk of Fame Ceremony

15:17

about how it was disrupted

15:19

by protesters, this is how

15:21

Variety again described Gado. Gado,

15:23

who is Israeli, has been

15:26

an outspoken supporter of Israel

15:28

on social media, as well

15:30

as in a passionate speech

15:32

she delivered on March 4th

15:34

when she was honored at

15:36

the Anti-Defamation League's annual summit

15:38

in New York. Never did

15:40

I imagine that on the streets

15:43

of the United States and different

15:45

cities around the world who see

15:47

people not condemning Hamas, but celebrating

15:49

justifying and cheering on a massacre

15:52

of Jews, she said in part.

15:54

So when they want to portray

15:56

her as the Israeli Wonder Woman,

15:58

she's an outspoken... but when they

16:01

want to bash Rachel Ziegler and

16:03

blame the failure of the movie

16:05

explicitly on her political comments and

16:07

not Godot's, you know, she's just

16:09

barely said anything, which is absurd.

16:11

Like even a Godot doing the

16:13

like the Imagine video, right? Like

16:15

you could just blame the bad

16:17

box office for Snow White on

16:19

that. And Godot has been kind

16:21

of like a laughing stock since

16:23

that video and people just constantly

16:26

talk about how she's... maybe the

16:28

worst actress. She's a terrible actress.

16:30

She's terrible. She's awful. That's

16:32

the other fundamental issue here is

16:34

that she is an atrocious actress.

16:36

And that's what the review said. So

16:38

even if you were writing a autopsy

16:41

of this film. Maybe you can mention

16:43

the Ziegler aspect as part of it,

16:45

right? Part of the controversy around it.

16:48

But the Godot stuff was fairly large

16:50

as well and the fact that she's

16:52

an awful actress. Now she's not the

16:54

worst actress. The actress I think, and

16:57

we'll talk about this on our next

16:59

episode where we're talking about Captain America

17:01

Brave New World, they actually found Israeli

17:04

actress even worse than Godot in Captain

17:06

America. And she plays an Israeli secret

17:08

agent in this movie. even worse than

17:11

Godow and she's not even like tall

17:13

or you know looked like a superhero

17:15

so even like they're just I don't

17:17

know I don't know and she is

17:20

an outspoken supporter of the IDF and

17:22

the I don't see an article about

17:24

her being blamed for the somewhat milling

17:26

box office of that film. Right, exactly.

17:29

It's just totally asymmetrical.

17:31

All right, so moving on

17:33

to talking a bit more about

17:35

some bad journalists, and this is

17:38

a huge news story. Everybody's talking

17:40

about this one in the most

17:42

useless way, I think, generally speaking,

17:45

but old Jeffrey Goldberg, who I

17:47

have not, unfortunately, have not gotten

17:49

the chance to talk... about on

17:51

the show as much, but I

17:54

love to remind people that Jeffrey

17:56

Goldberg, who is the other-in-chief of

17:58

the Atlantic long-time, their friend

18:00

of Tanahese Coats, and also

18:03

former IDF concentration camp guard.

18:05

Jeffrey Goldberg, who is American,

18:07

left college to serve in

18:10

the IDF. He was guard

18:12

at the Qaziat detention cap

18:15

during the First Antifada. It

18:17

was infamous for the torture,

18:19

rape, and murder of Palestinians.

18:22

Goldberg described his time as

18:24

exotic and exciting. And that

18:26

is so disturbing. Yes, and

18:29

that's who Jeffrey Goldberg is

18:31

and it's not a surprise

18:33

to anyone who's read the

18:35

Atlantic coverage of the genocide

18:37

in Palestine. He has his

18:39

hand on the scale and

18:41

the he of all journalists,

18:43

quote, in the world was

18:45

invited to, well, I guess

18:47

it's maybe it's not a

18:49

coincidence. He was invited to

18:51

a group. chat, a signal

18:53

chat I believe, with I

18:55

think hugs Seth, Vance, and

18:57

other people, whether we're talking

18:59

about planning bombings of the

19:02

Houthis as part of revenge

19:04

for the Houthis fulfilling their

19:06

international obligations to try to

19:08

stop the genocide from happening.

19:11

I think somebody tweeted

19:13

something funny that was like they

19:15

must have had multiple Jeffrey ID

19:17

apps in their phone. I think what's,

19:19

I mean, look, I'm glad that the Atlantic

19:21

published these texts so that we

19:24

can see just how cavalierly these

19:26

people talk about killing innocent civilians.

19:28

Like there's one point where they

19:30

acknowledge the innocent civilians will be

19:32

killed and they're sort of celebrating

19:35

these killings. So I think it's

19:37

like a very interesting window into

19:39

what happened. I do also think

19:41

that the criticism is very valid

19:43

of like why was this framed

19:46

in this way? I mean, unfortunately

19:48

the... Atlantic like they do publish

19:50

amazing work and like tech and actually

19:52

their tech coverage is incredibly good but

19:54

when it comes to like war yeah

19:57

it's like a like Neocons like I

19:59

mean there's just like war hungry type

20:01

of. that's the editorial outlook there. And

20:03

unfortunately, that's the editorial outlook for most

20:05

of mainstream media. Like, I don't think

20:07

that they're unique in that. I worked

20:10

at the New York Times for years

20:12

as well. And like, that's very much

20:14

as well that the editorial outlook at

20:16

the New York Times, I mean, they

20:18

famously cheered on the Iraq war. Like,

20:20

there's nothing that a lot of these

20:23

mainstream media outlets want more, whether they'll

20:25

admit it or not, is war, because

20:27

it provides a steady stream of content.

20:29

It gives reader interest, like it.

20:31

And a lot of these people

20:33

that run the media are, yeah,

20:36

like former military people, former, I

20:38

guess, IDF soldiers, like people that

20:40

have been involved in the military

20:42

industrial complex in some way, and

20:44

they're certainly not anti-war activists. So

20:47

it's disturbing. Yeah, so Goldberg, what he

20:49

did with this story was he basically,

20:51

he saw plans for like, when and

20:53

where bombing was going to happen. And

20:55

there was this bizarre discussion where they

20:57

were basically saying most of the people

20:59

in the chat were saying we should

21:02

probably delay this for a month because

21:04

I forget what reason like because they

21:06

kind of didn't know what they were

21:08

fucking doing yeah maybe we should probably

21:10

just put this all for a month

21:12

and then they get word that Trump

21:14

says no no it's green might so

21:16

I like all right well I guess

21:19

we're doing this and Jeffrey Goldberg is

21:21

reading all this and this is real

21:23

talk about real people about being about

21:25

to be killed and he sits on

21:27

it does nothing with it and just

21:30

like I'm just trying to imagine what

21:32

would the biopic of this person be

21:34

like when you imagine a journalist right

21:36

being given this information that no my

21:38

my favorite part is then he

21:40

removed himself Yes. Why would you remove

21:43

yourself from that chat? Why would you do

21:45

that? The only thing that I will say,

21:47

because I was talking to other journalists about

21:49

it, is because we were like, why? Why

21:52

would you ever do that? Like it just,

21:54

it shows this obsession with like decorum and

21:56

all this DC insider shit that is so

21:58

stupid. The only thing. that I think

22:01

could have been a concern is

22:03

like leave. There are all these

22:05

like like national security espionage like

22:07

rules and stuff and like I

22:09

not to give him too much

22:11

of the benefit of the doubt

22:13

because I do think he should

22:15

have at least say something before

22:17

you leave at least ask for

22:19

comment in the chat or say

22:21

something like I don't know but

22:23

it was like there could be

22:25

like legal like you know just

22:27

he was nervous about being like

22:29

arrested. He's afraid of going to

22:31

jail. the former prison guard is

22:33

afraid I know I know it's

22:35

rich it's rich yeah I'm sorry

22:37

I I just cannot imagine any

22:39

like journalists other journalists serious no

22:41

no no no they wouldn't like

22:43

the idea of what we think

22:45

of a journalist should be right

22:47

like you're giving information about what

22:49

the United States about to do

22:51

some was just surely illegal bombing

22:53

like you would expose that you

22:55

would post it immediately you would

22:57

like that would be a huge

22:59

story that you would want to

23:01

break immediately you don't want to

23:03

wait for it to happen and

23:05

then be like he he I

23:08

knew all along no of course

23:10

not but you know unfortunately the

23:12

way that it's positioned now is

23:14

it sort of allows them to

23:16

seem like these bold truth tellers

23:18

because they revealed the text after

23:20

it happened yeah that's what I

23:22

mean by the framing if I

23:24

didn't explain it earlier the framing

23:26

discussion is about how the hoaxes

23:28

and all these guys are just

23:30

sloppy like unprofessional and that's the

23:32

problem like they were they just

23:34

kind of they added the wrong

23:36

guy to a group text and

23:38

this is embarrassing for them and

23:40

like they are trying I guess

23:42

there is talk about getting someone

23:44

fired but that's like kind of

23:46

the smallest issue of all the

23:48

stuff like people are very concerned

23:50

like well when we have to

23:52

bomb someone else will we accidentally

23:54

leak it out like maybe we

23:56

should just not be bombing. Exactly.

23:58

And we know that these people

24:00

didn't even think it was necessary.

24:02

Like we're being told. They're not

24:04

even talking about the fact that

24:06

public were told that these bombings

24:08

are necessary for national security to

24:10

protect Americans while most of these

24:13

people in this group chat wanted

24:15

to delay it. for a month,

24:17

like yes. Yeah, because it's just,

24:19

I mean, again, it just shows

24:21

like the war machine in action

24:23

and how cavalierly they bomb people.

24:25

I mean, this is America. All

24:27

we do is go around the

24:29

world bombing and killing people. It's

24:31

like a deeply evil country in

24:33

that way. And so I think,

24:35

I mean, unfortunately, so much of

24:37

mainstream journalism is. deferential to the

24:39

military world and to the government

24:41

world and they don't have that

24:43

antagonistic relationship with with power. This

24:45

little talk of the fact that

24:47

this attack killed 53 people as

24:49

we mentioned including women and children

24:51

the civilian toll of these American

24:53

strikes are we burying a lead

24:55

here? Well those and unfortunately those

24:57

are in confirmed numbers those are

24:59

provided by the Houthis and the

25:01

Houthi Health Ministry I guess so

25:03

we don't know that for sure.

25:05

Yeah I mean obviously where well

25:07

i don't know if we're bearing

25:09

the lead because obviously huge breaches

25:11

in national security and safety of

25:13

information that's a very very important

25:15

story obviously people are cheering on

25:17

like Jeffrey Goldberg now like he's

25:20

a hero for exposing this chat

25:22

room after he left it and

25:24

sat on the information is just

25:26

the standards they can't get any

25:28

lower no you'd have to drag

25:30

me out of that chat i

25:32

wouldn't never leave that chat All

25:34

right, and one more topic we

25:36

can talk about before we go.

25:38

Something else that the media is

25:40

doing an awful job of framing

25:42

when it deans to mention it.

25:44

Long COVID. Taylor, apparently COVID is

25:46

over again. It's done. It's over.

25:48

It's just been revealed a spokesperson

25:50

from the HHS, right? All right.

25:52

So as people who have been

25:54

paying attention now with Doge, they're

25:56

just getting this government so efficient

25:58

that it won't be able to

26:00

do a single god damn thing.

26:02

The Department of Health and Human

26:04

Services. to science magazine a statement

26:06

announcing that the COVID-9 pandemic is

26:08

over again I guess because Biden

26:10

declared it over a few months

26:12

before. They've declared it over a

26:14

million times and they just continue

26:16

to ignore that people are still

26:18

dying and it's not over. The

26:20

World Health Organization is the only

26:22

one that has the authority to

26:24

declare it over and they have

26:27

repeatedly not declared it over and

26:29

actually just last year affirmed that

26:31

it was still going on. Yeah,

26:33

pandemic. Check the prefix. Look up

26:35

what that means. Pan. It's not

26:37

just one country can declare it

26:39

over. But it's been declared over

26:41

again. And because of that. HHS

26:43

will no longer waste, waste billions

26:45

of taxpayer dollars responding to a

26:47

non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on

26:49

from years ago, meaning that the

26:51

NHS is beginning to cut funding

26:53

of COVID-19 research even as the

26:55

pandemic continues and we're only seeing

26:57

the beginnings of what's going on

26:59

with long COVID. Yeah, I don't

27:01

love the phrase long COVID to

27:03

be honest because I feel like

27:05

it really makes people think and

27:07

I know it's a patient derived

27:09

term and it's whatever it is

27:11

what it is by now, but

27:13

I think a lot of people

27:15

don't still somehow don't realize. that

27:17

long COVID is just COVID. It

27:19

means that you have something from

27:21

COVID. It means long-term damage from

27:23

COVID. And so all of these

27:25

people will be like, well, I've

27:27

gotten COVID five times and I've

27:29

never gotten long COVID. It's like,

27:31

long COVID is not a distinct

27:34

thing that you get. It just

27:36

speaks to the damage that your

27:38

body has incurred from COVID. And

27:40

yeah, COVID is even five. You're

27:42

still talking. about measles and rabies?

27:44

What? My God, it's just stupid

27:46

because it's like, yeah, these are

27:48

ongoing issues. This is infectious disease.

27:50

We need to care about infectious

27:52

disease. But of course we know

27:54

that people like RFK don't care

27:56

about infections. disease. They go out

27:58

talking about chronic disease. What's the

28:00

number one driver of chronic disease?

28:02

Infectious disease that causes chronic health

28:04

issues. Like, I mean, among environmental

28:06

factors, which he also doesn't want

28:08

to deal with. aside from selling

28:10

people water filters or whatever, like

28:12

he's not regulating any of these

28:14

chemical companies or regulating anything to

28:16

make us safer and healthier, and

28:18

neither are the Democrats by the

28:20

way, they're also trying to ban

28:22

masks, like we've just seen the

28:24

complete dismantling of public health and

28:26

it's only possible because liberals and

28:28

leftists have gotten completely on board.

28:30

Like what it's ironic that literally

28:32

word for word what the Trump

28:34

administration is saying is also what

28:36

all these quote-to-quote leftist on Twitter

28:39

say every single week. it's just

28:41

they're parroting this far-right eugenics talking

28:43

points and they refuse to acknowledge

28:45

it and it's it's terrifying its

28:47

denialism. I've covered Antibax stuff for

28:49

years and even before the pandemic

28:51

I covered Antibax misinformation online and

28:53

The fundamental belief in antivax ideology

28:55

is that disease is good for

28:57

you and your immune system is

28:59

this muscle where you have to

29:01

keep getting infected and that's what

29:03

keeps you healthy is constant infection.

29:05

That is the bedrock of antivax

29:07

ideology is that disease is good

29:09

for you and that is now

29:11

what all of these people on

29:13

the left and right. believe. It's

29:15

a conspiracy theory. And Julia Doubleday

29:17

wrote about this really well, actually,

29:19

in a post on her sub-sac,

29:21

but it's terrifying. And that's also

29:23

why you're seeing the dismantling of

29:25

public health across the board. It's

29:27

because the right has been on

29:29

that, right. Like the right has

29:31

always been about this type of

29:33

stuff. But the left is the

29:35

people that are enabling it and

29:37

carrying it out. So I just

29:39

want to be careful because I

29:41

don't want people to think, oh,

29:43

oh, people that call themselves communists

29:46

and won't even put a fucking

29:48

mask on so that they don't

29:50

kill their neighbor like Taylor you're

29:52

just saying that because you don't

29:54

have friends yeah right I have

29:56

a lot of friends and guess

29:58

what they were masks It's

30:00

like these people are such losers and

30:02

they never want to acknowledge people like

30:04

myself and others like I am a

30:06

high relatively high profile media figure like

30:08

I travel constantly I do speaking things

30:11

constantly like I take a lot of

30:13

steps because I'm severely immunocompromised like I

30:15

can't mess around with health and so

30:17

I take a lot of these steps

30:19

and they love to call like immunocompromised

30:21

and disabled people like shut-ins and it's

30:23

like what are you talking about like

30:26

first of all the people that are

30:28

homebound or bed bedbound. They don't want

30:30

to be that way. They want to

30:32

participate in the world, but you've made

30:34

it so that they can't say if

30:36

we participate in the world. And thankfully,

30:38

I live in LA. So everything is

30:40

indoor, outdoor. I have a great group

30:43

of friends. There's a lot of people

30:45

here that care about COVID. Like, it's

30:47

totally normal to see masking in my

30:49

neighborhood, like just in general. So I

30:51

live in like a really great place,

30:53

but... most people don't and think about

30:55

this for two seconds like how does

30:58

how how is what you're doing right

31:00

now aligned with your ideology because you

31:02

care you claim to care about marginalized

31:04

groups you claim to care about all

31:06

this stuff and yet and yet during

31:08

an ongoing pandemic you won't take the

31:10

most basic public health mitigation protection to

31:13

ensure that you aren't actively killing someone

31:15

I just don't understand it I can

31:17

never understand it I was on a

31:19

shoot just this past weekend, and unfortunately

31:21

a lot of protections have been dismantled

31:23

for shoots, but because I'm immune compromised,

31:25

like any set that I step put

31:27

on, everyone's in N95. It's not even

31:30

a question. And I shoot things constantly.

31:32

Like I've been, I mean, I'm on

31:34

multiple Netflix documentaries right now, like every

31:36

single one of those, every single person

31:38

is masked. tested for even setting foot

31:40

on set. So it's very doable. It's

31:42

just that these leftists on Twitter that

31:45

want to cost play as communists and

31:47

don't understand the most basic, like, I

31:49

don't know, they have no concept of

31:51

community or community care or just like

31:53

literally just not harming people around you.

31:55

I cannot imagine being so morally depraved

31:57

that you don't care if you kill

31:59

or disable someone. If I'm still p-

32:02

now that I know about like a-

32:04

damage and stuff and now that I

32:06

know how susceptible people like me are

32:08

to viruses. I always wear a mask,

32:10

even if I was perfectly healthy, because

32:12

God forbid I infect an immuno-compromised person

32:14

with some other disease that I don't

32:17

know I have because I'm asymptomatic. Like,

32:19

it's just the most basic thing, and

32:21

it's completely normalized in other countries. I

32:23

was recently in India, where the air

32:25

quality is so bad and everyone's wearing

32:27

masks, it's totally normalized. So we could

32:29

have it normalized here, but people on

32:31

the left don't want to normalize it.

32:34

They want to normal. They want to

32:36

normal. They want to normalize it. They

32:38

want to normalize it. They want to

32:40

go along with Trump. But Taylor, tell

32:42

me some good news. What can people,

32:44

what can people read on UserMag? What's

32:46

coming up? UserMag. You can read my

32:49

online culture analysis and roundups. I do

32:51

a lot of like, honestly, just like.

32:53

run downs of everything that you might

32:55

have missed on the internet. So if

32:57

you want to feel like you're up

32:59

to date with internet culture, an online

33:01

culture, definitely subscribe. I usually write like

33:03

one piece on top and then I

33:06

have like a list of news stories

33:08

and recommendations for articles to read on

33:10

all of these stories for articles to

33:12

read on all of these topics that

33:14

we've talked about and more. Like I

33:16

said, it's all about sort of like

33:18

how the internet is reshaping politics and

33:21

culture in business. Thank you so much.

33:23

Great. episode great talking with you sorry

33:25

we had to cut it a little

33:27

bit short but I'm so glad to

33:29

have happy to finally have you on

33:31

and I hope to have you on

33:33

again thanks for happy me all right

33:35

y'all thank you so much for listening

33:38

today thank you so much for Taylor

33:40

for coming on the show thank you

33:42

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34:18

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34:25

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episode we'll be talking

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about Captain America Captain

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world and World and

34:33

with Trevor with Trevor Bollywood of

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34:42

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34:44

hear it y'all next

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time next time. Peace. you