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Social Justice - A Conversation
Unknown Speaker 0:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in a you envy studios on public radio K, u and v. 91.5. Hi, I'm Charles Stanton. I'm on the faculty of the Honors College of UNLV and the Boyd School of Law. Hi, I'm
Unknown Speaker 0:18
Lana weatherald. I'm a third year law student and welcome to social justice, social justice, a
Unknown Speaker 0:23
conversation conversation.
Unknown Speaker 0:28
Good evening, everybody. It is Thursday, February 23. Thank you for joining us again here on social justice a conversation I am Alanna weatherald, a third year law student at the Boyd School of Law here in Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada joined alongside Professor of Law. Here also at Boyd School of Law in Las Vegas, Nevada. Professor Charles Stanton, who also teaches at UNLV is Honors College as well. We have a full slate of topics to discuss with everybody today. So with that, I'm going to let the professor lead it off.
Unknown Speaker 0:56
Okay, thank you, Lana. Good evening, everyone. Yes, we're going to start our program with Joe Biden and Joe Biden's trip to the Ukraine and then to Poland. I think it gave a major boost to the, to the people in the Ukraine that he came there. And I think the symbolism of it is very, very powerful. I think what he had to say was also very, very powerful. And eloquent too. And in talking about how we as a world are in a major battle between the forces of democracy and the forces of dictatorship. And he going there, I think, really shows that the Western world really is behind the Ukrainian people. And I think now at this point after hearing how Vladimir Putin responded, which is basically to try to get himself out of the, the nuclear treaty that he had signed with the United States, I think we need to give them the full measure of armament that they need to defend themselves. Because obviously, the Russian game plan basically, is to eviscerate is to eviscerate the country. And so as we have the power to help them, either through, you know, planes or other other military weaponry, I think we should do that. I know, there's probably going to be a lot of kickback from the Republican Party, because there's a segment of the Republican Party that somehow is I wouldn't say sympathetic to Putin, but they're sort of neutral. But I think in a case like this, considering what's happened over the past year, year and a half, there is no there is no neutrality issue. Right.
Unknown Speaker 3:05
So interesting. Trump said at a rally earlier this past week, he was asked, you know, specifically, you know, if you were to be reelected, how would you handle what's going on in the Ukraine? Um, so I think that this posturing by Biden is is interesting and well timed, because Trump's answer to this question was, I'd only have to make two phone calls. I had calls Alinsky. I'd call Putin and I'd have a deal done in 24 hours, this was his exact words. So I think to short students to sort of indicate that there is still a party of diplomacy, there is still a party that is willing to be grounded in reality and grounded in facts and grounded in sort of, yeah, just the reality of what's really going on here. Trump cannot I mean, for those who believe that, I find it, I find it unlikely that Trump could make two phone calls and somehow ended arms work, but for Biden to come out and do something like that shows that we still have hope. Right, and that there is still a party of sense for whatever that's worth here in this country today. Diplomacy is still a possibility, I suppose.
Unknown Speaker 4:09
Yeah. Well, I think that, that one of the benefits of Biden's election has been the survival of the Ukraine. Right. I think I think the re election of Trump would have would have ended any hope of Ukraine's sovereignty, they would have been taken over by now. The United States would have just sat by, they would not have energized the other European countries at all to do anything. And if you read the read this fascinating book that I still haven't finished called the divider. He obviously, the ex president has deep ties to Russia that go far beyond any normal diplomatic exercises. And it amazes me how people who are in the Republican Party. I still supporting this right. I really I really don't understand it. And that's going to segue of course into to me and extraordinarily disturbing development regarding Kevin McCarthy, giving out pretty much all the tapes, the videotapes, audiotapes, what have you of January 6, to Tucker, Carlson Carlson, first of all, any of that information, if it's going to be given to anybody should be given to Lauren thority is correct. The FBI, the Justice Department, the Attorney General, you know, what have you regarding the possible crimes that were committed on that day, and the assault occurs to me. This, this may be the first instance of all the things that Kevin McCarthy had to promise to get to be elected Speaker of the House. And we don't do probably even know half of the stuff that he agreed. So it is incredibly disturbing. It's made even more disturbing, though, by the fact that the Dominion lawsuit against Fox now, where
Unknown Speaker 6:15
well, now you know what these people really think. Right? You know, Tucker Carlson knows it's all Yeah, that was all a sham, that that was all ridiculous that that all went above and beyond what anybody could have even fathom this country could ever devolve into, he knew that we have text showing he knew that. So is that and then that's the person given? I mean, it's, it's, it's so beyond words. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 6:35
Well, it's, it's, it's extraordinarily disturbing to me disturbing to add, you know, just as an observer of the media, that, you know, you have on air personalities, who obviously, their their whole lives are given into ratings correct. And, and, of course, the fear that if they told the truth, that a lot of their audience would desert them,
Unknown Speaker 7:01
not even if they told it, if they stopped talking about election fraud, their ratings immediately jumped. I mean, the second they stopped speaking about elections, fraud voting in general, they saw dips in ratings. Yeah. So it was their moneymaker. That was the he had nothing else to talk about, because otherwise they turned off the channel. Yeah.
Unknown Speaker 7:20
But it's interesting when you when you read some of the emails, and you read some of the text, the profound cynicism, though, of these people, that I'm always I'm always harping on the on this one theme. And it's not just in the media, but it's in politics, it's in a lot of our institutions. I think a lot of our problems in America have to do with people who have influence and power, but don't believe in anything. Everything is the bottom line for the money, money. And as a result, when you need people to step up in a in a situation of national emergency, that they don't do that. I think I think Rupert Murdoch also bears a lot of responsibility for this. Because he's been in broadcasting for literally decades. And there's this certain line that you don't cross. I mean, I don't care whether you're a conservative or a liberal. I think that's that's also something that's, we've become so tribal alized in our country, that we've forgotten very basic norms of behavior. And being a Republican or being a Democrat, is not an it's not an excuse for putting false material, on on television, that you have a responsibility. It used to be it used to be that you had something called standards and practices. This is going back to the days of Walter Cronkite Huntley and Brinkley, Howard K. Smith and these people, and that's all gone now. It's like a free for all.
Unknown Speaker 8:56
And I'll add, it's not just in a TV broadcast. And this is in print media as well. I mean, this is this is pervasive in almost all all media forms that we're able to consume now from TV to print to radio, I mean, everything sort of got its own its own spin. And to diagnose the problem, Professor, I believe that politics have become more of a personality trait. Whether you are Republican or a Democrat is a sometimes a defining characteristic for some people. They live their entire lives much like you said, and I think it's an important point for the this bottom line which they think is affected by politics and politics only not who you know not what you do, not who you are on a day to day basis but politics so I think so much of it, you call it identity politics, but people really do wrap their entire personality their entire life what they do on Facebook, what they do with each other in, in politics, when they're one not qualified, the vast majority of people to be that involved in to it doesn't actually create any sense of community because you are all going to disagree sometimes on basic issues, but that when that's your personality, and you view the other person as issues or views on an issue, instead of the totality of who, who humans are. I think that's the problem is when being a Republican or being a Democrat is who you are, and not just a part of a political system or a part of, you know, a smaller part of your life, right. It's who these people are? Well, I
Unknown Speaker 10:19
think, I think it's also true that we have a large segment of our population, that is not intellectually curious. Correct. And I don't mean that in the sense that you have to read John Paul Sartre, no, echo chamber row, but I mean, at least at least explore the other side of it, right, to see if there's any validity to what they're arguing. And you don't have any of that today. And when you see the House of Representatives in particular, it's like a free for all. It's like, it's like a, like, almost like a wrestling event, where people are just out to destroy one another. And the AI the the major purpose for what, what they're there for, you know, passing legislation and helping, you know, the people who they're supposed to serve, is is left out. Right. It's it's interesting, though, that, you know, regarding that, how quickly the Republicans dropped the idea of making cuts in Medicare and Social Security, right, they that they jumped out of that real fast, right. But again, people will go as far as you let them. I mean, it's really true. And they've been pushing the dev and pushing the boundaries for a while now. And I'm sure going down the road for the next two years, we're gonna see a lot of stuff in the house that we've never imagined. And whether or not the Democrats have the wherewithal to withstand that, it remains the question, you know, and whether or not and whether or not the President as a leader, can actually appeal to a majority of the people in the country as to what his mission is and what the mission of our country is. It's interesting in coming up here today, I was talking to somebody, and the President Biden's name came up in conversation, and the person was very much against the president, President Biden going even to the Ukraine, I said, Well, why is nice as well, we have always things we should be doing in the United States. We don't take we don't take care of this. We don't take care of that. And that's and that's all true. That's all true. But this event really affects all of us. Because it's what's going on in the world. It's not just in the Ukraine, it's what's going on in Brazil, it's what's going on in Turkey, it's what's going on in Hungary, it's what's going on in all these countries, there is a major battle, perhaps the biggest battle ever that's been fought in our world, between the forces of democracy as imperfect as it is, and the forces of totalitarianism.
Unknown Speaker 13:05
Yeah, I think, since the proliferation of nuclear weapons, international diplomacy is no longer an option. We It can't just be within our borders, we take care of it cannot be other. Other countries have nuclear weapons. I mean, just very plain and simple. When we're talking mass destruction when we're talking terror, when we're talking that level of and quite frankly, you know, the US is, obviously a military threat like no other. But is that true anymore? Do we really know? What a Chinese military what a Russian military at full force would look like? Have we been shown that I'm not so sure in the war with Ukraine? We have? I'm not. And we haven't seen nuclear weapons used in any sort of, you know, meaningful way recently. But we don't know these things. So for someone to make such a brazen comment, oh, Joe Biden should go but we don't know. We don't know what one, you know, the feather effect, the ripple effect that refusing diplomacy or thinking that our issues need to be our issues and don't affect I mean, as a superpower as a world superpower, which we love to proclaim ourselves as we have a certain duty to protect? Yes, like you say, democracy from becoming too totalitarian to attach us can't get that one out today. authoritarianism, too. So I think, I think 100%, right. As soon as we've become a world where the proliferation of nuclear weapons becomes a reality, we can't ignore international diplomacy. And it can't be something we take for granted. And it can't be something we ignore and say, well, let's focus on our borders. It's just not real. Well,
Unknown Speaker 14:34
I think I think we're also fighting that battle in our own country, when you have institutions of higher learning, such as the new college in Florida, and the controversy with the College Board's about teaching African American history in the United States. These similar things are going on where the where the country basically founded on on freedom of speech and freedom of press. And also freedom of thought seems to be under under attack by people who basically want to rewrite, rewrite our history. And I think that's a battle that we have to really take seriously. I think it I think it also, one of the other things that's happened, as we talk about our democratic society, is a loss of faith in our institutions. We have a situation now in Ohio with the trains around it. And again, again, in sad echoes of the Flint, Michigan water crisis.
Unknown Speaker 15:46
Oh, and I think I think this will be mounds worse, mounds worse. Yeah. You know, the Flint, the Flint water crisis, this was something we knew about something was a slow burn something that I mean, this was catastrophic, people are immediately immediately suffering health, ill health effects, this cattle dying these are, but and I think we should be more scared, because in Flint, there was no immediate rush to cut these people checks, right? I mean, there were we couldn't get you couldn't even get enough press about what was going on in Flint, you couldn't even get certain publications to pick up the flint story until it became huge, right? So I think, here, when they're so quick to write a check $1,000 for you know, for income, you need to be immediately concerned about the willingness to hand out money, just like that just sort of keep people quiet. When you're feeling immediate symptoms, cattle are dying. I mean, this is, this is really something and I think we're going to be hard pressed to know the long term effects of something like this, because they're carcinogens. So when these people develop cancer in 50 years, and we've all forgotten about it, but then they're strapped with medical, but you know, it's just not, this could really be something. And I Who even knows how that sort of the length sort of the the width sort of the, the scope of this attack? I mean, what attack but this this accident, right? It could have affected 100 1500 to one, so many more people could be affected than we even know, because we don't we don't study these sorts of things. Right.
Unknown Speaker 17:11
Yeah. Well, certainly. It's interesting that the company, the railroad company, right, it's in charge of this has cut back on their safety regulations. And from the era Yes, situation. Yes. And as a result, their profits have gone up exponentially. So this is another this is another issue, though. And there is there is there is a lack of there is a lack of trust, that we're seeing all through our society, which I think in a lot of ways, has fostered Magga. Yeah. Because people really looked at a lot of these institutions. And then they are well, a perfect example. A perfect example is the school shooting down in Texas. We're still waiting all these many months now. We're going to, we're going to be headed for the spring soon. And we still haven't gotten the truth of what happened on in that on that day. And I think it's very dangerous, because people now there's a cynicism about our government, not just our federal government, but in Florida, certainly without state government. And the people say, Well, you know, what is the purpose of a democracy, if the will of the people isn't isn't even acted upon it, it isn't even considered, you know. So, from that we move across the pond to England. And we have the very, very interesting story of a man by the name of Andrew Tate. And I'm going to I'm gonna give this over to Lyon who can really talk about who Andrew is. If
Unknown Speaker 18:52
you don't know who Andrew Tate is entertain has written risen to social media fame for espousing just just problematic views will say I mean, these views are misogynistic these views are sometimes leaning on racist to these views. Not sometimes they're leaning on racist these views. I mean, he's just this guy is right now he's currently in Romanian jail prison. For those who don't know, I'm sure it's a gulag type situation. Thank God, it's where he deserves to be. He just got packed with another 30 days. Not sure why. But this guy, he was allowed to espouse dangerous, I mean, dangerous views about individuals that do not look like him. Sort of across the board on social media platforms. This is Facebook. This is Instagram. He was he was banned from Twitter. He is no longer for my understanding. Thanks, Ilan. But I mean, this guy was allowed to if you have a son, between the ages of algo 13 and 18, he, he was privy to this guy. He knew of this guy, believe me, ask your sons. If you're a parent listening to this, go home and ask your son if he knows who Andrew Tate is. The answer is yes. I mean, you could not escape this guy's Venom You couldn't escape what he was. So there's sort of became this onus on these massive social media companies that are raking multibillion dollar profits each quarter to sort of act upon this. And you know, this, this gentleman, Andrew Tate and his brother, to a lesser extent, were espousing very dangerous views that were being viewed to the tunes of 10s of millions of times by very impressionable young teens, and nothing was done about it. And now this guy is, you know, confirmed criminal. And this is not question mark, question mark on who this guy is? We know, we know. And so, you know, I think what we're trying to get at today is maybe there needs to be some level of accountability for who is being allowed on social media platforms, the kind of person we then lift up on those social media platforms, and why we allow our sons and daughters to, I should say, to watch this content?
Unknown Speaker 20:51
Well, I think, I think it's obvious to say, but I'll say it anyway. There's no such thing as unlimited freedom. There has to be at a certain point, in certain unique instances, or restriction upon people who are putting out who put out their stuff that's destructive of society. This is a man basically, who, for years, has given out misogynistic rants. He's the humanized women. He said, basically, that women are not the evil of man, he said, a whole bunch of stuff. That's, that goes beyond the pale. And I think that there needs to be now I've said it before, there needs to be some regulation of social media, there needs to be some standard of conduct behavior, what have you that people can feel people can feel that there is a involvement by the social media that people run the social media platforms, that it's not just a free for all, but you can put anything out there that you
Unknown Speaker 22:03
can I mean, Facebook can suspend you for selling fake handbags or Twitter can suspend you for you know, saying too many F word things of that nature, right? We're not we can we can suspend people for doing relatively harmless activities, right. But when you're starting to call up the men to arms or to, you know, treat women as less then all of a sudden, they're free speech, right? Like, what? And I think it's free speech, when it's convenient for these you don't want to go these people. But that's sort of the it's sort of what it is. It's free speech at their convenience. So Andrew Tate has the right to spill, you know, to to spew this vitriol But God forbid, you want to teach your kid about slavery? Well, then no free speech there. I just they pick and choose when free speech fits their narrative. And in this case, when you've got a guy who's basically telling your sons that women are beneath them, and they shouldn't even, you know, they should live a life of Insell. I don't know if that's only going to hit for a few of you, but they want to live in Insell life. Yeah, that's, that's a problem. That's an
Unknown Speaker 22:58
issue. And the thing, the thing that I was thinking about and reading about him, the article I read had to do with the English school system, and the English school system. Now basically, it is, as started programs in a lot of the high schools in in England, discussing and trying to, to show the students that a lot of what this man is saying a lot of these things that the young people look up to and admire, are really very harmful to society. It's certainly visa vie the relationships between men and women, is very harmful. I don't think there's any doubt about that. And I think that I think society has a responsibility. Certainly, the English school system believes they have a responsibility to basically educate young people about the dangers of a lot of this stuff.
Unknown Speaker 24:03
And before we leave this, I do want to add my strongest feeling about this. And I did bring this up last show is that there's a lot of culpability with parents, you, you put that cell phone in your kid's hand, you pay the bill every month, you have the opportunity to monitor what's done on there, you have a relationship with your child while they're in your house every day on that phone. So what they do in that time should be as part of the parents responsibility. And I find that parents have dumped a lot of that responsibility on the tech bros at Facebook to take care of their kid. Or then the onus becomes in England now on the child to learn how to keep themselves safe on the internet. This is a whole Brave New World for these kids. And they are handed the iPad at three years old, and they are not told what that means and they are not given instruction and they are not monitored. So I do believe and my overarching feeling about the whole thing is that the onus needs to be on parents to take care of their children that they put the iPad in their hands Right. That that I think is really important to say that it shouldn't. Facebook has a responsibility. I believe that children have a responsibility. At the end of the day, it's the parents buying them that phone. Right.
Unknown Speaker 25:11
Well, that's true. I think. I think also, it's true, though, that the school system has a responsibility. Sure. Where they where they go. In the case of, in the case of the girl who committed suicide we had discussed in our last show, and the videos were put on tick tock. Yes. So it was it was it was irresponsible, Tik Tok to put to put videos like that on nothing, nothing and nothing directed toward a single group, whether it's whether it's women or LGBT people or transgender people, that advocates violence or publicizes violence against them should ever be should ever be alone against. Oh, I agree. But but there's also it's also the schools though, and what how would the schools run? I mean, I will, I went to school, I mean, I'm sort of a dinosaur creature. But I but I, this stuff never went on. I mean, I was in I was in a public academic, high school, in New York City,
Unknown Speaker 26:25
the schools, as someone who went to high school with the phones, they're never going to get rid of the phones. So the onus does have to be, I believe, a little bit on the view, we're never going to get those phones out of those kids hands, or have them not be a part of the educational system now. So I do believe that knowing that maybe there is some responsibility on the schools to instruct how it has to be used, and what is appropriate usage for those cell phones. But like, never be the same.
Unknown Speaker 26:50
I think it's more than the phones, though. I think it's more than the phones. I think it's the way the way schools are run. Yeah. And that you have you have a lot of these incidents going on. That should never be going on. I mean, I was in I was I went to high school for four years. And it never happened. Oh, no. I
Unknown Speaker 27:12
mean, I can tell you the amount of fights I saw the amount of physical altercations I saw this was on a almost daily basis. Well, how is that though? You got one School Resource Officer for 3000. Florida kids, really, I mean, one school resource officer for 3000 kids, and you've got 10 buildings. And this is not my experience is not unique? Well, I think I went to a better, you know, I went to one of the better high schools in that state. I don't think fights are pervasive. Now. physical altercations are pervasive in public high schools. I don't think I'm wrong to say that I think that's 100%. True. I think they're pervasive. Well,
Unknown Speaker 27:50
how do you change that?
Unknown Speaker 27:51
Well, and then it becomes a social media thing too. Well, the phones are out. And then you know, you wouldn't know what Worldstar is professor, but that was a part of it.
Unknown Speaker 28:00
So I confess my ignorance, I
Unknown Speaker 28:03
know, we are running out of time here a little bit. So I do want to close tonight with sort of just the idea of, there are certain things that we can do to take measures whether that be we kind of drop a little bit of politics in conversation, we do monitor our kids phone, I think if we want to take a message away from this show, is that there are the little things that we can do to try to make this world a better place. Whether that is monitoring the cell phone, whether that is dropping the politics in conversation with your neighbor, whether that is turning off the CNN whether that you know, I think we talked about all in the show about big, sweeping institutional changes that we wish would happen. But I think there are day to day things you can do as a listener that do make this world just a little bit easier to live in. So if the professor has any closing comments, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 28:46
well, I I agree wholeheartedly with that. I mean, I think that the purpose of our program here is to throw these things out there and hopefully, touch a chord with people who listen to us about trying to make things better, because the theme of social justice covers a whole bunch of areas. But ultimately, it starts with you as an individual.
Unknown Speaker 29:11
Correct. So we do want to remind all of our listeners that we are taking questions or any sort of topics you may want to hear the professor and I discuss. I'll take those at my email address, which just to remind you listeners is w e. T h e l one@unlv.nevada.edu. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you again next week.
Unknown Speaker 29:30
Thank you and good night.
Unknown Speaker 29:31
Thank you for listening to our show. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at weather one that's w e t h e l one@nevada.unlv.edu. Or to contact Professor Charles Stanton, contact him at CHA R L E S That's Charles dot Stanton s t a n t o n@unlv.edu cn N axon
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