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Welcome to I’m Not Even Supposed to Be Here Today, a conversational, culture-savvy podcast for folks trying to make sense of a world that has gone sideways. We’re here to unpack the issues that boggle our minds, all rooted in a little history, a little culture, a little humor, a little group therapy, and a little humility.
Desiree Ep20 (44:32)
p I'm publishing is not it, but like I don't know why. But I but yeah, what are the Ps?
Chris Bevolo (35:40)
I think he's mentally ill. So I don't know what kind of grifter that is. Somebody gets hit in the head or eats the wrong kind of he's got a brain worm apparently, so that's why he's a grifter. Pete Hegseth has a grifter. Like they're just they're just selling nonsense and people buy it. It's crazy.
Hello, hello, hello, everybody. Welcome to episode 21 of I'm Not Even Supposed to Be Here Today, a conversational, cultural savvy podcast for folks trying to make sense of a world that has gone two cent. It's gone to the Two Cent Nation. We're here to unpack the issues that boggle our minds, all rooted in a little history, a little culture, a little humor, a little group therapy, and a little humility. I'm Chris Bevolo owner of Bearing 287.
An organization fighting the good fight to make the world a better place for all. And the sponsor of the show. I'm joined as always by Des, who's my co-host and who is also a social impact comp strategist, and who also spends her nights remixing history to make sense of the present. Hi Des.
Desiree Ep20 (01:27)
Hi gay, happy Pride Month.
Chris Bevolo (01:30)
Yeah, here we are, June first. We're recording this on June first. This should be out on June third. Today's episode is about that aforementioned Two Cent Nation, which is essentially our our catchphrase for the tsunami of bad opinions that have flooded our world since I don't know, two thousand and six, maybe sooner.
social media really is the advent of Two Cent Nation. So Des and I are going to focus on some groups of people that we would like to never hear from again because they annoy the hell out of us. They are the pillars of Two Cent Nation. And we're going to break them down. But first, yeah, let's talk about Pride Month. Here we go.
Desiree Ep20 (02:11)
Here we go. I mean, this has been kind of a tracking trend the last like couple of years, especially. Whereas, you know, in my younger years, like Pride Month like, my god, like yeah, celebration, what pride events you're gonna travel to, what have you. And now it's just like, god. especially in this climate of just, you know, tear it all down and you just I don't know, not to be like the paranoid or like tin hat person, but
What I've been noticing is, you know, friends, like more people really talking about pride and like how you know, pride started out as a riot before it was a rally, because essentially like we're back to those days. and this is also given the new Alan Cummings show, which is really tackling like wow, you know, 30 years ago, like there was a clip that I just saw that's been trending, especially, you know, given today.
Chris Bevolo (02:54)
Mm-hmm.
Desiree Ep20 (03:03)
And the show just came out, but it was like, you know, in nineteen ninety-six, you know, what did you imagine like thirty years from now? Like what what would life look like? And it'd be like, it'd be glorious and equality and all this stuff. And in reality, like, had they asked this question in June 2016, like, yeah, we we made it, you know, glor glory. especially given the Marriage Equality Act passed in 2015 the year before. But then, of course, the end of 2016 took a
Took a turn and here we are 10 years after that, which is mind-boggling that it's been 10 years of this. and that it's like we're we're back to essentially like the underground or having to just dim our light, what feels like now. So in a way, going to pride almost feels like, you know, wanting to be like wrestling with the idea of wanting to be visible, wanting to be out in order to support those that are, you know, still struggling with that.
that phase of this, but then also safety. And like, you know, could you know, Pride Fests and rallies and parades, could they be a target? I don't know. But yeah, that's that's what I'm that's what I'm wrestling with this this June. But I wanna be there for my community. But what will that look like? How about you?
Chris Bevolo (04:16)
Yeah. It's I mean I have a lot of people that fit in the LGBTQ+ community, close friends, relatives, and it is a it's a weird time. it's really a weird time. I mean, it just feels like the or we're past the corporate kind of cosplay virtual signaling stuff, which is a good thing.
but there's more bad than good. I guess today, well, I don't know. This is a perfect epitome of where we're at. So the Federal Appeals Court came out today and ruled that the government's ban on transgender people in the military, that that that that's not legal, but they can block enlistment. So in other words, if you were in the military and transgender, they can't kick you out, but they can block transgender people from coming into the military. I'm like, Jesus.
You know, like but I guess that's a half win, right? and I wrote an article on one of my platforms last week about the continued attack on transgender people. And it just seems to be getting worse. I know that's just one part of the community, but it's a very important part to me. And so that shit's getting way too real. And I do, like, Kara Swisher talks about this all the time. She's an influencer that we do like. She will not fall into one of our categories of Two Cent Nation.
but Kara talks about like, look, the the neck next in line are gay people. You know, they're they're going after transgender people because they're an easy target, even though they're doing nothing to anybody. and that's all just you know, precursor to what might be coming after that. So that part just leaves me kind of blah. We really keep an eye out to see how things go.
Desiree Ep20 (05:53)
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean states across the country, unless you know, especially my home, state of Tennessee, like all of these laws where essentially it's like you you know as far as having been able to get your paperwork in order to to match who you are today and like essentially like now it's almost used as like a way to find you and like hunt you down. Like they're asking people like turn in their IDs. What? And like this is her husband. Mm-hmm.
Chris Bevolo (06:18)
Right.
Or hospitals to turn in the names of their patients.
Desiree Ep20 (06:25)
And that it's such a it's such an interesting as I'm learning more about you know, narrative change and and that kind of work and framework and how the right has such powerful strategy behind all of that, where you use this smaller group of folks to just scapegoat to this whole bigger issue that you're like not even talking about, but like you're you're causing all of this fear, unnecessary fear for these folks that aren't like remotely a,
you know, threat to the country. You're using them as a scapegoat and like how everything is like their fault. And it's like, really? Like trans folks just trying to like live their lives or the reason why? The economy. Like, are you serious? But once you name that, like that frame, like once you put a frame, a narrative frame out there and just stick to it, like it just sticks. And it's like, how do we get ahead of that? But again, I'm like spiraling into this. But that's what's behind a lot of this is just using this like
smoke and mirror like these people are here is why your life sucks while they are actually make our lives suck.
Chris Bevolo (07:24)
It's crazy. And I I'm just gonna touch on one thing because I think the right is very good at that. In fact, that's the start of my article, right? Like they're really good at at those kind of
labels and using fear. but God, I gotta tell ya, it's not just the right. Like the - there're centrist Democrats almost always fall right into it. Gavin Newsom, Pete - Pete Buttigieg, of all people, even Barney Frank. Barney Frank was in a was in a Atlantic piece about his new book and he passed away literally the day I wrote this article. So I felt really bad. But he says that they all say the same things like, you know what? We gotta meet people where they're at. We're
We got to stop focusing on pronouns. It's like what you're just feeding. You're just feeding that fear by I mean, these are folks that are choosing to prioritize that message when everybody knows that's everybody on this side knows that's not really an issue. So why are you doing that? I think they're doing it because they they feel like they can reach across to people in the middle. It's like, why would you why would you want to reach across to those people anyway? So screw all them. I feel like that's the like.
Right here, people say like liberal democrats are worse racist than Southern Confederate flag. I g- that's where I I get it, right? Like, my gosh. It's a different a different issue, but I see the - I see it. It's not good.
Desiree Ep20 (08:47)
Totally. It's like they the right sets the framing and then we just like play right into it instead of countering at all. Like there was a really interesting article recently out about [Zohran] Mamdani and how he's just acting as if like I'm you're going against that that that narrative, right? And he's just doing it and he's being successful and it's like ding ding ding, take a cue you can also do this. You don't like this and my my god, right. It's like we're
Chris Bevolo (08:54)
Yes.
Desiree Ep20 (09:13)
waiting around for permission to do the right thing or like trying like, well the actually the people I'm like, do what's right. And like if you're so caught up on like, I've got to maintain my office for the rest of my life so I can't, you know, actually do anything. So anywho, yeah, that's where we are.
Chris Bevolo (09:20)
Yeah. That's right.
That's where we are. All right. Well, let's this is gonna be fun. We're gonna get to vent. We're gonna get to vent a little bit. So let's let's talk about Two Cent Nation. And I'm gonna give a little background if that's okay, Des. I actually had a concept for a book called Two Cent Nation. And this was back in 2019, where I'd kind of reached my... I'd reached my limit on the democratization of voices, right? So social media, full swing.
Been a decade or plus. and we got to a point where essentially if you have a voice, then you're gonna use the voice and you're gonna expect people to treat your voice at the same level of value and respect and attention as any other voice. and I started getting really angry at what I was hearing from from different people, sometimes in the most innocuous ways. But I was just like, look, I'm not here to listen.
to you about that. So stop talking about that, right? You're talking out of your bleep hole. and actually the book, the book starts with the Robert Frost poem, The Mending Wall, which has the famous line, "good fences make good neighbors." and what I what I realized was all of the fences that we used to have where people would keep their like, it wasn't that they didn't have these opinions. It's just that you didn't hear them.
You didn't hear them before, right? They were there were there were ways to kind of keep out unwanted, unsolicited, or unqualified opinions. But if you wanted to be online, those are gone. Those are gone. and so when the pandemic hit, I was like, this isn't really even important anymore, like compared to the pandemic. turns out that the pandemic launched it even to greater stratosphere when you think about all of the
nonsense in 2020 around the anti-mask crowd and ivormecta and do your own research and i it the the poster child for that at the time was Aaron Rodgers, who's a great quarterback who doesn't know shit all about medicine, but was telling people, he literally said, right, I don't have a degree in immunology, but I know how to read.
And so we're, I guess we're gonna listen to to
Aaron Rodgers about whether or not you should take a vaccine. Like what are we doing? And now we have a government that is full of these people, like RFK Jr., who literally is we'll we'll talk about them a little bit. So we're going to have some fun with Two Cent Nation. and each of us is going to share a group, kind of like a collective within Two Cent Nation that we would like to hear less from.
Or not hear from at all. We realize the irony of a podcast that is predicated on giving opinions about this, that, and the other. and also I will raise my hand as somebody who actually built a career and had a lot of success on thought leadership and having very strong opinions, like here I am talking about how everybody needs to shut the hell up. Two things.
Two things as caveats. The first is it it we try to do our research and speak intelligently. And that career I mentioned was built on, you know, basically focus and expertise in one arena for 30 years. So expertise, those voices, like Fauci, that's a voice we should listen to. Aaron Rodgers, they can speak on the same thing, but they're not equal because one has expertise, the other doesn't.
The other thing is, I was reminded as I was pointing together Des of the the show Mindhunters. Have you seen that on Netflix?
Desiree Ep20 (13:07)
I
d I did. Yeah. There's like gosh, like almost a decade ago, which is crazy. But yeah, that was a really good show.
Chris Bevolo (13:13)
Yeah, people still clamor for a season two of that, but that was basically a dramatization of the FBI's efforts to create kind of their psychological profile department where they were looking at serial killers. And the idea was if you wanna stop serial killers, you need to learn how serial killers think. So they went and talked to a bunch of serial killers. So who better, Des, than than two opinionated people?
To get into the mindset of the Two Cent Nation. I think that that's a fair setup. Do you agree?
Desiree Ep20 (13:47)
Yeah.
I I do 'cause that's how we came up with the idea that was actually kind of sparked fuse the topic kind of came up in some of our last episodes. it's like, let's actually pull that apart and talk about it. And then as I was thinking about it, I was like, L O L what what what are we doing?
Chris Bevolo (14:06)
But you know what? I think I think you'll like this. And what I would encourage people to do is figure out like, who else fits into these groups or which group do you hate less? There is a group that I belong to. Like I'll hold up my hand. Like there's one of these that you could say, like, well, that's you, Chris. I'm like, Yep. You could you could say that's me. but we'll get to that when we get to it. We're gonna alternate here. We're gonna ping pong. So Des you get to go first. What is your first category
of Two Cent Nation that you would rather not hear from anymore?
Desiree Ep20 (14:36)
Yeah. I kinda ping ponged on like the title of it 'cause so mine is Performative Allyship. which feels actually kinda apropos like given like Pride Month, 'cause there was a lot of performative allyship as you've mentioned, like with the corporate stuff, regarding like corporate sponsorship of pride and all that. But then where are they now? Where are they today?
But it it it started because of the there's like all of the talk around like the performative male and the matcha male and and the faux feminist and I was like, What actually is this? Like what does this mean? Like I see it, talked about, but like what do you actually mean? Like there's like videos of like guys dressed you know, in this baggy khakis with like a tote, like a canvas tote drinking a matcha latte and like and having the the air pods with the strings still attached and I'm like
Okay, but like what does this mean? So I stumbled across Barrett Pall. This guy, he is a former model and he's the creator of the Love Army. And he basically he's gone through a different iteration of his channel, which I think used to be on TikTok. I don't think he's on TikTok anymore, it's just Instagram. But even himself, he had some like backlashes some years back from some stuff that he has said, but now is like doing better. But anyways.
I ran across a couple of his posts and what he's been doing lately has been around like social media literacy, like one on one posts, and it's basically, you know, help, especially in this AI world, helping folks kind of navigate and decipher between like what is real and what's fake online, in a number of different ways, not just like what whether something looks like it was created by AI, but it's more also like people's intentions behind what they're putting online.
And so one of the posts happened to be an example of this guy. I I'll I'll say I think his name is like Bigggwinter or something like that, where he is, you know, the whole thing, like it's it's it's like different memes have like the different tropes where this one is where you're doing a mundane thing like cleaning your kitchen or cooking or going for a walk, but you're putting up like the expose in text on the screen. but basically
Barrett Pall was kind of calling this guy out because he was like, okay, you see these things, and on the surface, it looks like, wow, like he's standing up. He's like a male feminist. This is super helpful and positive, given like all of the Manosphere stuff that, you know, we talked about a couple of episodes ago. like, wow, this is great. But then when you look deeper into like what's actually going on, there was another post that was from a different guy that was calling out apparently someone that he knew.
that was had committed sexual assault assault and was asking almost like kind of putting the guy on blast without saying his name and saying, hey, you should turn yourself in and gave this whole profile of that. But it's like, is that actually helping? Like 'cause that person like that's not necessarily gonna make that person because you didn't call him out. There's nothing for him to lose because you didn't sound like you said his name or anything like that. But it's like this question of like, are you actually trying to help or is this for clicks?
So with the first guy, Bigggwinter, the the conversation was around like, okay, this men have caught onto the fact that you can gain traction by talking about this stuff without actually like doing anything to help. and then the other pieces around like, or could you just turn that guy in so he doesn't like sexually assault anyone else, maybe instead of like this whole thing? So, anyways, it's just it just brings up this whole conversation around like, what are you doing?
doing this for? What is the background? And then like, is does this lead to a grift? Is this the like sell something? I don't know. But that's that's what kind of brought this up. And then I'm gonna one last little rabbit hole or tangent with this idea. And it got me thinking about like, so there's then there was this back and forth with a guy saying like, hey, I'm actually trying to help or you're calling me out, yada yada yada. And it just got me thinking about like just call-out culture in general of like these two men who both have like
been called out for their own thing and they're like going against each other, like calling each other out. I'm like, to what end? You know? And so then it's like, okay, no wonder Gen Z is like being authentic or actually saying something real is cringe because like who knows where this gonna like how this is gonna lead. And like you doing you thinking you're doing something helpful then just gets called out by someone else and you're like, see, this is why I don't actually help. So anyways
That's kind of where I went. And it also kind of ties into like some of the stuff you had mentioned about the pandemic and "plandemic" and like all that kind of nonsense. But it's like, so how do we actually be a an al a real ally? And like if does a real ally, do you have to talk about it on the internet or just I don't know, do it without having to or without trying to get like, I don't know, compensation or like notoriety for it? Or I don't know. But yeah.
That's my that's my first one, which is like, I don't know, fifteen wrapped in one.
Chris Bevolo (19:32)
that's a that's a great one. And for those of you wondering whether this is the category I was saying I put myself in, it's not. But like I can - I mean, Des knows better than most how much I struggled with that, especially back in 2020, with like how do you show up without being performative? And it's still a thing today.
Desiree Ep20 (19:38)
Yeah.
Chris Bevolo (19:50)
Like it's still like I have a complex now about being an old bald white guy. After the conversations we've had, I'm like, God. Like I've talked to Julia, our producer about it. I've talked to wife about it. Like, man, maybe I should just go away. Like it it's it's it's a real thing. And you don't want to be performative. and I looked up the name of this because I've I couldn't remember it, but I found an article from 2020, of course, called the "The Good White People," right? So that's performative allyship and
You know, we were talking about a little bit with the transgender thing and the and the the liberals who are like, No, you're actually stabbing that community in the back. so yeah, it's a it's a
I don't know. I I think we're we don't see the performative now because you actually get penalized for being performative. That's not a good thing either. but I don't know what's worse. Like you you should speak to what's worse. The performative shit we saw back in 2020 and 2021 and whatever, or the silence now, like I don't know. Like I'm gonna guess the silence is a is a worse signal of our society because people are scared to be performative. I don't know.
Desiree Ep20 (21:00)
Yeah, that's the thing. It's like a catch twenty-two. It's like, well, if I say something, then like I'm gonna be being called performative. or if I don't, then it's like, well, I'm not doing anything. And so it's like, my like what what do we do? But I think it all just kind of boils down to it's like, do the right thing and maybe like within, like with men, like if you have friends or coworkers or just guys in your life that are just like constantly just not being great.
just say something to them about it, like, hey man, that's not cool, or like, you know, actually I agree with the other person because yada yada yada. like finding those ways to have that hard conversation with your with your dudes, to me feels like enough. You don't need to just like get on the internet and be like, I called out my friends because yada yada yada. Cause that's that's also hurtful as well. It's like, how do we
take care of each other and just like show another way of do dealing with things or figuring out a way to be better in the world and supporting those that are in your life that are women or queer or trans or what folks of color without it being like this whole thing where you're trying to get your cookies.
Chris Bevolo (22:07)
Yeah. Very fair. Okay, good. Should we go on to the next one? All right. So this is this is a category a category I dub the clown. the best way to think about the clown is to think of the Dunning Kruger effect, which is that that that idea, that theory that the less somebody knows about something, the more confident they are in talking about it, which is this and the more you know about something.
Desiree Ep20 (22:11)
Yeah.
Chris Bevolo (22:32)
the less confident you are because the more you know about something, the more you realize there's a shit ton to know and you can't have a lot of confidence in it. Right. So that's that's kind of it. It's the loud, overconfident, completely uneducated spouting of opinions, hot takes, bravado, all that stuff. It's always a man. You're joking before. I think all of mine are men, by the way. maybe you could find some women in this category. I don't know. Think about that. But
I I came up with taglines for each of mine and the tagline for the clown is "Albert Einstein didn't know shit about shit." That's the kind of thing you would hear from the clown. And there are some classic clowns. Were you gonna say something.
Desiree Ep20 (23:13)
No no, just that like, wow, like we're yeah, that that you're calling out Einstein or like not knowing his shit, like wow, how dare you?
Chris Bevolo (23:23)
Like I but that's what that's the level of overconfidence and bullshit these people spout. So Skip Bayless actually birthed my poster child for this, which I'll talk about in a second. Skip Bayless was or is still a sports commentator who basically made his name on hot takes. So 'Michael Jordan was mediocre' kind of shit. He's been saying LeBron James sucks like his whole career. so yeah, he's just but he
He gets a lot of followers. Alex Jones, complete clown. Pete Hegseth, oh, my god, total clown. Joe Rogan, big clown. But the poster child, I have a poster child for each of mine. it is Stephen A. Smith. So if you don't know who Stephen A. Smith is, God bless you. stay in that place wherever you are, where you don't know where he is. he is a sports commentator.
he's on the show. he's an anchor on the first take for ESPN. He's the he's the highest paid personality on ESPN right now. And I don't understand who actually likes this guy. I'm convinced nobody likes him. But because he just spouts off on everything and usually in a way that's literally loud, he yells, he has hot takes.
He, boy, he stirs up controversy and he fuels that outrage machine, which we've talked about before, right? So just a couple of a couple of sports lowlights, going after Kevin Durant, who's like a legend. Quote, "you do not want to make an enemy of me." Okay, Stephen A. Shohei Ohtani, who probably is the most talented baseball player since Babe Ruth. Like he's a dominant pitcher, he's a dominant hitter.
He's won the MVP, I think two or three years in a row. Like he's insane. quote, "the fact you've got a foreign player that doesn't speak English contributes to harming the game" unquote. Okay, thank you. and on women and MMA, quote, when I think "about pugilistic sports, I don't like seeing women involved in that at all. I just don't like it." Unquote. Now, if he was just in sports, he wouldn't be the poster child. But guess what? Guess what? He's moved into the spotlight somehow, some way.
I think of his own doing in politics. and I actually researched some of this for the book, Two Cent Nation. He was on The View in November 2024. And I think he's the one who like raised the idea of him running for president. And then they asked him about it. And then it was like a there was a poll in January 2025. 2% of Democrats would vote for him in the 2028 presidential election. This guy doesn't know shit.
He doesn't know shit, but because he's got that over the top style, he just spouts off on everything, even when he doesn't know anything. So like he went after Jimmy Kimmel. Like he likes to take the opposite, right? So when there was a backlash about ABC taking Jimmy Kimmel off, he went after Jimmy Kimmel, right? Like, where's the joke? You know, it's not a it's not funny. on Renee.
Good being murdered. Quote, 'I saw the video on numerous occasions and seeing what transpired from a lawful perspective as it pertains to a law enforcement official. Don't expect him to be prosecuted. He was completely justified." Okay, Stephen A. and then on the Save America Act, which he doesn't understand, "It's not lost to me that Democrats just want votes from anybody they can get it from, and they don't mind letting some illegals vote either. And that's inexcusable." Like that's why we're voting. That's what we're
pushing against the Save Act. So this guy just ha i it's kind of like if there's an opinion, he's gonna have it. but he doesn't know what the hell he's talking about. Do you do you do you follow Stephen A? Do you ever see him on anything?
Desiree Ep20 (27:07)
I don't follow him, but he definitely comes up a lot in the I'm s even though like Black Twitter doesn't exist anymore because Twitter is dead, but like he kind of shows up in those spaces. Like there's a podcast I listen to, the Read. Every so often they'll bring up like some bullshit that he had said. but like it ties into that, like when you were talking about it, I it got me to thinking about like sensationalism sells.
Like that that's where news is and like that's why he has such a platform is cause like he's saying that thing and like as soon as he's you see we're saying that I was like it's giving like Fox News, it's giving like these pundits that will just get on there and just say, Whatever the hell and that gives him ratings and so like ratings equal dollars, so like put more of that out there. So maybe that's why he has like a bigger platform 'cause he's just like saying whatever people are lowing onto it, talking about it, 'cause it's like it's like that whole idea of like
you know, bad press is still good press 'cause you're in the press. and people are talking about it creating little like snippets and clips, with anyways like, yeah, I'm like, God, that's that's why it sells.
Chris Bevolo (28:15)
Yeah, and and I think he realizes a hundred percent what he's doing is just a sell, right? Because his his sports commentary has always been itself just talking out of his ass. Like he has to know better than some of the things he talks about. Like anybody who just follows sports would know better. Yet he good he does this, and I think that's because
It's a it's a show where you gotta have talking heads that say different things and go after each other. And I think he's just said, like, well, I'm just gonna apply that to politics and I'll get attention. And sure enough, two percent of Democrats polled. good lord, like he was even on. I mean, this is how bad it got. The who are the Obama bros pod save America. They had him on Pod Save America. And you're like, dudes, what are you doing?
Maybe they also realize like it's not about the actual content and the beliefs. It's about it's about the about the money, about the clicks. Anyway, that's my category, the clowns. All right, back to you for yours. What do you got?
Desiree Ep20 (29:11)
Do not.
my god.
So I waff again waffled on mine. And initially it just was like, grifters, like grifter nation. but I feel like they get just enough of the the flack. And I think like one of our f first episodes we like went in on Mel Robbins. So like there there's a woman that's an issue here. but the one I really want to talk about is a recent one, and it was the James Charles. So it's essentially mine as like influencers.
Y'all can go. And I'm and I'm talking about the more like frivolous like influencers, ones that are j especially in today, where where our economy is and where people are struggling with today, we do not need to hear a bunch from a bunch of like now newly rich, you know, entitled folks like going off on like the the every person. So if you're not familiar
this has been kind of blowing up the last several weeks, but influencer James Charles, who is like a beauty influencer, who has risen through the ranks through the years, there was a woman, there was a young woman that reached out to him after Spirit Airlines went under and she was an employee there, and she had reached out and sent him a DM saying, like, hey, you know, I I was laid off, I'm affected, you know, can you
you know, support my GoFundMe or share it or just any like any little thing you can do, you know, that would be super helpful to, you know, kind of get me through. And I imagine this person sent this to a number of different influencers, but you know, his response was the most egregious, obviously. and so essentially he gets online. Again, this was all like a DM, so not, you know, public to any of us, but he makes it public in
creates a whole TikTok basically like blasting this woman and telling, you know, like, you know, quit being lazy. Go instead of the time that you took to send me this message, you could have been applying to like 10 jobs. And it's and it's like, okay, in this day and age, like you sound so in completely out of touch of what people are navigating in this economy, in this world, and like just people are not okay. People are not safe. The like everything is in a tailspin.
But you're being so like over the top entitled and because you have made it in a way as an influencer to just really like, you know, totally shit upon these folks. And so there was likely, you know, backlash ensues. He apologizes, she doesn't accept, other influencers jump on his case saying, like, that was not cool and like this whole thing. But it's like essentially I'm like, okay, yeah, influencers have got like just your basic person that's just like selling you something.
That's gotta go. I'm sorry. Not in this economy, not in this world. Like we we need to be doing things to uplift each other. but the kinds of influencers that are that i I don't even wanna call influencers. It's more like I've been seeing a pop-up and a more of a flood of like essentially what feels like to me strategists. I started running across them because they were giving more like marketing strategy thinking or like brand strategy, some really
just some really interesting takes on what's going on, you know, with consumers. I was like, this is really cool, which has then kind of led me to like some some other pieces. and even some academics. I think I even referenced one in our last episode about AI. And like that I love because you are actually giving value. You had kind of like yourself where you actually have knowledge of something, of an industry, you know, of a of a thing, and then you're just kind of sharing your wisdom.
Chris Bevolo (32:14)
Well you can't.
Desiree Ep20 (32:42)
it's funny. It's like there's this one woman, God, what is her name? But she kind of she does the same thing from like almost like an HR perspective, but she's so funny with it because it's it's basically the the microphone like holders, the people that like are holding up this microphone. But what she does that's hilarious is that she holds up like inanimate objects, like she'll have like her case that's obviously not a mic, like a bottle of lotion or something like that. just kind of making fun because essentially that.
To your point, well, isn't that what we're doing? And it's like, yes, but like we're we're not getting paid millions of dollars to do this. It's more of us like feeling like we're trying to fill a void of like there is all of this stuff that's going on in the world and we're like, it's it's all but bad news. And it's like, okay, how do we process this as everyday people? You know, us processing it basically out loud, us as friends processing this thing out loud, hoping that it's at least helpful for other folks that may not have
an outlet to people that are maybe similar minded to them. So anywho, yeah, influencers gotta go, but like intellectuals, y'all can stay do more, share your knowledge, share your the values that you're actually bringing to the world and like let the frivolity go. That's
Chris Bevolo (33:55)
Well, I love that. there's so many now. my god. I like I would say like Grifter's influencers are eight out of ten videos on TikTok. and I I can tell right away, like i i and in this case actually it's not just men, it's women I see, but they'll be like they'll be like, you know, all posed in a certain way, all confident, and it'll be like don't drink water. If you're that's your problem.
That's your problem with your you will live longer if you don't drink water. Or if you want to lose weight, don't wear a belt. 95% of the people in this country wear a belt. That's why they gain weight. They they just have this, you know, and you're like, you're selling something. You're selling like usually like in those cases, some kind of frickin' over the counter dust that you want people, some snake oil. and I I do love the people that do have expertise.
I was trying to find the doctor, and I've written about this doctor. I'm gonna see if I can find him real quick. There's a few of them online that counter the nonsense that's out there. okay, she's a really good one. Vicky Chan MD. I see her a lot. of course, Dr. Glaucomflecken is amazing. But these days in my algo, Mr. Global comes up.
And Mr. Global knows a shit ton about oil and energy. And so he'll have somebody who's like, this is Biden's fault. And he'll be like, okay, so let's explain how this works. And he just tears these people down and he does it with, you know, some humor. And and again, I mean, the last thing I'll say about grifters, Des is like we now have an administration full of grifters. Like Linda McMahon from Professional Wrestling is running our department of education. RFK Jr. is.
Desiree Ep20 (35:57)
Yeah, I'll kinda like you did, I I'll plug some of the ones that I actually really like and appreciate and are smart and are just like sh you know, sharing their knowledge. Das.discourse. Josh Das, love him. He's a pollster. I I usually reference him a lot. anytime something's going on politically, I'm like, Okay, what is Josh saying about it? the other one is Elsa loves you. some of her stuff is really interesting, because she'll kind of find these really interesting takes. So like
There was she did a post like the cognitive dissonance of living now. when we were prepping for our cognitive dissonance, and I was like, that's so cool, or it's just so interesting. like that, like absolutely I love. But if you are just getting on there to sell some like random thing, like A, to your point, we see right through that. And the grift is just like, you're this is just like kind of like Mel Robbins. It's like she's coming in with all of this therapy speak and sharing these ideas, and I'm like, you're not.
a therapist and you're essentially glorified, you know, what is it? Like they help you navigate and like my god, like yeah, life coach. but you're just trying to sell books, dude. You're getting like all of this audible.com like money. You're just trying to sell books and like you're it's just a grift. You're just saying all these things, you're stealing the ideas of other people and trying to sell them and make and make money out that that's the grift. The the
Chris Bevolo (37:01)
L coach? A life coach?
Desiree Ep20 (37:20)
The grift like you're making money out of it. Some of these other guys it's just like I I don't know what you're selling. You're just selling propaganda for your own like weird like cause and the kind of America you're trying to create which no one wants.
Chris Bevolo (37:33)
No one wants. Nobody wants. All right. Good one. That's a good one. All right. We're going to go to the next one for me, which I call the lane jumper. and so this is the category that I probably put myself in where you have expertise in a thing. So my expertise, I guess, would be marketing, branding, specifically healthcare. and then you feel the need or the right to go speak on anything else. Now I
I personally try to really be thoughtful before I do that, but you know, I got I got opinions on anything, Des, if you really, if you really ask me. and having spent all multiple decades in the healthcare space, you could say that I've got an actual individual who's the poster child for this, but you could say the persona that fits this is the arrogant physician. the arrogant physician, if you work with enough physicians, there are physicians who
Look, you gotta be super smart to become a physician, particularly like a surgeon. and they're the worst. Like there's a hierarchy of arrogance and neurosurgeries at the top, followed by probably orthopedic ortho bros. but because you have spent so much time and expertise and you have to have confidence to be a surgeon, right? You have to be, I'm gonna go and cut somebody open and save their lives. Now you think that you're an expert in everything else.
Desiree Ep20 (38:35)
Orth Orthobros.
Chris Bevolo (38:52)
And that's the lane jumper. and the tagline for the lane jumper is good, look, there's a squirrel. Here are three reasons why squirrels will transform AI, right? Like I see a squirrel, I'm gonna have an opinion on it. so who are some people? Stephen A. Smith again, like he's he's worse as a clown, but he has jumped into politics. Bill Simmons, another sports guy, started out as a basketball guy, maybe a little bit of baseball.
Now he's got a mean he's very successful. He's created a whole podcast network. He has a website called The Ringer and he talks about everything. And I stopped listening to him about two years ago because I couldn't take it anymore. I'm just like, you just, you just you don't know what you're talking about, dude. Like he has opinions on everything. And I'm like, you're wrong. You're just wrong. You're wrong, wrong, wrong. and you could argue Donald Trump is the is the the biggest lane jumper of all, right? He's not the poster child.
but if you if you said Donald Trump had expertise in one thing, Des, what would it be?
Desiree Ep20 (39:51)
I mean, if this were the eighties and nineties, I would say allegedly real estate. If
Chris Bevolo (39:57)
multiple times, but I think he was a real estate guy, right? So, okay, fine. But now you know, because we know Donald Trump is the most fragile human being in the world. You know he doesn't know shit about anything because he will say, I know more about blank than anybody else. Some quotes. "I know more about ISIS than the generals do." "I know more about courts than any human being on earth." "I think nobody knows more about taxes than I do.
Maybe in the history of the world," which means he doesn't know shit about taxes, the courts or ISIS. So he's up there. But this is where our friend, my bald colleague, Scott Galloway fits. now I do still listen to Scott, but I I I usually only get five minutes in before he he veers. He's an extremely successful business man. he's built and sold a few companies, he's worth multiple millions.
and so when he talks about business, he's really smart, but he talks about everything, Des, as you know. I think you've listened to his podcast. And I'm gonna I'm gonna go from the most innocuous to the to the most harmful, right? So a little bit of of of of Mel Robinson that so forever he he claimed on healthcare. So this is my space. This is where I would yell at my phone, being like completely wrong.
I actually agree with him, but we were both wrong that retailers and tech companies like Google and Amazon and Apple and Walmart and and all these were gonna completely disrupt healthcare. he had a huge, huge, you know, he talked about it a lot back in 2022 It was one of our five predictions, Des in the book that we Yep. totally wrong. They all flamed out. he also has claimed until recently that the way to fix healthcare was consumerism.
Desiree Ep20 (41:37)
Remember that.
Mm-hmm.
Chris Bevolo (41:47)
also idiotic and has been disproven. now he says we need to nationalize healthcare, so kudos to him. But it took him forever, right? he has spoken out against therapy. so mental health influencers, position therapy. This is the influencers. Position therapy is a prerequisite for a better life, rendering it a Birkin bag for your feelings. I believe America's mental health crisis is a multidimensional problem, largely shaped by economic precarity.
says the guy with no mental health experience. DEI. my God. He goes off on DEI, He goes off on wokeism. I still listen to the pivot podcast where he's on there with Kara Swisher. and he still talks about Wokestan and the woke mob. And again, here's a rich white man. shut the hell up. I remember when we did a podcast way back in like 2021
And he was beside himself because Juilliard had done a study about the impact of racism in the in the organization. And they had found like a whole bunch of stuff and they apologized for it. This was, you know, after George Floyd. And he was so upset. He's like, of all the organizations to go after, why go after Juilliard? It's so diverse. You know, instead of like trying to find more places where racism exists, why don't you just stop and celebrate the progress you've made?
And I'm like, my God, read some Malcolm X. Even I knew like the famous quote where he Malcolm X says, like, you stick me in the knife with the stick me in the back with the knife and you pull it out halfway and say, celebrate the progress. so like again, he w soon as he gets out there, he starts riffing on shit that he shouldn't. And he has no self awareness that he's a rich white dude who lives in a bubble. and now I'm gonna get to the the final two.
This is about the youth. And it's scary. One way I'm gonna read this is scary. The first is we've talked about him and Gen Z and drinking, telling guys just drink more. The risk to your 25 year old livers are dwarfed by the risk of social isolation. He said that on the Bill Maher show. Bill Maher's coming up in a second in a different category. And then his book on masculinity. boy, there's a lot in here.
I'll s I'll just I'll just have two. So one is he he loves like catchphrases and then he just sticks with them and he uses them over and over and over. pr so he's got the three Ps. What are the three Ps that men are good at, Des, off the top of your head? What do you think Scott says they are?
Desiree Ep20 (44:21)
Ps. Like I don't know. What comes to mind is like I don't p power procreating. I don't
Chris Bevolo (44:29)
You're you're got one right and you're on the right path.
Yeah. Men, here's what
men do. Men do better than women, apparently, because that's the only comparison set. Protect, provide, and procreate. Welcome to 1952. Like what the hell, dude. And then this is the part where in a podcast, he talks about coaching. He coaches a lot of young men, which is this is what's gonna scare the living shit out of you. Cause he's coaching them to protect, provide, and procreate.
Desiree Ep20 (44:46)
Ha ha
Chris Bevolo (45:02)
He's also coaching them to be physically fit. Quote, "I tell young men you should be able to walk in any room and know that if shit got real, you could kill and eat everybody." welcome to the Neanderthal age. Like, what? I mean, just shut the fuck up. Please. Please. You're harming people. He's harming people, Des. I like to think I'm in this category.
Desiree Ep20 (45:26)
These aren't many people.
Chris Bevolo (45:29)
I don't harm people when I talk about movies and pop culture. I'm sure I harm somebody, but like good gravy.
Desiree Ep20 (45:33)
Yeah.
You know, that's so interesting that you are bringing this up only because of I o I recently ran across this is a New York Times opinion piece. And I it just recently came to my inbox even though the article is from like a month ago. But that idea of like, men are there to protect and provide and you know, procreate and like be you know, be that, you know, person for your your family. And this article or this opinion piece is actually talking about how there's a shift in all of this. Like where 'cause like
He does point out something really interesting, which I like I fell for it. Like his the whole algebra masculinity. I was like coming into war being like, we gotta 'cause we were working on like a men's health campaign. I was like, we gotta help men and people are like looking at me like, Girl, what? And I'm like, Well I'm just looking for another interesting angle as a marketing strategist 'cause all of our focus is on women. But anywho, he did have a point around like we there's
Chris Bevolo (46:21)
Yeah.
Desiree Ep20 (46:29)
something brewing among men. Like the sh there's a shift, a tide shift. Anyways, this article is actually talking about how like younger men are now looking for more older women in online dating or just dating in general. because essentially their role has shifted in like society. It's no longer the 50s where like, okay, women are actually becoming more successful, making more money, can do their own thing. And what they're looking for is a partner.
You know, not just some person that's gonna, you know, provide I'm like, Gut, honey, I got my own money, I got my own car, I got my own house. Like, you don't have to pay these bills, like Destiny's Child was asking about twenty years ago. And so where does that leave young men? And they're noticing this uptick in like age gap, age gap conversations and movies and television show, but like from a dating standpoint, they were looking at bumble and hinge and like all this kind of stuff.
data and it's like, wow, younger men are actually like sliding into the DMs of the women in their forties and fifties. Like what's going on? And some of the I I will say like I listened to the epis I listened to the two women talk about it on like whatever New York Times opinions like podcast. And I was like, actually I don't I hate that we all are talking about this. But some of the clips that they use from the young men is like, you know what? These women are nicer
You know, they're not just after our money or like all this stuff. But there's just like this really interest I know, it was it was all over the place. I'm like, well, this isn't exactly like the right angle or you know, proving your point here. But there is something that's going on where women are empowered. We are looking for an equal and so younger men who might not have like the things that Scott Galloway is talking about where they're
You know, they might not have gotten that, you know, insane job and paycheck and can provide in that way. But instead of like focusing on that, focus more he what he should be saying is focus more on like where you can actually be a better partner just to that other human, that other woman, the women in your lives. Instead of like, well, I'm gonna go find these you know, these other women, 'cause they played more into like the Oedipul complex and it's like it's that's not
all there is a around this whole thing, all are just kind of playing into the tropes. But anyways, like, they're just looking for a mommy figure. And it's like almost making fun of the men. And it's like, you're not you're doing a disservice again, women in this conversation because it's it's way more nuanced than that. but yeah, he he I I'll say like he brings up the there is an interesting tension that he brings up, but then like completely goes the wrong direction in
Chris Bevolo (49:09)
Yeah.
Desiree Ep20 (49:01)
in it. So I'm like he has a good sense of trends like you. but yeah, he just goes like completely like like sideways with what the solution quote unquote should be.
Chris Bevolo (49:12)
He's not a clown. He's not in that category. it's just that he he knows enough to like make conclusions that are just like just like, well, the problem with healthcare is that people don't see the prices. So if they just saw the prices, then consumers would take hold and everything would work better. It's like, dude, we've spent twenty years failing at that shit. That is not the solution. so I feel like he's very influenced by like Trump.
the last person he talked to. And that almost comes off in his podcast. It's like, you must have just been hanging out with your rich Republican bros. Cause now you're bringing up Wokeistan all of a sudden. there's an article that we'll put a link to that that maybe you're talking about from The Guardian. And it's called Single Women Are Buying More Houses, The Men They Are Dating Are Not Responding Well. And so, the his the biggest criticism of his book on manhood is that like I read
He falls back to these horrific tropes about men needing to be like the chest pounding caveman. and he also points to issues like the suicide rate. and he uses that data in a way that's not really accurate. And he also makes examples of things with men that are completely applicable to women too. So it's like, dude, everything you're saying is also true for women. So this is not really a men problem.
It's more of a Gen Z problem or an income problem or whatever. So anyway, that is the lane jumper. All right. We got just a couple more and a bonus. We have two more and a bonus. So you're up next. What do you got?
Desiree Ep20 (50:48)
well, for me it's the it's it's kind of in the same vein of if all of these where it's like people that are like, you know, speaking out of the side of their mouth, but it's not the folks that are actually on camera. It's those that are in the comment section. And for me, it's the commenters who don't read, like who don't like understand what the actual conversation is and like you're just like showing your like lack of education on the topic.
But basically it's like you see someone, you know, really actually sharing something interesting, whether it's them, you know, speaking to camera or it's a post, it's a carousel, or it's it's an article, or no matter where you are, if there's a comment section, I guarantee you there's someone in there like drumming up shit, just trying to make a fight. but it's the people that respond and they clearly didn't read the article.
Like any everything that they're they're mentioning is like you you'll see people then commenting, you're like, Well, it's in they said that in the article or like that was not even in the article. And it's like people that are just see the headline and they're like they're running off at the mouth and they're just like looking for a fight. And they have something to say without actually even they don't have anything to say. They're just like just saying shit. And it's like this whole idea of people just like saying whatever.
without actually reading, without actually quote unquote doing the research. You're just like spouting off your opinion that's based on nothing. So yes, my i I don't have a a person, but it's just like it's your neighbor. It might be you. I've d I get I get. But it's like, yeah, people that just they comment without actually having read the article or actually having listened to what the person said and like was able to which
Then gets me into like, my God, like our cognitive decline, like it like is this just gonna continue to get worse if people don't read? They just look at the AI summary and then they just spout stuff or they're the same thing as people just looking at a headline and just repeating the headline without actually understanding the like the nuance behind any of that. So yeah, commenters who don't read. Do you know anyone like that?
Chris Bevolo (52:51)
for that is is timmysbuttcheek3374
Desiree Ep20 (52:54)
Ha ha.
Chris Bevolo (52:58)
yeah, I mean like it it this is the point of the Two Cent Nation maybe at its core and it goes back to good fences make good neighbors. All these fools had opinions before, they just didn't have a venue to share them or the idea that they should share them, and we didn't have to listen to them or see them. Now you still don't. Like you can ignore the comment section, which I do. I don't ever, ever look at the comment section of anything. but
But it it just is like it reminds me of like maybe this goes a little bit to AI, though I think it's different. But when desktop publishing came around, it's like anybody can be a designer now. And I'm like, no, no, they can't. No, they can't. Just 'cause like you have Photoshop doesn't make you a photographer. Like what so just because you have the you have a platform doesn't mean you should use it or expect to be taken seriously.
The corollary to this is the we used to I think I've mentioned that my wife and I we used to crack open NextDoor the app and cra we create we we get a bot glass of wine and we'd read the comments and that is that is hilarious. But it's like you used to be able to to do like an overunder on the number of comments before something got political. So it'd be like, hey
Desiree Ep20 (54:01)
Mm-hmm.
Yes.
Chris Bevolo (54:17)
I've lost Sparky the dog. Is anybody have seen like a black and white terrier? Please call this number. Then like three comments in, it's like, well, if the infrastructure bill had covered pet control, we would be able to find him. Thanks, Joe Biden. You're like, dude, there it is. Like it started with Obama. Like everything was like, thanks Obama. And you're like, Really? Like, is that like how many comments does it take to get political on anything? But commentators, gotta love Gotta love
Desiree Ep20 (54:45)
Commentators. Like
hope goes to die in the comment section. Like you remember like as like a com as a community management person, like for social media or like, you know, with NPR like like, like they would actually like in earnest, you know, check out the comment section and respond to things and it's like now here we are ten years later, it's like just don't like just let like handle it their
Chris Bevolo (54:50)
Just
Desiree Ep20 (55:09)
Just let duke it out in the comment section. There is no place for us to actually legitimize any of these responses because it's like there's too many and they're ridiculous. But what's yours?
Chris Bevolo (55:18)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
All right. So my last the last formal category is the smugster. And the smugster is is is less about the content or the lack of like education on something and the manner in which it's delivered, which would be described as pretentious and holier than thou. super condescending, looking down their nose at everyone.
so you know, this could be somebody who is a clown in terms of their knowledge or a lane jumper in terms of the knowledge, but the way they present makes you want to punch them squarely in the face. And I'm not a proponent of violence. but David Brooks from New York Times, good lord, man. Good lord. we talked about Mark Andreessen last week. You really gotta see Mark Andreessen.
If you don't believe me, go find a clip of him in that interview with Joe Rogan talking about AI replacing humans and the sniffing. This sniffing that he his his weird tick. He says that did we talk about that on the show? I don't know if we talked about it on the show or after, but he was like, AI doesn't need to take doesn't need to take PTO. He just doesn't have to every point. You're like, dude. And of course another bald
Desiree Ep20 (56:21)
Yeah.
Chris Bevolo (56:32)
White guy. great. the OG, by the way, of pretentiousness, the SMARM king himself, not the poster child. I'm gonna get the poster child in a second. But who would you say, does if you had to guess, who's the OG king of SMARM?
Desiree Ep20 (56:49)
You know, I'm thinking about the OG HBO like news series. like the I'm I'm assuming you're talking about a Bill Maher.
Chris Bevolo (56:56)
Bill Mar.
His views are have become increasingly asinine. He's become more of a clown. I think he used to be more thoughtful, and now he's just a clown to me. but he is the most I can't even bear watching him because he's just always like, What's with the duh? And he's just like, my god, I want to strangle you.
Desiree Ep20 (57:16)
Mm.
Chris Bevolo (57:21)
And your pretentiousness, but he has been supplanted. There's a new king in town, there's a new sheriff in town, and his name is Ezra Klein. And Ezra Klein to me is the poster child of the smugster. Now, I hear you moan. I used to like reading Ezra Klein. I thought Ezra Klein's opinion columns were thoughtful. Didn't always agree with him, but I liked him. And then something happened where.
His both his opinions became a little smug and he got on podcasts and video. And man, he's got a personality made for radio. Like that guy should not be on video because his mannerisms are worse, right? So there's a whole bunch of I won't go through all of it, but I think he hit Peak Smugster with his Charlie Kirk controversy.
Where first of all he wrote this like, you know, tear jerky column about Charlie Kirk and how he envied what Charlie Kirk had built and said famously, you could dislike much of what Kirk believed. But the following statement is still true. Kirk was practicing politics exactly the right way. by the way, if that drives you crazy still today, go go find the
Tanasi Coates, where he was on with Ezra Klein, and he just blows him out of the water. And then he he also wrote a a piece in vanity about like his final quote in that article, Tanasi Coates was "the import of this history has never been clearer than it is in this moment. When the hard question must be asked, if you would look away from the words of Charlie Kirk, what else would you look away from?" Like you can't
You can't say Charlie Kirk did politics exactly right when the guy was heinous, heinous, hate speech, calling for violence. Like, what are you doing? Scott Galloway did that too, by the way. A lot of these pundits did that. but here's the thing, Des even worse than that article was the video he did after. I think the article came out on a Friday, and he and it was like he was silent for like three days because people just jumped all over his case.
And he came out with this video and it started like with a shot from him like from the side. And he's just like looking into the distance. Like sitting on a stool. And then they kinda go to his face and he's just like I've written a lot of pieces in my time.
None caused the controversy that this one has. I've thought a lot about those words. Like he's just so affected. You just wanna go, boom! What are you doing, man? What are you doing? So I have found that video. We will provide a link to it. But Ezra Klein, my buddy, just stick to writing. stick to writing because you are the smarmiest MFR I think I've ever seen.
Desiree Ep20 (1:00:18)
Y you know, in all of those examples, one thing that they all kinda have in common and is and that's that affect. Right? And so it sounds like he's like Ezra Klein's got that like podcast like affect, like the where you're like Yes, yes.
Chris Bevolo (1:00:33)
Hm. He's like a NBR serial host. That's what he is.
And you can hear like the car driving up on the gravel before he talks. Yes.
Desiree Ep20 (1:00:42)
Yeah.
And and then okay, going back to the Bill Maher, I was like, is he trying to be like Jon Stewart? Like Daily Show? Like, it's like every it's like these guys are like trying to be Jon Stewart, but they're like, you can't, like he's just he's too good. but then I was like, okay, I looked it up because I was like, what's the timing? Because like who had their show first? And Bill Maher had politically incorrect first, which was kind of that like what is it, cross what was that PBS show like?
Chris Bevolo (1:01:02)
Mar
Cross fire.
Desiree Ep20 (1:01:12)
Cro
Crossfire and then it was the SNL they would have like a Frank Sinatra host version. So like his
Chris Bevolo (1:01:23)
I think six ball in the side pocket. 'Cause they had Sinead O'Connor on. that's so good.
Desiree Ep20 (1:01:29)
Cue Ball O'Connor. my God. R.I.P. Phil Hartman. Yeah, Billy Idol. So I'm like, when I'm looking at Bill Maher, I'm like, are you just like the SNL spoof of Crossfire? But now, anyways, that's what it just got me thinking. But it's all like this affect, like the way you say the thing that just like gets under your skin. is what I think about with those.
Chris Bevolo (1:01:32)
Billy Idol.
He he would he is the he is the personification of I can't I wasn't even supposed to be here today if you took yourself seriously. Because he acts like he's so put out. Like what's with this Gaza thing? I mean, really? Are we really gonna do this? And he just looks like he's so like you guys are so stupid, I even have to explain this to you. I i it's it's you can't.
Watch him when he does his little monologue thing in particular, but even when he interviews people. yeah. But Ezra Klein, boy howdy. He tries so hard. Nobody tries harder to look thoughtful than Ezra Klein.
Desiree Ep20 (1:02:21)
Yeah.
Oof.
To look thawful.
Chris Bevolo (1:02:39)
His performative thoughtfulness is his affect. Where he just everything is like is like I thought about having frosted flakes today and I and I thought
Desiree Ep20 (1:02:44)
Mm. Full circle moment.
Chris Bevolo (1:02:56)
I mean alphabets. There's alphabets. And then I and then I realized. Could I have both? Like you're just like, dude. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. Stop it. All right. So we have a bonus, one last bonus before we wrap. What's your bonus?
Desiree Ep20 (1:03:07)
You're like, what?
My bonus, this is kind of like my last culturistas. I don't think so, honey. and I'm actually I'm I'm flipping it to this other one because we're like I feel like we've like gone in on men. not all men. I'm joking. But anyways, it's for me like we're asking, like, okay, what's the women's or female version of this? And to me, it's the the woo-woo, the transcendentalist woman.
The like, like kind of to your point around like how he's going in on like, I thought of Frosted Flakes yada yada yada. For me, it's the woo-woo women that get on there and just talk about like the divine feminine and the like transcendentalist, like they get into like the quantum physics of stuff, and I'm like, What are you saying? Like, what are you even talking about? Like this this makes no sense. Like, I don't like help.
And in a way it's almost like the equivalent of the like the performative male or whatever, but it's like the transdent the transdimensionalism of the consciousness of like the divine. I'm like, Wha what? Anyways, that's that's that's essentially mine, like 'cause like w again, w what are you even saying?
Chris Bevolo (1:04:14)
Mm-hmm.
So smug, smug clown star child is who that is. Cause they usually don't know what the hell they're talking about, but they're all into it. Like you don't understand what I'm talking about because I don't understand what I'm talking about, which makes this infinity. Yeah?
Desiree Ep20 (1:04:33)
St. That that is what that is.
We need
to we need to channel our deeper spirits of our like ha I'm sorry, I have bills to pay. Like I've I've things to do, I have to go pick up the kids. I don't have time for this, but those that are actually about it and are doing the things to help people, but the others that are just selling crystals online, no thank you.
Chris Bevolo (1:05:01)
Okay.
Love it. Great way to finish. So no we've been trying to get back to our agenda, which is like, I know, what do we do about it? We're like, we've gone on way too long because we had too much fun with it. What do you do about it? Like, only give your time to people that you have validated can actually speak on the thing you're talking about. And that may be a lane changer, right? That might be Scott Galloway for business. But as soon as he starts talking about young men, boop doing the channel, don't go in those comment sections.
There's a whole bunch of other stuff you could do to to combat Two Cent Nation, but really Two Cent Nation only thrives because we give it attention. So let it die in the darkness. Let two cent die in darkness. I don't think we'll ever get there. I think the the cat's out of the bag, the toothpaste out of the tube, but
Desiree Ep20 (1:05:54)
Mm-hmm.
unless we just jump the shark on social media and just abandon cart altogether and just like none of this matters and you can't make money 'cause no one is on your platform anymore. But I don't see that coming 'cause addictive
Chris Bevolo (1:06:14)
Maybe AI will kill it. Maybe the future of is the AI just talking to each other. We don't have to deal with it.
Desiree Ep20 (1:06:16)
Yep, A.
yeah, they're that we're we're outside touching grass while AI robots are talking to each other in the comment section. That's yeah. And and it just all implodes in itself. That sounds great. Let's make that happen.
Chris Bevolo (1:06:26)
Yeah.
That is great.
Let's do that. Okay. So with that, Des, thank you. That was fun. That was a fun one. We needed a fun one. we had some serious stuff going on for quite some time. So thank you, Des. And thank you all for joining us. We hope this has helped you cope in some way, at least have a laugh with us. please like and subscribe to the show wherever you listen to or watch your podcasts. Give us five stars on Apple because that helps elevate our profile. More people can hear.