To praphrase Hitch, "Good people will typically do what they can to do good. Bad people will typically do what they can to do bad. But to get good people to do bad things, you need religion...." Texas and much of the deep south is an example of this.
@@AlbertGuilmont I lived in both states and I can attest there are more bad people in both states than good. Then there are the stupid which worship the bad that want to punish everyone not like them.
Well put, especially when they themselves are in full control of government. And yet these cretins always shout about "too much government!". Disgusting hypocrites the lot of them.
Yes. These people who are always blathering about their rights and freedoms are really only concerned with THEIR right to tell everyone else what rights they should or shouldn't have.
Seth Andrews even said that people who didn’t get the coronavirus vaccine should be arrested and shunned from society. If that’s not advocating for “the government telling you what to do” than I don’t know what the fuck is lol
As someone who was born in, raised in, educated in, has worked in, and generally lived in Texas for a little over 30 years, I can attest that Texas, for nearly all of its history and still continuing to this day, has SUCKED. I also have interacted with the same kind of people that Will Judy has. There are indeed plenty of people that are, in so many ways, committed to bringing about actual change and actual improvement, not just to Texas but the US as a whole - and it is these same people that Texas "leadership" is fully committed to wiping out in every possible way. It did not help that I watched a video talking about how Texas was becoming the US's new economic powerhouse and was listing reasons why. While I largely did not disagree with the natural reasons ("natural" in regards to geography and weather), the rest were more questionable, if not disputable or even outright wrong. For example, Texas is gaining strength in a revamping fossil fuel industry, but it is only possible because of fracking. Fracking not only causes a lot of environmental problems just by itself, but it is set to cause a massive crisis that could stop Texas' economic growth dead in its tracks: water shortages at levels that could easily rival, if not surpass, California's. One thing that they never mention about fracking is that not only is it accomplished using truly massive amounts of mostly water, but the water used is completely non-recoverable, both in access and in purification (the latter meaning that the chemicals used in fracking cannot be separated from water). For another example, Texas has easily one of the largest renewable industries in the US and the world, and it has a whole lot more potential to get even bigger - all of which is true. However, who is running Texas? Here's a little hint in the form of one of their favorite mantras: "Drill, baby, drill!" Renewables, one of the few things that Texas truly could benefit from and massively so, is being actively fought against at nearly all levels of government, from local to federal with very few exceptions. And this is just on the economic side, which the aforementioned also delved into how corporations are relocating their headquarters to Texas. Funny thing about that, though: it is mostly just the headquarters, which brings... what exactly? Well, massive reductions and breaks in corporate taxes, and... that's about it. On top of that, the massive population influx coming with that, well, among many things, what does that new population demand? Water, and that brings us right back to what I mentioned earlier, which means even less for people and another of Texas' larger industries: agriculture. Those photos of extremely long stretches of the Rio Grande being completely dry, those are simply the most visible symptoms. If the largest river in the state is so dry, you know what else is going dry? The aquifers, which a massive amount - quite possibly the majority - of Texas agriculture depends on, and thanks to climate change and ever increasing usage, especially by corporate-owned fields, those aquifers are not being recharged anywhere near as much as before, if at all. I can go on and on about all of the issues and full-on problems that Texas is facing yet never get brought up, but I would like to think I made my point, which goes back to who has been running Texas for far too long. So going back to the title, I, as a native Texan, can only answer with: every-f^^^ing-thing.
@@synthdriver8817 That was one of smarter aspects of my parents' house-buying: not having to deal with an HOA. Why? Because such would have undoubtedly demanded that picturesque water-demanding lawn. They found a place in an area without an HOA, and even after having lived there for just over 20 years, they have never watered anything beyond some fruit trees. Even with that, the fruit trees are watered through a drip irrigation system that I set up for them, and drip irrigation is about as efficient as you can get when it comes to watering. I also set it up to water automatically and only outside of peak heating/freezing hours (so dead of night in summer and high afternoon in winter). And just to mention the one thing I did not mention about the video I brought up, it described Texas' power grid as "robust," to which I nearly screamed, "Are you sh^tting me!? How could you already forget what happened to Texas' _entire infrastructure network_ over the past few summers and winters!? You cannot find any *WORSE* grid than in Texas! At least Flint is only one town and not an entire f^^^ing state - and the second largest state at that!" Sorry for going on another rant there. Those 30 years of living there left their permanent mark.
@@DavidRichardson153 I've heard nightmare stories about HOAs. Fuck em. As for Texas's power grid, you can blame that on the self-"regulation" policies put in place by legislators who apparently forgot that if a business is allowed to cut corners in any meaningful way, it will. You don't require power companies to bundle up in winter to keep their coal from freezing or by all means plan/organize a better system instead of letting power companies and utilities carve up their own fiefdoms and let people die in heat or freeze in winter while skyscrapers run full bore. Gotta keep those call centers running I guess. It's wild dude.
Texas represents 2 main problems. First is it is a hotbed of = political corruption - as recent events show. Its AG as an example is plagued by numerous credible legal problems - despite supposedly being its chief law enforcement officer. As many QOP idiots have spoken to the *ONLY* reason he was impeached was = he asked for public funds to pay-off his legal problems.......... Absent that "ask" = his party would have remained unified behind him irrespective of his apparent crimes. As an aside. Why should he not ask since = Trumputin did the same thing. The RNC has been fundraising and using that for years now = to pay his own legal bills.......... Next is it is overrun with evangelical Fundies. Like shite attracts flies - so a State which is excessively lax towards religious extremism + whose own people lend towards the same = becomes a magnet and then a cesspool from what flocks there. It is not a coincidence you see "televangelists" and "cults" settling in places like Texas etc. were fundamentalism is strong. The flip side of this coin is sadly that with fundamentalism usually comes poor educational systems. Yes there are "exceptions" to be found as with anywhere. For the most part however Texas's educational system ranks poorly compared to other States. Conclusion: Texas represents "a perfect storm" of ignorance/religious zealotry/and political corruption. 🤨
@@varyolla435 And my MAGA parents wonder why I chose to GTFO of the state. At first, I did not want to leave, but that can largely be attributed to me being more sedentary and ingrained in my habits. However, after getting my job as a microbiologist for the State Health Services axed from budget cuts (I was hired on less than six months before it happened) and spending over a year desperately searching for even the most barely related of jobs - and even going for completely unrelated ones - only to get passed over, if not rejected, for hundreds upon hundreds of positions (seriously, I built a spreadsheet to keep track of every application, and out of nearly 500, I got any sort of advancement on... 3), I finally snapped and started looking beyond the state. Even that ended up going nowhere, so I just said, "F^^^ it," and started looking overseas. Unfortunately for me, I immediately ran into the classic Catch-22 on looking for overseas work: if you want an offer, then have a visa already, and if you want a visa, then have an offer already. This made me evermore pissed, until I finally said "F^^^ it" again, and I looked into education, which ended up being a bit expensive due to where I got accepted into (but still not as much as back in the US), but it gave me a way out. It took a lot of scraping together from relatives that saw the insanity of MAGA (they still leaned conservative, but a lot more Mitt Romney than Lauren B^^^bert) and decided that it would probably be best that I got out, but I managed to do so, and the timing of it all had me arriving at my destination only two days before Covid first gained enough steam for the government to take action. If you want a hint as to where I went, it is one of the three countries that got praised for being the only ones that actually beat the first wave, and it is the only English-speaking one that received such praise. For another hint, that country is sometimes called Middle Earth as a half-joke (because it was the filming location). Now, with me sharing my experiences back to my relatives, them sharing what I share with him has caused cracks to form and spread in my parents' MAGA BS. I guess it is hard to maintain that adherence to the talking points when you hear from someone who lives in a country that has been doing the exact opposite of what MAGA whines about wanting to do for three years and counting... and has been thriving from doing the exact opposite of what MAGA whines about wanting to do for three years and counting (thanks to their handling of Covid, which was the opposite of what Trump and the GOP did, the prime minister and her party practically swept their elections). Last update I got about my parents, my mother, who has regularly shown to be the more reasonable of the two, has begun acknowledging that it is because of the GOP - and especially the QOP - that Texas (and the US) is crumbling. It may not be much, and it is probably too late to have anything meaningful come from it, but I'll grant that it's a start.
Great show Seth. And very impressed with all of your guests. Such a pleasure to listen to rational, intelligent conversations. Keep up your good work. Cheers, Dan ✌️🇨🇦
@@bladerunner3314 possibly, defascist wants to DESTROY the left! With the Cult of Sadists on the right using a word like DESTROY will definitely encourage the craziest of the crazy.
What a wonderful and informative show this was! I am a fairly new resident to the state of Florida having lived here for just over a year and I can tell you that Florida is just as bad as Texas. We must do all that we can as a group across the nation to stop this kind of stuff.
Keeping Ron DeSantis out of the White House - and kicking him out of the governor's mansion so FL can start to unf**k itself - would be a great place to begin.
You might remember some of Reagan's speeches. "Make America Great Again" was a common theme in his campaign speeches. I think that Trump knew that some of the more elderly Republicans would remember that and associate that with Reagan.
Of course, Reagan, for his part, took that slogan from the Klan. It's not surprising given that his first public address after accepting the Republican Party nomination in the summer of '80 was at Philadelphia, Mississippi, where he, in so many words, expressed his sympathy with the warped philosophy which led to what happened in that area only sixteen years earlier, a philosophy openly espoused by the Klan.
I grew up in New Jersey. I can’t remember a time I didn’t live around Avery diverse community. Then I moved to Ohio…. I really believed racism was mostly dead. Now I know it’s alive and way to thriving and needs fixed.
wow! We've done the same thing! I'm born/raised in Jersey and moved to Ohio in 2006. Same experience! Jersey is diverse in most places, whereas Ohio is just different.
So what you are saying is that if you live where diversity is lacking, people are more likely to be racist. That makes sense. What is strange and unknown can be seen as dangerous, and people play on those fears which makes it worse. So it seems the fix would be to not have any non diverse areas, and I don't know how to do that. I know one thing that happens is if you do the opposite and move from a non diverse to a diverse area it can be difficult. Even if you aren't racist, you will make mistakes and that can actually lead to racism if you are met with hostility in your new home. I have seen that happen. So it's complicated, but well worth the time to try to overcome it.
@@littlebitofhope1489 Yeah I guess? I was saying I was shielded from it more in a diverse community. Also why is everything extremes with people? Why is it only diverse communities? Why is everything white or black no shades of grey? First it’s proven they exposure to other cultures, people, etc is a large step to help get rid of isms. Well maybe not narcissism that will still get yes(it’s a joke before someone bites my head off) if your exposed to different foods, people, cultures etc over time most adults are stuck in there ways so it is harder but as the kids grow up there is less and less othering. I’m trying to use broad terms for a bunch of things. The world is not black or white. We need to start working in the grey areas and using nuance.
@@christopherconkright1317 First, I'm not arguing with you. Your comment just made me think. Look at your question. Why is it only diverse communities? It's in the word "diverse". Diversity is where the shades of grey are. I'm not disagreeing with you saying that it should be the way you say. I'm wondering how we can teach people who aren't as lucky as you (because I think a diverse community is the lucky place to be) to not be afraid and understand those grey areas. I think we understand that someone who is raised with everyone looking the same way, and speaking the same language, and eating the same food is stilted. Can they really be expected to understand without experience? I don't know the answer, but it is a question that needs to be looked at. How are the people around you supposed to know something they have never experienced?? It's not a defense of racism, but maybe we need to look at how to teach them??? It's just a thought.
I live in Ohio (born and raised) and this state sucks. It has really changed over the last two decades. It went from a mostly blue swing state to a deeply red state. I live in the greater Cleveland area and I see "LET'S GO BRANDON" and TRUMP 2024 flags everywhere in my neighborhood. This is northern Ohio! If you talk to people around here you would think that you were in the bible belt. This state has been overrun with right wing rednecks and religious fanatics. Considering I'm a liberal, openly gay, atheist, it is not easy living here anymore.
@@christopherconkright1317 The fact that they said that Boebert's (Boobert) incident was just an honest mistake that she learned from shows everything you need to know about the GOP. If a Democrat, especially AOC, did what she did, they would go absolutely crazy and bash her for the rest of her life for it.
The same thing is wrong with Texas that is wrong with Florida and most other southern states - dominated by gullible cult followers. Those easily drawn into religious cults will follow any cults, believe lies and support the GOP. Incapable of thinking critically.
The united states was not based on the law of any holy book including the Bible, Torah, Quran, tenoch, hadith . If it was it would already be a theocratic dictatorship.
If people want to teach American Exceptionalism, then they should focus on the fact that, upon _prohibiting the establishment of religion,_ the Founding Fathers made the USA an _exception_ to the otherwise theocratic rule that was common throughout the world...replacing Divine Right claims with a Democratic Republic! THAT is why America is...or was...exceptional! 22:10 - AMEN, ARON!!! As I watch this video, I can't help noting that Juneteenth commemorates the date when Gen. Gordon Granger and the Union Army showed up in _Galveston, TX_ to enforce the Emancipation Proclomation. If Abraham Lincoln saw Republicans _now,_ driving around with Confederate battle flags on their pickups, he'd shoot _himself_ in the head! P.S. Why in holy hell should parents, who are qualified and licensed to teach _nothing,_ have greater control over Public Education curriculum than qualified and licensed educators?
What's wrong with Texas? Perhaps too much love for guns, no love for education, science, history, literacy, racial and cultural acceptance ...just to name few.
If people ask me about my politics, I tell them that I am Anti-Fascist so that prohibits me from ever voting for anyone in the "Fascist Party" which goes by the nickname of "GOP"
@@markderamo9229 Yeah, he did. The point of the post was in reference to a conversation early on, which stated that pure logic doesn't change peoples opinions, and that use of all the appeals of rhetoric are necessary to change minds.
Why? If you know a group of students that would "want" to listen to you read these verses, just do it after school, or before if early would be better for you and the kids. Preferably off of school property. Teach them how to think critically, so they have a mind to make up. Not a rubber stamp collection between the ears
If they’re requiring teachers read the Bible to kids I’d choose every contradiction. And also the horrible ones that are never read in Sunday school. (I never knew about them growing up.) verses on how to beat your Slaves and how much money to pay the father of the girl you raped. I’d show them the different versions of the creation stories, how many god has killed, all the incest..etc. Parents would be complaining about my Bible readings 😂
Great show. On this day I am listening to this, I learned that Ken Paxton admited that he limited Harris County voting which most likely is why Trump "won" Texas in 2020. This is sickening !!! Just an idea, if it can be done. I remember there was a group called MAGA ( Mothers Against Gregg Abbott ). If that group could become 500K in Texas but only meet online. Maybe call it Parents Against Mass Shootings ( PAMS ). Being in these groups in other states is all good too, but Texas is the focus here. Same with an LGBTQ+ group GAGA ( Gays Against Greg Abbott ) to never meet in person, but only online and have at least 300K in Texas. Queers For Freedom ( QFF ). Young women against abortion bans. They should be able to easily number 500K. Get the word out at colleges. Atheist who want to see separation of church and state taken much more seriously to have a group numbering 500K or more. All of these members will vote, and make a saved yet quick video of their ballot getting accepted in the machine. The video is proof of a vote and can be communicated with one of the groups. The different groups are affiliated with each other and KNOW their total number of votes. Again. Just a thought, and welcome anyone with a better idea.
Can Texan voters get their votes invalidated for pulling their phones out at a polling booth and recording a video? You should make sure voters know not to do anything that could possibly get their votes invalidated, as you know how the GOP has been known to use any excuse to not count a vote from a person in a group that tends to vote D.
i don't get why people think hell will be bad. if satan rejected god and i reject god, even if i'm not a satanist me and him are buddies surely? satan would enjoy tormenting christians sure, who wouldn't, but why torment me, his faithful servant, he'll reward me surely? i think hell is going to be a cross between disneyland (for the nice sinners) and the playboy mansion (for the perverts like myself), why would it be the least uncomfortable?
I don't think we should be asking what's wrong with Texas I think we should be asking what is not wrong with Texas because that's a much much shorter list that you could take care of in an hour or two video. to ask what's wrong with texas? we could be here for years
Anybody who makes it into powerful positions in the federal government is by default "on the right", due to the deep, ingrained, capitalistic structure of the federal government. Same goes for the state governments, but IMO those are going to be much, much easier for us to "pull left" (TX, IMO, will be easier than those states east of us. we actually have the numbers here, it's just a matter of getting the organizing done)
Good points. Creating lasting, impactful change necessitates working from the bottom up, and that applies to every kind of organization. Even if someone like Bernie Sanders had been elected President instead of Biden, he wouldn't have been able to make his vision of America a reality given the constraints on the president's power (which is a GOOD thing, since Presidents are by design not kings).
Great podcast. As a learning professional, I feel horrified about promoting education without critical thinking. How terrible. Thank you to those activists that are doing amazing work.
Americans are sometimes funny: Extra-fundie neolibs misuse the term "liberal" as a pejorative meant for ppl they actually consider pinko-commies, while in reality being still just slightly moderate conservatives, who are trying to make the country a bit more livable.
In response to one of Aron's comments...several years ago when Australian and US elections coincided I answered two online political matrix questionnaires that would define your political leaning in relation to the major parties. The Australian matrix had me pretty much on par with The Australian Labor Party. The American one had me listed as a communist! Your left isn't really that left.
"The best way to stop school shootings is not just to have more guns, but to have more guns IN SCHOOLS" the logic of this evades me, if there's any to start with.
There is no logic as it is a talking point - one meant to obfuscate the issue. So clearly access to firearms needs to be addressed. Yet conversely the pro-gun control groups and their supportive media also play a role - though they will never admit this. They are as much to blame and the pro-gun community is. Consider the following: 1 - when the Beretta 92 which was adopted as the M9 by the US military first came out no one wanted it viewing it as an expensive Italian import. After it began to turn up in movies like the Lethal Weapon series however and was adopted by the US military = everyone wanted one.... 2 - when Tickle-Me-Elmo first came out in the 90's again no one wanted one. Then Tyco employed PR firms for a national advertising campaign. It began to turn up on the sets of morning news programs etc. and people began to tout it followed by = a national surge to get them. People were driving to other States to buy them up from stores and sell them for hundreds of dollars online........ 3 - the Aurora Colorado shooter years ago was mentally ill. Yet he had no background in gun ownership. Still he obtained multiple weapons = based upon what he *SAW* via news coverage of shootings - and committed his horrific tragedy....... Moral of the story: the firearm is nothing more than "a tool". The firearms themselves have been around for decades - whereas "mass shootings" and school shootings are a more recent phenomenon....... = so what's changed???? Answer: the culture. So the most popular and hence most profitable movies are those which tout violence and sex. Firearms violence in movies and television makes for highly profitable returns for those who create it. Add to that the impact of video gaming for which in the past 20 years the number of 1st Person POV shooting games has exploded - games which kids routinely play. Finally the news reporting of these events themselves. Every time one happens it is followed by days if not weeks of hyper reporting on it where it is not unusual to see such discussions go into minutia about the firearms and the ammo used blah, blah, blah. As the Aurora shooting shows it can become a virtual "how-to" for prospective shooters. Accordingly to solve the firearms violence issue if one is honest one must address = "the culture" which lends to people committing these acts. America is awash in a culture of "violence" with it tracing its roots to our entertainment industry and how news is reported and amplified. As the old saying goes: _"if it bleeds - it leads."_ 🤔
@@leftbas65 It is........ You might want to first go to school and learn some science. To engage in such violence represents a pathological mindset = ergo a mental health problem. Thus mental health is very much a component of such violence. Most of gun violence is linked to the drug trade + extremist ideology + mental health - read suicides. It is as alluded to being amplified via cultural issues.
@@varyolla435 I agree it's a problem that has no easy solution. I would, however, disagree on some of your points, i.e. you can not blame it all on media and/or culture. In my humble and simplified opinion, apart from profit they bring to some groups, guns are there to give American people false sense of freedom, so that they won't see how unfree they really are.
Speaking of this, I saw a sticker for sale on Etsy the other day that had me wishing I could actually block sellers on that platform. It had the words, "Red, White, and Pew Pew Pew" on it, along with the silhouette of an AR-15 or similar firearm. That people can still unashamedly be selling these things despite the mass shooting epidemic that has taken the lives of many children just floors me.
I beheld on Christmas day, in my statehouse entryway, What some citizens regret: Little Baby Baphomet! Scores of Christians came to vent, unrelenting discontent. What was causing them to fret? Little Baby Baphomet! Check the scene that decks my lawn. Jesus is distinctly gone. Now who crowns my manger set? Little Baby Baphomet! Jesus junkies shouldn't sweat. They may come to love him yet. Awww! He wants a cigarette!! Little Baby Baphomet! 😄
I'm sure Texas has many beautiful sites to visit and many wonderful people that are fighting against all the wrongdoing committed by their state's elected officials, but for many reasons, I will not be visiting anytime soon. And Aron, with all due respect...someone that's liberal by your standards and those of the Democratic Socialists of America would never get elected in this country. (At least, not at this point.) As much as it would be nice for us to be more like Denmark or some other "socialist" country, we are at present a completely different country, and we have to work with the country we have instead of the one we wish we had. We're never going to make progress if we expect more from a president than he can possibly deliver given the limitations of his office and our government.
What’s wrong with Texas? Add the admission “Trump would have lost if we hadn’t thrown out millions of democratic votes” (Paxton earlier this week) to the list.
A ton of people if not asked in partisan language agree on healthcare, child care, paid time off, funding education(how are you the top country with ignorant people?) living wage, lgbt+ rights, against child labor. There is so much we want. It’s media forcing us apart with lies
Get the $$$ out of politics!! We need a CAP on how much our politicians can spend! The UK has it right. Millions wasted every year. Thanks Aron and Seth!
I think that we need to eliminate all private funding of elections and adopt complete public funding along with a cap on the amount in campaign expenditures.
I spent only four years in Florida (for college) even before DeSantis came to prominence, and that was enough for me. I would find it completely intolerable now.
Wow I would have already bought a gun I'm real close this state I never thought about self deletion so much at least once a day here for 4 years straight. Every day .
There is a difference between Liberal and leftist. Joe Biden is center right. That puts him left of the GOP, but conservative right overall. Though he's close enough to the left to sometimes agree with leftists when it comes to the most basic forms of decency. I hope that helps.😊
people can want change all they want but until humans get themselves under control, aint noone changing nothing....just a bunch of people getting excited by ideas and never improving themselves while caring more for what happens outside of them rather than inside them
I'd want to hear this hypothetical episode where Aron makes the case for Biden being on the right. I also only begrudgingly vote for him, but Aron didn't make his case in this episode. Seth pointed out what are clearly progressive values, and Aron just repeated that "He's listed as being on the right". By what standards Aron? Afraid I'll need to see your work on that.
I agree. Someone that's liberal by Aron's standards and those of the Democratic Socialists of America would never get elected in this country. At least, not at this point. As much as it would be nice to be more like Denmark or some other "socialist" country, we are a completely different country, and we have to work with what we have instead of what we wish we had.
@@Mrfrancis1971 exactly. Aron as well as Matt are 100% wrong on trans crap. I can’t listen to Matt anymore and this is the second time I’ve heard Aron talk nonsense on it.
The challenge I've put to people and no one's yet to be able to do it is to create definitions for male and female that are both all-encompassing and mutually exclusive. No one can do it.
I would think that it is probably one of the reasons why so many 'Christians' are elected into public offices as they have honed the skill of asking for money or at least taking it by other means and effectuations during campaigning. And then refusing... well, we know how that goes nowadays, the more $$$ the better your chances are to buy your sins away. This is probably were the Protestants and the 1000's of other sects showed up in history. They originally couldn't afford it so they a cheaper version of proselytizing to make up for it centuries ago. They are the original protest to the Catholic Church I would think and do not realize it anymore...
It's a know me state that's for sure so many rude people here say hello and it's like you pulled your junk out and peed on their shoes these people are echo chambers in human form .
Another word of advice; Leave guns out of your conversations. Personal protection is essential to a free society. Guns don’t kill, people do! Politicians prefer unarmed peasants.
I think we should all show our love for Texas we should get a bunch of people to line the border of Texas and then gently push Texas out into the Gulf of Mexico and wave as it floats away don't worry though it'll probably land in Cuba somewhere which will fit right in
When someone mentions the 1950s as being great remind them that the top tax rate for people earning more than $500K was 90% and that the international UN convention on refugees and asylum seekers was established in the 1950s which means refugees who seek asylum in a country signing on to the convention can immediately seek to be accepted as refugees and they must be allowed to remain until the country’s legal system establishes their status. The USA was signatory.
Sorry, but when you started bringing up the "black mermaid"... sorry, according to Associated Press, I have to write "Black mermaid" since "Black" in that context needs to be capitalized, in contrast to "white" which doesn't..., you lost me. And I'm not from Texas, I'm not even from the USA, I'm from Germany. Leaning "left" (when the large, more "right-wing" party here would be called something in-between "Democrats" and "socialist/communist" in the USA). Seriously, this whole trend to replace characters with black/Asian/..., women/trans people/homosexuals/... is aggravating to the extreme. Try an Outsider Test, not for faith, but for this - what if Hollywood made a WWII movie and replaced that Austrian guy with the weird mustache with a black guy or woman? What if a movie replaced Martin Luther King Jr. among a huge crowd of black protesters with a white guy? All for the sake of "diversity" and "inclusion"? About 12-13% of people in the USA smoke - why is there no demand for representation of _that_ demographic minority in movies today? This whole thing is such blatant nonsense, I'm honestly disappointed that you've fallen for it. 😭
Wow. Just a big broad Wooow -- that's my first emotion here, 'cause I'm not a citizen. There are states that teach "alternative" versions of slavery and history?! You gotta be kidding! This doesn't sound good =( I mean, for the whole world, not only for the USA.
In the opening spiel, Seth says a string of words that... well, "I" personally wouldn't do this... this string could be clipped, and make it sound like Seth is saying "Facial expressions change weather" lol
No such thing in my neighborhood but my dad was military usually I was outnumbered by brown still am getting used too it but the young racist don't know I got gang jumped when I was little so yeah self defense laws need too change .
It's weird to hear Seth talk about liberals being left wing as a Dane. One of our larger right wing parties (currently a shared 5th place in number of representatives) is called Liberal Alliance. Liberals are to the right of center here, with the largest right wing party being closer to center. They are however closer to center than other right wing parties so they aren't at the extreme end of the spectrum.
Okay so you are correct on the facts however as a Texan I ain't about to get any lip from an Oklahoman. Texas doesn't fall into the ocean because Oklahoma sucks.
Fair first past the post elections can produce extremely disproportionate results as you see in Canada and the UK. In Canada the party with the second most votes has got the most districts twice in a row. Disproportionality is not evidence of gerrymandering. This ideas causes a lot of problems.
4:54 "Church, State and Procreate" (the trinity of stupidity). We evolved to accept our childhood credulity indoctrination as societies / tribes were always at war with others and the victors got access to more procreation. Goes back to competing on the dominance hierarchy over a half billion years ago. It also favored bias, dark triad traits, etc. Theory of minds and the need for immortality combine to produce religious psychosis, the most egregious form of insanity.
Aron Ra is way more understanding of the political compass than Seth. Liberal doesn't mean left. Liberal is centrist on the social spectrum. Joe Biden is center right economically and a moderate on the social spectrum. Seth's pushback is unnecessary.
As a leftist myself and a fan of Aron for years and years, I can confidently say that Aron’s understanding of the political compass is absolute and unconditional nonsense.
As mentioned a good way to make up a point is to not spend any money in the state of Texas. So when I heard that many people are reconsidering, going to college and other states, that sort of behavior may result in changes in Texas because they don’t want to lose the revenue. As we know everything’s about money in this horrible world.
I'm an atheist, somewhat left-of-center moderate independent. When I heard the claim (around 44:45) that the 2022 Texas GOP platform had a plank against critical-thinking skills in education, wanted to put it into a meme, so I fact-checked the claim. It's not true. There are plenty of other appalling planks in that platform, but that one isn't there although Aron Ra correctly stated that it was in 2012. The platform specifically supports critical-thinking skills, however much lip service it might be. I expect lies from the Christian right, but it's especially disappointing when someone from "our" side does it. Leave the lies to the conservatives. When you have the truth, you don't need lies.
Did you expect a "plank" which came right out and opposed critical thinking.............. From what I read the section covering education: opposes teaching anything related to gender or sexual identity + mandates a "pro-life" based curriculum + identifies the parent as the supposed "main educator" for the child despite most parents lacking any real background to be able to instruct a child in esoterica + it pays lip service to teaching science as it stipulates that what is accepted science must be taught as challengeable without specifying "what" might challenge its findings. By this nebulous standard someone claiming say "intelligent Design" must be countenanced as a possible alternative despite any such argumentation lacking scientific rigor and hence validity...... The rest of it is simply pablum towards pandering to conservative talking points. So no it does not "openly" oppose critical thinking. It does however endorse and essentially mandate the acceptance of what are anti-science positions and in general seeks to codify positions which would act to censor information available to the child = thus inhibiting critical thinking.
@@varyolla435 As I wrote, "There are plenty of other appalling planks in that platform ." You correctly pointed some out, but that's not an excuse for saying that something is there when it's not. Lies ar for them. They shouldn't be for us. We don't need them.
To praphrase Hitch, "Good people will typically do what they can to do good. Bad people will typically do what they can to do bad. But to get good people to do bad things, you need religion...." Texas and much of the deep south is an example of this.
Florida beats Texas at making good people do bad things.
That was actually Hitchens quoting Steven Weinberg.
@@AlbertGuilmont I lived in both states and I can attest there are more bad people in both states than good. Then there are the stupid which worship the bad that want to punish everyone not like them.
North korea/chinneh are not theist so...
@@goododays1812 If your glorious leader is a god, you are a theist.
They don't want government to tell them what to do. But, they want the government to tell others what to do.
Well put, especially when they themselves are in full control of government. And yet these cretins always shout about "too much government!". Disgusting hypocrites the lot of them.
Pretty much, and they can't seem to understand why everyone deserves autonomy instead of just them
Yes. These people who are always blathering about their rights and freedoms are really only concerned with THEIR right to tell everyone else what rights they should or shouldn't have.
No it’s you people who want’s government overreach and the government telling others what to do.
Seth Andrews even said that people who didn’t get the coronavirus vaccine should be arrested and shunned from society. If that’s not advocating for “the government telling you what to do” than I don’t know what the fuck is lol
As someone who was born in, raised in, educated in, has worked in, and generally lived in Texas for a little over 30 years, I can attest that Texas, for nearly all of its history and still continuing to this day, has SUCKED.
I also have interacted with the same kind of people that Will Judy has. There are indeed plenty of people that are, in so many ways, committed to bringing about actual change and actual improvement, not just to Texas but the US as a whole - and it is these same people that Texas "leadership" is fully committed to wiping out in every possible way.
It did not help that I watched a video talking about how Texas was becoming the US's new economic powerhouse and was listing reasons why. While I largely did not disagree with the natural reasons ("natural" in regards to geography and weather), the rest were more questionable, if not disputable or even outright wrong. For example, Texas is gaining strength in a revamping fossil fuel industry, but it is only possible because of fracking. Fracking not only causes a lot of environmental problems just by itself, but it is set to cause a massive crisis that could stop Texas' economic growth dead in its tracks: water shortages at levels that could easily rival, if not surpass, California's. One thing that they never mention about fracking is that not only is it accomplished using truly massive amounts of mostly water, but the water used is completely non-recoverable, both in access and in purification (the latter meaning that the chemicals used in fracking cannot be separated from water).
For another example, Texas has easily one of the largest renewable industries in the US and the world, and it has a whole lot more potential to get even bigger - all of which is true. However, who is running Texas? Here's a little hint in the form of one of their favorite mantras: "Drill, baby, drill!" Renewables, one of the few things that Texas truly could benefit from and massively so, is being actively fought against at nearly all levels of government, from local to federal with very few exceptions.
And this is just on the economic side, which the aforementioned also delved into how corporations are relocating their headquarters to Texas. Funny thing about that, though: it is mostly just the headquarters, which brings... what exactly? Well, massive reductions and breaks in corporate taxes, and... that's about it. On top of that, the massive population influx coming with that, well, among many things, what does that new population demand? Water, and that brings us right back to what I mentioned earlier, which means even less for people and another of Texas' larger industries: agriculture. Those photos of extremely long stretches of the Rio Grande being completely dry, those are simply the most visible symptoms. If the largest river in the state is so dry, you know what else is going dry? The aquifers, which a massive amount - quite possibly the majority - of Texas agriculture depends on, and thanks to climate change and ever increasing usage, especially by corporate-owned fields, those aquifers are not being recharged anywhere near as much as before, if at all.
I can go on and on about all of the issues and full-on problems that Texas is facing yet never get brought up, but I would like to think I made my point, which goes back to who has been running Texas for far too long.
So going back to the title, I, as a native Texan, can only answer with: every-f^^^ing-thing.
People are going to be in for a massive shock when our aquifers start running dry. It's interesting that no one talks about that.
@@synthdriver8817 That was one of smarter aspects of my parents' house-buying: not having to deal with an HOA. Why? Because such would have undoubtedly demanded that picturesque water-demanding lawn. They found a place in an area without an HOA, and even after having lived there for just over 20 years, they have never watered anything beyond some fruit trees. Even with that, the fruit trees are watered through a drip irrigation system that I set up for them, and drip irrigation is about as efficient as you can get when it comes to watering. I also set it up to water automatically and only outside of peak heating/freezing hours (so dead of night in summer and high afternoon in winter).
And just to mention the one thing I did not mention about the video I brought up, it described Texas' power grid as "robust," to which I nearly screamed, "Are you sh^tting me!? How could you already forget what happened to Texas' _entire infrastructure network_ over the past few summers and winters!? You cannot find any *WORSE* grid than in Texas! At least Flint is only one town and not an entire f^^^ing state - and the second largest state at that!"
Sorry for going on another rant there. Those 30 years of living there left their permanent mark.
@@DavidRichardson153 I've heard nightmare stories about HOAs. Fuck em. As for Texas's power grid, you can blame that on the self-"regulation" policies put in place by legislators who apparently forgot that if a business is allowed to cut corners in any meaningful way, it will. You don't require power companies to bundle up in winter to keep their coal from freezing or by all means plan/organize a better system instead of letting power companies and utilities carve up their own fiefdoms and let people die in heat or freeze in winter while skyscrapers run full bore. Gotta keep those call centers running I guess. It's wild dude.
Texas represents 2 main problems. First is it is a hotbed of = political corruption - as recent events show. Its AG as an example is plagued by numerous credible legal problems - despite supposedly being its chief law enforcement officer. As many QOP idiots have spoken to the *ONLY* reason he was impeached was = he asked for public funds to pay-off his legal problems.......... Absent that "ask" = his party would have remained unified behind him irrespective of his apparent crimes. As an aside. Why should he not ask since = Trumputin did the same thing. The RNC has been fundraising and using that for years now = to pay his own legal bills..........
Next is it is overrun with evangelical Fundies. Like shite attracts flies - so a State which is excessively lax towards religious extremism + whose own people lend towards the same = becomes a magnet and then a cesspool from what flocks there. It is not a coincidence you see "televangelists" and "cults" settling in places like Texas etc. were fundamentalism is strong. The flip side of this coin is sadly that with fundamentalism usually comes poor educational systems. Yes there are "exceptions" to be found as with anywhere. For the most part however Texas's educational system ranks poorly compared to other States.
Conclusion: Texas represents "a perfect storm" of ignorance/religious zealotry/and political corruption. 🤨
@@varyolla435 And my MAGA parents wonder why I chose to GTFO of the state.
At first, I did not want to leave, but that can largely be attributed to me being more sedentary and ingrained in my habits. However, after getting my job as a microbiologist for the State Health Services axed from budget cuts (I was hired on less than six months before it happened) and spending over a year desperately searching for even the most barely related of jobs - and even going for completely unrelated ones - only to get passed over, if not rejected, for hundreds upon hundreds of positions (seriously, I built a spreadsheet to keep track of every application, and out of nearly 500, I got any sort of advancement on... 3), I finally snapped and started looking beyond the state. Even that ended up going nowhere, so I just said, "F^^^ it," and started looking overseas.
Unfortunately for me, I immediately ran into the classic Catch-22 on looking for overseas work: if you want an offer, then have a visa already, and if you want a visa, then have an offer already. This made me evermore pissed, until I finally said "F^^^ it" again, and I looked into education, which ended up being a bit expensive due to where I got accepted into (but still not as much as back in the US), but it gave me a way out. It took a lot of scraping together from relatives that saw the insanity of MAGA (they still leaned conservative, but a lot more Mitt Romney than Lauren B^^^bert) and decided that it would probably be best that I got out, but I managed to do so, and the timing of it all had me arriving at my destination only two days before Covid first gained enough steam for the government to take action.
If you want a hint as to where I went, it is one of the three countries that got praised for being the only ones that actually beat the first wave, and it is the only English-speaking one that received such praise.
For another hint, that country is sometimes called Middle Earth as a half-joke (because it was the filming location).
Now, with me sharing my experiences back to my relatives, them sharing what I share with him has caused cracks to form and spread in my parents' MAGA BS. I guess it is hard to maintain that adherence to the talking points when you hear from someone who lives in a country that has been doing the exact opposite of what MAGA whines about wanting to do for three years and counting... and has been thriving from doing the exact opposite of what MAGA whines about wanting to do for three years and counting (thanks to their handling of Covid, which was the opposite of what Trump and the GOP did, the prime minister and her party practically swept their elections).
Last update I got about my parents, my mother, who has regularly shown to be the more reasonable of the two, has begun acknowledging that it is because of the GOP - and especially the QOP - that Texas (and the US) is crumbling. It may not be much, and it is probably too late to have anything meaningful come from it, but I'll grant that it's a start.
Great show Seth. And very impressed with all of your guests. Such a pleasure to listen to rational, intelligent conversations. Keep up your good work. Cheers, Dan ✌️🇨🇦
Texas, when Florida isn't crazy enough.
They’re like kissin’ cousins
Probably first cousins......
I think Florida is worse.
@@sixvee5147 Which in the south is your sister or brother..
@@bladerunner3314 possibly, defascist wants to DESTROY the left! With the Cult of Sadists on the right using a word like DESTROY will definitely encourage the craziest of the crazy.
The only thing I liked about working in Texas was all the donut shops which explained why everything was bigger in Texas especially the people. 😂
As a resident of Texas, I appreciate this video. Thank you!
What a wonderful and informative show this was! I am a fairly new resident to the state of Florida having lived here for just over a year and I can tell you that Florida is just as bad as Texas. We must do all that we can as a group across the nation to stop this kind of stuff.
Keeping Ron DeSantis out of the White House - and kicking him out of the governor's mansion so FL can start to unf**k itself - would be a great place to begin.
Every rational person in Texas is asking the same question
The antisense has risen, there will be hell to pay,
You might remember some of Reagan's speeches. "Make America Great Again" was a common theme in his campaign speeches. I think that Trump knew that some of the more elderly Republicans would remember that and associate that with Reagan.
Reagan was a ghoul.
Of course, Reagan, for his part, took that slogan from the Klan. It's not surprising given that his first public address after accepting the Republican Party nomination in the summer of '80 was at Philadelphia, Mississippi, where he, in so many words, expressed his sympathy with the warped philosophy which led to what happened in that area only sixteen years earlier, a philosophy openly espoused by the Klan.
I grew up in New Jersey. I can’t remember a time I didn’t live around Avery diverse community. Then I moved to Ohio…. I really believed racism was mostly dead. Now I know it’s alive and way to thriving and needs fixed.
wow! We've done the same thing! I'm born/raised in Jersey and moved to Ohio in 2006. Same experience! Jersey is diverse in most places, whereas Ohio is just different.
So what you are saying is that if you live where diversity is lacking, people are more likely to be racist. That makes sense. What is strange and unknown can be seen as dangerous, and people play on those fears which makes it worse. So it seems the fix would be to not have any non diverse areas, and I don't know how to do that. I know one thing that happens is if you do the opposite and move from a non diverse to a diverse area it can be difficult. Even if you aren't racist, you will make mistakes and that can actually lead to racism if you are met with hostility in your new home. I have seen that happen. So it's complicated, but well worth the time to try to overcome it.
@@littlebitofhope1489 Yeah I guess? I was saying I was shielded from it more in a diverse community. Also why is everything extremes with people? Why is it only diverse communities? Why is everything white or black no shades of grey? First it’s proven they exposure to other cultures, people, etc is a large step to help get rid of isms. Well maybe not narcissism that will still get yes(it’s a joke before someone bites my head off) if your exposed to different foods, people, cultures etc over time most adults are stuck in there ways so it is harder but as the kids grow up there is less and less othering. I’m trying to use broad terms for a bunch of things. The world is not black or white. We need to start working in the grey areas and using nuance.
@@christopherconkright1317 First, I'm not arguing with you. Your comment just made me think. Look at your question. Why is it only diverse communities? It's in the word "diverse". Diversity is where the shades of grey are. I'm not disagreeing with you saying that it should be the way you say. I'm wondering how we can teach people who aren't as lucky as you (because I think a diverse community is the lucky place to be) to not be afraid and understand those grey areas. I think we understand that someone who is raised with everyone looking the same way, and speaking the same language, and eating the same food is stilted. Can they really be expected to understand without experience? I don't know the answer, but it is a question that needs to be looked at. How are the people around you supposed to know something they have never experienced?? It's not a defense of racism, but maybe we need to look at how to teach them??? It's just a thought.
I live in Ohio (born and raised) and this state sucks. It has really changed over the last two decades. It went from a mostly blue swing state to a deeply red state. I live in the greater Cleveland area and I see "LET'S GO BRANDON" and TRUMP 2024 flags everywhere in my neighborhood. This is northern Ohio! If you talk to people around here you would think that you were in the bible belt. This state has been overrun with right wing rednecks and religious fanatics. Considering I'm a liberal, openly gay, atheist, it is not easy living here anymore.
Conservatives: every accusation is a confession.
I'm a former Christian Christian conservative from Texas. I can confirm that you are not exaggerating.
@@Johnmhatheist I swear the louder they accuse the more they do it.
@@christopherconkright1317 The fact that they said that Boebert's (Boobert) incident was just an honest mistake that she learned from shows everything you need to know about the GOP.
If a Democrat, especially AOC, did what she did, they would go absolutely crazy and bash her for the rest of her life for it.
Love your shows....keep it going.
I was stationed down there for 2 years at Fort Hood and there's always been something off about that place.
The same thing is wrong with Texas that is wrong with Florida and most other southern states - dominated by gullible cult followers. Those easily drawn into religious cults will follow any cults, believe lies and support the GOP. Incapable of thinking critically.
There are a few of us insurgents lurking...biding our time until Judgment Day...a different sort of apocalypse.😂
The united states was not based on the law of any holy book including the Bible, Torah, Quran, tenoch, hadith . If it was it would already be a theocratic dictatorship.
If people want to teach American Exceptionalism, then they should focus on the fact that, upon _prohibiting the establishment of religion,_ the Founding Fathers made the USA an _exception_ to the otherwise theocratic rule that was common throughout the world...replacing Divine Right claims with a Democratic Republic! THAT is why America is...or was...exceptional!
22:10 - AMEN, ARON!!! As I watch this video, I can't help noting that Juneteenth commemorates the date when Gen. Gordon Granger and the Union Army showed up in _Galveston, TX_ to enforce the Emancipation Proclomation. If Abraham Lincoln saw Republicans _now,_ driving around with Confederate battle flags on their pickups, he'd shoot _himself_ in the head!
P.S. Why in holy hell should parents, who are qualified and licensed to teach _nothing,_ have greater control over Public Education curriculum than qualified and licensed educators?
What's wrong with Texas? Perhaps too much love for guns, no love for education, science, history, literacy, racial and cultural acceptance ...just to name few.
One word: Fascism. They've got billionaire backing and they've got the statehouse.
Very informative episode, the guests were great, keep spreading the word ✌️
If people ask me about my politics, I tell them that I am Anti-Fascist so that prohibits me from ever voting for anyone in the "Fascist Party" which goes by the nickname of "GOP"
So you're for the Iron Front. Good on ya
@@jackskelington7377 you have it all backwards, the GOP are the iron front.
True. If logic worked, so many people wouldn't cling to their religious and radical right wing fanaticism.
so, you take an antilogic stance?
@@j19n7200 I think you misunderstood v bachman's post.
@@heronimousbrapson863 No, he didn't.
@@markderamo9229 Yeah, he did. The point of the post was in reference to a conversation early on, which stated that pure logic doesn't change peoples opinions, and that use of all the appeals of rhetoric are necessary to change minds.
@@TheEnmineer You're a radical leftist so I wouldn't expect much from you.
Sounds like the history books in Texas are still based on the ones created by the Daughters of the Confederacy.
pretty simple really ..... Toxic hypochristianity laced in divine willful ignorance.
_"Politics is all about honesty. If you can 'fake' that, you've got it made!"_
_Donald Trump - NBC 'The Billionaire'_
We in texas want to know what the hell too
I WISH I could read verses of the Bible to the students. The ones I would choose…..😂
Why? If you know a group of students that would "want" to listen to you read these verses, just do it after school, or before if early would be better for you and the kids. Preferably off of school property. Teach them how to think critically, so they have a mind to make up. Not a rubber stamp collection between the ears
If they’re requiring teachers read the Bible to kids I’d choose every contradiction. And also the horrible ones that are never read in Sunday school. (I never knew about them growing up.) verses on how to beat your Slaves and how much money to pay the father of the girl you raped. I’d show them the different versions of the creation stories, how many god has killed, all the incest..etc. Parents would be complaining about my Bible readings 😂
@@lauriehester357 Don't forget to mention God's repeated demands for human sacrifice and the murder and rape of children.
Psalm 137:9
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones
Thanks. *_"Those who would repeat the past must control the teaching of history."_* [Frank Herbert, Dune] tavi.
"The south has a certain kind of ignorance that is deeper and truer, more unwavering and steadfast, than the rest of the country has." - David Cross
Great show. On this day I am listening to this, I learned that Ken Paxton admited that he limited Harris County voting which most likely is why Trump "won" Texas in 2020. This is sickening !!!
Just an idea, if it can be done. I remember there was a group called MAGA ( Mothers Against Gregg Abbott ). If that group could become 500K in Texas but only meet online. Maybe call it Parents Against Mass Shootings ( PAMS ). Being in these groups in other states is all good too, but Texas is the focus here.
Same with an LGBTQ+ group GAGA ( Gays Against Greg Abbott ) to never meet in person, but only online and have at least 300K in Texas. Queers For Freedom ( QFF ).
Young women against abortion bans. They should be able to easily number 500K. Get the word out at colleges.
Atheist who want to see separation of church and state taken much more seriously to have a group numbering 500K or more.
All of these members will vote, and make a saved yet quick video of their ballot getting accepted in the machine. The video is proof of a vote and can be communicated with one of the groups. The different groups are affiliated with each other and KNOW their total number of votes.
Again. Just a thought, and welcome anyone with a better idea.
Can Texan voters get their votes invalidated for pulling their phones out at a polling booth and recording a video? You should make sure voters know not to do anything that could possibly get their votes invalidated, as you know how the GOP has been known to use any excuse to not count a vote from a person in a group that tends to vote D.
They require your cellphone be turned off when you're in the voting room.
Love me some Aron Raw! The true voice of reason!
i don't get why people think hell will be bad. if satan rejected god and i
reject god, even if i'm not a satanist me and him are buddies surely? satan
would enjoy tormenting christians sure, who wouldn't, but why torment me, his
faithful servant, he'll reward me surely? i think hell is going to be a cross
between disneyland (for the nice sinners) and the playboy mansion (for the
perverts like myself), why would it be the least uncomfortable?
if it were real of course.
I don't think we should be asking what's wrong with Texas I think we should be asking what is not wrong with Texas because that's a much much shorter list that you could take care of in an hour or two video. to ask what's wrong with texas? we could be here for years
Anybody who makes it into powerful positions in the federal government is by default "on the right", due to the deep, ingrained, capitalistic structure of the federal government. Same goes for the state governments, but IMO those are going to be much, much easier for us to "pull left" (TX, IMO, will be easier than those states east of us. we actually have the numbers here, it's just a matter of getting the organizing done)
Good points. Creating lasting, impactful change necessitates working from the bottom up, and that applies to every kind of organization. Even if someone like Bernie Sanders had been elected President instead of Biden, he wouldn't have been able to make his vision of America a reality given the constraints on the president's power (which is a GOOD thing, since Presidents are by design not kings).
Great podcast. As a learning professional, I feel horrified about promoting education without critical thinking. How terrible. Thank you to those activists that are doing amazing work.
Americans are sometimes funny:
Extra-fundie neolibs misuse the term "liberal" as a pejorative meant for ppl they actually consider pinko-commies, while in reality being still just slightly moderate conservatives, who are trying to make the country a bit more livable.
In response to one of Aron's comments...several years ago when Australian and US elections coincided I answered two online political matrix questionnaires that would define your political leaning in relation to the major parties.
The Australian matrix had me pretty much on par with The Australian Labor Party. The American one had me listed as a communist! Your left isn't really that left.
Our politics are broken. the center is our "left wing." Center left politicians like Bernie Sanders and AOC are our "radical left'
"The best way to stop school shootings is not just to have more guns, but to have more guns IN SCHOOLS" the logic of this evades me, if there's any to start with.
There is no logic as it is a talking point - one meant to obfuscate the issue. So clearly access to firearms needs to be addressed. Yet conversely the pro-gun control groups and their supportive media also play a role - though they will never admit this. They are as much to blame and the pro-gun community is. Consider the following:
1 - when the Beretta 92 which was adopted as the M9 by the US military first came out no one wanted it viewing it as an expensive Italian import. After it began to turn up in movies like the Lethal Weapon series however and was adopted by the US military = everyone wanted one....
2 - when Tickle-Me-Elmo first came out in the 90's again no one wanted one. Then Tyco employed PR firms for a national advertising campaign. It began to turn up on the sets of morning news programs etc. and people began to tout it followed by = a national surge to get them. People were driving to other States to buy them up from stores and sell them for hundreds of dollars online........
3 - the Aurora Colorado shooter years ago was mentally ill. Yet he had no background in gun ownership. Still he obtained multiple weapons = based upon what he *SAW* via news coverage of shootings - and committed his horrific tragedy.......
Moral of the story: the firearm is nothing more than "a tool". The firearms themselves have been around for decades - whereas "mass shootings" and school shootings are a more recent phenomenon....... = so what's changed???? Answer: the culture.
So the most popular and hence most profitable movies are those which tout violence and sex. Firearms violence in movies and television makes for highly profitable returns for those who create it. Add to that the impact of video gaming for which in the past 20 years the number of 1st Person POV shooting games has exploded - games which kids routinely play.
Finally the news reporting of these events themselves. Every time one happens it is followed by days if not weeks of hyper reporting on it where it is not unusual to see such discussions go into minutia about the firearms and the ammo used blah, blah, blah. As the Aurora shooting shows it can become a virtual "how-to" for prospective shooters. Accordingly to solve the firearms violence issue if one is honest one must address = "the culture" which lends to people committing these acts. America is awash in a culture of "violence" with it tracing its roots to our entertainment industry and how news is reported and amplified. As the old saying goes: _"if it bleeds - it leads."_ 🤔
It's on the same level as calling gun violence a mental health issue. Just...arrrggghh.
@@leftbas65 It is........ You might want to first go to school and learn some science. To engage in such violence represents a pathological mindset = ergo a mental health problem. Thus mental health is very much a component of such violence.
Most of gun violence is linked to the drug trade + extremist ideology + mental health - read suicides. It is as alluded to being amplified via cultural issues.
@@varyolla435 I agree it's a problem that has no easy solution. I would, however, disagree on some of your points, i.e. you can not blame it all on media and/or culture. In my humble and simplified opinion, apart from profit they bring to some groups, guns are there to give American people false sense of freedom, so that they won't see how unfree they really are.
Speaking of this, I saw a sticker for sale on Etsy the other day that had me wishing I could actually block sellers on that platform. It had the words, "Red, White, and Pew Pew Pew" on it, along with the silhouette of an AR-15 or similar firearm. That people can still unashamedly be selling these things despite the mass shooting epidemic that has taken the lives of many children just floors me.
I beheld on Christmas day, in my statehouse entryway,
What some citizens regret:
Little Baby Baphomet!
Scores of Christians came to vent, unrelenting discontent.
What was causing them to fret?
Little Baby Baphomet!
Check the scene that decks my lawn. Jesus is distinctly gone.
Now who crowns my manger set?
Little Baby Baphomet!
Jesus junkies shouldn't sweat. They may come to love him yet.
Awww! He wants a cigarette!!
Little Baby Baphomet! 😄
Aron is ready to "rock 'n roll" at a moments notice... unless someone knocks on the door and the dogs go nuts...
I'm sure Texas has many beautiful sites to visit and many wonderful people that are fighting against all the wrongdoing committed by their state's elected officials, but for many reasons, I will not be visiting anytime soon.
And Aron, with all due respect...someone that's liberal by your standards and those of the Democratic Socialists of America would never get elected in this country. (At least, not at this point.) As much as it would be nice for us to be more like Denmark or some other "socialist" country, we are at present a completely different country, and we have to work with the country we have instead of the one we wish we had. We're never going to make progress if we expect more from a president than he can possibly deliver given the limitations of his office and our government.
What’s wrong with Texas? Add the admission “Trump would have lost if we hadn’t thrown out millions of democratic votes” (Paxton earlier this week) to the list.
A ton of people if not asked in partisan language agree on healthcare, child care, paid time off, funding education(how are you the top country with ignorant people?) living wage, lgbt+ rights, against child labor. There is so much we want. It’s media forcing us apart with lies
Get the $$$ out of politics!! We need a CAP on how much our politicians can spend! The UK has it right. Millions wasted every year. Thanks Aron and Seth!
💯
I think that we need to eliminate all private funding of elections and adopt complete public funding along with a cap on the amount in campaign expenditures.
I spent eight years in texas. And the last thirty six in florida. Lucky me.
So we have you to blame. Thanks a lot. 😛
@@rembrandt972ify I tried my best but nobody listened to me.
I spent only four years in Florida (for college) even before DeSantis came to prominence, and that was enough for me. I would find it completely intolerable now.
Wow I would have already bought a gun I'm real close this state I never thought about self deletion so much at least once a day here for 4 years straight. Every day .
There is a difference between Liberal and leftist. Joe Biden is center right. That puts him left of the GOP, but conservative right overall. Though he's close enough to the left to sometimes agree with leftists when it comes to the most basic forms of decency. I hope that helps.😊
Yeah, that sounds about right.
people can want change all they want but until humans get themselves under control, aint noone changing nothing....just a bunch of people getting excited by ideas and never improving themselves while caring more for what happens outside of them rather than inside them
Who made an ass out of Tex?
I'd want to hear this hypothetical episode where Aron makes the case for Biden being on the right. I also only begrudgingly vote for him, but Aron didn't make his case in this episode. Seth pointed out what are clearly progressive values, and Aron just repeated that "He's listed as being on the right". By what standards Aron? Afraid I'll need to see your work on that.
I agree. Someone that's liberal by Aron's standards and those of the Democratic Socialists of America would never get elected in this country. At least, not at this point. As much as it would be nice to be more like Denmark or some other "socialist" country, we are a completely different country, and we have to work with what we have instead of what we wish we had.
I really enjoyed this podcast - what a great group of intellects-
but sadly no one of them I am sure cannot define what a woman is...such great intellect really ...lol!
@@Mrfrancis1971 exactly. Aron as well as Matt are 100% wrong on trans crap. I can’t listen to Matt anymore and this is the second time I’ve heard Aron talk nonsense on it.
@@markshepperson3603 aron is a paranoid delusional and I told him so.
@@Mrfrancis1971 for real it can be summed up in three words
The challenge I've put to people and no one's yet to be able to do it is to create definitions for male and female that are both all-encompassing and mutually exclusive.
No one can do it.
I would think that it is probably one of the reasons why so many 'Christians' are elected into public offices as they have honed the skill of asking for money or at least taking it by other means and effectuations during campaigning. And then refusing... well, we know how that goes nowadays, the more $$$ the better your chances are to buy your sins away. This is probably were the Protestants and the 1000's of other sects showed up in history. They originally couldn't afford it so they a cheaper version of proselytizing to make up for it centuries ago. They are the original protest to the Catholic Church I would think and do not realize it anymore...
Texas is not a Red state. It is heavenly Jerrymadered
It's a know me state that's for sure so many rude people here say hello and it's like you pulled your junk out and peed on their shoes these people are echo chambers in human form .
The same thing wrong with Texas is also wrong with Florida
Then why does everybody want to move there?
What the hell ISN’T wrong with Texas?
Another word of advice; Leave guns out of your conversations. Personal protection is essential to a free society. Guns don’t kill, people do! Politicians prefer unarmed peasants.
There is also no god and all morality is subjective.
It took me years of reading and rumination to realize the "Story of Texas" was a distraction from the imperative of establishing slavery.
Seth thinking that Joe Biden is liberal... 🤣🤣 Joe Biden is a left-leaning Republican at best.
The joke about going to Texas to vote is not helpful for your movement...
Exellent show Seth! & company
Sanity is what religion doesn't have.
In Harry Potter it’s the Dementors who suck out someone’s soul. The death eaters are Voldermort’s followers, and compare to the proud boys.
I think we should all show our love for Texas we should get a bunch of people to line the border of Texas and then gently push Texas out into the Gulf of Mexico and wave as it floats away don't worry though it'll probably land in Cuba somewhere which will fit right in
Looking forward to leaving it soon. Thanks for the reminder.
MAGA... YEAH BEFORE THE FIRST EUROPEANS EVER STEP FOOT ON THESE GREAT CONTINENTS.
When someone mentions the 1950s as being great remind them that the top tax rate for people earning more than $500K was 90% and that the international UN convention on refugees and asylum seekers was established in the 1950s which means refugees who seek asylum in a country signing on to the convention can immediately seek to be accepted as refugees and they must be allowed to remain until the country’s legal system establishes their status. The USA was signatory.
I would like "What the Hell is Wrong with Florida?" to be your next one.
You just cannot stand the fact that everybody wants to and keeps moving here. haha
Great conversation 😊
Sorry, but when you started bringing up the "black mermaid"... sorry, according to Associated Press, I have to write "Black mermaid" since "Black" in that context needs to be capitalized, in contrast to "white" which doesn't..., you lost me. And I'm not from Texas, I'm not even from the USA, I'm from Germany. Leaning "left" (when the large, more "right-wing" party here would be called something in-between "Democrats" and "socialist/communist" in the USA).
Seriously, this whole trend to replace characters with black/Asian/..., women/trans people/homosexuals/... is aggravating to the extreme.
Try an Outsider Test, not for faith, but for this - what if Hollywood made a WWII movie and replaced that Austrian guy with the weird mustache with a black guy or woman? What if a movie replaced Martin Luther King Jr. among a huge crowd of black protesters with a white guy? All for the sake of "diversity" and "inclusion"? About 12-13% of people in the USA smoke - why is there no demand for representation of _that_ demographic minority in movies today?
This whole thing is such blatant nonsense, I'm honestly disappointed that you've fallen for it. 😭
Wow. Just a big broad Wooow -- that's my first emotion here, 'cause I'm not a citizen. There are states that teach "alternative" versions of slavery and history?! You gotta be kidding! This doesn't sound good =( I mean, for the whole world, not only for the USA.
In the opening spiel, Seth says a string of words that... well, "I" personally wouldn't do this... this string could be clipped, and make it sound like Seth is saying "Facial expressions change weather" lol
What the hell is wrong with Texas?
Honestly, my first reaction to this question was just *gestures broadly * 😂
It's a christian red state, that's what's wrong with Texas.
the 1950s and early '60s were a golden age for white suburban children. not so much for anyone else.
No such thing in my neighborhood but my dad was military usually I was outnumbered by brown still am getting used too it but the young racist don't know I got gang jumped when I was little so yeah self defense laws need too change .
@@areuarealman7269 i'm sorry that happened to you.
Build a border wall along Texas's northern border....
Remember The Alamo!
Lmfao
Oh; forgot, there's a wonderful Texan on YT (part of Meidastouch Network). Texas Paul (Coffee w TP)
Seth should totally do political voice-overs as a side gig.
To many Bushes and Bush lookalikes. I mean who does Abbott remind you of?
Aron Ra says he grew up in Texas, so he is uneducated.
It amuses me to pronounce 'Texas' as 'Tay-hass'.
It's weird to hear Seth talk about liberals being left wing as a Dane. One of our larger right wing parties (currently a shared 5th place in number of representatives) is called Liberal Alliance. Liberals are to the right of center here, with the largest right wing party being closer to center. They are however closer to center than other right wing parties so they aren't at the extreme end of the spectrum.
Okay so you are correct on the facts however as a Texan I ain't about to get any lip from an Oklahoman.
Texas doesn't fall into the ocean because Oklahoma sucks.
Fair first past the post elections can produce extremely disproportionate results as you see in Canada and the UK. In Canada the party with the second most votes has got the most districts twice in a row.
Disproportionality is not evidence of gerrymandering. This ideas causes a lot of problems.
4:54 "Church, State and Procreate" (the trinity of stupidity). We evolved to accept our childhood credulity indoctrination as societies / tribes were always at war with others and the victors got access to more procreation. Goes back to competing on the dominance hierarchy over a half billion years ago. It also favored bias, dark triad traits, etc. Theory of minds and the need for immortality combine to produce religious psychosis, the most egregious form of insanity.
Guns are a right. OK. Voting is also a right. Registering guns and getting licensed to own guns is unAmerican! But you have to register to vote.😶
I imagine the heat there has fried most residents into uselessness.
*brains
Air conditioning and ice water, my friend. But we do get a bit lethargic in summer.
Come to New Mexico (moved here fm Florida after tRump elected. Great people, great government!
Just do yourself a favour & go and read how the terms Marxist and Communist are defined in the Texas constitution.
If I were king I would sell TEXASS to Mexico fo a half dozen tacos .
It is obvious to me that all that hystrria over religiousness/whiteness is the death throws of dying ideas.
Aron Ra is way more understanding of the political compass than Seth. Liberal doesn't mean left. Liberal is centrist on the social spectrum. Joe Biden is center right economically and a moderate on the social spectrum. Seth's pushback is unnecessary.
As a leftist myself and a fan of Aron for years and years, I can confidently say that Aron’s understanding of the political compass is absolute and unconditional nonsense.
Saving to Watch Later to have a good listen to but just had to stop by to hit the Like button - based only on the excellent title!
Texas is one of 19 states that legally allow teachers and principals to hit kids and young adults in their buildings. Explains a lot.
and now they can also carry guns! what could go wrong!?
America doesn’t even have a left 😂 spectrum is far right- center at best
Trumpublicans in texas are intent on creating the 1000 year reich.
Everything. Everything is wrong with Texas. - a Texan
and to think I did a state report on Texas in 1985. I feel betrayed.
For a state run by the party of “personal responsibility” they don’t want to take responsibility for the atrocities they committed in the past
Its TEXASS!
Aron Ra, please also acknowledge the influence of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy on the U.S. Constitution 💜🤍🌲
Oh my god. It just keeps getting worse.
As mentioned a good way to make up a point is to not spend any money in the state of Texas. So when I heard that many people are reconsidering, going to college and other states, that sort of behavior may result in changes in Texas because they don’t want to lose the revenue. As we know everything’s about money in this horrible world.
Boomer atheist cringe here. Very sad.
I'm an atheist, somewhat left-of-center moderate independent. When I heard the claim (around 44:45) that the 2022 Texas GOP platform had a plank against critical-thinking skills in education, wanted to put it into a meme, so I fact-checked the claim. It's not true. There are plenty of other appalling planks in that platform, but that one isn't there although Aron Ra correctly stated that it was in 2012. The platform specifically supports critical-thinking skills, however much lip service it might be.
I expect lies from the Christian right, but it's especially disappointing when someone from "our" side does it. Leave the lies to the conservatives. When you have the truth, you don't need lies.
Did you expect a "plank" which came right out and opposed critical thinking.............. From what I read the section covering education: opposes teaching anything related to gender or sexual identity + mandates a "pro-life" based curriculum + identifies the parent as the supposed "main educator" for the child despite most parents lacking any real background to be able to instruct a child in esoterica + it pays lip service to teaching science as it stipulates that what is accepted science must be taught as challengeable without specifying "what" might challenge its findings.
By this nebulous standard someone claiming say "intelligent Design" must be countenanced as a possible alternative despite any such argumentation lacking scientific rigor and hence validity...... The rest of it is simply pablum towards pandering to conservative talking points.
So no it does not "openly" oppose critical thinking. It does however endorse and essentially mandate the acceptance of what are anti-science positions and in general seeks to codify positions which would act to censor information available to the child = thus inhibiting critical thinking.
@@varyolla435 As I wrote, "There are plenty of other appalling planks in that platform ." You correctly pointed some out, but that's not an excuse for saying that something is there when it's not. Lies ar for them. They shouldn't be for us. We don't need them.