Contrasting Journeys in Anime Narratives

In this episode, the hosts discuss the transformation of conservative ideologies, critiquing the 'pearl-clutching' mentality of pre-MAGA conservatism. Through the lens of two contrasting anime series, WataMote & Chunibyo, they explore how different cultural contexts affect mental health and the worldview of individuals. They also delve into a recent article critiquing their unconventional lifestyle and highlight their belief in living authentically with aligned values. Moreover, the conversation covers various aspects of modern conservatism, the impact of AI, and the importance of maintaining passion and creativity in one's approach to life. No Matter How I Look at It, It's You Guys' Fault I'm Not Popular! Love, Chunibyo & Other Delusions

this guy represents is the iteration of the conservative party.

That the conservative party lost the, the pearl clutches, the, oh my God, how could they be doing something different? Oh my God. How could this be vulgar? Oh my God. How could this be, you know, oh, anime girls or soft anime, like Matt Walsh represents satisfaction, right?

Yeah. Like where it's always railing against things like anime and video games,

She is friends Now we're not gonna be able to karaoke with the guys. No way. We've got plenty of time and they're dumb slides.

Then we have the second anime that we're going to be talking about. And people could argue that all of MAGA is kind of doing it,

It opened

This is hard to watch NGO Blast.

Would you like to know more?

Hello Simone. I am excited to be talking to you today. Today we are going to be talking about two things. One is. Contrasting two animes in which the main characters relate to the world very differently.

And I think through the contrast of these two characters, we can learn a lot about mental health and how both the urban monoculture, but also the older conservative culture ends up breaking apart people's minds and causing them to go sort of crazy. But we will also be focused on how. Much I have disdain for the pre maga form of conservatism.

Mm-hmm. Or specifically the form of it that didn't like grow up when conservatism became MAGA , a great example of this and what got me thinking about this was , a article that came out about us recently by this guy who was just absolutely railing on us.. You're referring to a piece that came out in the Bulwark. It's called The Two Faces of Tism, and it's by Jonathan last, who Yes. Apparently also wrote a book on Tism at one point, which I guess is one reason why he feels like he's just figured it out. Yeah, so perhaps the second and third most famous ISTs in America are Michael and Simone Collins, Dr. Not Malcolm. He really does his research, doesn't he? He really does his research, thanks to many, many press profiles of this activist, 30 something couple, which he is not read apparently. Yeah. Here's a sample of their views on parenthood.

Every decision the Collins is make is backed by data. Noms determinism is a heavily studied field. Malcolm tells me when I ask about his children's names. Girls that have gender neutral names are more likely to have high paying careers and to get stem degrees. Names like Titan Industry are much more than gender neutral.

I say we wanted to give our kids strong names. We wanted our kids to have a strong internal locus of control. He continues, almost all the toys are gifts. Malcolm says almost apologetically. We don't throw out anything that gets. Sent to us. Both boys have their own iPads fitted with a strap so they can wear them around their necks.

2-year-old Torsten is alone somewhere with his well jokes on them. The kids broke those straps so fricking fast. Yes they take me upstairs as well as having separate offices. Simone and Malcolm sleep in different bedrooms. Simone shows me some decorations in the living room. They relate to the intentionally constructed religion, technically atheist.

They have internally developed to provide a moral framework promoting their values for prenatal as families. Instead of Christmas, they have future day. The future police come and take their toys, and then they have to write a contract about how they're gonna make the world a better place to get their toys back with some gifts and stuff.

They get more gifts when they do whatever They said they were going to do, what does Christmas teach them? Get random toys if you're vaguely good. And so that was a quote that he had from a different article and so, you know, here I am. Yeah. Specifically the Guardian article. Yeah. I read that and I'm like, yeah, that sounds pretty interesting and cool, like mm-hmm.

Obviously we're not going along with what's socially normative, but like. Yeah. And he's like, I am not one to judge other parents, but that's f up. Let me proceed to judge. You're right. No, but the, the point I'm making here is that this is an individual who is like, oh. GFA clutch, my pearls. People are doing things new.

So I looked up this guy and I go, what else is he known for? He's known for being a never Trumper conservative. Mm-hmm. And he wrote a long piece about how amazing Biden was. For example, he wrote. I hope you drank it in last night. It was one of the most human memories I've ever seen in politics. From the second the president stepped on stage and embraced his daughter, but it was more than that.

It was America saying goodbye to this ordinary man who has become an extraordinary president, a president who saved our democracy. This is one of those cases where the cran strip. Doesn't give you enough context. You need to see the video. You need to see Biden's face and feel the vibrations coming from the crowd.

And you absolutely need to watch his final section where he transitions from campaign speech to valid diction. And I, I. I think somebody who can write with that much passion about Joe Biden. I, I, weak question. What I realize is what this guy represents is the iteration of the conservative party.

That the conservative party lost as it took on people like you and me. The, the pearl clutches, the, oh my God, how could they be doing something different? Oh my God. How could this be vulgar? Oh my God. How could this be, you know, oh, anime girls or soft anime, like Matt Walsh represents satisfaction, right?

Yeah. Like where it's always railing against things like anime and video games, and it's like, okay. You know, and I don't even think like, okay, boomer, because it's not boomer, it's like a very specific faction of curmudgeon. It's, yeah, it, it's, it's not even curmudgeonly. It's like defeatist. It reminds me a lot of tism in the UK where it's like, ugh.

Things are just bad, aren't they? And there's nothing we can do about it, and I just don't like it. I think from the difference between these two groups and we will look at this through anime. We can understand how to improve our own mental health. More, which is a truly, because you, you could tell that an individual like this, like you and I are like living our lives out and proud and weird and we are cl clearly loving it.

Like every day I'm like, this is the best life I could ever have. And this guy. Clearly feels like the world's falling apart around him. You know? Oh, everything was better in the past. Oh, you know, this is all so sad. And you and I are constantly like, look at all the cool things I can do with AI now.

It's amazing. What a time to be alive. And so there's these two animes. One anime that we will be looking at is around a character called Tomo Tomoko. It is called Wamo Otte. And it's, and I'll put some clips of it here to give you like a vibe of it. Okay. But it's about a young girl in middle school or early high school who is very, very socially anxious.

And she really, really wants to be accepted by other people. And she just keeps self-destructing through her selfie and intense desire for acceptance by the community.

She is friends Now we're not gonna be able to karaoke with the guys. No way. We've got plenty of time and they're dumb slides.

Oh yeah. We do it like every day. She's definitely still a virgin.

Be sure to drink plenty of liquids and take precautions against heat stroke.

Go ahead and work yourselves to death. Corporate slaves,

Seriously? It doesn't even matter.

And it is a. Anime that the entire, like, it's a, it's a well done anime, but the entire vibe of the anime is depression and, and, and social rejection.

Wow. But I think a lot of people feel like, oh, I get this right. Like I want to, it resonates with them. So you think it's a popular anime because people get it and they. Yeah, it's like an anime dedicated to like a proto Koori. Like, you know, I'm going to school, but I don't really want to be here.

Like, what am I doing here? Et cetera. Then we have the second anime that we're going to be talking about. And this anime is called Chino and it is an anime. About a girl that is equally socially awkward. She's going through a stage that they have in Japan. I forget what it's called, like magic Girl stage or something.

But it's a, it's something that we saw when we were kids. Some kids did. And you know, I, I went through phases where you do things like this and like middle school or, or high school. And people could argue that we're still kind of doing it, that all of MAGA is kind of doing it, which is to say. She dresses up like she is a magical girl with like a, a air eye patch that she doesn't need.

And then under the eye patch, she doesn't need like a yellow contact Yeah. To try to make her look like special.

This flavor. This must be the work of the dark organization for our safety. I shall seal it.

There's no way. Stay away, get back.

Oh, one moment please. I'll put it back in. It was a contact all v.

This is hard to watch NGO Blast.

Pretty nice red fruits can have seriously negative effects on one's powers. This one curbs magical abilities. Are you trying to say you don't like tomatoes? This green, squishy area is particularly dangerous. Just look at it. There's obviously something diabolical going on. Are they really that bad? Rice has been tainted by its evil.

And she the pretends like the world she's living in is one in which there's these like magical beasts everywhere.

Last night I was searching for the invisible boundary lines when suddenly ferocious beast appeared before me, so I caught him. Do you really plan on keeping him? Yes. He will become my loyal, familiar as a creature from the realm of darkness.

Kamara has the power to locate invisible boundary lines,

Oh, is, is this the one and this girl like. Hangs out at the apartment of someone else who just kind of tolerates her?

Well, no, no. So he learns to accept her as the show goes on. She's the type of person who like stands in front of like a train right before the, the train doors open and puts out her hand, like she's crossing the doors open.

It opened

I think I've seen clips of this. Yes. And then look to, to learn, look at the guy who is watching, like very self satisfied.

You know, like I did that. Yeah. And the, the sort of plot of this one is this guy that you are thinking of. He's a guy who used to be like this. He used to, oh, when he was in middle school, do all of this stuff and he's just gone to high school and he wants a clean state and to be like the mature cool every man.

But he used to write like fan fiction basically about this world and the character that he built for it. And now this girl is obsessed with that version of him, the middle school version of him. And is constantly trying to get him like back into that lifestyle. Oh. And it comes out as the show develops.

That she adopted a lot of this because her dad died and it was a way that she could create a world where she could believe she could still communicate with him in a way. Oh. So she's in an objectively worse. Like world and state than the girl and the depressed anyway, like both of these enemies are girls around the same age.

Both of these girls are social rejects. Both of these girls are girls that most of the people in their class, when they look at them, would look at them with derision. But one of these girls is living an amazing life where she is like clearly thrilled with what's happening every day. Yes.

I can't believe you have roller skates in your shoes. Are you a kid? They provide excellent mobility. Also with these, when I come under enemy fire, clang, clank, dun.

And the other girl is living a, a living nightmare.

I am so lonely.

What's up there? There's some weird girl standing outside. May they all come back as shaking their next lives.

And the difference between them is a few things. One, it's personal choice. It's how do they contextualize a lot of, if, if you look at like maga, right? One of the sort of, the totems of Maga, of Maga jokes of maga art, of like the back color of like man's world, which is so, you know, new, right?

That it was in a magazine mocking the new, right? They, what was it? New Yorker. They drew a man's world cover on the wall. Oh, the NPR. Yeah. Yeah. So, so even NPR is like, yes, if you are a new right, you have your man's world, you know, thing. They had like this, this triumvirate of a big T word anime girl Trump, and then Shinzo Abbot.

And, and Shinzo Abe is part of this because of the memes, like Shinzo Abe protecting Trump from the grave, like when he was almost shot or the, the Reddit witches saying, we keep trying to cast a spell on Trump, but whatever we do, we can't seem to get his numbers down in the polls. And then they'll post this as like a Shinzo Abe going like this you know, or you know, half babies, you know, Shinzo Abe, and then like see you letter space cowboy.

And. We know like. I don't think anyone who's making these jokes, and so Abe is really doing this. He's really out there protecting Trump. What they are doing is, in the same way this girl like throws out her hand, like, I'm opening the, the doors on this train. They are doing that with this. They are leaning into something that we're all like, yeah, but it's more fun to pretend that Shinzo is out there.

Forwarding. Yeah, it's, it's choosing a world that's not necessarily real, but. Committing to the bit and loving it, having a lot of fun, nothing works. That's not s, it's like the adult version of pretend and it totally does work.

, this is a magic potion. It'll replenish your magical energy. The bureau hides it in plain sight.

Yeah. And people can look at you guys and they'll be like, well, so much of, you know, when I see some of your rhetoric and you're talking about like the urban monoculture is being like, so on, like out there, you know, searching for your, you know, band of misfits for like all different.

You know, tribes and coalitions and races. You know, you got your dwarves and your elves and your, and your high elves, and then your, your hobbits. I, I don't know what we would be within this, this coalition we're what? Dwarves probably. And the, the cast, the highs Aren because we wanna modify humans.

They, they, they, no, but the point being is you, , they have this, coalition and this is the way we really see it. And they're like, and Maga sort of paints itself as fighting this like, apocalyptic battle for like human civilization. Yeah. And like, aren't they delusional? And it's like, no, it's useful in terms of guiding action and getting people excited and it's fun and you're right.

And exactly this very Christian fuddy-duddy approach to life that's very low energy. Is also something I actually saw on a piece that came out today in Christianity Today. Mm-hmm. The publication, Christianity Today called Neither Pitting Nor Pedestal by Kate Lucky. And she even writes about us that I.

Well, she, she refers to one of our our, our Loosened Car Seat Law Executive Order, and our National Medal of Motherhood Executive Order, and then says that idea came via draft executive order from Simone and Malcolm Collins. Two of the most provocative figures in an informal prenatal list, coalition of conservative religious family values, types, and catastrophic techno utopians.

Members of the latter group, the Collins' believe that declining birth rates will prove apocalyptic, and that having children is a civilization, civilization saving imperative. So you're totally right that this. Low energy. She's like, can't we be lower energy about this? Yeah. Like can't, yeah. What? Why are they so extra?

Why do they have to catastrophize this? Why are they techno utopians? Like she frames it as like, well of course, you know, tism is, is of the normal Christian family values people and then it's these crazy cos player LARPers who have no reason to be here. So you're absolutely right that we are. Very consistently framed and categorized that way, but we're also having a lot more fun than they are.

I get. Who are you? The one who wield the mule.

First level seal activated magical output. Increased

beep from this. Wow.

Cut it out and give us a hand.

No, the thing is,, it's one of these things where what's very important to understand is we understand where we're LARPing, we understand where the lines are. We don't actually expect Zo Abe to have our back. Yeah. But as you've said before too, and I, I think this is 100% accurate, all culture is a LRP.

Yes. Their l just is lame. But the, the point I'm making, Simone is yes, it's a LRP. Yes. It's out there. Yes, it's over the top, but it is all over the top with an end goal, right? Yes. Like, it's not like we are we allow. Inaccurate beliefs about reality to cloud our vision in a way that leads to misplaced action.

Hmm. That is where you have problems, right? Like where you believe in the magic or whatever. And so you, you, you spend your money on Etsy spells, or you, you know. There, there are ways that this can go wrong, but what the new right has done is normalized the joke of it while also LARPing with it. You have to really appreciate though that we do literally live in an age where there are at least a handful of people.

Who probably make their entire income by selling magical spells on the internet. And I really love that. That is, you have a whole episode about that if people want to go to it. Yeah. But, but I'm thinking here about like, you know, freedom Tunes channel I really love. He probably wouldn't like us. We, I don't know.

But he does these great cartoons and one when the left freaked out about like eating dogs and cats comment by Trump is, he made a whole video about like, migrants dancing was like forks and knives around a dog. They're cooking and then leftists keep coming up and explaining like, this is likely not accurate.

And what's funny is the point we don't care, like the point of the joke is. We don't care whether it's true, it's the gist of it that we care about. Right? The gist of it is if people are coming over with vastly different cultural values than ours, and normal Americans end up suffering as a result of this we don't care that you're like, whoa.

There, there wasn't a hard confirmed report about that. Like a lot of people just feel like, Hey, it's not cool that the government doesn't have, its. It's business in order for taking care of me as a citizen. Why is it taking care of non-citizen? That's really the, the basis of it anyway.

Eat the cat.

Eat the cat. Eat the cat. Eat the cat. There have been no credible reports of specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused. Eating the dogs. They're eating the cats. Eat the cat. Eat. Eat the cat. Eat the cat. They're eating the cat. They're eating the dogs. Cat. Eat. Eat the cat. Eat the cat. Eat the cat.

Eat the cat. Eat the cat. The Springfield, Ohio Police Department has debunked this very bizarre. And very hateful. Eat the cat. Eat the cat.

But the, the point I'm making is, is that when leftists attack this, they think that they're trying to convince us that like immigrants aren't actually eating dogs and cats.

And I'm like, that is literally irrelevant. And if anything, it's funny that you are so working yourself up in knots to try to convince us of that because. This is like a vibe for us, right? Mm-hmm. And the other thing that's really clear throughout the differences between these two animes is in gu emote where she's, she desperately wants the validation of everyone.

She doesn't really have any friends. She doesn't really know these other people who she wants validation from, but she's classic spoony, upper middle class, middle class female angst. She, yeah, she wants to be popular. She wants the other girls and boys to want to talk to her and to think she looks cool.

Like, she'll do things like practice, like cool looking poses in the mirror before going to school and then try them at school. And when other people don't react you know, she'll like, have a breakdown, you know, like the, the other girl. Meanwhile is like trying to create like little stand-ins for like magical girl powers and like goes at school or like, she has a friend that, that has ponytails, but she attaches things to the end of the ponytail so she can swing them like a magical girl would in like a battle.

Oh, that's. So cute. And there's like a, and, and they know that this is, like, there's a scene where like they create like a summoning circle and the show does this fun thing of constantly switching between what they're seeing. And then with the people who aren't buying into their alternate world are seeing, and then it switches to what everyone else is seeing.

And it's the girls like spinning around in circles. And, and, and around them is like a concentric circle of like Christmas lights you know, that they, that they've made to be their magical portal or, or whatever. I'm like, they're having a blast. You can be like, but it's just Christmas lights and it's like, stop being such a downer, man.

Like, we're having fun here. But the important thing about these girls in, in this one is they don't want the validation of everyone. In fact, they don't care what most of the other students think. She cares about what people with values that align with her values. Think that's why she goes after the boy who had written these like fan fictions that she got really into.

That's why it was the other girlfriends that she hangs out with or that end up being drawn to her. And this guy they're the other few people that play this like pretend way of living life, right? Mm-hmm. You know? And they care about what each other think, but they don't care about what the rest of the class thinks.

And so there isn't ever this. You know, I think that that's such an important thing to redirect your life around. And it's something that this older, an anti MAGA Republican class, right? That they're going out there and they're like, well, you wouldn't wanna do anything that would have people look, look down on you.

You know, you wouldn't wanna do anything that would make you look weird. You wouldn't wanna, and I think if you look at like the garishness of a lot of the things that Trump does you see. No, he wants to appeal to specific people, but he doesn't care about everyone. Like most people would think.

His design is pretty trashy. Yeah. If you look at like, pretty much anything Elon does, he just seems to be too autistic to, to, to notice. He, he likes, you know, the trolling if you look at us it's not that we don't care what people think. We care what people with aligned the values think right. You know, if, if we bring somebody in, we don't regard the opinion of many people because their values are not aligned with us, and therefore they're not relevant to us.

Why would you care about somebody like that? Yeah. Like they're not like you. They don't have the same values as So what makes other people so afraid of this? Do they assume that the people who's regard they're attempting to garner. Have aligned values with them, or they're just, they're not thinking about it at all.

They don't have their own values. What, what is it? I think it's that they don't really have their own values. I think it's that they value social conformity above all else, and they're just mad that what society is socially conforming around is changing. They were, it's a class of people who grew up and were Christians, or were Catholics or were Jews because everyone around them was Christian or Catholics or Jews.

Mm-hmm. And, and this is what was, you know, prestigious and this is what was normal. And they laughed at the, you know, liberals because the liberals, well, they weren't conforming in the right way. They, they weren't like, you know, the proper people. But now by every standard, the proper people. Are the, the urban monoculture are the progressives, and these people are just sort of like left shouting at the wind, right?

Like, ah, yeah, how dare you, how dare you change and how dare you change? And, and what's going on here? Where, where is the good old conservative of the past who just, you know, never offended anyone and always, and, and. Why did that form of conservatism die out? Why did the, well, we don't wanna, you know, rustle any Jimmys here because the left figured out that they were very easy to control.

Hmm. All you needed to do was pretend to be offended and they would back down. And and so they, and we've seen this, the left really weaponize this strategy is pretend that something that is a normal thing to do is just like, how could you even begin to say something like. There was only men and women, right?

Like, you know, the, how, how could you say something like that? That's is so outlandishly offensive. And, and, and then they, they capture that conversation because people like this guy would've been like, oh, well, if somebody's getting offended, I, I guess this is where I stop. And then the other culture, the culture that went into conservative was like, no, let's lean into.

Being the weird anime girl. Let's, or do you think it, I mean you, you did one episode for example, on, on discussed driven cultures, and one thing that also stands out to me in that neither pitting nor pedestal article that I mentioned to you is she mentions on several occasions that things about us give her the ick that like.

She doesn't, she, she appreciates that, for example, that we're against eugenics. And yet our concept of Polygenics still gives her the ick. And she appreciates other things that we do, but she still doesn't like them. I think so. So it's interesting. So look, she's don't, don't you think this is discuss driven too though?

I mean, I feel like that's a big factor. I think it's discuss driven, but I think what people like this don't realize is how because you know, she works for an old conservative outlet, right? So she probably got this job and like the old conservative regime appealing to older conservatives who don't really realize culture has changed.

Hmm. And so. You know, she thinks that she's signaling like her own status with this piece. She thinks she's signaling how, like, well, you know, I am like one of the, the good ones, right? Like I know, you know what's normative and what's not normative, and I shame non-normative behavior. But the thing about the new conservative culture, whether it's the new right or maga.

Is that if you go out there and you list, like, you try to drive other people's behavior by being like, oh, this thing that you're doing is, is ick, or this thing that you're doing is ick. People are generally gonna be like. Sort of push you out and not really like you because they're like, oh, you're going out there trying to control other people.

Like this worked in the last conservative ecosystem. This is not something that works in this conservative ecosystem. In fact, this is something that the Wokes do. Like when she goes out there and says, oh, they're giving me the ick. I'm like, oh, so you're using a woke structure of argument there. You're being like, don't you see how weird you are?

Don't you see how different you are? Why don't you act more like what the universities say we should be acting like? Why don't you act more like what the proper people in society say you should be working?

Mm-hmm.

Like, and so I think that it's interesting is that she thinks that she signaling, you know, her status and she is to a certain community of like older school, you know, aging people from like the evangelical revolution.

Totally. But her message. I think invalidates her in the eyes of a lot of younger conservatives, which is why we're seeing younger conservatives move to things like YouTube watching our videos. I'd be very surprised if something like her article got as many views as like an average one of our videos.

Like that's just the way things are these days because this is the new. Like it's just more fun. Like as soon as people realize you can do this without acting the way that she's acting, you're like, oh, this is fun. You know, you see somebody shaming this stuff, especially when they're shaming like fairly normal and like, not particularly over the line positions of ours.

Like, Hey, we should be awarding mothers. Like, and she's like, well, I don't know. That could ruffle some Jimmy Awarding mothers. Well, literally the argument she makes actually is like, well, but awarding mothers implies that they make some kind of sacrifice that being a mother. Is is is hard and that it neutralizes your personality and she's putting all these things on it that don't even exist.

Like Well, no, but I mean, I think that this is what she's, she's like, oh, and she stays. Obviously being a mom is a sacrifice. Like obviously it is. It's hard. What are you talking about, lady? Like my wife works her butt off like being a mom. Right. And you work your butt off being a dad. Yeah. Contributing to the next generation is a sacrifice.

And you can say, well, it's fun and everything like that, but like why shouldn't we be honoring that sacrifice? Well, yeah. And here she is. She is one toddler or child and she says that she's prenatal list, but here she is saying like the articles literally titled Neither pity nor Pedestal, that like parents should not be pedestal and parents should not be Pitied.

And that exactly a problem with prenatal policies is they do either or both of those things and it's like. Well, no, but it's this type of conservative just doesn't have kids. Yeah, no, she's, it doesn't seem like she's super stoked to have more herself. It's, it's odd. Yeah. This low energy. Well, I mean, part of me wonders, like, I, I could see that this, this, this could exist and be sustainable in a pretech age where you're very afraid of being kicked out of your village because that means death, but.

We don't live in that age anymore. So it's a little different. Yeah. Well, I mean I think that that these cultures and these people, like, it's one of these things where like they're out there and they're like, well what do you think of us shaming you? And I was like, I think as much of you shaming me as a character in Genevo would think of a character in like Moto was like concerned that that, the Genevo girls are acting weird. It's like, yeah, but you're sitting there depressed in a corner with no friends. Like, what? Why, why is what we are doing? So we're having fun here. Like, come join the fun side. Come join the the anime girls and Zo Aase Magic and. You know,, the four chan and trolling and weird grammar and language like you get was like Bronze Age pervert.

And I mean, I think the, the importance on the weird side is also, you know, not attacking people unless they're attacking other people.

Mm-hmm.

Like this is where we want people to be. We want people to be over here on this side and understand that people can express vastly different beliefs. But as long as they are playing nice with everyone else on this side, we should always just be trying to positively signal.

Boost them like Bronze Age pervert has like radically different beliefs than we do. You know, zero HP Lovecraft has radically different beliefs than we do. But I've read their stuff and I'm like, it's interesting and definitely worth engaging with, you know, and I would encourage other people to, to engage with it.

Absolutely. Yeah. To get a variety of views and sharpen your own and you're not gonna really sharpen your own views and have stronger. Convictions if you can't contrast what you believe to what other people believe. So I totally am with you on that. What's I almost feel like also religion at its best is this, it is extra.

It is adding magical world elements and demons and. And angels and guardians and temptation and all of these additional bits of magic and intrigue to your life.

Yeah.

And the type of religion that I see practiced here is the, the type of religion that mostly has lost faith. I. Because the world isn't magical like that for that many, it's a gray religion is the only way I can say it.

Yeah. It sees the world in shades of gray instead of vibrant colors. Yeah. These people aren't speaking in tongues. These people aren't holding snakes. These people aren't talking to angels. These people, they're, they're not. And I think that they're also just kind showing up and going through the motions.

And I don't care what you do as part of your religion, but I, I see all of those extra actions, the things that people. Raise their eyebrows in, in reaction to seeing as a sign of really leaning in and having maybe a harder religion. So well. Yeah. But I also think that the, the thing about this, like leaning all in, going crazy with this, is that it effing works somehow.

Mm-hmm. You know, I, I've joked about how like us just sending in the executive orders is like that scene in Ger and Log where he just takes the other kins, like combine and he just sticks it in his head. And it somehow works.

We'll never know unless we try, will we? AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH You see that? What do you think, Fuzzball? We're the same as you! They were able

to combine, you were right bro, you were right! Sure looks that way, doesn't it? Wait, how could you

And then it's like, that's not how you, what are you doing? That's not how you combine robots.

But that, that's, that's basically what we did is we just. Sent this out there. And almost like there's, there's a great gambling anime called oh God. I love that. It's like the gambling school anime so, so good. And I often think like us going into the world of these really petty. Press people who all wanted us to fail.

It was like entering this, this gambling school in this anime where it's all of these like high class cliques, like laughing at us, the people who don't know what they're doing and thinking about how they're going to cheat us. Like the way that they screw over every other like a new person into, into complete destitution was their like crooked press tactics because we're just so unsophisticated.

And that what they don't understand. Is that we love gambling. They don't understand is that we actually are quite good with the online trolling and press game. But also, like, for us, it's, it's the thrill, it's the fun of it that we're, we're there because it, we like it and they're there because they wanna win.

Yeah. It's hilarious when they freak out and they start ringing. Yeah.

and them trying to like outplay or destroy us they end up having a reporter. Ask Trump directly, you know, what do you think about these Protist policies? And he goes, well, they sound like a good idea to me. And I'm like, I wasn't gonna be able to get a policy directly to Trump, but thank you for getting a policy directly to Trump on my behalf, through your panic.

Like. And then they end up like one of those, because the, the way it always works in the gambling one is some girl will take this girl and they'll have this scam and this plan to screw her over. And then what they realize as it begins to play through is one she knows. Everything they're doing before they do it.

And two, she doesn't actually care about winning or screwing people over in the way that they do. She just really loves games of chance. Mm-hmm. And, and they always end up quite freaked out because they, they, they realize when they're not in control anymore. And I think that that's the way a lot of the press has been with us or the Guardian.

Like at first the Guardian was all nice. Like he, he, he, you know, like one of those anime girls, oh, we're going to screw over these simpletons. And as we began to talk with them more and more, the reporters were more like aggressively hostile to us because they were like, I know your strategies, I know your thing.

And I'm like, oh, I know you do. I know you do. So here's the plan. Come play with me. Medals to mothers. A very simple thing that will make you sound very misogynistic if you attack it. But the Nazis also did something like this. I mean, yes, the modern French government does this. Yes, Stalin did this. Yes, government throughout history, even the United States used to do this, but you are not gonna be able to resisting Nazis did it.

And so you are gonna go out there and you are going to attack a program that will make it look like you're attacking mothers because. You know, this is the one again, we give medals to scientists who sacrifice for the future medals to warriors who sacrifice for the future medals to industrialists. Why not mothers?

Oh, because it's something only women can do. You know, you are going to look misogynistic, and I can tell you every single part of my plan, and I know you won't be able to resist making a fool of yourself. It's fun. It, it is ultimately quite fun.

It's like I'm, I, I hold them from punching themselves in the face for a minute and I'm like, you sure you want me to? Like, you're just gonna punch yourself in the face again. And they're like, no, I got it this time. Well, what I think is interesting about the shows that you highlighted though, especially the ones that have these characters in them, that.

The audience understands our delusional is that there's a certain allure to that lifestyle, and I think most people just don't know how to bridge that gap. How do you get to that point where you can dance like there's no one looking right? You know, people say that, but very few people find themselves capable of doing that.

Maybe it's a lifetime of practice. But I feel like most of our audience already has this capability. You know, they, 'cause they're autistic. I, that doesn't count. That's like a, a free pass. No, no, no. Hold on. I don't think it's just being autistic. I think it's, it's being imaginative, being engaged was the world being able to be like, I am in a fight for human civilization.

And yes, there may be several layers of abstraction between like my daily actions and that. Battle but like why not treat every morning when you wake up like civilization? Depends on your actions. Mm-hmm. Like why not treat every job you do, every email you send, like you are in a, now I'm not saying act like a crazy person, where other people think you're a crazy person, you know you are dressed up.

One thing that's happened to me recently is from fans. I realize now that I'm interacting with, with random people, some of which are smart, some of which are complete idiots is people do not realize how much, not using proper email etiquette makes you look like a complete idiot. Like if you send me an email, I.

Like if you are a, a, a random person or a, a lower status person sending an email, now it's okay for high status people to send lower status email people emails that aren't properly formatted. But if you're like a fan reaching out to us and you don't write like, hi, Malcolm comma, body of email, best name, like, I'm like, oh, this person probably has like a mental illness.

Or they weren't educated or, because o one thing I can know is somebody's like, well, I'm a genius and I feel all these, and I, and I don't do that. And I'm like, it doesn't matter. If you're a genius, you're never gonna be able to raise VC money. You're never gonna be, because if you didn't know to do that to me, you definitely didn't know to do that.

When you're trying to raise money. You definitely didn't know to do that when you know you were going out and you know, trying to build B2B partnerships. So like, yeah, you might be a genius, but that genius is all trapped in your head. And true genius is knowing how to interact with other people in a way that would actually engage them rather than a way that masturbates your own self-image.

Yeah, not wrong. Well, I mean, this is just true. A lot of people just engage in a way that masturbates their own self-image. That's Well, and I mean, especially now, people have no excuse when it comes to polished looking communication because you can literally ask an AI like this professional, you can put in your drl or what you think is acceptable and just be like, Hey, can you make this a little more acceptable?

And guess what? It's gonna find something wrong and it's gonna fix it for you. So, yeah. But I think, I don't know, I think a lot of people just don't realize that, and there are probably also a lot of people out there who are mentally ill and capable of doing that. Yeah. Or too personally arrogant or self-important to do it.

Mm-hmm. And, and here I would note a final anime that I think refs is because if you look at something like Chi Chio or whatever, you're looking at this anime and you're like, okay, but like the characters aren't successful, they're just kids, et cetera. That doesn't mean that you can't. Combine the pretend with being actually competent and being successful.

A great anime. That's an example of this. Of the anime I've mentioned, it's my favorite to watch is imminence and the shoutouts. I. And it's a, this one's so familiar. What's this one about? It's an ecade about a guy who is actually quite competent, who ends up getting ecade that means brought back in another world.

I've, I've written one of those that I gave you to listen to was an ai, still see how that turns out. But it's called the arrogant pragmatist. It Ecade. But anyway, so I, I'll, I'll try to add that one to this video as well. If you guys wanna check out like some of the stories I've been trying to put together with ai.

So, you know, it's. It's, it'll be a bit different than a traditional story 'cause it's more like me playing through an EA, okay. But in this one, so he gets e aade and then he is like, you know what, I'm gonna pretend like I'm running like a shadowy organization that's fighting other shadowy organizations.

And of course other shadowy organizations turn out to actually exist. And he is actually quite competent. And he actually ends up building out this giant network that's fighting these other organizations through what he sees as just like. Goofing around, but like everybody else loves it because he is being extra with everything he's doing.

The whole villainous behind the scenes outfit and poses and meeting with people, conspiratorially, and people wanna like lean into that, even if it's a little fake. And I think that when we dropped the. The disgust based moral framing, like, oh, don't do that. That's like weird and ick. Like, I think people realize it's like, oh, as soon as I don't care about people who think like that anymore, well now I can sort of be extra.

I. You know, I can, I can have God Emperor Trump and talk about him. This was a big meme, you know, during previous election cycles that comes from War Hammer and they've made like giant floats of God, emperor Trump and everything like that. And it's, it's fun. People will see the White House press account.

They're like, I. The, the White House press account tweeted something like check out the covid.org page. I think you'll find this pretty funny. Oh, no. And they made the whole page just like an explanation of how the lab leak scam was tried to be covered up and how it all points back to Fauci. Oh, no.

And, and people were like, French outlets were like, oh, like this is not proper manners. You cannot do this. 'cause they attach price account. And meanwhile everyone else is like, what? Like it serves a purpose. It's funny. It's more engaging. Like, what do you mean you're trying to shame us into your manners in a way that hurts the message.

And this is really what I'm talking about with something like sending proper emails. Versus doing tweets, right? Like with tweets, you're doing this to a broad audience. You're trying to get people to engage with it. When it comes to sending like properly structured emails it's like, you know, the single target of this and your goal is to get that person on your side.

Do you want to actively insult the person, the one person who's reading this with something like a tweet like that, we know that we'll insult a portion of the readers, but I personally. As somebody who's watching this happen like that, I know the other half of the readers are so angry at how this insults it.

Hmm.

And one, you are seeing shrewdness and the other, you're seeing, I guess, a lack of education or a lack of world knowledge. Yeah. Okay. So what you're trying to do is, is highlight the differentiation between irreverence and. Foolishness. Like basic, yeah. Foolishness or neglect. It's strategic irreverence.

And there is, and there is direct self-indulgent foolishness. Mm-hmm. And the difference between the two is a strategic irreverence is usually meant to signal and to play and to have fun in the wider world. Mm-hmm. The, the foolishness is typically meant to build up your own ego, to make you think you're a bigger and better deal than you really are.

Hmm. Okay. That makes sense. That totally makes sense. Interesting. Do you think though, that there's a genetic component to this? Like is it worth it to encourage people to consider this lifestyle? What if a lot of people just can't pull it off? I mean, yeah, there is a genetic component. It's worth it to talk about it as something that's happening.

And I do think that some people can't pull it off. You know, they can, they can live in the, the wor it, it genuinely feels like that fun movie about the 1950s where like part of the community's living in black and white and part of the community is living in color. What? Pleasantville? Smallville.

Smallville? Yeah. Smallville. No. Smallville is the Smallville Superman reboot. I'm pretty sure it's Pleasantville. Hold on. Yeah. Pleasantville. Yeah. Fun movie by the way, if you haven't watched it. I mean, it's got sort of woke messaging, but it's a well constructed movie. And I think quite entertaining. And I don't think it's like that woke.

It's like, racism is bad. It's like, okay. Like I'm okay with that message. But it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's, it's a well-delivered version of that message. But anyway, the point I'm making is, is I get the impression that a lot of these people are living in a black and white world. While you and I are living in a, in a, in a a what, what's the word?

Dynamic color world. Technic, technicolor. Technicolor world. Any thoughts, Simone? I would. I would add that there's one more thing that we constantly refer to on this front, which is the Adams family. Yes. And we love the Adams family because they choose to contextualize stuff that the average person sees as creepy or to use common parlance.

Ick. And they love it. They find it very entertaining. They don't care what other people think because they know what they like and. They are, are politely tolerant of other people if unhappy with their choices. But yeah, I think that that's kind the thing. They a happier life. The joke of the Adam family is that while they are not monsters, they are viewed as monsters because they're so culturally different.

But in the end, Gomez and Morticia love each other more than any other couple. Yes. Their relationships with their kids, they're stronger than any other person they meet. Mm-hmm. The kids' relationships with each other are stronger than anyone else. They meet everything about the family is actually with the goal of wholesomeness, more wholesome.

And I think that's one of the things people see when they meet with us. They're like, oh my God. At the end of the day they are actually like. Way more wholesome and in love and, and doing great, like things for their family and living this good life than other people are. Like it. We can mock them for being non culturally normative, but this seems to be working and the Adams family isn't the only example of this.

The other really good example is Legally Blonde for like a nineties example of this, where like clearly she shamed for acting this way. Clearly it's non culturally normal. And I think legally Bond might even within this conversation be the better example because I was talking about something like knowing how to properly format an email.

Mm-hmm. In Legally Blonde, sort of the story arc is, is she learns how to act in and do things in a way that fits and doesn't like. Randomly offend like other people in the legal profession and stuff like that, that is legally professional, but still within her own cultural framing. And oh, like, here's my resume.

It's scented. Yeah. And pink. Yeah. You know, she's doing it the right way. Mm-hmm. But she's doing it with cultural framing. Mm-hmm. So she's not, not showing respect, but she's still showing who she is and how she's different. Yeah. She's clearly different. You can see that. But also, it's still a little, it's still a little weird.

Yeah. But I think, you know, we've had people reach out to us before in a way that is both professional and extra. Like, I'm reaching out to you also, here's a customized video. Pitch deck that I created, and here's how my values are aligned with your values. And we're like, wow, this is, we've never seen anyone do this before, ever.

This was the Bruno guy, right? Who, who now Bruno did this? Yeah. R Fab ai. I was like, I love you instantly. Like you get it. You, you're doing this different, no one has ever done this before with us. And I wanna work with you. Yeah. You're part of the family now you're in professional and extra, right? Like yeah.

Mm-hmm. That is what we were looking for. And you don't, we we're okay with people who are just professional people who are just professional and competent. I, I still wanna work with them. The, the, the only group that we don't wanna work with is people who try to shame or ick other people into not being extra Yeah.

But people who are just professional and competent. I'm not like you're part of the family, Bruno's part of the family. He's in. You know what I mean? But I think we're seeing this across other professions as well now because there's like bigger areas. So for me, like this, this Shades of Gray world is, there's like a part of the world that has just tried to blind themselves to anything made by ai.

Whether it's AI or AI or ai. Pro. And they're like, oh, well, like I, and clearly they think that they're signaling some form of status or moral superiority. Yes, yes. And I'm like, bro, you look like a vegan. Like, it, it's, it's, you're, you're not eating the, the tasty thing. And you think everybody thinks that you're like really moral, but actually we just think you're a curmudgeon.

Yeah. Anyway. Love you dad. Like the people who didn't like electricity when it was released, or, and this is a big thing, by the way. Yeah. A lot of people would like, thought it was high status, like, did not use electricity. Mm-hmm. Just, ooh, oh, it's so dangerous. Don't you know, what can electrocute an elephant?

Yeah. It yeah. I, I, I love your approach to life. I love that Every day with you. Feels like my birthday and Christmas and Halloween all at the same time. And. Life feels so much more real this way. Oh no, I agree. Than ever did before. It's like extra real, like, it, it, it is like not being sedated. Whereas their version of life feels so sedated.

Mm-hmm. So, thank you, thank you for being extra and vivacious. And I, I do think that in the end, our kids are more likely to wanna pass down our culture because. This is a culture that gets you out of bed in the morning. I mean, I think, you know, like there are other versions of it that, that don't have to give you the ick if our version gives you the, like, I think the opus day great example of like extra, you know, totally leaning in.

But not, you know, very different culturally that I would also consider to be super cool like this. And, and very gung-ho with how they approach life. But some people, I guess, would see it as like, ooh, what to like, bring your religious fervor to, to work. That's weird. Why would I do that?

Yeah, no,

that's cool.

Like, yeah, no, you act you should bring your religious fervor to work 100%. And do you mind, like, this isn't just like, this is, in a way, this is what like or ultra Orthodox Jews are doing, like every day, they're like totally. They're, they're being a hundred percent, you know. Yes. All right. Love you to daimon.

I love you too. Do you want for dinner? Mango curry with extra chili peppers. So half the amount is last night. And coconut rice or fried rice, that's reheated. Or would you like the Burmese Thai basil chicken, the Burmese tag basil chicken. That stuff is so good. Okay. Good thing we made a big batch of it then.

I'm so glad. That's good. I'll that wait a little bit of extra peppers, right? It needs extra peppers or does it not, but fewer. Fewer. Fewer than last night. Significantly fewer are not in crushing pain. And then I will finish your laundry and hopefully we'll go to bed early so that I'm not sleep deprived anymore.

Alright. Hey, the cruise is tomorrow. So excited. It's gonna be amazing. I love you. I love you too.

And girl. Yeah. Little Orphan Annie, I'm familiar with the concept. I haven't seen it. It looks depressive. You haven't seen the movie? Well, the, there's this woman named Miss Hannigan who runs the the orphanage and she's kind of fabulous. Like, as a kid, I thought she was evil and stuff, but now when I think back to her, she's just like this perpetually drunk woman wearing a slip, like languishing around the orphanage, making the children do all the work.

And I'm like. She is raising resilient children. Oh.

Oh boy.

Oh my gosh. Well, Simone, I, oh. I found a, I knew I got sucked into a new great AI story I've been working on. Oh, no. I found out how to like, synthesize them, edit them, and then turn them into audio books for people. So I'm gonna be posting those with episodes.

That one today that I was working on, that I'm so excited about. . I'm having a lot of fun with it.

So I've got that going on. Wonders never cease. The other fun thing today is we were rejected from Andreesen. Horowitz was our second application. Ooh. Ooh. We got to, the final round was most of school and the game project, and now we've gotta figure out how to make them work on our own. I mean, the school is done and really nice and we just gotta get it in front of more people.

So that's where we are was at. And the primary reason we were excited about Andreessen and the school is we felt that sales would be easier if we weren't Andreessen backed school, but. No, but it's made, it's working. Yeah, it's working I think on its own merits. A lot of people use it daily. Yeah. Yeah, way more than I'd expect.

And well, I mean, I get it because I am, I'm addicted. Like I can't, I am like, I'm just gonna try it for five minutes and then two hours later like, what, what happened? And yet I know everything about Chinese architecture now. What's going on? So if you are interested in trying it, it's a Socratic tutor combined with a game like a tech tree you would have in a video game.

And you can find it@collinsinstitute.org or pia.io.