Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Now, wait a minute.
[00:00:01] Speaker B: Now wait a minute.
[00:00:03] Speaker C: Oi, Huey, we got a vote. We gotta vote right now.
We gotta vote Homelander.
[00:00:11] Speaker B: I don't know if we need to do that, but sure.
[00:00:14] Speaker C: We gotta vote Homelander out of office. It's the most important election of our lives.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: Maybe we should vote for somebody else.
[00:00:23] Speaker C: Election of our lives. Election. Which will be, I do truly believe, the most important election of our lifetime.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: This is the most important election of our lifetime.
[00:00:34] Speaker C: This is the most important election.
[00:00:36] Speaker A: Don't you you hear that?
[00:00:38] Speaker D: This is the most important election in our lifetime.
[00:00:42] Speaker C: I certainly think it's the most important election of my lifetime.
[00:00:45] Speaker A: This is the most important election of our times.
[00:00:49] Speaker D: Politicians say every time, this is the most important election. This one's really that important.
[00:00:56] Speaker A: Nice.
[00:00:58] Speaker C: I feel like my British accent is better.
[00:01:00] Speaker B: I'm far better.
[00:01:03] Speaker C: And it is the most important election of your fucking lives. You've got to vote right now. You've got to vote.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: You've got to vote. Vote for Homelander. Vote for Homelander.
[00:01:14] Speaker A: Hey.
And obviously voting is all that can be done. There's no other option.
[00:01:19] Speaker C: No other options.
[00:01:20] Speaker B: No other options.
[00:01:22] Speaker C: No other options. You got to vote right now, today.
[00:01:25] Speaker D: Yep.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Put down the function.
[00:01:27] Speaker C: And that's what we're gonna do here. I'm Kennedy Cooper. We've got Andrew Fields, our in house statistician, with us as always. And joining us today, special guest, Awkward.
[00:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:01:39] Speaker B: Wait, that comes with. I'm like, I'm already here. I've been. Awkward has been here.
[00:01:44] Speaker C: I don't know, should I say your real name or should you just want to leave it at that today? Where are you at?
[00:01:49] Speaker B: Who?
[00:01:51] Speaker C: You.
[00:01:53] Speaker D: Me?
[00:01:53] Speaker A: In my brain or in. In the physical form?
[00:01:57] Speaker C: Do you. Do you want me to say, let me introduce you by your real name.
[00:02:00] Speaker A: As well, or do you not Being awkward's fine. It doesn't matter though, now, you know, after years of doxing and harassment, I decided it was. It was over keeping the two names separate. So I embrace it now I'm in the state of New York, readily prepared for any Nazis on their way.
[00:02:20] Speaker C: Perfect.
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Awesome. I can't wait until you get communism next year.
[00:02:27] Speaker C: Awkward is a longtime organizer, if you don't know him already, a great student of history, a hip hop artist, and just a buddy of mine on the Internet for a long time now. So it's great to have you here.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah. It's been how long? I mean, 10 years, maybe.
That's maybe up to 10 years, possibly.
[00:02:52] Speaker C: Maybe close to 10 years.
[00:02:54] Speaker A: Yeah. That's why totally of all of us, I mean. And of all the things you said about me, student of history was the one I appreciated most. It's the one I haven't heard before. And it also, I think, says more about me than anything else. I would love to be remembered for trying to bring to the future what we've learned from the past. Our mistakes and our successes.
[00:03:22] Speaker C: Yeah, well, as a multi hyphenate type person myself, I know you wear a lot of hats and so I was like, how do I condense down a few of these?
[00:03:34] Speaker B: You love history, huh? Name all the history.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I don't, I don't love any of it. Probably.
It's all, it's all bad. But I try to remember it so.
[00:03:45] Speaker B: You don't have to. Hello, I'm a critic and Ock.
[00:03:52] Speaker C: I like to give people a chance to just quickly shout out their projects at the start of the show and then there's a longer shout out opportunity at the end just to make sure that people catch your links and all that and don't miss it.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. For anyone who doesn't know me, it's awkward with an O, so that's awkward.
And my website is. This is awkward. And most of my social handles are awkward.
But most importantly right now, I would say outside of any organizing or strategy that I'm doing, I have a new podcast where we talk about fascism and anti fascism in all their forms, trying to connect local to domestic to global.
And I think that if we end up talking about entertainment today, that's not necessarily a subject I've covered yet.
The idea specifically not of disinformation, which I cover to death, but of our cinema or our TV replicating or even predicting real life.
So maybe we, maybe I, I turn it around and I have you on my show, Kennedy as well.
[00:05:08] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, we'll have to. We'll have to swap it up.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: You would have to show up.
[00:05:13] Speaker A: I would. I would. I have managed to do that for my own show, which, you know, thankfully I can do. It's harder for others and it's not personal, that's for sure. I do this to everybody.
[00:05:24] Speaker D: No.
[00:05:24] Speaker A: And for those who weren't aware, it took me a little while and let me be clear, it really wasn't in any way. It was the opposite of personal. I don't mean any disrespect. I love what you guys do.
[00:05:35] Speaker C: No, I know, I know. We're just teasing.
[00:05:38] Speaker A: Rightfully so.
[00:05:39] Speaker C: It's great that it finally worked out. Hey, what's the name of the new oh, oh.
[00:05:44] Speaker A: Commonly misread as global warming with an M.
It's global warning. So a warning to the, to the global population.
[00:05:55] Speaker C: Yeah, thanks. Check out global warning and hopefully you'll hear me on there sometime in the near future.
[00:06:01] Speaker B: You know what I have to say, if I had to choose between awkward Democrat and a weird Republican, I would choose the Democrat every time.
The awkward Democrat every time with the weird Republicans.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: They're all weird. I mean, but not necessarily by choice, any of them. We're all products of our education or miseducation.
[00:06:26] Speaker C: Yeah, I was posting about this recently actually how like, you know, we're at that phase of this project that was started by like, you know, like George Bush's grandfather, great grandfather and people like that. And now the people that are involved in it, you know, they were raised just believing it.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly.
[00:06:45] Speaker C: What people don't think about too is it's like you'd really think, well how are they raised believing it? Because like, you know, they're in the families that created. It's like, here's the thing, these, these people don't raise their own children and so they hire, they hire help to raise their children and they hire help based on ideological purity. And so the help is spouting the absolute conspiracy nonsense to these kids while they're young.
Like, like it becomes this, it becomes this twisted cycle that leads into like these people, like you have people, figures out there. Like I always think of like Marjorie Taylor Greene or Mike Johnson or people like this, you know, in our, in our current government are just like, they've been spoon fed this their whole lives and they don't know what's real.
[00:07:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:34] Speaker C: So it's not to say it's forgivable what they're doing, but they are a product of a system. They are not.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: Yeah, that doesn't remind me of any franchise. Continue, continue.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: So in addition to that you also have the disinformation like built into the education system and built into mainstream media. Obviously that helps to enable this massive movement behind Trump and at all where a lot of these people might not think the way they do if they just understood that it's the 1% versus the 99% and not black versus white or poor, you know, or whatever. Yeah, you get the idea.
[00:08:22] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Big media, it's always really complicated because any, any amount of speaking out is always going to be watered down or co opted in certain ways. But we have seen some, yeah, it's unfortunate, but we have seen some media come out that does speak to the condition in certain kinds of ways that even if there are some parts of it that get watered down, it still can have a radicalizing, enlightening, etc type of.
Of effect. And I think the West Wing.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: Yeah, I want examples. Give me some examples.
Well, I'm curious. Like, go ahead.
[00:09:02] Speaker C: There's this little TV show that actually you had mentioned wanting to speak about today called the Boys.
[00:09:08] Speaker A: Perfect example.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: Not the West Wing. This is not a West April Fools. This is not a West Wing episode.
[00:09:13] Speaker C: I could name a couple others, you know, but like severance or like there's a few other things that have come out recently that I think have definitely gotten people talking and thinking about the conditions that we live in.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: True. They've done a great job at the Boys. And I read that it wasn't even intended initially to go in that direction, but they saw it happening and instead of, you know, shrinking or in fear or whatever, they embraced it and went like, all the way in, which is why I like it. And it was just pure luck that I ended up seeing it. My daughter, who's more into anime and fantasy and comics and stuff, was the one who referred me to it.
I was glad she did. And I can connect this to, like a real life organizing thing too.
You know, you might see. And as did Slash. Do I see the five.
Yeah, the 5051 movement as being watered down, as being a liberal.
And this would be the, you know, the meanest way to say it, like liberal performative protest.
As my friend Eric King said on my podcast, like going across country for photo ops of yourself getting beat up by cops. But I just interviewed Hunter Dunn for my show from that group, and he was so much more radical than I thought. And the way that he was talking about the. What 50:51 does, there is absolute value, like, even if it's not violent direct action. First of all, not everyone is in the position to do something like that. Let's just put, you know, get that out of the way. But. But also by bringing millions of people to the streets over extended periods of time in all 50 states, like the Boys, they're shining a light on what's happening.
[00:11:19] Speaker C: Yeah. And I think, you know, much like how a show like the Boys is not a perfect criticism of the system, it is still something that I think, like, a lot of people have watched this show and it's caused them to have thoughts about the situations that we live in and things like that that are important and significant. And I think that there is a parallel with a lot of the Current protest movements.
I've been trying to convey to people that are only online. Really, like, you know, if you're out there in the streets right now and at any of this no Kings type of energy stuff that's been happening, the liberals are listening.
They're mad. They're asking questions.
[00:12:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:05] Speaker C: You know, like. Like this is not some hopeless situation. And.
[00:12:10] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:12:11] Speaker C: And you know something? I like to remind people all the time. And then. Andy, I'll let you squeeze a point in. I know, I'm sorry, I'm tough for talking over you is, you know, that we aren't. There's nobody out there that's unmolded clay that you can just push your political ideas onto and they don't believe anything right now except for like 12 year olds.
[00:12:29] Speaker D: Right.
[00:12:32] Speaker C: And even 12 year olds. By 12, a lot of kids have some concept of what politics.
[00:12:38] Speaker A: Especially nowadays. Yeah.
[00:12:40] Speaker C: You know, like there's nobody out there that's really unmolded clay. Working with a sort of like centrist liberal that might not have agreed with you eight years ago but is starting to see the light right now. These are the people closest. These are the easiest recruits we've got to bring down to a more progressive set of ideas. There's nobody more ready to be recruited right now. And you can see it if you're out there in the streets.
[00:13:05] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: I'm so glad to hear you say that.
[00:13:08] Speaker B: I've been regularly going to my protest and if you assume that they're useless, like there are lots of information going around for organizations. Third parties are gaining power. Third parties are legitimately gaining local power. These protests are mostly Republicans bad, but also they have a vein of, well, we're here because the Democrats suck too. And you see a lot of left push to the left. I've had a guest on this podcast running for a progressive, running for office, Dylan Block. He's taken advantage of these protests to speak and get more people to hear about them. There is a lot. There is a shift to the left and it's the angry liberals willing to give the left a chance because what they've been doing hasn't been working.
[00:14:00] Speaker A: 101 of the other things. And then I'll drop this specific point that 50, 51 does that. No, no, like not the larger point. But I, I think I've said enough about this one group.
But you know, one of the other things they said that I didn't expect, I didn't know. That's on me. I guess to your point is that they are not the ones doing the speaking at the events they're organizing. It is the local community organizers they' the mic and megaphone to. And that's, that's so critical. And I just want to go back to Kennedy's point because again, it made me very happy. A lot of the people that we, you know, in quotes like, grew up online with together have shifted to my, in my opinion to the right because of their like really intense distaste for centrists, for liberals.
And I've always thought, you know, you're making a mistake. You're, you're not proving, but you're suggesting that what I believe to be a false point, that the, this, that it's not a spectrum but a circle and all extremists are the same and you go from far left to far right. I don't think so. And I've been saying this and proving it since 2020 when we co founded 10 demands, an abolitionist organization. This was right in the midst of the, at that time at least, what was the largest, longest sustained period of protest in our nation's history? The Black Lives Matter George Floyd protests. And to your point, the amount of liberals that I converted in DM chat rooms on Twitter from, you know, it's a bad apple. Police are really important to straight up abolitionists blew my mind. It was like the most important work I felt like I did in that, that whole time period. And now I'm just sitting here reminding people who missed out that we were calling for abolishing ICE back then. So now you see what happens when you don't take into account what the so called radicals recommend.
[00:16:11] Speaker C: Right, right. And it's not even really necessarily that radical of a position.
[00:16:15] Speaker A: No, it's not.
[00:16:17] Speaker C: I mean, but that's neither here nor there in some ways. But I think, you know, back to the boys, the boys produce is a wonderful parallel towards you know, just unchecked state violence.
Just, you know, the, the, the terrible consequences of letting, you know just things run out of control with regard to quote, unquote, keeping people safe.
You know, I think that it's kind of amazing that this show got made. And I think it's only because it's been so goddamn popular that they've had to just kind of like run with it, you know.
[00:17:02] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:03] Speaker C: And let it exist.
[00:17:05] Speaker A: I forget the exact numbers I this. I'm going to cut you off very briefly. They've made so much freaking money. I forget what the. I wish I remembered the numbers. It was like it was the first something that beat All Netflix streaming. Like, don't quote me on this, but y. Exactly right. They couldn't stop, like, it's freaking Amazon, man. They don't want to be doing this.
[00:17:28] Speaker C: No, they, they. They can't love that. This is what.
[00:17:32] Speaker B: Look, look, my, My perspective. Here's my thoughts on it. Jeff Bezos loves this because Superman is the Superman who opposes the rich bald guy in the comics is portrayed as the villain.
[00:17:47] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:17:50] Speaker C: Honestly, low key. If this was on, if this was on a more liberal network, they probably stretch it one or two more seasons even. Like. Yeah, like, although I don't think that they should necessarily. Like, I'm not saying those seasons would be good.
[00:18:05] Speaker A: Yeah, we'll see.
I mean, one thing I know is, like, next, like, continuing to do what they said they're gonna do, like, not following what's happening, showing what's happening, not stopping where they were, apparently.
And apologies if this happened at the end of last season. And I forget, but I believe pretty. I'm pretty sure that in the beginning of the new season, there are at least two people, including Huey, who is in an internment camp. So we're now moving into the next phase of the Holocaust. And that's why I call Alligator.
I refer to that ice camp as Alligator Auschwitz, because there was no trial and these people haven't done anything.
[00:18:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:18:51] Speaker A: One scene that stands out to me is, Is when Homelander you, like, essentially shot, but used his eyeballs to. To shoot down people right in the middle of a protest, and it made people more excited. I, I like that scene. Like, like, he burned into their face. It burned into me. Like, that should have been, like, terrifying to people, unless they're very accustomed to the most severe forms of violence, but it just further route, you know, whatever rallied them up.
[00:19:31] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think it's easy to draw a parallel to a lot of things between the boys and what's going on today. But also, there have been some other times in our history as a nation that I think, you know, also have a, A, A large amount of violence and things in them that you can draw some parallels to. The boys, too. And in particular, you know, people keep comparing Homelander to certain political figures that exist right now. But Homelander actually reminds me the most of a political figure from our past, a president. A president from about 200 years ago, Mr. Andrew Jackson.
[00:20:21] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a good call.
That's a good call. I didn't consider that at all.
[00:20:29] Speaker C: How much do you know about Mr. Andrew Jackson?
[00:20:32] Speaker A: Well, you're putting me on the spot as the so called, you know, historical record here probably not enough since I didn't get into this in my head. You tell me, tell me what made you think of it. What are those comparisons?
[00:20:47] Speaker C: So Andrew Jackson is one of.
[00:20:50] Speaker B: This is going to be a hard episode for me. Continue.
[00:20:53] Speaker C: One of our most fascinating presidents and not in a good way.
[00:20:58] Speaker A: No.
[00:20:59] Speaker B: The reason why I adjusted Andrew Jackson is during Trump term one, most of the comparisons we can make to a past president war Andrew Jackson.
[00:21:11] Speaker A: So you and for really I hadn't heard that either. Where have I been? All right.
[00:21:15] Speaker C: Yeah. I mean Andrew Jackson was this guy that he talked a lot about representing the people but it seemed dubious whether or not he was really doing that in general.
He was a guy that.
Yeah. Short, short answer was he wasn't outside of like one or two small things that benefited a few mostly white working class people. Like most of the decisions he made just everybody and.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: But it's that populism talk I wasn't aware of and that is a clear connection.
[00:21:53] Speaker C: Yes, right. But he did, he did talk like a populist and every now and some small thing that kind of made certain elements of the work.
[00:22:05] Speaker B: It's also when he did win, it's important to note that when he first ran for president, he won a plurality of the popular in electoral vote, but not the majority.
And when they did that other process, they did not pick Andrew Jackson as president, they picked Henry Clay. So when he did win, you had that element of we beat the establishment this time.
[00:22:32] Speaker A: Ah, sounds like Trump.
[00:22:34] Speaker C: Yeah, I was, I was screwed out of my rightful win before kind of vibe.
[00:22:41] Speaker A: Anti establishment that sold so many people.
I just don't come from a family of politicians. Bro, you come from a family of Nazi tycoons. What's the difference?
[00:22:52] Speaker C: Yeah, no, he really did a good job of convincing people that he was a sort of outsider.
Right. You know, guy at the time. And the reality was he was basically much like how Trump is just sort of like always been rich, always been connected kind of guy.
Like Andrew Jackson was more or less that kind of guy in a lot of ways.
[00:23:18] Speaker A: Like very cool. I think you should have people written about this.
[00:23:23] Speaker C: You know, I don't know if there's like one definitive book I would recommend. I've. I've read a few different.
[00:23:29] Speaker A: Not about him in particular.
I'm wondering if anyone's written about what you're talking about. Like this is a unique to me. Like the article I'm always thinking like this. I can't help it. The article would be Homelander isn't Trump. He's Andrew Jackson. Something like that. And then it would be an analysis like the one you've already done.
[00:23:54] Speaker C: Yeah, well, I think what really makes it compelling is how fucking violent Andrew Jackson was, you know, like.
[00:23:59] Speaker A: Thank you. Sorry, continue.
[00:24:01] Speaker C: No, no, no. I'm just building off what you're saying. But yeah, but, you know, Trump. Trump is this guy that, I mean, famously, on the Internet, lots of jokes are made about the idea of somebody just punching him in the face or, you know, like, he doesn't seem like a tough guy. Like, he gives. He likes to act like a tough guy, but he doesn't give the impression that he could win a fight.
[00:24:24] Speaker B: By the way, fba, I would not punch the President in the face.
[00:24:28] Speaker A: Why not?
Because they're. Oh, well, obviously for those listening, none of us would ever do anything like that. I mean, goes without saying, you know.
[00:24:38] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm just talking about just, you know, people will imply a lot that, you know, they just. Trump doesn't really give the impression that he could win a fight in general. Right.
[00:24:49] Speaker A: Is that why they have all those memes on the other side of him, like with big muscles or being Jesus? Like, they had to overdo it in the other direction because they know deep down.
[00:25:01] Speaker C: Yeah. They're overcompensating, you know?
[00:25:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:25:04] Speaker C: In their own lives. They're constantly talking about, oh, when I was 19 or whatever. And it's like, you're 45 and you haven't done anything since that day, man.
[00:25:15] Speaker A: Like, you know, and they all hate women.
[00:25:19] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:19] Speaker A: And they all hate trans people.
[00:25:22] Speaker C: Other things that they'd have in common with Andrew Jackson.
[00:25:25] Speaker D: Right.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: I'm sure.
[00:25:28] Speaker B: This is a very hard episode for me.
Wow, that Andrew Jackson sure sucks. Right?
[00:25:36] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:25:37] Speaker A: We hate.
[00:25:37] Speaker C: We hate Andrew Jackson on this show.
[00:25:41] Speaker B: Obviously, we do not support any Andrew.
[00:25:46] Speaker A: Other Andrews, maybe, maybe not. Andy. No.
[00:25:50] Speaker B: What about Andrew Como?
[00:25:53] Speaker E: Hi, editor Ella here? It was at this point that Brandon just kind of material materialized there. There was like a little puff of smoke and boom, there he is. So anyways, back to it.
[00:26:12] Speaker D: I'll just add, you know, on the Simpsons, they had the no Homers club. We can have a no Andrews Club. And one can be allowed.
[00:26:21] Speaker B: Can we have. We could have a one Brandon Club.
I don't know how that's supposed to be an insult.
[00:26:28] Speaker D: Yeah, there are lots of great Brandons. What about the Brandon from Incubus? You wouldn't turn him away? No, it's the Andrews that are a lot more problematic.
[00:26:36] Speaker B: Listen, Andrew Jackson's great Andrew Johnson's great. Andrew Como is great.
Well, Bashir is Andy, so technically doesn't count.
[00:26:48] Speaker A: I'm blanking. I can't think of any Andrews or Brandon's.
[00:26:51] Speaker C: What about Brandon Filoni, though? He was a piece of from the Sopranos.
[00:27:04] Speaker D: What about Brandon from the Killers? There's lots of brands.
[00:27:08] Speaker A: Also that Brandon from the Killers is probably allowed.
[00:27:12] Speaker C: Yeah, the Brandon's club would be better than the Andrews Club based on current polling. I'm sorry.
[00:27:18] Speaker B: So speaking of evil, Andrews, the tale of cheers, the trail of tears so awful I can't even say it right.
[00:27:27] Speaker A: Indeed.
[00:27:28] Speaker D: Let's go, Brandon.
[00:27:29] Speaker A: Google that.
[00:27:30] Speaker B: Let's go.
[00:27:33] Speaker C: Yeah, so Andrew Jackson did a lot of really bad, questionable, strange stuff, but he was definitely a really violent, impulsive guy.
Probably best exemplified by things like just how many duels he fought, the fact that beat one of his attempted assassins so badly that the Secret Service ended up like pulling him off at a certain, like, you know, they're like, they're like.
[00:28:05] Speaker B: I'm sorry. That's cool. I'm sorry.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. I'm sorry. See, that is the, that's the one difference so far between him and Trump is, is to your point, Trump couldn't do any of those things. Never.
[00:28:18] Speaker C: Yeah, we have a lot of like strong men in politics now that like to project that. But like Andrew Jackson was actually a guy that lived it would beat you in the street if you fucked with him.
[00:28:31] Speaker D: I don't, I don't want, I don't want the wrong message to go out and for the Republicans to start looking for like the Allen Wests of the world. We've got to find some, you know, they made fun of us for not being tough enough. We've got to find some real torturers. We've got to find the guy from grave. You know, they're already beating them to that. The Democrats are. But that's a whole different story.
[00:28:57] Speaker A: Yeah, I mean, I think what, what makes that type of violence different from, you know, what I talk about is that we, you know, we don't, we don't use violence to displace or oppress or we, you know, at least I guess I should speak for myself from the. I was born, I was angry and I need to filter that anger. And now as an adult, I finally know how to do it without violence. But the violence that I put out into the world was always targeted at the people bullying others, oppressing others.
So to me, if you're a leftist extremist versus a right extremist, the difference is One loves, one hates. So for me, I don't want to rely on the state to put someone they've decided is a criminal in inside a cage. I want our community to deal with the person and we'll know better than anybody else how that person can help, how that person can provide reparations, or if the community needs to physically remove that individual. That's to me, how things should be done. So I'm not a pacifist and I don't like Andrew Jackson's policies or the actions or his ideologies, but if he defended himself against the Packers. I don't believe in sitting there and letting your ass get beat.
[00:30:23] Speaker C: No, I mean, I don't think anybody on this podcast would take that stance. It's just again, nice every. Everything else about him.
[00:30:32] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. We found one good in there.
[00:30:35] Speaker C: It's wild because this guy, I mean, there is a Wikipedia article we found while we were researching this episode.
And the article, this is an entire standalone article, is list of violent incidents involving Andrew Jackson. This guy was fucking violent. That long article detailing like known fights, duels, and just beat downs that he got.
[00:31:02] Speaker B: You know what? You know what? Here's my hot take. I would take that article, Wikipedia article over the Wikipedia article of, of George Washington in slavery.
[00:31:13] Speaker A: Hell yeah.
[00:31:15] Speaker C: I got bad news for you about Andrew Jackson and slavery.
[00:31:19] Speaker B: Listen, listen, about that, Listen, I've got. I listen. Yeah, okay, listen, I bet Andrew Jackson was great with slavery.
[00:31:36] Speaker A: One who did them.
[00:31:36] Speaker B: Well, see, that's.
[00:31:40] Speaker A: That's what I heard.
So all this just makes me more mad. No one's written my Wikipedia page yet. This gets an extra page for his fights. I don't even get a page at all.
[00:31:50] Speaker C: I mean, to be fair, he got in a ton of fights though.
[00:31:52] Speaker A: Like, it's me too. Where's my page?
[00:31:55] Speaker B: You gotta get him.
[00:31:58] Speaker C: Fights with like guys that own banks.
[00:32:02] Speaker D: Nice.
[00:32:02] Speaker C: Like get into like a fist fight with a guy that owns a major business and then that. That's the stuff that gets on Wikipedia. According, at least according to. I'm not suggesting anyone should do anything particular.
This is the standard that Wikipedia has said is that you need to fight with like a member of Congress.
You know, if you fist fight somebody on the congressional floor, media considers that fight worthy of writing about, I would too.
[00:32:33] Speaker A: I get it, I get it. If I'm just beating up obscure Nazis and rapists and things like that. So, yeah, less exciting maybe.
[00:32:42] Speaker C: I mean, I'm sure, I'm sure Andrew Jackson got into some, some less well known fights too. You Know what I mean?
[00:32:49] Speaker A: I'm sure.
[00:32:50] Speaker C: So yeah. So hot headed, impulsive, violent, racist, xenophobic, sexist, but pretending like he's for the people.
Does this sound like Homelander to anybody?
[00:33:09] Speaker A: Sure does.
[00:33:10] Speaker B: Andrew Jackson is the anti slavery choice. We gotta vote for him.
He's the anti slavery choice. He's the bro peace choice I wanted.
[00:33:23] Speaker A: Homelander has special skills like raise out of his eyeballs and he's got the media to create like vaught Christmas specials that feel so much like the kind of shit that Trump is making.
That might be the only difference between the two.
[00:33:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I think where you, where you can spin it back to Trump is on that. But you could see why I thought Andrew Jackson would be a good topic.
[00:33:50] Speaker A: Yeah, no, totally. That's what I was referring to is that he just didn't have the benefit of the media or, or superhero skills.
[00:33:57] Speaker C: I, I shudder to think of Andrew Jackson with Tick tock. I don't even want.
[00:34:05] Speaker B: Like he would put his fights on Tick tock.
[00:34:08] Speaker A: Totally. Oh yeah. And he'd be popular too.
[00:34:11] Speaker C: People.
[00:34:12] Speaker A: Tick tock man.
[00:34:13] Speaker D: There's some other person from his era that we haven't heard of that would have had, you know, they would have inhaled too much oil during their teenage years. History would have produced someone with Tick tock brain to counter Andrew Jackson. He wouldn't have been like this isn't a. Unless this is a Guns of the south scenario where he's getting Tick tock and no one else is. That's a whole difference.
[00:34:40] Speaker C: That's what I was suggesting was that like through like his platform.
Yeah. Like through the magic of time travel or something like that. You know, that is like the boy.
[00:34:53] Speaker B: Order to bring future technology and only I can use it. I signed an executive order.
[00:35:01] Speaker C: Andrew Jackson would be an incredible Isekai protagonist.
[00:35:06] Speaker B: Please don't ever know bad Kennedy.
[00:35:13] Speaker C: It wouldn't be the first time a very controversial figure has been isekaid in, in a show.
[00:35:18] Speaker A: You got running themes, huh.
[00:35:20] Speaker D: I think Satan has been isekai'd before. So yeah, anyone can.
[00:35:25] Speaker B: What about technically he was. He's a Kaiden to hell.
[00:35:28] Speaker C: So let's, let's take a step into the voting booth.
[00:35:33] Speaker B: We gotta vote.
[00:35:35] Speaker C: I've got some questions here that kind of overlap between Andrew Jackson and his era of politics and the boys.
And I think they'll provoke some interesting discussions.
[00:35:52] Speaker A: I like it.
[00:35:54] Speaker C: I want to start us off with one I feel is a bit of a softball kind of an easy way for us to get started with the voting portion of our show putting aside Andrew Jackson for a moment, which us founding father would have invented? Herogasm.
[00:36:12] Speaker A: Is this a question for the guest?
[00:36:15] Speaker D: Benjamin Franklin is off limits as your answer.
[00:36:20] Speaker C: You know what? That's, yeah, let's take Benjamin Franklin out right away or there's no discussion to be had. Right.
Yeah. Ock, you can, you can weigh in on this.
[00:36:31] Speaker A: I mean I just feel like, I feel like Washington is just the most basic answer. But that's what popped into my head.
[00:36:39] Speaker C: I mean I could see him getting down like that.
I think though probably Jefferson would have a real shot at some bullet. Washington was a little more straight laced, but Jefferson was definitely a gross, a gross guy.
[00:36:54] Speaker A: Well, I don't, I don't know enough about his activities like that.
[00:36:59] Speaker C: He was slimy as hell, let's just put it that way.
[00:37:03] Speaker D: Did you watch the hero episode of the Boys and did you spend most of it going?
[00:37:08] Speaker A: Of course.
[00:37:09] Speaker D: Did you spend a lot of it going?
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Yeah, that's a lot of the whole.
[00:37:15] Speaker C: If you read about Thomas Jefferson, sexual dalliances.
[00:37:21] Speaker A: Okay, nice. There's a lot of reading. I, I, it seems like I've avoided all the like, what is it? The like steamy stuff. Right. I'm like getting, I'm getting a very vanilla version of history. So we might have to take back that initial proclamation or, or compliment.
[00:37:43] Speaker C: Some obscure shit here or.
[00:37:45] Speaker A: Yeah, maybe it's that, maybe it's that I don't know enough about like the presidents because that's kind of where we focus. I mean fair enough being elections and it being the most important election and all.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm going to give my answer and this is actually going to use history that we're all taught. I'm going to say John Hancock because big signature, big organism.
[00:38:09] Speaker A: Hell yeah. Good answer.
[00:38:10] Speaker D: That's pretty funny.
[00:38:12] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:38:13] Speaker D: So I thought about, I had thought about like, like Aaron Burr or someone like that.
But actually you know what? I think Alexander Hamilton would probably be more likely to have planned this kind of event as a way to feel included. You know, he would have felt like, boy, once I planned this orgy, I will have really made it in society.
[00:38:34] Speaker A: There's all these different angles as to why one would be the best one. It's great.
[00:38:40] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm sticking with large signature large organisms.
[00:38:45] Speaker C: These are all very good.
[00:38:47] Speaker D: Governor Morris would also be an okay choice for that. There's lots of choice. They're, they're all freaks.
[00:38:52] Speaker C: They're all freaks.
[00:38:53] Speaker A: That's what I thought. Yeah, that's what that was my synopsis.
[00:38:57] Speaker C: There'S maybe like one. It's really more like which one of them wouldn't. And then we'd spend a long time getting into like the three Founding Fathers that had good takes and you know, anyway, if Andrew Jackson was in charge of the seven, what would be his criteria for letting people into the seven? Like, would this be like a, like a bribery thing? Would you have to duel him?
[00:39:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. There would be no. I mean, I think right off the bat you would have to exclude the women and the black guys, you know, that we've seen so far. They wouldn't have a chance.
I mean, I think any of the ones who would be considered like, I don't know, I don't know, like if you have gills like a fish. Are you disabled? Are you. I mean, I don't even know what the terminology, bizarre terminology they use, I don't remember. But he's an other. He's been othered, so he wouldn't be included. So you'd have to be, you know, like a white guy of his caliber who's able to, to fight. You know, if all you can do is run fast, that's, you know, that's weak, right? That's, that's not attacking, that's flight. So maybe they wouldn't make it.
[00:40:17] Speaker D: If Andrew Jackson, a general, can't understand the utility of moving quickly, he'd be out of his rocker, you know, so fair enough.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: It's not gangster.
[00:40:29] Speaker D: Well, that's true. The, the Boys Corporation vaught, you know, one thing is they were able to really adapt to modern America. We're probably going to see their super racist origins in a spin off or something. But you know, as, as there's already one.
[00:40:47] Speaker C: Yeah, there's already something that works.
[00:40:49] Speaker D: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's one spin off, they're doing another one, yada, yada yada. But, yeah, but, but I don't know whether the superpowers would be distributed in, in the way that would fit Andrew Jackson's philosophy or whether he would need to change with, you know, the times quote unquote, as it were. Since the powers on the boys are not, they're not like, they're not naturally occurring. Big spoilers for the minor spoilers for the boys. They're not real natural powers.
You know, they're engineered so it would sort of depend on who got all the chemicals 40 years ago, you know.
[00:41:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm looking at our notes and I just came up with a question. If Storm Front went back in time, would Andrew Jackson accept her as part of the Seven.
No, racist.
Very racist. Holds the view, but she's a woman.
[00:41:48] Speaker D: Stormfront.
Andrew Jackson couldn't trust Stormfront. Stormfront would be planning a coup from now. She's saying I'm the Isekai protagonist, not you.
That's right.
[00:42:01] Speaker C: I'm. I'm compelled to say that he wouldn't accept her because, I mean, that's the whole thing is that Homelander ultimately is like, no, you can't be equals with me. You're a lady. Exactly. So I think. I think Andrew Jackson's got that same flaw, for sure. I am actually very compelled.
[00:42:17] Speaker D: I'm not sure Andrew Jackson would have. I don't know if he would have gotten Nazism. I guess he would have. I just, you know, Homelander was always a little bit disgusted and grossed out by white supremacy because he was a superhuman supremacist. And the idea, like, you're white, that's supposed to be the thing. But maybe Jackson would have went for that. So I don't know.
[00:42:41] Speaker A: That was such an interesting, like, subtle.
I don't know, a good word other than thing that happened on the show was like, when. When it became like, when he was directly presented with Nazism, that he didn't initially, like, immediately fully embrace it. That was smart writing that makes sense for his character.
You know, it was cool that you brought that up.
[00:43:07] Speaker D: Homelander is a pastiche of George Walker Bush, you know, so, you know, the Boys was written in the Bush era.
So a lot of the things that. Especially early in the Boys, like season one to, you know that a lot of that was. If you look at it and you think, oh, yeah, I'm looking at Bush era politics, because that's from the adaptation, you know.
[00:43:29] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:43:29] Speaker D: And although some of that stuff was brand new, of course, like, Stormfront is. Is a guy and it has a different story arc in the comic.
[00:43:38] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. There's some different stuff going on with some of that.
[00:43:42] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:43:43] Speaker C: I'd have to say I'm very compelled by the idea of Andrew Jackson just insisting that the Seven is just seven knockoff Superman guys. Just seven. Seven muscular white guys that can punch. And that's it.
[00:44:01] Speaker A: Like, exactly what I envisioned.
Exactly.
[00:44:06] Speaker C: There's something really funny to me about that.
[00:44:10] Speaker A: Me too. They all look exactly the same.
[00:44:13] Speaker B: If we have any fan art makers in the audience.
[00:44:17] Speaker A: Yeah, please, that would be fire.
Like Drew Jackson surrounded by seven perfect.
[00:44:27] Speaker C: Blonde Superman, just all slightly different.
[00:44:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
Only their face is minor change.
[00:44:36] Speaker C: Yeah. Just little. Little outfits. They're just like, you know, one of them's more like a blue with white stars. Then this guy next to him's got more eagle motif, you know.
[00:44:50] Speaker A: That's better. And the same face.
[00:44:53] Speaker C: Yeah, the same face, yeah.
[00:44:58] Speaker A: Oh, God.
So you mentioned the engineering of the.
I guess was the powers or whatever you guys, whoever said referred to him as. But yeah, the powers come out of.
[00:45:14] Speaker D: A bottle in that world.
[00:45:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And, and I just. And that is such an obvious, like literal difference. But I wonder if there's some kind of metaphorical example or, you know, something that is.
I almost feel like the education conversation we were having before where certain people have access to certain information and higher quality of resources and so their powers are artificial if not from a bottle directly. Like, how did these people get in power in the first place? Right. Like that guy, he is using a bottle or two, but I mean, like, like, you know, even, even more like simple, like money.
[00:46:02] Speaker C: Andrew Jackson had a little, a little magic bottle that gave him powers. It was called liquor.
[00:46:08] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
That only works for so long though. I'm proof of that.
[00:46:13] Speaker D: That's pretty good.
[00:46:14] Speaker C: It didn't work for me, but, you know, some people, some people can really, you know, liquor.
[00:46:21] Speaker B: Why I hardly even know her.
[00:46:24] Speaker D: Hi.
[00:46:25] Speaker E: Yeah, I'm back.
It's very rare that I have to do this. I have my go to's, I have my boos, I have my crickets. Andrew. No, no. As a bad Andrew. It's a bad chump.
No.
Okay, back to the people.
[00:46:44] Speaker C: Definitely turn it into punching other people for a long time.
[00:46:48] Speaker A: Oh yeah, it definitely makes you want to do that a lot more. Which is, which is why I think it's the stupidest substance on earth.
[00:47:00] Speaker C: Do we think that Andrew Jackson would pardon or execute the boys? Like, he's kind of a firebrand.
He's kind of a guy who plays by his own rules. Do you think he would ultimately come to respect the boys and give them some kind of pass and, and incorporate them into the government?
Or would he, would he be like, nah, these guys gotta go.
[00:47:27] Speaker A: It reminds me. Sorry, go ahead.
[00:47:29] Speaker D: Oh, go ahead. No, you go ahead.
[00:47:31] Speaker A: Well, my first thought was like, it sounds like all those movies and TV shows where the FBI agent has been hunting this person for 30 years and like has this deep respect for them actually, even though they want to capture them so bad. And then they meet and they like love each other even though he has, they, you know, have to arrest him.
And you know, and then I thought about who trump the thousand plus people, you know, 10 times the average or whatever that trump is Pardoned.
And like. Yeah. Like you're saying they're not. Like, they're people like him in this. In, like, the way they think, the way they act. Like they break laws and laws that hurt poor people specifically.
But they're all on his side. Right. Like, if. If you can think of someone that I haven't thought of that is like an extreme leftist who's been pardoned, then I'll take it back. But I feel like since we've drawn these parallels between Trump and Jackson, like, he might respect their audacity, but he. They're the enemy, so they're getting executed.
[00:48:43] Speaker C: Yeah, I think pardon.
[00:48:45] Speaker B: Because it's like when Trump met Ma' Am Danny.
When Ma' Am Danny came down. That's my answer.
Meets Trump.
[00:48:55] Speaker A: Awesome answer.
[00:48:59] Speaker C: Passionate, long answer that I was really compelled by. And then. Yeah, Andy just spins it.
[00:49:08] Speaker A: That's exactly what I want around me at all times.
[00:49:14] Speaker C: Brandon, where do you stand on this?
[00:49:16] Speaker D: Yeah, I'm in that. That, that situation as well. You know, Jackson fought duels. He pardoned people who were involved with violence.
[00:49:27] Speaker C: He.
[00:49:27] Speaker D: I just think if you were to tell the story of the boys to Andrew Jackson, just. He would just be genetically inclined to respect and go, that's fucking crazy. If you were to show him, like, a highlight reel of the degeneracy that the superhero community was involved in, and this is stuff, you know, we would. That would just give a Victorian child a stroke. I assume Andrew Jackson would just be pretty grossed out and interesting. He'd say, you guys, like, track these guys down one by one and blew up their. That's. I just feels a little anticlimactic to just make a thumb sign and for you to go down.
I think he'd.
He'd let him off or at least give them a shot.
[00:50:14] Speaker A: What about just a really public and performative, you know. You know, they get their highlight reel and then they get hanged. You know, so he acknowledges it and he celebrates it, but he says, you did it on the wrong. You did it for the wrong reason. Because I feel like he'd love the superheroes for who they're with and what. You know, if Butcher.
[00:50:38] Speaker D: If Butcher explains the story of his grudge against Homelander. I just.
Yeah, I think. I just think Andrew Jackson would just say, well, game is the game.
[00:50:50] Speaker C: Yeah, I feel that.
[00:50:51] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I like.
[00:50:53] Speaker C: Right. About the personal grudge element. I think that. Right. Definitely that could win Andrew Jackson over.
[00:50:59] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:51:00] Speaker C: Right to his heart of the boys. And. And President Jackson.
Do we think the boys could assassinate Andrew Jackson? He was notoriously hard to assassinate. Had some, some of the largest number of assassination attempts while in office and managed to beat all of them, often literally.
Even when he was at the point in his career, later in his, his presidents, in his second term, when he was walking with a cane, he was beating people with the cane. He was, he was, he was a very, he was a very tough person to take down. Many people tried to kill Andrew Jackson and failed.
The boys, they have a pretty good record with assassinations, but also some of them take them a long time or never get done. And you know, I, I don't know. Where do we think we stand on this? Could the boys pull it off? Off?
[00:52:00] Speaker A: Here's the question.
Do the boys take the drug that temporarily makes them superheroes or does Andrew Jackson take that drug?
Because that would determine how easy it's done in this future world.
[00:52:14] Speaker C: I think you have to weigh it as if the current world, if the boys have some temp V going into the fight, then so does Andrew Jackson or nobody does. So it's either. I think it has to be fair.
[00:52:27] Speaker A: Okay. Okay.
[00:52:29] Speaker C: And then what about if they existed at the same time? There's no way the boys would have access to this.
[00:52:34] Speaker E: Sure.
[00:52:35] Speaker C: Andrew Jackson wouldn't.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: Unless they catch him by surprise. Unless they catch him.
[00:52:40] Speaker A: Yeah.
Yeah. So if it's not so, if it's totally based on a group of however many, you know, a changing number, but a small number of angry people who love to fight without any kind of artificial supplementation and all, and it's about basically whether they can sneak attack him and jump him.
[00:53:05] Speaker D: I say no, that's to but I think they do sneak attack and jump him. I think this is probably a full episode.
[00:53:12] Speaker A: And succeed.
[00:53:14] Speaker D: Well, yes, but in a funny, mishappy way that leads into episode. Like they would have like, like Huey bait him into a duel and Andrew Jackson would be so outraged that, that this was confronting him or something like that. The boys are good at exploiting people's personal follies in order to get to jump on them. And I, I, this kind of feels like the kind of mission that they would do. It just seems like this is right around their power level that they could pull off.
[00:53:51] Speaker B: Jackson.
[00:53:52] Speaker A: Exactly. And he'd be all scared and worked up and he'd cry to his girlfriend. I mean, I actually had never enjoyed disagreeing with people more in my life. This is like, this is an incredible experience. So you guys should feel like this. I've never had an experience like this. I am such an, I am Such a serious person to a fault. Like, I was a perfect straight guy to have on this show.
[00:54:20] Speaker D: Yeah, usually I'm the perfect straight guy to have on this show. So it's good to have a little competition.
[00:54:26] Speaker A: Yeah. I mean, but your answers are funnier than mine and you're. And you always disagree. It's great. I love it.
[00:54:33] Speaker D: Also, I think Kimiko.
Yeah, Kimiko would. Could just walk up to Andrew Jackson and Andrew Jackson would not register at. Register her as a threat until it was too late.
[00:54:45] Speaker A: See, another example you. I.
Yeah, you win.
[00:54:50] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:54:50] Speaker D: What if they don't get Kimiko without Kimiko without. Without one member of the team, it probably doesn't work. They probably need the full team.
[00:54:59] Speaker A: I like the original Huey take. I mean, I think. I think Huey is perfect bait.
[00:55:06] Speaker B: Homelander. I don't think this is a good idea. Oi, Huey, you gotta be the bait. I don't know.
[00:55:12] Speaker D: Andrew Jackson's killed a lot of people. Look at this record of duels.
Huey, you've got to. This is how we're gonna get the job done. Yeah, that's a full episode of the Boys for sure episode.
[00:55:27] Speaker C: And I think. I think it could still. I think, you know, that episode could end a little bit either way still in my mind, you know, maybe they win or maybe Andrew Jackson sneaks away for the. For the sequel.
[00:55:38] Speaker D: Andrew Jackson could potentially sneak away somehow.
[00:55:43] Speaker C: Do you think. Do you think it would be better or worse for the overall situation in the world of the Boys if Supes were allowed to have formal duels?
They were allowed to just challenge each other's throw down.
[00:55:59] Speaker A: Do we ever look at the superheroes as, I don't know, disadvantaged in a way, because the. Because for one, like, the only thing I thought of is, like, they'd be. If they were allowed to have these formal duels, it would probably end up in a ring for pay per view, you know? And then it reminds me of, like, just the history of the use of black bodies in sports. And I, like, automatically go to serious and feeling bad for these people, but there's probably a way for it to help society because I don't think they are disadvantaged.
[00:56:41] Speaker C: Right.
[00:56:42] Speaker A: What is the thought on that part? Like, are they people that would be taken advantage of or are they people that are. That are oppressing us, who we should take advantage of?
[00:56:53] Speaker D: All of the Supes are proletariats that's driven home in the show.
[00:56:57] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:56:59] Speaker D: Manipulated by Vought because Vought has money and they've all got the same regular working class concern whether they're in Starlight's case. You know, she's got a fundy mom that's taking her to beauty pageants or a train. Lives in the ghetto.
The deep is in this weird religious cult.
They're all subject to the same forces of capitalism that any human being would be.
[00:57:26] Speaker A: So you know my answer then? I don't think it could help shit. It would be horrible. And I'm not a fan, honestly, of. I never once got into a planned fight that it's always. It's happening now for a reason.
I don't watch boxing, I don't watch mma.
I watch if I'm going to watch anything, which I don't. But if I were to, if I had to choose, it would be a street fight because there's a reason for that, that there's. There's either emotion or, or pride or fear or whatever. There's a million reasons why there could be a reason for a fight. And none of them seem to me to be appropriately for money. And it's not enough money, right, for.
[00:58:14] Speaker D: The people actually fighting in a street fight. Someone can just hit you in the back of the head.
[00:58:20] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm okay with that though. I mean, like, if it's, if it's important, if it's important, like. Like I don't believe in a real fight that there are rules either. Like, if it's not like you need to be macho and refuse to kick someone in the balls. If it's life and death, you. You rip their ears off. If you like, it doesn't matter. You do what you have to do. Ideally, none of this happens anywhere and everyone loves each other, but that's just not the world we live.
[00:58:48] Speaker C: All right, fair enough. I think those are some strong takes.
[00:58:51] Speaker A: My bad.
[00:58:52] Speaker B: Listen, no. As somebody who sees absolutely nothing wrong, morally wrong, with the Pokemon universe, I see nothing wrong with these fights. There's nothing wrong with the Pokemon universe. These fights are perfectly fine.
[00:59:07] Speaker A: I'm good with that.
[00:59:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Is Homelander a Pokemon? Let's not, let's not explore that. But.
[00:59:19] Speaker A: How popular is Pokemon with people in our generation? I mean, I think we're in a similar generation. Maybe you might be younger than me. Very. Okay.
My 21 year old daughter Mar, which is. This is wild.
She's queer and autistic and crazy like me. We're very similar and ended up marrying a white marine. My daughter's also a Dominican Jew and married a marine and lives on base.
And I know he is obsessed with Pokemon, so when he visits with her, he's playing Pokemon. Like, we're driving around and this trained killer is playing Pokemon all day.
[01:00:07] Speaker B: Pokemon. Gotta catch a few. Oh, my.
[01:00:09] Speaker A: Wait, so am I mispronouncing it also Pokemon? It's Pokemon, not Pokemon.
[01:00:15] Speaker C: Right?
[01:00:15] Speaker B: No, you're probably right, because there's a little accent thing.
[01:00:20] Speaker A: Oh, then it should be Pokemon if it's Spanish.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:00:27] Speaker A: All right.
[01:00:29] Speaker B: I just. I pronounce things wrong.
[01:00:30] Speaker A: So. Very popular. He's. He's younger than us, but even in our age. Huh?
[01:00:34] Speaker C: Huh? Oh, it's. Yeah, it's never really fallen out of popularity.
[01:00:39] Speaker A: That's something that's lasted forever.
[01:00:41] Speaker B: They released the newest Pokemon not too long ago. And while they still do a lot of games like you're used to, the new one is like, you're tossing those things out, you're moving around. You've got to dodge the Pokemon attack. You, the trainer, have to dodge the Pokemon attacks.
[01:01:01] Speaker A: That sounds fun. Tbh.
[01:01:04] Speaker B: Anyways, this isn't the Pokemon episode.
[01:01:07] Speaker A: No. And. And you, anyone? No one on earth would imagine me playing Pokemon. And that's fair. I. I just don't really know how to have fun.
[01:01:17] Speaker C: Pokemon.
[01:01:19] Speaker A: I'm having fun today.
[01:01:22] Speaker C: So. Andrew Jackson famously didn't have fun unless he was drunk. Actually, I. I would argue he probably had.
[01:01:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:01:35] Speaker C: Too much fun.
[01:01:36] Speaker A: See, that's the difference between him and me. I didn't enjoy any of it. He. He had a blast.
[01:01:42] Speaker C: Yeah, he was partying a lot.
[01:01:45] Speaker A: See, partying I did. It's. It's a matter of perspective. And. And that's the difference.
[01:01:50] Speaker C: I mean, some of his partying was explicitly malicious, like, oh, nice. He threw some big parties on his way out of office just to make sure that the White House would be trashed when the next.
[01:02:02] Speaker B: Wow. Oh, hell yeah.
[01:02:05] Speaker A: This episode. Man, I gotta read this book, wherever it is.
[01:02:10] Speaker B: Listen, this guy did nothing wrong.
[01:02:15] Speaker C: He did a lot of things wrong.
[01:02:17] Speaker A: Oh, man.
[01:02:17] Speaker B: Notice how I'm not saying his name. So nobody has a voice clip this guy, right?
[01:02:23] Speaker A: Everything is dangerous.
[01:02:24] Speaker C: Can't clip that by itself.
[01:02:28] Speaker A: So that's smart.
[01:02:30] Speaker C: Andrew Jackson famously conquered Florida, and he did this while he was a. A general in the United States Army. And he did this without permission from anyone. He just took the troops that were under his command and marched them into Florida. And Spain just surrendered it almost immediately. Immediately, because they were not prepared for something like this.
He got, like, kind of a little slap on the wrist by Congress, but they ultimately just kind of like, let it fly because he conquered Florida. So, yeah, they loved it.
What? You know, in modern Times where the United States already has the territory that it has.
What piece of land would Homelander conquer just under false pretenses without any permission? Kidding.
[01:03:19] Speaker A: Canada and Greenland.
[01:03:22] Speaker C: He's taking Greenland.
[01:03:24] Speaker B: Oh, my God. He's.
He's actually renaming it Red, White and Blue Land.
[01:03:31] Speaker C: Yeah. Yes.
[01:03:35] Speaker B: Note if the voters from Greenland. We do believe you should be. We don't want to take over Canadian. We don't want to take over you. We don't want you as our first day. It's just we.
[01:03:50] Speaker A: We want your asylum.
[01:03:54] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:03:55] Speaker B: It's hypothetical.
[01:03:58] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. That's a lot of territory to be responsible for.
[01:04:02] Speaker B: Well, good thing we're not responsible with the territory we have, so.
[01:04:07] Speaker A: Not at all.
[01:04:09] Speaker C: Do you think.
Do you think we're making Greenland like a state or a territory or.
[01:04:15] Speaker A: Good question. I mean, territory is more insulting. Right?
[01:04:21] Speaker C: But I mean, have to give Canada some. Some statehoods, maybe.
[01:04:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[01:04:26] Speaker B: Oh, my God, no. I have a galaxy brain take. I have a galaxy brain tape. We. They take Greenland and make it the new capital of the U.S.
whoa.
[01:04:37] Speaker C: Why?
[01:04:39] Speaker B: Because it's so big and it's got so much land and it's a show of force, mainly the last one. It's a show of force.
[01:04:47] Speaker D: Both congress people would have to get on a boat and freeze their balls off.
[01:04:53] Speaker B: I never said.
I never said.
[01:04:59] Speaker A: I thought that was inherent in picking Greenland. And I don't mean that as an insult. It's just not. Not. It's not the strategic powerhouse that Trump made it out to be.
[01:05:08] Speaker D: Maybe Greenland can be a network state. Maybe it can be like one of those libertarian islands, like in Bioshock.
That would be better. Just a stateless libertarian experiment in freedom.
[01:05:22] Speaker C: It could be kind of like Hong Kong.
[01:05:24] Speaker D: Yeah, I don't. I don't know if. If that kind of. Of cultural thing works the same way with, you know, it being really cold. I think once the temperature gets to it. Once your. Once your balls dip below a certain temperature, you're like, man, I need a government in here to keep my balls warm.
[01:05:41] Speaker A: Oh, man, that's funny.
[01:05:43] Speaker C: What about communal infrastructure? You know, like, you know. Exactly.
[01:05:47] Speaker A: I don't want to be serious. Awkward again. I'm not going to say about it, but yeah, that was funny.
[01:05:53] Speaker C: In places where it gets really, really cold, parts of the world, like, they have like. Like communal heating infrastructure. Like, the heat comes piped into your house from like, a big.
[01:06:03] Speaker A: You're doing it for me.
It's cool as shit.
[01:06:07] Speaker C: You know, I.
It's like. Yeah, no, once. Once the temperature of Your balls reaches a certain level, you just go, you know what? Community infrastructure. I'm willing. I'm willing to do it.
[01:06:21] Speaker A: Have you guys heard of the Mole People? That's how they were referred. Not. That's not how they referred to themselves in Vegas.
[01:06:29] Speaker B: No.
[01:06:30] Speaker A: They lived. They made homes in the tunnels of New York City, the subway tunnels that were not in use anymore.
And they lived there for decades before they were forcibly removed. The only reason I thought of this and was gonna. And brought it up was that they had running water and electricity and heat underground. All done, you know, communally and illegally.
[01:06:58] Speaker C: That's fascinating and.
[01:07:00] Speaker A: Yeah, so cool.
[01:07:01] Speaker B: You shouldn't.
[01:07:02] Speaker A: There's actually a movie called Dark Days at a documentary if you want to, like, watch something about it.
[01:07:11] Speaker C: This is.
[01:07:11] Speaker A: I think DJ Shadow did the score.
[01:07:13] Speaker C: It's been quite the episode. I've got one final.
[01:07:17] Speaker B: The final vote.
[01:07:18] Speaker C: One final vote for us today, which is what special restrictions would Andrew Jackson put on Catholic soups.
Famously hated Catholics.
[01:07:31] Speaker A: These questions have been so good. Oh, my God.
Someone answered this time. I know I'm supposed to go first as the guest. I got that clue, but give me a second. Someone go.
[01:07:44] Speaker C: No, it's okay. You don't always.
[01:07:46] Speaker B: Pokemon Go. Take care of yourself. Anybody listen?
[01:07:49] Speaker C: Anybody got a thought on.
[01:07:51] Speaker D: Well, my initial thought is I'm grateful for the power of editing.
[01:07:56] Speaker A: Maybe you stumped us. I mean, I just feel like. Is there. Maybe you should answer, because what is it about? I mean, I'm not asking about the, like, Protestant versus Catholic conundrum. I'm more. I'm asking, like, what types of specific. Other than you can't practice your religion, what types of specific restrictions could be placed based on religion? I guess other than what I just said.
[01:08:21] Speaker D: Yeah. Have you seen the movie the Dark Knight where the guy's trying to blackmail Wayne and Morgan Freeman?
[01:08:28] Speaker A: Maybe I did.
[01:08:29] Speaker D: You've got a billionaire vigilante who has, like, a secret military arsenal and is above the law, and your plan is to blackmail this person. Good luck.
You've got a person with superpowers that's a Catholic, and they're spending their time praying to Jesus and talking to the Pope, and your plan is to pass a law that says they can't do whatever the fuck they want to do.
You're going to have a tough time. Are these. Are these Catholic superheroes going to obey an executive order?
[01:09:00] Speaker C: You know, I think that's. That's what. That's what we have to come up with is, you know, you'd want to do something to fuck with the Catholics. I mean, this is a guy that loosely considered banning Catholicism in America. Right.
[01:09:14] Speaker A: So I think it goes without saying that he would tell them they're not allowed to practice. Right. And maybe he could blow up all of the Catholic Churches.
[01:09:23] Speaker C: Well, no, he ultimately backed down from points like that. He just. He loosely considered the idea of like, you know, he'd occasionally.
[01:09:31] Speaker A: Drum version.
Are we assuming Homelanders worse or the same? For simplicity's sake.
[01:09:41] Speaker C: I'm just saying I don't think Andrew Jackson. I think Andrew Jackson knew then and.
[01:09:45] Speaker A: I think it wouldn't work.
[01:09:47] Speaker C: Powers. It would be the same. You can't just start blowing up Catholic churches, man. Catholic Church is really powerful.
[01:09:52] Speaker D: Probably like, he'd probably have a law that said you have to swear an oath on the Bible. You have to, like, you have to make some sort of Protestant gesture in order to be federally allowed or something.
Because he'd have some sort of thing about the Pope being a foreign leader. I mean, this went all the way up to jfk. How there was. Are you giving your. You know, the Holy Father in the Vatican is your supreme leader or whatever.
He might ask for you to sign some piece of paper. But also, I just. I just don't know if the Catholic heroes will listen. I mean, I think of the Catholic superheroes in fiction and Daredevil's not taking some oath. Nightcrawlers not take. You know, these Catholics, they just do what they want. Once they get the superpowers, it's like. It's like their communication with God, they go berserk.
[01:10:46] Speaker A: And you also. I think Kennedy made a good point.
So where. I guess it's also taking into account the power of the Catholic Church. So if. If this were a Muslim or a Jewish or some other issue, we. They might just blow up the mosques and synagogues. Right. So this is more like specific to the Catholic ones.
[01:11:12] Speaker C: Right. This is specific to the power. Okay. This, like, this was a real thing.
[01:11:16] Speaker A: Like a real competitor that.
[01:11:18] Speaker C: That Andrew grappled with was that he hated the Catholic Church, but he also knew he could only do so much about that.
[01:11:27] Speaker A: Got it. Okay.
[01:11:29] Speaker B: If you are a Catholic Soup. You cannot use any flying base powers. We can't see your skirt flying in the sky. You have to stick to the ground.
[01:11:39] Speaker A: That's cool. I like that. Not that I. I don't like that rule.
[01:11:44] Speaker B: Like what?
[01:11:46] Speaker A: I don't like it as a political policy, but I. But I get it. That's. I mean, even, like, I just thought maybe you said the same. You didn't but, like, if they believe in angels and all that stuff, they don't get to fly. They can't be angels.
Was that part of what you said, or did I make that up?
[01:12:02] Speaker B: You made that up, but no, no, that was part of what I said. Absolutely, I said that.
[01:12:07] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:12:09] Speaker B: Holy.
[01:12:10] Speaker A: This isn't helpful to a crazy person. You know, I'm only gonna feel crazier.
[01:12:15] Speaker D: The Catholics would start supporting their superheroes undercover. I just think it will be undercover.
[01:12:23] Speaker C: I think that Catholics do soups. Like, if. If, like, I was just already starting to imagine Catholic soups would just stop seeking federal appointments and they would just all do their own thing.
[01:12:33] Speaker D: If you're Andrew Jackson, you don't want. You don't want that action. Catholic superheroes are all crazy. Make a lit huntress. Daredevil at nightclub. Don't mess with any of those guys. Just keep the temperature down. They just won't listen to the law once they get those powers and just tell. It's like, AI, is there a similar.
[01:12:54] Speaker A: Opponent today in the real world that Trump is afraid to go up against?
It seems like. I mean, whether he's afraid or not isn't really the question. It doesn't seem like he hesitates to go after anyone. Is it Israel maybe?
[01:13:10] Speaker D: There are. There are many groups that, if they had powers, Trump wouldn't pick the same fights.
[01:13:16] Speaker A: Okay.
[01:13:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I think we could, actually. I think there's lots of. I think. Well, I mean, it depends, I guess, on how many superheroes that are willing to kill are just hanging out with Trump all the time. But still, like. Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot of groups that.
[01:13:31] Speaker A: Right.
[01:13:31] Speaker C: Trump respects strength. You know, like we said, like, he wants to be a strong man in the model of a guy like Andrew Jackson from history, that he's afraid of.
[01:13:43] Speaker A: North Korea, he's afraid of Russia, and he admires them because of that.
[01:13:48] Speaker C: Yeah.
[01:13:48] Speaker B: Okay. What I learned here, the sequel to be gay do crime is be trans use superpowers.
[01:13:57] Speaker C: Boom. Yeah, Nailed it.
[01:13:59] Speaker B: Trans use superpowers.
[01:14:01] Speaker D: I think if the trans people start having eyeball lasers, Trump backs off, you know, which says a lot.
[01:14:09] Speaker C: It's been a great episode.
It's been. It's been really fun to do. Discuss the boys and Andrew Jackson, two subjects.
[01:14:18] Speaker B: Every time you say that name, I haven't gotten used to it this whole episode.
[01:14:23] Speaker C: Yeah. Just. Just to be clear, as a final statement, you know, we here on this show, we condemn Andrew Jackson with. With our full voice.
We.
[01:14:35] Speaker D: We.
[01:14:35] Speaker C: We condemn all the actions and behaviors of Andrew.
So thank you for that listeners and Awkward. Thank you for joining us today here in the voting booth.
Remind everybody where do they go if they want to stay up to date with what you got going on?
[01:14:55] Speaker A: Just, you know, I guess you could google Awkward or look for that on social media. Thisisawkward.com Check out the new show Global Warning.
Because more than my music or my talking like a pundit, these interviews are about the people and the movements and the actions, the positive actions that others are taking. And that's what is most important to me is highlighting the work of others who are often less privileged than I.
Not always, but you get the idea. Please check out Global Warning.
[01:15:35] Speaker D: Love to be able to say Google me at the end of an interview.
[01:15:40] Speaker A: It used to be yo dude. I just have to say as a shout out to all the writers as well as the artists, most all predominantly independent who've suffered from this. Like I have on both ends. When you googled me in, I don't know, 2010 or something, you would have found hundreds of pages of articles about me. If you google me now, you'll find a few.
One of them being from the Village Voice which doesn't exist anymore but was nice enough to have an archive.
It's pretty amazing how shitty it's gotten how many important works not related to me have been removed from the Internet.
And thank thankfully we have that archive organization.
So definitely check that out on a side note too because if you can't find someone by googling them, Brandon included, you might be able to do it 10 years earlier.
[01:16:43] Speaker C: Yeah, well, great tip honestly and remind people of the. Totally is that periodically So I appreciate that a lot actually.
Yeah, those are some good things to check out. You can also find this show a lot of different places and promote it and give it a nice rating and you know, re retweet us on Blue sky and you know all that kind of stuff whenever we we post about the show. It's all appreciated.
I'm still gonna call, but yeah, you gotta vote.
[01:17:23] Speaker B: You gotta vote.
[01:17:24] Speaker A: Wait.it's the most important election and it's a great show and I highly recommend you subscribe and highly rate it and share the content.
I haven't had a better 90 minutes in a while.
[01:17:40] Speaker C: Oh, thank you. That's a very sweet.
[01:17:43] Speaker B: If you are interested in being a guest then you. You have a. You have some sort of platform you'd like to grow it up just best 90 minutes folks. Best 90 minutes.
[01:17:54] Speaker C: Yeah, the best 90 minutes your month or something right here.
[01:18:00] Speaker D: That's a great plug. We'll. We'll take that one to the bank.
[01:18:05] Speaker C: All right, let's get out of here for now.
Have a good one, listeners. We'll see you next time. Thank you, all the voters at home. Bye. Bye.
