(upbeat music)
- Okay, so I want to tell a little
story and then get into the main topic.
The way I tell stories
tend to take a lot of time,
so this actually, who knows
how long this is gonna be.
I am warning you now.
There is some off-putting elements.
I have over the last few weeks
when I’m trying to do podcasts,
being complaining about the fact that I
cannot read my right eye, it’s gone fuzzy.
So about three weeks
ago, I was getting headaches
sort of in the back of my
head and behind my eyes.
I looked it up online, not a good place
to seek out your medical information.
And it said these were cluster
headaches and this was kind of migraine.
But I actually had a similar pain before.
It’s when I got punched in
the face on the other side
and I felt a similar kind of pain and
it’s ’cause my eye was actually swollen.
So I thought, you know what?
I’m gonna go to the
eye doctor just to check
’cause just regular aspirin
isn’t taking care of this.
I go to the eye doctor and he starts giving
me stuff and it’s all working out fine.
And I say, so what’s wrong with my eye?
And he goes, “Well, this is the
same as what you had last time.
” And I go, “Well, last time I got
belted in the head “by a giant angry man.
“This time I didn’t do anything.
“Like, nothing happened
to my face or a head.
“No impact of any sort.
” So what caused it?
He’s like, “Oh, well, this is just
swelling “and swelling could be caused.
” Cause of anything.
And he kind of did like
a little shrug most drip.
He kind of did a little shrug gesture,
like, you know, life happens sometimes
and sometimes that swells up.
So I was like, “You know,
give me some details.
” He’s like, “Well, it could
be an injury, an infection,
“stress, any of number
of things could cause this.
” So if you go online, he
literally looks at me and says,
“If you go online,
you’ll see a long list.
” And I was like, “Okay.
” So basically, he’s
saying, “You don’t know.
” This is the doctor’s way of
saying, “I don’t know what caused this,
“but at least we
can start treating it.
” He gives me some medicine and
the pain in my eyes starts to go in.
I start to feel pain in my cheek.
And now that is where
one of your sinuses is.
And he said infection.
I thought, “Oh, maybe
because of my allergies and stuff,
“every now and then,
I get a sinus infection.
” “Every now and then,
I get a sinus infection.
” Every now and then,
I get a sinus infection.
Every now and then,
I get a sinus infection.
That’s happened a couple times in my life.
So I go to the nose doctor.
He’s your tube doctor.
He goes to your nose, mouth,
and ear, something like that.
So I go to him and I go, “I
think I have a sinus infection.
” He doesn’t even
really check much.
He just goes, “Okay, it
gives me a huge thing of pills.
” There’s one morning.
I have to take the pills for my
eye and the pills for my nose.
So there’s one day.
I remember it was a
Wednesday for some reason.
I had to take the variety of pills for my
eye and the variety of pills for my nose.
And in total for
breakfast, I had like 15 pills
with me, which made
me feel incredibly old.
Okay, whatever.
Sinus infection goes away
because that starts to feel better.
And then I realize, like, you
know, I’m not seeing as well.
I have always worn glasses, so
my eyes have always been poor,
but I think something’s
right, I go back and he’s like,
“Oh, the back of
your eye is still swollen.
” So he’s giving me
these steroid eyedrops.
He’s like, “Well, the steroid
eyedrops aren’t gonna get back there.
” So what we’re gonna
do is give you an injection.
And I was like, “Huh,
an injection from my eye.
” Well, I guess, you know, powerful
medicine is often injected into your body.
So that’s not a thing.
And then I’m like, “Wait, he
means an injection in my eye.
” So this is like
horror movie stuff.
And I am just taking my
deep breath and I’m going,
“Okay, yep, yep, let’s do that.
” Okay?
He’s like, “Right now.
” So I don’t know if this
was a technique or just,
this is how fast he moves, ’cause
this is a clinic they just do eyeballs.
It’s all service, like,
you wanna get glasses,
contacts, eye infection,
anything, this happened.
Pink eye, whatever,
they take care of it there.
So they have everything,
all the facilities, one clinic.
And so they have me
sit outside for a minute
and then like two minutes
later, they have me go in
and they have the chair
that you light on your back.
And I am, that two minutes was
enough to get me like, worked up.
I was like, “Okay, yeah, okay,
I’m gonna get stabbed in the eye.
” I did this in Dead
Space, I believe, was the
video game where you had
to aim it at your own eye
and then push the button, didn’t hurt then.
I’m not gonna hurt now, but I
mean, this is like horror movie stuff.
They line me down.
I’m gonna go through
the whole process for you.
So they line me down
and then Igor comes in.
Igor is not the guy
putting it in my eye, I hope.
Because the first thing Igor
does is he walks in the room.
So I’m lying down, flat on my back.
Already kind of like a vulnerable position.
He bumps into a couple of things.
And my first
thought, “Oh, fuck no.
” Fuck no, this guy is not
going to put a needle in my eye.
He can’t even walk straight.
Then he’s the guy who’s gonna put a couple
of drops in, probably to dilate my pupil,
and then a couple other drops
in, which is gonna be anesthetic.
So he puts a couple drops
in, boop, boop, he misses.
It goes on my cheek and I’m like, “Oh,
fuck, he’s not putting a needle in my eye.
” This guy, if this guy
gets the needle, if this guy
doesn’t put the needle in
my, I’m gonna just get a leaf.
I can’t, I can’t.
I have no confidence.
He takes like three shots to get
the first set of drops in my eye.
And I’m like, “Isn’t this all you do?”
Like, as the nurse in an eye clinic,
isn’t this literally one
of the only things you do
is drop, put drops into
people’s eyes and you’ve missed.
And then he gets the other one.
He goes, “This isn’t
anesthetic in Japanese.
” And then he puts those
drops in, also misses a couple.
And I’m like, “At least
he’s being generous.
” He’s kind of like nay palming my eye
area, knowing that someone will get in.
So he just floods that.
And I’m just like, “Oh no, oh no.
If someone else doesn’t come in real
soon, I’m gonna panic, I’m gonna leave.
” And this is, you know, you can
feel yourself working yourself up.
That’s the problem.
So the doctor then walks in and I’m like,
okay, doctor then
immediately starts filling
with a machine, but
not in a confident way.
Like, when I work with OBS, which I’ve
worked with a lot or I try to put graphics up
or something, like you
can tell when I am just
setting stuff up and when
something’s not going right
and I’ve kind of messed
it up and I’m trying to fix it.
And then he’s asking Igor for helping.
What does Igor do?
He bumps into some more stuff
’cause the dude is clumsy as hell.
And I’m like, this is just the
wrong guy for an eye clinic.
Eyes are incredibly sensitive.
This is not the kind of
thing you want happening
right before someone
stabs you in the literal eye.
Igor goes out after they fix this thing.
And then the doctor
has very soothing voice.
He’s actually a very good doctor.
They put in those clamps
that keep your eyes open
and a hugely bright
light right in your eyes.
You can’t see anything.
And it’s like, I keep mentioning
the movie but then every time
I tell this story and then I
forget the name of the movie.
So they clamp your eyes
open and you can’t see anything.
No, the doctor says, look up.
I’m lying on my back and I
look straight towards the ceiling,
which was at that point
straight forward out of my face.
And the doctor goes, no, look up.
And I’m like, well, this
is not the time to argue
but I’ve actually had this
argument with a coworker.
Up is a function of gravity.
So down is towards the
center of the earth and up is out.
When you’re in space, there is
no up because things do not fall
because you fall down
therefore you rise up.
So if you’re lying on your back,
up is still away from the ground.
That is, people don’t think of it that way
but up is actually a function of gravity.
If there’s no gravity, there is no up
because if up is towards the top of my head
then if I lie down,
I just start sliding
towards my feet because
I would be falling down.
So I look up straight at the ceiling,
straight into that light, so I’m blind now.
And then he goes, no, no, up.
And he taps the top of
my head and I realize he’s,
oh, you don’t mean up.
You mean towards up my eye.
I’m trying to think of the
phrase he could have used
to make that happen
more efficiently because of
course I think he’s stupid
but he thinks I’m stupid.
It’s one of those situations.
So look up towards the top of your head.
That maybe would work.
So I look up and then, because of
the anesthetic, I don’t even feel it.
I feel something kind of touch
my eye and that actually would
have been the insert of the
needle and he does it real fast.
I mean, this is, again,
Kudos to the doctor.
He’s very good, he’s very
fast, he’s very efficient
and this took no time
and all he would do.
He said, sorry, this might hurt.
They always say that in Japanese
before they give you a needle.
Is this kind of standard thing?
I actually think it makes it worse.
They should just be like, boop.
And then he squeezed
it in, it was a steroid,
pulls it out, didn’t
even notice really.
I felt something touch my eye.
I don’t know if that was
it going in or coming out.
And then he goes, that’s
it, he takes the clamps
off and then I’m sort
of blank a few times.
If I’m being honest, physically,
I basically felt nothing.
But the adrenaline and the
terror I felt was untouchable.
So I go out into the waiting room
’cause I have to pay for this experience
and I start sending my
friend’s messages on my phone
and I’m like, I just got my eye
stabbed, I just got a needle in my eye.
This is like a nightmare fuel.
And I realized my hands are shaking.
And it’s because I’m coming down from the
adrenaline for like five minutes straight.
I’m just sitting the
going, it was terrifying.
That was last week.
I’m now I’ve gone back again.
He’s giving me some oral steroids.
It is slowly getting better.
But basically when I do
these podcasts and stuff,
I have notes and
basically I try to hide the
notes under the
camera so I’ll stick it up.
It’s actually now right in front of
my face, but it’s below the camera.
Now if I hold it there,
I’m incapable of reading it.
And my writing is incredibly
messy, so I can’t read the writing.
That’s the problem.
So I did an engineer’s Japan this morning.
I have my notes up and I’m gonna
have to look at it a little closer today.
That is gonna be just a problem for the
next little while until I can see again.
The thing is, again,
I’ve worn glasses since
I was 16, so my eyes
are garbage anyways.
At this point, if they
wanna put me up for
experimental, let’s replace
your eyes with robots.
I’m on board.
I will absolutely replace my
eye with a robot at this point.
I’ll clockwork orange, that’s the movie.
At the end of clockwork
orange, they reprogram the guy
and they block his eyes open like that
and make him watch propaganda videos.
That’s stuck, that image stuck with
me, even though I’ve saw that movie
when I was like five, 10
years old or something.
Should not have been watching that movie.
You just became Isaac from Dead Space.
(laughs)
That was one of my first mentions.
I did the thing in real life
that happened in Dead Space.
That is actually was my first thought,
like, oh my God, I’m
doing the Dead Space level.
But in Dead Space, I think
if I remember correctly,
you’re aiming it and then you have
to push it down with the two joysticks.
It’s like a dual joystick thing.
But I think the idea,
the concept is that you’re
doing it to yourself, if
I remember correctly,
and then you have to
press a button to stab
it in and if you miss,
you failed that level.
But that’s the only thing I
remember from that game.
So I was super impactful.
Like, if I’m being really
honest, that’s a bit, I remember.
- I hated that in Dead Space.
- I think you were
supposed to hate it in
Dead Space, which
actually means it was good.
If we’re being honest, if it
was supposed to be gross
and off-putting and terrible and
you felt that way, it achieved its goal.
Horror movies, if you
walk out of the horror movie
and feel, ah, that’s
actually, they’ve done a
good job, which is, you
know, counterintuitive.
‘Cause if you walk out like I had
a great time, that was really fun.
That’s not, that’s not a good horror movie.
Just letting everyone know that my
eyes all messed up, I can’t really see.
If now, though, if I mess
up something in a video
game, I can actually
claim it ’cause I can’t see.
As you go, ’cause I’m,
ah, I didn’t see that side
of the screen ’cause you know
nothing on this side works anymore.
I’m going to play the intro song again.
So I’ve done a lot of
scary things in my life.
Like, again, I fight people for fun.
I’ve ridden motorcycles and had crashes.
I crashed a car.
I’ve put myself in dangerous situations.
I got in trouble with the Korean
mafia a little bit when I was in Korea.
All scary.
Nothing compares to the mental
terror you put yourself through
when someone’s like, I’m going
to stick a needle in your eye now.
Let’s get to it.
That’s, that’s actually
what it came down to.
It wasn’t a terrible,
dangerous, awful thing,
but the mental thing
you do to yourself.
So let me play the intro song again, and
then I can edit this podcast much better.
(upbeat music)
♪ After the mind of the academy ♪
♪ Shocked my pictures ♪
♪ Where the bastards of philosophy ♪
♪ Drinking the clutch ♪
♪ Rings of upper skills ♪
♪ Like a soccer punch ♪
♪ Won’t come to see in my feet ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, oh see in my feet ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, oh see in my feet ♪
♪ Yeah, oh see in my feet ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, oh see in my feet ♪
I’m very excited to have my own theme song.
Having your own theme
song changes the feeling
of your podcast, if you go through
the trouble of actually making a podcast.
We’re talking about TikTok.
So the TikTok band in America is kind of
gone through, it’s actually not finished.
Did you commission it?
Ah yes, there’s a whole other story.
DX Man, you’re just going to
get all the stories out of me.
I had a presentation to do at work,
and it was a very boring
presentation, and my boss was like,
you have to make this
get people excited about
this thing that we’re
doing, and it’s not exciting.
And he’s like, get people excited.
I’m like, that’s not gonna happen.
There’s nothing I can do to get excited.
So I was like, well, what can I do?
And I go to chat GPT, and I put
in all the criteria for a rap song.
So I put in the criteria for
this thing we’re introducing.
It’s just a course, and
then gave it criteria
for the different
elements of a rap song.
And a produced one
I put in digital editing,
now went online to try to find someone
who would do a beat and sing it for me.
You can find lots of people
who do beats and lots of
people who do songs,
that will do like rap for you.
But they won’t do both.
You can find five real,
find people who do beats.
On five real, find people who
will do a track, a rap for you.
But they won’t do both.
So I ended up going to a different site.
I think it was Upwork, and I found
a guy’s name who will do both.
And so he’s from Zimbabwe, his name
Stones Mojo, and I sent him a message.
I was like, I want a song
for this presentation.
I made a music video for it.
He will do both parts.
So I was really excited.
I got him to do the song.
I put the song.
I cut together a little video.
And it was all like from
free clips from websites,
like copyright free stuff.
And if you search in like urban
dance, you get a very specific look.
So I put all those together,
and I cut in some little joke bits,
and then I played it, and
people at the company loved it.
I mean, that’s what it came down to.
And so then I was like a
couple months later, I was like,
I’ve had this theme song for
this podcast for a long time
that doesn’t fit the tone
of the podcast, because it
was like heavy, which I
like a lot of heavy music.
But when I’m sitting here
talking, it’s actually quite relaxed.
So that quite relaxed atmosphere
didn’t come through in the music.
So I was like, you know what?
Dude, I’ll commission another song.
I gave him the lyrics, so my friend
wrote, “Enter the Mind of the Academy,”
’cause I have the chunk of beef
chest Academy of martial arts t-shirts.
I wrote, “Drinking at lunch brings
verbal skills “like a sucker punch.
” And then he said,
“Welcome to Seamick Bee.
” And that was it.
And I gave him like a feeling,
like an old diggable planet song.
And in like two weeks later,
suddenly this song pops up
and I got this new theme
song for my podcast.
It’s great lyrics.
Yeah, I mean, again, it
was sort of a community
effort, which actually
makes it better as well.
‘Cause my friend wrote a line.
We only, again, a
theme song can only be
like 30 seconds long
before it gets annoying.
So yeah, I listened to it one more time.
So you can actually hear what he says.
It’s, again, he’s from
Zimbabwe, so he’s English.
He says, “I love, he doesn’t
say Seamick Bee like I do.
” He says, “See
y’all, walk beep.
” (upbeat music)
“Enter the Mind of the Academy.
” “Shuck my beef chest
where the best is a philosophy.
” ♪ Drinking the lunch brings
up a skills like a soccer punch ♪
♪ Won’t come to see I’m my beat ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, oh, see I’m my beat ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, oh, see I’m my beat ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, oh, see I’m my beat ♪
♪ Yeah, yeah, oh, oh ♪
So yeah, enter the Mind of the
Academy where the best is a philosophy.
Yeah, no, I really like that.
I really like that he doesn’t
sound like I would sound
if I sang it, which, in my
opinion, makes it better.
But we’re talking about TikTok today.
I like TikTok.
I’m an old dude, but I like TikTok.
I use it a lot.
I take clips from the
podcast and put on there.
They don’t get any traction.
That’s fine.
I don’t care.
I’m there to have a good time.
And if one person comes from TikTok
and watches some more stuff, that’s great.
For me, the most
interesting elements of this
is what is actually the
issue they’re talking about.
‘Cause when you’re
talking about politicians,
the things they’re saying are
never the actual issue at hand.
So what is the actual issue at hand?
I’ve done a couple of episodes of
Seamig B now on Senate hearings
and the Senate hearing is
never what they’re talking about.
Like they say, the last one was
about child safety and social media.
And almost every conversation they had
with the CEOs of these
really big tech companies
had very little to
do with child safety.
They kind of grilled
Zuckerberg on it in Facebook.
When they got to the president of TikTok,
all they really talked about is whether
or not he was Chinese or from China.
That’s now a very
famous clip on the internet
because they ask him in about three
or four different ways are you Chinese?
And he’s like, no, I’m from Singapore.
No, I’m from Singapore.
I did military service for
two years in Singapore.
I am not Chinese.
If China invaded Singapore, I
would get called up to fight China.
But you can see what is him having
to do, having his connection to China.
How does that help or detract from
child safety and the usage of TikTok?
It doesn’t actually mean anything.
So this is one of the more
interesting issues for me
is what they’re talking about
now is not the actual issue at hand.
And to me, when I talk about
America and when I think about America,
the fundamental beliefs of
America is a capitalist system.
I’m from Canadian.
I’m actually from a socialist republic,
which means social
services are inherently a
part of the political
system where I come from.
I live in Japan, which
is not a republic as such.
Japan is very socialist.
It must be a socialist
democracy, regardless.
Social welfare is a big issue in Japan.
They want social services.
They want to take care of people.
When I got my needle in my
eye, the entire thing, so we’re
talking about drugs,
examination, and needle in the eye.
So all those procedures and
stuff, I paid 1,600 yen, which
is about $15, probably less
now with the exchange rate.
So we’re talking about going to a doctor,
like a visit, some actual treatments,
all in the span of an hour,
and I’m paying less than $20.
And that’s socialized health care.
In America, they talk about
capitalism, capitalism, capitalism.
And I’m always interested
in the true reality
of what happens in America is
not really capitalism as they claim.
So what they’re talking about with TikTok
is that this company is a national threat
because the Chinese are collecting
data, or they can collect data.
Now, my issue with that version of the
statement is, every app we use collects data.
Now, you could specify which
kind, but at the end of the day,
Google collects a ton of data
that you don’t want them to collect.
Facebook collects a lot of information
that you don’t want them to collect.
YouTube collects a lot of information
that you don’t want them to collect.
It is ridiculous, or there’s the other side
that this bill, if it comes into effect,
because they don’t
mention TikTok in the bill.
TikTok is the reason
they’re putting it
forward, but they don’t
mention TikTok by name.
It just says apps.
So you have two possibilities.
One, they ban TikTok, and they
just stick to what they’re saying.
Or now they have the ability to ban
and control social media in America.
So if YouTube steps out of line,
you’re collecting too much data.
That’s the reason we use.
Now we can shut down
YouTube or ban YouTube.
Now we can ban Facebook.
Now we can do whatever we
want to show through media sites.
The most interesting
prospect here is that with
Biden in control right now,
if this law goes through,
he could shut down
Donald Trump’s truth social,
because it’s an adversary
to the current government.
And that’s one of the
lines they put in there.
They want it to be an adversary
to the government collecting data.
So since Donald Trump is
collecting data, because all apps do,
and he’s an adversary to the
American government in its current state,
Biden would then be
free to ban true social.
I don’t think they’ve thought that through,
but that is actually one of
the implications of this bill.
And it goes back to sort of
the Patriot Act, where these like,
if we think you’re a terrorist,
we can do whatever we want,
and now we’re just going to classify
anyone we want to attack as a terrorist.
That’s the kind of logic
that might be happening here.
We’ll use TikTok as the example.
That’s the terrorist that we’re attacking.
But then we can classify
other things or other
people as terrorists,
so then we can do that.
So now we can classify
other apps as adversarial
so that we can attack
them in any way we want.
They can make a blanket
ban on all companies
that are collecting data
and they can level that.
They could do this.
They can say companies
are not allowed to collect data.
This would trash Google,
it would trash Facebook.
But they can say, look, let’s make it fair.
Let’s make it a level playing field.
You’re just not allowed
to collect data anymore,
or we’re going to specify
what data you can collect.
And the thing is, one of the
things in the Senate hearings
with the president of TikTok
was he was like, it’s all voluntary.
Like you click and agree before you sign
up to TikTok that we can collect this data.
So why are you angry
about the data you’ve
agreed to let us collect
us collecting that?
They’re angry about it going back to China
because they’re not
really sure what they
can do with it is I
think actually the issue.
So Trump came out recently.
This is interesting as he says, he
wants to stop the ban on TikTok.
He says, I hate, I think
it’s because he hates China
more than anything else at
the moment, but he doesn’t
want them to ban TikTok
because Facebook would then grow.
And Facebook helped
rig the previous election.
The data doesn’t even go to China.
The database is in America.
That, I don’t know if that’s true.
I actually have a clip I need
to find and I want to insert.
And it’s propaganda on TikTok’s best.
They created a script and it has two
creators reading the exact same script.
It’s very natural.
I’ll be able to find that because I know
I’m shared it with my friends in Discord.
So I’ll actually throw
that up on the screen.
It’s this is not a one-sided thing.
Like there’s no good guy here.
TikTok is not the good guy.
The US government is not the good guy.
TikTok’s an abusive
app as is every other app.
I mean, no joke.
They all are exactly the same.
But if you understand that,
you know how to take care
of yourself or teach your kids
how to take care of themselves
and stuff like that.
But if you’re going to put limits on
one, you gotta put limits on them all.
That’s just, I think, the
easiest way to do things.
‘Cause again, it should
just be fair competition.
This was an interesting TikTok that came
out because they’re trying to defend TikTok.
These are TikTok creators.
And you would think because
of the very natural feeling
they present that this is just off the
top of the head, this is off the dome.
But how quickly this becomes
a script is really interesting.
You recognize that they can
take TikTok and change that.
They can pretty much
call any type of Chinese.
Because it’s parent company.
Right by it isn’t it’s in a Chinese code.
No, they are incorporated in the cake.
TikTok is incorporated
in the sake of the course.
They’re seeing a goal,
they’re seeing a goal.
We look at the ownership of the company.
16, we’re looking at the
ownership of the investors.
That’s what you’re saying is
over by international investors.
The vast majority of the majority
of the American are allied nations.
Again, the vast majority of the
company is owned by the employee.
Again, the vast majority
of which are not in Chinese.
And the other Chinese is
owned by the American user.
Only one of which is in Chinese.
Now, TikTok does have a
headquarter stored in Austin, Texas.
Now, but not only does it have a
headquarter to come in mainland China.
But not only does it have
a headquarter company.
TikTok has a headquarter ability.
Actually, it was the daily show
that used to do this or John Oliver.
And they would take local news stations,
would usually be given a script of
something to say to talk about an issue.
And this is not an uncommon strategy.
This is propaganda.
So they want to explain to TikTok users.
This is obviously from TikTok.
This is a script they’ve written.
I love that they dropped an F bomb in there
to make it seem more authentic and natural.
Makes you wonder.
Oh, no, no, it’s not wonder.
TikTok actually at like 100% pays
these creators their popular creators.
They gave them a script.
They say, we’ll give you this much money.
Read the script to make
it as natural as possible.
Those guys did a great job.
They gave you the basic facts.
They were like, oh, yeah,
the servers are in Austin.
It’s owned by this many people.
It’s incorporated in the Cayman Islands.
They’re done an incredible
amount of research.
Like, if you think about
what I’m talking today,
I read about 15, 16 articles.
And I’m going to give
you a very shallow view of
what this TikTok ban is
in some of the implications.
But there are people that like TikTok has
an investment in this not going through.
So if they can get the facts to the people
who watch TikTok and they have them believe
those facts, well, then
now they have ammunition
to go to the government and say, well,
you know, it’s not a Chinese company.
So a bunch of Americans
now go to their Congress
people and say, it’s
not a Chinese company.
The servers are in Austin.
Yeah, 100%.
That was provided by
TikTok to those creators
so that they could read it and
they just have a very natural flow.
And maybe that’s the kind
of content they do already.
But immediately I was
suspicious of why does that
guy have so much information
squished together that well.
I actually, the thing I
was wondering the most
is did they read it or memorize it
because they’re pacing was pretty similar.
Like they had overlaps a couple times.
That was pretty cool.
But we’re still talking about really
the ban on the government side first.
Trump said that he doesn’t, he doesn’t want
TikTok ban because then people will go back
to Facebook and
Facebook helped rig the last
election and I think Donald Trump,
he might be a little out of touch.
I think that’s pretty
fair to say because if
people leave TikTok,
it’s mostly young people.
The fact that I’m on there, I’m already one
of the oldest people on TikTok probably.
They’re not going back to Facebook.
They would go to another app.
I actually think this, the worst
case scenario is that TikTok dies.
But then a new app takes its place
that does almost the exact same thing.
And that’s where young people go.
The interesting thing
about Trump though, in
2020 as president, Trump
signed in an executive
order for ByteDance to divest itself
from TikTok so essentially to sell TikTok.
At this point, the
recording was actually
interrupted and I had to take
care of family emergencies.
So we’re actually picking up
on the next day, which is why
it doesn’t sort of link directly
to what was said before.
So there’s a couple other
different views you can take of this.
One of them is, what
are the Chinese things?
The Chinese Foreign
Ministry spokesman said,
Washington resorts to political tools
when U.S. businesses failed to compete.
They’re saying because
TikTok has become so
dominant and capitalism
has failed that these
Western capitalistic
companies can’t compete
with TikTok, that the government now has
to step in and shut down the competition,
which is completely
an anti-capitalistic idea.
I find that one very interesting.
I don’t tend to take
the Chinese Communist
Party’s opinions very
seriously because they
just tend to say
things that are very pro
China, but of course,
when they do take a shot
at other countries, it’s
always very entertaining
because they always just
like lay into them really hard.
It is interesting to
look at how the votes
were done because 15
Republicans voted against the ban.
They said, look, we should
absolutely warn people.
We should tell people that this
might be a data security issue.
This might be China
collecting your personal
information, but if
they know that and they
still choose to use the app,
that should be acceptable.
I actually kind of agree with these
Republicans, because that is capitalism.
Give people all the
information they need to
make their own decision,
but then you have
to allow people to
make their own decision.
That’s freedom.
That’s in America, part
of freedom of speech.
You should be allowed to say these things.
People are supposed to be
able to make their own decisions.
This does sort of imply that the bill
isn’t actually about TikTok the company.
It’s about apps that can be banned if
they’re being labeled a security threat.
So this means like any other app, as I was
saying, jokingly before, it’s true social.
It’s owned by an adversary to the current
government, so it could be shut down.
If you wanted to like
broaden these rules,
Facebook had all that Russian
influence during the elections.
That could say it’s being attacking America
and they could shut down that down if they
want, Elon Musk, when
he took over Twitter,
absolutely destroyed
the security basically,
fired everyone who had
any sort of knowledge there.
So he just ripped apart the
security aspect of Twitter.
At that point, it’s no
longer a secure website.
It could be banned.
So you can see keeping the bill vague as to
what it actually would define as a security
threat means that you could then broaden
it and attack any media outlet you want.
So then we get to
Congressman Mike Gallagher,
and he said TikTok is becoming the dominant
news platform for Americans under 30.
So I got that clip, so
let’s play that right now.
So in this clip, he’s
trying to assure people
that this isn’t about
just banning apps
that they disagree with, that
this is a very focused thing.
But then we learned what
it’s actually focused on.
The only impacted sites
are those associated
with foreign adversary
apps, such as tiktok.com.
It can never be used
to penalize individuals.
The text explicitly prohibits that.
And it cannot be used to censor speech.
It takes no position at all on the content
of speech, only foreign adversary control.
Foreign adversary
control of what is becoming
the dominant news platform
for Americans under 30.
This is a common sense measure
to protect our national security.
I urge my colleagues to support
this critical bipartisan legislation.
So what he’s actually
done in there, and I think by
accident, is tell you what
he’s actually worried about.
He’s saying that
this is about a foreign
adversary, this is about the
apps and security and stuff.
It won’t go under,
won’t be going after free
speech, but then he
immediately says TikTok
has become the primary news
source for people under the age of 30.
So people are getting their
information from TikTok.
They’re not getting their
information from the apps we influence.
They’re not getting
their information from the
apps we maybe have a certain
amount of control over already.
They’re getting their
information from this app that is
controlled by a company
that is from a different country.
If I start an app in
Belgium, which is not
a foreign adversary,
but then I start saying
a lot of anti-American
stuff, how quickly would they
change the parameters
that it’s a negative influence?
And so this is, I think,
what it really comes down to.
They have less influence and
control over the news media.
And as sort of traditional
media, like news shows
and stuff become less
popular with people under 30.
I mean, most people I know under the
age of 30 don’t watch television at all.
They will stream stuff, they will
pick and choose what they watch.
And when it comes to
news, it is going to just get
filtered into them through
an app they watch like TikTok.
They’re saying we
have to take that news
source away from them so we can put them
back on the news that they like it out.
I think the reality
would be that they would
just find a different
news source that they
also don’t have control over because that’s
going to be part of the appeal of this.
And it’s all about control.
So we had the clip previously
of the two guys reading the
exact same script that was
obviously provided them by TikTok.
We have the senators
saying like we’re losing
control over the
news, over what people
actually take into their lives,
how they get their information.
We need to stop that.
We did get to the last little bit.
It was a Democrat, Congressman
who got very famous on TikTok.
He has 2 million followers and
he voted for the ban of TikTok.
So basically TikTok
made him famous, put him
into Congress and then now he’s in
Congress and he votes to ban TikTok.
He comes out and he
says like, oh, I’m so sorry.
This isn’t really what you think it is.
He essentially said I voted
to ban TikTok because
I didn’t think it would
go through through.
I apologize.
I did not handle this
situation well from top
to bottom and that is
why I have been completely
roasted on this app over
the last 48 hours and I get it.
If I were in your shoes, I would
probably feel the same way.
I would see someone
who used this app to build
a following and then
appears to have voted
against it and I would
be upset and I would
feel like I deserved
more of an explanation.
So here goes.
I like this app.
I’ve been able to
reach a lot of people and
hear directly from
them and it’s been great.
I’m also in Congress and
I’ve been a part of some
briefings about this app
that were genuinely alarming.
When I was reading the bill, the part I
agreed with was the part that tries to force
a sale because I
figured this would just be
a better app if we didn’t
have to worry about
the stuff that comes
with it being potentially
controlled by an
adversarial government.
The part I didn’t like was
the part that threatens a ban.
After the country is on
this app, it has become
a force for good in the
lives of millions of people.
So I weighed those two
things and the reason
I voted for it was
because I genuinely believe
the chance of a ban is
practically zero for a lot of reasons.
Financial, political,
geopolitical, I just
don’t think there’s any
real chance of a ban.
I still believe that, but
maybe I got that balance rock.
On the one hand, I have information
about this app that isn’t public.
On the other, the language of the bill
was going to upset millions of people.
My thinking was, I
could reconcile those
two things by just making a video
that said, “Hey, here’s the situation.
” And that was a total disaster.
I really overestimated my
ability to do that in a really hot
moment when millions of
people were laser focused on this.
Some of you have said, “I must
have been bought by somebody.
” Well, that is exactly why I don’t
take any corporate pack money.
Not from TikTok, not from
Meta, not from any corporation.
That doesn’t change the
fact that I screwed this up.
I did.
I apologize and I will keep you busted.
I don’t know what he was
actually thinking, but he absolutely
was not thinking like, “I’m
going to do a protest vote.
” This is actually
weirdly Brexit logic.
So when Brexit went
through, they interviewed
a bunch of people who voted for Brexit,
who actually said like, “Oh, I voted for
Brexit because I didn’t
think it would pass.
” And the interesting thing, it
shows that votes actually matter.
So you can’t do protest votes.
You have to vote with your
own best interest at heart.
Other wise, you might
end up actually getting
what you voted for, even
if it was a protest vote.
There was a lot of
people with Brexit who
said, “Oh, I didn’t think it would
go through, so I voted for it.
” And it was just to
show how angry I am.
But now you’re not part of
the European Union anymore.
Now you’ve actually
gotten what you voted for.
So how do you feel now?
I have no idea how far this is going to go.
It wouldn’t surprise me either way.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this just died.
It needs another vote,
I think, in the Senate.
And it wouldn’t surprise
me if it died right there.
It wouldn’t surprise me if this was
considered unconstitutional in some way.
I think divesting the TikTok from ByteDance
isn’t the worst thing ever, if I’m being
honest, because I don’t
care about the company.
I mean, I’m doing this topic because
I’m interested in all these processes.
I’m interested in the votes.
I’m interested in how the companies and the
government are fighting back against each other.
I’m interested in what
this is really about.
And the core issue that
has come up again and
again is this is about control of the news
and the news that young people take in.
And TikTok is a very liberal website.
It’s a very liberal place where
people express themselves.
And so a lot of young people
are finding their voice there.
And I think that liberalnessness is what is
actually scaring these Republican senators.
The fact that this
app is being provided to
them from China just
makes it that much worse.
But clearly the thing
is that they’re saying
it about, like every
other Senate hearing
I’ve dealt with on
Seamig B, it’s not actually
the actual issue isn’t what
they’re actually talking about.
I don’t have a big
investment in TikTok.
It’s not a big part of my life.
I don’t really care for social
media if I’m being honest.
So what happens isn’t going
to impact me in any great way.
But I am interested
to see the justifications
and the lies and the back and forth
and the propaganda and all this stuff.
And then the thing
is, if ByteDance divest
itself of TikTok and he
gets taken over by one
of the Shark Tank guys
or something, because
those are the guys who
actually interested in it.
I bet that would
destroy the company.
I bet TikTok would collapse or the people
who really love TikTok for what it actually
is right now would leave
for some other version
of TikTok would come up
with a different company.
We’re going to offer you what TikTok used
to be right out the gate, here’s a new app.
And then we’re already at a point where
young people coming up right now, they don’t
want to use an app that is what older people
use, even if it’s like five, ten years.
They want their own app.
And that’s actually to me
how social media is going.
It’s a generational thing.
And the younger generation
that’s being coming
into their own right
now and getting into
social media, they don’t want
to use someone else’s app.
They want their own thing.
It was actually my
theory of every generation
has their own, it’s
almost like yearly.
There has to be like a
summer love song and
you can’t, you can like
or appreciate or enjoy
the love songs that came
before, but it’s not your love song.
So you need that one summer, that one song
and that’s your song that you associate and
that becomes you, it
represents you as a person.
It’s the same thing with apps,
it may be a five, ten year period.
But in that period is
when that becomes your
app, the app you
associate yourself with.
And that’s what you grew up with and that’s
where you came to maturity with and that’s
where you learned a
lot about the world from.
And so I actually think
TikTok only has so
much life in it left
anyways because there’s
going to be something that
comes up that replaces it fairly soon.
These apps and stuff
are getting so big, so we
talk about Facebook,
Facebook has been around
forever and it’s
like, oh, it’s not going
to go anywhere, but it’s
just not as popular as it was.
And young people now,
they don’t use it anymore.
Instagram I would say
it’s already on its sort
of death nails, it’s kind
of going the same way.
Twitter has gone through so much.
I mean, I don’t think anyone even
considers it particularly relevant anymore.
So we are waiting for the next app to
come in and sort of take over this space.
So I think the loss
of TikTok, I think the
loss of any one of these social
media companies is not a big deal.
They grow so fast and they
become dominant so quickly.
People think, oh,
you’ll never be able to
crush these companies,
but the natural process
is speeding up and
something’s going to come
up and it’s going to
be popular with young
people and then other
people are going to get on it
because that’s where you
have to be to be trendy.
It’s where you have to do to make your
deals, so where you have to go to be popular.
And I’m going to miss it, but that’s where
things are going to happen in the future.
And this cycle, it’s going to continue.
So this life cycle is
interesting, but now
with the government
trying to interfere, trying
to take control
over it, I don’t know if
that’s going to speed
it up or actually make
it hang around longer
because there actually
may be more resistance
to it going away because
this people actually
care about it and people
love fighting back
against the government.
But we should all know
there’s really only one platform
you should care about
and that is the beef nation.
What up, beef nation?
I am going to commit myself to trying to
say that more often in sound, more sincere.
When I say it so
that sooner or later it
actually just happens
to actually where I just
come on and go, hey,
what up, beef nation?
How am I chung stealing?
After the mind of the
Academy, shot my big
chest, whether best
is a philosophy, drinking
a clutch, brings rubber skills like a soccer
punch, won’t count to see how my feet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.