Bridget Todd
Appearances
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
What a fucked up time to be a young woman on the internet.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
There will be opportunities to go to Nazi marches in D.C. Ample, I'm sure.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, my gosh. I mean, not to, like, I know you've already, you've probably talked about this when you did his episode, but, like, Dr. Phil taking teenagers up on stage and, like, asking if they had breast implants. Right. No. Yeah, this was, like, what was okay on, like, mainstream daytime television.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
When we talked about how much she regrets her wagon full of fat incident, I really think that what she regrets is making like a lot of speculation about her weight personally. I don't think she has any problem with the way that she has like foisted that same level of scrutiny about weight onto others.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I think that she is perfectly fine and in fact complacent in that dynamic that has been so unhealthy for so many people.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Probably my late mother, because she did tape Oprah's and she would watch them on VHS. I have so many like burned in my memory clips of Oprah being not great, but like I probably could not find them.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like I think Nathan Lane has talked about how when him and the late Robin Williams were on the show, Oprah was really grilling him about his sexuality and that luckily Robin Williams stepped in to make a joke out of it. and take the heat off of him because he wasn't out. She did the same thing to Dennis Rodman.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like she really, when it came to men and their sexuality, she did some like, I think we would look it back at some of those clips, the way that she was grilling these people and think like, well, that really wasn't cool. But all of those clips are so difficult to find.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Have you spoken like a true gaslighting narcissist, Robert?
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
If you ever want to like win an argument in a certain kind of group house, if like, you know what I'm talking about? Just be like, he's gaslighting me into taking up the garbage.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I saw one that said people that have ADHD can never pick a Halloween costume because there's too many choices. And then the reply on Twitter was like, damn, can't y'all do anything? Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Well, I actually think like it's incredibly like it's I completely it's like gross. It's toxic. I completely agree. But it's also so enticing. Right. Like I am like I'll give myself as an example. I've been a little down in the dumps, shall we say, since January 20th. And, you know, I like. You can feel very out of control. And there's so much happening that I really can't control.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Somebody coming in and saying, actually, you can control it. Don't be afraid because it's all in your head. And if you just did X, Y, Z or got right in this way, you can control it. That is so intoxicating. And especially as people feel out of control. Like, I get why people like Oprah turn to this because it works. And I have to say, like, I get why it works. I get why it's effective.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
It's like that episode of Rick and Morty when Rick goes to therapy and the therapist is like, I get that this is like flossing for you and it's like not exciting and it doesn't happen all at once and it's just boring maintenance. But like, that's the trick.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like that's the magic is you do it a lot and you get small gains and maybe over the course of years you feel a little bit better consistently and like, ta-da, like people do want that magic solution and that magic bullet. I get why that's really enticing, but that's just not the way it works.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, when your kid actually dies of the cancer they had because their vibes were off, you can just be like, oh, he didn't want to live enough or whatever. It's like never the huckster's fault.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I need to know who wrote that and where they are now.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
That's when you know. It's like somebody was embarrassed by that and it was like, look at me pull my name down.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, I do want to give a plug to the documentary that she pulled out of because it did end up getting produced. It's called On the Record. It features Drew Dixon, who is this very iconic hip-hop producer who her entire career was almost derailed because of people like Russell Simmons. And so, yeah, I also agree that I think that when it comes to Oprah and these powerful men, I think that like...
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I understand why it lends itself to conspiracy theories because powerful, rich, famous people know each other. They work together. They're photographed with each other. That doesn't mean that Oprah had a direct hand in enabling Weinstein's sex crimes, but that's just how it works.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh my God, would you? There'd be pictures, there'd be screenshots, there'd be emails, timelines, the whole works.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, yeah. So there are documented connections with Oprah and men who turned out to be creeps who were not safe to be around.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
But why do you think people... obsess about these bullshit claims about her connection to people like Epstein when there are documented connections between her and people who were genuinely like, that is a smoking gun where she said this guy was safe and endorsed him and then he wasn't. Why do people focus so much on the ones that are bullshit?
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I remember it very clearly because my mother and my grandmother and I watched these episodes like it was a special family event to get together and watch Oprah in Africa. Like, y'all, this was a big deal. I remember this like it was yesterday.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
If that was your parent, you'd be like, let's keep an eye on it. He doesn't need to go home yet.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Well, this is exactly why I think the point that you two are making a moment ago is so salient, because I don't think that Oprah should have been involved in a school like this to begin with.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like you cannot take extremely at risk criticism. girls who have been living in extreme poverty, it doesn't matter how nice the sheets are or how the chandeliers are. These are going to be girls who probably have problems. And it's like, of course, this is the kind of thing that's going to happen when they're all taken away from their support systems and their families and all of that.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I think it's the pinnacle of narcissism and vanity to be like, oh, well, certainly my money can foster an environment of safety for these girls. If you care so much, just give the money to people who know what they're doing, who are already doing this. Don't try to set up a school with your name on it. Like it's one of my biggest pet peeves.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
People who think like, oh, I've got money and my heart's in the right place. So I'll start my own nonprofit and it'll be it'll be in my image. And it's like, no, people have been doing this. People know what they're doing. There are people who specialize in working with at risk youth. Give the money to them. Like, don't do it on your own.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And I really, there is a thing, this needs to be studied, wealthy people trying to open schools, like Kanye West doing it.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
There's something, I mean, I say this as a former educator where when you are an educator, everybody thinks they know how to do your job better than you. People who have never been in a classroom before, people who have never been involved in education before somehow are all, you know, would know exactly what to do.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
There's something about education that I think makes rich people who got successful in one lane feel like they could open a school or that they know how to do it. It's very frustrating. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
But and having I remember so viscerally watching the Oprah and Africa specials. And again, like I want to give her grace because I get it right. Like it's like the most beautiful, precocious little girls in green uniforms and like dancing. smiling ear to ear, and it shot with that filter on it that everything looks kind of like the glazy filter. It was beautiful. I remember crying.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I get why this is more... why she would rather do this than just send money to somebody who's already doing it. But it goes back to that idea of like the thing that is boring and kind of like commonplace isn't what you want. You want your name on a school, girls in uniforms lined up smiling from ear to ear. Like that's the thing that gives you the warm fuzzies.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oof. I have to say as someone who grew up in the church, so I can say this. Yeah. You can get like church folk to hand over money and believe anything. Like if you're like, I. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
How are we all feeling? Oh, I'm honored to be part of this like mega episode.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I still think it has, like, I don't know. It's so weird. I find myself rooting for her. When I hear the thing about, like, the Haiti thing, I'm like, damn, I was rooting for you, Oprah. I wanted to be the voice of, like, no, guys, it's really complex and nuanced. But here's shit like that, and it's hard to say that. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, you can listen to my podcast on iHeartRadio called There Are No Girls on the Internet. Check it out. And you can follow me on Instagram at BridgetMarieNDC.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I wasn't even thinking about that. But yes, not even that.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And I think because the alternative is like airbrushed and perfect and unattainable visions of people, especially for youth, I can understand why maybe deep down, you know, it's like manufactured authenticity in scare quotes. But because the alternative is so clearly manufactured, it's easy to think like, well, this at least feels a little more authentic, even if it's bullshit.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. I think I've known Sophie. I think I met you, Sophie, before I met Robert.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. I also think something that she does so well that has really been made clear from the last few episodes is that idea of the personal being the political. Yes. Really being able to blend those things in this way that's just irresistible. It's the reason why her audience was getting up and sharing their sexual assault stories without even really being prompted. Me too before me too was me too.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Robert and I, we went to a, like... You went to a Nazi thing together.
Behind the Bastards
Part Five: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
This idea of really being able to blend those ideas in a way that make people want to connect and engage. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Wow, I love that. You didn't by chance buy that in Maryland, did you? That's giving me big Maryland vibes.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I got my first podcast job lying about knowing Final Cut Pro, and then I had to go on YouTube and learn how to use Final Cut Pro.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Can I say something? Because I do think it highlights how unequal the playing fields are for black women in media. I mean, black women across the spectrum of any profession, but like, yeah, like local radio DJs, the people who ostensibly are also colleagues are also in media making it a joke segment about who she is dating romantically, privately. Like,
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
That having to contend with that on top of having to do your job with all these eyes on you. I mean, like, it's completely ridiculous.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
It's a croupier for roulette. Is that how you say it? It is. You're about to get another people being like, actually, you said it wrong, Robert. It's this.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I just realized something crazy, which is that Oprah, the character that Oprah plays in The Color Purple, she's married to a character named Harpo. Really? It's like, isn't that crazy? I had no idea.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, she's married to a character named Harpo in the movie. That's why I just realized that it's also the name of her. It's also her name backward. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
But I think your point about like this setting Oprah apart, I think it really is a testament to how her troubled background really is something that she draws from and is able to like, like that's, I think that is the secret sauce of what made this connect in a different way. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I love how that's pretty twisted. Oprah was like, I want some freaky deekies in here.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, my God. Joan was such a bitch. I can't wait to see how mean this is. Oh, she sucks so bad. I mean, I like...
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Although, I gotta say, though, that was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. That is just how people talk to bigger people. People feel totally comfortable saying shit like this to people's faces, and they don't even think twice about it. This is totally how people talk.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
It's the worst part of being a podcaster. It's like having a public record of stupid shit that you thought, or if you're me, shit that you thought was pronounced one way and it's pronounced another way.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
So she's, like, she's fucked no matter what. I don't love anybody, like, micromanaging somebody else's weight, but The Color Purple is based on a novel by Alice Walker, and the character she was portraying, like, I get, it's not something I think he should have said, but I get where he's coming from. It's, yeah, I don't know. I don't know.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, I mean, Color Purple is, like, it is a classic. It's probably the movie I have seen the most times in my life. Like, it is, like, the way that she was in that movie, it was a revelation. Like, even thinking about it now, as good as, like, Whoopi Goldberg is in that movie and Danny Glover is in that movie. Danny Glover, yeah. Oprah is the standout character. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
So probably her big scene in The Color Purple is when she gives the speech to Celie, all my life I had to fight. If you've heard that Kendrick Lamar song, all right, that's where the beginning of that song comes from is Oprah's big scene in that movie. Like that movie, the way it shifted the culture, we like really cannot be overstated.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. And they might appear as like wholesome, normal family, but behind closed doors. Uh-oh.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I have a question, like, what is the production of this like behind the scenes? Like, where did they find this lady? Did they, is it just like, oh, you've got a story about killing babies and sacrifice?
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
That's the person you should give a platform for sure.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I'm so curious if she... Because it sounds like at one point in her career, she really thought of herself as, like, a news person, a journalism person. What does she think about her career now?
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
That's who molests kids. But it's so much more satisfying to believe it's some like big conspiracy. Yeah. And Andrew, to your point, why would they even need the tunnels?
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And I'd have to imagine if she did, the answer would be like, well, everybody was doing it. Like, this is what people did on TV.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Now that everybody's been bummed, way to go. Yeah. I know that was like a tough spot to end at, I guess. Although I will say I'm still thinking about that headline or that title of her review, MLK shot twice. I'm going to be thinking about that one for a long time.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, do it to me. I mean, I've had to bite my tongue because I have so much to say. Go ahead and spam me on Blue Sky. I want to hear your favorite Oprah takes. I'll tell you mine.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, it would just be me talking about, and another time on Oprah she did this, and then another episode she did that. It would be so unfun to listen to.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Fun fact about that, that's why we have flame retardant couches now, because the cigarette industry was like, we can't keep getting popped for this. Personal responsibility.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, I actually did go to Catholic school.
Behind the Bastards
Part Three: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And it's wild to me that he like, even in retelling that he's like, and she didn't even find it funny. She wasn't amused, can you believe it?
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Robert and I have been talking about doing the Oprah episodes for what feels like a year. And the subject of like, who do we have on for this? Like guests, who do we have on for this? What do we do? Because like, no matter what, like, I mean, I read Oprah's bio in like, middle school and like she comes off with her like origin story as like heroic. Oh, yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I love I love that haircut with the built in bangs.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I'm not. Just imagine a really big bottle of wine.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I also did an Oprah book report probably in the fifth grade. And, you know, she was on my television for my my my mom watched a lot of Oprah. There was a lot of Oprah in my household growing up. And then like a few years ago, I was working on a project with Jamie Loftus. And we went back and we were looking for like a specific Oprah episode to reference in something.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And just the show episode titles were so triggering.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And then Robert and Bridget, you were both at the DNC in Chicago, but I don't think you guys were both there for Oprah's speech, were you? No, I was out at one of the Palestine protests. I was in the audience. I remember it very well. Yeah, I was there for that. And it was like the most detached I felt from an audience in my life. I was like, oh, no.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like, it's really I had a very like I'm saying that's why that's why I was like I was I was like I was like, really, we're still we're still. And then again, there were several people that I was like, oh, these are known horrible humans and people are going feral for them as well. But yeah, Oprah, Oprah cheers were.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
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Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Bridget, at the DNC, when she came out, were you sitting or standing? I wish I could say that I like turned my back.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Were you in the standing section or the sitting section?
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
So here's my question. When she came out, did you immediately look under your chair?
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I'm like, Oprah, did you leave me a present? You get a car. I wish. Oprah came out and instinctively was like, is there a gift? There was not.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
You know how she has that thing? I just knew you were the right person for this job. I was so excited.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I do. I was going to say, Bridget is the host of There Are No Girls on the Internet.
Behind the Bastards
Part One: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And also just one of my favorite people in the entire world. That's right. That's right. She is here and we are so lucky. Who is our second guest today? Because we couldn't have just one for Oprah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And it's funny because I would peg Oprah as somebody that I would assume would be a good judge of character. And she's a terrible judge of character. It's like it truly is like the worst people who come into her orbit. She's like, let's make you a star. What's up with that?
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
This is what I'm talking about with her. He just was the I am a voice artist, right? Like I've narrated plenty of things. The fact that this guy who already had a pretty problematic history just was a narrator and she's like, ooh, let's elevate you. Let's make you a star. Something must be like, I don't know.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I don't know where I'm going with this, but it baffles me why she would want to be further mixed up with a person like this. Just based on him being a narrator of The Secret.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I do think we're in this... I mean, today, I think we are in a weird golden age of, like, entrepreneurism and tech and, like, bullshit, grifty spirituality kind of coming together. Like, I feel like this was on the, like...
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
This guy was sort of on the early days of what is definitely here because I have heard so many people in tech who are sort of like that woman describes, like not sure what they should do. Maybe they've been laid off. They're not sure what's next for them. And there are so many people.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
hucksters that will take their money and offer them something that they that is meant to be like a spiritual whether it's psychedelics that's like a thing that's really taking off right now in that space it makes me so sad that people who probably could have used like therapy or a career coach would turn to somebody who would so callously exploit them and put them at such danger that they would die and like die paying for the pleasure it's just so disgusting and it like it just it's
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, it's just these people have no values and they are such hucksters.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
He was definitely going to kill somebody for sure.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. I also like how he describes it as, like, I was involved in an accident out in Sedona.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
You might think that he means like a dirt bike. He was involved in a dirt bike accident or something.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
When you don't know it's lies, I mean, I remember the opening, it opens with him like coming to on a plane and he doesn't know where he's going. And it turns out he was on a bender and they're sending him to rehab. Like, yeah, it opens and you're like, I'm locked and loaded, like lock in. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And when you find out it's bullshit, you realize like, oh, it really questioned my bullshit detector because I was like, how did I not realize that this was fiction? Going back and reading it, knowing it's lies, like it really reads like bad fiction.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I remember reading a piece about how other memoirists who genuinely lived experiences that Frey kind of like made up or fabricated, like people who genuinely struggled with addiction or like had rough circumstances that they had a hard time selling their books because of him. And like the impact that it made on people who were trying to write about those tough experiences. Really? Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
This doesn't surprise me at all because this was certainly a well-worn claim about Oprah that she was really interested in mining the trauma specifically of the black community and sort of packaging it and turning it into a commodity. And
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, I mean, I can't help but see reflections of this and how she might have been thinking about some of those schoolgirls when she was coming up with the idea to launch that school, right? Like, I think that our experiences do often have traumatic legacies and, like, baggage and all of that. But that's not the only story that there is.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And so I wonder if, like, maybe she does have a preoccupation with, you know, kind of the – kind of traumatic, not just traumatic, but like traumatic in a very specific recognizable way that this author is calling her out for. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And I wonder, like, Robert, to your point about, like, certainly Oprah is not reading these books, you know, on her compound and then handpicking them. Someone's picking them for her. So, like, why not consult, like, a Nigerian? Like, she has infinite resources. It wouldn't be that hard to find somebody who knows what a good pick would be.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, she doesn't pass the mic. I feel like that is like really the theme here is that she wants it to be about her. She won't pass the mic.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I mean, I hate to brand that as a positive, but I do feel like she was ahead of her time, whether that's a good thing or a bad thing. Look how popular things like true crime are. The idea of packaging suffering as entertainment. I feel like sometimes that's all media is right now. And I feel like I can't...
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I can't not see the ways that she was onto something before it had really become like that much of a thing.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Both happen. Yeah. And there are so many things from her story that you've told us that were just pure luck. Like the reaction to her higher ups when she, you know, took the gamble and took the risk on like, I'm going to berate this woman on the show. And like, luckily it's going to be a hit. That's luck. Cause her higher ups could have fired her for that.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like that could have, her story could have ended there. Luckily it didn't. And they had a different reaction, but like to say like, oh, that was a calculated choice.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
obviously not like I just can't believe that someone would discount sort of like right place right time luck like oh just luckily it worked out that way to their success story everybody has that that in their success story everybody yeah and it's it's this problem of like conflating I benefited from luck to saying like I'm lucky and like especially if you've had as nightmarish an upbringing as she has I get why there's some offense to that but like you know
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I wonder for Oprah, if there's some aspect to where she thinks that like her success was, I don't want to say predetermined, but like, I know a lot of people who believe that they are where they are because it was like, like divinely written that way. And like, it doesn't matter what choices they make because it's all going to work out for them in the end.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like that's definitely a mindset of people that I, that I know. And I wonder if she feels that way.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Conflicted, I will say. Conflicted, but ready to hear more. Okay.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I love that the specific things that she was praising her for are the most like Karen conspiracy theorist attributes. Like, oh, way to know the Internet. Way to not trust authority. Way to like.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Of all the things I thought you were where you thought you were going to go. If you had said prayer, that would be the only thing like more ridiculous.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
It's like, hey, do you have a condom? Like, no, I've got some tomatoes.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And like the harm they do, like she's going to be fine. It's like she unleashed this chaos to all of us and she's going to be fine forever.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Ooh, a page from the Amanda Palmer playbook.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
What if the life that I want involves being paid for my labor?
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
She does look awesome spinning fire. She looks dope.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Sometimes I think Oprah should have just been like me in college doing psychedelics and looking at black light posters and just like, like if she had just kept this in like the, the common area of the dorm, we all might've been a little better off.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I think the choice to like lean into it is what is the thing for me. Like that wasn't happenstance. She made a clear editorial decision about what it was, what kind of work she was going to prioritize, what kind of voices she was going to amplify. It's kind of hard to come back from that for me. But I do take your point, Andrew. I do think that a lot of this is like,
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
she really held a mirror up to our worse base instincts and desires and impulses. And like, I mean, I kind of, you know, I'm sorry, please.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Are you saying that the real bastard is us?
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. Now I'm like questioning my whole media career. Am I just like pumping out stuff that it's I don't realize is going to have it like down the line is going to have a bad effect on society. I don't even realize it yet. Am I early Oprah? God, I hope so.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Not me, baby. Bridget, can I have a car better than a Pontiac? No. Everyone gets Pontiac Sunfires and that's that.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
exactly that and like fundamentally they make public they erode public education they're at least where i live they're like full of like pretty like like they're basically racist in my mind like the way that they talk about school choice it's used as a giant dog whistle to be like you don't really want your kids next to black and brown kids do right right like
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And I think so even if all of her schools, all of these schools were great, it still contributes to a lot of pretty, I think, messed up things in education.
Behind the Bastards
Part Six: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
He couldn't even watch the assembly with Oprah. Like they, they would like.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. All the positive vibe shit is so like, just consider the converse of what you're saying for two seconds. I think everyone who, yeah, this child deserved to die because his vibes were off.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
It's a really good salad. It's not my salad, but unfortunately it's TikTok. So I plagiarized it either way, but it is TikTok's salad, I guess. It's someone's salad. I understand that, but it's not mine.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I mean, I think it is just like the like only able to concentrate on the positive or what you perceive as the positive. It's just it is like, yeah, I mean, you just have to be stupid is the main thing. Like, oh, I don't understand the B side of what I'm saying because that is the answer.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
There just is no... like even second consideration or like, like what does this, what does what I say mean?
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Well, the problem is just like it only takes one or two slightly smarter evil dogs. Yeah. To really fuck shit up, which is where we're living now.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I was just going to say, does none of these people find it sacrilegious how stupid Jesus is in these instances?
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I... Listen. I'm a person that has, like, an obnoxious way of speaking, but... Is it truly not possible for just some... This just requires some child to be like, what the fuck are you talking about?
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
The problem is he should be from Boston, but not like that. Not like that. Not like from Boston, if you know what I'm saying.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, my God. It's not materially dumber than anything Elon Musk tweets.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
You know, your mind palace is your paradise, Robert.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
This is also, by the way, more or less the pitch from the bad guys in The Matrix. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, this is like the parable of the cave people just really jonesing for some more cave.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I will just point out that if you substitute the word erd tree in there a few times, this is basically just Elden Ring lore.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Now, I mean, but, you know, I guess I feel like someone should just say that's not true. His last statement.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
It's also just like, you know, just because there isn't a full understanding of schizophrenia... you're going to really trust that chemotherapy vaccine, et cetera. Like, yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. His pitch is that I'm not burdened with all this knowledge and history of the process. So I have a clearer insight into how to fix things. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I was going to say, whoever invented this truly needs to go to jail. The concept is...
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Hey, listen, at least we do have a name for the straight up fucking pedophile enabler at minimum. Meg Meeker?
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. It's also like... That is such a healthier type of consent than anything that actually happens in fucking high school. Right. Right.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Also, not to give notes on the slang, but shouldn't it be high four? I just, I don't know, man.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I just, like, it's tough that Hoovering really, you know, it used to be just suffering from a Great Depression, and now it's been tainted so badly. Oh, man.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I mean, obviously, the Internet is absolute poison, but truly watching this clip of someone basically read fake Urban Dictionary on national TV does kind of give me like, OK, some things were improved.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I mean, obviously they were, they had a vested interest in never thinking about this, but like nothing is more like universal than teens lying to old ass adults.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like just like the credulousness is, I mean, I guess that I'm realizing now, I guess, is like Oprah's big crime is just like criminal credulity.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
It's like the dumbest shit you've ever heard. She'll just be like, I mean, listen, that's exactly what Joe Rogan does. Right, right.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I know popes who have been shot way more than that. Also, do individual popes really have that much influence? I mean, they're still weighing in.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Well, I just mean, like, they don't really have more influence than any other pope, really. Like, you're still operating within the bands of Catholicism.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Okay. I am more sold by the concept of a vaping car.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And like true crime podcasts now, it's like just the make white women assume that the world is out for their kids industry is the strongest thing going.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah. Yeah. Well, also it's like, I mean, because it is, you know, scout leaders, church leaders and their husbands that are doing most of this stuff. It's like those people are the ones that they have some responsibility for bringing into their child's life. Whereas a narco gang is just randomly out there. Like you don't have to confront anything about yourself to protect a kid from the others.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Well, it's like the safety theater makes you feel better. Then again, confronting the actual difficult shit that is in the world.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Scouts in general. It's also just like a right wing paramilitary organization. Even without the funny business. Well, you can learn how to camp and fish and hunt without all the fucking like allegiances to order.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Excellent. Andrew T. I don't know, man. Just as he owes us race. This is a podcast. Excellent. Excellent.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Anyway. I actually got a little glimmer of hope from that. Just like a reminder that I know, and I'm not like a teacher. I had lunch with a friend who was a teacher yesterday, and he was like, the kids are not able to read. Yeah. I do think... This might be counterfactual to survey data, but I do kind of think every generation thinks the current kids are dumber than ever before.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, but it's also like, you know, the kids are getting fucked up on particularly spicy epigrams from Catullus. You know, it's just like I think it's always been like this.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Right. Well, also like the satanic panic stuff is not bad because it's smut. It's bad because it's lies.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, I love the Washington Post. It's fine. It's only getting better. They're turning it around.
Behind the Bastards
Part Four: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I had a really good Clementine in the break.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Well, sort of. I mean, I'm in D.C. where they just put up all of the safety scaffolding for the inauguration.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
That's not in dispute. That's not in dispute.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I will say there's something about this conversation. I don't know if it totally fits, but. you know i think that a lot of black folks and folks of color when you get older and you think about the way that you showed up amongst your own people growing up like i definitely went through a thing where you know i don't even know how to put it like
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I went for a walk and I was like, damn, it's happening. The city is like... Getting ready. So, like, there's plywood over windows being put up. So, you know, there's no wildfires, which I'm grateful for. But I wouldn't say I'm feeling pumped. It's not the chillest vibe here on the East Coast.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
you definitely can internalize like they don't, my own people are rejecting me because I like anime or because I'm nerdy and too smart. And then you get a little older and it's like, wait, am I a pain in the ass? And that's why they're rejecting me. And like, it's very easy to like internalize some very self-serving reasons for why you feel the way you feel.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And then you get a little more mature and you're like, well, what's that really? What was going on? Is that actually the thing?
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Someone listening is like, what are you talking about, Andrew? What are you talking about? My parents glow whenever they see me.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I feel like it's got to be more interesting when the bastards are a little bit complex. No, like where it's like, oh, I kind of have sympathy or empathy for them in some ways, but they did it like it's got to be a little meatier.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I mean, where do you think she learned that behavior? Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I have to say though, I used to play school and it only now hearing this, am I like, oh, was it like not fun for the others that I would make myself the teacher?
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
really yeah yeah so I mean not to continue to like make Oprah's story about the traumas and historical baggage of like some black communities but like again this idea that I think is really foisted upon black girls and young women about being quote fast where when you are clearly having a response to like a sexual trauma or something that has happened you know it's
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
it's used to sort of marginalize you and other you and like say something is wrong with you as opposed to like, oh, are the adults around you somehow failing you? The fact that like her 19-year-old, you know, adult cousin was, it seems like not reprimanded and still welcome back into the home.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Meanwhile, Oprah, young Oprah, her response to the sexual trauma is for her to be criticized by her own family is really telling. Like, Who gets demonized and who gets welcomed back with no accountability?
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
He basically is like, can you blame him though?
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And this is the woman who still denies Oprah sexual abuse.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I wouldn't want this person in my life either.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And Aretha was giving interviews and stuff like... for even in like right before she died.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Yeah, I was going to say I see some echoes of some of our, you know, we're talking about a school election, but I see some echoes of our current situation.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
The thing about Hearst, I mean, like, first of all, if you are a black person listening, every black person has been called an Oreo at one point in their life. That is not a unique experience at all. Take it from me. But it goes back to what I was saying of, like,
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Is it possible that it wasn't that the other black kids didn't like her or like because they clearly liked her because she was the person that they picked. Is it possible that it wasn't about the way that she spoke? Maybe she was being an asshole at times and didn't notice it. And like, that's why they were picking on her in this way.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like, it's very easy to internalize this as, oh, they were picking on me because I was smart and ambitious and I was I spoke proper and got good grades. And it's like, well, is that really what was going on?
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
It reminds me of what Andrew was talking about in our last episode of how much do you really truly remember as a kid versus how you're remembering how it felt, right?
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Like, what do you, I mean, I think like, and also like the idea that we are talking a lot about these very, very early years in her life in this way of like, well, is she a liar or not based on what she remembered slash felt when she was four, right?
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
When you were talking about her, like, heyday when she was going to Hollywood and winning speeches and elections, it was hard for me to not feel. I was kind of, like, beaming thinking about this time in her life. Like, I was like, yeah, like, good. Like, I'm imagining, like, a montage of her really moving up. And I guess I'm waiting to see how when the other shoe drops. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, all right. Well, you could check out my podcast on iHeartRadio called There Are No Girls on the Internet or my other podcast with the Mozilla Foundation, Makers of Firefox, all about power and people and ethics in AI called IRL. New season coming soon. Follow me on Instagram at Bridget Marie in D.C. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Except DJ Daniel. DJ Daniel is the best. And shout out to Andrew. I love your DJ Screw shirt.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Oh, well, that is like tale as old as time. I mean, even when you're really young, you definitely get the sense when there's somebody in your family who has a lighter complexion, you definitely are aware of that.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And in a lot of families and a lot of dynamics, there's like a very clear difference in how someone is treated and the things that you might think of as your gifts that should be very obvious. Like, I'm smart, I'm well-spoken, I have the gift of gab, whatever.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
you might not feel like those things are being praised comparatively to someone who's being praised for their complexion, a thing they can't even really control about themselves. I definitely that really rings true to me.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
And again, I could see how her family would be invested in that. Like, oh, we were never colorist against our own in this family. How dare she say that? That's a lie.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
Could you say that Oprah is the black Timothy McVeigh? Just absolutely.
Behind the Bastards
Part Two: Is Oprah Winfrey a Bastard?
I feel like you're about to say something about a nickname that you had as a youth. And then you stop.
Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards Presents: Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
Friend of the pod, Bridget Todd of There Are No Girls on the Internet says, During uncertain times, people sell easy solutions because our brains in times of precarity crave simple solutions. But often those comforting, simple solutions are just placeholders for the reality, which is that the problem is actually systemic and institutional.
Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards Presents: Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
You're not going to dismantle it in your specific nuclear household and family. If you're only looking within your own family, you're not looking hard enough at the larger issues at play.
Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards Presents: Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
To overlook the influence of Mormon and other Christian mommy bloggers on this shift would be a huge oversight. Mormon mommy bloggers in particular were enormously influential in establishing the aesthetic and tone that came to characterize influencer era online motherhood.
Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards Presents: Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
Mormonism encourages the careful documentation of family life and Mormon mothers were among blogging's earliest and most enthusiastic adopters. Unlike the confessional early mommy blogs, Mormon mothers' blogs broadcast a clean and chipper vision of motherhood, replete with DIY crafting projects and coordinated family photo shoots.
Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards Presents: Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
Many of the most successful Mormon bloggers from the mid-aughts, like Amber Fillerup Clark and Naomi Davis, went on to become mainstream lifestyle bloggers and, although their Mormon faith is no secret, its prominence receded as the years passed.
Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards Presents: Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
I've been thinking a lot lately about my life and just how grateful I really am that I am right here, right now. Two people, one was a past pageant coach, the other a fellow dancer I once danced with, asked me if I was really happy to have given up those dreams for where I am today. Ha! I am so happy. I am so at peace. I have a husband who is mine forever.
Behind the Bastards
Behind the Bastards Presents: Sixteenth Minute (of Fame)
Together, we have a beautiful baby boy who is full of purity and joy. I get to dance and teach as much as possible, and I love that, of course. But there is nothing more rewarding than seeing my family here. Right now, I really feel like the luckiest girl in the world. So, yep, I am happy. Goal for the week, only eat out once.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
Thank you for having me. It's actually my first time on It Can Happen Here. I'm, like, a little, like, nervous. I hope it goes well.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
We were talking off mic like I need to figure out a self-care plan. And part of this is on me that I feel like I am one of those people that has kind of checked out a little bit. I'm like, oh, who I am. I got to take a step back from this. And now that I'm taking a step back in, I'm like, I need a plan for how I'm going to pace myself and not lose my fucking shit every fucking day.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
I'm also doing dry January and trying to eat healthy.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
So I have no outlets. I can't drink. I don't do drugs. I'm fucking eating lentil soup every night. I got nothing. There's nothing I can do to cope.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
I'm going to go out to the mountains. I don't want to be here. Yeah.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
Like that, you're joking, but like almost literally that.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
And I mean, I was in, so I live in D.C. I've lived in D.C. most of my life. I was in D.C. in my apartment when January 6th happened. And I remember being so scared. There was a curfew in D.C. Like, it just, shit got really real really quickly.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
I remember I was on a wall staff, like, beginning of the year planning work call, and somebody just on the Zoom was like, hey, um, something's happening, and... Everybody who lives in D.C. should maybe check the TV. And then the line went dead. That's what I remember the most. So I was planning on getting out of town. And then I thought, fuck it.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
Why should these people drive me out of my own city? I want to be out on the streets. I want to be out in my community. I want to be connected. And so, yeah, I went out to the People's March protest. I went out as far as I could to Inauguration downtown just to get a sense of what the vibes were.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
Weird as hell. This is something that I think people might not really think about a lot. So like being from D.C., living here most of my life, people really obviously think of it as like a seat of national power. And they sometimes forget that there are over 600,000 D.C. residents who just like live here, work here, have their lives here. And so
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
This stuff all plays out like practically in our backyards while arguably we have less electoral political power and less agency in some ways because D.C. is not a state.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
Our congressional representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, she can like vote in committees and introduce legislation and stuff like that, but she can't vote. And so all of this matters for... It's so fucked up. It's... Dude, don't even get me started.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
It is. And it's like, I mean, like, there are so many reasons why it sucks that D.C. 's not a state. But ultimately, it's like, we deserve to have political power. We deserve to have a state.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
And I mean, I could talk all day when Republican lawmakers get on TV. And I remember they would shit on D.C. by saying things like there's not even loggers who live there. It's not even a real place. Like as if the only way to actually meaningfully exist in the United States is like you have to have loggers who live there.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
So all of this background really matters to Trump's kind of tense relationship with D.C., like the district. Trump, as you all might remember, spent quite a lot of time just talking straight shit about the district and announcing these like big plans to take over D.C. The background is a little bit complicated, but the quick and dirty version is that D.C. has what's called home rule.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
So that's like the ability for D.C. to govern, like for our local government and leaders to like make decisions about what happens to the district. And on the campaign trail, Trump was saying he wants to change this, that D.C. 's home rule would be revoked and that the federal government, basically him, would dictate how D.C. is run as a city. Because D.C.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
is not a state, technically any president could have that authority to interfere with how D.C. is run. So, yeah, any president could, like, take over the police department and take over the powers our mayor, Muriel Bowser, currently has over the city. Right.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
I mean this in the most literal sense. Nobody. Zero. I was out there flying solo and I had multiple friends be like, you're crazy to go down there. Like what? Like everybody.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
And I guess that's something else that I wanted to talk a bit about, which is that, you know, the first time around during Trump's inauguration, I was like out on the streets. I was like, it sounds so silly now, but like, I mean, almost don't even want to get into it, but the idea of like resist, that had not yet become a cliche to me.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
And in the aftermath of Trump's first election, I was really clinging to that for like whatever hope or power. I didn't know it was going to turn out to be like a bunch of grifters and like people saying like hashtag resist and like meaning nothing. At the time, I really clung to that. This time around, total night and day difference. And I think the mood on the street, I think, reflected that.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
I think that D.C. is exhausted. The people that generally I know who are, like, radicals, who would be out on the street, a lot of those people were like, we're sitting this one out.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
That was like a refrain I hear from a lot of black and brown organizing folks here in D.C. Like, this is not our fight. We are we are sitting this one out. And I don't blame anybody. Right. Like, it's a lot. We've all been through a lot.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
The last time Trump was in office, y'all remember like the Women's March and pussy hats and all of that? I actually staffed the Women's March that time around. I was one of the digital street team folks. So I was like very invested. This time around, they changed the name. They rebranded to the People's March. And they only had a couple of thousand people out there.
Behind the Bastards
It Could Happen Here Weekly 166
And so, you know, I think it really goes back to what you were saying, Robert, personally. I have a hard time with the idea that what we did then is what we should be doing now, that that that that playbook is still going to work. And frankly, like 69 percent of white women voted for Trump. Right.
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And so, like, the idea that I would feel safe and feel solidarity with a bunch of women out on the streets, like being like, boo Trump. It's just like. I understand why the turnout was so low because I feel like solidarity and march on the street is clearly not where we're at. So that is not how we should be meeting this moment.
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Yeah, I mean, Garrison, you really said it. And in this moment, personally, I am really wondering, like, what my role is. Like, where can I fit in? There was a time where, you know, just being out on the street yelling, like being so frustrated, I have to take to the streets and scream in impotent rage. That would feel like something.
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And I just think in 2025, I have to figure out, like, what it is I can contribute and contribute that. And I don't know that it's protest as it used to be. Like I used to be somebody who like protest was my thing. Like, you know, I really got my start in the anti-war movement when I was in college. And like that felt like something. I don't think that that's what it is for me anymore.
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Maybe it's just age too. You age out of it or something.
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So yes, and I don't know that I see some of the institutional powers that be, even people who are like ostensibly like on our side, doing that pivot, right? Like I'm very much in this sort of like nonprofit industrial complex. All the organizations who were like, oh, well, where should we put in our money and this and that? The first time around, I just see them doing the same old thing.
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And it's like, I don't know that that is what's going to save us. And like, Don't get me started on how useless the Democrats are because I'll go all day. But like when Trump announced that he was moving the inauguration inside, they printed little jokey shirts that said snowflake. I'm just so sick of that. Like that sort of like sneering, dunking.
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useless stuff that doesn't translate to meaningful action. I'm just so sick of it. I wanted to gouge my eyes out.
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Okay, I'm not even sure, like... I have so much to say about this. So I have been saying this for a very long time. And, you know, we were all at the Democratic National Convention. I have to admit that I was there as an influencer. But the thing that annoyed me so much was like that exact sentiment and that exact sentiment.
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fucking lost and the thing that the thing that pisses me off now is the complete unwillingness to be like where did we go wrong maybe the memes and the jokes and the calling them weird and then this and that that maybe it felt good in the moment but it actually didn't translate what happened unwilling to do that completely unwilling
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I could not agree more. And yeah, I mean, I agree. I think the weird stuff could have like had legs. I think that they were kind of like scattershot at that point. And they were like, oh, people seem to like this. Let's lean into this. Oh, this new thing. Let's lean into that. The thing that I remember very clearly was when Tim Walz was talking about how, oh, we have a saying in Minnesota.
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It's mind your own damn business. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So like my partner is from Minnesota and he was like, oh, that is like absolutely a Minnesotan thing. Mind your own damn business. Yeah.
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So I agree. But yeah, the like calling Elon, Elmo, like all these little cutesy things might feel good and like get you a hit of dopamine and get you a few, you know, likes on whatever. But it just it's not going to save us. And I'm so sick of it. I feel like in some ways it's all anyone has to offer right now and I'm sick of it.
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Not a gaggle. I saw one lone one. I'm sure it was like, I've lost my groove.
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And I mean, what do you make of like, I guess I knew it was coming, but when all those J6 goons got pardoned and so like you have like the leader of the Oath Keepers, the leader of the Proud Boys getting released from D.C. jail, like what do you make of that?
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I think that's where a lot of my anxiety comes from. The not knowing of like it could go this way or that way. Both are bad. But what flavor are we going to get? Like that's the thing that is really getting to me right now.
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Yeah. So as you said, this was the first time that they in mass came to D.C. since January 6th. And they marched through the streets of D.C. holding a banner that said, congratulations, President Trump. And they chanted, whose streets? Our streets. Which, by the way, that is such like, again, as someone who kind of like came up on like street protest. Yeah. Y'all are doing the chant all late.
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Yes. And I saw this... I mean, speaking of J6 rioters who were all, you know, pardoned, I saw this video that really kind of broke my heart. It was a video that some MAGA dipshit took outside of the jail where all those people were being held. And so... There's a black DC elder who clearly is just like minding her business, walking down the street in her city.
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And she gets baited into an on-video screaming match outside of the DC jail where this MAGA guy yells like, like, Like, oh, we didn't do anything wrong. No crime was committed. And she's like, you all killed a cop. No cops got killed, which is not true.
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Like, it goes back to what you were saying, Robert, about how there is this need to quickly have it be like something that wasn't that big of a deal. And one, to see that in person in this video was wild to me. But two, seeing like a DC elder like take the bait broke my heart because I wish I could have could have been in that moment to be like, honey, you don't need to be screaming.
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This guy wants you to be screaming at him. He wants this video of you screaming at him on the street. This is like exactly what he wants.
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you know, the biggest takeaway from being out was just how sparse it was. Like, you know, the first time around, I probably had four different people staying with me, two of whom got arrested during the big anti-Trump protests. This time around, I didn't have anybody. I didn't know anybody who was there. And I do think that reflects kind of where people are at. I think people are exhausted.
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People have been through a lot. People are maybe pacing themselves and sort of like don't want to blow their rage wad on the first week, which I totally understand. But I think it really remains to be seen, like whether or not this vibe is going to take us through the next four years. Are people just tuning out? Are we checked out?
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Are we so exhausted and overstimulated already that we're not going to really be paying attention? And in some ways, like, I feel like that's exactly what authoritarians want.
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Oof, I love that. Something I know that isn't working is I'm glad that we're not doing... I thought you were going to pivot to ads.
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You're so good at ads. Like you could teach a class on it.
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Something that I'm glad we are not doing this time around is remember during the first Trump administration how the Washington Post changed their tagline to democracy dies in darkness and everybody gave them a shit ton of money because it was like, yeah, we need like good investigative journalism, traditional media. That's going to save us.
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I'm glad that this time around we've all cut the shit and it's like, no, they're part of it. They're not going to do a goddamn thing.
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And like, so even, I mean, I'm sure y'all have talked about this to death and I have been thinking about it nonstop, but Elon's seeing how the traditional press reported on his salute. It's like, oh, what did he do? Like the way they will contort themselves to not just come out and say it is astonishing to me.
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You actually just gave me a little bit of a silver lining that I had not realized, which is like, it kind of is useful to see so clearly where these institutions and power holders stand. And it's like when, like, I remember watching tech companies like change their logos to Black Lives Matter or post the black square. It's kind of freeing to be like, we don't have to do that shit anymore.
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We all don't have to pretend and we don't have to pretend either. We know where you stand. You've made it very clear. You could not make it. You could not have made it clear where your alliance is. And let's go from there. It almost is sort of like trimming the fat a little bit. We no longer have to take these institutions as serious as allies or something.
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But even that, I feel like there's, I mean, it's grim shit, but there's a kind of hope in it that, like, we've been, people have been here before, right? Like, you know, there have always been queer people, trans people, black and brown people, immigrants. Like, we are America. And, like, we've always been here, baby. We're always going to be here.
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And, like, making our way and, like, holding on and bracing ourselves and doing what we got to do and enduring, like, that is what we fucking do. And so in some ways, as grim as that is, it's kind of hopeful, question mark, also? Yep.
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that's so insightful. Yeah. I think when things feel hopeless, reading about how folks, you know, our elders, the folks who came before our ancestors, how they dealt with stuff like this has been really hopeful. And it's like, yeah, I guess I just try to tell myself we've been here before and people found a way to make it through. And, you know, it,
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feels uniquely tragic, but in some ways it is not. And as scary as that is, it can also be sort of like grounding.
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I think it's the writer Sarah Kendozer who has this line that I always think of. If you can't be brave, be kind. I think that like people who we see doing acts of big acts of bravery right now, like that's I mean, it's just there are so few of them. And I think especially when I look at like the tech leaders, they have so much fucking money.
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Somebody said on Blue Sky, what is the point of having fuck you money if you never say fuck you to anybody? Right. Like the way that these people turned out to be such yellow bellied cowards is wild to me. And so people actually having conviction and actually speaking to power, I think we should be lifting that up wherever it happens.
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Well, this is going to sound a bit random, but I have to just make sure that this gets in there because, you know, I'm talking about the impact of Trump's inauguration and what the next four years will look like for, you know, not just for people nationally, but folks right here in D.C. where this is happening in our backyard. And I have to give it up for the service industry folks of D.C.
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the last couple of days because they... Oh, my God. I, like, have heard...
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horror stories and I just I guess that's what I mean is that don't forget that there are real people who have to like put up with these people's bullshit and do it with a smile or they might get fired and you know in Adams Morgan which is like pretty close to where I live a woman at a an Irish bar had to be removed by a staffer because she was screaming white power at the bar like
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these people do not get paid enough to deal with this. And they are like the backbone of our city. So I just wanted to shout them out, especially since, you know, Trump switched up the inauguration because of the cold question mark.
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And so a lot more of these people were just sort of wandering around the district on inauguration who otherwise would have been confined to like a very specific neighborhood downtown. And so they were going into our bars, going into our restaurants. And yeah, I just really feel for my industry folks who had to deal with this.
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You know, they're not paid enough, but they really are the backbone of our city.
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You know, I started this conversation talking about all of the horrible things that Trump has said about D.C. and how he's going to take it over federally. And like, you know, he has said, like, we will take over the horribly run capital of our nation and Washington, clean it up and rebuild the capital. So there's it's no longer a nightmare of murder and crime, but rather hellhole.
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I know this like hellhole where like people live and raise their families and go to parks and ride bikes and have great times. Yeah. You know, I had a chance to talk to the mayor about this, and I will say our mayor, Muriel Bowser, is not convinced that any of this will happen. She is saying like, you know, I think that Trump says a lot of things.
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I think at the end of the day, he is probably not going to mess with D.C. 's home rule. And so I just wanted to say that if you're if you're in D.C. and you're listening and you're thinking like, what does Trump, you know, mean for D.C.? Are all these big threats that he has made going to come true? All I can tell you is that our mayor does not think it is likely.
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So if that is useful to you, I hope it brings you some comfort.
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motherfucker is not out here trying to genuinely govern like come on no so in some ways that is heartening of like oh well he's gonna like do his scams and whatever whatever like if he were to actually take over dc that's an incredible amount of work and labor and i don't think he's got it in him so maybe in some ways some of these threats will like fly under the radar i don't know yeah guess we'll see guess we'll see bridget where could people find you
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Well, you can listen to my podcast, There Are No Girls on the Internet, about the intersection of identity and tech. And you can follow me on Instagram at Bridget Marie in D.C.
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Thank you so much for having me. I am completely excited to be here. I am a listener of the show, so it feels like getting to be on a show that I actually freak out too often.
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So it sounds like we are in a similar place when it comes to this person. And this person is none other than Candace Owens. First of all, what are your thoughts on her? Because I am low-key fascinated with her. I follow her on social media. I watch her videos. Like I am like weirdly captivated by her.
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Yes. So there is so much to talk about when it comes to Candace Owens. I'm sort of like you, like I sort of saw her as a side character, but only recently have I realized like, oh, people in my life are listening to Candace Owens and citing Candace Owens. And they have no idea any about her, anything about her backstory. Yeah. All the stuff that you that you were just talking about.
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Oh my God. I have to say, I was, like, low-key embarrassed for her. Because, like, during her Kanye West era, she was like, Kanye West designed the couture outfits for my Blegzit movement. And Kanye West was like, no, I fucking didn't. And, like, I was like, oh, that's so embarrassing that you, like, that you, like, publicly aligned yourself with Kanye West only for him to basically, like...
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Yes, yes. Oh, Candace, girl. So I want to talk about her. Like, I don't want to spend too much time on her background, but there are some pieces that I think like...
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are good for understanding kind of who she is this chameleon figure that she's been totally if there is not like a behind the bastards on her do you know if there is there should be if there's not not yet similarly on bastards she's been one of these like recurring characters oh my god but she has not had a distinct focus
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Robert Evans, get on it because we need the Candace Owens behind the bastard. So Candace grew up in Stamford, Connecticut. While she was a student there, she went through this horrible sounding racial harassment.
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A classmate left her like this racist death threat on her voicemail that turned into like a pretty serious local scandal because it turned out the student who made that threat via voicemail did so in a car with a group of students that included the son of the then mayor and then future Democratic governor of Connecticut, Daniel Malloy.
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So she got tons of support from the local chapter of the NAACP, and her family ended up suing the Stanford Board of Education and Federal Court for failing to protect her rights, resulting in a $37,500 settlement. She went on to study journalism at University of Rhode Island before dropping out.
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Yes. This was like young, like baby Candace, high school Candace before she was the Candace Owen that we know today.
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So I sort of like almost see a little bit of myself and where she got her start. Like me, she was an early adopter of using the internet to talk about things like race and politics. Like me, that also seemed to sort of manifest in a lot of like low hanging fruit shit posts on the early days of blogging. Like in 2015, she was writing blogs making fun of Trump's penis size.
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Yes, many such cases. So in 2015, Owens is running a blog called Degree 180, where she wrote pieces criticizing conservative Republicans, writing about the, quote, batshit crazy antics of the Republican Tea Party. The good news is they will eventually die off peacefully and in their sleep, we hope.
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And then we can get right on with the obvious social change that needs to happen immediately, she wrote on her blog. So back then, she was really someone who had like a progressive point of view and was doing a lot of public writing about what she was seeing and experiencing in politics at the time.
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So in her own words, she describes it as happening overnight.
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Yeah. How it happened is, like, fascinating to me. So in 2016, when Gamergate was in full swing, Owens launched a Kickstarter for a project called Social Autopsy, which she described as a way to catalog the abuses of trolls and cyberbullies. Fun fact, that Kickstarter is still up today. It is such a weird time capsule of a different time.
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There's like a video of her speaking earnestly about the need to like have the internet be a like safer, more equitable landscape. It is nuts. Like people should go listen to her speaking about this project. So the plan for this project was essentially that she would create a way to de-anonymize online commentators and then connect them with like their real names and their real life employers.
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And what's so funny is that like that is the very same argument that a lot of
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people use people who like want to restrict the open internet still use today that like problems on the internet online harassment and abuse would all be improved if only everybody had to use their government id and government names to access the internet and so like it's very funny that that idea it was bad then and it didn't really die it was just recycled into today
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Yeah, so pretty much everybody thought this was a bad idea, including video game developer Zoe Quinn, who folks might remember was kind of at the center of Gamergate and was like viciously attacked. Owens was subsequently harassed and doxxed, and she blamed Zoe Quinn and other feminists for this and said so publicly. As you can probably guess, people like Milo Yiannopoulos loved this.
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People who were promoters of Gamergate really hyped up Owens' claims that, yes, feminists were actually the ones doing all the online harassing.
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So this event is what Owens credits with her turn from progressive to, quote, becoming a red-pilled radical. She says, I became a conservative overnight. I realized that liberals were actually the racists. Liberals were actually the trolls. She starts promoting right-wing viewpoints on her YouTube channel, calling herself, quote, red-pilled black, which I got to say is like pretty good branding.
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Yeah. Like, I'm not mad at the branding there. It's like, okay, black woman talking about like right wing stuff. Red pill black. I get it. I get it.
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Well, she almost instantly gets noticed by Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Points USA, right? And he hires her almost immediately. She starts cranking out these videos that really perform quite well. Like, her videos really go viral. Videos where she's doing things like dismissing the 2017 white supremacist Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
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Alex Jones gets her to co-host some of his InfoWars show. She's doing stints on Fox News as a paid commentator. Like... Business is booming for Candace Owens from this turn.
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Yes. In 2021, she joins up with the Daily Wire. There was so much fanfare around them hiring Candace. Like, it was a big deal. She moved to Nashville.
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Fun fact, there was even a House Joint Resolution, House Joint Resolution 350, a resolution in the Tennessee government to congratulate Candace Owens on relocating to Tennessee and for her work at Daily Wire that reads... Whereas Ms.
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Owens has earned the admiration and respect of millions of Americans through her activism in support of President Trump as a Black woman and her perceptive criticism of creeping socialism and leftist political tyranny.
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Yeah. Imagine it being like a joint resolution in your local government when you move someplace.
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So you would think that this should be like a match made in heaven, right? Smooth sailing. They need incendiary content creators. She's an incendiary content creator. Should be a match made in heaven.
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Not quite, because things end in like this really messy public fallout just a few years later. So I know that you've done episodes on this.
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From my perspective, and I would love to know what you think, it's not 100% clear what went down, but the public friction between Candace Owens and Ben Shapiro, one of the founders of Daily Wire, it seemed to be like related to reactions around the situation in Gaza, right?
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So Ben Shapiro is Jewish and Owens, as we said, has said and done like a lot of anti-Semitic stuff, like a lot.
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Yes, like she, I'm so glad that you mentioned that. She is not afraid to get down and dirty in public. And I do think like, you know, as a Black woman who works with a lot of white men, I would imagine that she's probably thinking like, I have to have some kind of decorum. I don't want anyone to say that I'm being a crazy Black woman or whatever. It seems like she has no such qualms.
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Like she is like, I will make this a public messy fight and I am not afraid to make a genuine spectacle of myself.
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And so it is really important to note that, like, as you said, she wasn't just like criticizing the Israeli state. She was like getting into like blood libel and like deep conspiracy theories.
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Yeah. Like one of the things that she said, she's claimed that Judaism was, quote, a pedophile centric religion that believes in demons and child sacrifice and that she was waking people up to the fact that pedophiles are in power, like stuff like that.
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Not good. So, as you said, like, this starts to become, like, a public feud toward her employer.
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She wrote on Twitter, no one can serve two masters, and ended her post writing, you cannot serve both God and money, to which Ben Shapiro, her boss, tweets, like, quote, tweeted, oh my God, like, Candace, if you feel that taking money from the Daily Wire somehow becomes between you and God, by all means, quit. Like, messy as hell.
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Right, right, right. Owens went on Tucker Carlson's show and said that Ben Shapiro was, quote, acting unprofessional and emotionally unhinged for weeks now. She said that Shapiro, quote, crossed a certain line. When you come for scripture and read yourself into it, I will not tolerate it.
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Yeah. So at one point, Owens tweets that she wants Ben Shapiro to have a public, like, debate with her, moderated by podcaster Patrick Bet-David. Ben Shapiro was having none of this. He tweets, Jesus Christ. Like, this is lawyer-employee going at it on Twitter.
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Yeah, I feel the same way, because it's just not a great look to have somebody that you just hired to all this fanfare coming at you like this on Twitter. And I think, I mean, this is just my opinion, so take that for what it's worth.
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Just as somebody who has worked in media and been around the block, the reason why I'm not comfortable saying like their feud was entirely based on Owens's anti-Semitic comments and behavior is that she just went so hard and so public that something to me, I almost wonder if there was like a contract dispute here. Like she was like, oh, I can make more money on my own. Totally.
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Got to get out of this contract or something because like it just doesn't smell right.
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Yes. So after Rabbi Shmuley Botich criticized Owens for her defenses of Kanye West, Owens liked a tweet asking Botich if he was, quote, drunk on Christian blood again. Jesus. And I guess that was the final straw. A few days later, Daily Wire and Candace Owens ended their relationship with Owens tweeting, the rumors are true. I am finally free.
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Okay, so that's what happened with her and Daily Wire. So where is she now? Well, this is where the story gets interesting because I had not heard from Candace Owens in a minute. And my reintroduction to her happened recently when I was trying to make sense of the dispute between two Hollywood A-listers, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
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So the issue between Blake and Justin, it's a little bit complicated and ongoing, but it's actually a pretty interesting story that includes a lot of things that I enjoy, like how celebrities use media and how social media platforms can be weaponized for or against specific people.
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Email correspondence where people make themselves look terrible in writing because they do not expect those emails to be in a deposition later. Like, that is my favorite thing in the world. Like, please continue to put your wrongdoing in writing so that my nosy ass can read it later and be like, ooh, messy.
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So I do encourage, like, folks to read up on it because it does go beyond just, like, two celebrities having a feud. But you don't really need to know the specifics for our purposes. The quick and dirty version is that Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni were in a movie adaptation of the very popular novel by Colleen Hoover called It Starts With Us.
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In December, Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni, accusing him of sexual harassment and starting a smear campaign against her. Baldoni strongly denies that and has sued her in response. Both camps have released information like emails, text messages, and video attempting to make the other look bad.
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So it has kind of turned into one of those inkblot tests that changes depending on whose version you buy. Version one is that Blake Lively was being sexually harassed on set by a fake feminist ally who is actually an abusive man.
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And so what's interesting about this to me is that it's one of those stories where algorithmically, it depends on what silo or what pocket of the internet you're at to determine what version of this story you're getting. Much like Johnny Depp's defamation lawsuit.
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Exactly. Exactly. And so for whatever reason... TikTok thinks I hate Blake Lively and want to pour over every nuance of how she is a fraud, right? Like, but someone else's TikTok might be like, no, Blake Lively, we should be supporting her.
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Like, it's one of those situations where just depending on where you are on the internet, you might get a very different impression of the public sentiment leaning one way or another.
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Yes, I do. I do not blame you. So I was trying to get to the bottom of it because I kept hearing about it like everyone was talking about it. So I'm talking to my cousins who I would lovingly describe as normies and that they are not super online. It's like they're not like you and me. They're not like deep into the depths of extremism or anything like that.
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And my cousins are like, oh my God, there is this black girl journalist who has been following everything and breaking it down. She has all the tea. We'll tag you. That journalist was Candace Owens.
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You know, Candace has been making so many videos off of this and like her coverage, coverage in quotes, has really taken off online. As The Cut put it in a piece called Candace Owens Has Gone Mainstream, they write, the right wing commentators coverage of the Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni case has reached millions of viewers.
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Owens' podcast was hours and hours of analysis of the case, deep dives into court filings, tabloid news stories, even Ryan Reynolds' recent SNL 50th anniversary special appearance. One listener said, she's really been able to go in and pinpoint discrepancies in some of the things Blake Lively has said, rather than us having to go through it on our own.
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One listener of her podcast says she recognizes that Owen seems to have a pro-Baldani bias, but she doesn't care because, quote, she's urging us to look past the fact that this is not a feminist issue at all, that it's about getting justice for whoever is being wronged here. She's uniting the left and the right.
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The right-wing women's magazine also published a headline about this saying, how Candace Owens is uniting conservatives and liberals with her It Ends With Us coverage.
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So her coverage of this dispute has really allowed her to attract a lot more viewers beyond her like normal right-wing extremist base, which has generally been like a lot of white men, like that who was really listening to her content before when she was with Daily Wire. Now she has really branched out.
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So like normies, like my cousins, who have no idea who Owens is, have no idea her background, her past, the work that she has done, and just think like, oh, she's a normal entertainment journalist,
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It is. Like she's everywhere. And then she has her longer form podcast on YouTube, but then clips of her like, you know, breaking down the top lies or top inaccuracies and things that Blake Lively has said. Those go super viral on social media, the short clips. Yeah.
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And all of this has been just gangbusters for her growth and engagement. Here's how the cut put it. Since Owens started covering the Lively Baldani case, her YouTube channel has exploded in popularity, allowing her to attract a much larger fan base than the audience of hardcore conservatives she has amassed over the years. Each episode about Lively racks up at least 1.5 million views.
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In the past month alone, Owens has amassed more than 450,000 new subscribers on YouTube, and her total video views have quadrupled since this time last year. This is according to data from the platform Social Blade.
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Over the past three months, her audience on YouTube has almost started skewing 65% female, according to data provided by a spokesperson, a marked shift from her past fan base. So yeah, she's exploding in popularity. She's everywhere. And now she's attracting like normie women who are just coming in for this celebrity dispute.
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Well, I don't think it will end well. You know, I was like racking my brain trying to figure out like, why has this story taken off so much for Owens? And there are a couple of reasons I think this is like working for her. One... I hate to say it, but she is actually genuinely interesting to listen to.
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When she was a progressive voice online, she definitely was somebody who had a point of view and a clear voice and a perspective. And that really comes through when she's breaking down
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Blake Lively in these videos she has a way of speaking that really makes you pay attention and signals to the listener like this person is really breaking it down it's the same reason why on TikTok or social media when someone is like story time or like I'm about to tell you all the details of something those videos always perform very well on social media and I think that Owens is just very good at knowing how to hold somebody's attention online like I have to say it
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Yes. Also, you know, we just love good old-fashioned misogyny. And if that misogyny can be laced with like a conspiracy theory, I think that it's even better. So like, I think that part of this is just like social media platforms are always going to amplify misogyny.
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I would argue that things like misogyny, transphobia, misogynoir, racism, all of that is like baked into the experience of showing up online as a feature, not a bug. And I think that Owens takes it even further because she is breaking it down. Like she's uncovering some conspiracy. Like it's not just, let's talk about Blake Lively.
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It's I'm uncovering the web of lies and I'm going to expose Blake Lively's dark truth, right? And so like, of course that's going to take off.
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Exactly that. And I think, like, she really understands the inviting power of taking what you might think of as, like, a contrarian stance on something.
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Like, after the Me Too movement, how many women got engagement by taking a contrarian stance, right? Yeah, yeah.
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going against the conventional attitude that says like, oh, we have to automatically support the woman in this dispute probably makes people tuning into Owens' breakdowns feel like they're like free thinkers who are going against the grain, you know, by taking an unpopular opinion, which I do think connects to her more odious stances on things like trans people and women and Jewish people.
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Exactly. I also think like part of the reason why people are attracted to conspiracy theories is that it allows for like fantasy world building. And I think that I really see the ways that she injects that into her coverage. Even the word coverage, I put that in quotes because like she is like a wild person. So her coverage is like also wild.
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She does not adhere to, as she puts it, quote, a traditional style of reporting.
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Yeah, I believe her. I believe that. You know, she amplifies rumors. And even once she read a letter that she said that she got from Blake Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, his acting coach when he was 12. And according to Candace Owens, his acting coach said that Ryan Reynolds was an obnoxious kid. You know what? I also believe it. Oh, yeah. I have no trouble believing that.
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But, like, her coverage, it includes, like, side characters.
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Yeah, and I think in my mind, all of it is sort of connected. Like Ben Shapiro, nobody cared more about celebrities or talked more about celebrities than Ben Shapiro. He would love to be like, I don't care what Hollywood is doing, but he was obsessed with like Beyonce and Meg Thee Stallion. Like it was just like a negative obsession. Like, you know. Anti-fandom is still fandom.
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When you make video after video about how much you don't like Meg Thee Stallion, in a kind of way, you are a fan just in the opposite direction. And so I think that Candace Owens really took that and learned how to perfect it. I think that she is much better at this than Ben Shapiro is.
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The evidence being that her YouTube channel is exploding with people who probably would never watch any of Ben Shapiro's content.
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America deserves closure. We deserve to know. Just putting that out there.
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So in terms of where she's at now, like, you know, my question is like, has Owens, has this kind of like mainstream audience that she's been able to amass, has she changed her views? Is she trying to do a rebrand or a pivot? In an interview, she said, in terms of my perspective, I haven't changed anything.
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Yeah, so I agree with you. I believe Owens when she says that her stances have not changed much. It's easy to be like, oh, well, she's pivoting to go mainstream now that she has these women in her audience who are interested in celebrity. And honestly, you can sort of see some of this in changes to her physical appearance. She was sort of known for having very severe hair.
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The joke being that she had alienated herself so much from her fellow Black people that no Black person was going to do her hair, and that's why it looked that way. But lately, you've really seen this like softening. She's kind of going for like a softer public look. She is pivoting to different kinds of programming.
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She's branched out into doing a book club for paying subscribers and some kind of a fitness program.
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That's such a good grift. She's going to make so much money.
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But I really agree with you, Gare, that, like, I think that these new followers are certainly going to be walked down a pipeline that includes her extremist attitude just using celebrity scandal as a hook. Because, like, as you said, celebrity scandals and celebrity stories are just considered fluff for a lot of people.
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So, like, people who care about extremist content and ideology are maybe not seeing that as a space that they need to pay too close of attention to about these stories that you might see on the cover of an Us Weekly. But these stories actually can be used to tap into extremist ideologies and unleash them in a whole new audience.
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And like you were saying, if you are just watching a podcast because you want to be entertained about a story about two celebrities, you might not have your bullshit detector up to be like, wait, is this extremist content? Because it's seen and treated as a less charged space. And so that line of thinking that says that you know, this is just fluff.
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It doesn't really matter what happens in celebrity news. And correct, it is dangerous because it lends itself to people being more susceptible to it when extremist content is slipped in without even really realizing it.
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I absolutely think that's what we're going to see. And I can tell you, we can finish by, I can tell you about her next big pet issue, which is going to be championing Harvey Weinstein, who she is. No, no, no, no. She's been interviewing him since 2022. According to The Hollywood Reporter, she explains while he is, quote, an immoral man, he is also a victim of the justice system of
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A victim. And she says, I've always had faith in our court system and now it's beginning to change. Now I'm beginning to wonder if our courtrooms have been politicized. And the thing that's made her think this is Harvey Weinstein.
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Yeah, I think we're going to see a lot more of it. Candice has a series coming out called Harvey Speaks that apparently tells his side of the story, so look out for that. And I think that's the thing. I think with her content, when asked why it was she thought that her Blake Lively stuff was really taking off, she says that...
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She believes her new fans on the left, quote, have just kind of gotten wise to the fact that maybe women lie just like men. And so I just implore folks that, like, even if you think that you're just, like, retaking in this content because you're following fluffy celebrity news or whatever...
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It is so easy to go from maybe women lie to maybe women can't be trusted or maybe women shouldn't work and have jobs, a stance that Candace herself has actually advocated for, despite very obviously being a working woman. And so I don't think we should trust Candace Owens, even if she does this rebrand. Don't let her rebrand herself as just a celebrity investigative journalist.
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She put all of these odious views out into the world, and I don't want her to be able to soften it or... you know, soften what it is that she advocates for and what it is that she believes in if that is truly what she's trying to do to just sort of like amass a more mainstream audience. So don't fall for it. If you're getting tagged in Candace Owens' videos, just know what she actually is about.
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Yeah, this Candace Owens might not be on the money, might not be on the level.
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And that's all I got. That's it. I don't know how you usually end these episodes.
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Ooh, I like that. If I ever write a book about her, that'll be the title.
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You can find me on my podcast. There are no girls on the internet on this network. I Heart Radio, I mean. You can find me on Instagram at Bridget Marie and DC or on Blue Sky at Bridget Todd.
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Welcome to another episode of It Can Happen Here. I am your guest co-host, Bridget Todd, host of There Are No Girls on the Internet. I'm joined by the lovely Molly, host of award-winning podcast on Cool Zone, Weird Little Guys. Molly, how you doing? Great. Glad to be here, Bridget.
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Okay, so I wish we were here to talk about all the exciting stuff going on in your life, but I wanted to bring this topic to the It Could Happen Here audience because I live in the district. I know you're a Virginia gal, so you might know a little bit more about how it works in the district than your average person, but...
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I don't know that people really understand what is happening to residents of the District of Columbia like myself. So I live in D.C. I've lived here for most of my life. I have a lot of like hometown pride. This is not just where I happen to live. It's like my city, my home. You know what I mean?
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It's true, right? It's something that infuriates me. And so, you know, the first thing to know about D.C. is that it's not a state. So that means that what happens federally has a huge impact on the day-to-day minutia of the life of people like me who live in the district. If you don't live in the district,
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When it comes to decisions about how your local tax dollars are spent, that usually lies with your state and local leaders. That's not really the case for me and the other over half a million residents of the district. All of this is made worse by the fact that we are essentially disenfranchised, just like you said, right?
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All of this stuff is playing out in our home, like all of these big national conversations are happening in our own backyard, and we arguably have less electoral power and agency because we aren't a state. Fun fact, D.C. residents only got the right to vote in 1961 in presidential elections. What? I know. I didn't know that.
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We have not been voting in presidential elections for very long when you think about it in the fullness of time. So when people are like, oh, you know, call your congressperson, call your elected official to oppose X, Y, Z, we really have, like, nobody to call. Our congressional representative, Eleanor Holmes Norton, cannot vote on bills that are being considered by the full House.
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And so we really just, like, don't have a say. Whenever those big campaigns are going on, I'm like, oh, it must be nice to have, even if that person ignores you, it must be nice to have someone you can call, wouldn't know.
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Exactly. It's just vibes. It's just vibes. So all of this matters for Trump's return to my hometown because as president, Trump has a lot more authority to dictate how things are run locally for D.C. residents like myself. You know, we all know that the Trump administration is hell bent on making all of our lives worse.
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But imagine if Trump was also in charge of how your local police force in your city policed your city like that would be horrible, right? That sounds like a nightmare. And that threat is literally the reality that we are faced with here in D.C. So there's been some pretty big changes this time around in the Trump administration.
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During his first administration, I feel like Trump largely ignored D.C. He would pick a fight every now and then, but he didn't really seem to meddle in how D.C. was run locally. That does not mean that he was not out in the district doing terrible things, which he very much was.
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You might recall in 2020, during the racial justice uprisings in the wake of George Floyd's death, Trump cleared protesters using chemical agents so that he could go out in front of St. John's Church and like pose. With an upside down Bible. Upside down Bible. Remember that? Distressing. It was distressing. I was there that day and I'll say like it was like genuinely very excessive.
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I'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of it. But in the aftermath of that event, internal reports made it clear that like it wasn't exactly clear what happened and under what authority. Like, was it D.C. 's local police force, Metropolitan PD? Was it federal park police? Like it really underscored the tensions of D.C. locally versus the federal government.
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Like you genuinely never know when you see flashing blue and red lights. You genuinely it's like this could be federal. Like this could be federal. You never know. Have I just committed a federal traffic violation? Exactly.
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And so the New York Times actually described that event as, quote, a burst of violence unlike any seen in the shadow of the White House in generations and possibly one of the defining moments of the Trump presidency. And so I remember that as like a moment that played out nationally, but also it felt very local.
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And like, I think it underscored how we really felt the impacts of how militarized the city could locally get. during Trump's first administration. So that was like something that really sticks out to me.
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I mean, D.C. used to be called Chocolate City for a reason. These days we're more like a like a latte city. But exactly. I can confirm that people don't think of the, you know, over half a million D.C. residents who have nothing to do with the federal government, sometimes with nothing with politics, who just like live here and is our home. Like I was born in D.C.
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Like this is I didn't just, you know, move here to work in politics. Like my family can be traced back to our roots in the district. through generations. And so I have a bee in my bonnet about this because I feel very unseen.
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And I think the way that the Trump administration is playing out, I feel like the reporting really can sometimes overlook the way that this is playing out in the life of your average, you know, D.C. resident who might have nothing to do with politics or, you know, the federal government. Like seventh graders trying to get to middle school. Exactly that. Exactly that.
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So during Trump's first administration, after the incident at St. John's Church, our mayor, D.C. 's mayor, Muriel Bowser... She's still the mayor? She's still the mayor. She's still the mayor. She's been holding strong. Damn, girls. She erected what became known as Black Lives Matter Plaza, where she wrote Black Lives Matter in like big yellow letters outside of the White House.
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You remember this? I've had some unpleasant experiences in that zone. Yes. Yes. You and me both. This could be a separate conversation. And so I will say when she did that, it was largely like a symbolic move. And a lot of D.C. activists thought the mayor was kind of co-opting a racial justice ethos that she didn't really embody in practice.
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But I do think that that really set the tone for the mayor's relationship with Trump during his first term. Like, she was defiant. She was someone who was going to stand up to him publicly. And something to know about D.C. 's mayor, Muriel Bowser, is that she kind of has two modes. Defiant, like the version of herself that painted Black Lives Matter outside of the Trump White House.
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And then sort of diplomatic, right? Like somebody who wants to find common ground. which I think is the version of her that we're seeing this time around that is very different than how she was the last time around. Like, she started Trump's second term sort of touting the goals they have in common. And, like, she met with him even before he was in office. And so...
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I have a lot of critiques about D.C. 's mayor, just like anybody would have their political leader. But I do think it is important that folks understand that she is navigating something that literally no other elected official in the United States has to because of D.C. 's lack of statehood. Like we our city is uniquely threatened by Trump and she knows this and Trump knows this.
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And so she really has to like. walk a tightrope, greased in shit, if you will. She's navigating this public relationship with an unstable, lying fascist and has to do so in a way that's going to end up with what's best for the city. So you can say whatever you want about Mayor Bowser. I certainly do. But this is a complicated thing to navigate.
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I do not advocate for anybody complying in advance with a fascist. But in this situation... I do think it's fair to ask, like, well, would being defiant toward Trump make things worse for D.C. residents like myself? Would it result in martial law in the city? Exactly. Exactly. So, like, I don't like it, but I get it.
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I guess if there was, like, a mantra for my feelings on this, it's like, I don't like it at all, but I get it.
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And, you know, Trump spent, even when he was on the campaign trail before he was president, he talked this time around about how he was planning to take over the city. And because D.C. is not a state, like, any president does have the authority to interfere with how D.C. is run. Like, any president can take over the police department and the powers of the mayor and the D.C. city council.
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Any president has the power to federalize D.C. 's, like, local police force, Metropolitan Police. Oh. deputize the National Guard and give law enforcement powers in D.C. and activate the military and federal law enforcement agencies such as the Park Police in D.C.
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So it's not great. It's not great. And, you know, the prospect of just like let that sink in the prospect of Trump having his own military and police force in the district. Like I could I cannot tell you how much this terrifies me. Like I cannot stress to listeners how much of a shit hitting the fan moment this would be for the city to give you a sense.
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Like I have a go bag and I like get the fuck out plan for that scenario playing out. Virginia is so close.
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I mean, yeah. honestly anybody in the DMV if you're in Maryland Virginia you should all be thinking about this Trump has continued to, like, pressure the mayor and threatening to, like, take over if she will not do the things that he says. Things like clean up the city.
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Trump notified Mayor Bowser that she has to clean up all the unsightly homeless encampments in the district, especially around federal buildings. If she is not capable of doing so, we will be forced to do it for her, he said. And so far, her strategy has really been one of like quiet appeasement so that Black Lives Matter Plaza that she erected in defiance during his first term, that came down.
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Did it really? They painted over it? I think they paint they dismantled it. I think that they were like, oh, we're going to like take it up so that it can go someplace else. But we're removing it from this part of the city, if that makes sense.
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Yeah. And I do really think it underscores this moment that we're in right now where it does. I mean, I'm curious for your thoughts. It does sort of feel like a pendulum swing in some ways where all of these like largely symbolic gestures are now like being bulldozed over, oftentimes like voluntarily, like without even really being pressured into doing so.
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I feel the exact same way. And Republican Representative Andrew Clyde actually wants it to go further. He introduced a bill that would have amended the U.S. code to withhold certain funds from D.C. unless Black Lives Matter was taken off the street and that area was renamed, quote, Liberty Plaza.
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And for the district to remove all Black Lives Matter Plaza references from city websites and official documents. So they want to like memory hole it and be like it never happened.
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Exactly. Clyde said, quote, It's time for our nation to leave this failed agenda behind, starting with the removal of BLM Plaza from America's capital. Trump is 100 percent right. We must clean up D.C. for the American people. I believe that removing BLM Plaza must be part of this critical effort.
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After all, BLM is a radical defund the police organization, but we are not a defund the police nation.
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I would argue that's exactly what he's saying. But D.C. is like getting upset about black people. It's like going to the beach and getting upset when they're sand. Right. It's like we can have a conversation about D.C. 's demographics. But like we are we are a black city. That is what makes D.C. what it is. It's like why I continue to live here. Right.
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It's like I think that's exactly what he's saying is we don't want our nation's capital to be one that. honors the, you know, agency of Black people, Black bodies and Black lives, right? Like, I think that's like, what do you say? Then move the White House to South Boston, I guess.
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So, you know, the mayor pretty quickly relented and BLM Plaza is no more. She basically said, like, you know, we've got bigger fish to fry, like focusing on D.C. 's autonomy and budget. And to be honest, like a lot of residents agreed with her that like it probably was not worth the fight.
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That's kind of that's kind of the theme here is that all of these little things that individually are probably not worth the fight. But then collectively, you're like, well, who is sort of in charge of this city? You know, when if none of these little things are worth the fight, are you fighting? That's a great question. Are you fighting? If nothing is worth the fight, are you fighting?
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So the next demand that Trump made of Bowser was the need to clear homeless encampments near the White House, saying that if Bowser didn't do it, he would be forced to do it for her. So within hours of Trump's call to Bowser, D.C. city crews arrived at these encampments to tell residents they had to be out the next day. It's not great.
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Like, to be clear, it is not like our mayor does not clear encampments in D.C. In fact, her administration said they have been planning to clear the encampment in question, but just doing so in like a more planned, rolled out way. So it's not like she's like someone who is not, you know, down with clearing encampments.
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The Washington Post spoke to some of the people who were residents of those encampments when they were cleared. Shelly Byers is someone they spoke to who has been chronically homeless in D.C. for three years. She was living in an encampment that was cleared in 2023 before winding up at the one that Trump wanted cleared. And she said they were basically given no notice that they needed to vacate.
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She said, now we have only less than 24 hours to get out. As she threw her clothing out of her tent, I liked it here. They keep shoving us off from place to place, making it so we don't have anywhere to go. The Post also spoke to the president of Miriam's Kitchen, which is a big nonprofit here in D.C. that provides services for the homeless.
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And he said that it wasn't even clear, like he wasn't even sure if the city followed proper protocols with this hasty encampment clearing at Trump's direction. Encampment residents are meant to be given two weeks notice, but people who were cleared said that they only learned about that action within 24 hours. And so... I think that's part of the issue here.
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D.C., like any city, has issues like crime and homelessness. But like getting people housed takes time. Like just wanting to quickly move people who might not have anywhere else to go because they look, as Trump said, unseemly or unsightly is not solving the problem.
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What you're actually doing is just traumatizing people who are already vulnerable and then forcing them to go elsewhere, exactly like that woman told The Post.
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But I think that's exactly how Trump thinks about this issue. It's just like looks bad and unseemly to him. So I don't care where they go. I don't care how you do it. Just I don't want to be looking at them.
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Exactly. And like he is encroaching on how our city is run. Right. And so like if that is the ethos that you have, I don't want to see these gross people. I don't care where they go. This is not an ethos that that responsibly is able to run a city like that. Like that is really disruptive. Yeah, it's absolutely disruptive because they'll go somewhere else.
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Exactly. And I think that's what that's like the name of the game with the way that Trump has already been meddling in the way that D.C. runs its local affairs. This next example, I got to say, it really gets to me. So D.C. 's attorney general, Brian Schwab, recently dropped a lawsuit against the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers for their behavior during January 6th.
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So the suit was initially filed by the former D.C. attorney general, Carl A. Racine. It initially marks the first effort by a government agency to hold the individuals and organizations civilly liable for violence at the Capitol on January 6th. But a federal judge in D.C. granted the district's request to dismiss that case.
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The suit was fashioned after a modern version of the 1871 law known as the Ku Klux Klan Act that was enacted after the Civil War to safeguard government officials carrying out their duties to protect civil rights. This was actually a similar challenge that prevailed against groups involved in the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, which, Molly, I know you might know a thing or two about.
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But like you have to carry it out. And basically the city decided that it wasn't worth it given all of the threats to D.C. 's autonomy by the Trump administration. So it's extortion. I mean, yeah, like that's exactly what it feels like. I mean, this is extortion.
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It's like, I mean, I'm glad that you use the word extortion because it really does feel like if you've seen one of my favorite movies, Goodfellas, it feels like what Henry Hill, the mobster, calls real greaseball shit, right? Like, ooh, great city you have here. It would be a shame if something were to happen to it. Like extortion. Right.
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I guess you could argue that they are like not raising the ire further of the Trump administration and that like that might lead to D.C. having more autonomy and like D.C., you know, like Trump officials not meddling in D.C. 's affairs.
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No. And I got to be honest, girl, this one fucking stung. Like, it sucks hearing people like the Proud Boys leader Enrique Terrio basically brag about having this case dropped. The Oath Keepers founder, Stuart Rhodes, his attorney said, we are very pleased to see the District of Columbia has come to the same conclusion that the American public and President Trump have.
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The narrative that January 6th was some sort of armed insurrection to overthrow the government was false from the very beginning. Enrique Terrio posted after the district requested to dismiss this lawsuit saying, another exoneration. If God is with us, who can be against us? Like, it just chaps my ass to hear this shit. Like, God didn't do this, baby. God didn't do this. You also have D.C.
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's Metro Police investigating the vandalization of Teslas as a hate crime. This, again, like it really makes me wonder, like, as far as I know, Trump is not in charge of our Metropolitan Police Department. But stuff like this makes me wonder, we're like, is he kind of in charge? I mean, pressure is clearly being exerted. Correct. Basically, somebody wrote, quote, political hate speech on a Tesla.
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The statement from the Metropolitan Police Department said they were investigating these offenses as being motivated by hate or bias. To be clear, Mayor Bowser was like, I didn't tell them to do this. Like, she was like, I have nothing to do with the police department's decision making on this.
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unclear and they wouldn't even say like what was the nature of what was written on this car that that made it a potential hate crime like we don't even know which is so funny because these guys never believed in hate crimes before unless it's against like elon musk and people who like him absolutely that's the best i can figure but i've i've heard full-throated arguments against the existence of the category of hate crime and now suddenly they're very important yeah they're very important
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And I do think, I mean, like when I heard about this, it really made me think about how different categories of crime and legislation around it is like very well intended and well meaning. And like, I understand who hate crime legislation is meant to protect. But then you also have the ways that it can be sort of like perverted to protect people. a protected class that is not a protected class.
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Exactly. Here's how my co-host and friend Michael Schaefer, who writes the Capital Cities column for Politico, put it. He says, now the White House is beating the drums about Tesla vandalism, creating another incentive for locals to play ball. The FBI director called Tesla vandalism domestic terrorism. The president suggested sending vandals to jail in El Salvador.
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If likening the run-of-the-mill political graffiti to criminal bigotry is what it takes to keep the feds from padlocking City Hall, the logic goes, maybe it's worth it. No, it's not. I would say it's not. No, it's not.
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unlike local governments in Cleveland or Boston, D.C. is really stuck between a rock and a hard place. And, I mean, like, I understand why city officials are taking this, like, appeasement angle, but, like, I guess, as you said, like, I don't know how you can make the argument that it's like worth it. Like, what are we getting if every single day it's going to be a new threat to D.C.
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's autonomy, a new threat to D.C., a new EO from the Trump administration? What are we really getting by playing ball in this way?
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Well, some might say the big fight is D.C. 's tense budget showdown, which is ongoing. It's a little in the weeds. So, like, I'm not going to get too, too into it, but I'll try to give you the quick and dirty version of what's going on. The district is overseen by Congress thanks to provision in the Constitution. So this means that D.C.
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is occasionally treated like a federal agency rather than like a city or a local government under various laws. This used to mean that D.C. 's budget was regularly delayed because of this. The city had to wait for Congress to approve D.C. 's local budget alongside other federal agencies, which Congress is like almost never does on time. So pretty much everybody agreed like this was a problem.
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So in the early 2000s, they changed it so that if Congress was behind schedule, D.C. could just keep spending at its current budget levels without disruption until Congress is able to formally approve a new budget. But in March, that all changed because the language was omitted from a new funding bill that Congress passed in March that would basically force D.C. to omit $1 billion from its budget.
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Just to be clear, if D.C. were to omit $1 billion from the budget, we basically could not function as a city. The things that you need to run a city, schools, garbage collection, all of that would be cut to the point of not being viable. I'm not even sure what that would mean for the city to make that deep of a cut. And the worst part is nobody really knows why Congress did this.
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Like in my capacity as co-host for a local DC podcast, CityCastDC, I've spoken to a lot of people in DC government and reporters. And the best I can come up with is that Congress just really does not understand what they have done. A reporter that I spoke to said that There seemed to be confusion with lawmakers that we were talking about D.C. 's local tax money and not federal money.
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And so this was happening in March during the height of like Doge efficiency. I'm putting efficiency in like heavy scare quotes. It was at the height of that. And so the best I could think was that lawmakers thought like, oh, this will we will be able to like say that, you know, making D.C., cut a billion dollars from the budget will be a big show of federal tax dollar savings.
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But we're not talking about federal money. We're talking about local tax money, not federal money. It doesn't save anybody any federal money. And so I think that from what I've heard, it sounds like people like Mike Johnson just maybe like did not really have a good understanding of that. It is a little bit complicated, but like if you're a lawmaker, like, come on, dude.
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Exactly. And what's funny is that like For all the talk about how we're not a defund the police nation, this bill would kind of defund D.C. police. It would defund everything. It would mean like $67 million cut from the D.C. police budget, along with cutting funding for D.C. public schools and the Department of Human Services, which serves the city's poorest residents. Right.
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So like it would defund everything, including the police. So it's like funny to be like, we're not down with defund the police, but we are down with this bill that kind of does it.
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So our mayor has really been doing her diplomacy thing and appealing to exactly that. Right. Like Trump has been really clear about all these goals he has for the district, like beautifying D.C. and cracking down on crime and homelessness. There is no way to do that if you are slashing the budgets of these departments that are meant to work on those things by tens of millions of dollars.
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I mean, it's almost as if Trump doesn't really care about doing any of this stuff. He's just like talking big and doesn't give a shit about how it actually plays out. He doesn't know how anything works. Yeah. I mean, that's really the bottom line for me is that when you have Trump really loudly talking about the ways that he is meddling in the way that D.C. is run.
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He's not someone who is good at efficiently governing. And so, like, you know, say what you will about D.C., we have a functioning local government, a functioning city. Putting somebody like Trump in charge of how things get done, what happens to encampments, what happens to education, what happens to crime, like, that's just a terrible, terrible move for the city.
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I wish I could tell Trump that like I'm taken back to my days of working retail at the mall where you could just be like, actually, Greg, that's not how it works here at this Claire's. I used to work at Claire's.
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It won't work. So, yeah, I mean, as of today, there has not been a vote on D.C. 's budget. Trump actually signaled that he is on board for a fix that would prevent this billion dollar cut. And he urged the Senate to vote for it. He posted the House should take up the D.C. funding fix that the Senate passed and get it done immediately. All caps. But everybody's on recess.
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And so in the meantime, like it's not clear what's going to happen. And the city did announce that they're looking at making cuts and furloughing staff because it's not clear what's going to happen.
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And for no reason, it's a fake, fake problem. But again, I don't know that people like Mike Johnson understand that there are people who live here who, you know, Just want to have their trash taken out. Just want to be able to educate their kids. Just want to be able to, like, live our lives in the city.
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And I think I said this on It Could Happen Here before, but I have to feel like it's punitive, right? Like, D.C., nobody didn't vote for Trump like D.C. didn't vote for Trump. Like, you know, Nikki Haley won D.C. 's Republican primary, not even Trump, right? So, like, we have made it very clear that we don't like him and we don't want him here. And...
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I guess I just have to say the only thing that makes sense as to why Congress would do this is punitive. It's to be like, fuck D.C. and the progressive, hippie, dippy, educated people who live there. Like, it just feels like a punitive attack on the district.
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Well, I mean, if Trump gets his way and D.C. just becomes like a instead of a city, like a military compound that is controlled by like his goons.
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That is my ultimate biggest fear about what is on the horizon for D.C. That is like the ultimate, ultimate like negative fear.
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fear that i have and i guess bottom line is like this is why dc needs statehood like we are facing such unique threats from the trump administration that no other place in the united states faces you know there are a million reasons for dc to become a state but this is i think that the way that trump is acting toward our city toward our our mayor toward our council um
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With regards to our budget, like it all just makes so much sense that our residents should not be at the behest of somebody like Trump to have our city run the way that we want it to be run.
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So when lawmakers are back in session, we should have some sense of what's going on with DC's budget. The thing I would end with is like, give a shit about D.C. Like, don't don't be somebody who perpetuates the idea that the only thing happening in D.C.
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is like national politics and like where national conversations are happening, because, you know, there are six hundred thousand people who live here and we want to be able to control our city and control our our tax money. Like I pay taxes just like anybody else. And it's ridiculous that I get less of a say than everybody else. So if you don't live in D.C.
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and you hear about Congress or the Senate voting on stuff that impacts D.C. residents, like you might hear about them voting on the D.C. budget fix bill, you can call your representatives and advocate on our behalf and kind of be our voice because we don't really get one. Hopefully this all gives you a sense of what's at stake for us. So please give a shit about D.C. Give a shit about D.C.
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and hopefully you guys still have garbage services. We'll see. Molly, thank you for running through all of this with me. You're such a good co-host.
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So deserved. Are you like keeping your wedding secret?
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Well, congratulations. I was telling you off mic that like I love it when women who do work in the like extremism right wing space have happy, thriving personal lives. So it brings me a lot of joy. Deeply. Congratulations.
Behind the Bastards
Bonus: The Bastards of Oprah
Hi, I'm Todd. Nice to meet you. How are you feeling? Can you walk? Barely. I have to have help. Sorry. I'm very. That's all right.
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Bonus: The Bastards of Oprah
Yeah, I'll go. So that's all I want to play of that. He can barely move.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
4. Not Demure
OK, I think peak Vine is when somebody on Twitter replied with the why you always lying guy during a Republican presidential debate.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
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And so I think that was something I loved about Peak Vine is how things started on Vine and then became memes off of Vine, right? And so like the picture of the Why You Always Lying guy, you could just take a still of that guy's face and reply to a tweet and people would totally get it. They would know exactly what you meant. And so for me, Peak Vine was this like,
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off-platform conversation where people completely understood this reference in totally different pockets of the internet.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
4. Not Demure
Another one that comes to mind is back at it again at Krispy Kreme. Back at it again at Krispy Kreme. Where it's the guy doing a backflip at Krispy Kreme and one of those massive neon Krispy Kreme circular lights is there. And obviously he's about to hit this light and it's definitely going to shatter. But the vine ends right before you hit it.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
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So you're left with a lot of questions, none of which are answered by the vine, but somehow you get the context. So I would say- Peak Vine energy is chaotic, but in a way that makes sense without a word of context or explanation.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
4. Not Demure
What are those? What are those? Tell me that was not the most subversive thing you've ever seen, where it's like, oh, you might be an armed agent of the state who can shoot me and not have any consequences, but I can still roast your shoes in front of millions of people and millions of people are going to see it.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
4. Not Demure
I believe that the people who are making the most interesting, subversive, like the people who made Vines that became part of the cultural lexicon were Black folks. Like Peaches Monroe talking about her new eyebrows that were on fleek. That went on to define an entire generation, right? That went on to be used in all different kinds of campaigns. It stuck around, right? We in this bitch.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
4. Not Demure
It's a phenomenon where when a person of color, a black or brown person, creates something on social media, the consensus generally is, oh, it doesn't matter who created it. It's just the internet. It's just ideas for the taking. But then the person who takes those ideas or the institution that takes those ideas, they certainly make money off of it, right?
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
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When Applebee's said on fleek in an ad that that was certainly a commercial exchange, right? And so there is a pervasive attitude across social media that
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
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When black and brown people create things that go on to have a lot of cultural cachet, it's okay if those same people are completely shut out of any economic benefit of that and that other people can just make as much money as they want without giving them any kind of credit.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
4. Not Demure
Early days of Vine, the thing that I remember the most about it, black people roasting others. That was like, you know, we are, despite the fact that we're very creative and have an interesting perspective and a lot to say, oftentimes we find ourselves shut out of more traditional mainstream platforms. So when we get platforms that are a little bit more democratized, we shine there.
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
4. Not Demure
So for me, it was really these... windows into just showing a different perspective. I think that people who came from traditionally marginalized backgrounds, because of the democratization of the content on Vine, were really able to demonstrate how funny, witty, subversive, off the wall, over the top, creative, talented we really are, right?
Vine: Six Seconds That Changed The World
4. Not Demure
So I think that the people who made Vines that really had staying power in terms of a cultural cachet were people of color, Black and brown youth,