Dave Smith brings you the latest in politics! On this episode of Part Of The Problem, Dave is joined by co-host Robbie "The Fire" Bernstein to discuss JD Vance's recent speech, the details of a potential end to the war in Ukraine, people's reactions to Tom Hanks' appearance on SNL 50, and more.Support Our Sponsors:Monetary Metals - https://www.monetary-metals.com/potp/Entera Skincare - https://www.enteraskincare.com/ Use promo code problem for 10% OffSmall Batch Cigar - https://www.smallbatchcigar.com/ Use code PROBLEM for 10% offPart Of The Problem is available for early pre-release at https://partoftheproblem.com as well as an exclusive episode on Thursday!Get your tickets to Porch Tour here:https://porchtour.comFind Run Your Mouth here:YouTube - http://youtube.com/@RunYourMouthiTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/run-your-mouth-podcast/id1211469807Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/4ka50RAKTxFTxbtyPP8AHmFollow the show on social media:X:http://x.com/ComicDaveSmithhttp://x.com/RobbieTheFireInstagram:http://instagram.com/theproblemdavesmithhttp://instagram.com/robbiethefire#libertarianSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: What are Dave and Robbie discussing in this episode?
what's up what's up everybody welcome to a brand new episode of part of the problem i am dave smith he is robbie the fire bernstein how you living brother i am doing well my friend how was your weekend uh it was good it was good weekend weekend with the family uh it's very nice went down to my in-law's house and uh hung out with the kids a bunch how about you what'd you do uh not a whole lot filmed some stuff yesterday check out run your mouth on wednesday new sketches coming out this week
Hell yeah. Well, there's something to be excited about. And, of course, we are only a few days away from Houston, Texas, which is going to be a lot of fun. Looking forward to going down there. I believe the tickets are moving fast, but there still are some available. So if you'd like to come hang with me and Rob in Houston, go to ComicDaveSmith.com. You can get the ticket link there.
We'll be at the Punchline. I believe this is our first time doing the Punchline. We've done Houston before, and it's a great, great comedy town. But anyway, then right after that, we will be in Buffalo, New York. Going forward, maybe we're going to try to book that one in the summer. But we're going to Buffalo in the middle of winter to do Helium Comedy Club, which I have heard.
I love Helium in Philly, but I've never done the one in Buffalo before. I've heard it's a great, great club. So very much looking forward to that. So Houston and Buffalo are the next two coming up. ComicDaveSmith.com for those ticket links. All right. Well, there's been a lot going on. in the world.
Chapter 2: Why does Dave Smith dismiss European politics?
And there's, particularly of the very viral stories at the moment, a lot of them seem to revolve around the topic of free speech and Europe more broadly. And you know, Rob, I've been on the record for many years now, unapologetically, that I do not care about Europe. I just don't really care that much. I mean, look, I care once it starts affecting America.
You know, I certainly care a lot about the war there in Eastern Europe that's been going on for the last few years. But in general, like I'm not and this is kind of how I feel about it. Like, I think it almost is the correct default strategy. position like I don't I care.
Obviously, if there's like horrific things going on, if there's horrible human rights, human rights abuses, we'd all rather that not happen. I hope everybody's free and prosperous. And I root for everyone. You know, I mean, I hope I hope the North Koreans are free. Their prospects for that don't look so great at the moment. But like, I hope they're free.
I root for prosperity and freedom across the board. But I really care much more when it actually affects America or when America is involved or, as is the case far too often, America is doing the killing or backing the killers or whatever. But it is... Perhaps the case that, you know, one ought to care a little bit. It's not a good state of affairs if Europe is falling.
But between the there's first, I guess we could start with J.D. Vance's speech that he gave in Germany. And then there was the 60 Minutes piece that's been going super viral. We're going to play a clip from that in a second.
ukraine and all of them are kind of there there's some overlap between all of them but let's just start um with jd vance's speech uh because i did find it to be a truly remarkable uh political speech that seemed almost it seemed more like the type of thing you might hear on like a podcast that we do rob or somewhere in our world and it seemed it
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Chapter 3: What did JD Vance say in his speech that was controversial?
the thing to me that was really striking was that the guy who's a heartbeat away from the presidency and probably right now the favorite to be the republican nominee in in 28 i mean i'd assume it would have to be jd bounce i'm not sure i'm sure there are betting markets on on that type of stuff but i'd imagine he's the overwhelming favorite right now it was just kind of interesting to hear him say uh some of the things he said so did you did you watch the speech rob this i saw that it made the headlines and i did not watch this speech
Well, one of the things to me that I thought was very interesting is that he he's giving the speech. He gave it in kind of a friendly like he presented it as like he said us us a lot when he was talking about Europe, like he presented as like, look, this is like. Friendly advice. But one of the major points, I think, in fact, the major theme of the speech was... Was it take it, bitch?
Well, I think it was essentially that Europe has lost its way and that we hear at these elite gatherings, we hear so much about national defense and national security risks. And meanwhile, the greatest risk to Europe is really coming from inside the house. And it is that Europe has rejected...
so many of the principles that made western civilization great and again this is just like something to me it's like that you know i'm it's like when i was getting in an argument with that um that kara swisher lady on uh on on Piers Morgan the other day, and she was talking about how like the government needs to regulate social media because Iran and China wanna spread misinformation.
And then, you know, I was making kind of fairly obvious counterpoint to that, which is that like, Yeah, but look, our own government has spread so much misinformation and much more devastating misinformation. You can't give me examples of Iranian disinformation or Chinese disinformation that has had the horrific, catastrophic results that disinformation from our own government has had.
So why would we put them in charge of it? And then she basically just called me naive and said, you have no idea what Iran and China want to do to us. And it's like, anyway, I just, one of the things, it's such an interesting, like obvious point is that look,
It's true in the United States of America, and obviously it's true in Europe as well, that with the exception of like maybe I'd say with the exception of, say, like some Eastern European states who might be concerned about Russia. OK, like there's a legit concern of the outsider there. But in general, it's like anything aside from Russia.
non-nato eastern european countries for the rest of them it's like well vladimir putin couldn't even take kiev So what threat is he to take any of the rest of Europe? And if that's the case, you know, look, like as the example in the United States of America, we've had lots of enemies, some pretty serious enemies.
And if you want to go back before our lifetime, you know, but from the very beginning of America, who are the great enemies of America? Well, there was the British Empire. There's, I guess... I mean, even to any of the monarchs in Europe in the First World War even really count as great enemy. Like to the Barbary pirates count as great enemies. And it's kind of like you had the British Empire.
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Chapter 4: How is free speech perceived in Europe according to the podcast?
We take Native Americans. Yeah, they got in the way of expansion.
They didn't put up too much of a fight. I guess they put up a little bit of a fight. Fine. But even the Native Americans, if you want to count them, the Soviet Union, Al Qaeda, ISIS, right? There's been some serious enemies and some of them are pretty goddamn evil and some more powerful than others. But Were any of them a threat to destroy the United States of America? I really don't think so.
None of them even came close. However, is the $36 trillion of debt, is that a threat to destroy America? Yeah, it is. Is the permanent warfare state a threat to destroy America? Yeah, it sure is. So I think it's just kind of almost obvious when you look at it on its face that like, look, I mean...
I'm sure that if Osama bin Laden or Adolf Hitler or Stalin could have, they would have shut down the U.S. economy. I'm sure they would have if they could have. But none of them could. But you know who could shut down the U.S. economy? Our own politicians.
you know and so now anyway uh uh jd vance was talking about europe not america but i think a lot of the stuff still applies but anyway it's just very interesting to um to hear him talk about this stuff and then one of the the things that seemed to get like the people uh got like such a hysterical reaction was um him talking about how many european states have kind of abandoned the concept of free speech and that people ought to be allowed to say what they want to say and this
has been really something to behold. I don't know. Any thoughts on any of this, Rob?
Well, I saw some of the freak out in the response and that I was certainly entertained by.
It really, it's, it's also just so it, One of the things that's been so bizarre over the last decade, and of course, obviously, things have changed quite a bit. There's been like a major pendulum swing or something since this last year. And of course, Trump winning the presidency again. But it is just so bizarre.
I know this is kind of like a basic thing to say, not like this isn't my unique hot take or anything, but the idea of being... for free speech as as even the idea that that's even something that isn't just like a starting place for all of us You know what I mean? It's like so strange.
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Chapter 5: What is the media's reaction to JD Vance's statements?
I think their jobs rely on censorship. So they're going to they're going to preach the dangers of free speech because it's their competition is people giving you the truth.
well this one clip uh has been going super viral i actually i will say that there aren't you know i um For a living, you know, like we tear apart the corporate media constantly. And I'm you know, I've I've come to be known and at least probably one of, if not the most like signature things in my career is the debate with Chris Cuomo. I've I've gone viral.
more times than I could count that me and you have just torn apart some piece by the corporate media. And in general, I kind of know their game and nothing they say really shocks me anymore. This one actually got me. I mean, like, this one, I don't even want to like poison the well here. Let's play the clip and then we can respond to it.
This was on Face the Nation this past Sunday, I should say yesterday, with Marco Rubio, the current Secretary of State. Hey, Lucy! Yeah, we're not the biggest Rubio fans here, but he's you know, but there is something I love. Lucy really did warm you up to a nice looking Cuban. But this was I mean, to the point that I was like trying to figure out what the hell she really meant.
Like, I couldn't even believe these words came out of her mouth. But again, this is the woman I'm blaming on her name right now. But this is a woman who moderated, I believe, the vice presidential debates.
There's also just something so batshit crazy that you're supposed to be neutral or pretending to be neutral if you're on one of these news networks. And forget asking non-neutral questions, but dramatically crying as if...
some new i don't know regime is taking over like it's it's the next level of trying to sell bullshit is also dramatically pretending like all of our lives are going to be ruined because of the other person on the screen and yes you know what i mean it's like that's a different level of spin they're going more crazy girlfriend on us there yeah that's a good way to put it all right let's let's play this clip and then we will uh discuss the historical accuracy of the claim being made
Well, he was standing in a country where free speech was weaponized to conduct a genocide. And he met with the head of a political party that has far-right views and some historic ties to extreme groups. The context of that was changing the tone of it. And you know that, that the censorship was specifically about the right.
I have to disagree with you. Can you pause? I don't know if we can pull up the transcript of that, but that's like seven degrees of bacon to not even being able to make a point at the end of that. And you know that. What, the four layers of random things you tried to bring together to claim that there was a dog whistle here?
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Chapter 6: How does the podcast critique historical interpretations of free speech?
But she goes. But as I listened to it the second time, you go, no, there's really no mistaking it. Her complaint is that J.D. Vance went to Germany and talked about how Europe is abandoning free speech. And so it makes no sense that she'd be saying anything else.
She's saying it's offensive to go to Germany, of all places, and argue for free speech when free speech being weaponized is what led to the genocide of the Jews. Who, like the funny thing about this is that it's not even just like, who even learned it that way in government school? Like what historical revisionism school of thought is this? That it was excessive free speech in Nazi Germany?
That's what happened? That's your understanding of the story? It's like Adolf Hitler got in there and then he just started letting everybody say what they wanted to say. And obviously, yada, yada, yada, 6 million dead Jews. That's how it went down. Like, what? What are you talking about? Like, the Nazis pretty famously cracked down on speech.
If you wanted to look throughout, say, the 20th century at a regime that cracked down on free speech the most, they'd be up there in the running for it. I'm not saying they lead the way. There's definitely some competition.
From what I remember, they burned the books that more people couldn't read and would be forced to speak. And so it was actually an amplification of freedom of speech as they motivated people to speak more.
Like what really is the claim here?
But this is so – so what she's trying – And they congregated them on trains so that they would be closer together and forced to have discussion. Once again –
Free speech. But you're totally right. I mean, it's like she's starting backward from the, like, how can I say this makes you a Nazi? And then it's like, okay, well, it was in Germany, and you're arguing for free speech, and free speech is what led to the Nazis, and then he met with a far right-wing group.
Like, okay, so even this far right-wing group, which, again, I don't know enough about the internal politics of European nations, but, like, I think we are past... You know, I was on... I was on Piers Morgan's show like maybe a month or so ago, and I was on with Tim Pool and the topic of Tommy Robinson and the the Muslim like gang rape.
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Chapter 7: What concerns do Dave and Robbie have about government censorship?
You could have been the most hardcore lefty who just five years ago went like, oh, I don't really believe like little boys can become little girls. And you would have called them far right. You know what I mean? Like if you have one opinion that strays from the narrative, you call them far right. So this means nothing.
And then my other thought is like, hey, so when JD Vance met with those far right wingers, did they agree with his message about free speech? Because if they did, then OK, great. then he's actually arguing for liberal values. I'm sorry. There is no way to get away from the fact that free speech is a liberal value. If it's not, then these words mean nothing.
So what you're saying is that this guy who's the vice president of the United States of America, who is, you know, Trump's number two, somebody that say like your right wing parties might actually listen to is going out there and arguing that they should embrace free speech. How do you make that sound bad? I guess the only way is to say that free speech is what led to the Holocaust. What?
Here, let's just play the end of this clip because it is actually Marco Rubio, who I'd never like to agree with, but it is pretty funny what his response was.
That the censorship was specifically about the right.
No, I have to disagree with you. free speech was not used to conduct a genocide. The genocide was conducted by an authoritarian Nazi regime that happened to also be genocidal because they hated Jews and they hated minorities and they hated those that they had a list of people they hated, but primarily the Jews. There was no free speech in Nazi Germany. There was none.
There was also no opposition in Nazi Germany. They were a sole and only party that governed that country. So that's not an accurate reflection of history.
Well, he was... Okay.
So, I mean, look, Do you know how perfect you got to throw a lob in order to get Marco Rubio to dunk on you like that? Do you know how fucking Gary Payton perfect, John Stockton just perfect lob you got to throw in order to set him up? You could almost see the little glimmer in Marco Rubio's eyes where it's like at the end of White Men Can't Jump where he's like, oh, I could dunk that one.
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Chapter 8: What is the criticism of the media's portrayal of government actions?
Let that sink in for a little bit. They actually see that as like an alarming, controversial view. You should go over and argue in Europe that they ought to allow their citizens to dissent from the government, which is, by the way, all that free speech is all about. is ever about, really, when you think about it.
You know, it's all just about like, are you allowed to dissent from the people with the guns? Like, are you are you allowed? You know, there's this group of people that are at the center of society that call themselves the government. And essentially what a government is, is a group of people who have a monopoly on the aggressive use of violence. Right.
This is like of all the different ways that people think of governments. And if I were to go into, say, democracy. If I were to go into like a high school or a college class or something like that, I would ask somebody for a definition of the government. Say, what is the government? You know, there'd be a lot of different answers that people would give me.
None of them would be an accurate description. The only accurate description of a government is a group of people who maintain a monopoly on the initiation of violence or threats thereof. That really describes the government if you think about it, okay? Because you could say like, oh, the government are the ones who write the laws or something like that. But I could go, I don't know.
I write the laws for my house. Am I the government of my house? And it's like, no, not really. Even though you can make the rules. You can make the rules. You could make the rules whatever you want to in your house if you own it. I could make the rules that you have to wear green pants and hop on one leg when you come in my house. But why am I not a government?
And the reason is because all I can really do to enforce that is kick you out of my house. All I can do is take a legit, I can't like initiate violence against you. Otherwise, the government will come in and arrest me because I'm a criminal now. You're not allowed to do that. There's only one group of people who are allowed to do that, and that's the government. They have the military.
They have the cops. They have more guns than everybody else. And so they decide what they're allowed to do and what you're allowed to do. Now, they can tax you and call it taxation. If anybody else were to do that, you'd be... you'd be guilty of extortion or robbery or whatever. They can start a war. Nobody else can do that. They can throw you in prison. Nobody else can do that.
They have a monopoly in the truest sense of the term. They are the only ones who are allowed to initiate violence without consequences.
at least in theoretically like you could get away with killing somebody but you're at least risking that you would go to jail for it whereas the government isn't even risking that and so this whole free speech conversation really what it's about is about whether you're free to dissent from the government or not other than that like even even in the height of say like tech censorship right which what would you say 2020 was probably the worst year of tech censorship
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