Same. I remember elections going back to Clinton's victory, when I was 13 in 1992. This is by far the most racist and sexist election I've ever seen, with many threats of violence and statements that are literally insane, like turning the military against the country, saying you're going to be a dictator, mass deportations...holy shit. And the legal guardrails that stopped Trump before are gone. His followers are batshit crazy. Two assassination attempts. This is not normal. I'm sure people in Germany in 1933 thought it would be "just another day" when Hitler was appointed chancellor. Six weeks later, civil liberties were swept aside, and the next year, over a thousand extrajudicial killings were carried out in the Night of the Long Knives. We all know how that ended. Except this time, the USA is the only superpower, and some of the wrong countries have nukes. The margin for error is very narrow. I'm not being hyperbolic. This has happened before and is happening in many countries right now. People think their rights are protected, until they're not.
@PhantomMagician1846 And I’m 2016 the other candidate accepted the result before the cock crowed. But 2020, Trump got the vast majority of Republicans to back up the big lie, and has spent the last four years moving the pieces to have only sycophants around him to make it happen. These things are like sex; you just don’t get a little bit pregnant. You lose institution slowly, and then the only person who can fix that is a dictator, and dictators never relinquish power. Take it from somebody who grew up under one.
Michael: We are the same age. I remember very well Nixon, Reagan, and all of the hyperbole at the time. But there is a difference this time. Nixon did not threaten to defy the law, and the Supreme Court did not grant him blanket immunity, feeling that he was subject to the rule of law. The voting rights act was still in place and overt voter suppression efforts were not employed without swift exposure and remediation. Norms were still respected and truth was still embraced and expected and lies called out and condemned. Media presented the news with the intent to inform and verify, and not to manipulate and obfuscate. No Republicans have threatened to leave the country if Harris wins because they have no intention of(and are taking steps against) losing under any circumstances. The election results will not be accepted if Harris wins. And as for a "peaceful transfer of power" occurring last time, it happened with the Capitol building surrounded by iron fencing, National Guard troops deployed around DC, and USAF fighter jets patrolling the skies. I would urge you to get real as well.
I seriously do not understand how people can look at J6th and say "Yup that's peaceful transfer of power". People literally died on that day. More importantly its not just about the violence but also the "why" of it. From the day when Donald Trump declared that he "did win the election" to J6 2020 there was a systematic effort to overthrow the elections. How can Shermer look at that and say "yup nothing to see here".
In addition to those excellent points we should not ignore the many many experts warning us in explicit terms about the current danger. I'm thinking both of the many cabinet and defense principals who are intimately familiar both with Trump himself and with the extraordinarily insidious ways he would threaten the general order and prosperity of our nation and the world; and also of brilliant academics like Dr. Timothy Snyder - and many others - who make absolutely clear their awareness that we are facing a fundamentally different threat than at any time in living memory, and an absolutely existential one. I was actually very sad listening to this podcast episode, especially since Shermer did such an excellent job debunking some of the recent Nazi-sympathetic discussion in another recent talk. It's astonishing and depressing to me that even a self-identified and extremely knowledgeable rationalist like Shermer can see what's happening so clearly on the one hand and yet reject its critical importance with the other.
In addition to those excellent points we should not ignore the many many experts warning us in explicit terms about the current danger. I'm thinking both of the many cabinet and defense principals who are intimately familiar both with Trump himself and with the extraordinarily insidious ways he would threaten the general order and prosperity of our nation and the world; and also of brilliant academics like Dr. Timothy Snyder - and many others - who make absolutely clear their awareness that we are facing a fundamentally different threat than at any time in living memory, and an absolutely existential one. I was actually very sad listening to this podcast episode, especially since Shermer did such an excellent job debunking some of the recent Nazi-sympathetic discussion in another recent talk. It's astonishing and depressing to me that even a self-identified and extremely knowledgeable rationalist like Shermer can see what's happening so clearly on the one hand and yet reject its critical importance with the other.
As a partial counterpoint - history may tell us that, as a rule, the losing side of presidential elections always exaggerated the danger. History also tells us that it's possible to vote away democracy without knowing you're voting in your last free election. Should the Russians have been less worried about Putin in 2000 than they were? Should the Turks have been less worried about Orbán in 2010 than they were? After all, Orbán had already served as prime Minister and had relinquished control to an opposing party when he lost in 2002, was there no reason to be worried about him making antidemocratic moves upon reelection in 2010? Venezuela is another instructive example. The tacit belief in American exceptionalism in play here is entirely unhelpful to thinking clearly about the risks of another Trump presidency. The point is that while it's entirely possible that we survive 4 years of Trump without long term damage (given the recent supreme court ruling on presidential immunity, I'd argue that you couldn't say we survived his last term without long term damage) it's also just idiotic not to be worried about the possibility that the next president will be someone who so openly admires dictators, has such obvious disdain for the rule of law and democracy, and is only focused on his own narrow self interest. History shows that democracy, like so many things, tends to be lost little by little, then all at once. Whether another trump presidency is one of the little steps, or will be the all at once phase is an open question. With any luck we'll never have to know how close we've come, but taking another step towards the edge of the cliff on the basis that all the prior steps have been uneventful will eventually lead to one's demise.
@DeconvertedMan 'hyperbolic' doesn't do justice to the feeling of dread felt by mainstream U.S. citizens toward M.@.G.@ (whose leadership really just sees DJT as a useful idiot).
Yes, we overused, and misused, the term fascist back in the 60s, myself included. Does that mean the term isn't applicable now? No. The threat is real, and even a Skeptic needs to understand that.
Exactly, Trump is the only US President to orchestrate a violent attack on our institutions of government to subvert the outcome of a democratic election. Trump's action on Jan 6th are the definition of fascism.
Thanks for this. I'm watching it all from Canada. It's so necessary to have right and left views and voices and the perspectives of many people. No one person holds the answers and we've only arrived to where we are because humans can collaborate. Sad to see political opponents become demonized.
I actually completely agree. Aside from the empirically extremely low probability of affecting the outcome, this is my second strongest argument as to why I don’t vote. In a U.S. presidential election, we’re typically given a choice between two candidates. If we objectively viewed their qualifications as if filling a vacancy in a company, we’d see an extremely low ratio of qualified applicants to successful candidates. While there may technically be more than two candidates, realistically it always comes down to two. Some might bring up the primaries, but is there really any other candidate more likely to win than the two primary nominees? Notice I said "likely," not "qualified." The answer to "likely" is almost certainly "no," while the answer to "qualified" is almost certainly "yes." Our current voting system only asks us to pick our favorite opinion among two, often equally undesirable, options. This system often fuels a fan-base mentality similar to sports, where people root for their "team" regardless of actual performance or policies. I would vote if we had a quadratic voting system and could vote directly on specific issues, but as it stands, it feels like a mix between WWE SmackDown and the fervor we see in football or soccer fans.
@@crypticnomad it's basically team Red vs team Blue. Marriages, friendships, and family members have broken up because one person supports the candidate the other person doesn't like. thats really sad
I think Michael’s reasoning here is suffering from the frog in the boiling water effect. We did have a president who was forced into the White House by friends and family, who fell asleep at the wheel and allowed a history-changing terrorist event to happen, then curtailed our privacy and declared war on a nation that had nothing to do with it and killed hundreds of thousands of people and soldiers. We did have a president who tried to overstay the will of the people, and could have gotten away with it had not been for a few people of principle, operative words here being “a few“. Just because the world goes on and we get distracted and complacent, doesn’t mean that our institutions aren’t being severely undermined, or that the environment could well be passed a tipping point, or that democracy is not as strong as it was 10 years ago. It reminds me of that line from Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises of a man explaining how he lost his fortune “gradually. Then, suddenly.” A distant early warning is still a warning and a slow moving coup is still a coup.
I disagree. Trump without guard rails, (or lessened guard rails ) the damage he could do. Plus he has shown a propensity for violence, unlike any other president. We are the same age, have seen as many past presidents, and I cannot think of one, not one, as bad. just listen to what his former cabinet officials are saying.
And just as a follow-up, now that Trump has won again, if you thought his first 4 years caused damage, and boy did they with his court nominees alone, brace yourself for a lot more. Appeasement does not work (as Chamberlain found out).
The first election I was old enough to vote, was 1988, Bush Vs. Dukakis. And I’ve heard “Most important election of our lifetime” SEVERAL TIMES. But, I’ll tell you, I really do think THIS 2024 Election is EXTREMELY important because we are seeing things never seen before, unlike the previous ones. This actually is different, because we weren’t mutilating kids, and saying how great it is, or having males play in female sports, or have something like half the people under 30 think socialism is a good idea. No, this IS different.
The idea that "everything is going to be okay" isn't popular. If we're not parroting the latest Us vs Them hysteria from the reality drama/24 hour news cycle, then we're just blind "Sheeple". No one mentions how things won't change until the parties get their sh*t together and cooperate on long term solutions for immigration, healthcare, foreign policy, etc. Cooperation...the forgotten ingredient that actually "made this country great".
Those are valid points although it's a bit hard (if not impossible) to cooperate with a party that wants to reelect a fascist that tells them he is a fascist and a political party that, by default, chooses ludicrous, childish conspiracy theories over basic cognition and objective reality. Of course we should never stop trying but... gd it's a dark road ahead.
I don't expect I'll leave the country, but depending on which side wins, I may turn off all social media and news for 4 years. I should do that anyway. Government behavior is out of my control and hearing about it usually fails to increase my well being.
Never underestimate the cowardliness of an "enlightened centrist". "I'd be a dictator for Day1" - Trump When was the last time a dictator just stopped being a dictator after just one day of his rule? "The immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country" Trump “Christians, get out and vote for me, then you won’t have to do it anymore.” - Trump
Well, as a straight old white guy, yeah I’m guessing you will be just fine. Even during the Depression the unemployment rate only got to 23%. That means 77% were just fine-I guess you’re in the 77% and not at risk of bleeding out in your car in the hospital parking lot because the doctors won’t see you.
A demonstration that turned into a mild riot that turned into a rather peaceful milling about. None of which was encouraged by Orange Man Rad, other than the peaceful demonstration.
Thanks for this. I have been looking for a skeptical take on this. But I wish you would have talked more on the realities of project 2025. I know about what is in it. But I don't know how much of a real threat it is. I am so stressed about it that I find it hard to keep digging for a critical recipe of it. Even the article you link to by Katherine Stewart is just a summary of it. Or did I skim over something?
I appreciate the sentiment, but we did not have a peaceful transfer of power. We had a transfer of power, but Trump riled up an angry mob and some capital police lost their lives because of it.
He's trying too hard to be contrarian here. I'm not calming down at all after Trump tried to steal the last election with his fake electors scheme, the first time in American history that's ever happened, and this time, all the legal guardrails are gone.
One person, stroke, four suicide. A stroke victim: A Capitol Police release the day after the riots said that USCP Officer Brian Sicknick “passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.” The report stated that Sicknick “was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed.” Four other police officers committed suicide in the days and months after the riot. To say this was "because" of the """"riot"""" is to ignore the facts as is.
Donald definitely has some controversial ambitions, many of which go against the best interest of many Reps, donors and some may get shut down by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has already demonstrated that they're right-leaning, but not 100% loyal to Donald. I guess we'll find out soon enough if checks and balances work.
Normally I agree with Michael Shermer, but I think on this issue he's wrong. Not that I ever agreed with either of them but, Nixon was an unpleasant man and flawed in many ways, but he was competent, shrewd and intelligent. Similarly Reagan might not have been the smartest kid on the block, but he kept enough sense to understand that, and surround himself with a competent administration. Trump is in a different class. This is the man whose term began with a squalid little lie about his inauguration crowd being the largest in history, and ended with an attack on the Capitol. This is the man who suggested the Covid prophylactic of injecting bleach. When senior military figures when asked why they didn't resign responded they feared who Trump would replace them with, when John Bolton (hardly on the left) said another Trump administration would pose a clear and present danger to the US... Well the list is endless... No this time IS different for what should be very obvious reasons.
you seem to assume that the past is the best predictor of the future, True most of the times but not always. i am afraid that you will regret your comments when trump will drive right through democratic norms and grant to himself powers that no president has had in time of peace.
The voice of reason. I have been telling people the same thing that Michael is saying. At 73 years old, I have heard this same stuff for many years. The day after the election, I will get up and go about my day.
When Trump got elected I moved from South Carolina to Colorado. I left the hatefilled conservative south for the sake of my interracial relationship. I ended up in a liberal paradise (by comparison to the south) that took the c19 pandemic seriously, where as my home state of SC did not. Several of my family members died, and the rest still hate me for taking the vaccine. I saw the writing on the wall in 2017, left my lifelong home, and directly benefited from that choice. All because of trump and his policies and hate. It is not the 80s. It’s not the 90s. These aren’t “bushisms”. This is killing people. (bush’s bs wars and propaganda got my cousin blown up in Iraq btw) I’m sorry it hasn’t directly impacted you so far, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t migrating across the us for health care or political sanity as we speak. Is your next video gonna be about his Einstein overreacted when he left Europe?
7:30 🤣🤣 I wonder what ever happened to Laci Green. She seems to have started out in the Mormon cult, rejected that in favor of atheism, rapidly swung to the leftist feminist cult around the time of the quote Shermer read, then started to realize, maybe, all cults are insane, and moderated a bit some years ago. It would be interesting to see an interview on how she's doing now.
Thank you immeasurably for your voice of reason and sanity Mr Shermer. Your nation desperately needs it. BTW, I'm a Canadian, and I suspect that once any Liberals from California experience one of our winters, they will quickly decamp back to Hollywood.
Sorry Michael, you are so wrong, and not smart enough to know why. But then again, that's why I don't pay attention to you. The most unimportant podcast on the Internet.
he's pretty good at debunking aliens. And he's pretty even-minded on the trans-in-womens-sports issue ( why is it that we don't have any trans people wanting to join MENS sports leauges? ). But yea, he was hitting the bong pretty hard when he made the statement about 'eventually... peaceful transfer of power'.
Love the show and generallt love Micheal's approach and enquiry into the topics he explores. Sorry to say that whatever attempt this cast is to project a sensible, inclusive balance into the polarised nature of this election. It is severely diluted and undermined by the thinly veiled partisanship and derision of the the team he doesn't support. Won't stop me listening to the skeptic shoe though!
Kind of hard to square your outlook with Trump's past record and current rhetoric. He's already ranked the worst president by historians, Trump may have little direct effect on me but the national outlook would be grim.
A well stated position. Yet 'conspiracy' is so much more fun. I mean, I was just out hunting for Bigfoot last week. Didn't find any evidence for it, but I did buy a t-shirt and ended up having a good time anyway. America is sort of like that. :)
Except of course for the war he waged at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 for the purpose of overturning a free and fair U.S election. Several people died and over 140 law enforcement officers were injured at the hands of his angry mob. At the end of the day he said he "loved" the insurrectionists and that they were "special."
Ill never vote again, I'm 56 years old and married to a 32 year old, we have better things to think about. I'm over being manipulated into this presiduncy story line. It would be boring if the anger and scary talk was absent. You're just voting for America's top mayor. I'm so over it.
Who else here fell for the semi-clickbait??!! And then sobered up and is now acting as if you knew all along that Shermer wouldn't say anything hyperbolic.
I don’t know. I’m in my mid 40s and I’ve never felt an election to be this crazy.
Same. I remember elections going back to Clinton's victory, when I was 13 in 1992. This is by far the most racist and sexist election I've ever seen, with many threats of violence and statements that are literally insane, like turning the military against the country, saying you're going to be a dictator, mass deportations...holy shit. And the legal guardrails that stopped Trump before are gone. His followers are batshit crazy. Two assassination attempts. This is not normal.
I'm sure people in Germany in 1933 thought it would be "just another day" when Hitler was appointed chancellor. Six weeks later, civil liberties were swept aside, and the next year, over a thousand extrajudicial killings were carried out in the Night of the Long Knives.
We all know how that ended. Except this time, the USA is the only superpower, and some of the wrong countries have nukes. The margin for error is very narrow.
I'm not being hyperbolic. This has happened before and is happening in many countries right now. People think their rights are protected, until they're not.
2016 "hold my beer"
@PhantomMagician1846 And I’m 2016 the other candidate accepted the result before the cock crowed. But 2020, Trump got the vast majority of Republicans to back up the big lie, and has spent the last four years moving the pieces to have only sycophants around him to make it happen. These things are like sex; you just don’t get a little bit pregnant. You lose institution slowly, and then the only person who can fix that is a dictator, and dictators never relinquish power. Take it from somebody who grew up under one.
Michael: We are the same age. I remember very well Nixon, Reagan, and all of the hyperbole at the time. But there is a difference this time. Nixon did not threaten to defy the law, and the Supreme Court did not grant him blanket immunity, feeling that he was subject to the rule of law. The voting rights act was still in place and overt voter suppression efforts were not employed without swift exposure and remediation. Norms were still respected and truth was still embraced and expected and lies called out and condemned. Media presented the news with the intent to inform and verify, and not to manipulate and obfuscate.
No Republicans have threatened to leave the country if Harris wins because they have no intention of(and are taking steps against) losing under any circumstances. The election results will not be accepted if Harris wins.
And as for a "peaceful transfer of power" occurring last time, it happened with the Capitol building surrounded by iron fencing, National Guard troops deployed around DC, and USAF fighter jets patrolling the skies.
I would urge you to get real as well.
I couldn’t have said it better sir!!
Yup.
I seriously do not understand how people can look at J6th and say "Yup that's peaceful transfer of power". People literally died on that day.
More importantly its not just about the violence but also the "why" of it.
From the day when Donald Trump declared that he "did win the election" to J6 2020 there was a systematic effort to overthrow the elections.
How can Shermer look at that and say "yup nothing to see here".
In addition to those excellent points we should not ignore the many many experts warning us in explicit terms about the current danger. I'm thinking both of the many cabinet and defense principals who are intimately familiar both with Trump himself and with the extraordinarily insidious ways he would threaten the general order and prosperity of our nation and the world; and also of brilliant academics like Dr. Timothy Snyder - and many others - who make absolutely clear their awareness that we are facing a fundamentally different threat than at any time in living memory, and an absolutely existential one.
I was actually very sad listening to this podcast episode, especially since Shermer did such an excellent job debunking some of the recent Nazi-sympathetic discussion in another recent talk. It's astonishing and depressing to me that even a self-identified and extremely knowledgeable rationalist like Shermer can see what's happening so clearly on the one hand and yet reject its critical importance with the other.
In addition to those excellent points we should not ignore the many many experts warning us in explicit terms about the current danger. I'm thinking both of the many cabinet and defense principals who are intimately familiar both with Trump himself and with the extraordinarily insidious ways he would threaten the general order and prosperity of our nation and the world; and also of brilliant academics like Dr. Timothy Snyder - and many others - who make absolutely clear their awareness that we are facing a fundamentally different threat than at any time in living memory, and an absolutely existential one.
I was actually very sad listening to this podcast episode, especially since Shermer did such an excellent job debunking some of the recent Nazi-sympathetic discussion in another recent talk. It's astonishing and depressing to me that even a self-identified and extremely knowledgeable rationalist like Shermer can see what's happening so clearly on the one hand and yet reject its critical importance with the other.
Common sense is so refreshing and human 😌cheers Michael !
While I respect your views on this, I find this current election to be far different. I would be happy to make your $1,000 bet with you.
to which country will you be headed?
Excellent talk Michael. Thanks!
As a partial counterpoint - history may tell us that, as a rule, the losing side of presidential elections always exaggerated the danger. History also tells us that it's possible to vote away democracy without knowing you're voting in your last free election. Should the Russians have been less worried about Putin in 2000 than they were? Should the Turks have been less worried about Orbán in 2010 than they were? After all, Orbán had already served as prime Minister and had relinquished control to an opposing party when he lost in 2002, was there no reason to be worried about him making antidemocratic moves upon reelection in 2010? Venezuela is another instructive example. The tacit belief in American exceptionalism in play here is entirely unhelpful to thinking clearly about the risks of another Trump presidency. The point is that while it's entirely possible that we survive 4 years of Trump without long term damage (given the recent supreme court ruling on presidential immunity, I'd argue that you couldn't say we survived his last term without long term damage) it's also just idiotic not to be worried about the possibility that the next president will be someone who so openly admires dictators, has such obvious disdain for the rule of law and democracy, and is only focused on his own narrow self interest. History shows that democracy, like so many things, tends to be lost little by little, then all at once. Whether another trump presidency is one of the little steps, or will be the all at once phase is an open question. With any luck we'll never have to know how close we've come, but taking another step towards the edge of the cliff on the basis that all the prior steps have been uneventful will eventually lead to one's demise.
ruclips.net/video/CoQDRMiV3Hs/видео.html
I think Michael is off the mark thinking America will no change dramatically if Trump wins.
Is this Donald Trump posting? He also thought Viktor Orban was the Prime Minister of Turkey.... instead of Hungary.
@@rainguynw Lol. He loved Erdogan and Orban alike - they're both strongmen.
omg! panic! hyperbolic reasoning! PANIC.
@DeconvertedMan 'hyperbolic' doesn't do justice to the feeling of dread felt by mainstream U.S. citizens toward M.@.G.@ (whose leadership really just sees DJT as a useful idiot).
Yes, we overused, and misused, the term fascist back in the 60s, myself included. Does that mean the term isn't applicable now? No. The threat is real, and even a Skeptic needs to understand that.
Exactly, Trump is the only US President to orchestrate a violent attack on our institutions of government to subvert the outcome of a democratic election. Trump's action on Jan 6th are the definition of fascism.
If you think Trump is a “fascist”, you are unhinged
Thanks for this. I'm watching it all from Canada. It's so necessary to have right and left views and voices and the perspectives of many people. No one person holds the answers and we've only arrived to where we are because humans can collaborate. Sad to see political opponents become demonized.
we need to get rid of this US vs Them way of thinking
I actually completely agree. Aside from the empirically extremely low probability of affecting the outcome, this is my second strongest argument as to why I don’t vote. In a U.S. presidential election, we’re typically given a choice between two candidates. If we objectively viewed their qualifications as if filling a vacancy in a company, we’d see an extremely low ratio of qualified applicants to successful candidates. While there may technically be more than two candidates, realistically it always comes down to two. Some might bring up the primaries, but is there really any other candidate more likely to win than the two primary nominees? Notice I said "likely," not "qualified." The answer to "likely" is almost certainly "no," while the answer to "qualified" is almost certainly "yes."
Our current voting system only asks us to pick our favorite opinion among two, often equally undesirable, options. This system often fuels a fan-base mentality similar to sports, where people root for their "team" regardless of actual performance or policies. I would vote if we had a quadratic voting system and could vote directly on specific issues, but as it stands, it feels like a mix between WWE SmackDown and the fervor we see in football or soccer fans.
@@crypticnomad it's basically team Red vs team Blue. Marriages, friendships, and family members have broken up because one person supports the candidate the other person doesn't like. thats really sad
@@PhantomMagician1846 Political factionalism is religious in nature. It isn't surprising many atheists are still very religious.
@@tuckerbugeater thats very true
Amen to that
Did Shermer just commit an Occam’s. Broom Fallacy? 😂
I think Michael’s reasoning here is suffering from the frog in the boiling water effect. We did have a president who was forced into the White House by friends and family, who fell asleep at the wheel and allowed a history-changing terrorist event to happen, then curtailed our privacy and declared war on a nation that had nothing to do with it and killed hundreds of thousands of people and soldiers.
We did have a president who tried to overstay the will of the people, and could have gotten away with it had not been for a few people of principle, operative words here being “a few“.
Just because the world goes on and we get distracted and complacent, doesn’t mean that our institutions aren’t being severely undermined, or that the environment could well be passed a tipping point, or that democracy is not as strong as it was 10 years ago.
It reminds me of that line from Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises of a man explaining how he lost his fortune “gradually. Then, suddenly.” A distant early warning is still a warning and a slow moving coup is still a coup.
I disagree. Trump without guard rails, (or lessened guard rails ) the damage he could do. Plus he has shown a propensity for violence, unlike any other president. We are the same age, have seen as many past presidents, and I cannot think of one, not one, as bad. just listen to what his former cabinet officials are saying.
@gravecac9522 yes, when Shermer @Skeptic said '... eventually.. a peaceful transfer of power', he was demonstrating a lack of judgement.
And just as a follow-up, now that Trump has won again, if you thought his first 4 years caused damage, and boy did they with his court nominees alone, brace yourself for a lot more. Appeasement does not work (as Chamberlain found out).
Seek help. Your TDS is full blown. 🙄
The first election I was old enough to vote, was 1988, Bush Vs. Dukakis. And I’ve heard “Most important election of our lifetime” SEVERAL TIMES.
But, I’ll tell you, I really do think THIS 2024 Election is EXTREMELY important because we are seeing things never seen before, unlike the previous ones. This actually is different, because we weren’t mutilating kids, and saying how great it is, or having males play in female sports, or have something like half the people under 30 think socialism is a good idea. No, this IS different.
The idea that "everything is going to be okay" isn't popular. If we're not parroting the latest Us vs Them hysteria from the reality drama/24 hour news cycle, then we're just blind "Sheeple". No one mentions how things won't change until the parties get their sh*t together and cooperate on long term solutions for immigration, healthcare, foreign policy, etc. Cooperation...the forgotten ingredient that actually "made this country great".
Those are valid points although it's a bit hard (if not impossible) to cooperate with a party that wants to reelect a fascist that tells them he is a fascist and a political party that, by default, chooses ludicrous, childish conspiracy theories over basic cognition and objective reality. Of course we should never stop trying but... gd it's a dark road ahead.
I don't expect I'll leave the country, but depending on which side wins, I may turn off all social media and news for 4 years. I should do that anyway. Government behavior is out of my control and hearing about it usually fails to increase my well being.
Thanks Michael. Always appreciate your perspective
Never underestimate the cowardliness of an "enlightened centrist".
"I'd be a dictator for Day1" - Trump
When was the last time a dictator just stopped being a dictator after just one day of his rule?
"The immigrants are poisoning the blood of our country" Trump
“Christians, get out and vote for me, then you won’t have to do it anymore.” - Trump
Are you serious?
These are all completely harmless quotes when viewed in their context.
He speaks in hyperbole. Is our system so weak that it could not withstand someone trying to do that?
@@DeconvertedMan it is DJT who is weak. The thing to be aware of is the actual thought leaders within M.A.G.@, for whom DJT is a useful idiot.
@@DeconvertedMan 😂😂😂
Well, as a straight old white guy, yeah I’m guessing you will be just fine. Even during the Depression the unemployment rate only got to 23%. That means 77% were just fine-I guess you’re in the 77% and not at risk of bleeding out in your car in the hospital parking lot because the doctors won’t see you.
I believe it was much worse in the 1920s. But your point about the consequences of 'throwing it to the states' where abortion is concerned is valid
I remember a certain assault to a certain capitol, its the same person, you know? It is not business as usual Michael you are sadly very wrong
A demonstration that turned into a mild riot that turned into a rather peaceful milling about. None of which was encouraged by Orange Man Rad, other than the peaceful demonstration.
Thanks for this. I have been looking for a skeptical take on this. But I wish you would have talked more on the realities of project 2025. I know about what is in it. But I don't know how much of a real threat it is. I am so stressed about it that I find it hard to keep digging for a critical recipe of it. Even the article you link to by Katherine Stewart is just a summary of it. Or did I skim over something?
I'm just hoping that ammendment 3 passed here in Florida to make it easier to deal with the nonsense of whichever side wins.
He's moving to Canada? What makes him think we want him here?
I appreciate the sentiment, but we did not have a peaceful transfer of power. We had a transfer of power, but Trump riled up an angry mob and some capital police lost their lives because of it.
Trump still has not acknowledged the fact that Biden won.
yes, Mr. Shermer lost me at 'peaceful transfer of power'. WTF was he smoking on Jan. 6 '20 ??!
He's trying too hard to be contrarian here. I'm not calming down at all after Trump tried to steal the last election with his fake electors scheme, the first time in American history that's ever happened, and this time, all the legal guardrails are gone.
One person, stroke, four suicide.
A stroke victim: A Capitol Police release the day after the riots said that USCP Officer Brian Sicknick “passed away due to injuries sustained while on-duty.” The report stated that Sicknick “was injured while physically engaging with protesters. He returned to his division office and collapsed.”
Four other police officers committed suicide in the days and months after the riot.
To say this was "because" of the """"riot"""" is to ignore the facts as is.
@@DeconvertedMan what do you call it , if not a riot?
Donald definitely has some controversial ambitions, many of which go against the best interest of many Reps, donors and some may get shut down by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has already demonstrated that they're right-leaning, but not 100% loyal to Donald. I guess we'll find out soon enough if checks and balances work.
Thanks for the perspective! I honestly have been pretty anxious over this!
Anxiety is normal when a wannabe dictator who already has the Supreme Court in his court may be elected.
@ exactly!
Normally I agree with Michael Shermer, but I think on this issue he's wrong. Not that I ever agreed with either of them but, Nixon was an unpleasant man and flawed in many ways, but he was competent, shrewd and intelligent. Similarly Reagan might not have been the smartest kid on the block, but he kept enough sense to understand that, and surround himself with a competent administration. Trump is in a different class. This is the man whose term began with a squalid little lie about his inauguration crowd being the largest in history, and ended with an attack on the Capitol. This is the man who suggested the Covid prophylactic of injecting bleach. When senior military figures when asked why they didn't resign responded they feared who Trump would replace them with, when John Bolton (hardly on the left) said another Trump administration would pose a clear and present danger to the US... Well the list is endless... No this time IS different for what should be very obvious reasons.
Agree with your takeaway message. Maybe another question: What would it take for you to call it the most important election in American history?
Thank you for being a voice of reason in these hysterical times
you seem to assume that the past is the best predictor of the future, True most of the times but not always. i am afraid that you will regret your comments when trump will drive right through democratic norms and grant to himself powers that no president has had in time of peace.
Not to mention January 6.
The voice of reason. I have been telling people the same thing that Michael is saying. At 73 years old, I have heard this same stuff for many years. The day after the election, I will get up and go about my day.
Meaning YOU don't belong to any group headed for camps. At least not among the early ones.
@@alanwheeler3309 Funny thing. A lot of people in Germany did the same thing one fine morning in 1933. Enjoy your day.
My psychology is rusty... But I think Trump represents the Conservative's Jungian Shadow
i'll buy you a ticket ... bye!
We’ll put, Dr Shermer. Thank you and keep delivering the voice of reason!
When Trump got elected I moved from South Carolina to Colorado. I left the hatefilled conservative south for the sake of my interracial relationship. I ended up in a liberal paradise (by comparison to the south) that took the c19 pandemic seriously, where as my home state of SC did not. Several of my family members died, and the rest still hate me for taking the vaccine. I saw the writing on the wall in 2017, left my lifelong home, and directly benefited from that choice. All because of trump and his policies and hate. It is not the 80s. It’s not the 90s. These aren’t “bushisms”. This is killing people.
(bush’s bs wars and propaganda got my cousin blown up in Iraq btw)
I’m sorry it hasn’t directly impacted you so far, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t migrating across the us for health care or political sanity as we speak.
Is your next video gonna be about his Einstein overreacted when he left Europe?
Hope Alan Lichtman is correct again
7:30 🤣🤣 I wonder what ever happened to Laci Green. She seems to have started out in the Mormon cult, rejected that in favor of atheism, rapidly swung to the leftist feminist cult around the time of the quote Shermer read, then started to realize, maybe, all cults are insane, and moderated a bit some years ago. It would be interesting to see an interview on how she's doing now.
Good job, Reverend Shermer!
Thank you for your regular dose of reason and sanity.
Thanks Michael. I needed that 😊
1st vote for me was 1980. I wish i could reverse 2 of my votes from the past. 1 was id rather vote carter over reagan and 2 id vote Dole over Clinton.
Yes! I’m old and I don’t want Trump to be my LAST president.
VERY well said - bravo! 👏
Thank you immeasurably for your voice of reason and sanity Mr Shermer. Your nation desperately needs it. BTW, I'm a Canadian, and I suspect that once any Liberals from California experience one of our winters, they will quickly decamp back to Hollywood.
Sorry Michael, you are so wrong, and not smart enough to know why. But then again, that's why I don't pay attention to you. The most unimportant podcast on the Internet.
he's pretty good at debunking aliens. And he's pretty even-minded on the trans-in-womens-sports issue ( why is it that we don't have any trans people wanting to join MENS sports leauges? ). But yea, he was hitting the bong pretty hard when he made the statement about 'eventually... peaceful transfer of power'.
Love the show and generallt love Micheal's approach and enquiry into the topics he explores. Sorry to say that whatever attempt this cast is to project a sensible, inclusive balance into the polarised nature of this election. It is severely diluted and undermined by the thinly veiled partisanship and derision of the the team he doesn't support. Won't stop me listening to the skeptic shoe though!
Thank you!
It would be great if you could interview Heather Cox Richardson.
Kind of hard to square your outlook with Trump's past record and current rhetoric. He's already ranked the worst president by historians, Trump may have little direct effect on me but the national outlook would be grim.
Excellent video!
Thanks
Posting again just to say these are words of encouragement in difficult times. It helps, it really does.
nice job. as always. thanks.
A well stated position.
Yet 'conspiracy' is so much more fun.
I mean, I was just out hunting for Bigfoot last week. Didn't find any evidence for it, but I did buy a t-shirt and ended up having a good time anyway.
America is sort of like that. :)
Quite a lot of folk in the comments are suffering from TDS
Good job Shermer
the world will end if we vote for (X) person! OMG.
I'm surprised that Michael is claiming we had a peaceful transfer of power in 2020. We didn't.
If Harris wins, the only thing I’m leaving is the toilet seat up.
Great stuff Mr. Shermer. Always appreciate your insight.
You already had Trump for 4 years , no wars.
We were fighting bush’s forever war in Afghanistan under Trump, wtf are you talking about?
Simplistic soundbites and a blatant misunderstanding of the basic functions of governmental policies is not the brag you seem to think it is.
Except of course for the war he waged at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 for the purpose of overturning a free and fair U.S election. Several people died and over 140 law enforcement officers were injured at the hands of his angry mob. At the end of the day he said he "loved" the insurrectionists and that they were "special."
Jesus you two respondents are stupid.
@@ctpaul1261 The OP can't remember this war because Trump lost it. That time.
👍❤
Trump 2024
I hope your right
Thank you Michael badly needed to be said.
So, no worries then.
I fear civil war will break out if Trump looses .. 😢
I would fall over myself in the rush to vote Shermer.
Your complaisance reminds me of Norman Angell.
👉 ... " 💥 Special 💥 " ... 👈
Christianity is what enables such hatred and ignorance. It's tribal and a behavioral excuse.
A room temperature IQ enables your hatred and ignorance. No fixing that.
Ill never vote again, I'm 56 years old and married to a 32 year old, we have better things to think about. I'm over being manipulated into this presiduncy story line. It would be boring if the anger and scary talk was absent. You're just voting for America's top mayor. I'm so over it.
you should still vote, tho
@sanle7515 only for money
Wokeism vs blokeism
Michael, you are very wrong here and elsewhere. You have gone off the rails with your centrist views. 😢
Don't worry dude. You ain't got many left 🤭
Very nice sermon, Micheal. Now go clean up your room.
Who else here fell for the semi-clickbait??!! And then sobered up and is now acting as if you knew all along that Shermer wouldn't say anything hyperbolic.
This guy's a clown.