This is the FCNB podcast network. A preassa that we won't with pain, then we won't to say, oh we gott it does. No one can take that. Owen gonna be okay, A breas that we won't with say, then we won't to say, oh we got it does. No one can take that owen. Okay, Hello, everybody, Welcome back to another episode of Just Listen to Yourself with Kira Davis. This is the podcast where we take hot topics, hot button ideas, and we discuss the talking points on those topics, and we draw those talking points all the way out to their logical conclusion. Today is really one of the more pure forms of that mission. Sometimes we know straight to the peripheryes of that mission on this podcast, but today we really are thinking through It's an interesting problem. I don't know that it's pressing, but it's something that's been on my mind. But before we get to that, let's take care of some just some housekeeping. If you have not subscribed to this show, please subscribe. Hit that subscribe button. It costs you nothing, but it means so much to this show and this network. And then just set your shows to automatically download. And if you want to delete them right after they download. That's great, but those download numbers are golden. You might as well be giving me money, so we don't charge you money to listen to it, but that's how we make money. And of course the subscriptions are important as well. And if you wouldn't mind leaving me a rating or review on iTunes, a couple of lines would be great five stars please. I'm trying to get up to one thousand reviews. I'm at seven hundred and seventy three right now. I've been around in the seven hundreds for quite a while, so I'd appreciate that. And of course, go sign up for my substack Justiciadavis dot subseac dot com. And if you didn't catch the interview I did with my fellow FCB Radio A colleague, Victoria Henley, you really need to go listen to that. Victoria is a model, a former America's Top Model contestant, and she was visiting New York City last year for work, which she does often, and she's she's got her own business. She's not just a pretty girl, she's very beautiful. She is a photographer and she produces pop up fashion shows as fundraising events for charities, and so she's in New York City often, and she was leading her ninety year old grandma through the subway system and Victoria was randomly and brutally attacked by a stranger, kicked down the stairs, kicked in the back down the stairs. Turns out this man had been arrested five times prior and he was an illegal immigrant. So the police did arrest him again and apparently he is still in prison, but Victoria hasn't really gotten any updates on what's happening with him. This was almost a year ago, and of course this is all part of that bigger problem that's going on in New York City with crime and the migrant crisis, those two crises sort of colliding. But get this. Then she went back to her hotel and someone had stolen all of her equipment. Over two hundred and fifty thousand dollars worth of show equipment just gone. And the hotel chain, which is the Times Squares, Times Squares, Times Square, Hyatt, excuse me, has been just mia on the whole issue, has given her the run around. This is a young woman, a self starter, running her own business, and just another victim of the senseless crime in New York City and her experience with the police and the hotel service. It'll it'll make you angry. It'll make you angry. So we talked a lot about that, and it morphed into a conversation about how we stay vulnerable and how we stay open to being neighborly and being kind fellow citizens in this current atmosphere where our law enforcement isn't even protecting us, and which means we have to protect ourselves, and you know, the unfortunate result of that often is a hardened heart. And so that was it was a great discussion from top to bottom. But you'll be angry on Victoria's behalf when you listen to that. If you have not heard it, highly recommend. Also, she's just a truly impressive young woman. So her podcast here in the FCB network is Backstage Passed with Victoria Head and she takes you backstage at some of the events that she said. She talks to models and producers and people in the entertainment industry. As you can imagine, her travels take her all over and she talks to all kinds of interesting people. So I want to let you know and remind you if you haven't heard that. Please go and take a listen to that. All right, Well, let's get into the topic today. This is something that's been on my mind for a while, and I've been the way it's sort of come about in my thinking. I have been watching as you have. I'm sure all of these pro Hamas, pro Palestinian protests pop up across the United States, particularly on college campuses, but recently we had a big one here in California, up in San Francisco where they blocked the Golden Gate Bridge, blocked the avenue to the airport. They did the same thing in Los Angeles a couple of months ago, and in New York City as well. I believe in New Jersey blocking the roadway to things like the airport, not just sort of protesting at city hall or the Capitol building. And I'm watching these people, and I'm watching police do nothing. In San Francisco, the police did nothing, And I know a lot of you looked at that and said, why are the police just standing there. They're arresting people for getting out of their cars and trying to pull these protesters off to the side. They're arresting those people, ticketing those people. But the protesters no interference. And I have no confirmation of this, but based on what we went through with the Black Lives Matter riots here in California, I'm willing to bet that that was an order from on high to stand down. That's what they did for the Black Lives Matter protesters, even though they were burning stuff down and YadA, YadA YadA. So probably that's what happened. There was probably an order, an edict from the mayor's office or even the governor's office telling them to stand down. It is what it is. But as I'm watching them, and I'm if you're a person of any sense, you were getting enrage. These are people trying to go work, trying to go home to their families, trying to get to their doctors for important medical appointments, sports events. They're simply trying to live their lives, and they're being prevented by these so called protesters who have no care for the average citizen and have no care for their life. And it just, you know, in my mind, I'm just to be totally honest with you, I'm sitting there watching this thinking someone I know they can't do it, but I feel like someone would be justified and running those people over. At some point you're justified and running your car into them, But the police have told us you will be arrested. That won't be any kind of of self defense. That'll be considered an aggressive act. Then most people, if you're going to work, if you're responsible enough to be going to work to earn your own paycheck, you're you're probably not the type of person that wants to risk arrest. You don't think jail is cool. And so I was thinking, yeah, this isn't right. These are just people trying to go to work, live their lives, and you can't prevent people from going to work. You can't prevent people from getting to the hospital getting medical treatment. You can't do that, not even in the name of a protest. You can't do that. It's not fair, it's not right, and law enforcement should absolutely step in. But as soon as I said that, I thought about the trucker convoy. Now, the main trucker convoy that we think of when we're talking about it is the Canadian trucker convoy, but we did have some parallel trucker events here in the US, and I was thinking, well, Kira, you know what is the difference. Really, what is the difference between what the pro Hamas people are doing and the trucker convoys did? And are you being a hypocrite? This is me talking to myself, Kira. Are you being a hypocrite for looking at one as evil and wrong and looking at the other as righteous? And I didn't immediately have an answer. I've really didn't, And I've been thinking about this now for probably two months at least. And the other day I was on Twitter and my friend Matt Matt Chastain, who has a great production company in Georgia outside of Atlanta, and I do work with him sometimes and he's a great friend to this network. He tweeted, just randomly, am I a hypocrite for being angry with the pro Hamas protesters but affording the trucker convoy? And I tweeted back, I said, Wow, that's amazing because this is what I'm doing my podcast on this week. I'm having the same struggle. So that's what I wanted to think through today. Is there a difference between the trucker convoy and the pro Hamas protests or are we being hypocrites about this? Am I being a hypocrite about this? I want to think through that today, and again I welcome your thoughts on this issue. Jlty at ProtonMail dot com. Jlt Y at ProtonMail dot com. So here's what I'm gonna do. I know the show just started, but so I don't have to stop later on, Let's take a commercial break right now, and when we come back, we will get started. How do you ever wonder what really goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry? Join me Victoria Henley from cycle nineteen of America's Next Top Model, for an inside look at fashion shows, concerts, and a wide variety of events throughout the United States, featuring exclusive and insightful interviews with both seasoned and up and coming artists. Listen in and subscribe to Backstage Pass with Victoria, an FCB radio podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. Okay, we are back. We are asking ourselves the question where we're reasoning through this. Is there a difference between the Trucker convoy protest and the pro Hamas protests going on? So before we get started, let's define our terms. That's the first thing I went to do. I went to the dictionary and I wanted to find out what a protest was. But I really was interested in what is the difference between a protest and a riot, because I've been defining the pro hamas stuff as riots, and I would define most of the blam stuff as riots, and yet I defined the convoy trucker convoy as protests. Again, we're going to reason through that. So I'm not saying I'm right there. I'm just pointing out that these were definitions. I was giving these, but I hadn't thought through them at all. They were based totally on my own personal bias. So I want to discuss what the difference is between a protest and a riot just by simply defining them. And okay, so protests is one a solemn declaration of opinion and usually of dissent. Two the act of objecting or a gesture of disapproval. Three a complaint, objection, or display of unwillingness, usually to an idea or a course of action, And four an objection made to an official or a governing body of a sport. Those are the definitions of protests, and they have little examples underneath each subcategory. Okay, here are the definitions for riot. Riot, a violent public disorder, a random or disorderly profusion. Number three one that is wildly amusing. She was a laugh riot for archaic. This definition I did not realize was one of one for riot. That's what it says for archaic, and then underneath it it says a profligate behavior. So debauchery be unrestrained revelry, see noise, uproar, or disturbance made by revelers. So like a party, like a riotous party. Okay, so those are our definitions the difference between riots and protests. And I was just doing you know, cursory internet searches, nothing big. I rarely do anything big, and I just wanted to see what other people had to say about the difference between protesting and writing. And I came across this website called Police Brutality Center. So I don't think it's a center that supports police brutality, Like I don't think you can go into this building and find police brutality and take it home. I think it's against police brutality. But they have a little page on protesting versus writing, and I want to read a little bit to you of what they say here. I think this is I looked around the website, and I think you could probably tell from the moniker that it is a left leaning organization. Just I actually don't think that makes any difference to how they define things here. But it's good to know, okay, they say. As political demonstrations become more common in response to national and international incidents, knowing the difference between protesting versus rioting is increasingly essential. The First Amendment safeguards individuals' rights to peacefully assemble and express dissent, but does not protect rioting, which involves violent crime. I want you to keep all this in mind as we move forward in this discussion. I'm sure your brains are already churning. The US legal system generally defines a protest as a public demonstration of dissent against the government's actions or policies. Some protests express dissatisfaction with a lack of action, such as the failure of law enforcement agencies to hold officers accountable for brutality. Protests are peaceful acts of civil resistance expressing mass disagreement with the authorities choices. Most protests are organized events that an individual or group has planned, scheduled, and publicized to encourage participation any different kinds of protests. Some, such as rallies and marches, are large and often loud gatherings where participants can vocally express disapproval. A vigil is a quieter and more solemn form of protests. The US Constitution protects the rights of groups to assemble peacefully. The First Amendment explicitly states Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people peaceably to assembly and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. Not all public demonstrations are peaceful by legal definition. Riots are public disturbances involving act of violence. In a riot, the violent activity happens as part of a group assembly and causes injury or property damage, and assembly involving threats of violence may also count as a riot if the threat is realistic. Federal law prohibits individuals from using interstate or foreign commerce, including methods of communications such as television or telephone, to organize or participate in a riot, known as the Anti Riot Act. This measure was passed by Congress as a part of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty eight. Any riot participation can also subject someone to felony or misdemeanor charges. Protests and riots are public demonstration. I'm coming to the end. Protests and riots are public demonstrations of dissatisfaction. Both may begin with the goal of expressing objection to the status quo, but the nature of that expression makes up the difference between protesting and rioting. A protest is peaceful, organized and controlled. There is no purposeful violence or destruction of property. A riot disturbs the peace and involves violent crime. There is violent or destructive intent, whether or not that intent was present at the event outset. Even if a demonstration began as a peaceful protest, it might turn into a riot, all right. I thought that was actually very helpful, And as I was reading through this page, there's a lot more there. If you want to go find it, it's the Police Brutalitycenter dot org. And as I was reading through it, of course, I was thinking about a number of protest movements or riots that have plagued us over the last few years. I was thinking most prominently about the Summer o BLM, the Black Lives Matter protests of twenty twenty and beyond, and then of course J six that's a big thing. It's still in the public zeitgeist. We're still dealing with it, and we're still arguing over whether or not that was a riot or a protest. So those were the two events that really came to my mind. And then of course I began to think about this contradiction, so called intellectual contradiction that I was having. Is there a difference between these Prohamas people and the Trucker convoy. So as we break this down, I want again to again reiterate I understand that the Trucker Convoy is really a Canadian thing. Their laws are different, how they you know, their constitution is different. It really is a Canadian thing. But there were shadow events here in the US, and I do want to imagine that as an American event. Just for the purposes of this exercise, I recognized that the Canadians did this, and that they were the ones leading the charge, and you know, I don't want to take away anything from them, but simply for the value of this mental exercise, of this intellectual exercise, we will treat the Trucker Convoy in terms of US politics. So what I did is I did some side by sides and I laid out some talking points. I honestly as I was, I was beginning to think through this issue. Seriously, I really didn't have a conclusion. I really didn't, and so I just did the old fashioned pros and cons thing and did a side by side. So what I started out doing is I just did a direct comparison. Are what are the things that these two movements have in common? Pro Palestinian or pro Hamas. I'm gonna say pro Hamas just because it rolls off my lips a little easier. Pro Palestinian is too many peas to pop. It's kitting on my nerves. So the pro Hamas, so I think we know anti Israel pro Hamas protests and the trucker convoy, well, I think it is fair to give these both equal consideration and to conflate these two. They do have things in common. They and things that are problematic. Both have aspects that are very problematic. One, they both blocked commerce. Chucker blocked freeways. In the case of the Canadian convoy. They did block the bridge between Canada and the US, and there are a lot of goods and services that go over that bridge. It actually did create economic hardship. They blocked traffic. They did, and they went into the city of Ottawa and blocked traffic. And we already know what the pro Hamas people are doing. They both blocked public areas, They're both organized, both have groups that are organizing them. I think the pro Hamas people are have a little bit more of an eclectic group. The Trucker Convoy was very concentrated, and same with Black Lives Matter, right, very concentrated groups. They may have brought some other parties in, but really it was Black Lives Matter that was a singular organization to rally around. Pro Hamas groups are there's a lot of them, and then there's also a lot of different allies they bring into protests with them, and they both creature anger. They're both angry about something, so they both include people who are, for lack of a better description, angry. So I went down the list and I decided to I continued on with my side by side. So I'm going to break down the talking points that I wrote for both. I wrote talking points for Trucker Convoy and then I tried to do a direct comparison direct response for the pro Hamas protesters. So keeping in mind or definitions of what a protest is, what a riot is, keeping in mind what we read from that interesting website, Police Brutality Center, let's dig in. So for the first point, I had the truckers. Oh, and I added to this, by the way, let me tell you this. I added to the trucker's civil rights protesters. We've talked recently a lot about the civil rights movement, the Civil Rights Act. If you haven't heard those episodes, go back and listen to them. Because I have responded directly to criticisms from Matt Walsh and Charlie Kirk about the Civil Rights Act. And I went and read. I reread the Civil Rights Act, which I don't think a lot of people have done. I read it to see what was in it. I couldn't remember what was in it, you know, voting stuff, I don't know. It was really interesting, So go back. I actually discovered something shocking in there that I did not know existent. And I think the Republicans are leaving a very important tool on the table. So if you have not heard that episode, go back and listen. So I included the civil rights protesters with the trucker convoy because same kind of thing, you know, Morally, I consider their protests to be superior to a pro Hamas protest, but I couldn't exactly explain why. I just knew it, but I hadn't thought through it. But I think you could conflate the civil rights protesters and the trucker convoy in motivation and attentions, so I include them in this as well. So let's look it civil rights and truckers. Okay, the trucker convoy slash civil rights activists are seeking action from government. They are seeking direct action from government, petitioning their government. That was very clear in the definition that we read, and even the website that we saw said as well that you are petition petitioning a government and they are asking for specific things. On the Prohama side, what I said was their goals are vague. So the Trucker's civil rights people, they have specific action they want the government to take. We want you to release us from this vagazine mandate. We want you to open the schools, or we want to be able to eat lunch at this diner encounter they have. That's what. We want to be able to vote, We want to be able to live in the communities that we choose. The pro Hamas side is very vague. They have very vague goals. We want a ceasefire. We want Israel to stop occupying quote I'm using air quotes, Palestine to stop occupying the Gaza strip. These are these might be these might feel more specific were they having these protests in Israel, But they're having these protests in San Francisco and New York City. And we don't have any control over Israel's foreign policy. We we're an ally of Israel. Of course we can help them with certain aspects or harm them, but we don't have any control over whether or not someone has they have a ceasefire, over how they prosecute their war. We so they're they're protesting a government with no power in this particular situation to do something that they couldn't possibly do as a sovereign nation. And Israel's a sovereignation and we're a sovereignation. So it's just a very vague sort of we're mad kind of protest. There's no real endgame. And so the truckers, the civil rights protesters, they seek action on constitutional rights. They are asking for again, asking for something specific. The trucker convoys, we want the right to bodily autonomy. We do not want the government to have to mandate certain medical treatments in order for us to participate in public society, to keep our jobs, to go to school, to go to the doctor. We have a constitutional right to move about freely and do these things, and you are interrupting that right. Civil rights protesters right have a right to vote. We are citizens of the United States. Our rights are protected by God. It says so right there in the Constitution and in the Bill of Rights. We want those rights restored. We want the right to vote, We want the right to move about freely. We want the right to be free of government duress because of our race and our ethnicity. They are seeking the restoration of specific constitutional rights. Right on the other side, the pro hamas protesters, there is no action to seek. Again, So going back to we're not Israel, We're the United States. We cannot call a ceasefire in that war. We cannot return hostages, we cannot change the boundaries or the borders of Israel, and gods that we cannot do anything. We can use our global and social influence, but we have absolutely no control. Furthermore, there are no rights on the table here. There's no one is protesting for a restoration of anything. No one's rights are at risk here, except I suppose you could say the rights of the people on the streets just trying to move about freely, and we'll get to that later. So they're not protesting to have anything restored. They're not protesting. They're not seeking any sort of tangible restitution right, the restoration of my right to vote, for example. There's none of that. There, There's none, none to be had. This is not our problem. Back to the truckers and civil rights protesters, they have a definable end game. They are seeking something. This is sort of just addendum to the last point, which is we want an end to X, Y and Z, we want schools to open, we want an end to vaccine. We've seen mandates, and we want the restoration of the rest of our constitutional rights. Very definable, specific things and all easily defined by the Constitution. These are all constitutional rights. I've said this throughout the show, and regular listeners are very familiar with me saying this. I have never felt comfortable framing the black civil rights movement as a movement for civil rights, and black people often do this. I don't care for it. They framed this battles. We had to prove that we were worthy of citizenship, that we were worthy of civil rights. But that's not what we were doing at all. We've always been worthy. It's right there in the Constitution. In fact, it is right there in the greater Document, which is the Bible. We were already people. We just had those rights suspended by selfish people, by selfish men, and so we were fighting to have those rights restored. And I think there's a big differen rents psychologically speaking in those two points of view. On the Prohama side, no such endgame. There is no endgame here. For instance, you might say, okay, well, some of these people are protesting. Let's take these kids at colleges. They're sitting in the dean's office. They're protesting because they want their college to make an official statement denouncing Israel, or an official statement supporting a free Palestinian state, a separate Palestinian state, a two state solution, or whatever. You might say that that's an endgame that they want, but it's not a definable endgame because it doesn't end there. It won't end there, and it can't end there, and we don't have to guess at that we've already seen proof, we have already seen we now have dozens and dozens, and we're moving into the hundreds of examples of people caving and doing that stuff. Colleges is saying, yeah, no, of course, we announce this action and we support the Free State of Palestine. And it's still not enough. The protests continue. Jewish students are under duress on campus, they're being threatened. There's still vandalism and still regular protests. So there's no endgames. There's nothing to point to really to say, if you do this, we can stop all this and go home. There's no intention of that here. So I don't buy that there's an endgame here. I just don't see it, and I think we have proof that there isn't. Again, if we were Israel, then maybe I could say, well, yeah, the endgame is a ceasefire. But we're not Israel. We're the United States, so we have absolutely no part to play in a ceasefire. We're not at war, not with Israel anyway. How do you ever wonder what really goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry? Join me Victoria Henley from Cycle nineteen of America's Next top model inside look at fashion shows, concerts, and a wide variety of events throughout the United States, featuring exclusive and insightful interviews with both seasoned and up and coming artists. Listen in and subscribe to Backstage Pass with Victoria, an FCB radio podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, the truckers and the civil rights protesters do not seek too harm. Again, they are not seeking too harm. So you can look at the truckers, and that was a really peaceful protest, but you could say, well, they did harm commerce, they did harm the economy, and I think that's a fair criticism. And you can look at the civil rights protests, particularly of the Martin Luther King variety and those of course that was peaceful protesting was a hallmark of that movement. So we know that their goal was not to create more violence and not to bring violence upon people, but to be peaceful. And the response to that was a lot of violence. They were responded to with violence, of course, as we know. But I don't think the goal is to for particularly for the truckers, to seek to harm people. In fact, you could say, well, we're seeking to help people, right, We want to help release we want to help send people back to work. We want to help people get their kids to school. We want to help people be free of an experimental vaccine that don't we think might not be good for them. We want to help these people, and we want to help the country get their goods and services. And so we're here's our endgame, so we can restore that help. But if I'm being fair and reasonable and as objective as I can be, if that's possible, I would have to say, yeah, some of their actions did cause harm, not physical harm, not in the violent respect, but sure harmed the economy. Surely people's businesses were affected. I know if you talk to the people in Ottawa who lived in the area that the truckers were occupying, they were very upset. You can even you know, you can look at the people who were sort of held hostage by the what was the little set up they had in Seattle, chaz or whatever, Portland or whatever. And of course those people and a lot of those people agreed with the protesters, but their businesses were harmed by the squatters. So I have to be fair and reasonable and say yes, in this respect, I think you could say the truckers visited harm on the economy, which would in turn harm the finances of some fellow citizens. Even the civil rights protesters did this as well. Let's look at the bus boycotts, the Montgomery bus boycotts, and harming the economy was the intention, that was the purpose. So they were intending to do harm. And maybe it's not always a bad thing to do harm if the ultimate is to restore some basic human rights and if there's not a human cost involved, you know, you're not going to shoot people, kill people, or murder people. But you look at the Montgomery bus boycott, and their idea was to, yeah, cribble the bus system. I let you guys know, you need us, You need us to ride these buses, and if we don't do it, your whole system collapses because we're the ones riding the buses. And it took them. How long was that approaches? I think it was two years. I mean, it was just an incredible effort when you think about the massive organization they had to do to get people to work, but they did it. So I think we would still have to give the harm label label to that. Although I'm putting an asterisk next to this. We look at the pro hamas supporters. Their goal is to harm, and we only need to turn on the TV or turn on social media and see these protests. And it's shocking and dismaying to see the Jewish students at schools being surrounded, denied entry, being physically threatened. These people are burning flags in the streets and burning property and destroying property. They are seeking to harm, and they feel that that is a righteous cause. They feel that type of harm is acceptable for the results. That's a very Marxist attitude. But I suppose it is comparable. I suppose to the idea of the truckers and civil rights people who are saying, we're gonna we accept this level of harm as the price that needs to be paid to get what we want here, to get what we deserve here. But again, the difference is one is violent and one is not. You could look at the Black Lives protesters. I'm going to call them rioters at this point. I do think they qualify as riots same thing they sought to harm. Specifically, we watched our cities burned. They burned down a lot of churches, which is kind of amazing. We just sort of let that one go, but they did a lot of harm and it was the goal. And that is the difference between I would say, the Trucker con Voi version of harm and the pro Hamas version of harm in these protest movements, which is one is a means to an end and it's not physical harm. It is, but it is, but it is some kind of harm, financial, economic, And the other is is not a means to an end, It's simply a means. It is simply the goal is the harm. The goal is to discomfort. The goal is the destruction. I believe. Now again this is where my biases come in because I'm framing their grievances in a way that maybe someone on their side wouldn't. And I recognize that and I understand it, but I'm afraid I simply don't have the ability to be very objective about this. Just being honest with you, being honest with you, so as you listen to me, just no, I'm not an objective source. So take everything with a grain of salt. Next point, the truckers and civil rights ers embrace American rights and values. They are protesting for American rights for American citizens. So again going back to that whole idea of we're just fighting for what's there in the Constitution. We're not asking for anything extra. We're not asking them to pass this law or that law, or I don't know, close a certain organization or a certain building. We're not doing any of that. We're just saying, hey, hey, yo, these are the rights that we're supposed to have and y'all just took them away, and you can't do that, so we'd like those restored. They are embracing American rights and values, as clearly and essentially laid out by our very governing documents. On the other side, the Prohama side, it's not American values that they're literally protesting for a foreign country, a foreign entity, a foreign body. So that's not necessarily and perfectly you have the right to do that. Of course, it happens all the time just American immigrants from other countries. Things are going on in their countries, and they organize protests and marches to support their countries. So it does happen, but they are not seeking the restoration based on any kind of American values or American commonalities, if you will. So, for example, in San Francisco, they're shutting down the Golden Gate Bridge, bringing traffic to a hull. There are fellow Americans who are trying to get to work, trying to run their daily lives. They are trying to make their lives work and to engage in the system that pays the taxes that keep our government running. So these are very important people and the things and the work they do matters because we as Americans recognize that the taxpayers need to be able to work in order for the governor government to have revenue. That's an American value. For better or worse, these people, the pro amous people date their goal is to prevent people to get to work, is to prevent people from getting to their families. That's what they want. They want. They don't want you to go to work. They want to make life hard for you. If I compare that to the trucker convoys, say, those are people who actually want to work, and that's actually what they're protesting for their right to work. They want to bring the goods and services to the nation. They want to send their kids to school, they want to get those paychecks, but they can't because the government is denying them the opportunity. Because they won't take this vaccine. They won't comply with these egregious COVID restrictions. So I do think there's a difference there. I do think there's a marked difference. Yes, they were interrupting commerce, but they want that commerce to continue because they depend on it too. What they were saying is if we can't work, here's going Here is the result. This is going to be the result of us not working. You're going to see this economic slowdown. Put us back to work. That's not what the progomace people. They aren't saying, put us back to work. I'm willing to buy a lot of those people don't have jobs. Their job is probably protesting. No, they're not saying they want to go back to work. They're saying, we don't want you to go to work. If these people overseas are suffering, we want you to suffer too. That's our form of protest. The truckers and civil rights ares seek to interrupt the established system to cause inconvenience and spur action. I kind of just already said this, but same thing, I'll read that again. Seek to interrupt the established system to cause inconvenience and spur action. So the sit ins bus Boycott's non delivery of items per the Trucker Convoy. The idea is that this system doesn't run without us. The government is not the system. Where the system, where the cogs, where the wheels, where the engines, where the fuel? Where the system. There is no there's no tax revenue without us. There's no government without us. It's us. You need to recognize that. So we're going to interrupt this established system so that you can see. When we're not doing our part in the system, it all collapses. We're very important, so treat us like that. Treat us as if we were as important as we are. On the pro Hamas side and the Black Lives Matter side, those people deliberately and intentionally seek to dismantle the system. This is a stated goal of Black Lives Matter impact and the pro Palestinian people, the pro MoU people are not far behind them, and in most cases they're just the same people. Ultimately, I do think they have the same organizers. It's just controlled chaos in my mind, that's how I see it. I don't know, I don't know how you feel about it. But they seek to dismantle the system. That's what critical race theory is and you can go back and listen to my several episodes. I've did quite a few episodes of critical theory, including a great one with Daryl B. Harrison of the Just Thinking podcast. We should do some kind of partner, right, They're just thinking and I'm just listening to yourself, and it feels like there's a branding opportunity here for But if you don't listen to Darryl and Virgil, please go over. Those guys are But Daryl came on the show and we had a great talk about critical race theory. But part of what critical race theory is is it is the discussion and the analytics of dismantling a system from the inside out. It seeks to dismantle, it seeks to destroy and rebuild in a different image. I was going to take it to churchere for a second, but we're starting to run long, so I'm not going to take it to church. But that is basically idolatry anyways, Truckers, civil rights people, No, that's not what they're seeking. They don't want to dismantle the system. They want the system to work for them. They want the system to keep running, and they wanted to work for them, the truckers, and the civil rights protesters. They seek to emphasize how important all of these people are to a functioning society. So just reiterating what I've already said, Hey, we're important parts of this machine. It really does not work without us, and you are not treating us like you need us, and you do, so we're reminding you that you need us. The Montgomery bus boycotts, right, you think everything works fine without us because you don't think we're important. But when we stop using the services that you think we need, it all falls apart. You need us. We are important to a functioning local municipality, a functioning state government, a functioning federal government. We're important. You remove us from the equation, the machine doesn't work at all. So it's emphasizing how important the protesters are to the movement. The Prohama side seeks to diminish the value of certain members of society. So one side, I believe one group of protesters is emphasizing value and the other is diminishing value. It's do I have to tell you who they think are of diminished value. It's the Jews, and we can again we can see them threatening people and committing acts of violence, already pushing Jewish members out, refusing to work with Jewish groups, or all kinds of stuff. That the whole goal is that Jews in Israel are one and the same, and we don't want either to exist. We don't think either should exist. Again, there might be some pro Palestinian people who don't think that. And by the way, I let me take this opportunity to say this, I don't think you're anti Semitic. If you think Israel isn't the wrong in this word, I don't think that's then. I don't think that's an automatic you anti semi I realize there are nuances to this. So if that's you, I just want you to know I get it, and you're fine. Just be cool, you know, if you're just be cool, just have an opinion. When your opinion begins to drift into what I'm pointing out here, this idea of excluding certain people, diminishing the value of certain people, diminishing that value based on their religious identity and ethnic identity, yeah then that's anti Semitism, of course. But I don't think your opinion about the war is the thing that automamatically makes you an anti Semi. I want to say that just for people who you know might be feeling feeling a little uneasy about my passion for Israeli allyship, if you will. But that is a huge difference. I see. One seeks to interrupt the system to prove how valuable they are, and one seeks to interrupt the system, uh, to diminish the value of others. One one is inclusive and one is exclusive. I believe, so the Trucker Convoy or the civil rights movement, everybody can These are civil rights issues. So it's not based on where you're from, or what religion you are, or how you look. It's just based on whether or not you want these freedoms. So anyone ostensibly who holds these ideals can be included. And of course we saw that in the civil rights movement, right We saw the Jewish community was huge in working with the Black community in the Civil rights era. And you know, it's just a real shame that our communities have retreated to our separate corners. Again, there's not a lot of love loss between the Black community and the Jewish community, that is for sure. And maybe that's an interesting subject to delve into, but I do think it's very hot, it's very heated, and I think there's a lot of blame to hurl. So I don't know how productive of a discussion it would be. I'm both. I'm not claiming one or the other, but i will say, you know, I've always found that to be a shame. How do you ever wondered what really goes on behind the scenes in the entertainment industry? Join me Victoria Henley from cycle nineteen of America's Next Top Model for an inside look at fashion shows, concerts, and a wide variety of events throughout the United States, featuring exclusive and insightful interviews with both seasoned and up and coming artists. Listen in and subscribe to Backstage Pass with Victoria, an FCB radio podcast on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, or wherever you get your podcasts. So, the truckers and the Civil Rights As, they're not protesting an identity group. They're protesting their government and bad policy. The prohamas protesters is exclusive, right. They are protesting an identity, ethnic, or national group. Choose one. You might say, Oh, they're not protesting the Jews, but they're protesting Israel, or so they are pro that. It is exclusive based on some type of identity. They are protesting an identity group. All right, that's it. There, I'm at the end. That was my list, just in time. So I thinks I as I come to close, I'm thinking about those definitions we read once violence. Once there is violence, that's a riot. I think it's fair to say that JA six started out as a protest and ended as some kind of riot. Now it's nuanced. Not everyone was rioting, and certainly the people that the FBI arrested, for the most part, those people are innocent. And this is a political prosecution, it really really is. But of course there is video of people being peaceful and just you know, sort of roaming through the Capitol and not really having any weird intentions that the doors were open and it's a weird atmosphere, we're going to go in and have a look around. But there were people who were causing harm to the Capitol, right They knocked down doors, they kicked in office doors, they messed with the private property and in offices, and so maybe they weren't burning down the place like the Black Lives Matter people, but I think some of what they did could qualify as destruction of property. And let's just be fair. And I suppose we could say that there's some type of destruction of economic ability with the truck or convoy and the civil rights movement, but Black Lives Matter in particular and Prohamas, I do believe now that we've made these comparison compared their intention, compared their motives, compared what they're doing. Yeah, I think that the pro Hoomaque people are rioters, just like the Black Lives Matter people were and are. They're rioters. They have all the hallmarks of it. It's violence, it's interrupting normal daily life. There are all kinds of ways to protest global events that don't involve preventing a young mother from getting her son to the hospital. You have city Hall for protests, you have parks, you can schedule those things. That's really what the mall is in the Capitol Mall, that's what it is. It is a space for people to gather and to protests. And there have been many, many, many effective protests over the years there So I don't think this has aimed at making any kind of positive change, and as such, I think it qualifies as a riot. I do, and I do believe, and that is the difference. I think the reason why I'm so hesitant, and maybe a lot of you are so hesitant to pin a lot of these more violent definitions on the Jay STICKX writers. It's not like there weren't people with bad intentions there everyone, you know, we have to be honest. I have a feeling a lot of conservatives don't know the full story, and there were people who were there with bad intentions. Absolutely, were they going to overlook the government? No, that's ridiculous. Draw that out to their law, to its logical conclusion. Right, what let's say they did. Let's say they did capture all of Congress as if they could. But let's say they did, then what you know what I mean, I just it's it was never going to be some kind of government takeover. That's ridiculous. The government isn't a single entity you can take over in this country. It's so vast and it's so spread out. It's kind of one of the amazing things about the American system. So while I don't I don't compare them to the pro Hamas people or BLM. Yeah, there were bad actors there, for sure, there absolutely were. But I'm still hesitant to make a direct comparison, And I think the reason why is because I'm looking at BLM and pro Hamas and they are violent, and they are causing havoc, and they are causing chaos. They're doing things that if you and I did it, we would be arrested for They're not being arrested, and yet they arrested people like my friend Siaka, who just held the door open for pet Capitol police. He was at the building. He happened to be one of the front wave of people and by the time he got to the Capitol building, the doors were wide open and there were hundreds of people in there, and he was smiling and laughing. Either video of this smiling and laughing, and Capitol police come up behind him and he says, oh, oh here, let me get this door for you. I saw those guys go that way. And he's sing five years in a federal prison for that. So when I look at and Siaka's black, and I think that matters. Also when we talk about Black Lives Matter, it's when I look at that the way that a guy like that gets treated, and yet Black Lives Matter can burn down religious institutions if we burn down if they burned down a mousket would have been game over. They burned down churches and narry up peep, narry up peep. And yet the left and a lot of the right just went into absolute convulsions when he had the nerve to stand in front of Saint John's Church with and hold up a Bible. Absolute convulsions. But nobody cared that that church was being burned and destroyed and vandalized. And so we see this double standard here, and it's really beginning to feel intolerable. It feels intolerable. So yeah, I am more inclined. I guess if I saw the standards being applied equally, I think I would be more open to being more open minded about what's happening with the January sixth prosecutions, or at least some of them. Most of them is bunk. It's just political prosecutions, absolutely one. But again, maybe I need to do maybe I do need to do a little episode on just who was arrested. There are some people in there who did have bad intentions. Those people existed, it's not just a totally made up problem. So I think I would be willing to have more open discussions about that and reason through that and logic through that if I saw that the law was being applied evenly. But it's not. It's not at all in any way, And so it makes it really hard to be objective about those guys because I watch Black Lives Matter marching through neighborhoods and burning businesses, but burning our own businesses, burning black businesses in black neighborhoods, and watching the Prohamas people burning and destroying and threatening their fellow citizens, their fellow students on campuses, and nothing is being done. They're just being allowed to continue their destruction and continue with their chaos. And it doesn't seem fair and it doesn't seem right. So that's another part of this equation. I have to admit that colors my view. It does make me view Black Lives Matter and Pro Hamas certainly more harshly, but I do think that they are the morally inferior movement. I do. Again, I fully admit I might have a bias here, but I feel like I made a good case in this episode. But you let me know, because I really did struggle with this one, and I'm still you know, like I said, I think both sides have issues. I think even the side that I'm landing on does have some issues, so I'm struggling with it. I do think I made a case for why a trucker convoy and the civil rights pro tests are acceptable and what we see with pro hamas and BLM is not acceptable. As far as a protest, it's concerned. You weigh in. You let me know what you think. Jlt Y at proton mail dot com. J lt Y at ProtonMail dot com. Don't forget to go patronize our sponsors if you do that now, Summer's coming up. But this is a free thing that I wasn't asked by our sponsors to do this, but this helps me as much as it helps them. If you use my code that you hear in any of these sponsorship ads, you get that discount. It actually helps the show because it proves to our sponsors that people are listening and responding. And I know that we've got a Factor ad here for Factor meals and summer's coming up, so it might be a great time if you're looking to try out some of these things that we advertise on the show. I try everything. By the way, I love sponsors because sponsors need money. But I don't just push stuff. I try everything, so I'm not giving you something I haven't tried myself and think is disgusting, but just another way you can help the show and help the network. And I think one of the reasons why I'm saying this at the end is because I've become very concerned about the direction of conservative media over the last couple of months, and those of us who are willing to stand by the truth, to defend the truth and seek the truth, it's becoming harder and harder for our voices to be heard because we're not you know, rage gets clicks, for better or for worse. It is what it is. I'm not criticizing you if you're the type of person who likes to click on rage bait. I'm the type of person who clicks on celebrity gossip. I'm in no place to judge. I'm just saying it is what it is, and it's becoming more and more polarized, even on our own side, and I'm thinking if if shows like this are going to survive, we need to be using the tools that we have and exploiting those tools. And right now that's the advertising structure. So I know a lot of you ask me how can I help you? How can I support you? And I don't want you to come up off your hard earned money just to send me random donations, although if you want to do that you can. You can reach out to me through jailty and I'll tell you how to do that. But just easy freeways for you to do that, or just subscribing, hitting that download, sharing the episodes and patronizing our sponsors, getting a service that might be good for you and using our code. That's very helpful. All right, I'll let you go. I'll stop lecturing you. Let me know what you think of this. I am way curious until we meet again. My friends, remember every once in a while, just stop and listen to yourself. O praiders all Mossolda, that we won't to bathe and we won't to say, oh we gott it does. No one can dig that, owen dude. It's gonna be okay. O praiders all Mossolda, that we won't with say then we won't to say, oh we gott it does. No one can dig that, owen da, It's gonna be okay. This has been a presentation of the FCB podcast network, where Real Talk lifts visitors online at Fcbpodcasts dot com.
