Speaker 1 00:00:02 Welcome to the fourth Degree podcast.
Speaker 2 00:00:16 Hello everyone, it's David, back with the fourth degree podcast. I've still got the birds. They're in the background, they're kind of hyper. You'll probably hear them throughout the episode. Again, they're not my birds, I'm just babysitting the birds, but they're nice. Kinda makes it feel a little like spring when I hear them. Anyway, on with the podcast
Speaker 3 00:00:34 Tales from Purry,
Speaker 2 00:00:35 Old Lady Mack and I frequently discuss topics that are lightning rods for fevered opinion. One of them that I suppose people will want to be covered is drag queen story hours and the surrounding madness. If there were ever a sign or proof that we are living in purgatory, it would have to be drag queen story hour and mostly the insane overreactions to it. Drag queen story time, drag story time or drag story hour are children's events first started in 2015 by author and activist Michelle t in San Francisco to promote reading and diversity. That's an important thing. It promotes reading and diversity. The events usually geared at children. Age three to 11 are hosted by drag queens who read children's books and engage in other learning activities in public libraries. Uh, the birds are really noisy today, so if you can hear them, I apologize, but I like the way they sound anyway.
Speaker 2 00:01:27 I will not offer an opinion on the appropriateness of said story hours that is suicide these days. I will say that we live in a free society that should always strive to be freer. If you feel that drag queen story hours are good for your children because it plays to children's natural gender fluidity and encourages reading intolerance, well good for you. Enjoy. If you feel that drag queen story hour is a collection of perverts trying to groom children for sexual purposes, then good for you. Protect your kids at all costs. See, the thing is we get to choose no Jack booted stormtroopers are showing up to force anyone to do anything. Now if you feel that merely making your choice, acting on it and being a good citizen and letting others do the same isn't good enough. Let me talk for a bit about the Dancing Plague of 1518.
Speaker 2 00:02:19 In the summer of 1518, a strange and unsettling phenomenon occurred in STRs Borg, France. A woman named Fra Troia stopped whatever she was doing and suddenly started dancing in the streets, seemingly unable to stop. According to contemporary accounts, FRA began to dance in the streets and continued to dance for hours until she was completely exhausted. The next day, she started dancing again, and then others joined her. Within a week, hundreds of people had joined her in the streets, all dancing with wild abandon regardless of age, gender, or social status. At first, the authorities were amused by the spectacle and even organized bands of of musicians to accompany the dancers. However, as the days passed, it became clear that something was seriously wrong. The dancers began to show signs of exhaustion and dehydration. Some dancers even had heart attacks, but they continued to dance, seemingly unable to stop.
Speaker 2 00:03:13 The authorities fearing that the epidemic would spread, tried to intervene, but their efforts were futile. The more they tried to stop the dancing, the more people joined and the epidemic grew. The Dancing Plague of 1518 lasted for several months, and by the time it ended, hundreds of people had died. The cause of the epidemic remains a mystery to this day, but several theories attempt to explain it. One theory suggests that the dancing plague was caused by a mass hysteria, a condition in which a group of people experience a collective delusion or physical symptom. According to this theory, the people of Strasberg were already living in a highly stressful and uncertain time. The town had recently suffered from war, famine, disease, and the residents were constantly threatened by invasion from neighboring countries. The stress and anxiety of daily life may have led to a kind of mass historian, which people began to dance uncontrollably as a form of release.
Speaker 2 00:04:04 In addition, the dancing plague was not confined to Strasberg, but it also occurred in other parts of Europe, such as Cologne and Mets, suggesting that it may have been caused by something more than a local condition such as environmental poisoning. Despite the many theories that have been proposed, the true cause of the Dancing plague of 1518 remains a mystery. What is clear, however, is that the epidemic had a profound impact on the people of Strasbourg and the surrounding areas. It was a frightening and surreal experience that defied explanation and left a lasting impression on those who witnessed it. There have been many other documented cases of mass hysteria. 2 20 11, dozens of students at a high school in Salem, Massachusetts reported experiencing sudden and uncontrollable twitching, shaking and convulsions cause of the outbreak was never definitively determined, but some experts suggested it may have been a case of mass psychogenic illness or mass hysteria.
Speaker 2 00:04:56 In 1962 in Tanzania, an outbreak of uncontrollable laughter swept through a girl's school. The laughter spread quickly and soon affected hundreds of people in the surrounding community. The outbreak lasted for several months before eventually subsiding, and its cause remains unknown. And remember the Killer Clowns back in 2016, killer Clowns terrorized communities across the United States, uh, and the fear of this began to spread on social media. The reports were largely unfounded, but they sparked a wave of panic and fear that led to numerous arrests and school lockdowns. Many experts have suggested that the panic was fueled in part by mass hysteria and media sensationalism. Purgatory loves its mass hysteria, but think about it, our drag queen story hour and the disproportionate response any different Is this worth gathering in the streets for? You want my opinion? Well, here it is. Listen up you wretched. Lot of dimwit adults while you're out there screaming about drag queen's, story hour and whatever other non-issue is currently getting your knickers in a twist, the world around you is falling, falling apart.
Speaker 2 00:05:57 War inflation, division crisis. These are the things that should be on your mind. But no, a lot of you would rather obsess over a man in a wig reading to children. What kind of madness is this? Wake up you fools. The world is crumbling beneath our feet, and yet you're more concerned with imaginary threats to your precious little worldview. You're like a bunch of toddlers throwing tantrums while the house burns down around you. It's time to grow up and face the real problems that are staring at us. I know it's hard to confront the ugliness of reality to admit that things are not as they should be, but that's what it means to be a responsible adult. So put down your goddamn picket signs in your outrage and start paying attention to what really matters. Otherwise, we're all gonna be swept away. Weird news, the case of Justin Rowland, one of the twisted minds behind Rick and Morty, as well as the voice of both characters has taken a strange turn.
Speaker 2 00:06:49 He faced charges of corporal injury and false imprisonment back in May of 2020, but those charges were recently dropped due to a lack of evidence. Roland claims he's and I quote, determined to move forward and focus both on my creative projects and restoring my good name. But the story doesn't end there, you see, and that's not how the screw turns. You don't just get out of it because you say you can get out of it. There are records of inappropriate and offensive texts between Roland and a 16 year old girl. There's also a disturbing podcast appearance where he defended his attraction to well-developed 14 year old girls. Sure, he pointed out that he is not a pedophile, but who needs to do that? Besides pedophiles, this is the kind of behavior that would make even the most jaded of Hollywood executives. Shutter Roy Lynn's words and actions raise a host of disturbing questions about the man behind the madness.
Speaker 2 00:07:42 What kind of twisted deviant thoughts lurk in the mind of someone who defends their attraction to minors? And what kind of impact does this behavior have on the young women he's in contact with? It's clear that Roy Lynn has some serious explaining to do. The truth is out there, and it's up to the good people who oversee our modern kangaroo court known as cancel culture to demand answers and hold Roland accountable for his actions because that's how we do things. Now, in the meantime. In the meantime, we must find a replacement voice actor. Rick and Morty is the best thing on TV right now, and we can't let this pervert take it from us. Tennessee's Republican super majority voted to expel two Democratic black lawmakers, Justin Jones and Justin Pearson from the state legislature in separate votes, leaving about 140,000 voters in predominantly black districts without representation. The expulsions came after the lawmakers participated in a protest on the floor of the Tennessee House of Representatives calling for the passage of gun control measures.
Speaker 2 00:08:42 These protests came after a gun person or whatever shot and killed six people, including three children at the Covenant School in Nashville. Ho you just start to think that nobody has standards anymore and Tennessee shows us how to deal with black troublemakers who disagree with their right to bear arms, defend themselves from children and have weak names like Justin. I'm being sarcastic there. Snowflake, settle down. But it is worth mentioning that there was a 60 year old white female Republican lawmaker who joined the protest and was not kicked out. When asked why she was spared, she replied it might have to do with the color of our skin. So the recently recognized 39th best state in America has done it again, but you might ask what's next? Well, interim representatives will be installed until county elections can choose replacements and whom you may ask, might these replacements be hell?
Speaker 2 00:09:36 Both Justins are expected to run successfully for reinstatement and end up right back where they started. So the whole pointless exercise is more about really telling people that the state of Tennessee likes guns more than children and they like their black politicians quiet. You know, at least from what I can see, the state is also 33rd in education and 45th and public safety, so I might not have the whole story. I will say though, that Nashville is a hell of a place to party as long as you're white. But that friends is another story. Well, the makers of Bud Light have stepped in it or have they? Anne Hauser Busch recently partnered with actress, comedian and TikTok personality, Dylan Mulvaney, to promote what I consider to be about the worst beer. There is an Instagram video posted by Dylan mentioned her partnership with Bud Light to celebrate March Madness.
Speaker 2 00:10:23 And in it, she thanked him for sending her a can with her image on it to celebrate her 365 days of womanhood. That was all well and good until the well past his prime, but clutching at straw's, kid Rock lost his mind over it. He posted a video of himself shooting cans of Bud Light to show his extreme displeasure. Then classic country singer and poster child for short man syndrome. Travis Trit joined in as well, claiming he would remove all Anheuser-Busch products from his rider. Now, conservative trans Phebes from all over have something new to weep and rave over. These not really relevant musical artists seem to take umbrage with their beer, partnering with a trans female. Well, this is ironic. They didn't mind when their classic American brand was taken over by global conglomerate InBev. Nor did they mind when the new owners asked most perks and benefits as well as 1400 employees' livelihoods.
Speaker 2 00:11:16 Nope, that was just fine. According to old Bobby Shazam and the long-haired country, boy, God forbid their beer chooses to celebrate something with someone 40 years younger than them that they do not have the capacity to understand. These fools haven't mattered since Bill Clinton was president. Devil without a cause came out 24 years ago. Bj, nobody cares what beer you drink. Let's hate Bud Light for the reason that we should all hate Bud Light. It is terrible beer. I have only known one person that ever ordered one in front of me, and he is a moron. He is vapid, soulless, and an altogether terrible human being. Indeed, this is a classic case of people that don't matter getting upset because the world has long moved on and now their shit beer is being taken away by people that are younger, cooler, more popular, and they don't know what to do. It shouldn't be like this for rich, white, straight old men, they whale. Look at all we have done in all we represent. How dare trans people, foreigners and young people have their own way of doing things. They weep helplessly in exchange bail full looks with each other and this my friends, is the legacy. They will leave
Speaker 3 00:12:22 Hot steak.
Speaker 2 00:12:23 Old Lady Max sent me a YouTube video entitled AI is Evolving Faster than You Think It was 25 minutes long, even though I told her that nobody with a life or any goddamn sense watches videos that long, especially if technophobe send them with yet another alarmist ax to grind. The YouTube business is uglier than most. It is shallow and mindless. It is an intellectual back alley filled with opportunists and conman. YouTubers like to turn your fears against you to control you like a cult. They push propaganda and sensationalism like a cheap tabloid. Sadly, society is full of fools who can't wait to eat this trash because using fear as a controlled tool can be highly effective at praise on people's most primal instincts and emotions. But none of that matters. Now today we're delving into the murky waters of artificial intelligence. A topic that strikes fear into the hearts of many.
Speaker 2 00:13:14 These technophobic individuals with their irrational fears of a machine uprising can only be described as modern day Luddites. But who are these AI phobes? What drives their irrational paranoia and are their fears justified? Or are they just the ravings of more delusional minds? Let's dive into the world of AI and people who fear it. The technophobes, the Luddites of the 21st century Luddites. Even the name sounds like something dull and stupid. These people in the early 19th century smashed weaving machines and other labor saving devices out of fear that they would take away their jobs and destroy their way of life. And while the Luddites were reactionary fools on the wrong side of history, some argue that we should take their fears seriously, especially in the age of artificial intelligence. Today we have a brand new breed of Luddite, the AI F people who fear that artificial intelligence will rise up and overthrow us all.
Speaker 2 00:14:09 They see a future in which robots take over our jobs, homes, and bodies. They warn of a dystopian future in which humanity is enslaved by its computer-based creations, and they urge an abundance of caution in the face of rapid technological process. But are these fears justified or are they just more ravings of mad and paranoid minds? To answer that question, we need to look at what's really at stake. On the one hand, there's no denying that AI has the potential to be a powerful tool for improving productivity, quality of life and general happiness. From self-driving cars to medical diagnosis to personal assistance like Siri and Alexa, AI has the power to revolutionize the way we live and work. Why I use chat G p T often to help me write content for this podcast. But on the other hand, there are legitimate concerns about the impact of AI on jobs, privacy and even human dignity.
Speaker 2 00:15:00 For example, as machines become more intelligent and more autonomous, they may start to replace human workers in a wide range of industries, from manufacturing to customer service to white collar jobs like law and finance. And as AI gets better at predicting our behavior and analyzing our personal data, there are real risks to our privacy and security. But so what? The world didn't end when looms replaced weavers, it won't end when AI replaces our most repetitive and tedious tasks and dignity and privacy are a joke. Most people out there right now would gladly give up their last shred of both for a 15% off coupon with their preferred online marketplace that ships crap produced by underpaid quasi slaves from some third world hellhole who can stand there and strive for dignity. In a world where a rampant consumerism drives us to demand cheap goods from countries where the workers die in the streets like dogs, the thing is that looms didn't replace the Luddites.
Speaker 2 00:15:57 They were replaced by people who understood looms. AI isn't going to take your job. Someone that understands AI will. So instead of fretting over the coming storm, start using AI now to your advantage. I'm currently learning Python to improve with tools like G P T four rather than fearing its impact like a fool. Should we embrace AI as a powerful tool for progress or should we be wary of its potential to disrupt and even destroy our way of life? Well, as with most things, the answer is probably somewhere in between. Undoubtedly, AI has enormous potential, but there's nothing wrong with approaching it with caution and foresight. We need to be aware of the risks and challenges that come with this new technology, and we need to be proactive in addressing them. This means investing in education and training for workers who may be displaced by AI and developing new policies and regulations to protect our privacy and security.
Speaker 2 00:16:46 In the age of big data, it means being open to new ideas and ways of doing things, while also being mindful of technological progress as potential downsides and unintended consequences. So in the end, the question is not whether we should fear AI or embrace it, but how we can harness its power for the greater good. Whether or not you're an AI fob, you have a stake in the future of this technology. Sending YouTube videos to other AI phobes will not accomplish anything. In the end. It's clear that the AI phobes are like people hiding from a tornado in the seller. When they should be seeking ways to embrace a new technology, they're clinging to an outdated and misguided view of progress, one that sees machines as a threat rather than a tool. And as the world moves ever faster towards a future that AI shapes, they risk being left behind, trapped in their own fear and ignorance.
Speaker 2 00:17:31 But the possibilities are limitless for those willing to embrace the new technology. AI has the power to transform every aspect of our lives. From the way we work to the way we play, to the way we think about ourselves and our place in the world, it can help us solve some of the biggest challenges facing humanity today from climate change to disease to inequality. Of course, there are risks and challenges that come with this new technology, but we shouldn't let fear paralyze us or blind us to the opportunities that lie ahead. We need to be bold. We need to be visionary. We need to be willing to take risks. And the words of the great philosopher Frederick Niche, you must have chaos within you to give birth to a dancing star. Literally, I have no idea what that means, but it was a quote that AI suggested, and I'm trying to be on board with ai.
Speaker 2 00:18:14 If we can embrace the chaos of the AI revolution, if we can harness its power and steer it towards the greater good, then we just might create a future that is more vibrant, more exciting, and more full of possibilities than anything we can imagine. So let's not be afraid of ai, my friends. Let's embrace it. Let's shape it and let's use it to create a better world for ourselves and for generations to come. Because the only thing more dangerous than a machine that can think like a human is a human who refuses to think like a machine.
Speaker 1 00:18:43 This has been an Abilities of Blaze podcast. Find
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