Matt Connarton Unleashed 12-2-17

0:14 Speaker 1: Hey, welcome everybody. It's the weekend edition of Matt Connerton Unleashed. It is Saturday, December two, twenty seventeen, Matt connorton Unleashed on Revealing Talk Radio at Revealing Talk Radio dot com and of course also on IPM Nation. Don't forget, we have the weekday version of the show Monday through Friday from four to six pm live on IPM Nation, ipmnation dot com, slash Live one, as well as WMNH ninety five point three in Manchester, New Hampshire wmnhradio dot org. But the weekend edition is special, and it's special because us, well it's on the weekend and we get to be on Revealing Talk Radio every weekend, so this is cool.

1:07 Speaker 1: So I will be with you for the next little less than an hour, so welcome everybody. We're gonna get into some stuff today that we didn't get to during the week, some interesting little tidbits and some broader stories, you know, on the on the weekday version of the show. I really you know, I'm looking to cover things that are that are happening in real time, up to the minute kind of live type of thing. I don't know what I'm trying to say, but the weekend edition is a little more laid back and is a little more you know, we'll we'll, we'll kind of get to some things we didn't get to during the week some things that are a little more general and broad and not as not as time sensitive.

1:53 Speaker 1: That's what I mean, That's what I'm really trying to say. Because this, of course, like I said, it Airson Revealing Talk Radio Saturdays at noon Eastern, but then it also replays several times throughout the week, so you know, we want to give you some things on this version of the show that aren't necessarily as time time service, as time sensitive. I don't sleep much. That's my excuse for why this happens. Why I can't speak. Either that or I'm having a stroke.

2:25 Speaker 1: Let's see, so some interesting things. Oh and by the way, I would ask you to please like the Matt Connorton Unleashed Facebook page if you haven't done so already. We had a little bit of a debacle, a little bit of a dilemma with the Matt Connorton Unleased Facebook page, which well, I'll mention briefly. I don't think I've talked about it on the show in any detail, but kind of a funny thing. So the Matt Connorton Unleashed Facebook page has existed for a while quite some time now the Matt Connor there there was a second Matt Connorton Unleashed Facebook page.

3:06 Speaker 1: Matt Connorton Unleashed in the Afternoon was the second Facebook page, that one I started when I began doing the show weekdays at WMNH ninety five point three FM in Manchester. Because technically the name of that iteration of the show is Matt Connorton Unleashed in the Afternoon. That's the actual full name of that version of the show. This version of the show, of course, is simply Matt Connorton Unleashed, although I do refer to it as Matt Connorton Unleashed the Weekend edition. But on paper, so to speak, it's really just simply Matt Connorton Unleashed.

3:50 Speaker 1: But because the version of the show that ran that runs continues to run weekdays on WMNH when I began that version of the show, because it had the slightly longer name, you know, it had the in the Afternoon on there, I decided to start a separate Facebook page for that version of the show, you know, and because I thought, well, now that the show is going to be on an FM station, it's a good idea to create a new page specifically for that version. At the time, it made sense in my mind, this is a great way to promote the fact that there's a new version of the show airing on FM weekdays.

4:34 Speaker 1: And I eventually regretted that decision because just having two Facebook pages for the show with just slightly different names was confusing to people, and the Matt Connorton Unleashed Facebook page had way more likes than the Matt Connorton Unleashed in the Afternoon Facebook page because it was newer and it was specifically or the version of the show that I do at WMNH. Although to be honest with you, I'm actually in the studio at WMNH right now as I record this iteration of the show, even though this version of the show does not air on WMNH, and they don't mind if I do that, so props to them.

5:17 Speaker 1: They let me do whatever I want, which is wonderful. They're very hands off, by the way, as far as the content of my show, because I know for a fact I offend people. But they don't seem to mind. They understand that being a little bit edgy brings listeners, which is wonderful. So I've been actually very pleasantly surprised by that, because when we had our initial meetings at WMNH, I didn't think that was how it was going to be. I was given the impression that they were going to be much more hands on and involved in terms of content and guidance in regard to how the show goes and how it's presented and all that.

5:58 Speaker 1: And no, they've left me alone gloriously. So anyway, back to the Facebook problem. So I'm looking at these two Facebook pages and I'm thinking, you know what, it seemed like a good idea at the time to start the second Facebook page. I was wrong. It was not a good idea. So Facebook has this thing where you can actually merge. You can take two existing Facebook pages and merge them together if they're similar. So well perfect, right, I've got Matt Connorton unleashed and I've got Matt Connorton unleashed.

6:38 Speaker 1: In the afternoon, i want to merge the two together into one Matt Connorton Unleashed page because I don't want to lose anybody who liked the in the Afternoon page but didn't like the original page. I want to make sure I keep those people so, and I'm sure a lot of people had liked both, but whatever. So I thought, great, I'm going to take advantage of this opportunity to merge these two Facebook pages, and I'll do that. So I attempted to do that. Emphasis on attempted. I attempted to do that several times.

7:14 Speaker 1: And you know what Facebook gave me every single time. We can't merge these two Facebook pages. They're not similar enough. These two Facebook pages are not similar enough to merge. Now think about that. The name of one page is Matt Connorton Unleashed. The name of the other page is Matt Connorton Unleashed in the Afternoon. Those two Facebook pages aren't similar enough to merge. A AI. I'm not Italian. If you're wondering why I said a AI, and it sounded terribly fake and awkward and phony, that's why I'm not Italian.

8:02 Speaker 1: If you noticed, Connorton is not having a vowel at the end, so that might lead you to wonder why would I suddenly exclaim AII. I have no idea. I've never done that in my life. I've heard it a lot when I was a kid. My stepmother's family, they're Italian. They're very Italian, so we'd go out there to visit. So I was around on a consistent basis. I was around people who would say a AI, but I never said it. I've never said it before in my life until now. I don't know what's wrong with me. I don't know why I would do that.

8:42 Speaker 1: It sounded awful. I'm a poser for doing that. I feel deeply ashamed. I do love Italian food. You know what I discovered while spending time with my stepmother's family in Upstate New York. That was where I first discovered it became a lifetime love of the pepperoni sandwich. If you've never had a pepperoni sandwich, you simply have not had a sandwich. I mean that metaphorically, hyperbolically. You've probably, like most of us, had plenty of sandwiches in your lifetime. But I'm just saying, you need to have a pepperoni sandwich to really experience how amazing a sandwich can be, and yet so simple, so amazing in its simplicity.

9:37 Speaker 1: Why because you don't need to put anything on it. You don't need any condiments of any kind. I'm serious. It works, not salami. Some people get it wrong. You might be thinking, oh, you mean you mean when he says pepperoni, he really means salami. And of course I've had a salami sandwich. No, no, no pepperoni like what you put on pizza. Put that in a sandwich, no condomy, it's nothing. You just take the pepperoni, you put it between two slices of bread, and you have a delicious sandwich with no additional accouterments.

10:10 Speaker 1: It's wonderful. And I discovered that because you know Italians, they've always got Deli pepperoni? Is that a stereotype? Did I just commit? Did I is that some sort Did I just commit a slur by saying that? Is that wrong to say the Italians always have pepperoni? I feel terrible now. I didn't mean that, not like I said they're all on the mob or anything. That would be bad. That would be bad. But I would never say such things. But I see that's in the back of my mind because I just recently finished rewatching the entire series of The Sopranos, because that was a thing to watch late at night while I was uplate on the computer doing my work.

11:05 Speaker 1: Something about the show. I think it's the greatest show in the history of television. But something about it too, just kind of the beat and the rhythm of the show. It kept the neurons firing in my brain, so I could complete very mundane and tedious tasks while watching The Sopranos. But because I'd already seen the series once, I could get away with watching it a second time while doing my work without giving it my full attention. However, if you've never seen The Sopranos and you decide to watch it, and I suggest that you do because I truly believe it is the greatest show in the history of television.

11:39 Speaker 1: If you're watching it for the first time, please give it your full and undivided attention. You'll be glad that you did. You'll miss a lot, You'll miss a lot of nuance and subtlety if you don't. But uh So, anyway, I was talking about the Facebook pages and we ended up on Pepperoni an organized crime. My mind is, uh, I don't know what's going on. I think I'm insane. Maybe I'm crazy. But let's get into some stuff that actually matters. This has become a habit of mine. By the way, this is a pattern.

12:27 Speaker 1: You know what it is. I know what it is because if you listen to talk radio even I'll just give you an example. So afternoons here in Manchester, New Hampshire, where I am, one of the stations here in this market carries uh Laura Ingram, a nationally syndicated conservative political talk show, and Laura Ingram if I happen to I don't go out of my way to listen to her. But if I happen to be driving during the day, which I often am, you know, going to the warehouse to fill orders. You know, my business I PM Nation.

13:08 Speaker 1: We we do a lot of media, but we're also an online retailer. So I'm I often find myself driving while Laura Ingram is on and uh, I'm adjusting this microphone. So if you hear a squeaking sound, I apologize for that, okay, But she, you know, if I happen here at the beginning of the show, she does what a lot of shows will do. She'll try to open with something like she doesn't dive right in. There's usually some sort of chit chat and lighthearted banter to open the show before you know, she gets into some issues.

13:47 Speaker 1: So I've kind of fallen into that pattern of doing what a lot of other radio hosts do. They open with just some broad sort of blather. That's what I'm doing. I'm blather, I'm blathering, I'm blithering. I'm what else ing am I doing? I'm pontificating. That doesn't really work, because you don't. You don't pontificate on blather and blither. You pontificate on actual issues and serious discussion. Well, the discussion doesn't have to be serious for you to pontificate. But I wouldn't call this pontificating.

14:27 Speaker 1: I'm just blithering and blathering. We're just gonna have to leave it at those two things. I'm doing those two ings. But at some point it's got to stop, right, I mean, we're look, we're almost fifteen minutes into the show. I can't do this the entire show. If I were to do it the entire show, then there really wouldn't be any point. So I'm done. We're gonna get into some stuff. Now. You don't believe me.

14:58 Speaker 2: Do you?

14:58 Speaker 1: You are skeptical if I ever lied to you? How would you know if I had or not. For all you know, my real name might not be Matt Connerton. Maybe I really am Italian. Maybe my name is Matteo Connortonoley with my Pepperoni sandwiches. I do love Italian food, Pepperoni sandwiches and all else. Let's see all right. Time to get as serious as I can. Muster Reason dot com, which has rapidly become one of my favorite websites. It is a libertarian leaning site, and I am small l libertarian leaning. In their hit and run blog, this just popped up, and I find it encouraging because if you're a regular listener, you know how I feel about the two parties so system.

16:01 Speaker 1: According to this, Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes this, seventy one percent of millennials say US politics needs a third major party. White men and black women were the most likely to endorse America moving beyond the dem GOP. Binary love it that. I find this type of thing really encouraging. So here's what Elizabeth Nolan Brown writes. The Republicans are a mess, the Democrats are a mess, and young Americans are increasingly unsure about aligning themselves with either One. New research from NBC News and the University of Chicago pulling group jen Forward.

16:41 Speaker 1: That's jen as in ge n as in generation. Jen Forward found millennials, poised to be the biggest voting block in twenty twenty, overwhelmingly want more political options. A full seventy one percent of the eighteen to thirty four year olds polled said that America needs a third major political party. The desire for a third party option was seen across all races, genders, and partisan affiliations in the poll, which was conducted from October twenty sixth oh my birthday to November tenth. Respondents included a nationally representative representative sample of one thy eight hundred and seventy six people.

17:22 Speaker 1: That's a very specific number. More than half of those surveyed, fifty nine percent had an unfavorable view of the Republican Party and forty two percent had an unfavorable view of the Democratic Party. This is with an overall margin of sampling era of plus or minus three point nine two percentage points. Only five percent had a very favorable view of the Republicans and only ten percent had a very favorable view of the Democrats. Nearly three quarters of men and sixty nine percent of women wanted more political party options.

17:56 Speaker 1: Republican women were the least likely to want a third party, with just fifty five percent of green. If you combine the race and sex categories, White male and black female millennials were the most likely to voice support for a third party. Eighty percent of the former and seventy three percent of the latter endorsed the notion. Overall, White millennials were most likely to want a third major party while with seventy five percent embracing the idea, but strong majorities were seen across all racial and ethnic groups, with sixty nine percent of Blacks and Asians and sixty four percent of Latinos agreeing.

18:32 Speaker 1: The margin of sampling error for some of these groups was quite high, as much as plus or minus eight point seventy five points for Asian respondents asked about the twenty eighteen congressional election, forty three percent said they are either not sure whether they plan to vote Democratic or Republican, or do not plan to vote for candidates from either party. Polsters didn't press further to see if this indicated a lack of any plans to vote in twenty eighteen or a desire to vote for or a third party candidate.

19:01 Speaker 1: Of these millennials in the neither not sure category, sixteen percent said they leaned more toward Republicans, thirty two percent said they leaned more toward Democrats, and fifty percent said they didn't lean toward either. Needless to say, the fact that so many people want a third party doesn't mean they want the same third party. Alas, the polsters did not inquire about just what sort of party people would like to see, nor did they ask whether people want just one more party or a multitude, And they didn't include any questions seeking opinions on the parties that they that are already out there, the Libertarians, the Greens, and so on.

19:43 Speaker 1: The pole strongly suggests that young Americans want more options, but I won't tell you anything about the about what missing choices they have in mind. So here's what I get from this. It is encouraging, well, I mean, it's okay, look it's glass half full. In this sense, it is encouraging that there are millennials who are thinking about this, who are thinking about wanting to reject the two party system, wanting to reject both the Democrats and the Republicans love it. But as the article points out what does that translate to, Because first of all, even if everybody pulled were to not only take this position that they want a third party, but even if they were to commit to actually doing more than just wanting a third party but trying to spearhead the establishment of a third party, you do have the practical issue of they're not all going to want the same third party because when people talk about third part So when people talk about being an independent, there's different motivations for different people.

21:08 Speaker 1: For example, a lot of people that I've spoken with you hear people say it all the time. A lot of people are independents because they are fiscally or they consider themselves to be fiscally conservative but socially liberal. You know, they're fiscally conservative in the sense that they think government spends too much, wastes too much. You know, they don't want any more of their tax money being taken. Libertarian leaning fiscal conservatives even think about it in terms of and I agree with this.

21:41 Speaker 1: They think about it in terms of I don't want the government taking my tax money using it to build bombs and weapons to kill people war, because war is a business. The military industrial complex and all that so anyway, so they tend to be fiscally conservative in that way, but they're socially liberal, you know, their pro choice, they're pro social services, social safety net and so forth, pro gay rights, all of that.

22:11 Speaker 1: So that's why a lot of people who are Independence, that's why they are. So they feel like they're too fiscally conservative to be with the Democrats, but too socially liberal to be with the Republicans. So they feel like they have no party and there's no moderates anymore, right, I mean there is, but it feels like the polarization that has occurred over a long period of time between the Democrats and the Republicans has only increased and continues to increase and get worse and worse over time.

22:49 Speaker 1: So if you're someone who's a moderate, if you're a liberal Republican, if you're a conservative Democrat, you feel like you don't fit in. This applies to the Libertarians too. By the way, again, notice I call myself a small L libertarian. I'm not a member of the Libertarian Party because they have the same problem. Actually in this regard, you almost wouldn't think they would, but they do. Because I listen to some libertarian political programming, and they have many of them very much the same attitude that Republicans and Democrats have.

23:25 Speaker 1: You either have to be all in with what we say, or you're not truly one of us. So just like a lot of Democrats have the attitude that you have to be an all out progressive liberal socialist or you're not really a Democrat, you're not really one of us. And a lot of Republicans take the attitude, well, you have to be all in Trump supporting, right wing you know, conservative, evangelical, Christian conservative, or you're not really one of us. Libertarians are guilty of the same thing. And this is something that I didn't fully realize until couple of years ago.

24:01 Speaker 1: A lot of libertarians take the attitude unless you're a full on zero government anarchist, you're not really a libertarian. You should want no government an entirely voluntariist society. And if you don't want that, if you are even the slightest bit okay with the government taking your taxes, if you're even the slightest bit okay with the idea that people should have to have a driver's license to operate a motor vehicle. You know, if you're even the slightest bit okay with having a drinking age, any of it, you're not a real libertarian.

24:39 Speaker 1: So libertarians do the same crap that Democrats and Republicans do. You either have to agree with us and be with us in the extreme on absolutely everything, or you're not really one of us and you're not welcome here. That's the attitude, you know when you really see it. By the way, I'm getting a little bit sidetracked here, but you know where you really see that show up with the Libertarians is when they nominate someone who's not an anarchist to be their nominee. We saw this in twenty sixteen, very similar to what we saw in twenty twelve with Gary Johnson as the Libertarian nominee for president.

25:27 Speaker 1: He's not an anarchist. He's a small government, pro business, socially liberal Republican. That's who Gary Johnson really is. And I think a small government, pro business, socially liberal republican personally, I think looks a lot like a libertarian my idea of what a libertarian should be. But you've got all these libertarians who get all freaked out. No, he's not an anarchist. It's not good enough that he believes in small government. He should believe in no government. It's not good enough that he wants uh, you know, doesn't want to increase gun control.

26:09 Speaker 1: He should want no gun control, no background checks, nothing. He's just not libertarian enough. And then you know, they brought on Bill Weld to be his vice president vice presidential nominee, who is even less libertarian than Gary Johnson in their eyes. And I think that correctly. I mean Bill Weld to me, you know here in New Hampshire, we're just north of mass and I remember distinctly when Bill Weld was governor of Massachusetts, but he was socially liberal, you know, pro choice, pro gay rights, all that kind of stuff, and uh, which I liked because that you know, I'm pro choice, I'm pro gay rights.

26:54 Speaker 1: I always liked Bill Weld, so I could overlook whatever Qualm's actual large l libertarians had with Bill Weld because I liked Bill Weld. And I remember, because I'm kind of a moderist slash centrist kind of guy, I fit into that category to a large degree, one of those people who feels like the Republicans are too conservative, the Dems are too liberal. I have nowhere to go, so I won't go anywhere. I'll just be an independent. But when Bill Weld was governor of Massachusetts, I remember I would often say to people, Bill Weld is as liberal as you can possibly get and still get away with calling yourself a Republican.

27:39 Speaker 1: He pushes his liberalism to the absolute limit as far as what you can get away with and still make people believe you're a Republican. Bill Weld could have just as easily passed for a conservative, sort of pro business democrat. Now again it's Massachusetts. You know, a northeastern New England Massachusetts Republican and a Republican from say Alabama, those are going to be very different things anyway, you know, just like a Democrat from say Alabama and a Northeastern Republican are actually going to have a lot in common in terms of ideology.

28:33 Speaker 1: Right. But again, a lot of people who are independents are independence because they're moderates, they're centrists and there is no centrist party. But a lot of people too who are independents are also libertarians, small L libertarians like myself or large L libertarians, and that they're actual members of the libertarian either. And if they're members of the Libertarian Party. It's for one of two reasons, right, It's because either they're anarchists or they're not anarchists, but they try to fit in as best they can as being what we would call minarchists.

29:17 Speaker 1: That's the word I was looking for earlier, Like I consider myself a minarchist. I think government should be very small, but I think it's also I think it is a necessary evil. And that's what I say, by the way, to my anarchist friends, my anarchist friends who thinks who think that we should have no government, that we should just have self government. They believe things like, you know, you shouldn't have a police force. You should be able to hire your own private security to deal with whatever happens, but there should not be a police force that you pay taxes for.

29:49 Speaker 1: That's what they believe and above all else, I describe myself as The phrase that I often used to describe myself as is I'm a non ideological, practical pragmatist. So I tend to reject ideology because I think ideology is in and of itself flawed. Both conservatism and liberalism I think have things about them that I can agree with and relate to and appreciate. And they also both have things about them that I find repulsive, and they're both loaded with inconsistencies and hypocrisies, etc. But so a lot of people who are libertarians are libertarians because they're really moderates, and that's look.

30:39 Speaker 1: It's funny. Some people think that libertarians are sort of a fringe of on a fringe of conservatism, but really, if you're in the middle, libertarianism tends to occupy the middle. If you're a centrist independent, a lot of what you believe matches up with libertarianism. It's not really a fringe of the far right, as some people try to portray it or believe that it is.

31:09 Speaker 1: It's not at all. If you go issue by issue down the list, you'll see that libertarian does in fact intersect with liberalism just as much as it does with conservatism.

31:27 Speaker 1: It's true. But then there's also the issue of so if you're an independent and you're a large l libertarian a member of the Libertarian Party, are you really an independent? Because part of where we get into trouble too with these discussions is there are really two primary but differing connotations of what the word independent means because to some people, independent means someone who is simply not a Republican or a Democrat. If you're not a member of one of the two major parties, you are an independent, in which case, in that connotation, libertarians would be considered independence.

32:05 Speaker 1: However, to other people, independent means not a member of any party whatsoever, truly independent, and with that connotation, libertarians would not be considered independence because there is a libertarian party, a growing libertarian party in the United States. So what does this all mean then? So if seventy one percent of millennials say the say US politics needs a third major party, again, they're not all saying the same They don't all have the same thing in mind. So that can't mean we certainly should not assume that that means that seventy one percent of millennials think that we should have a strongerberitarian party, because that's, I assure you, a false assumption.

33:06 Speaker 1: The other problem is, and this probably is not the case with millennials generally, but broadly speaking, there are people who are independence not because they're moderate. It's not because they find the two parties too extreme, but because they don't find the two parties extreme enough, so they're kind of in this whole other category. And I don't know how many of that seventy one percent of millennials would fall into this other category. Again, when we're talking about millennials, well, they may fall into one of two subcategories of people who don't want to be a member of either party because they don't think either major party is extreme enough, for example, And this is the subcategory that millennials probably generally don't fall into.

34:04 Speaker 1: But I personally have known independence who are not independence because they don't think that, not because they don't believe in the broadly defined principles of either party, but because they don't think the Republican Party is extreme and right wing enough. I do. I personally know people like that. Those people scare the ever loving hell out of me. I can tell you that if you are a conservative who refuses to be a Republican because the Republican Party, the quote unquote modern Republican Party of twenty seventeen, isn't conservative enough for.

34:49 Speaker 2: You, uh I, I'm frightened of you.

35:00 Speaker 1: Gotta be honest, if you can be described as such as that, you are scary. And we kind of saw some of that with the rise of the Tea Party, right, the Tea Party tried to kind of be its own thing while trying to take over the Republican Party because it's really hard to be your own thing, just ask the Libertarians. But they did kind of try. But yeah, I know, I know, I know people like that. I've had I've had interactions with people who, you know, because whenever whenever someone tells me they're an independent.

35:43 Speaker 1: And by the way, I'm in the land of the Independence Manchester, New Hampshire. We have more independence than we do registered Democrats and Republicans combined. It's wonderful. This is the place to be doing a show like this, but I love it. But I've had conversations with people where because whenever I meet as someone who tells me they're an independent, immediately I perk up and I'm like, you're an independent. That's awesome. We need more of you. We just elected to our board of Mayor and alderman here in Manchester an independent who says independence can't win.

36:18 Speaker 1: Sometimes I say that when I'm feeling cynical, because they generally don't statistically, but it doesn't mean they can't, because they can. Tim Baines he's an independent and he just won. Uh, he's now Alderman Tim Baines or Alderman elect Tim Baines. His father, Mayor Banes, I believe has passed away. He was, I believe a Republican. But Tim is an independent and he's been on this show, so I believe he won because of this show. He got the Matt Connerton unleashed bump. I don't know if I had anything to do with it, but I was very happy when we said he was an independent.

37:06 Speaker 1: I was like, oh, birds of a feather? Are we you and I? But anyway, so I've had conversations with people where they tell me they're an independent. I'm like, oh, you're an independent and then they're like, yeah, I can't believe. You know, I used to be a Republican, but I can't believe that they actually voted to raise the debt ceiling again, we should just go into default. And then immediately I'm like, whoa, you are scary and crazy. So then I realize they're not an independent because they're too moderate.

37:42 Speaker 1: They're an independent because they're too extreme for the Republican Party. I mean, if this Republican Party is not conservative enough for you, I can't help you anyway. So and then you've got you've got the same thing. On the opposite end of the spectrum, you've got independence. And this would make up some of these millennials probably, You've got the independence who the Democratic Party isn't liberal enough for them. Same thing and also scary in a different way. These are independents who really do want socialism, full socialism, who would be perfectly happy to give all their money to the government and have the government do everything for them, who actually want that, and they're not interested in the First Amendment or the Second Amendment.

38:35 Speaker 1: And you know the Bernie Sanders supporters, and I actually like Bernie Sanders. I developed a grudging respect for the guy. That's kind of a separate topic. But but you know, but some of these far left socialists types are very scary in their own way, and a lot of these millennials are that. So.

39:00 Speaker 1: But this is part of what I reject about ideology and why I describe myself as a non ideological, practical pragmatist, because I think ideology is by its nature dangerous, dangerous because there are always forces within an ideology, whether it's liberalism or conservatism or libertarianism. Like with the anarchists, there are always forces within any ideology that want to push that ideology to the furthest possible extreme. You know, and I've always said, well, if you push liberalism too far to the furthest possible extreme, you end up with communism.

39:43 Speaker 1: If you push conservatism too far and to the furthest possible extreme, you end up with a theocracy. And if you push libertarianism rather too far to its furthest possible extreme, you end up with anarchy. None of those three options appeal to me. Now it makes sense, of course, it's human nature, right if you are pushing, if you are a part of an ideology, or you know, think of it in terms of marketing, right. If you have a product or a service that you're marketing, an idea that you're marketing, you want to sell that to as many people as possible.

40:19 Speaker 1: If you're a musician, or if you're a talk show host or a you're on a television program, you want to project to the largest audience possible. Right, Anything you do, you want to garner as much interest and get as many people into it and on your side, agreeing with you, participating with you, as possible. So it makes sense. It makes sense that if you believe in conservatism, you want to you want as much conservatism as you can get. It makes sense that if you believe in liberalism, you want as much liberalism as you can get.

40:58 Speaker 1: I get it, but I think it sucks. I think it's dangerous.

41:06 Speaker 1: Ideology allows just endless intellectual laziness, because once you choose an ideology and you say this is the herd that I'm now choosing to run with, you abdicate any responsibility that you have should have to actually thinking and knowing something about the issues, because all you have to do

41:45 Speaker 1: is say, Okay, I don't know anything about this. I don't know anything about the climate. I don't know anything about the economy. I don't know anything about the federal budget. I don't have to what does the herd I've chosen to run with? Say whatever they say, that's what I believe to. So you don't have to actually know anything

42:12 Speaker 1: if you're if you're a conservative, you can just say, oh, what does Fox News tell me? I'll go with that. If you're a liberal, you can just say, oh, what does MSNBC tell me? I'll go with that. You don't have to think anymore. You're you're locked in, you're good, and this is incredibly dangerous. You know how dangerous it is. There are studies that have been that have been done that show that once people choose to believe something politically, when confronted with information with facts that conflict and contradict with what they already have decided to believe, instead of being open to this new information and potentially changing their mind, more people than not tend to actually just dig in further and believe even more so what it is that is now being directly contradicted.

43:17 Speaker 1: It would be like if I said the sky is green, and you said, no, Matt, look at the sky, it's blue, and then I just said, no,

43:31 Speaker 1: I don't believe you it's green. You have some sort of hidden agenda for trying to convince me that it's blue, even though I can look up and plainly see that it's blue. This scares me to death about human beings in general. It's part of the reason why I think

43:57 Speaker 1: there really is no such thing as truth anymore, Really is no such thing as objective reality. There really is no such thing as facts. How can there be? We've reached a point and maybe we were already there and I just didn't realize it. But I think we've very clearly reached a point in this country where everyone just believes whatever they want to believe. Confirmation bias. You know, you know what confirmation bias is. It's the idea that people tend to only consume news and information from sources that they feel they agree with, and then they take and then they will cherry pick whatever quote unquote facts and information from those news sources reinforce their already existing biases, and will reject and ignore anything that contradicts and conflicts with their already established byes.

45:00 Speaker 1: That's confirmation biased. People love to believe. People love to have what they already believe reinforced for them. It makes them feel better about what they already believe. The last thing anyone ever wants is to have what they already believe to be challenged in some way. People can't handle that hurts their little egos or something. I don't know. I think that's horrifying. I think it's pathetic, to be honest with you. I know I sound like kind of a judgmental jerk when I say that, but I really do think it's sad.

45:33 Speaker 1: I find it pathetic that human beings can be so small and so insecure that once they establish a political opinion on something, they have to hold to it and cannot. People's egos are so fragile they cannot bear to have their ideas and their biases challenged in any way. They literally cannot handle it. So they do whatever they can mentally to protect themselves from that. So again, if we're having that conversation without the sky and I'm insisting it's green and you can prove to me it's blue very easily and I just reject that, well, then I must be a very small and pathetic person, right.

46:33 Speaker 1: But that's how most people seem to operate. And again, I know I sound like a judgmental jerk, but I find it sad.

46:45 Speaker 1: I love having my opinions and beliefs challenged. Part of it is I think for me. And I know I sound really sanctimonious right now and preachy. I don't mean to, and I don't mean to sound like, look at the example I set, you should do what I do. I'm just I'm just telling you how my mind works, do with it what you want. I'm not trying to come off like a prick. Okay, but I love having my beliefs and opinions challenged, and I think part of the reason is, for whatever reason, I don't attach my ego in any way to my opinions, because I think most people do.

47:30 Speaker 1: I think the most important thing in the world to most people when they're discussing politics, it's ultimately not what's truly best for us, or for the country, or for the community, or it's not about principles, you know, standing up for your principles or anything like that. You know, what I think is the most important thing to most people being right. I think people desperately need to be right.

48:12 Speaker 1: They can't stand to be wrong. I don't have that problem. If I have an opinion and you have some information that will directly challenge and conflict with and contradict my belief, go ahead and give it to me. Try to convince me. You might succeed. And that's great because if I'm wrong and you're able to convince me that I'm right, awesome

48:46 Speaker 1: because that, first of all, I don't want to be walking around in ignorance. If I have an opinion that's not correct and you can prove to me that it's not right. I want you to do that. My fragile little ego is not the at least bit upset or damaged by you proving me wrong about something. Or maybe, if you can't prove me wrong, maybe giving me just enough information to make me kind of think about and question my position and my belief doesn't bother me at all. I like it. I like it for a couple of reasons.

49:24 Speaker 1: Again. Number one, I don't want to be walking around ignorant. So if I've misunderstood an issue or I don't know all the correct information, I want to be corrected. I would prefer to be You know hey, just like everyone else wants to be right, I want to be right too. But it's not so important to me to be right that I can't risk being wrong in order to learn to be right about something. No problem. Give me your best shot, give me your best argument. I'll listen. I love it. You might not convince me it.

50:00 Speaker 1: You might not have anything to tell me that's gonna sway me. That's okay too, but I'm still gonna listen. I'm genuinely curious why you don't agree with me. I'm not interested in sitting here like on cable news, where you got these people just talking past each other and practically yelling at each other and trying to cram as much in as they can in just the few seconds that they're allowed to speak in a very short segment before a commercial break. I'll screw all that. I don't care about being right, and I don't care if you think I'm right.

50:37 Speaker 1: I'll give you my best argument and you can do with it what you want. My ego isn't tied to being right, nor is it tied to my ability to change your mind. I'd like you to change your mind and get you to agree with me, sure, but if I can't, that's okay too. I still enjoyed the talk, I still enjoyed the interaction. Maybe we'll do it again. Maybe I put a kernel of doubt in your mind. Maybe I didn't. It's all good. I'm not worried about being right. I want to have the discussion, but my ego is not in any way attached to it.

51:22 Speaker 1: And I again, I don't like the sanctimonious way this sounds, but I feel like I feel like I'm unique in that way. I think that most people they do attach their egos to this stuff, And like I said, I think that that is the biggest, the single biggest priority of most people is to be right and to prove to everyone else that they're right, and everything else is ultimately secondary. It's my theory. But people love to live in their bubbles and their ideological bubbles. Wow, I went off. See, we're already almost to the end of the show.

52:11 Speaker 1: I went off on. I had a whole bunch of stuff I was gonna get to. Uh. But in typical Matt Connerton unleashed fashion, Uh, we're already toward the end of the show, and I have been I have been pontificating.

52:31 Speaker 1: All right, well we can we let's see, we could to have a few more minutes because there was something else kind of related to this. Reason dot Com again has something else that relates to Alabama. We're coming up fast on that election. Ed, how do you say this? Rayse Krayy Ski Crayu ski Ed Crauseki writes this Onreason dot Com in the Hit and Run blog. Alabama Senate election shouldn't be a binary choice. The two party system is not responsive to consumer slash voter needs. This guy's talking my language, says the Alabama Senate special election is less than two weeks away, and voters will have just two names on the ballot, Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore.

53:32 Speaker 1: And although there's just one race on the ballot, Alabama will still have the option to fill in a vote for straight party. In other words, straight straight ticket voting straight party is when you just go in. They got rid of that here in New Hampshire. But where you just go in and you have the option to just check off Republican or check off Democrat, and again people will do that because when you choose to run with the herd, you don't have to know anything. You don't even have to know any thing about the people who you're voting for, whether they have an R or a D next to their name.

54:05 Speaker 1: Okay, that option used in general elections by voters who decide based purely on party affiliation illustrates the structural problem with democratic politics in the US. Revelations about Roy Moore over the last month concerning accusations of inappropriate sexual conduct with minors in the seventies, which led many high profile Republicans to rescind their endorsements, have left many Republican voters unenthusiastic about their choices. Although the state Republican Party could withdraw Moore's name, meaning if he won, the election would not be valid, election law prohibits the replacement of a name less than seventy six days before the election.

54:42 Speaker 1: Even worse, independent and third party candidates had to file by August fifteenth, nearly four months before the election. There are at least four riding candidates vying to provide voters another option in the special election, the most prominent of them being Lead, a Marine colonel who was an aid to John Kelly when he served in Iraq. Buzby said of Moore to the Daily Beasts quote, I have no idea if the allegations against him are true or not, but I don't see anything within his experience as a judge that qualifies him for the job.

55:18 Speaker 1: Alabama is not happy with the two choices we have down here. This is not appealing. Unquote. None of these is more than an afterthought, leaving the democratic process in Alabama woefully unresponsive to voter demand. American consumers don't accept binary choices and almost any of their sphere, even with rivalries like McDonald's versus Burger king or Coke versus Pepsi. Consumers spend billions of dollars on many other fast food and soft drink companies. That's true. We're almost out of time if you want to read the entire article, and again, it's another great argument for why we need to break break the two party system.

56:01 Speaker 1: Uh, you can find that up at reason dot com. And Reason dot com is a great site. And uh, you know it's libertarian leaning, but even if you're not, it'll make you think. I think, and that's a good thing. We're out of time. Matt Connerton unleashed the weekend edition every Saturday at twelve noon Eastern on Revealing Talk Radio Revealing Talk Radio dot com. Also, you can find the show on ipmnation dot com and weekdays four to six pm live at WMNH ninety five point three FM in downtown Manchester, New Hampshire.

56:36 Speaker 1: That's it for now. I will talk at y'all a little bit later. Have a great weekend. Bye everybody.