Episode 36 - How Chris Hayes escaped the TDS prison…For now

Date: 2018-06-18 | Duration: 18:27

Topics

President Trump Paralympics comment “Watched as much as I could.  It’s tough to watch too much” President doesn’t have much free time to watch the event or an insensitive comment?

Transcript

[0:08]

Pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom pom! Hey everybody, come on in here quickly, quickly before all the seats are taken. Last person who gets in here doesn’t get a chair. I’ll tell you, does it get more fun every day? I can’t tell. That’s the Gold for you.

We’re going to talk about some fun from yesterday in which I don’t know if any of you saw the video of President Trump talking about the Olympics and the Paralympics. I want to play the video, then I’m going to give you Chris Hayes—TV host, MSNBC, I think—Chris Hayes’ interpretation of it, and then we’ll talk about it. Let’s make sure we can see this:

“And that was just incredible. And what happened with the Paralympics was so…

[1:09]

…happened with the Paralympics was so incredible and so inspiring to me. I watched—it’s a little tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could. It was really fantastic.”

Now, did you hear that part? He goes, “It was tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could.” Let’s play it again, just that part. Listen to just that sentence: “It’s a little tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could. It was really fantastic and I want to thank you.”

So, it’s tough to watch too much, but I watched as much as I could. How did you interpret that? I interpreted it as: you’re the President of the United States, it’s hard to sit down and watch much television. A very ordinary thing to say: “I’m the President of the United States; I don’t have much time.”

Chris Hayes—we’ll see what Chris says. He’s the host of All In with Chris Hayes on MSNBC and an anti-Trumper. He tweets about that and he goes, “Honestly, what the hell kind of thing is this to say?” Now, you realize that he’s interpreted the President’s comments as if the President was saying it’s hard to look at these people because of disabilities. Chris Hayes has interpreted the President saying that he doesn’t have much time to watch television as saying he finds it hard emotionally to look at children who have disabilities. Oh my God. Oh my God.

So he makes that tweet. I tweeted back. I heard him say Presidents are busy, so it’s hard to watch much TV—paraphrasing.

[3:12]

Then I said, “What does this sound like in the TDS language?” I thought it was funny that there might be an actual TDS language where although all the words sound the same, they mean different things. It’s actually the English words, but in the TDS language, they actually have different meanings. You can say the same sentence and somebody will hear, “Oh, it’s time for dinner,” and the other person will hear, “Yeah, you’re a damn idiot.” It’s the same words, but TDS language interprets them differently.

But there’s a happy ending to this story. If you’re just joining, the President was giving his speech and he said he essentially didn’t have much time to watch the Paralympics. Chris Hayes interpreted it initially, apparently, as saying it was hard to look at the people. Then, when he realized people jumped in and said he may have interpreted it differently…

[4:17]

…he fixed it. Chris Hayes later said, “So I’ve listened to this way more than I should have.” He says, “I think”—and he puts little asterisks around “think,” so he’s not positive—he goes, “I think I’ve come to conclude he means it’s tough to watch too much because he’s so busy being President,” which is exactly right.

Now, here is if you don’t see what a big deal this is: let me break it down for you. Here was a clean example of somebody who experienced the Trump Derangement Syndrome bubble from the inside. He heard something that would have been shocking, but of course, didn’t happen. He heard it pretty clearly. He heard something that didn’t happen so clearly that he was willing to publicly go on the record and tweet it. He was so sure that he heard it the other way…

[5:17]

…that he tweeted it to 1.6 million followers, put his reputation on the line, and did it in public. That’s how sure he was of his original interpretation.

If any of this sounds like I’m making fun of Chris Hayes, I want to tell you right now: this is the opposite. This is the opposite of me making fun of Chris Hayes. Chris Hayes actually saw something that wasn’t there. This is really important. He saw something that literally didn’t happen. He saw it as clearly as he could, but it wasn’t there. Then, when other people weighed in and said, “No, you’re interpreting this wrong; this clearly means the other thing,” what did he do? Did he double down? No, he didn’t double down. He went and he looked at the evidence again and again and again, apparently because he said he replayed the video a number of times. Then, having come to a different…

[6:19]

…conclusion, he literally realized, “Oh, I think I saw something that wasn’t there.” He did the honorable thing. He did not delete his tweet; he retweeted a correction and said why—because he listened to it and assessed the evidence. “Yeah, I hear differently now. I think I hear differently now.”

Chris got out of the bubble. It’s a big deal. Do you know how rare it is for somebody to do this? I’m not saying he’s out and he’ll stay out. I’m saying that he experienced within one day what it feels like to be in an artificial world where he saw something right in front of him, he heard it, he saw it clear as day, and then when other people said, “Take another look, you’re interpreting this wrong,” he actually did something that very, very rarely can people do: he actually climbed…

[7:21]

…out of the bubble and looked at it from outside the bubble. It’s a big deal. I know it sounds like I’m making a bigger deal about this than you probably think it is, but I’m hoping there’s more of this coming. I’m seeing this as more of a symbol of maybe there’s a crack in reality.

Kanye—the Kanye thing is a pretty big deal. It’s the first time that people probably said, “That damn racist… wait a minute.” This is what people had to deal with this past week: there were people trying to grapple with the fact that there were 100% positives that this President is a big old damn racist. They are 100% positive that Kanye West doesn’t like racists, and Kanye West likes the President. So how is any of this possible? Now people are trying to explain it by Kanye is…

[8:24]

…actually literally crazy. Is that possible? Yeah, that’s possible. Anything’s possible. That would at least explain some of the observations. But here’s a better explanation: Kanye is closer to the President than you are. He’s just got a little clearer view because he is up front; he’s looked in his eyes. Do you think that when Kanye and President Trump were sitting privately and talking to each other, they felt anything but affection for each other? I don’t think so. I think that’s all they felt.

So Kanye got out of the bubble, and Chris Hayes just had the experience of being in it and then out in one day, which has got to be jarring.

[9:27]

I couldn’t leave it alone, so I tweeted to Chris just a moment ago, “Congratulations getting out of the TDS bubble.” I just noted that he got out of the TDS bubble and I said, “Do Charlottesville next,” because this is a perfect analogy. A perfect similar example would be the people who thought that the President of the United States sided with the actual racists in Charlottesville.

Just like this Chris Hayes example where he’s positive he heard that, but then when he got to see the other point of view, he could see both. He could see two worlds at one time, which has gotta be a weird experience. Think about being so certain and then, with no facts changing—nothing changed—he was able to see a whole different world at the same time.

[10:27]

It’s cool. I sent my blog post about Charlottesville in which I explained how a large part of the world is positive they heard our President side with actual out-of-the-closet racists who were marching in Charlottesville. They believe they actually saw that. It didn’t happen.

Now, the President did use words that sound exactly like that, but any reasonable interpretation of what he meant is that he assumed other people were there too. That’s what I assumed; a lot of people probably assumed. It’s a big old demonstration; there are lots of different people. Some are racists, some are Antifa, but probably some of them are just good Republicans who were there to protest the removal of the statue—not for racist reasons; they just like their history or whatever. The Charlottesville example is identical in setup to this…

[11:28]

…Paralympics situation. It’s people looking at the same set of facts and coming to completely different movies. Someday, maybe the people who saw one movie can see simultaneously the other.

Let me say that on Charlottesville, I can clearly see both movies. To the people—which is probably maybe even the majority of the country—who are saying, “My God, Scott, can’t you see he clearly used the words? He said that there were racists who were fine people.” I see exactly why you think that. Those are the words. The interpretation that those people are putting on it is not crazy. It’s simply an interpretation that doesn’t work nearly as well as the real one, which is he just thought there…

[12:29]

…were some good people there too. It was the fog of war situation. I certainly assumed that. By the way, there were some people who were just there to protest the statues as a free speech point who were very anti-racist and said so. They did a video that day. So there were some good people there—some fine people. That is documented and true. Half the world or more thought that he sided with racists that day. It’s amazing that you can have such different movies from the same set of facts.

Maybe that’s a big deal, maybe it’s not. I understand that Kanye is dropping a new surprise track with T.I. playing the voice of his critics and then Kanye explaining in the song his position about Trump. I haven’t heard the lyrics, but I gotta say that this is…

[13:35]

…a true statement. I’ve told you before I’m not really into music that much, but one of the few albums I’ve ever bought was Kanye’s. I like his stuff; I like his music; I like what he does. When I heard this track was out there, see if you had a similar experience: I’ve never wanted to hear a song more than that song. For a song that I hadn’t yet heard, I’ve never craved… I was almost salivating. I was like, “Haha, I gotta hear that song. That’s gonna be a good song.”

It was partly musical, like I thought it would be a good song because he makes good music, but partly because it’s so interesting. Partly because there’s so much energy around it. Partly because this song would have so much of himself in it. His music always has that; he’s always in his music. But this one is so raw and…

[14:37]

…immediate and important. I have never ever wanted to hear a song that badly. I went around and I couldn’t find a copy right away, so I’ll go see if I can download it a legal way. Oh, he killed it; you’re gonna have a field day. Some of you say it’s on iTunes. I’m not sure I can use iTunes. Let me see if I can get fired up here while you’re here. I have a bad history with iTunes. What’s it called? There’s a song called “What’s Going On with Kanye”? Maybe that’s a podcast. What’s the name of the song? Ye vs. the People? Is that what it’s called?

[15:38]

Alright, I searched artists and more… Stronger… go there. I’m gonna do what I’ve done 100% of the times I’ve used iTunes and I’m gonna do it right now. I’ve been trying to use iTunes for many years. Part of the reason that I don’t listen to music anymore is iTunes. iTunes is actually the biggest reason that I don’t listen to music because I have to deal with it. The user interface for iTunes is so annoying that I can’t penetrate it.

I’m not saying I don’t know how to use it or that I can’t figure out how to use it—of course I can. Millions of people use iTunes; it’s not like I can’t figure it out. But I get so angry every time I open it and try to use it. It makes me so angry that the interface is so poorly designed that I can’t actually buy music.

[16:39]

I actually bail out before I can find and download a piece of music. I become so angry at the interface. I don’t know if it’s because Apple does such a good job at so many other things that I say to myself, “Are you serious? Why do we have this 1990s interface to buy music when you do everything else so well? What the hell is wrong with this?”

Ye vs. the People, somebody’s saying. Let’s test this interface… doing Kanye… didn’t bring it up. Watch this not work. Yep, nothing. So, Ye vs. the People doesn’t give me anything. I swear to God, I just give up on freaking iTunes. It’s just the worst thing. This is the biggest story in the whole world right now: this damn song. The most…

[17:42]

…important song in the universe is this goddamn song, and iTunes won’t pick it up either on Kanye’s name or the name of the song. Now, I agree—somebody, those of you who know iTunes better, are like, “You idiot, you’re pushing the wrong button. You have to do this or you’re in the wrong mode or something.” I’m sure that’s true. I’m sure I could figure that out in five minutes, but that would be five minutes of so much pain I’m not going to do it because I’d be so angry while I’m trying to figure it out.

Alright, I think I have nothing else left to say today. I’m going to go do some work and I’ll talk to you all later.