The World According To Ben Stein

Boycotting Boycotts!

Episode Summary

What do Coca Cola, Amazon, Delta, Apple, have in common other than being complete social frauds? They are all publicly traded companies. I’m sure a majority of you whether through investment in the markets, individually or through pension or retirement plans are shareholders in these companies. While individually it might seem trivial collectively it’s not. Join us tonight as we will offer solutions to get your voices heard, in companies that you own. Not management.

Episode Transcription

there is the man the myth the legend benjamin  jeremy stein it should be there somewhere

he's he's he's for everybody that's just joining  the youtube chat ben is um in a different part  

of the country right now so so he's getting his  stuff set up over there and we will start it on  

we're going to start minus band minus the most  important man and we are going to start this minus  

the most important man in this show because it is  called the world according to god and uh i want  

to welcome everybody that's watching on youtube  that downloads the podcast that is uh a supporter  

of us to the world according to ben stein we're  joined tonight by the simplelifenow.com founder  

um and you know you're not just uh what was  that ad they used to have gary i'm not just a  

client but i'm also i'm not just the president  but i'm also a client you know for the hair club  

the hair club hey don't don't you know you  actually years old it's all there you actually  

live the life of what you write and what you speak  about and um gary collins from simplelifenow.com  

and ben for everybody watching will be joining  us in a few seconds but before we even start  

um i want to talk about quickly because i'm a  huge baseball fan gary and i got to be honest  

i i've been a huge baseball fan since  i'm a kid i uh i i just love baseball  

i must have watched at least 90 games  last year a lot of that had to do with  

the pandemic mind you but i did watch a lot  of baseball and um i baseball has 7.6 black  

a minority of blacks in baseball and um they are  now banning the all-star game it's been moved from  

atlanta georgia the town that seriously needs  the revenue that is a majority african-american  

who could use the money who could use the  jobs and they are putting it because of  

voter i you know voter integrity laws moving  into a place like new york that has even harsher  

go let's say you gary well after the second strike  i grew up a baseball fan as a kid too big sports  

fan i was done so when was that you know 1902  they've had so many strikes now i i've lost track  

94 i believe yeah that was actually that was  when i said enough and you know we're we're in  

a woke world uh corporations we're and i'll ask  you what you think of this because we're me and  

a friend we're making a comparison of now athletic  companies such as bike companies when you see the  

ads and the posters it's a bunch of overweight  people on bikes and i i'm not fat shaming i am  

fat shaming by the way um but if what we're saying  is it's representing what they're doing is they're  

they're advertising to the representative  of the demographic of the us right right  

i think you can you kind of tie those two together  right so what they're doing is they're going well  

corporate america's customer uh a poor a large  portion of them believe in you know that this is  

uh a racist and against voter integrity but it's  the opposite and that's why i mean what they're  

doing is they're placating to the mass is what  they're doing right but not the community that  

watches the sport they don't care that's what i  mean corporate you know so if you look at it last  

year their numbers i believe eight million people  watched the all-star game now i don't know i'm  

assuming baseball is one of the least betting  sports that people bet on but you know i mean  

the ratings this year at the all-star game what  are they hoping to go from eight million i mean  

there's there's this effect that cause and effect  i mean you have less advertising dollars you have  

less of all these things that'll go on but you  have fans like me who are just just numb to it  

just well remember even before this there was a  big hubbub i can't remember how many years ago  

about that blacks weren't represented enough in  baseball yeah there was a huge thing and someone  

ran it and they said well because the majority  of blacks don't play baseball that's the sport  

they least play as kids and going up that is why  and they didn't want to hear it they're like no  

it's racist it's just racist and you're right and  how are we going to get more blacks like you could  

force somebody to play a different sport you know  the the the you know it's just it's just it's just  

a massive joke i agree with rock breath who says i  mean i'm not for yeah i'm not this massive boycott  

person like screaming boycott but i am i am in my  own life saying you know what i'm not going to pay  

120 for the um for the mlb ticket um it's it's  it's it's definitely an expense i'm not going to  

waste my time i mean watching games right now is  like remember those benatan commercials in the 80s  

you know like you know it feels like watching  like a demented benetton commercial watching  

these games and i don't i can't you know a lot  of people could separate once they turn it on  

but knowing reality i can't me as a human i  can't differentiate well not only that but you're  

watching uh basically a bunch of coddled athletes  who are some of the richest people in the world  

and they're screaming discrimination and all  these crazy racist things and kneeling during  

the national anthem and i laugh as a former guy  who served in the military who made 300 a month  

when he was you know first year in the navy as a  young bright-eyed 20-something year old and i'm  

looking at some multi-multi-multi-millionaire who  cries racism and says black lives matter and if  

you don't say that you're a racist and i just go  what planet are we living on you know i don't even  

know anymore i gave up on pro sports a long time  ago i think they're just a bunch of spoiled babies  

the athletes not all of them not all of them but a  lot of them and you know the the you know the big  

the the nfl the nba especially the nba who  count house to china our biggest adversary  

it's embarrassing i haven't watched pro  sports for years now i just don't care and  

there he is the man the myth the legend benjamin  jeremy stein you gotta turn your audio on ben  

ben he would have jeff if you could turn  ben's audio on that would be amazing

and we will do a mic check that in a second but  um there he is i am now sure are you there you  

are benjamin jeremy stein america's humble  servant and um i want to welcome everybody  

i could see you ben stein through the  amazing thing of technology i can see you  

and um ben is on the road somewhere  with beautiful pictures behind  

i can tell you where i am because this is quite  a famous place where we're done right now okay

and to everybody that just indian you are  watching the world according to ben stein gary  

and i were just doing some chill until ben came  but either gary the reason i bring up sports and  

the all-star game and i spoke to ben about this  today was because ben and i ben and my his father  

me and ben's father shared that in common he loved  listening to the baseball on the radio it it was a  

special thing my father was on tv but didn't turn  on it but but uh just i mean it was crazy about it  

yeah and how sick to yours to his stomach for  people that don't know ben's father was an  

extremely high figure in the united states  government for two different you got to serve  

two different presidents right two or three three  he had to serve three presidents and um would  

he be disgusted ben with the fact that major  league baseball is literally causing a state  

to lose millions of dollars millions of dollars  for the people that they supposedly care about  

he would be disgusted at the whole thing i  mean i think my father was a man who was way  

ahead of his time in terms of uh advocating  for civil rights for african americans uh he  

unlike most of the people of his generation  he had black uh white people his generation  

if you can call jews white he had black  friends and he uh he would he would be so  

horrified that the way the blacks have twisted  the situation and made it seem as if they're  

being discriminated against where they're really  pulling this guiding the screws on everybody else  

and i don't think the ordinary half of america  is doing that i think it's the politicians  

i think it's the fundraisers i think it's  the people are getting money out of it  

always share say the money and that's where  the story is you know but can i want to ask  

you this book i don't get the i like i get why  they're doing this right you have voter id laws  

the less people might be apt to go vote in person  it takes away the cheat by mail which we know  

for sure has had issues in past elections um  and we know that that's their biggest reason  

for doing it but you know i mean ben it's at a  certain point most people have to see that this  

they're being disingenuous i would i would  think it said wildly i mean the wall street  

journal a wonderful wonderful news they was  still and so i just found the editorial page  

is has pointed out in detail what the georgia  voting rights law voting law entails it's nothing  

remotely discriminatory not even remotely by  any stretch of the imagination discriminatory  

it just has to are you a citizen are you do you  exist are you a voting age are you in prison  

uh i do live in a state of good it's crazy that  by itself is supposed to be discriminatory how  

can that possibly be discriminatory it only can be  if there's a way for black lives matter and other  

people to make money or political power of it it  has no reality in fact you know to go to the store  

gary and pick up medicine you need to show id i  mean and everybody's absolutely and you and your  

judith my wife and i are both not in great health  neither i should say neither especially my life  

and judah often does against madison for us he  has to show identification everybody has to show  

identification for everything in the world you  have to show identification you use a credit  

card in a lot of stores but to vote that's what  people sacrificed their lives were on hilo jima  

and and all over them all over europe and you're  not supposed to have to do that that's what  

somebody like gary sacrificed his life for and  served our country for i mean use i mean people  

forget i want to bring this i want to say this  you you actually served you know this country  

through two administrations gary served over 20  years gary this must drive you nuts as a person  

that absolutely insane and here's why the same  people who are saying that in order to go get  

you know who want to go get a free vaccination  have a vaccination passport well guess what you're  

going to have to show in order to do those things  you have to show an id and yet those same people  

want to go vote without showing an id in order  to get your free benefits and your your your  

food stamps and whatever i'm just saying this in  general not pointing one out you have to show id  

i'm confused by all this why an id is racist  economic you know you're you're you're going  

against the poor i can tell you why it's racist i  get anybody's right it's racist because they say  

it's racist in order to win elections in order  to squeeze money out of the corporate power  

structure and out of the citizens of america  and can can i can i add something else because  

which occurred i was just i just came into a long  flight from la to from l.a to washington dc and uh  

something suddenly occurred to me as i was  sitting on my plane i just read a story i'm  

sure judah has been talking about this and he  should god bless you judah corporate executives  

uh sometimes african-american ones are saying  they're going to move their corporate events  

out of georgia because they say it's a racially  discriminated well guess what they don't own  

those corporations those corporations are owned by  the stockholders the stockholders get to the side  

not the executives a big company like merck  or american express as an african-american  

uh ceo that guy it does not own the company it's  owned by tens of millions of small shareholders  

many of them have it in their retirement accounts  it's not up to these guys who are the executives  

to decide how their corporations weigh in  on public issues it's up to the stockholders

that's you can't argue against that ben you  can't you can't argue against that you know it's  

interesting for years and years and years before  judah and i became friends with and and we're very  

very close friends before that i spent most of my  life suing helping helping helping larry claim and  

i'm kidding how helping people sue to get  the executive companies to stand up for the  

stockholders and not for themselves and not to  loot the company in essence these guys who are  

saying get our corporations out of it at georgia  they are standing up for their own political views  

and their own claims for virtue signaling as a  very close friend of mine calls it and that is an  

outrage it's an outrage those corporations don't  belong to the executives they belong to you and me  

and tens of millions of other americans who have  them in their savings and retirement portfolios  

well the thing is uh they're not even looking at  the facts you know no one's discriminating against  

anyone to vote they're just absolutely right  totally right i i don't understand how an id  

became so controversial i just don't understand  this yeah well i do it became controversial  

gary my dear friend because they made it  controversial in order to get wait what's what's  

on your head judah oh my god you just realized  that and i totally lost my signal by the way  

so i don't know what's been going on have you guys  noticed what do you have on your head um i have uh  

eat that hat we got at the um national  world war two oh that's great that's great  

yes it's exactly that's exactly exactly exactly  right so i just need to do a reset here quickly  

i want to welcome everybody back to the world  according to that man benjamin jeremy stein  

we are joined tonight by gary collins of  simplelifenow.com um we're having i've had  

some technical difficulties i had to restart the  show um rock breath could tell me if uh you could  

see the stream is still going on rock breath that  would be an amazing thing but one of the things i  

wanted to talk about ben was the fact that you um  wrote an amazing book called the capitalist code

in that book that warren buffett gave  major kudos to gave me a better result  

it just gave amazing i mean getting the kudos  from warren buffett about writing about this  

the stock market is to me like getting ted  williams telling you you have an amazing swing  

i mean i can't think of a bigger they think of  a bigger compliment but one of the things that  

when you wrote that book and one of the things  i read gary out of that book was that when you  

invest in a company when you invest in wall street  when you invest when you're an investor you are an  

owner in that company right you have the same a  passive witness you're an owner you're an owner  

and as you were as as as you know you posted today  about that you have ownership and there's how many  

people are like sell and this and that and boycott  not realizing ben if you're an owner and a company  

you could go to a shareholders meeting you could  out you could get you if you have a problem yes  

you can sue that's the main thing this  is you know we have been on this show now  

uh for weeks months saying what do we do to  fight back guess what class action lawsuits  

against the management of these companies that are  using their positions in order to advance their  

personal political agendas without regard to  what is best for the stockholders fiduciary  

duty incredibly important concept in law says that  the management of these companies must act in the  

best interest of the stockholders not in the best  interest of themselves fiduciary duty demands that  

these guys shut the f up about political issues  unless they have a stockholder telling them to  

do it so you know as you say that it really like  i think about that like you you know if it were me  

and everybody listening and everybody that wants  to boycott delta or boycott code or boycott buy a  

share just buy one share and get a guy like larry  clayman just get a class action lawsuit against  

these companies because there is no way this is  not going to affect the bottom line of certain  

companies and and we've had this conversation been  where capitalism used to be the great equalizer  

companies are willing to lose some money these  days in the name of wokeness i know this is insane  

the whole reason that we have the most prosperous  country in a large country in the world is that  

we have free enterprise free enterprise doesn't  mean that these big corporations belong to uh  

joe smith or whatever his name is who is the chief  executive officer or the chief financial officer  

or some other officer if they belong to the  stockholders i am sure that every man woman and  

child watching this show tonight has a directly or  indirectly stock in delta merc coke and they those  

people are being ripped off mercilessly by their  management because their management is saying  

our personal views are take precedence over  your personal financial well-being that is  

nonsense is exactly the opposite of what  corporate america is supposed to be doing  

and just so the people in the attendance said ben  was part of the lawsuit when this uh covet first  

started that was brought by larry clayman uh uh i  believe it was for the churches you know if we're  

not right congregate right right because one of  my closest friends is a southern baptist minister  

and uh he uh the lapd in my hearing he did it  i'm on the phone in my in my office told him you  

can't have a search service even if you only have  five people in the service and the biggest problem  

the biggest problem michael right now  and i'll go to gary in a second is the  

biggest problem michael is that you can't  get your cases heard there's such a backlog  

in the state of california right now that to get  these class action lawsuits but it's still as  

ben always says you don't give up hope you find  the one judge gary who will take rules you ca  

boycotting is this is is what the left does  you buy one share gary in a certain company  

you're part owner well you're right and you have  every us as a gary if you and i and judah each own  

100 shares of merck or gold gold or delta we  have as much legal right to go into court and  

demand that the management act on behalf of the  stockholders et cetera and behalf of what he wants  

to do himself or herself we have just as much  right as the person who's got a billion dollars  

yeah i'm not a boycott person either um but we're  at a point where we have to start making big boy  

decisions as consumers and you know we're gonna  have to make some tough choices uh the problem is  

most of america is tuned out doesn't care they're  going to buy their most records like gary i'm  

sorry say that again they're tuned out they don't  care they're going to go buy their 12 pack of coke  

pound it and you know eat twinkies and whatever  but most americans for me i will never buy a coke  

again to be honest with you i'm over it i don't  drink coke to begin with very much but i'm over it  

i'm to the point where these companies if they  want to dictate politics and be political i'm out  

i'm out i don't want politics you know just give  me a coke and shut up and smile right you know  

i'm done with it why are these corporations even  involved in politics ben i don't even get it what  

is it because i'll tell you why my dear my dear  friend because they want to get invited to parties  

by the cool where the cool people hang out they  want to get invited to parties where the pretty  

girls hang out at least that's what they think uh  they want to get invited to places where the cool  

guy beautiful people go you know there's a  wonderful song i think only i am old enough  

to remember called how does it feel to be one of  the beautiful people it's a song by the beatles  

and that's how these corporate guys are they're  basically accountants they're bean counters  

uh they want to be cool people and so how do they  be cool people they get woke and so they get woke  

but wait a minute what about their stockholders  well [ __ ] the stockholders we want to be woke  

wow yeah that's amazing to me you're totally  right and uh you know i've owned stock in  

several companies too over the years and i get to  vote every year right we get our package i get it  

emailed to me and i get to vote i get to me you  know i i don't know what this is anymore i i i  

feel like yeah i want to get back to something ben  and i think this is really important because a lot  

of people don't know this and i'm going to use  his name is only his first name who's in our chat  

they weren't aware that by owning one stock at  that point you're part and so many people do not  

know this and i really need you to reinforce  that when you own a stock ban at that point

just one is enough and since there and you're  the owner and you are the successor to legal  

legal rights of all the owners and  you have every right to go into court  

and demand that the court order the  executive of the corporation to stop  

acting like it's his own gummy and to instead  act like he is a servant of the stockholders

that's vital that that's how capitalism  works if you don't have that you don't  

have capitalism you don't have that you have  venezuela or cuba or something like that you  

don't have american capitalism well that's your  problem though right aren't we then aren't we in  

pretty much crony capitalism anywhere i mean but  even in crony capitalism even crony capitalism  

the stockholders get to go into court and the  courts can jam their gears because of course  

can go into court they can say you stop it you  stop it mr x or mr y or whatever your name is and  

and you you you keep your opinions to yourself  or if you're extending your opinions about some  

kind of political issue you make it clear you're  speaking only for yourself and not for coca-cola  

or for merck or versus delta or whoever else  it is you make it clear that you're doing it  

for yourself and these guys play like these guys  these corporate executives they're supposed to  

be so smart i've known lots of they're not that  smart they're not smart enough to read the law in  

georgia fat law isn't even wildly discriminated or  even even sorry even even remotely discriminatory  

well i got a question where is the all-star game  going to judah yeah i believe it's going to new  

york city and where who has like i said before  who has even tougher restrictions on a voter id  

on voter id i hate it just i can i say something  i can't use these words anymore because they're  

ridiculous to say voter id laws and voters it's  like we sound like morons as a country that we're  

even discussing and no i mean we have to discuss  it because this is the battle we're up against ben  

but it's redonkulous that this is even  a conversation because we are a country  

that has gotten ever stupider because the media  is dumbing us down all the time you know it's  

interesting i had a conversation two days ago uh  or maybe yesterday and very recently with a doctor  

who said every time you if you are a heavy user  of marijuana it or even a frequent user it just  

automatically knocks 10 points off your iq if you  use it more than occasionally it's more than that  

i think watching media watching msnbc watching  cnn knocks more than 10 points off your iq every  

time you watch it and if you watch it all the time  you don't even know whether you're coming or going  

and that's that's that's the situation we're  in in america we have been brainwashed and not  

knowing what our rights are why can't i mean why  republican party you're the party of big business  

suppose that you're not really but you supposedly  are why don't you get somebody out there to say  

americans you have iras you have kios you have  401ks you are stockholders you have rights please  

exercise your rights write write a letter to the  wall street journal write a letter then value the  

numerical publisher write a letter to somebody  right maybe usa the publisher today write to  

somebody saying we're we we don't want to be the  stooges for these people and their political views  

we want to have our views represented we're the  owners and somebody brings up gary a great point  

that 70 percent of americans i mean one  voter one want there to be normal voting  

i'm not even calling it anything anymore they  simply want normal voting 70 percent of america  

you know you bring your id and you sign a little  thing and and you get you know you poke the doc  

that's what most people want gary well the thing  is i remember at seven years old my dad went got  

got me a social security card that was kind of the  thing when we were young growing up that as you  

became old enough your parents would go get your  social security card so you were established he  

wasn't getting out credit cards or anything  that i know of under my name or anything  

and you know that was my id as a seven-year-old i  already had an idea as a seven-year-old i had to  

use that id when they opened a bank account for  me a joint bank account as a teenager this is  

last night this is so ridiculously stupid and with  pro sports i honestly i wish some uh some people  

would go out there who have a little bit of money  start new leagues that where the players actually  

instead of complaining and bitching go out and  play for the game they give that's we're gonna  

i wanna play something gary that's the  next segment and if you just tuned in you  

are listening to the world according to that man  benjamin jeremy stein who i must ask he might uh  

turn your phone off so we don't sound like we're  walking into an asian massage parlor everybody

it is i hear the chimes and um i  

want to remind everybody with all due respect i  don't think you are with regret i could be wrong

bracelets i'm sorry i want to remind everybody to  get ben's newsletter benstein.stopstack.com and  

find our podcast at the world of corner ben stein  wherever podcasts are downloadable and of course  

give us a good like give us a good review if you  don't mind it would be very helpful or humbled by  

your support um but i want to welcome everybody  back to the world according to ben stein and gary  

brings up a great point ben but the problem is  baseball and i want you to explain this to people  

what the anti-trust laws are because a lot of  people are unfamiliar with that and baseball  

is exempt from the anti-trust laws right the  anti-drug laws pass uh actually um when uh  

unresponsive of a senator sherman but not the same  sherman who marched from atlanta to a state uh  

these are said that you could not  own a certain large percentage  

of the market in any kind of corporation or any  kind of production or service so that you could  

such so you could control the price now in major  league baseball uh they do an amazing baseball  

player at least and and owners do control a huge  huge huge enormous overwhelming percentage of  

professional baseball but the congress has  exempted them from the laws governing anti-trust  

why should they be exempt i mean they're acting  like thugs they're acting like gangsters why  

should they be exempt from anything now they're  not a wholesome past time like and maybe maybe  

maybe maybe once or maybe once were they are now  just thugs working on behalf of a political party  

that seems to embrace thuggery so what gary  brought up it would be nearly impossible because  

of those laws for another team for another league  to try and start up my career i mean is that yeah  

unless they start a different kind of game  i mean they can call it something else maybe  

and have it be a different kind of game but but  clearly clearly clearly the major league baseball  

major league baseball would be almost impossible  to compete with and yet and by the way same is  

true in terms of the internet and high-tech we  have massive anti-trust violations gigantic ones  

going on all the time we have capitalism is being  defeated by the capitalists it's being defeated  

i mean marx himself could not  have thought of a more ironic  

and cruel end to capitalism than the capitalists  killing capitalism but that's what they're doing  

well and i've heard a lot of theories about that  we're playing right into our adversaries hands  

because we're doing exactly what their strategy  was it's not that you beat us through wars you  

have us attack each other that's the best way to  do it and that's what we're doing and my attitude  

is with sports it's like i i threw off some pretty  wicked snipes in twitter this week about college  

players being paid and i blew a gasket i went  i had to pay for my shitty college education  

and yet these guys get free room and board has  anyone been in a college sports dorm before  

it's nicer in my house um it's ridiculous they  eat at different different meals they live in  

high-end uh apartments or dorms whatever they want  to call them they all got tattoos they go you know  

it's [ __ ] i'm tired of this whole thing they've  integrated sports into now uh you know almost pay  

for pay to play because ncaa is so corrupt it  all ties together i firmly believe call it man  

ball and have guys go out there and actually play  real baseball and no corporate sponsors how about  

that how about the people on the teams like the  green bay packers let's go back to that how about  

the fans in the actual town or city where these  teams are at own the team let's do that but let's  

face it what we're talking about here is something  i'm sorry to say we talk about way way painfully  

too much in this program and that is that they  left controls so much they now now they control  

sports i mean they control they just control very  very much of this country now don't get me wrong  

our friend ramsay a very smart guy rounded  off mission very much tonight but ramzo  

super smart guy points out things are pretty  darn good in this country i was just at the  

airport at lax and also at dca jam-packed  travel is revived they're terrific travelers

economically things are looking up politically  

disaster politically disaster so  uh things are looking good together  

things are looking up now economically but you're  the you're the one that keeps on talking about if  

we if we continue on this stream of spending  yes it's got it unless every law of economics  

that has ever been postulated is wrong and it's  possible they are if that's quite quite possible  

then then we're not about to have very serious  inflation and it's going to hurt like hell and  

by the way gary you bring up a great point because  if i encourage everybody to watch this documentary  

on netflix called the battered bastards of  baseball and um it's with kurt russell and  

it's it's about his dad owning a minor league uh  you know an affiliate baseball team in oregon and  

um how he had to go to court against major league  baseball because he he he was a part of what  

there used to be known as independent meetings  and they were all over the country there were  

thousands and i believe now there might be one or  two independent leagues because what does baseball  

do they squash you like a little bug they think  you are the quote ben you know they they they or  

kevin o'leary shark tank they squash you like  a cockroach and that is um what they do and  

ben i wha what is the outcome what is the  inflationary outcome what are i mean what  

are people we don't know what the inflationary  outcome is yet we don't seem to be following the  

normal laws of economics if we were we'd already  have considerable considerable inflation but it  

would be as i say unless everything that we've  ever been taught about economics and everything  

in the history of economics is wrong and it's  possible it is it's very possible it is we're  

going to have some fairly serious advice and  for those of you out there in in the land of  

world of urgent medicine we're looking at houses  you're already seeing fairly serious inflation  

for those of you who like yours truly do the  grocery shopping for the family you're already  

seeing some fairly serious inflation uh will you  continue to see serious inflation i don't know  

but what i do know well you will get worse  i should say what i do know is whatever the  

situation is in terms of the economy and it to  me it looks very dicey and threatening but i  

could often i'm often wrong certainly we are  losing our rights under the constitution that  

that is unequivocally clear no matter what the  statistics say about the economy and they're good  

and i'm really happy that they're good we are  losing our freedom speech and that is a scary  

thing i just i i don't know if you've already hit  this before i got signed on should i apologize  

but there's a story running on the internet  today about how the governor of vermont now  

vermont is a beautiful beautiful state there's  no two ways about that it's a beautiful state  

vermont has a governor who has said that  african-american people and people identify  

as fluid gender fluid or some whatever expression  indigenous and indigenous i saw that indigenous  

people that's right will get preference in  terms of getting the governed vaccine over  

ordinary people this is crazy this is just  crazy this is pure natural socialism well  

there's racism with racism it's astonishing  it's true national socialism was this race was  

a political party basically based on racism what's  also comical about it is it's like i believe like  

uh delaware is like three percent minority so  yeah oh no no no no no no vermont vermont vermont

i meant vermont and um which is where the you know  so it's it's it's it's very bold of him to do that  

and uh very woke of him to to make this  proclamation but you're right it's freaking insane  

that this is even being that that that that it's  almost like i don't even know what it's almost  

like because i've never seen anything like this  in my life it's almost like well all the jews  

please you know it's you know we are ben we  are getting into a frightening place and i  

don't know how we get into it somebody brought up  a great point in the chat communism in china and  

communism has always been about the long  name and the left has played the long game  

far better than we could have ever dreamed of  it they got into the universities years you  

know decades ago ben and they have played the long  game better than we could have ever we fell asleep  

we felt well we fell asleep and also we have very  very very poor educational system in this country  

i mean what what young people do not know about  what it took to keep this country free and to  

win world war ii is terrifying i mean people  think oh we got an award john wayne i flew  

a plane around for a while the nazis threw  up their hands and hitler committed suicide  

it was an incredible struggle horrible numbers of  americans died let's give them credit the red army  

did most of the fighting and they really took  some horrible horrible losses but it was a big  

big struggle to preserve freedom for western  europe and for the united states of america  

why are we now tossing that away that  freedom we have now that we take for granted  

that's more basic than corn is where basically  an oil is more basic than roofs or a roof over  

our heads it's the most basic most important  thing in our lives and we're tossing it away  

how could this governor of vermont who must be  the dumbest jerk in the history of the world  

say that he's going to explicitly end embrace  racism in terms of giving out medical care how  

how could that be could you imagine when  lyndon johnson proposed medicare could you  

imagine if you said and black people are going  to get coverage first could you imagine that  

can you come here no i was going to say here's  the irony ben is that blacks are the least  

likely of people to go get the the the the vaccine  because they the cova vaccine or many things with  

doctors because they don't trust doctors they've  been experimented on in the past we know that  

and for a governor of a state to say black people  you're going to get this vaccine first i would  

imagine right to someone in the hills they're all  i'm out here yeah like like i would imagine if  

you were black and you heard that you're going to  be the first to get this vaccine and you're going  

to be first in line 10 or gary i would imagine  you you would be a little scared to get to go  

yeah i i well you know i don't i don't know if  that's true or not i've been such a definitely  

an interesting thought but but what is definitely  true is it is racialism america is now where south  

africa was before the end of apartheid where  everything's being apportioned on the basis  

of race uh to me when i see president biden  and vice president harris say we're going to  

a portion of top jobs in america on the basis  of race instead of in terms of base of merit or  

skill or capability or hard work that is the  end of america we're walking down the path  

it's going to take us over a cliff into a marxist  racialist state it's a very scary cliff to go over  

i love america the way it is i don't want  it to change at all in any significant way  

how these people can be thinking that  they're going to embrace racialism and  

also claim that they are the anti-racist where  the where do they where do they think they are  

had done like i was going to say how dumb they  think we are but all you have to do is watch  

msnbc or the other network for a few  seconds and you see how dumb they are  

gary well it's interesting too in a sense of  what they've done which is masterful right it's  

making you look over here when you should be  looking over here and you know i'm a health  

guy and what they've done is they've made  us more afraid of the flu than being obese  

and we've become far more obese in a very short  period of time than any time in history actually  

and obesity is killing far more many people  in this country and the after effects and  

and all the other health conditions that  go along with it then covet ever will  

period and matter of fact the number one  determinant of you dying of covid is obesity  

so i didn't i did not know that yeah i am very  very glad to hear that here you inform me of  

that because i i am myself a wild overheater and  i'm glad you told me about that and i thank you  

well well the statistics they've been very  sly in especially if you watch msnbc and all  

the it's crazy land i i consider myself a very  neutral balanced individual i've tried watching  

cnn and it's it's nutty land they just lie they  just say anything they want and people will  

believe it it is a fact 80 of the people who have  died from covid are i i may have the age wrong  

in america but i know in most of the world it's  around 80 82. obese elderly with multiple health  

conditions like five that they could die at any  moment from anything they could die from a cold  

and that's what i mean no one's looking at the  facts obesity in this country we went from uh  

right around 30 because the statistics aren't  quite right because they last time they really  

did it was around 2016 but 2018 they did  kind of a light version of it at the cdc  

right now we're at 50 percent of americans  are obese that just happened that big leap  

just happened in the last 12 to 18 months they  predicted 50 of americans would be obese in 2030.  

we just jumped a decade in obesity no  one's talking about it no one gives a  

because to solve the problem like i always  say there's no money in healthy people  

there's none there's a shitload of money in  really unhealthy people that's the gravy train  

and i just i lose my mind ben i want to ask  you for your flight i refuse to fly right  

now i just won't do it just because of uh and  i don't feel like flying in russia right now  

how was it flying over did you have to wear a mask  the entire time in the airport and on the plane  

yes i did and i didn't like it but i did it and  i was at to be honest about it i was sleeping 90  

of the time and uh so it wasn't really a  big problem for me i would occasionally have  

that children walking by and thank you  or if you were to maybe i was sleeping  

but i um i was uh it was fun it was fine the  airport was very very very crowded extremely  

crowded the the recession is over as far  as travel is concerned where the economy  

in general is surviving incredibly tough and  by the way that's another interesting thing  

i'm as i as i've said here i'm an economist  i studied economics in a serious way and  

although we now know that a lot of what  we thought was economic law is not law but  

no economist in america would say that you could  have had a turnaround like the turnaround we've  

had in the last couple of months just suddenly it  was all groundwork laid by president trump he he  

did all the spade work and now we're reaping  the rewards does trump get any thanks for it  

of course not but but biden has done absolutely  nothing to cause this recovery trump did it all  

almost all and he gets no credit for it  at all he he he's out to dry somewhere  

but you raise a great point though because it it  it's almost like you know i'm being getting back  

to a sports analogy there's often times where a  team like it used to be like in the ncaa right or  

um where the coach would recruit great players  or some coaches are great recruiters they get  

great players and then that coach goes on to  a different school and he leaves another coach  

some really good players so that new coach will  have a good year or two but by year three that  

coach is like now nine and 22 because he wasn't a  great recruiter which scares me to death with the  

economy because we saw what obama did with the  economy and how it stalled and how it was slow  

that biden inherited ben this amazing recovery  and we know he's going to do [ __ ] with it  

i don't know if he will do [ __ ] with it because  i don't think he knows which end is up and i don't  

think he'll do anything one way or the other  what i do know is that i have a very sweet  

granddaughter and coco uh i i'm embarrassed i  can't remember whether she's 10 or 11 but she's a  

very very very sweet girl an absolutely sweet girl  her father my son my wife's my son is a very very  

sweet boy they're going to inherit an indebtedness  that is just breathtaking and uh it's it scares me  

to death for them uh they didn't do  anything to deserve to deserve it  

when i see the 1.9 trillion dollar so-called  covenant recovery bill very little of it has  

to do with covet it's a soft to the unions it's  soft to all the political panels of the democrats  

it's not going to do anything to help the club  in recovery because recovery is already way way  

way down the track they don't need to do anything  at all for it at this point okay so i want to get  

to something else quickly because you bro live and  date in l.a where's that hold on i gotta comment  

what ben said let's be honest joe biden doesn't  even know where his pants are let alone anything  

but it appears also hunter biden doesn't know  where his pants are because russians took him from  

him and it was a teenage girl around somewhere i  do i want to talk about this just real quick did  

anyone see that clip of hunter biden's answer to  the laptop anything no i want to say about this  

oh my god he literally blamed it he goes  it could be russia collusion she goes  

is it your laptop maybe i don't know could be  could be not the russians could have taken it  

i heard these answers and i went it's a yes or  no question hunter biden was that your laptop  

and he literally went into russian collusion  and maybe the russians maybe someone stole it  

that's the place we're at today and  guess what his dad is running the country

his dad is a hologram oh wait are you  i'm sorry the country where we don't the

i i think actually at this point most of us  are running it but it looks to me as if nancy  

pelosi is running it a lot it looks to me as if  chuck schumer is running it i i don't know his  

money and by the way maybe no but maybe nobody's  running maybe we're just all uh doing a little  

bit of it ourselves and meanwhile the government  is adding gigantic amounts of tax burden to us  

i think you raise a great point and  and it's a frightening point it's a  

frightening thing to think about it that look  at the border we know nobody's running that

other than the cartels we know we know we're not  doing anything we know as far as defunding the  

police in many states we know many states are  are are under or that people have to protect  

and defend themselves so you really have to and i  like to if some bunch of gangsters come to on your  

lawn and starts taunting you and threatening  you and you take out a gun even if you don't  

shoot even if you just hold the gun in your hand  you get prosecuted that's where america is today  

oh we are in some it's um it's it's very scary  and um somebody said i look high it's because i  

am sitting in front of a red target sign where  it might be making my arm my eyes look a little  

red um thank god i haven't had gotten high in a  long time but um i wanted to bring up something  

you brought up today ben because it's it's  really important to talk about because i don't  

think people realize i don't i don't think people  realize the effects of what weed is doing to the  

younger generation i really i really don't think  they don't really they realize how strong it is  

it's it's it's it's so much stronger than it was  in your generation it's so much stronger than it  

was in my generation and and and somebody brought  up this thing where gary the event they said i  

was reading you know some of the comments if you  posted somebody said what about the troops that  

are coming home that you know have gone through  you know major trauma and stuff and i was thinking  

to myself wheat is probably the worst drug in  the world if you're having delusions and paranoia  

it might be the for me it was a person with eating  issues and and sometimes some depressive issues  

weed was the worst drug in the world for me ben  it gave me the munchies that made me paranoid  

and yet the democrat party cheers cheers from  the rafters when people are saying let's legalize  

marijuana all over the country what are they  talking about marijuana is poison it's poison  

it's a gateway drug meanwhile you know what i  say i'm an old man i'm 76 years old a lot of my  

friends are pretty old too and they have diseases  they have diseases that cause incredible pain and  

they need uh pain killing medication they're  not there you know these are old guys they're  

playing can after they're playing mahjong they're  not going out and having rave parties they need  

painkillers they're not getting them but the  young people can get all the dope they want to  

get as high as they want that's nuts and we're not  talking by the way there is a difference between  

being in a hospital if you have cancer and you  need something to soothe the pain god bless you  

smoke i would do whatever the doctor says i don't  care if you if you need to smoke two bombs a night  

if that takes away your pain from the cancer you  some sort god bless you but what we're talking  

about gary is you know it is is legalizing it for  18 year old kids whose brains aren't fully formed  

and kids are going to get it when they're 14 and  we really have to start being honest and you know  

i i know you share some libertarian um things  but on this one you're a little different i think  

well a little bit a little bit i firmly believe  in the legalization of marijuana uh just because  

the the the war on drugs isn't working it  never ha it's a farce it has been a farce  

it does nothing but incarcerate a lot of people  who probably shouldn't be incarcerated it creates  

the the prison industrial complex i mean it it  just it's a big money-making operation with pot  

here's my attitude it's the same  thing as with alcohol if you're gonna  

make keep our drug or marijuana illegal well  so should alcohol and if you're going to make  

pot legal for 18 year olds well guess what you  better make alcohol legal for 18 year olds too  

when i was in the military when i first started we  could drink beer on military bases at the e-club  

because we're 18. if we're 18 and we're in  the military and we're on base we're allowed  

to drink if i can die for my country i should  be able to have a goddamn beer in the meantime  

but with with with marijuana i'm with you it's  a little tricky because if you said only and we  

did see this i saw this in california if you get  the medical community big pharma involved in big  

western medicine involved in marijuana what we saw  was you'd have to register so now your name's on  

a list and then you can't own a gun and then you  can't own a gun exactly so it's a slippery slope  

there and not only that but they up charged so now  that same marijuana that used to be able to buy on  

the street for you know 10 bucks for a dime bag or  whatever it was back then now it's 50 bucks from  

dr so and so who doesn't give two shits he just  wants you to buy drugs from him so he can make  

a bunch of money it's tricky it's tricky i'm with  you guys i i'm not for free range on all drugs all  

the time but also we have to go to the the source  why are people taking i see it every day a lot of  

americans drink themselves to a stupor i i go  out every once in a while i go have a few beers  

there's a lot of escapism going on ben  brought this up the other day to me gary  

he brought up what is it that we are living in  this society all they want to do is escape ben you  

we were talking about this on the phone  yesterday for probably you know for quite a while  

yeah i i have to say i'm i'm bound to cry  when i drive by all the liquor stores in los  

angeles and there's so many of them so many gas  stations that sell alcohol and i think i said  

really people is your life that's sad you have  to escape reality all the time it breaks my heart  

i mean i i'm very very blessed i i i have a home  that has a wonderful view out over the pacific  

ocean and i i sit there and i look at that view or  i stand somebody stand there look at that view and  

i think wow this is great but anyone can go there  they're beats and miles hundreds of miles and  

means you don't have to own a house in malibu why  don't the people look at the ocean why don't they  

look at the sky the other night i was looking  at the stars above malibu and i go to myself  

why would you want to escape from this this is  perfection this is god's gift to us all why do  

we want to escape from it but here's and but  here's another thing that bothers me and i got  

to be honest and yes people weed to the people  in chat doesn't carry your driving so i don't  

you might be driving 20 miles an hour but that  could still cause an accident um but why is it  

the fight you know i look at the fight sometimes  on the left right they fight for they fight for  

abortion which we know is a gateway to contra  for people you know a form of concert has become  

a form of of uh you know contraception you know my  dear dear dear friend judah is more than a gateway  

yeah but yeah i'm saying so we look at why is the  left fighting we look at the things they fight for  

and and and and weed is i guess gary i agree is  a slippery slope working in the rehab industry  

for years i saw what we did to people i saw the  devastation that and the addicted you know that  

that that belief that weed is not addicting is  is is is crap is is is absolute crap the thing is  

i get that kids are gonna do it i get that people  are gonna do it but we don't have to fight always  

to make it that something is okay it's okay for  things to not be okay we don't want 15 year old  

kids getting high we don't want 16 year old girls  or 14 year old girls getting abortions we just  

it's something as a society we we you know i get  that they need it whatever but ben i this fight  

for for for this stuff is is sometimes frightening  let's let's let's let's take figures i mean  

and i'm i'm going to have to now break  my hand and i mean i've been in a 12-step  

program now for about 33 years and i see the  incredible happiness that comes from people's  

it comes into people's eyes and their happiness  in their lives when they give up running away from  

reality and instead embrace reality and embrace  the gift that god showers upon us day by day  

i i see that all the time and i don't understand  why people are running away from that i mean  

the gift excuse me i see when i look out  at the sky and look at the ocean why are we  

running away from that what the gift i see when  i see the flag of the united states of america  

that gift i don't want to run away from that  gift i couldn't agree with you more i got to be  

you know i got to be honest gary you know because  gary and i are both used concert fans and sports  

sports fans i used to think you know because  everybody always says oh you have to you know  

i remember there was a movie that came out called  natural born killers and everybody said you had  

to be high to watch it or to get it and i was  like if you have to be high or something to get  

a movie you shouldn't be and i got to tell  you some of the greatest buzzes in my life  

sorry never could finish it i never got it  terrible yeah and and some of my greatest  

buzzes in life and and the greatest thrills i've  had in my life were because i was sober you know  

the greatest concerts i've seen i remembered them  afterwards i was able to share i mean it was it  

was it made the experience i was there i was fully  conscious and fully there now sometimes in life  

as ben and i joke sometimes in the morning  i don't want to be fully conscious i don't  

but when that passes and as they  say sometimes this too shall pass  

that passing feeling then when you when you get  out of yourself and you get out and you're past  

that that depression or your past that fear  gary and you're living life like you talk  

about gary all the time living life living your  actual life is an amazing way of living it's fun  

well it's about living the life you want not what  you've been told to live therein lies the problem  

and a lot of people today they can't see beyond  what they've been told to live i mean think if  

you know you're working at amazon seasonally  making 15 bucks an hour packing boxes all day  

taping boxes 40 50 hours a week you're probably  gonna want to get high at the end of the day  

to be honest with you but i always teach people  well how do you break out of that mold how do  

you pursue the things you want to do and for me i  don't know maybe you get out of the job and you uh  

learn to do something else and uh i i don't know  what you do but it is really really sad someone  

says think of people spending all day long packing  cardboard boxes or amazon is a is a very scary  

thought but by the other hand there is dignity  and work my former boss mr nixon used to say  

there's more dignity in working emptying bedpans  than there is an idleness i can on that and that  

note if you just tuned in you've been listening to  the world according to ben stein everybody is on  

location tonight i am in front of a target and ben  is in uh washington and gary is somewhere unknown  

um but we're discussing we've discussed a lot  of amazing stuff tonight and one of the things  

i want to recap is you know everybody that  wants to boycott that's not who we are i mean  

we're just not but there is a way to fight back  and what we brought up and i really think it's  

is by one stock class action lawsuits against  these companies um ben wanted to quickly talk  

about a segment that i wanted to get into  quickly which is my weekly to live-in date in l.a

sorry i want to hear it well you know the biggest  thing i got to be honest that i keep on getting  

from people is how conservative are you did you  vote for trump you know you know it it's like  

it's like either i wear like you know number  45 on my hat or i mean i must be like you know  

the the cat the belle of the ball but you know  to to to like me than to ask me that question  

and it's it's it's it's funny somebody in the chat  mentioned they don't like to be called a racist  

it it there is a certain point where it gets  hurtful that because of something you believe  

you're you're you're a racist you're uh you're  uh it it's and they know that that's hurtful  

and and and to continually do things  and this goes to friendships too ben  

you you're friends with everybody you know you you  know you you you've been friends with people that  

supposedly brought down your former boss and you  stayed in you you stay in constant contact with  

that person you're friends with norman lear gary  i'm sure you have a dear dear friend and this  

and this idea that we can't date people with  differing thoughts that we can't be friends  

with differing thoughts frightens me more  than than anything i've ever seen before  

and i've never seen it as bad as it is now  as i am doing my wreath my dating research  

my dating recon and it's heartbreaking  as far as wifey would say heart rendering  

i i i that's not an issue i face because  i'm an old man but for you young people i  

uh i would have to say in a city the size of  los angeles uh jude i would think you would be  

able to find at least a few uh girls who would  uh not mind that you would vote for toronto ben  

think about it like this you're you're going  in half you gotta you gotta you gotta find that  

whatever is so there you are it's it's the little  thing yeah you know you know and you gotta you you  

think about all the variables that go into finding  that person when so many when you know if 80  

of the people openly say they won't date a trump  supporter you probably have another 15 that are  

too scared to then you have you're left with  five percent of a pool and we've spoken about  

this there are going to be a lot of single  ladies at the age of 50 in in in major states  

in the next 15 or 20 years they're going to be  a lot of women that don't have families that  

don't have these things hey i could be 70 and  have a kid so that's my pay back to you guys um  

but ben i'm just you know i i i look at you as  a beacon of a person that that that has stayed  

friends with people that has supported people  that have stayed loyal to people no matter what  

and the fact that we've lost that in this  country sometimes is it that we're americans  

you know i try to make it it's funny i i try to  stay friends with everybody and when i'm on the  

airplane i greet everybody who walks down the  aisle past me and it's just my just part of my  

life to be friendly to everybody and i'm going  to keep on doing that and i i have no idea what  

i would do if i had to look for a girlfriend on a  dating app i just i would have no clue what to do  

but i would say that some of the happiest moments  i've ever had in my life have been with my dogs  

and i don't think you can go wrong getting  a german surgery pointer or a weimaraner and  

i will well we're ending this but this is  a true story that actually happened gary  

and some of you might have heard this  story this happened god maybe 15 years ago  

ben said to me i just adopted a dog a german short  hair pointer can you go to the pointer rescue  

and get him true story i'm standing there  online as they're bringing people to dogs  

and there's this one crazy dog that comes out  and i'm like please god let not just be the one  

and and oh and as i'm driving down there ben said  to me on second thought why don't you keep the dog  

and and and but wait a minute let's be fair  i said i would pay for a hundred percent  

of the game oh he offered to pay a hundred  percent so they bring up these crazy ass there's  

one craziest dog and they bring him past me and  i go oh thank god and then they do another luke  

and then you go this is this is this is your dog  which we ended up naming nixon and um and uh and  

it was it was really funny when the dog would run  away and i would be screaming nixon in the canyons  

but um yes that was a wonderful story  the dog was a little off and um and  

you're right animals and all that stuff  ben are great but um we still need to  

learn how to live with humans and i hope  people that are listening tonight you know  

and gary i know you you exude this and ben  exuses i hope everybody that's listening  

tonight is even after they come after you  you kill them with love kill people with love  

okay kill people with joy on that note i want  to thank gary collins from thesimplelifenow.com  

gary has the best podcast other than this i  beg people to go and listen to it he is awesome  

i want to thank everybody that's been listening  on youtube remember benstein.substance.com  

you can find our apple podcast everywhere our  podcasts everywhere including apple and of course  

the world according to ben stein you can find them  on parlor at ben stein and at spectator.org um ben  

take us out was a lad and ship was a  pup over mountains and meadows with rome  

just a boy and his dog we were both  full of fun we grew up together that way  

i remember the time at the old swimming  hole when i would have drowned beyond doubt  

but old ship was right there to the rescue he came  he jumped in and helped pull me out but anyways  

it's really one of elvis's first song since an  incredibly great song it's called old ship and  

uh if you can listen and you met him at the white  house what and he met elvis at the white house  

it was a great student i was having lunch with my  father at the white house mess which is where very  

high officials of the white house get to eat i was  not official what my father was and my father said  

would you recognize that was president if  he were sitting just a few feet behind you  

and i said well of course he said well he is  and i said no that's impossible he said well  

just look very very very inconspicuously so i  turned around there's something presley having  

lunch with bob alderman and i thought i said  don't bother him don't bother and i got up and  

i walked over and i said mr presley everyone in  the world is your fan but i'm your biggest fan  

i mean you know what he said right thank you  very much anyway so that was great so god  

bless have a great night everybody we will  see you tuesday night be safe have a happy  

easter to everybody happy the remaining passover  everybody and uh just enjoy your bad selves as

good night

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