Speaker 1: Let's start today with former Fox News propagandist Tucker Carlson's propaganda Russian
grocery store run. So many of you have written to me about this. There are now, all sorts of,
videos critiquing what Tucker Carlson did. And what I want to talk about today is how this move,
this, stunt pulled by Tucker Carlson during his trip to Moscow to interview Russian President
Vladimir Putin is a classic. Just a click goes back decades. It's a classic propaganda
technique for, sort of showing the good side of authoritarian regimes. This has been done in
both left and right wing authoritarian countries, and it has been done by both left and right wing
authoritarians. As many of you know, there are authoritarians on the right and there are also
authoritarians on the political left. So let me set it up for you. Here is Tucker Carlson going
to a Russian grocery store showing how great the selection is and how inexpensive it is. You know,
they say all these bad things about Putin, like he kills journalists and dissidents,
but the grocery stores are really nice and very reasonably priced.
Speaker 2: And went from amused to legitimately angry. So we were guessing what this would cost.
Everybody here is from the United States buy groceries, and we didn't pay any attention
to costs. We were just putting in the car what we would actually eat over a week. And we all
came in around 400 bucks. About 400 bucks. It was $104 us here. And that's when you start to
realize that ideology maybe doesn't matter as much as you thought. Corruption. If you take people's
standard of living and you tank it through filth and crime and inflation, and they literally can't
buy the groceries they want at that point, maybe it matters less what you say. Whether you're a
good person or a bad person. You're wrecking people's lives in their country. And that's
what our leaders have done to us. And coming to a Russian grocery store, the heart of evil,
and seeing what things cost and how people live. It will radicalize you against our
leaders. That's how I feel, anyway. Radicalized. Speaker 1: There you go. Now, what Tucker doesn't
mention is that his $400 Whole Foods grocery shop, which is only $100 in Russia, pales in comparison
to the 790 USD per month per month, which is the median Russian wage. So this grocery shop that's
so affordable compared to the American grocery store in U.S. dollars, is completely out of
reach for all but the 1 or 2% of Russia. So let's now talk about this technique, because this is a
classic propaganda technique. We've seen this done in North Korea. Similar stunts have been done in
North Korea by the defenders of the Kim regime. Look at this beautiful grocery store. It's often
done on the chaperoned propaganda trips where foreigners go to North Korea and they're brought
to a grocery store. It's essentially empty. There's 40 employees. It appears as though
it's full of products. There's nobody shopping because nobody there can afford it. It's a staged
piece. It's a set piece. We've seen this done in Venezuela. Look at this. We have beautiful
olive oils from all over the world. You can get whatever tinned fish you want, right? But nobody
there can afford it. Nobody there can afford it due to the hyperinflation and the extremely
low wages. It's a stunt. So what these stunts ignore are the economic disparities inside of
the countries that they do this. And this applies in Russia, North Korea and Venezuela. You can go
to the nice grocery store. You find the variety of goods for what appears to be a reasonable price,
but it's completely out of whack with the local income. It's accessible only to the 1%. 1% of the
population can shop in these places. Now, we have huge problems here in the United States.
People who can't afford an unexpected $400 expense without going into debt by putting it on a credit
card. People who are, struggling economically vast, inequality. We have major problems here
in the United States, but a large portion of the population can go and afford to shop at Aldi,
Trader Joe's, even Whole Foods. You see people who shop at Whole Foods, at least for part of
their shop when they have an accessible Whole Foods, right? Food deserts a major problem in this
country. The percentage of people in the United States who can go to a reasonable grocery store is
dramatically higher than in these other countries. And so the supermarkets and the. Grocery stores
that are showcased in these stunts just aren't representative of what the average citizen has
access to. Now, just for comparison, here's a more normal grocery store in Russia. As you can see,
it's pretty damn dumpy. The products aren't very good. It's overwhelmingly what we would call up
ultra processed food, or a four on the 1 to 4 scale of food processing. What we're seeing right
now is more like low end furniture. But then they go over to the. Honestly, I can't tell whether
this is pet food or what it is. Looks like maybe bundt cakes. This is much more representative of
the experience. And the guy. Oh, now we're getting a commercial. The guy who tours through this.
This is from the YouTube channel. Traveling with Russell, actually shows you the quality of a lot
of this stuff. And it's like the absolute worst toilet paper you can find a lot of surplus stuff
and etc.. Okay, so what's the point here? The point here isn't to say it's great or it's not
great or whatever. The point here is Tucker's stunt is a classic stunt we're familiar with,
of a grocery store shop at 100 and something dollars that is completely inaccessible to the
large swath of the population. This is similar in my birth country of Argentina. You know the
city where I was born of Buenos situs. Let me be accurate when I say this population. Well,
the metro area is 15 million. I believe that the population of the heart of the city is around 3
million. There are large swaths of grocery stores and restaurants in Buenos Aires right now that are
accessible to about 30 or 40,000 people that live in Buenos Aires. It's quite literally the 1%. And
for foreigners who go back with our US dollars, we go, this is unbelievable. I am at a world class
steakhouse where with wine, I get all of these courses for 50 bucks. This is a $600 experience
in the United States or Europe, right? But that 50 bucks in Buenos Aires is a possibility for one
meal for only 1% of the city's population, about 30 or 40,000 people. So the the reality here is
that these stunts oversimplify socioeconomic and political issues. They don't take exchange rates
into account. They don't take the local salaries into accounts. And we learn nothing other than
a reminder of the craven desires of people like Tucker Carlson and authoritarians on the left to,
make us see people like Vladimir Putin in a much more positive light. Tucker. Even saying,
you know, when you can get such a great deal on groceries, who cares about corruption? And
whether Putin's a good or a bad guy, or whether he kills journalists or whatever,
because this is a great deal. It's a completely unaffordable deal for 98 or 99% of the Russian
population. So what? Tucker's stunt actually proves the opposite of what he's trying to prove.