- Sup you beautiful bastards.
Welcome back to the "Philip DeFranco" show.
Today's show starts with the question of,
why is there such a big concerted effort right now
to ban books in the United States?
Obviously, this question and news is stems from last week,
it was widely reported that a school board in Tennessee
voted to ban "Maus" a graphic novel about the Holocaust.
And more specifically, it's a Pulitzer prize-winning book
that tells a story of author Art Spiegelman
interviewing his father about being a Polish-Jew
and a Holocaust survivor.
And the book which depicts Jews as mice
and Nazis as cats has remained highly popular
since its publication in 1980, especially as a tool
to teach younger audiences about the Holocaust.
But, earlier this month, a 10 member board in McMinn County
voted to remove "Maus" from its eighth grade
language arts curriculum.
This is because they said it included eight minor cuss words
like, damn and a picture of a naked female mouse.
And notably here, while the board made this decision
so quietly that even though they voted to remove the book
on January 10th, this move wasn't widely reported
until last week when it absolutely exploded in the media.
With Spiegelman himself saying he didn't even learn
that his book had been banned until Wednesday,
literally the day before Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Unsurprisingly, this news prompted a ton of backlash
from free speech advocates, Jewish organizations and others.
This including Spiegelman himself,
who had spoken widely about the ban over the past week
and while he's made a lot of very powerful remarks.
His most notable on the subject,
focus around what this move represents more broadly.
With him saying that, the Tennessee School Board's decision
is by no means a one-off, adding it's part of a continuum
and just a harbinger of things to come.
The control of people's thoughts
is essential to all of this.
And adding that these efforts are part of an intentional
and strategic effort to limit what people can learn
and what they can understand and think about.
With him going on to say that quote, at least one part
of our political spectrum seems to be very enthusiastic
about banning books and adding this is a red alert,
it's not just how dare they deny the Holocaust,
they'll deny anything.
That comment is in reference to the incredibly alarming
and rapidly growing attempts to ban books in schools
that have been driven by conservative parents,
advocacy groups and lawmakers.
In fact, according to the American Library Association
efforts to ban school library books were 67% higher
in September of 2021 than the year before.
With the organization saying in a preliminary report
that last fall, it received an unprecedented number
of reported attempts to ban books.
With educators in and say, it's not just
the frequency of book bans that have changed,
but also the kinds of books that conservatives
want to be removed.
They are saying that in the past,
books have been banned with the intention
of protecting children from inappropriate sexual content
or offensive language.
Schools have also removed books,
that's present religion in a way
that some Christians disapprove of,
or ones that contain witchcraft like "Harry Potter",
which has been one of the most commonly banned books.
Recently, most of the books
that people are trying to ban
center around LGBTQ issues and race.
With reports saying that many conservatives
have targeted the books under the pretense
that they teach so-called critical race theory,
but the vast majority of those texts
were just written by people of color,
specifically black authors
and focus on their communities and experiences.
These efforts have only continued to grow
as politicians continue to politicize
so-called critical race theory for political gain
because it teaches that one group acted
as an oppressor and another was a victim.
Even though, as we talked about extensively last week,
CRT isn't even taught in most primary schools.
What people are actually pushing to be removed
is basic history lessons about subjects like slavery.
With the free speech expert, telling the New York times,
many of these groups leading these efforts
have basically taken a list of books
intended to promote more diverse reading material
and argued that all of them should be banned.
With these trends, many have argued
that the McMinn County School Board didn't ban "Maus"
because of a couple of all damns and a naked mouse,
but because they wanted to sensor the subject matter.
But ironically, it seems like the ban of "Maus"
has actually had the opposite effect, the Streisand effect.
Since last week, sales of "Maus"
have absolutely skyrocketed,
some books are just giving away the graphic novel for free.
As of recording three different additions of the book
were in the top 10 books on Amazon
with two of them ranking second and third,
which is a drastic change because according to the reports,
none of the versions of the book were even
in the top 1000 best-sellers early last week.
Which also isn't actually surprising
Spiegelman himself,
noting that there is past precedent for this.
And telling reporters,
the school board could have checked
with their book banning predecessor.
Russian president, Vladimir Putin,
made the resident addition of "Maus" ill||egal in 2015
under the guise that this was because he was banning
swastikas and the small publishers sold out
immediately and had to reprint repeatedly.
But ultimately,
that is where we are with this story right now,
though it does appear
that the book banning trend will continue.
So with that, I wanna pass the question up to you.
What do you make of all this?
What are your thoughts?
I mean, personally, I'm very concerned.
Though thank you to the McMinn County Board
for giving me a new book to add to my reading list.
This was one I missed out on.
Whether you disagree or you agree with me,
I'd love to know personally
I'm of the mindset that when we start just removing history
where we're more inclined to repeat or rhyme it.
There's a lot of fucked up history,
I'd rather not us go down the same road.
And then in massive business news, oh my God!
Another massive acquisition in the video game world.
Really, what a January.
On January 10th, you had Take-Two,
where the publisher for "Grand Theft Auto" announcing,
hey, we're gonna buy Zynga for $12.7 billion.
Then just eight days later, January 18th,
we learned Activision Blizzard
is gonna be bought by Microsoft for $68.7 billion.
And now today,
while the lowest in the number of dollars,
but still massive news,
Sony announced that they plan to acquire
the creators of Destiny and the original Halo games, Bungie.
Reportedly, they're buying bungee for $3.6 billion.
And if you play "Destiny 2", do not fret.
Literally one of the first statements made
as a "Destiny 2" will remain multi-platform
with cross players, right?
So with this seemingly Sony,
trying to keep Microsoft from nipping at its heels,
like we talked about last time.
As far as the biggest players in the gaming space,
you have Tencent, Sony and Microsoft.
And well there's Bungie acquisition
is obviously much smaller than Activision Blizzard.
It's still massive and important.
It shows the further end rapid consolidation
we're seeing in the gaming space.
And well,
the cynical gamer in me is like very wary about this,
worried about it in the future.
That's just gonna lead to more and more platform exclusives.
But the hopeful gamer in me is that yes,
they stay true to their word.
This is all about multi-platform.
And it's really about just making their offerings
better in like a Xbox game pass or PlayStation+
because that world, yes, while not perfect.
And there are reasons to complain about certain things
far more advantageous for the gamers.
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And then the story that just keeps on keeping on,
let's talk about updates
to this ongoing situation involving Joe Rogan,
Spotify, and misinformation.
So last time we talked about this,
Neil Young had asked his representatives
to have his music pulled from Spotify
over vaccine misinformation on the platform
with him specifically citing Joe Rogan.
Since then a ton has happened.
Spotify ended up pulling Neil Young catalog
and released a statement saying
"They have a great responsibility and balancing
both safety for listeners and freedom for creators
and claiming we have detailed content policies in place
and we've removed over 20,000 podcasts episodes
related to COVID-19 since it started the pandemic.
We regret Neil's decision to remove his music from Spotify,
but hope to welcome him back soon."
We also had a number of critics
immediately pushing back on that statement saying
if true,
it's great that you're moved over 20,000 podcast episodes
that we're spreading COVID-19 misinformation.
But what about the thing that is getting millions,
if not tens of millions of views
that you paid 100 million dollars
to exclusively bring to your platform,
but it didn't stop there.
Saw other artists speaking up Joni Mitchell
and Bruce Springsteen's guitarists, Nils Lofgren
also requesting that their music be removed from Spotify.
Also not saying that it is the specific reason it happened.
Spotify has also lost $2 billion in market value
over the three days following Neil
exiting the streaming service.
So now the biggest updates,
have now addressed the situation.
Yesterday Spotify CEO, Daniel EK
released an open letter about the company's rules
and approach regarding COVID-19.
Say, "We know we have a critical role to play
in supporting creator expression
while balancing it with the safety of our users.
In that role.
It is important to me that we don't take on the position
of being content sensor
while also making sure that there are rules in place
and consequences for those who violate that."
Also saying, well, the company has had policies in place
about misinformation.
It's not been transparent about them.
Continuing based on the feedback
over the last several weeks,
it's become clear to me
that we have an obligation to do more,
to provide bounds and access to widely accepted information
from the medical and scientific communities
guiding us through this unprecedented time.
And so with that,
the company announced three steps to address concern.
The first simply being
the publication of its platform rules.
Secondly saying they'll add a content advisory
to any podcast episode that discusses COVID
and the advisory will direct listeners
to Spotify as COVID Hub.
Finally saying the company will also begin testing ways
to highlight their rules, to creators,
to raise awareness and help readers understand
what is acceptable
and what they should be held accountable for
when it comes to their content.
As far as Joe Rogan,
he posted a video to Instagram,
responding to the controversy.
It starts with him deciding that people took issue
with two specific episodes of his show
that included interviews
with controversial scientific figures, Dr. Robert Malone
and Dr. Peter Mokolo.
Well,
it is true that those episodes in particular
did have a massive spotlight on them.
They did ignite backlash.
It is also worth noting the criticisms
that Joe Rogan promotes vaccine misinformation
extend way past just those two episodes
that he has faced backlash for a variety of other things
that he has said regarding COVID-19
over a long period of time.
But also when it came to those two guests Rogan said.
- I wanted to hear what their opinion is.
I had them on.
And because of that, those episodes in particular,
those episodes were labeled as being dangerous.
They had dangerous misinformation in them.
The problem I have with the term misinformation,
especially today, is that many of the things
that we thought of as misinformation
just a short while ago are now accepted as fact.
- Now, according that section and the video
as a whole, we saw a lot of people supporting Joe Rogan,
a lot of blue check marks,
including people like the Rock.
But also at the same time,
we saw a lot of people pushing back
and criticizing the statement
that many of the things that we thought is misinformation
just a short while ago are now accepted as fact.
But those was people saying yes for some things,
but not for a number of the things
that you're talking about.
People pointing to an example that Rogan
tried to make in the video.
- Like for instance eight months ago,
if you said, if you get vaccinated,
you can still catch COVID and you can still spread COVID.
You would be removed from social media,
they would ban you from certain platforms.
Now, that's accepted as fact.
- But with that you had people pushing back saying,
No, we've always known
that there can be breakthrough cases.
That's what the health experts said.
And yes,
there are examples of people like Rachel Maddow
using absolute definitive language,
but that was very stupid on her part.
But the main thing with this was,
hey, the health experts have communicated
from the beginning.
Breakthrough cases can and will happen.
So they were saying their criticism here was,
this was either a disingenuous argument from Rogan
or an ignorant one.
Saying that is not an apples to apples comparison.
You did not have main health experts
saying there is no chance you're going to get COVID.
There is no chance you're going to spread it
if you get the vaccine.
Efficacy of the vaccine,
when they came out against that variant
was very, very high, without getting into the nitty gritty.
I mean, just at the top surface level,
if you do not get COVID,
you are not going to spread it.
Now a year later,
we're not dealing with the same variant of COVID
we're dealing with Omicron.
And I think that now everyone's
pretty much on the same page,
the vaccines and their efficacy,
as far as are you going to get COVID?
They're just a lot less effective compared
to the original strain.
But even with that, looking at the real world data,
we see that, oh, even though you could get COVID,
you could still spread COVID.
If you have the vaccine,
you know, you're looking out for yourself,
the hospitalization rates are much lower.
These are changing situations
and you're either ignorant
or knowingly spreading false information
by comparing Omicron to the original variant.
With those arguments assigned,
you had Rogan kind of saying, you know what I do?
Yes, it's flawed.
I'm human, I'm flawed.
What I'm trying to do is just sit down
and talk with people of different beliefs.
Saying, for example, when he invited Dr. Malone
and Dr. Macola on to hear their opinions.
He doesn't know if they were right and added.
- I don't know because I'm not a doctor,
I'm not a scientist.
I'm just a person who sits down and talks to people
and has conversations with them.
Do I get things wrong?
Absolutely, I get things wrong.
But I try to correct them.
- With Rogan also echoing support for Spotify,
his decision to include disclaimers
before podcast episodes about COVID-19
saying that if an expert has an opinion,
contradictory to what is widely accepted,
that should be noted.
Rogen also outlining steps that he might take himself.
Saying...
- If there's anything that I've done,
that I could do better
is have more experts with differing opinions,
right after I have the controversial ones,
I would most certainly be open to doing that.
- I'm also thinking Spotify and his fans
also apologizing to Spotify
for them having to deal with this.
- And I'm not trying to promote misinformation.
I'm not trying to be controversial.
I've never tried to do anything with this podcast
other than just talk to people.
- But ultimately,
that is where we are with this story right now.
Obviously right now,
a lot of people having a lot of different reactions.
As far as the stock market,
the market's actually responded very well
to what's happened over the last 24 hours.
As recording Spotify is up 11.4% still is down 17.6%
if you look at just the last month
but this could be a rebound.
But with that set especially because everyone seems
to have an opinion on this.
I wanna pass the question off to you.
What are your thoughts regarding all these Joe Rogan,
Spotify updates right now for Spotify?
Do you think this is just them trying to put a bandaid
on the situation to stop the bleeding?
Is it just PR or do you think they're making meaningful
moves here regarding Joe Rogan in general
or his response to this controversy?
What are your thoughts about that?
Also do you think any other artists
gonna be joining Neil Young
and leaving the platform anytime soon
and or do you think it will even matter?
And then finally today we have the latest edition
of, oh God!
What the hell is happening with Ukraine and Russia now?
And the big update is that there was a UN Security Council
meeting and shit show.
It's a first off Russia and China tried
to block the meeting, but they ended up getting out,
voted and attend two vote.
And it kinda just hit on some of the highlights,
you had US and Russia accusing one another
of stoking the Ukraine crisis.
You got Russian ambassador saying of the United States,
they themselves are whipping up tensions
and rhetoric and a provoking escalation.
And adding the discussions about a threat of war
is provocative in and of itself.
We're almost calling for this.
You want it to happen.
You're waiting for it to happen.
To which you as ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield
responded, I can not let false equivalency go uncheck.
The threats of aggression on the border of Ukraine.
Yes, on its border is provocative.
Our recognition of the facts on the ground
is not provocative.
At the same time for their part Ukraine
seemed to kind of take swipes
at both the United States and Russia
though not in an equal manner.
Even before this meeting on Friday,
you had president Zelensky of Ukraine saying
"I'm the president of Ukraine.
I'm based here.
And I think I know the details deeper
than any other president."
Zelensky is actually it was explained
contending that the current Russian troop buildup
on Ukraine's border is not a significant escalation
from the large military exercises
Moscow carried out in April of 2021,
but that the media coverage is far more intense.
But also today in this meeting,
Ukraine's ambassador to the UN rebuked Russia
and other diplomats were trying to speak on their behalf.
And I hope this translation is correct.
Accuse them of acting like Humpty-Dumpty,
the wall sitting egg and Lewis Carroll's
"Alice in Wonderland" who gave his own meaning to words.
Also insisting that Ukraine would do nothing
to justify any military action by Russia.
And ultimately that is where we are with this.
And we'll continue to watch it.
I've obviously hopefully cooler heads prevail
that we don't just see an invasion and war.
For now, we have to wait and see what happens next.
But ultimately that is where that story ends
and today's show ends.
As always, thanks for watching and hitting that like button,
subscribing and joining the family.
I love your faces and I'll see you tomorrow.