266: The State of the Pillars - 2026 Edition

[00:00:00] Behold the Cold Open. Joe has hit me with these incredible tales, but there's been a critical mass lately such that it becomes a segment. And this is going to be a brand new segment that I hope that becomes a big hit, a recurring hit. A new type of phrase, never been said before. Yeah, I was really happy when I thought this up because it's like, when you hear it, it's really going to cut to the quick. And it's just like, how has no one ever thought of this before?

[00:00:27] Folks, doesn't it feel that these days trying to raise a family in the modern world, it kind of feels like you're trying to be in charge of a circus. So we're going to do a new segment called Family Circus. It's very innovative. Joe, you've talked about in the past that your life has the wacky Wastelands perk from Fallout New Vegas turned on that just allows things at an inappropriate level of ridiculousness to happen

[00:00:54] that normally would not be allowed to happen because it's too ridiculous. You say it's come up again. Tell me. Yeah, yeah. And a crucial element of it is I'm I turn to people and I go like, this is kind of like fucked up, right? And they're like, no, it's normal. It's actually so normal that this is happening. So we just got done hosting and it was typically very fun. Winnie's very good college friend and her daughter. Her daughter has twins. Her daughter, one of the two twins was with us. The son was back home.

[00:01:23] We were hosting them for four days while she was at a wedding and it was it was very fun. It was all good. Ivan had a great time with her. It is wonderful to see a toddler who's in what I call the Terminator stage where they're like a little bit over one. And it's just like they walk with kind of a stomp and they're like ball, ball. And they terminate towards the ball. And then it's like meow, meow, meow, meow. And they terminate towards the cat. Roman did awesome. He got pet by a child. They didn't know he was OK. What a king. So he's so good.

[00:01:52] So the reason they were in town is that they're going to a wedding. And Winnie's friend grew up here. So she's familiar with Chicago, which is important for reasons that are about to be explained. So the plan was like this wedding happens and then we're going to go to Lincoln Park Zoo to walk around with the kids. And then we're all going to go back. We got two car seats in my car. Easy peasy. That way you don't have to get home, you know, find a way to get home after the wedding. And we hang out. It's all good.

[00:02:22] So the idea is and let me get this straight. The idea is so she and the daughter are at the wedding. Yeah. And they're going to go after the wedding to the zoo, which I assume is close. It was, I think maybe I don't know about the distance. And frankly, I don't care. Well, OK, yes. Fair enough. Fair enough. That doesn't matter. I'm just making sure that like I have it all set up so that when the insane shit happens, there's no question in my mind about like, but was but what? OK, continue.

[00:02:51] The plan was fraud from the jump because one thing I noticed is that as we are going to meet them up at the zoo at like 430, is that the zoo closes at five. No. So we're in the jump. I'm just like, we're fucked. It's over. They just kill me. It's over. There's something happening here that's going to get us all very upset. And I was correct. Sorry, Ivan. None of this is for you. You can't look at these beautiful animals. I'm so glad you brought that up. OK, so we go there.

[00:03:21] We had to drive, which sucks. Parking at Lincoln Park Zoo sucks because parking sucks at baseline. But it's like an absolute fucking nightmare that costs thirty six dollars if you're there for sixty one seconds. Anyway, we get there. I get Ivan in the stroller. I begin also pushing an empty stroller so she can put her kid in that stroller. And we are like, all right, let's figure out where we're going to going to meet up. And as we start to go through, everyone is just like the zoo is closing.

[00:03:49] Like we're going to kill these animals like it's like fucking over. Like you need to hurry up. It's over. It's over. The zoo is closing in 20 minutes. Why are you still here? And like they're saying that to like us while there's like tons of people like normally just going about. So it's like it's kind of weird. So we are having very delayed texts about like where to meet up that don't make a ton of sense. Love it.

[00:04:15] That which like the Lincoln Park Conservatory, the penguins, we call and there's like no. I do the thing where I was like, we need to call her because the texts are on weird delay. Just call because at least, you know, it's not like a delay. And like we're not doing the thing where person goes to a we go to a they've already left for B. You do that forever. No, we couldn't get a hold of them. Eventually, eventually we go to the penguin exhibit when he's like. Oh, I know him. That's that's that's her dad.

[00:04:44] And we get there and I'm like, oh, what? What's where is everyone? And he's like, oh, yeah, everyone's over by sort of like the gift shop there. And I was like, oh, OK, thank God. Well, then we can get Isabel and her daughter in the car. And he's like, oh, they're not with us. They couldn't get in the Uber because she had a kid.

[00:05:12] And I was like, wait, why do you have her phone? And he I guess he just had it and drunkenly got in the car. Because he went to a wedding. He's drunk from the wedding. Yes, correct. At which point this goes from like being aggravating to like my stomach drops out. And at which like literally as soon as like we get this information that fucks up our day, when he gets a ding that's like, hey, it's an email.

[00:05:41] I just took the fucking pink line home. You gave me your spare key. So I just let myself in. I'm home safe. Everything's good. Which obviously was a huge sense of relief. But do you know how funny it is? Because I at the start was like, why don't we just wait in the exterior or the parking lot area? Because they're going to be like, let's meet up somewhere. And they're going to get dropped off in the exterior. So let's just wait and just meet up with them.

[00:06:10] And when he was like, yes, but I want I want I want the boy to see some zoo animals while we're here. And I was like, OK, that makes sense. Yeah, it does. We saw nothing. What we did is we like hurriedly ran past everything while we were just like, fuck, where is she? Are you having fun? And this also culminates. This culminates in because it's in addition to being a zoo, they're doing fall fest. So there's tons of rides and carnival stuff for kids.

[00:06:37] So like we get the information that she's safe at home and we're like, oh, thank God. OK, let's go home. And then when he's like, well, we're here, let's just do this one ride while we're here. We're like, yeah, that's fine. And as Ivan walks up, they put the ride flow sign. Dude, he didn't really like like like really process that. Like it was like the most hilarious denial of all time. And he was just like, I had fun, which is like great.

[00:07:08] Oh, good boy. But it was it was just like a very nerve wracking day. It's so there's no feeling like when you are like I'm in a crisis situation. And like I really need to like execute and work at a high level to succeed at this fucking plan. Like like the pressure is on like it's all on the line.

[00:07:34] And then you learn there was never a chance to play. I had no chance. No, yeah, it was it was it was fraught from the start. And to be clear, this is me being angry at no one. This is just like, holy shit, what a thing to experience that ultimately ends with everybody being fine. Yeah. But yes, it was very it was fraught.

[00:07:57] The other thing I did, which is that related to this adventure, which I enjoy, is he's like really into a imaginative play now, which will be like, OK, I'm going to pretend to drive a car and you're in the car and we're going to like drive places together. It's very fun stuff. And the one that really took me out recently is he was like, let's drive in the car. OK, let's go to the museum. We're here. Let's take all the bones. Dude, dude, dude, dude. Yeah, dude.

[00:08:25] He's already on a high level. He's funnier than us. I'm sorry. He's so fuck. Yeah, it's I was like, what did you take all the bones? Really? Like you, you is correct. That's the bone place. That's where they got him. The bones are their money. Have you played him that sketch yet? No, they say fucking it. I guess you're not allowed to say that. Yes. So do I. So do you. You come over and say fuck immediately in front of him. No, I tried my best. Yeah, you're better now.

[00:08:52] You're from the year zero to 60 previously was nuts. Well, it's because when he's a baby, he can't tell. Now he's like a guy. And then it creeps up on you. It creeps up on you because like one day he kind of can. Yeah. This is the other thing that you sent me that Ivan did where I fucking started gasping. Like I was laughing out loud for real. My wife asked me what is happening. I showed her the text and she did it too.

[00:09:20] The classic response of like, you can't say that, dude. So what happened was I'm going to set it up. You hit me with the punchline. Okay. Isabelle's daughter, the friend who is visiting her daughter at the dinner table was crying. This happens to all children of an age. There is no judgment here. It is just how they are. Ivan cries at times. This girl cries at times. It just happened to be at this point at the dinner table. She was crying.

[00:09:49] Ivan, what does Ivan do? Ivan turns to us and is just like, I'm not crying. Just like, and because he unfortunately has my brain, I believe he didn't mean it in like the jerk way. I think he was just like, here's my status update. He was, he was sincerely, but it just, of course comes across as like, uh, like you wish you, you wish your kid was as good as me. Right. I'm not crying.

[00:10:19] Just saying. What does that tell you? I was just like, Jesus. You can't say that. Yeah. So good. He's just like, geez. Whoa. The stress this crying is causing. Well, don't worry. I'm not crying. Yeah. Yeah. Truly one of the funniest children who's ever lived. I know that people sometimes get, uh, mad when comedy people have kids and then all their material is about their kids.

[00:10:46] And often that's a correct response because the material starts to suck ass. However, this isn't our material. This is his material. Yeah. This is just me stating what he's doing. This is not like changing diapers. Sure is way. No, it's just like, this is literally the words coming out of his mouth. I'm not saying he's the precarious boy. I'm saying he's going to steal all the bones. Okay. Yeah. This is just information.

[00:11:09] Hello, everybody. Welcome to Anime Sickos.

[00:11:36] It's the podcast for geniuses and the only podcast where we talk about. Well, we'll discuss what we talk about. We used to say probably will still just for branding purposes, anime gaming, posting and jobs, the four pillars of modern misery. Uh, I am Tom and anime sicko. I'm Joe and anime sicko. Before we get into that though, we have to thank our newest patron, our newest patron Taff B. It's like Taffy, but with a B Taff B. Thank you, Taff B. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:12:06] You can be a patron of us by, uh, being a agave plant that is distilled via an ancient traditional method in Mexico. Uh, also by going to patreon.com slash anime sickos. So folks, Joe mentioned a while ago that we got to do a state of the pillars episode because we say that the podcast is about anime gaming, posting and jobs.

[00:12:31] And for a while, that was both true and useful in that it gave us a roadmap of what our episodes should be about. And also when people ask what the podcast is about, we could give them an answer that was somewhat true. It's concrete enough. Like, oh, they, yeah. Even if you don't mention that they actually feel a great shame regarding anime, uh, you could say anime and it would be correct. Yeah. And you could say we could, if someone was like, I don't really watch anime, then we could be like, ha ha. We do as a joke.

[00:12:58] We define like movies and like books as anime. Also, it's pretty much all narrative fiction. Uh huh. Yeah. Funny. We don't really do that anymore. And, uh, so Joe was like, we got to do a episode that focuses on this. And I was at first resistant because we kind of have, we've done an episode called, uh, Cogdom is over. We did posting is no good.

[00:13:28] Now there's blood in the toilet. Now that was what the title of that one was. I mean, we don't even need to do an episode to tell you about how gaming is just the layoff factory. Uh, they are not going to make. Xbox is gone. And again, not to say like, oh, not the sanctity of Xbox, but it's like crazy. They didn't give a shit. Yeah. It really feels like a too big to fail enterprise. And it's like, oh, they fucking are failing in the way that like a civilian would.

[00:13:55] Uh oh, they employ many people. Well, actually I just read the news. No, they don't. Um, so to talk about those things at length, it feels like a, not a waste of time, but it's just like we, I, we aim higher on enemy sickos. We, we want to, we want to give you the type of incredible high grade podcast and you can't get anywhere else. It feels like that kind of stuff is what you could get somewhere else. So that's why I was resisting it.

[00:14:21] Then the other day when I was on my way to get my booster shots for the flu and COVID season, I hit upon the angle. This is the angle folks. All that shit that we say about how the pillars are done. We don't have a job. Ha ha. So how do we talk about jobs? All that shit. That's all specifics. That's like stuff that like specific, there's anecdotes again. And we've said we got to move away from the Hitlerite data unit, the anecdote. We have to identify the root.

[00:14:51] The root is this. It used to be, and we would say this on the show, that the four pillars, anime, gaming, posting, and jobs were the four things that you could do. All the things that you're allowed to do are one of those four things. You can enjoy your little treats. You can play your little games. You can talk with the other hogs or be a fucking cog. It was like, isn't it crazy that culture has trapped us in this little prison where we only have a couple of little toys on our busy board?

[00:15:17] Which was an oversimplification, like obviously intentionally for goof factor. However, those are all gone. They're all gone. You can't, there's a smoking crate, four smoking craters. You used to be able to do four things. This is like, this is like when we would talk about how like in the matrix, the fucking Neo man was like, I can't believe how awful it is to have my high paying software job. And it's just like, you motherfucker, you have no idea how good you have it.

[00:15:47] That's us in 2019. We're saying that too. Now, now you can't do anything. The idea that there are four things that you can do is insane. We have said in the past that we live in a post doing society. But when we said that, we meant it in terms of like how the engine of state, society and business have abandoned the concept of like actually doing tasks and completing things and making changes in the world. But it goes further. Like you and me can't do anything.

[00:16:19] Like you can't do it. Let's where do we start? Let's look at the document. There is no society. It's just gone. Here's how here's actually what it feels like. We got pushed off the cliff. We haven't landed. All the pillars are back up on the top of the cliff. I now will call to your attention a viral interview excerpt from NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang.

[00:16:51] The awful interviewer says, essentially, there's been studies that kids using AI for their school are fucking dumb as shit. They don't actually know anything. Jensen Huang says that last part about performance degrading. I completely agree. Try to get a kid to do long division now. The multiplication table is being forgotten. Doing square roots. My goodness. Basic math is being forgotten. Does it matter?

[00:17:20] Interviewer, that's my question for you. Yeah, I don't think it does. I don't think it does. But there must be some skills that matter. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Maybe not just those. We're going to discover new ones. Maybe not those. One day I had to pump gas. It was a few years ago. They needed my zip code. And I panicked. I didn't know my zip code. I don't know my telephone number. I forget these things. I can live with it. This is a juicy text. This is a juicy text.

[00:17:48] First of all, the bait and switch is, one, he's glorifying learn helplessness at the point where it's like, oh, I don't even know my dang address because the computer remembers it for me. But the comparison that it's just like, oh, sometimes I forget my phone number. So it's chill if kids can't read. That is pretty good. The other issue here, which is just sort of like an unstated thing, it's he's there because

[00:18:16] he makes GPUs, which power all this stuff. And they're just like asking him to weigh in on education, which is very funny. It's just like, yes, you know how the schools are powered by diesel. So we asked Mr. Diesel what the future of schools is going to be. And it's. The tone of this whole thing is like, oh, Mr. Spaceman, the future, tell us a happy story.

[00:18:41] And the other thing that he does that all of these tech freaks do, Musk would do it the most, I think, or really started doing this, which is. But if you. Just acknowledge that, like a bad thing is occurring or happening, it reads as you like agreeing to do something about it in a meaningful way, if you're stupid.

[00:19:10] So like when he's just like, oh, God, yeah, try getting a toddler to do yada yada. That's supposed to take. That means we've stopped talking about this. Yes, yes. But it's supposed to take the space of like a real answer. And the other thing Musk will do. And I know we're not talking about Musk specifically, but like he would do this thing where and they all do this now. AI does this, which is just like, I'll be the first to admit that I was wrong.

[00:19:37] And because no one ever admits they're wrong. Even if you change nothing, it's like I will continue to let the awful exploitation factory continue. But if you just say you were sorry about it at the start, then it's fine. Because it's all messaging, actual material stuff secondary. Yeah. Well, OK. It's interesting that you. Hmm. The way that you were talking about, like the interviewer as like a Mr. Spaceman, tell

[00:20:04] us a story like so much of what we complain about is the infantilization of the common person. When we had the four toys on our busy board, that was the part that was that good, that gag. And now, like, again, he makes hardware like his job is to make chips. And they're just like, sir, how is society going to be like? What's good? Like, what are we like? What's our life like now? They have completely surrendered that like we're the little babies and you're our daddy.

[00:20:33] Like, you got to tell us what's going to happen because you're daddy and you can't be wrong because you're daddy. We can't be right because we're babies. And it is like to be that infantilized and then have the person you are infantilizing yourself to to suck up to then be like. And another thing about kids is that they're dumber than ever. And you're just like, yes, sir. Yes, sir. I am dumb.

[00:20:58] Ah, it's the only activity that we normies are being offered used to be offered the four pillars. We are now offered one choice, which is die in the apocalypse, baby. Yeah. Smiley face. Of course, like the only word we have that the apocalypse will happen and kill us is the word of the AI guys who are dumb. So it is very possible that they are wrong and that that will not happen.

[00:21:24] But in terms of like what we're hearing and what society is saying loud and clear today at the moment. Yeah, it's dying. The apocalypse. Oh, me. Yeah, I found it. This is by a blue sky user and you are a dot blue sky dot social. We're living below the dam watching crews work day and night damaging different parts of the dam watching the cracks growing.

[00:21:50] And we are told frequently not to think too much about what all that might mean for the future. I mean, that's it. Right. That is 100 percent. Yes. That the only thing like what are all the crews doing? The crews are like smashing it, being like, I hate this fucking dam. And this is actually in the outline. This was I was looking for another thing and I just came across this show. You said this weeks ago and I'm like, this has to go in because it's fucking this is it.

[00:22:18] Every aspect of society is run by someone who either hates it or is just taking it for profit. And like ding, ding, ding. Correct. Yes. Yes. I used to spend a stupid amount of time wondering, like, which one is it? Is this like ideological malice or is this just I got to get paid? And it doesn't matter anymore. Like the distinction doesn't matter because it's all one big bonfire. Yeah. It's like the classic Vonnegut novel Mother Night. You are what you pretend to be.

[00:22:48] If your actions are indistinguishable from the actions of someone who has a certain thought pattern, in what way do you not have it? So even if someone like really respects video games as an art form and then they go and lay everyone off because the well, I'm just looking at the I'm reading the industry news and it says you gotta lay people off. You gotta lay them off because of AI now. Like, well, it didn't matter that you cared about the thing.

[00:23:17] You did the same thing that a David Zaslav like bloodless monster would have done. So you are one. It's the same. Not a distinction worth making. Joe, like, this is something that we have both come to understand very strongly in our years of unemployment. You cannot, you cannot be, not just you and me, one cannot be a cog anymore.

[00:23:43] The type of job that we famously defined as a cog job in Anime So Close Podcast has been erased like Chainsaw Man fucking ate it. It's like more complex than this, but it truly, truly feels like all my peers and then people who were in my industry, just general people in my purview. There was a single hiring cycle that was like nice.

[00:24:07] It was it was a hiring cycle where the general the general consensus was just like companies kind of wanted you. And if you do good work, they'll pay you. The interview process and hiring process wasn't like a trick. They were pretty clear about what needed to happen because everybody knew exactly what needed to happen. It was COVID just happened. And we were like, oh, shit, we got to do this stuff very concretely. And if you didn't change jobs, you maybe got more work life balance if you're a remote person, whatever.

[00:24:37] But the point is, it just feels like this one nice thing happened and we are forever punished for it. It's just like, oh, this has to happen because you guys went too far, even though you did it. It was an accident that that happened. You stole those good years from us. Oh, and every single tech company is it got unbelievably richer during the period of over hiring anyway. Yeah.

[00:25:02] You can't cry poor that like, oh, yes, these these blood suckers are draining us dry. No, it was everybody got a taste of not everybody because people still had to go get their their blood and guts ground up by the machine. But there was nonetheless like like honestly, like a thing that I kept going is like the people have to drive to work. The people have to like physically like fucking like, oh, I have to go fix pipes in the pipe machine. I have to go clang them all day. I got to go clang my pipes downtown.

[00:25:31] Yeah. The roads should not be filled with people who then have to sit in an office for eight hours a day. They should have this. The road should only be the pipe guys. Yes. Yes. You should only. And that all seemed very reasonable. And it was kind of like maybe the direction we were going. And then it was actually psych. You suck. It used to be. It used to be that you could be a charming fellow with an English degree and you could

[00:25:58] make a little whoopsie joke about like, can you believe I had that as my major instead of something real? But don't worry. I'm a quick learner. I'm a team player. I have great people skills, great soft skills, great organization and admin skills. And I can pick up the tools you need so fast because I have an analytical mind and a desire to learn. And they would say, damn, OK, you can be a cog because you really only just have to be kind of like conscious. You just have to be a dog.

[00:26:27] You just have to want it. And now I go to people constantly and I make that pitch and they say, wow, what a bright young man. And I say, well, not really anymore, that young part. But I guess I guess don't focus on it. And they're like, I think you would be a great fit at my company. Apply for these positions. I apply for those positions. The people in charge of hiring for those positions are not the people I talk to. I ask, can I talk to the people in charge of hiring those positions?

[00:26:56] The people I talked to say, I don't know who they are. Those applications are automatically rejected by AI. Fun shit. I have an awful part time job I've talked about briefly. I'm not going to get into it because I do not want to dox myself. Say what it is. It fucking sucks ass. I will say that it is answering the phone mostly. And one of the things that sucks biggest ass of all is that it is very little money and it is very far away.

[00:27:26] It's like unreal how much I have to travel for this ridiculous fake job that pays me nothing. And it's just like I'm getting to the point now where I'm just like, OK, cog jobs aren't real. Maybe I'll just be a grocery store guy for the rest of my life. Would it be so bad? There's grocery stores near my house in order to commute to them. I'll put canes on a shelf. Yeah. So we were talking about how, do you know, listener, do you know about this? There's this play.

[00:27:55] I haven't seen it, but it's very well known and famous among the millennial crowd where the concept of it is exploration of oral history and storytelling traditions in a post-apocalyptic tribe. And they have a tradition of putting on a play. And the play is a misremembered version of a Simpsons episode where they don't remember what the Simpsons is. They don't know all that. And it's like, oh, couldn't that crazy? Wow.

[00:28:24] The office is going to be like that for society in like the next 10 years. But it will still be the original show. People just won't understand what they're seeing when they watch it. Why do they hang out every day? Those aren't their families. I don't get it. Like, how is no one laid off yet? Like, it's like, why aren't they panicking more? Like, they should be really stressed.

[00:28:52] We had the guy, Soar Manga, which was, you know, the office worker by day who loves his job. Yeah. And like has a team that he like wants to cultivate. Wait. And it's like a shonen thing. But anyway, it doesn't work anymore because the offices are gone and they're gone. It's like, it's very much like, like, like, imagine a blah, blah, blah. And then like, imagine a setting. And it's just like, you need, you need people to be able to imagine the setting when you say, imagine a setting.

[00:29:22] You know what it's like? It is fucking the same feeling as like how Daredevil is like, yes, it's right now, but there's also newspapers. Yes. Yes. And there's still like hunches and big stories that you can break. There's still hunches. Yeah. That's a good, that's a good line. I need to get to the paper and write my features.

[00:29:50] Which of course makes that character, the love interest is not written very well. I don't think in the Daredevil TV series, it makes her wandering into the newspaper thing as sort of like a babe from the woods, even funnier. You're like, oh, so like. You print these words every day. Awful. Another thing. I mean, I know I already said I don't want to. We've already covered how like, oh, posting sucks now. It's all Twitter.

[00:30:18] And then Blue Sky is like the methadone for retired freaks. But. But the previous addicts then kick in to the methadone clinic and say, how come you don't come out and do drugs anymore? Yeah. So, OK. Posting now what its purpose is. It's no longer you can talk to your fellow hogs. What posting is now is seeing what the evil, insane tech idiots in their sex cult have to say. Case in point.

[00:30:46] Noted 90 degree apartment owner Taylor Lorenz is making a right wing pivot at the moment. And one of the things she is saying is Blue Sky is washed. You got to go to X. She's calling it X, not Twitter, which is so cucked. You got to go to X. It's the best social media site there's ever been. And you want to know why? This is her this is her argument as to why it's the best it's ever been. It's because the people who are making decisions in society and really changing the world talk

[00:31:14] there, which is to say she thinks the fact that you can see posts by Sam Altman and Elon Musk and fucking Mark Zuckerberg is a positive that makes you want to use the product more. Those things are going to happen whether or not you're looking at them. You. Yes. The graphic that I said to you that I absolutely love is that some some news site said breaking

[00:31:44] Jeffrey Katzenberg's Twitter handle posts on X for the first time. And there is a little baseball card looking with Jeffrey Katzenberg looking kind of sleepy and in the bottom and huge cyber like boom. Tatton text is Jeffrey Katzenberg posted. Like, why am I excited about that?

[00:32:11] Like, this is literally propaganda aimed at people using the tool to convince themselves that it's like happening. It's not geared towards like converting anyone. It's just like this is actually that good. Yeah. And we're not going to get too into it because it's a truly a nightmare. It's too heavy for us. But like we're not joking that they're a death cult obsessed with weird coercive sex or she's. There was the thing going around an article that was like, don't you think it's odd that women

[00:32:41] who want to make it in this industry but don't want to go to non-consensual sex parties still have to go? Here's why that's wrong. And it's like, if you need that explained. Yeah, you're fucked. Like, it's anyone who is receiving this information to be like, oh, I get the angle now. He was never capable of understanding why that was fucked already. Yeah. And then you could just read the article, which is like, I didn't want to have sex with anyone.

[00:33:08] But then this guy came and rubbed his penis all over me, which is like, yeah, I imagine that is like one of the reasons why maybe you wouldn't want to go. And it's just like, well, why wouldn't you simply leave the party? It's like because it's a work event. But it is essentially a work event. And I didn't see you at the work picnic. I didn't see you at the sex party. It's the same thing. Yeah, it's very fucked.

[00:33:35] And then, I mean, all anime and all culture is also going to fucking go away because what we're going to have is short. We already have people who just are gone off of a short form vertical video. And there was someone in physical therapy that was watching AI generated like little drama clips. And like, I just you can't hit people. So I don't know what to say.

[00:34:05] I like I heard it. It sounds janky. Like, it sounds like I can't see what she's watching, but it sounds like everybody is T posing and clipping through things. It sounds fucked and not good. It is not good. And like people can be like, hey, I will never be able to make a movie because it can't have that consistency. And it's like, yes, I can. I can believe that.

[00:34:29] But what it can keep consistent through the entire runtime is a fucking 15 second short form vertical video clip. And then you just have thousands of them get beamed into people's fucking heads and were fully cooked. I will now read a incredible tweet from someone who I don't care about. They're from Twitter. They're called the house that commie built.

[00:34:56] And someone is it's a quote tweet and they are dunking on someone. The person they're dunking on is saying it's so embarrassing to be pulling out your phone in the movie theater to take a picture of the title card when it drops in the movie you're watching. How embarrassing. This person is being a snob and is therefore correct. And then the house that commie built says this. Maybe just me. But every screening I've ever been to, the people don't really care if you have your phones

[00:35:26] out, at least if you're not annoying about it. Now, this commie, this is because you're judging this based on like, did someone strike me? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I've never been physically punished, so it's fine. Like, I guarantee I would be insanely annoyed. But like, what am I going to do? Like, if I kill you, it's still murder. Like, you still count as a person for some reason. Um, but that's not all. Second paragraph.

[00:35:56] This is the justification of why the phone is out. Like, I have to be reading the synopsis of the movie while it's happening. Otherwise, I just won't understand it. This is how my brain works. That's not something you should be proud of. You should be working on that. If that's how your brain works, that's like fucking priority one fix. Mind you, it's not like I have to read the synopsis before or after. He says, I have to have it in front of me.

[00:36:25] Why? Dory! Dory! I need my second bottom DS screen at all times so I understand what the fuck is happening. Uh, I- Now imagine that same bro is in that same state but is illiterate. And so Dasty go, yo, co-pilot, what's happening in this movie? Thanks for asking. In the movie, and like, and they're going to say, no one finds this annoying because I'm not being murdered.

[00:36:54] Also, like, honestly, when your attention is divided between the movie and the synopsis, you're also falling behind more because your attention is divided and shitty. Thus, causing your problem to loop harder. Uh, and obviously no one can see you, uh, be trapped in your sort of like, uh, endless dumb loop. But that is nonetheless, it's happening. Yeah. It's, uh, pretty bad. I wish it was just a title.

[00:37:21] Like, also, let's point out that like, the thing that was brought up was like, it's stupid to quick whip out your phone and take the title card picture versus I play phone out all the time and I can't stop reading. The thing he is like trying to relate to is like, you think that's annoying? Check out this shit that I do and I'm going to say it because it's fine because I'm illiterate or whatever. I don't know. Uh, but again, it shows illiteracy because he's not even matching up with the original query. Yep. Yep. Yep.

[00:37:48] Uh, I was thinking my take on that guy is that if he isn't, if he doesn't have his phone out during the movie, he's going to be saying, why aren't those men coming out and talking to me? Why are they trapped up in the square? Um, they better be like exemplifying good behavior. Otherwise I'm going to freak out. Yeah. I, that is the, the problem when people talk about that, where it's just like, Oh, people think X character is good or bad, whether or not they do good or bad.

[00:38:18] Like that is just a literacy problem. There is nothing else occurring there other than people are not able to properly put the parameters around context. That's what that is. I'm not going to get too into this because we've never been horny and I don't even know what I'm reading. I just got handed this. This is, I'm reading this verbatim and I don't know what these words mean. Uh, people, they'll be like, why do Gen Zers hate boobies and shit in movies? Why do they hate when there's titties and butts on them on the screen?

[00:38:48] Uh, it's fun to see those. It's good to see those. Also like the thing about movies before there was phones, there was nothing to do. So if you saw a story and then a titty and then, uh, they do a Bollywood dance at the end. That's like a full, that's an everything that is, it is hitting all of your centers. That's a four quadrant, uh, banger. Yeah. No, it was okay.

[00:39:13] And so the, it's funny you should say now with the phone that I think the most compelling thing that I've seen because the obvious go-to thing is like it never contributes to the plot, which is just like, that's an idiot's thing to say. We can dismiss that. We don't even need to waste our time disproving that. It's just, that's it. That's the idiot's thing. Furthering an aesthetic or a characterization of something that's already in place is of value just because it's like, oh, they didn't deliver the letter yet.

[00:39:39] Does it mean like, I, I'm not going to continue this sentence because I'm so pissed, but you understand what I'm saying? Yes. Yes. Like a score doesn't contribute to the plot. So should no movie have one? Anyway, the point being the, the good argument I've heard is that like, because Gen Zers have been watching hardcore pornography every time they want to see a titty on their phone for their entire lives. The idea of like, oh, that's private stuff. Like, that's what I do when I'm jacking in the bathroom.

[00:40:07] I'm not, I don't want to be seeing that. Like, like it, why would I want this in the movie? This is a private thing. And it's also like, it's not even porno really. Um, fuckers lighting, lighting. They light it better in the movie. They do. Porno looks awful. Yeah. It's too blown out. Yeah. Also, it's all vertical video now. Anyway. Yeah. Uh, anyway, back to it. Uh, so this next point is about you at therapy. So I'm going to throw to you. Yeah.

[00:40:37] Like the issue specifically that I am running into in this job search slash like finding fulfillment slash just basically functioning. Uh, top level. Uh, I really enjoy being a dad. Uh, all the family stuff I get to do kicks ass. So I do have plenty of fulfillment with instant gratification. Like I, my family comes home and then I cook everybody dinner. Ivan says, oh my God. Yeah. It's just so, it's so wonderful.

[00:41:03] The issue of course is that during the day I have, uh, uh, the ruminations. And because I have not been able to get my ADHD medication for a quarter of a year, uh, I have to impose very harsh structures on myself that ultimately, uh, I feel very bad all the time. And I never feel like I'm doing anything. Okay. So that's like the, sort of the getting started inertia issue.

[00:41:31] The other inertia is that like, I can play along. I can pretend, uh, I can mask pretty well in most, most cases. It's just like the current state right now is I have to put on so many layers of clown makeup before I attempt to even use the computer to get a job that it is so dispiriting. Uh, it's just like, I am unable to, and it's not like, oh, I know I need to have money. And I know, like, I'm not ignorant of this fact.

[00:41:55] It's just like, I think about, okay, so I will start to maybe find a position and apply. And then maybe it's a scam, but also, uh, it will nonetheless start a series of actions that might result in an output. Uh, and maybe my result in contact, but maybe not. And then like five o'clock rolls around and it's like, I just fed my family. I feel great. It's real. It just happened. And it's just like the longer this dynamic goes on, especially with the fact that like all of my previous experience.

[00:42:25] Which obviously is still there. Feels like it happened to another guy. You know how like swamp thing isn't like really that guy. It's just like the guy died and then the swamp bugs. Like him. Yeah. Yeah. It's that I am just the corpse of that guy, but I'm not Joe. I mean, this is what I'm talking about where it's just like, we've been pushed off the cliff, like back up on the cliff was all of that infrastructure that was real that we like had proof. Like if you do engage with this, you could get a job.

[00:42:54] And now it's just like everyone on the news is like breaking news. CEO says, which is the lowest form of news. Just CEO said CEO says. Because it's a price for the job again. Yes. No job, no more. And if it was any other context, you could, I think, easily see that it's like, did you know that the Kellogg's man said everybody's got to eat cereal? Like it's what it is. Like, but it's never framed like this because there's this stupid gee whiz component.

[00:43:20] And the fact that Tom and I started talking about this a little bit, how it's the crime machine where crime just happens. Like, oh, yeah. Their new thing is like, oh, my God. Terrifying. It went rogue and hacked a company. It's like, OK, but like no one's liable. OK, so it just happened. Right. So like you are literally going like there's a little podium every day. And you're like, we just made a Frankenstein and is doing identity theft. And we love it. Right. And here's what's crazy. He's only going to do more of it.

[00:43:50] He's only going to get at it harder. The bolts on his neck are so fucked up. So our good friend Josh Borman of the worst of all possible worlds podcast who we love. He has done nothing but support. One of the smartest guys ever for sure. Yes. His work is out of this world and he's very prolific and you got to respect him. He is incredible. He's an incredible writer and thinker.

[00:44:16] But unfortunately, on September 26, 2026, he was a little baby, the stupidest man who ever lived. And don't feel bad if you're hearing this, Josh. Today, you tomorrow, us. We will be as stupid. Tomorrow and the day after and then the day after that. Josh says, I might be stupid. So at least he knows. I might be stupid. But shouldn't the companies named as victims of the recent open AI breaches simply sue the company for billions?

[00:44:44] Brother, they like it. They like it. They like it because profit. They're getting victory points. Yes. Okay. That's the best way to think about it. Profit, revenue, stock. All that stuff like still matters. But that was the previous board game. The new board game has victory points and those are only generated by causing misery. You only get victory points if you generate misery.

[00:45:10] And also they want this sort of like very ambiguous sort of like although they are impacted now by AI theft, they would benefit from the regulatory environment that is a swamp or anything happens. Big picture. So they don't do that. But then here's. Okay. Awesome. Also, Josh points this out, which I think is also a good angle, though, which is like, yes. But let's say you are like a real company that like wants to actually protect their property. Right.

[00:45:39] Like you're like I'm like they're taking my shit. I would like to seek damages, all these things. Because and in my view, you'd rather be justified in doing so. And this is not legal advice because I am not a lawyer. But I definitely get the sense that this is all very make it up as you go along.

[00:45:54] And I do not I get the sense that if you are even trying to do anything by the books, enforce your little shit, even as a large company, I have no sense that like there's any rules that this is all real. It kind of just feels like it is whatever a CEO says. Yeah. CEO says is the news of the day. Like I recently did jury duty. I didn't get selected, thank God.

[00:46:24] But I had to hear the judge talk a lot. And one of the things that happened that was very, very funny is she was asking everybody's work histories and their spouses or partners work histories as well, because they were trying to find certain industries that would make you biased toward or against the people involved in the lawsuit. One girl said that her husband worked for the porno website, Mr. Skin color correcting videos.

[00:46:52] And the judge spent about 10 minutes trying to get her to explain what color correcting was. And at the end, she did not know what color correcting was. Was it because the potential juror was inarticulate and bad at explaining complex concepts? That's fucking not at all. So my take from that one anecdote, which we've always said that anecdotes are great and you should use them to illustrate your point as often as possible.

[00:47:22] From that one anecdote, I would say that if there was such a lawsuit and the plaintiff's representation made an absolutely airtight, obvious case that the AI company has committed incredible crimes and owes massive amounts of damage. There's no guarantee the guy with the robe or Gail with the robe and wig can like even grasp what's in front of them.

[00:47:50] They're going to say, they're going to say, I don't really get this tech stuff, but I feel like this is the future. My nephew sent me an AI video that looked so real. It's not going anywhere. It's here to stay. Case dismissed, clunk. But it would never happen because they like it. Because what is happening when they're saying like, hey, we did a big crime. And then when they admit it in the news, we did a big crime and we're going to do more. It means it's over. They did it already. Like they already stole all the shit. So it's all at this point, it doesn't matter. Right. Right.

[00:48:19] It doesn't matter because like we said before, there's nothing with a higher profit margin than a scam. The only reason any business person would ever do anything other than a scam is that there is a risk that they will get in trouble and it will cost more than it made them. What OpenAI is saying is all crime is legal. All crime is legal. Scam based society. Yes. Every business benefits from all crime is legal. They're winning. They like it. Ah!

[00:48:50] Like it's never been easier to set up a fake shell company and think people are getting a job and then making them convert their savings into iTunes gift cards. Like it's never been easier. It's never been easier. Also, the whole fucking thing is given away by. So we've seen the AI people. They've taken this position of primacy in society. They have tricked everyone. Not tricked.

[00:49:17] They have finally allowed everyone the permission to do what they've always wanted, which is to lay off everybody. And the whole fucking thing is proven, obviously, as a big fucking lie because the inefficient humans are gone. They don't have jobs no more. The hyper-efficient AI that's going to change everything is in.

[00:49:38] And we are notably not in a golden age of massive amounts of new and wonderful goods and services that everyone loves coming out every day. No, now there's more versions for everything and it's all vibe coded and half the stuff releases like kind of broken. And I don't want to make it sound like, well, we don't people don't take software seriously.

[00:50:00] But it's just like, why would I ever care about like dotting my eyes and crossing my T's when like fucking Microsoft pushes out stuff that like a human is not even like looked at? Yeah. I don't know. No, it's like you talked about, oh, you got to talk about this because this is very funny and I didn't know about this. You talked about the Ken Cosgrove dance, which you used to be capable of doing. Oh, yeah, yeah. And now this is preventing you from doing your dance. Yeah.

[00:50:28] So in Mad Men, I've not seen all of Mad Men, but I will. I'm going to go on the record and say this is still the best scene. And in this scene, Ken Cosgrove, who is an accounts man, is about to go on a big meeting with a client and he's sitting in the office of Don Draper. And like Ken Cosgrove is like either tired or something. And he's like hyping himself up. And he and he starts like tap dancing. And he's like, I'm going to go out and we're going to have an $80 steak.

[00:50:56] And I'm going to tell the same jokes over and over again. And I'm going to whine them. And I'm going to dine as he like picks up speed and starts like legitimately tap dancing. And Don Draper, who's never like shown interest in anything since or before in the show, is like, wow. It's so funny. But the way you erase your humanity so, so thoroughly is amazing to me. And the thing is, I could do the Ken Cosgrove stuff.

[00:51:25] I could in between certain things, not actually having a tap dance, but I could do the mental equivalent of that for certain reasons. And I just can't now. I fucking can't. OK, I can't do it. I can't tap dance anymore. I got the sadness in my toes. Yep. Another scary thing. And this is actually a preview of my Genius Night piece for the October show, because it's going to be Halloween and spookum themed.

[00:51:52] Nowadays, because of all this, we have a truly horrifying scenario where we can at any time. And you probably have. You might not have noticed. You might have noticed. At any time, you could interact with a brand new Halloween beast, a very spookum type of creature where you could be talking to a person. And at any time, you could learn, actually, no, no, no. That's not a person. That is an adapter.

[00:52:20] That is a piece of meat shaped like a person that is acting as a dongle that is plugged in one side to the AI and then the other side to the real world. And all they do is act as an adapter and allow the AI to get out. The people who write every email and text through AI, who look everything up through AI, the people who buy in and are like, yes, my job is just to prompt. I'll never do anything again. I'll only use the AI.

[00:52:48] And it's just like, yes, I'm excited about this dynamic, which puts me as worm. Yes. I'm just the wet, gooey piece of meat that like is basically the USB adapter that lets that lets the beautiful mind of the AI get out. This is an incredible example of you can't do anything. Like this type of person is like winning. I wouldn't say winning. This type of person is doing what they're supposed to and what they are incentivized to do. They have the most agency.

[00:53:18] They can touch objects in the world. Unlike us, we phase through them. Yeah. But like they still can't do anything because all they're doing is acting as the conduit for their true self, which is the AI. But if you kill them, it's still murder. It's still murder. What's that like a line in Deadwood where elsewhere it's like, ah, wish you could just knock people out and take all the shit in their pockets and dump them face down in the river.

[00:53:48] He's so good. I love Deadwood. Deadwood. I saw a poster online. I won't name him. We know you'd know if I said his name. I don't want to put him on blast because I love him. But he was like, I just watched Deadwood and it was really disappointing. The plots never went anywhere. They were meandering. And it's like, yeah. We never said they weren't. What's our favorite Jojo?

[00:54:15] The fourth season, the one where it is just like, ah, it's this kind of sleepy town. And this kid just kind of walks around. I was. So we were watching the opening for the seventh Jojo series, Steelball Run opening. And my wife is like, let's watch all of them, all the openings together because they're so cool. And so neither of us watched part six because if Netflix took a lot of great pains to make sure no one watched part six.

[00:54:46] And I was one of the people who didn't. And so we were these were brand new to us. And she's like, remind me again of the ending of part six. And it's like, well, the villain succeeds completely. And Jolene dies a failure, unable to stop him. And his thing that he's trying to do is make time go faster, but only faster in terms of the people perceiving it. You don't get old.

[00:55:13] But if you like pick up a sandwich, it'll turn to dust because it went a thousand years in the future. I could see why someone would want this. Yeah. Well, the reason is supposed to be that he's going to go to the end of time, back to the beginning of time and then rewind back to when he started doing that shit and then turn normal time back on. And that will cause heaven to be accomplished. We will have achieved heaven because what does heaven mean? When you think of heaven, say it with me.

[00:55:42] It means you know exactly what's. And you're going like stop motion fast, right? That's what heaven is. Heaven is when you know exactly what's going to happen every moment for the rest of your life because you've already seen your destiny. Except that doesn't make any sense because I thought my destiny was to freak out because everything was going really, really fast. So I don't know how I've learned what's going to happen. Yeah, it doesn't. That's less legible than the King Crimson stuff because it gets a little way. That shit gets wacky for sure.

[00:56:12] But I would argue that's less legible than that even. Extremely less legible. Jolene at this point, still dead, still was a failure. But the sort of like, oh, but she sacrificed it so that we could still win is there is an awful little boy who wears a Cubs outfit. I'm not joking. It is a little legitimately a Chicago Cubs outfit is not in Chicago Cubs style. He's wearing a Chicago Cubs uniform all the time. He's a weird, weaving child.

[00:56:39] He has been given the stand weather report on a CD and he has a special escape room he can go to where he's safe. It's another dimension. So he didn't get freaking killed and destroyed in this universe reset. The villain knows this and it's like, I'm going to clean up the loose ends. And so just walks into this little room and it's like, I'm going to fucking kill you, child, and punches him with the stand.

[00:57:04] But what he didn't know is that he put the CD on his forehead. So what he did is he punched the CD into his head. So now the little awful child has the weather report stand and he uses weather report to kill the priest. And now they're in a new world where Jolene was never in prison and never had a stand and never did anything badass. She gets to be a normal girl. And I told this to my wife and she got the maddest I've ever seen her in her life.

[00:57:35] She was like going absolutely insane. She's like, of course, the one fucking girl doesn't get to win. Gets a reset. Not even not even lose. It's just like it doesn't count. Yeah. And like she doesn't count. Nobody remembers her. The Jolene that we saw, she's like she died. And the only person who even knew she did anything is this awful baseball child who just has to like never bring her up again.

[00:58:01] Or he's going to really harsh the vibe of everyone who's doing great. So did the priest wait, did his punch cause the CD to go fast forward in time and age quickly and then go into his head? No, I think he had turned off the fast forwarding at this point. His original because his stand like evolved a bunch of times. The first thing you could do is make stand CDs and put them into people.

[00:58:26] So I think that what the thing was is he had the stand CD because it had been taken out of its original owner by the villain. And the baseball child just had it because Jolene gave it to him with her dying her dying action. And then he basically puts it in the CD tray and dies. Because like he can't put it in himself. He has to trick the bad guy to put it in because it's the bad guy's power that puts it in. And so he tricks the bad guy into putting it in. And then I have a stand. You died.

[00:58:56] Fucking sucks. Back to the topic. I just I cannot emphasize enough the sort of feminist fury that lives within all women as they realize how fucking oppressed they are. Now and throughout all of history, it's a truly well-deserved anger that society tries to make you not let out. You should let it out. As evidenced by Jojo. Like season six shows this clearly.

[00:59:25] It was let out. It was incredible to witness. Anyway, back to the point. This is the sum up. We have already said in a classic episode that most people these days feel like dumb baby bitches. That's still true. Except now it feels like additionally, all the mommies and daddies have said, we hate you fucking dirt people. We've always hated you.

[00:59:55] Your deaths will be to us sexually amazing. And they all went to space never to return again, leaving us all infants on Earth. And we're just like, is Jimmy Neutron going to go get them back? Oh, get them back is a huge concern.

[01:00:19] It's like impossible to conceive of many of these bigger than life figures. These Musk is these Altman's as like ever possibly not only being gone, but just like not in everything. It's not that they're like they're up to their ass and everything. Mm hmm. Like if Musk and Altman, if their companies folded tomorrow and they were fired and they didn't have all their money, they would be on Fox News every fucking day. Yeah. And half the people would be hearing what they say.

[01:00:48] And the news would still be ex CEO says. Yes. And by evidence, we know you know why we know it's like this. Because when the Papa John CEO went insane, they were still letting him do interviews when he was all sweaty. And he's like, I regret saying the one word. Actually, he didn't regret it. That was the issue. Yeah. Did your day of reckoning ever come? I don't know. Yeah, because he made it sound like it was a religious event. So that's what I mean.

[01:01:15] Like if if if the Papa John's guy gets to like wish vague threats on anyone watching any of these AI guys, if their enterprise is crumbled, would be given a mouthpiece to say that? Like, yes, my company failed. But here's what I learned. Society needs to be like this right now. And it would happen overnight. Yep. So I guess what I'm trying to say is.

[01:01:44] I don't really know what the premise of the podcast is anymore. It's me and Joe talking. That's what it's always been. You like that. We lose the the the conceit because it's like they're not even it's like how like obviously when America says stuff about spreading democracy and freedom, it's like it's fake, obviously. But then when you stop saying that, it's way worse. Yeah, it's just like democracy and freedom are fucking gay and I've always hated them.

[01:02:13] And it's like, oh, no, I was correct for being cynical before, but this is still worse. Yes. Asking people to listen and financially support a podcast was a horrifying sin before that made me feel like a dirt person. Now I don't care. Now I jingle jangle. Oh, I say now it seems even more absurd. Don't tell me more. Expand on this.

[01:02:37] Oh, I guess specifically this is sort of internal characterization of my thing. It's like. There were like two types of online people. Like when I think about like like when the zero interest rate, I'm at a desk job looking at people online. It's like people who did their cool thing because they were part of an organization like that did cool stuff or people who did their cool thing and then sort of like crowdfunded it and are doing their own thing.

[01:03:05] That first type of person got all killed. They're all gone. And because of that, I feel less shame about being more of the second one because the superior type of evolved human has been hunted to extinction. Yeah, that's fair. I see where you're coming from with that.

[01:03:23] However, it used to be that I felt like I was a little fucking Dickensian newsboy with my cup going please to all the businessmen walking by. And now it feels like I'm the Dickensian boy with the cup going to the fucking workhouse where I live and being like please to all the other poor people. And they're just like, no, we're poor, too. And all the other orphans are like, I just got laid off from whatever magazine.

[01:03:56] Imagine getting a job at a magazine. I wouldn't even fucking celebrate it. Those are just for doctor's offices. Those are another thing that aren't real. It's just like the the play object to pretend that there is a world that can produce magazines like how North Korea has like the fake dining. It's like, oh, someone's coming. Show them the amazing sort of like thing to wow them. Magazines, too, are fake because it implies that there is society to read about. Yeah. Which there's not.

[01:04:25] We really gave North Korea too hard a time about the fake pretend dolly houses that made everything look fine. No, no, they were just early. It's just like I would love if we faked. I would love if we even started faking again. We don't fake anymore. I would love a three sided structure that looks real from the front. That's all the time we have for anime sickos. Normally, we don't like to leave you on a downer, but that's the world, folks.

[01:04:55] I've been Tom and anime sicko. I've been Joe and anime sicko. We'll see you next time. Bye bye. Bye bye. Thank you for listening to anime sickos. I've been Tom, a sicko. You can follow me on Blue Sky at Tom Harrison. Joe was also a sicko. You can follow him on Blue Sky at Sharia Uncle. You can follow anime sickos on Blue Sky at Anime Sickos or email us at AnimeSickos at gmail.com. You can give us money at Patreon.com slash AnimeSickos if you want.

[01:05:23] Please leave us a review or something. I don't know. Tell a friend. Anyway, until next time, bye. Bye bye. Bye bye.