👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌 This was quite the enjoyable podcast, Liza! I’d never heard of Baz before but I have now followed him and will be giving his articles a read. On another note, why were you apologizing about the podcast being audio only? I don’t mean that question in a rude way, I just think if people have complained about that before or will complain about it they need to chill out. Podcast typically are in audio only format and you had those annoying issues with your political compass test video were the audio for whatever reason cut out a couple times, so it makes sense you would only record the audio of the interview. Plus, videos take forever to edit and you only have limited time to do the things you want to do.
With all that being said, I will now get into my thoughts on the interview itself. It’s amazing how your experiences in the literary part of academia and his in comedy mirror each other. You both were made to feel like outsiders in a field that was your passion because of them being hijacked by woke radicals. The same was true for me in the history field. I found out pretty quickly that our state history museum and the National Association of Interpretation were captured by radical leftism and identity politics. I’ll give a couple examples: the state history museum sent to out an invitation to attend a meeting discussing a “black and indigenous critique of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” I was also told by the hiring manager at the museum when I applied to become a tour guide that my disability “was sexy” right now because of the emphasis on diversity and inclusion all museums had (this was in 2020) in the wake
of the George Floyd incident.
She also told me quite openly me that if she was interviewing someone for the tour guide role and they were from a minority group she “almost wanted to overlook their qualifications.” So in other words, all she cared about was their identity, not whether they’d make a good tour guide or not. The museum also did land acknowledgments (cringe!) and had signs everywhere saying “you are on native land.” (double cringe!) 🤦♂️
But in any case, Baz’s experience in the comedy world is sadly pretty commonplace. Comedy is so sterile, PC and careful not to offend anyone. This is why folks like Dave Chappelle, Tim Dillion, Shane Gillis, Joe Rogan, and Andrew Schulz are so refreshing in this day and age. Comedy should have no limits and no subject matter should be off the table. Comedy legends like George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and Norm Macdonald became legends precisely because they were willing to push boundaries and offend the oversensitive and the uptight on both the left and the right. But Baz got cancelled because he didn’t tow the line.
You experienced the same thing when you wrote your paper on the women of the Odyssey looking to the men for comfort and that they benefitted from a patriarchal system in that way. Your professor was NOT happy about that and gave you a C or when the PhD program at Columbia University kicked you out because you “dared” to tear down one of their sacred cows and argue feminist literature is worthless and that Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” was not about feminist empowerment.
I’m glad both you and Baz struck out on your own! Substack warts and all, is such a great thing precisely because it allows talented folks who hold heterodox views to thrive! Also, it doesn’t surprise me the publishing industry only thrives on a couple big authors. I’d never even heard of them before today but apparently they bring in enough money to keep the gradually dying industry afloat. Sally Rooney is an awful person, I couldn’t agree more. Her books also never struck me as particularly interesting, so I have no idea who’s buying them or how they sell. She has nothing on Mark Twain, Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charlotte Bronte, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Edith Wharton, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas, Langston Hughes, John Milton, Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, J.D. Salinger, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Patricia Cornwall!
On the part about your own personal politics, I’d agree that you are a libertarian. You are more liberal on social issues but you are conservative on fiscal and cultural issues. I’d also agree Donald Trump is at least a traditional conservative. I’d call him more like a paleo-conservative/Buchananite. Had you been alive in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, I could definitely see you being a critic of the New Deal and the Great Society, an opponent of FDR and Harry Truman, assisting in efforts to help Jewish refugees fleeing Europe, and voting for Ike, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and especially Ronald Reagan. I definitely think you would’ve been a huge Reagan fan. I’m pretty sure you would not have been a fan of Jimmy Carter’s presidency either. I could definitely see you being a big advocate for the creation of Israel and lobbying the Truman administration for official U.S. recognition of the Jewish state.
You also I am sure naturally, would’ve been at the forefront of the efforts to assist your fellow Soviet Jews. I have no doubt you’d have advocated for free market, lassiez-faire capitalism, traditional values and combating Communism around the globe while also being supportive of the civil rights, women’s liberation, gay rights, and disability rights movements. I also have no doubt you’d have been against the Vietnam War and the draft while also rejecting the counterculture.
In closing, I wanted to say how grateful I am to be a part of the Pens and Poison audience and that your snooty, woke WASP classmates who lived off daddy’s money have nothing on the daughter of Eastern European and Jewish immigrants who is a shining example of the American dream and meritocracy in action! I also wish Baz all the best of luck with his Substack, we need guys like him no more than ever!
👏👏👏🙌🙌🙌 This was quite the enjoyable podcast, Liza! I’d never heard of Baz before but I have now followed him and will be giving his articles a read. On another note, why were you apologizing about the podcast being audio only? I don’t mean that question in a rude way, I just think if people have complained about that before or will complain about it they need to chill out. Podcast typically are in audio only format and you had those annoying issues with your political compass test video were the audio for whatever reason cut out a couple times, so it makes sense you would only record the audio of the interview. Plus, videos take forever to edit and you only have limited time to do the things you want to do.
With all that being said, I will now get into my thoughts on the interview itself. It’s amazing how your experiences in the literary part of academia and his in comedy mirror each other. You both were made to feel like outsiders in a field that was your passion because of them being hijacked by woke radicals. The same was true for me in the history field. I found out pretty quickly that our state history museum and the National Association of Interpretation were captured by radical leftism and identity politics. I’ll give a couple examples: the state history museum sent to out an invitation to attend a meeting discussing a “black and indigenous critique of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” I was also told by the hiring manager at the museum when I applied to become a tour guide that my disability “was sexy” right now because of the emphasis on diversity and inclusion all museums had (this was in 2020) in the wake
of the George Floyd incident.
She also told me quite openly me that if she was interviewing someone for the tour guide role and they were from a minority group she “almost wanted to overlook their qualifications.” So in other words, all she cared about was their identity, not whether they’d make a good tour guide or not. The museum also did land acknowledgments (cringe!) and had signs everywhere saying “you are on native land.” (double cringe!) 🤦♂️
But in any case, Baz’s experience in the comedy world is sadly pretty commonplace. Comedy is so sterile, PC and careful not to offend anyone. This is why folks like Dave Chappelle, Tim Dillion, Shane Gillis, Joe Rogan, and Andrew Schulz are so refreshing in this day and age. Comedy should have no limits and no subject matter should be off the table. Comedy legends like George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, and Norm Macdonald became legends precisely because they were willing to push boundaries and offend the oversensitive and the uptight on both the left and the right. But Baz got cancelled because he didn’t tow the line.
You experienced the same thing when you wrote your paper on the women of the Odyssey looking to the men for comfort and that they benefitted from a patriarchal system in that way. Your professor was NOT happy about that and gave you a C or when the PhD program at Columbia University kicked you out because you “dared” to tear down one of their sacred cows and argue feminist literature is worthless and that Sylvia Plath’s poem “Daddy” was not about feminist empowerment.
I’m glad both you and Baz struck out on your own! Substack warts and all, is such a great thing precisely because it allows talented folks who hold heterodox views to thrive! Also, it doesn’t surprise me the publishing industry only thrives on a couple big authors. I’d never even heard of them before today but apparently they bring in enough money to keep the gradually dying industry afloat. Sally Rooney is an awful person, I couldn’t agree more. Her books also never struck me as particularly interesting, so I have no idea who’s buying them or how they sell. She has nothing on Mark Twain, Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charlotte Bronte, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, Edith Wharton, Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas, Langston Hughes, John Milton, Ernest Hemingway, William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, J.D. Salinger, Tom Clancy, John Grisham, and Patricia Cornwall!
On the part about your own personal politics, I’d agree that you are a libertarian. You are more liberal on social issues but you are conservative on fiscal and cultural issues. I’d also agree Donald Trump is at least a traditional conservative. I’d call him more like a paleo-conservative/Buchananite. Had you been alive in the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s, I could definitely see you being a critic of the New Deal and the Great Society, an opponent of FDR and Harry Truman, assisting in efforts to help Jewish refugees fleeing Europe, and voting for Ike, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and especially Ronald Reagan. I definitely think you would’ve been a huge Reagan fan. I’m pretty sure you would not have been a fan of Jimmy Carter’s presidency either. I could definitely see you being a big advocate for the creation of Israel and lobbying the Truman administration for official U.S. recognition of the Jewish state.
You also I am sure naturally, would’ve been at the forefront of the efforts to assist your fellow Soviet Jews. I have no doubt you’d have advocated for free market, lassiez-faire capitalism, traditional values and combating Communism around the globe while also being supportive of the civil rights, women’s liberation, gay rights, and disability rights movements. I also have no doubt you’d have been against the Vietnam War and the draft while also rejecting the counterculture.
I thought the points you made on healthcare were quite interesting. I personally would advocate for America adopting the Dutch healthcare system: https://www.commonwealthfund.org/international-health-policy-center/countries/netherlands
In closing, I wanted to say how grateful I am to be a part of the Pens and Poison audience and that your snooty, woke WASP classmates who lived off daddy’s money have nothing on the daughter of Eastern European and Jewish immigrants who is a shining example of the American dream and meritocracy in action! I also wish Baz all the best of luck with his Substack, we need guys like him no more than ever!