Welcome to this week’s Weekly Sceptic podcast – episode 37!
Nick and Toby discuss the National Conservatism conference, having both attended the gala dinner at the Natural History Museum on Monday night. Why has the liberal left convinced itself that it’s some kind of neo-Nazi convention, when the driving force behind National Conservatism is the Israeli intellectual Yarom Hazony? They also defend Douglas Murray, who has been attacked on Twitter for saying in his speech at the gala dinner that Germany has given nationalism a bad name by having ‘mucked up’ twice in the 20th Century. Don’t the haters understand ironic understatement?
They go on to discuss the remarks of Sir Simon Macdonald, formerly the top man at the Foreign Office, who bad-mouthed Britain in an interview in the New Statesman. Nick has some sympathies for his gloomy assessment of Britain’s future as a global power – it doesn’t have one, basically – while Toby says he might as well have hoisted the Chinese flag above Whitehall.
We then hear from our first sponsor, the Live In Care Company. You can reach them at their website or on 0118 914 5300.
The next topic is Donald Trump’s ‘Town Hall’, which Nick describes as ‘CNN’s Trump Comedy Special’. The boys agree that Trump projected masculine power, and Nick particularly enjoyed Trump telling the audience that the plaintiff in the recent sexual assault case against him has a cat called ‘Vagina’. But Toby says this might not have been an example of the liberal media shooting itself in the foot, as everyone claims. After all, if it helped to consolidate Trump’s status as the Democratic front runner, then that will probably help Joe Biden, who Toby thinks will fare better in a run-off against the former President than against Ron DeSantis.
They then talk about the extraordinary amounts of money raised for the defence of Daniel Penny, the ex-marine accused of killing Jordan Neely, and agree that his prosecution is an unwelcome development since it will mean have-a-go-heroes are less likely to intervene to protect the weak and vulnerable from violent males in future.
They take time out to marvel at the new ad for Miller Lite, which credits women with inventing beer. Toby says it’s as if Miller Lite saw the damage that Bud Light’s embrace of woke gobbledegook was doing to its sales and said, ‘Hold my beer.’
In Birdwatch, the boys talk about Tucker Carlson’s forthcoming show on Twitter and puzzle over Elon Musk’s appointment of Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO. Does this represent a pivot away from a subscriber-funded platform back to an advertiser-funded one? And what will that mean for free speech on Twitter?
Then we hear from their second sponsor, life coach and all round good egg Thor Holt. Those wanting to connect with Thor can do so at linkedin.com/in/thorholt or check out his Substack at thorholt.Substack.com.
Daily Sceptic Editor Will Jones then makes an appearance to talk about the top stories of the week on the site.
We then hear from our final sponsor, The Stack Assistant. Those wanting some guidance about how to get into Bitcoin can contact him at thestackassistant@pm.me.
Finally, the boys compete to see who can come up with the most egregious example of Peak Woke, with Nick offering up non-binary transformer cartoons, a Californian teacher suspended for offering colleagues some of Jeremy Boring’s chocolate, while Toby nominates the Ministry of Justice guidance about no longer calling criminals ‘Convicts’ but instead ‘Persons of Lived Experience’ and the fact that a man rowed in the Cambridge women’s reserve boat in the boat race in 2015.
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