YouSaid · the spoken record

Cenk Uygur

lines on the record: 292
first: 2024-08-30
most recent: 2024-08-30
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“No, so The right wing drives me crazy. So look, guys, your instincts of populism is correct. Your instincts of antichorion is correct, right? And I love you for it. And so in a lot of ways, the right-wing voters figured out the whole system screwed before left-wing voters did. I shouldn't say left-wing voters because progressives and left-wing have been saying it for not only decades, but maybe centuries, right? But democratic voters. A lot of Democratic voters.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So Exactly. And so, and again, nothing's ever perfect at any snapshot of history, right? Or of the moment, you're going to be at some point in the pendulum swing. But if you trust the people and you let the pendulum swing but not wildly, then you're going to get to the right answers in the long run”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. There are some parts that are easy to solve lex. So, you know, if you donated to a politician and he gave you a billion dollar subsidy, that's not meritocracy.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And it's not us, these other folks that did this YouTube video. I can't even quite find who they were, but it was a brilliant video. And they said, okay, we're going to do a 100-yard race. But hold on, before we start, anyone who has two parents take two steps forward. Anyone who has went to college take another two steps forward. Anyone who doesn't have bills to pay for education anymore take two steps forward. They do all these things, right? And then at the end, before they start, somebody's 20 yards from the finish line. And a lot of people are still at the starting line. And then they go, okay, now we're going to run a race. And the guy was right next to the finish line wins. And they go, meritocracy.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Middle class, well, you must not have merited wealth, so you're no good. We don't have to listen to you. And that's a really dangerous, awful idea. And so We get to a meritocracy one day, I'll be the happiest person in America. But right now, look, here I'll give you an example that I put in the book.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, because of the corruption, it's so, for example, but there's also, but remember, corporate media is the matrix, and they plug you into cable, right, in the old days. Now it's a little bit different because of online media, but especially 10 years ago, and remember, we started 22 years ago, so I've been losing my mind over how obvious corporate media corruption has been for decades now, right? But no one acknowledged it until online media got stronger. But one of the myths that corporate media creates is the myth of meritocracy. Not that meritocracy can't exist or shouldn't exist, but they pretend it exists today. So the problem with that myth, Lex, is that it gets people thinking, well, if they're already rich, they must have merited it by definition. So all the rich have merit. And the reverse of that, if you're poor.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And a trans woman, I mean, it happens in boxing. It happens in MMA. Punches a biological woman so hard that she kills her, right? So you're going to set back trans rights 50 years. I'm not trying to hurt you. I'm trying to help you. You have to do bounds of reason. So when I say simple things like that, and you give LeBron James every hormone blocker on planet Earth, he's still going to dominate the WNBA. It would be comical. He might score 100 points a night. And they'll say, that's outrageous. And some have called me Nazi for saying that trans women or that professional leagues should make their own decisions on whether they allow trans women or in or not. So why do they say that? Because they're so besieged they think we cannot give an inch. We cannot give any ground. If you give any ground, you're a Nazi. So we've got to get out of that mindset. You can't function in a democracy and be in an extreme position and expect the rest of the country to go towards your extreme position.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Going to go with their preset ideologies just like the far right tribus. So, for example, on trans issues, we've protected trans people for over 20 years in the young Turks. We fought for equality for trans people and for all LGBTQ people. For two decades, we did it way before anyone else did. When Biden came out in favor of gay marriage in 2013, we're like, this is comically late. So we were all supposed to congratulate him in the year 2013 that he thinks gay people should have the same rights as straight people. And then he had to push Obama to get there, right? On the other hand, I'm like, guys, if you allow trans women Go into professional sports, not at the high school level, but professional sports. But let's say they go into MMA or boxing.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because people are taught to just be in the tribe they're in and to believe it 100%. Like I've gotten kicked out of every tribe. I might be the most attacked man in internet history, partly because we've been around forever and partly because I disagree with every part of the political spectrum because I believe in independent thought. And the minute you vary a little bit, People go nuts. And so the far left tribe is.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“God, that is the problem with affirmative action. It devalues the accomplishments of every minority in the country. You have to transition away from it. If you don't, it sets up a caste system. And that caste system is lethal to democracy. So does DEI go too far in some instances? Yes. But is it a boogeyman that's going to take all the white jobs and make them black, as Trump would say black jobs, right? And give minorities too much power, et cetera. No, the idea isn't to rob you and to give all the opportunity to minorities. The idea is to make it equal. But as the pendulum swings, did it swing too far in some directions? Yes. The left can't acknowledge that and the right thing can't acknowledge that. Of course at some point you got to give a chance for others to break in so they have a fair chance.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'm a minority. Being a Turk and grow up Muslim, I'm an atheist now, but generally speaking Muslim is certainly a minority in America and pretty much a hated one overall. But I didn't check off Muslim or Turkish or any ethnicity when I applied to college because I believe in a meritocracy, as we were talking about. But we don't really have a meritocracy now. And so I can come back to that. But right now I didn't check it out because I didn't want an unfair advantage because I want to earn it. I want to earn it. So now I'm in law school and I'm hanging out with right-wingers because at that point I'm a Republican. And one of the guys says to me about one of our black student going to Columbia. He says, oh, I wonder how he got in here.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Have it earl going to white guys because that's how the system was. Yes, also in the north, right? So we now are in a civil rights area. We decide we're going to go towards equality. Minorities in that case mainly black Americans had to find a way to break in. I'm not trying to like if you're a longshoreman and it's a good job you naturally want to pass it on to your son. I get your instinct. I don't hate you for it, right? But we got to let black kids also have a shot at it, right? So you need it in the beginning. At a certain point, you have to phase it out. So when I was growing up, it's now in the late 80s, early 90s. I hated affirmative action. And I've been principled on it from day one and to this day. I don't, I'm not in favor of affirmative action. I say it on the show all the time. Why?”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Okay, so now we're getting into social issues, right? So, this is where we all rip each other apart, and then the people at the top laughed their ass off at us and go, we got a fighting over trash issues. They're killing each other. It's hilarious. And they're so busy, they don't realize we're running the place, right? Okay, but let's engage. Some people will look at DEI and go, well, that just gives me an opportunity, just like anyone else. I love DEI. Another person will look at it and go, no, that gives, that says that you should be picked above me, and I hate DEI, right? So the reality of DEI is a little bit more complicated. And so, but you got to go back. So first, did we need affirmative action in the 1960s? Definitely. Why? All the firefighter jobs in South Carolina, as an example, are going to white guys all the longshoreman jobs in New York, LA, wherever you are.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right, and I love that's the essence of America, and that's what I want to go back to. So we've got to create that opportunity not just because it's the moral thing to do, but because it's also the economically smart thing to do. If you enable all those great people that are in lower income classes and middle income classes, you're going to get a much better economy, a much stronger democracy. So that's the direction we got.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I love meritocracy. I wish that we lived in a meritocracy and I want to drive towards living in a meritocracy. So that's why I don't like equality of results. So, okay, now people that are on the left will get super mad at that and go, what do you mean? Well, okay, brother, let's say you're at work and you got one guy who's working his ass off. Another guy, let's go, I don't care. I'm not going to do it, right? Well, the guy who works super hard has to pick up the slack. Now he's working twice as hard, right? And now you want the same results. You want the same salary as that guy? No, brother, no. He's working twice four times ten times harder than you. That's not fair. Fairness matters. I lived, we wound up, I mean, we're in the suburbs of Jersey, but we wound up in freehold eventually. And we lived across a farm, which is kind of, in central Jersey, it happens, right? And it was called Fair Chance Farm. I was like, how did I get this?”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But the reason I brought up here is because he taught me, look, like skill and ability is a genetic lottery. So you're not going to just get the rich to win all the genetic lottery. No, there's going to be tons of poor kids and middle class kids or just as good if not better. You have to provide them the opportunity, the fair chance to succeed. You have to believe in them. This isn't about disempowering anyone. It's about empowering all of those kids who are doing the right thing or smart and want to work hard so they could build their own companies and add to the economy.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, right? It's super hot. It's super hard. They got to get up at four in the morning. If they're lucky, they have family next door gives them a mule. If they're not, they got to carry the shit themselves. Okay. So my uncle told him, work just as hard in school and you'll be able to get a house, a car, pretty girls, et cetera. So my dad works his ass off, gets into the school, and he comes out a mechanical engineer and starts his own company. He creates a company in Turkey, hires hundreds of people. He then moves to America, creates a company here, hires tons of people, right? So do I hate companies? No, my dad set up two companies, and I saw how much it benefited people. I saw how much employees would come up to my dad 20, 30 years later in the street and hug him. And they'd tell me as a young kid, your dad's the most fair boss we ever had and we love him for it, right? That's how you run a company. And he taught me the value of hard work.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How did he do that? What made the difference? Well, what made the difference is opportunity, right? So I'm a populist because my dad was in the masses, right? And the elites say the masses are no good. We're smart, you're not. We're educated, you're not. We at meritocracy, we talk about that. We have earned merit. And if you're a poor middle class, you have not earned merit. Okay, you're useless and worthless. And I hate that. So what did Turkey do back in the 1960s that liberated my dad? They provided free college education. You had to test into it, okay? But the top 15% got a free college education at the best colleges in Turkey. So my uncle saved all of our lives when he came to my dad and said, do you like working on this farm? And my dad's like,”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's really, and that informs a lot of how I think about things, which is my dad. So my dad was a farmer in southeastern Turkey near the Syrian border. No money. In fact, his dad died when he was six months old and so they were saddled with debt. And no electricity in his house, like as poor as poor gets. And he wound up living the American dream. And so”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, the right idea isn't shut down drug companies. The right idea is don't let them buy the government, right? So, and I know we get back into our instinctual shells. So on the left, there'll be, oh, we should get rid of all billionaires. Why? Like, how does that fix the system? Tell me how it fixes the system, and I'm all ears, right? My solution is end private financing. Then you can be a billionaire all you like. You can't buy the government, right? That's a more logical way to go about it. I've never worn an eat the rich shirt, and it drives me crazy. I'm like, you would have eaten FDR, right? And FDR is the best president, most populous president, in my opinion. And so, no, there's wonderful rich people. Of course, of course, there's a range of humanity, right? But you don't want to get rid of the rich. You don't want to get rid of companies, but you also don't want to let them control everything. So, okay, here I'll give you an example.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, because okay. Are you right? Not about companies, but about capitalism? Yes, because you know, you look at life expectancy 200 years ago and you look at it now and you go, wow, holy shit, we did amazing things, right? And what happened in the last 200 years? We went from dictatorships more towards democracy, wisdom of the crowd. We went from, you know, serfs and indentured servants and a nobility that holds the land to more towards capitalism. And boom, the crowd is right. Things go really well. The advances in medicine are amazing. And medicine is a great example. And on our show, I point all those things out and I say, look, we hate the drug companies because of how they capture the government, right? But we don't hate the drug companies for creating great drugs. Those drugs save lives. They save my life. They save countless millions upon millions of lives.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I formed Justice Democrats. So that's AOC, et cetera, right? That's people know it as the squad. They know it as Justice Democrats, et cetera. One of the co-founders of that. And my number one rule was no corporate pack money. Okay. So you're not allowed to take corporate pack money. By the way, now Matt Gates and Josh Hawley have stopped taking corporate pack money and they've become to some degree on economic issues genuine populists. It's amazing. It happens overnight. All of a sudden they're holding, they're talking about holding corporations accountable, et cetera. Now just Democrats wound up having other problems. They got too deep into social issues, not economic issues.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Look, ironic company. And so I don't want companies to go away. And I don't want you to hate all companies. I think young Turks is a wonderful company, right? We provide great health care. We take care of our employees. On those principles and the right way to run a company, right? But Guys were at the wrong part of the pendulum. The companies have overwhelming power and their crushing us. We're like that seen in Star Wars with a trash compactors closing in on them, the walls are closing in. We're almost out of time because they've captured the government almost entirely. They're only serving corporate interests. We've got to get back into balance before it's too late. That's why I care so much about structural issues.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Corporatism, right? You want to get to hey, where's the right balance here between capitalism and what people think is socialism?”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Works the same way in a functioning democracy, you go too far, you come back in. So, for example, when Reagan came into office, me and my dad and my family, we were Republicans. Why? At that point, the highest marginal tax rate was at 70%. 70% is too high, right? Now he brought it all the way down to 28%. That's too low, right? And that's how the system modulates itself. Already we were headed towards corruption because it's the 80s now or past 78, magic 78 marker, right? And even Carter was way more conserved economically than people realized because we were already getting past it by the time it's in his administration. But the bottom line is, yes, whenever you have real wisdom of the crowd, whether it's in business or in politics, you're going to have fluctuation. You're going to have that pendulum swinging back and forth. You don't want wild swings. Communism.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At all times. So if you do that, it actually reminds me of the Biden fight, right? So I'm like, guys, he is almost no chance of winning. He stands for the establishment. He can't talk. But then the number one pushback I'd get from Democrats was. Yeah, but what if we change it so scary? We don't know about Kamala Harris. What if it's not Kamala Harris? It's so scary. Don't change. And I'm like, yeah, but if you say change my be worse, it also might be better. And you're at zero. Anything is better, right? And right now, in terms of corruption in America, we're at 98% corruption. So we got 2% decency left. Brother, this is when you want change. And so, and Lex, if you actually have wisdom of the crowd, just like in supply and demand and how it works in economics.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Companies have so much power right now. This pendulum has swung so far. And guys, we're almost out of time. The window's closing. The minute private equity buys all of our homes, the residential real estate market. We're screwed. We're indentured servants forever. There goes wealth creation for the average American. Your right likes this that it's not a contradiction. It's a tension that is inevitable to get to balance. The reason why people kind of can't figure me out, they're like, well, you're on the left, but you're a capitalist, et cetera. That's not a contradiction. That's getting to the right balance. And in order to do that, like if you say, well, if we change the system, I'm afraid of change because what if the pendulum swings too far in the other direction, right? Well, then you would be opposed to change.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Guys are evil. They're not evil. I met them. I worked at MSNBC. I worked on cable. I went to Wharton, you know, Columbia Law, etc. I know a lot of those guys. And so they're not at all evil. Don't even know that they're mainly serving their own interests. They just naturally do it, right? And so they think the carrot interest loophole makes a lot of sense, right? They think corporate tax cuts makes a lot of sense. You not getting higher wages. You're not having health care makes a lot of sense. It doesn't make any goddamn sense, but they get themselves to believe it. And that's another part portion of the invisible hand on the markets.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, you know why? Because I'm a real populist and I believe in the people. So I drive the establishment crazy because they don't believe in the people. They think, oh, Jack, have you seen MAGA? Have you seen these guys? Have you seen the radicals on the left? We're so much smarter. You know how many Ivy League degrees we have, right? And we know what we're doing. No, you don't. No, everybody to some degree looks out for their own interests, right? Why I like capitalism and why I love democracy is because it's the wisdom of the crowd. And so in the long run, the crowd is right. Oftentimes in the short term, we're wrong, okay? But the wisdom of the crowd in the long run is much, much better than the elites that run things. The elites say, well, we're so smart and educated, so we're going to know better what's good for you. No, brother, you're going to know what's better for you. And so here's something that a lot of people get wrong in the populist left and right. They think, oh, those.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so the Tea Party in Boston was against that corporation. They threw their tea overboard. It was not against the British monarchy. And so, and all the founding fathers warned us over and over again, watch out for corporations, okay? Because once they form, they will amass money and power and look to kill off democracy. And they were totally right. That's exactly what happened. And so it's not that you don't have them. It's that through democratic capitalism, you limit their power. They definitely, you can give them a bunch of rights. You say, hey, you have a right to exist. You have a right to do this, this, and this, okay, but you do not have constitutional rights of a citizen. And so you don't have the right to speak to a politician by giving them a billion dollars.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Corporation. ACLU is technically a corporation. And so if you end corporate personhood, then that could endanger their existence, right? No, it doesn't endanger their existence at all, right? So it doesn't endanger GM or GE's existence. It doesn't endanger anybody's existence. Corporations exist. We're not trying to take them away. I would never do that, right? That's not smart. That's not workable, et cetera. We're just saying they don't have constitutional rights. So they have the rights that we give them. And by the way, read the Founding Fathers. This is also in my book. They hated corporations. The American Revolution”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I think 5,000 is too high, but those are fine debates, yeah, you know, but you basically want to create an incentive. Everything is about incentives and disincentives. Again, capitalists realize this better than anyone else, right? So you want to set up an incentive to serve your voters, not your donors. So if you take away private donors, well, there goes that incentive. And that's gigantic, right? And then if you set up small grassroots funding as a way to get past the threshold to get the funding to run an election, well, then good because then you're serving small donors, which are generally voters, right? So that's what you want. And ending private financing is critical. But the second thing is ending corporate personhood. So this is where you get into a lot of fights because you have two reasons. One is some folks have a principled position against it and they say, well, I mean, the Sierra Club is technically a core.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Indirect funding's gone. Direct funding's gone. You have to set up some thresholds. Not everybody can just get money to run. You have to prove that you have some sort of popular support. So signature gathering, you would still allow for small money donations like up to $100, something along those lines.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Politicians, the politicians will serve private interests. And then you're going to get into a fight like Elon did in New Jersey, where the car dealerships and Tesla are getting into an auction. Can I hear $100,000, $2 million, 3 million, right? And now you've got to go bribe the government official that's called a campaign contribution. And this is a terrible system, right? And the private financing go to complete public financing of elections. That's when the conservatives, because they've been propagandized by corporate media, yes, mainstream media got into your head too, and right-wing media got into your head too. And right-wing media also financed by a lot of this corrupt interest. And so they tell you, oh, you don't want to publicly finance. Oh my God, you'd be spending like a billion dollars on politicians. Brother, they're spending trillions of dollars of your money because they're financed by the guys that they're giving all of your money to.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because the reason why these super old politicians are in charge is because they provide a return on investment. So you know if you give to Biden, Pelosi or McCano, they're going to deliver for you. They love that return on MS. They don't want to risk it on a new guy. The new guy might have principles or might want to actually do a little bit for his voters. Boo. Whereas these old, you know, and every corrupt system has these old guys hanging around that help maintain power, et cetera. So my particular proposal in the amendments would be a couple of things. One is end private financing of elections. So if, and look, if you're a business person, you're a capitalist. You know this with absolute certainty. If somebody signs your check, that's the person you work for, right? So if private interests are funding”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I started a group called Wolfpack. Thank you. Wolfpack.com. And the reason why I named a wolf pack is because everyone in Washington I knew would hate that name. It's a populist name and everybody in Washington Snickers for America and just trick people, etc. No, no, no. Wolfpack means we're coming for you. Okay. We're not coming for you in a weirdo physical or violent way. We're coming for you in a democratic way. Okay. So we're going to go to those state houses. We're going to get them to propose a convention. And we did it in five states, but then Democratic Party started beating us back. We'll get to that. And so we are going to overturn your Apple cart and we're going to put the American people back in charge. So what does the amendment say? Number one, a lot of people will have different opinions on what it should say. And that's what you sort out in a convention. So for example, one of the things that conservatives can propose, which makes sense, is term limits.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Whatever she was. And I said Trump would win. Okay. And the whole panel laughed out loud, right? They're like, get a lot of this crazy guy. I said he's a populist who seems to hate the establishment in a populist time. And so, and drain the swamp is a great slogan. And I knew he would win when he was in a Republican debate. And he said, Paid all these guys. Before I paid them and they did whatever I wanted. And I was like, that's so true, right? And people will love that. And especially Republican voters will love that. I actually have a lot of respect for Republican voters because they actually genuinely hate corruption.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Says nothing about it. Go ahead, Magga. Why haven't you held him to account? Like, so when Bernie helped Biden take out $15 minimum wage from the Senate bill on the first bill that was introduced in the Biden administration, we went nuts. We did a petition. We sent in videos to Bernie, our audience going, don't kill it, Bernie. Don't kill it. And so Bernie then reintroduced it as an amendment. It got voted down, but he did the right thing, right? That is us holding our top leader accountable and saying, you better get back on track, okay? Because we're not here for you and your personal self-aggrandizement. We're here for policy, right? And if MAGA was actually here for policy, they would absolutely level Trump on the fact that he, I mean, remember what he ran on, trained the swamp. That's why he won in 2016, right? So I predicted on ABC right after the DNC and Hillary Clinton was up 10, 12 points.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so and you're absolutely right, but that is the fault of MAGA. And so MAGA, you're screwing populace in a way that is infuriating. Yeah, we're not enamored by politicians. And for example, when Bernie does the wrong thing, we call him out. Bernie's not my goddamn uncle. I don't like him for some personality reason. It's not a cult of personality. You do the right thing I love you for. You do the wrong thing. I'm going to kick your ass for it, right? But Donald Trump does this massive, ridiculous corruption over and over again. And Maggie's like, I'm here for it. Love it. As long as you're doing the corruption, I'm okay with it.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, eventually they will, right? And so that's why I actually have a lot of hope, even though things seem super dark right now. And that's why I was for Bernie. So I can come back to that. But why hasn't Trump done there is easy? He's like, what am I a sucker? The guy gives me money. I do what the guy wants. Why would I get rid of that? That's how I got into power. And so that's how I'm doing it now. I go to Miriam Mandelson and say, give me $100 million and I'll let Israel annex the West Bank, right? So I'll go to the oil companies and give me a billion dollars and I'll give you tax subsidies. I'll let you drill. I'll take away regulation. Why would I stop that?”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“A second outlet. They said, or two thirds of the states can call for a convention where you can propose an amendment. And after an amendment is proposed, then three-quarters of the states have to ratify it. So that's what makes it so difficult because getting three quarters of the states, there's so many red states, so many blue states, getting three quarters of the states to agree is near impossible. But there is one issue that the whole country agrees on. 93% of Americans believe that politicians serve their donors and not their voters. So this is the one thing we can unite on. If we unite on this, we push our states to call for a convention. We all go to the convention together. We bring democracy alive, and we propose amendments to the Constitution. The best amendment gets three quarters of the states to ratify. You go above the Supreme Court and you solve the whole thing.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Productivity is still sky high, best in the world. Okay, sometimes people, oh, American workers lazy, not remotely true. We work our ass off, okay? But wages flatline. And they've been flatlining for about 50 years straight. And the reason is because the Supreme Court made bribery legal. So in order to get past the Supreme Court, you only have one choice. That's an amendment. And so you have to get an amendment. Amendments are very difficult. So for example, You need two-thirds of Congress to even propose the amendment. So, well, why would Congress propose an amendment that would take away their own power, right? Because almost everybody in Congress got there through corruption. Their main talent is I can kiss corporate ass better than you can, right? So they take the most amount of a person with more money in Congress wins 95% of the time, right? But the good news is the Founding Fathers were geniuses and they put it in.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Is an inalienable right, so corporations can spend unlimited money in politics. And there goes our democracy, gone. So Citizens United just shot a dead horse with a Gatling gun and made it worse and put it on steroids, but it was already dead in 78. So that's why every chart you see for the rest of your life, you'll see this every chart about the American economy starts to diverge in 1978. So until 38 to 78, we have golden 40 years of economic prosperity. We create the greatest middle class the world has ever seen. And our productivity is sky high, but our wages match our productivity. After 78.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We need quote activist judges to help business interests on the court. And then Nixon reads the memo and goes, that sounds like a really good idea. How about I put you on the Supreme Court? And he puts Lewis Powell, the guy who wrote the memo on the Supreme Court, where he's the deciding vote in Belotti and Buckley. So those two decisions are 76 and 78. And what they say is, yeah, yeah, I read the Constitution and it says that money is speech. No, it isn't. And no, it didn't. That's not even close to true. They just made it up. And they said, okay, and corporations, they're human beings. No, they're not. That's preposterous, right? And they have the same inalienable rights as human beings and citizens do. And money is speech and speech.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, 100%. So, okay. So let me explain. Again, people for the uninitiated, they think, oh, that sounds conspiratorial. Well, in this case, that's actually somewhat true because people now know about this. It's the Powell memo, right? The most infamous political memo in history. Lewis Powell writes a memo for the Chamber of Commerce in 1971 that's basically a blueprint for how the Chamber of Commerce can take over the government. And Lewis Powell explains one of the most important things you have to do is take over the media. But even more important than that is taking over the Supreme Court because the Supreme Court is the ultimate arbiter of what is allowed and not allowed. And he says”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No chance. Okay, so we can get into that in a minute. So the culture wars are meant to divide us. If we get united, we have enough leverage and power to be able to do it. But you can't do it through a normal bill. Because if you do it in a bill, the whole point of capturing the Supreme Court was to make sure that they kill any piece of legislation that would protect the American people.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's very difficult but doable, and we will do it. But in order to do it, the populace left and the populists right have to unite. And by the way, that is why we have the cultural wars.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They hate that. So they take their rising star and they take her off air. And she goes, okay, good. Let me out of my contract. It's okay. I'll go because she was such a star at that time. She could have easily gotten somewhere else. And they go, no, we're not going to let you out of your contract. Why not? Are you going to pay me to do nothing? Yeah. Not only that, we're moving your office. Where are you moving it to? They literally moved it into a closet. Okay. And they made sure that everybody in the building saw her getting taken off the air and moved into a closet. The closet is the memo, right? That's the memo to the whole building. You better shut up and do as you're told. Okay. So that way I don't have to tell you and get myself in trouble. It's super obvious. There are guardrails here and you are not allowed to go beyond acceptable thought. And acceptable thought is our sponsors are great. Politicians are great. The powerful are great.”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Contractor, they own MSNBC at the time of the Iraq war. They fired everyone who was against the Iraq war on air. So Fild Donahue, Jesse Ventura, Ashley Banfield, but Ashley Banfield, they did something different with. She was a rising star at the time. She goes and gives us speech in Kansas. Not really even having a policy position, but just talking about the actual”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sometimes it's super direct when I was a host on MSNBC. I had a company that I was criticizing in my script and management looked at him. By the way, I used to go off Prompter a lot and it drove him crazy, not because I wasn't good at it. I think my ratings went up whenever I went off Prompter, but because they couldn't pre-approve the script. And what do they want to pre-approve? Hey, are you going to criticize one of our sponsors, one of our advertisers, et cetera? So they had a giant fight over it and the compromise was I moved them lower in the script but kept them in the story, right? So sometimes it's super direct like that, but way more often it's implicit, it's indirect. You don't have to say it right. So I give you an spectacular example of it so that you get a sense of how it works implicitly. So since G is a giant defense,”
2024-08-30 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #441 – Cenk Uygur: Trump vs Harris, Progressive Politics, Communism & Capitalism · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source