Transcript of #675 - Professor Jiang New

Today's guest is a teacher, geopolitics expert, and YouTuber known for his popular channel Predictive History, where he breaks down why global events happen and what could come next. We covered a lot of ground here, uh, war in the Middle East, China versus America, secret societies. Uh, I had a fascinating chat with today's guest, Professor Zhang. Professor Zhang.

Hey, Theo.

Is that, is that correct?

That's correct, yeah.

Professor Zhang, thank you so much for coming by today.

Well, thank, thanks so much for inviting me.

Yeah, I'm very happy to have you. Is this your first time in Los Angeles?

It's my first time in Los Angeles, yeah.

And how's, how's the experience been so far?

It's been surreal. I'm Um, so your producers have been wonderful. Uh, they put me in this fantastic hotel, and, uh, I went for a walk around the neighborhood, um, West Hollywood. Um, so I went down San, San Monica Boulevard. Oh yeah, it's just gorgeous. Yeah, just, um, the streets are so illuminated and the buildings are so beautiful. But then, you know, as I'm walking there's in the middle of the sidewalk a pile of dog shit. Yeah. So I walk past it and it takes me a couple minutes to realize that didn't come from a dog, actually.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So yeah, it's been surreal.

Yeah, we got a lot of tall dogs in this area. Yeah, yeah, that's just a little decoration, brother. That's how it goes here. And if you're lucky, it'll have a needle in it in the middle.

It's freedom, man.

Yeah, it is freedom, man. Uh, Professor Zhang, thank you so much for just making the trip, uh, for coming and joining us. I know you're from your channel, your YouTube channel Predictive History. Um, can you tell us a little bit about your channel for people that don't know about it?

Yeah, so, um, I'm a high school teacher, and what I try to do is try to explain geopolitics in a way that students can appreciate. And what I try to do is with my analysis, I try to make predictions, and that's a really, um, good way to engage students as well as to test my own worldview, my own hypothesis. And so 2 years ago, while I was teaching this class, I made 3 predictions. The first is that Trump would win in 2024 and that he would launch this war against Iran and that he would lose this war. And I blew up online because it turns out that all 3 predictions turned out to be accurate.

Well, the first 2 for sure. And that's how you came on my radar was with those 2 predictions. That's how I learned about you at first.

Right.

And before we move on with it, do you teach at high school?

That's right, I teach a high school level.

What's something that's kind of unique about a school in China maybe that we wouldn't know?

Well, there are no guns. Oh, okay.

Yeah, good, you win.

You win. Sorry, I'm sorry. So I've been in China and we're just brainwashed all the time about American schools, American culture.

But at least you're brainwashed not to have guns in school. Yeah, that's some of the positive brainwashing at least.

Yeah, yeah.

Um, yeah, you came on my radar whenever, uh, I saw the videos about your, um, you're predicting your Trump win and predicting, uh, the war in on. Um, I, I noticed that you use something called game theory.

Yes.

Um, can you explain, uh, game theory just so people know?

Yeah, so the idea of game theory is that, um, if you want to analyze someone's behavior, you have to look at 3 things. Um, first of all, you have to look at the structure of the game. Uh, how do you win the game? What are the rules? What are the incentives? Um, and once you figure that out, then, uh, you can figure out his or her optimal behavior in this game. So in terms, in terms of geopolitics, just imagine the United States, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia as distinct players in the game, which they're trying to maximize the outcome against each other, and they will use their own unique strategies in order to achieve so. And that's how I'm able to make some amazing predictions.

Yeah, I know, I know the game theory. I remember first hearing about it in that film Beautiful Mind?

Oh yes, yes.

Who was the—

what was the guy's name, Nick?

Uh, John Nash.

John Nash, yeah.

He uses that like whenever they're— whenever he's examining things, right, or trying to figure things out, he uses that in there.

Um, in there.

Um, and he went crazy too.

Yeah, yeah, anyway, crazy.

So best of luck, right? Thank you.

Best of luck, professor. Um, yeah, let's talk about the war in Iran. Let's start there because that's fresh, that's on everybody's mind right now.

Yeah.

Do you think it could be our new Vietnam, or what do you— like, how are you viewing the war in Iran right now? Yeah, the best case scenario is I'd be becomes America's Vietnam.

But I think the problem is—

That's best case scenario.

That's best case scenario.

Yeah.

Yeah. But I think the problem is that this war is expanding very rapidly. So before, a few months ago, it was limited to a war between Israel, United States, and Iran. And now it's brought in Saudi Arabia against the Houthis, which is in Yemen. There's a credible threat that the war in Ukraine might merge with the war in Iran.

Really?

Yes, because what's happened a couple weeks ago is that an Iranian cargo ship that was transporting supplies from Russia to Iran through the Caspian Sea, it was hit by a Ukrainian drone. And since then, the Ukrainians have apologized. But according to game theory, Right now, the Ukrainians aren't doing so well in Ukraine. And right now, Russia is fighting a war of attrition. And because Russia is such a much bigger power than Ukraine, in the long term, Ukraine will ultimately lose this war. So to change that dynamic, what Zelensky wants to do is lure America into the war. And the best way he can do that is to combine the two fronts. Um, so, um, if Zelensky shows that Russia can supply Iran through the Caspian Sea, then, uh, America needs to stop this trade. And Ukraine can help America by sending drones to attack, uh, Iranian shipping. So there's a real threat that these two fronts merge, in which case all bets are off, in which case it's World War III. And you can also, um, see the possibility of systems collapse. Civilizational collapse as well.

All of that from that?

From that. And the reason why is that area, Ukraine, the Middle East, it's really the nexus or the heart of the global economy because that's where the world gets—

But Ukraine and the Middle East are pretty far from each other. Can you even show me on this globe actually how far away from each other are they?

Right, right, right. So this is really interesting, okay? So this is Iran.

And you can move that closer.

Okay, sure. Yeah. So what I wanna show you is how far these fronts are, okay?

Okay.

So this war in Ukraine has been going on since 2022, right? It's been 4 years. And most of the funding is going on in eastern Ukraine, right over here. And fortunately, the war has been limited to this front. Now, as of late February, Iran, this war in Iran has broken out. And what's been happening is that at first, the main conflict was over the Strait of Hormuz, which is right here. But the problem is the entire Middle East depends on the Strait of Hormuz for trade. So Saudi Arabia, um, Bahrain, Qatar, UAE, Kuwait, what they do is they take their oil and then they transport it all the way through the Strait of Malacca, uh, to East Asia, um, and to India and Pakistan. So really, the oil from the Middle East feeds the economies of Asia. You look at a place like Japan, it depends on 3/4 of its oil from over here.

Wow.

And China depends on 40%, India, it's like 50 to 60%. In return, these places will send food over back to the Middle East as well as water because this place is a desert. They don't have their own food and water. But now what people don't appreciate is that there are lots of byproducts of oil. Production. And one of these byproducts is fertilizer for food. And this fertilizer also transits through the Strait of Hormuz to Africa, and this fertilizer feeds their population. So imagine what happens if this entire area shuts down, right? You can have famine in Africa, and you can have economic collapse in East Asia, which would then cause a domino effect where Africa breaks down. You have civil war, revolution in Africa. Then what happens? These migrants shift over to Europe. We've already seen that last week when you have this 50,000 essentially invasion in Spain. That's right. A place called Ceuta, Spain.

Yeah. Right. And that's a small part of Spain that's actually connected to Morocco, right?

That's right. That's right. We can see how volatile the situation is.

Wow. So it's really a domino effect, right?

Now Ukraine is very important because Ukraine and Russia together supplies the world with 1/3 of its carbohydrates. So Ukraine—

Ukraine, say that again. Ukraine and Russia together supply the world with a third of their carbohydrates?

So, so yeah. So is that what you're saying? So what I'm saying is a third of the world's carbohydrates comes from Ukraine and Russia together. Wow.

Is that true?

Yeah. So Ukraine is considered a breadbasket of Europe.

Wow.

The claim is not accurate, but it means that one-third of all carbohydrates eaten or produced globally come from Russia and Ukraine. A more accurate version is Russia and Ukraine have supplied roughly 12% of internationally traded food calories and a very large share of specific grain export markets, about 28 to 30% of globally traded wheat.

So there's a—

there is a huge amount of um, of food calories that comes out of there.

That's right.

So that is true.

That's right. Yeah. Okay, so thanks so much for fact-checking me. Um, but, but yeah, but you can, you can appreciate how the world depends on food, fertilizer, and energy from this area. And so, um, the great threat is that because, uh, Russia can supply Iran through the Caspian Sea the war extends to the Northern Caucasus, which brings in Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan. And then if that would happen, you can see this entire area is now engulfed in war. Another really critical thing that's been happening these past few weeks is that more and more nations are being brought into this war.

So which war? Into the one in the Middle East?

In the Middle East. And the reason why is that for Iran to pressure the United States, what Iran can do is threaten the energy infrastructure of American allies in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, Bahrain. What Iran can do is hold the energy infrastructure of the Middle East hostage. Imagine Saudi Arabia as just this huge oil field.

Okay.

Right? And it's great in a time of peace because you can take this huge oil field and sell it to Japan, China, South Korea, India. But the problem is that a huge oil field means it's a lake of gasoline. So all I have to do is take a match, light it on fire, and then everything blows up. Wow. And Iran can do that with its drone and ballistic missile capabilities. And so Iran is always threatening this. The other issue is that Iran has proxies, meaning allies in the Middle East. And there are 3 major allies. The first are a people called the Houthis, who are these religious fanatic people who live in mountains, and they occupy a very strategic area called the Bab el-Mandeb Strait.

Bab el-Mandeb Strait?

Yes. So, so here's the Strait of Hormuz. Yes.

Yes.

This is the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. And as you can see, these are the two most critical maritime choke points. In the Middle East.

Wow.

And the problem is that the Houthis live in mountains, so it's almost impossible to dislodge them. And because so much of maritime shipping requires insurance, any threat of destruction means that the insurance companies don't want to insure these ships, and that puts a halt on global trade. So the real fear is that Saudi Arabia will launch a ground invasion to dislodge the Houthis and control this—

wow—

choke point. Okay, so you can imagine a massive alliance being, um, formed to go against the Houthis. Another major proxy is called Hezbollah, which is in Lebanon. And, uh, these past few weeks, Israel has been trying to, to attack Hezbollah, and there's a real threat that this area, Lebanon, breaks out into total war. And right now what Israel is trying to do is assemble an alliance to destroy Hezbollah. And this alliance includes Israel, but also includes Syria and also includes the Lebanese Army. And Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran. So Iran, if it sees Hezbollah under threat, then Iran would extend the war in order to help out Hezbollah.

But why would the Lebanese army support Israel if— hasn't there been issues between Israel and Lebanon recently?

Right.

So, like, hasn't there been attacks in Lebanon from Israel?

Right. So Israel is attacking Lebanon because it sees Hezbollah as a threat, because Hezbollah can launch rocket attacks against Israel, and Lebanon can threaten— sorry, Hezbollah can threaten the Suez Canal.

Because wait, Israel has been attacking Lebanon, right?

That's right.

Okay, great.

That's right. So, um, Lebanon— Hezbollah is not part of the Lebanese government. Got it. And so imagine there are different sectarian groups in Lebanon and they share power together. And one of these groups is Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is aligned with Iran, and they are committed to protecting themselves from Israel. And Israel sees them as a bunch of terrorists that need to be removed. And so Hezbollah, the problem with Hezbollah is that it's extremely popular in Lebanon among the Lebanese people, because unlike the Lebanese government, they're not corrupt and they provide good services to the people.

Understood. So yes, sometimes we hear about these groups. You hear about Hamas, you hear about Hezbollah.

Yes.

But the people there in some of these countries actually prefer some of these groups or actually do support some of these groups because they're kind of an outlier government that's more supportive to the people than the actual government?

That's right. So they're popular because they are able to provide basic community services to the local population. And unfortunately, um, these governments in the Middle East, a lot of them have proved to be very corrupt, and a lot of their leaders seem to be sympathetic towards Israeli interests. And people suspect that they've been blackmailed by Mossad because Mossad's very good at that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What kind of blackmail could Mossad be doing, do you feel like, in these spaces? Like, you talk about blackmail and you hear about blackmail a lot. You hear about Mossad, you hear about blackmail in America a lot. Like, um, with the Epstein files in different places holding things potentially over, like, American politicians' heads.

So I think that rather than use the word blackmail, I think we can use the word influence.

How, how are they able able to have so much influence in the area?

Well, I mean, the, um, easiest way is become friends with these people, right? So, uh, let's just say you're leader of Lebanon. Well, you have children. Don't you want your children to go to the best schools? Don't you want your children to get good jobs, maybe working for like Goldman Sachs, maybe working for, um, a university as professor? Well, we can help you because we're all these friends. In the United States, and we can arrange visas for your kids to go study at elite universities. We can ensure that they get good jobs, right?

Right.

I mean, it's that simple, right? It's that simple. Let's just be friends, right? Right. And so if you're a leader of a place like Lebanon and the entire place is rife with sectarian violence, there's not much you can do.

The entire place is rife with what?

Sectarian violence. Sectarian violence.

Sectarian violence.

So tell me what sectarian—

Okay, sectarian violence.

S-E-C-T-A-R-I-A-N. And sectarian violence is physical conflict and harm between different religious or political groups within a community or nation. That's—

there's a lot of that in Lebanon?

Yeah, because you have a lot of different religious groups in Lebanon.

Okay, I understand.

You have the Christians, you have the Muslims, and then they're also broken up in like different groups. And there are also like these tribal loyalties throughout the Middle East. So if you're a leader of Lebanon Afghanistan or Iraq or any place in the Middle East, you're dealing with a very volatile political situation. And do you really want to deal with these people or would you rather use your position to ensure that your children have a better future? Right? To help out your relatives, help your friends. And that's why they go into these political positions. So, and that's the main way that the Mossad is able to exert influence over the Middle East because they can help these leaders send their money and their children to a safe place in Europe or the United States. And if— and, and that is just, um, being, being friendly.

Yeah, that's human survival too. It's like where you want to survive, you want to be well enough to take care of yourselves. That's right. So it's not always like a level of blackmail that's violence. It's sometimes it's a level of, uh It's a level of assistance.

That's right. I'm just helping you out. We're helping each other out, right?

Right.

I help out your children and you help me kill people who are doing nasty things like Hezbollah, right? We both hate Hezbollah because they're terrorists. So we're— and we're just like rubbing each other's back.

Yeah. You mentioned the Strait of Hormuz a few minutes ago.

Yes.

Why is that place so important?

Yeah. So that place—

because you hear it all the time. Can you explain it kind of in basic terms and why it's so important?

Right. Okay. The ship who moves is the linchpin of the Middle East economy because, like, if you just look at this globe, okay, there are certain countries that are within the Persian Gulf, right? Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, basically Dubai. Now, it's important because there's only one way for them to transport their oil.

Okay, got it.

Right. Okay. Do you see how there's only one passageway? It's like a one-way street.

Got it.

Right. So they're going to take their oil and then transport it to East Asia.

Mm-hmm.

And then they're— and then what they get in return is water and food because it's a desert. They can't grow their own food.

Got it.

They don't have their own water.

Okay.

Okay. So that is crucial to their survival. If that were to be eliminated, like suddenly closed off, then UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, all these places would be dead in the water.

Recently Trump had spoken up, I think it was even just the other day, where he said, uh, what he said, um, that Iran will be hit very hard.

You know, he's always like, we're gonna hit it, you know, we're gonna hit him in the fuck, you know, in the fucking head nuts or whatever, we're gonna fucking hit him in the, you know, the mittens they wear on their head. He's always doing something. But it's like he said, they're going to be hit very hard if the Strait of Hormuz doesn't open very soon.

Yes.

How is— how is Iran like controlling that effectively right now for themselves? Right.

Yes.

And how successful are they being with their management of the Strait of Hormuz right now?

Yes. Okay. So to answer this question, I have to explain a concept to you called the escalation ladder.

Okay.

Okay. So what is the escalation ladder? It's a very simple idea, which is in a fight, Emotions create momentum. Okay. Okay. So for example, let's just say you and I, we have a fight. I tell a joke. You think it sucks. I get pissed off at you, so I punch you. Right. So, so what? Then you punch me back. Then I'm like, okay, then I take out a knife and I stab you. Then you get a knife and then you stab me. I take out a gun, I shoot you. Take out a gun, then you shoot me. Then I take out that bazooka and I hit you. Okay. Okay. So, so you can see how it's a ladder. And how emotions create momentum, but there's a logic to the escalation. Okay, so understanding the escalation ladder now, I'll explain to you how the war in Iran has been escalating.

Okay.

And how it should continue to escalate if the war continues.

So this is, so this is an escalation ladder you're showing involving, involving Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.

Yeah. So this is the United States and this is Iran. Okay.

Okay.

So, We start the war with United States using something called a decapitation strategy, meaning that if what the United States believes that if I take out your leader, now you're leaderless, and therefore you must surrender to me. So in the first day, February 28th, they killed the Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of Iran.

The Ayatollah Khamenei, yeah.

That's right. And they killed also a lot of the senior leadership. And this, this is what we call a decapitation strike. And the assumption is that if you kill the leader, then Iran would break out into civil war and they surrender to you. And that's exactly what happened in Venezuela, uh, a few months back, right? So this is what we call a decapitation strike when they got Maduro. That's right.

Yeah, and he was in jail with 6ix9ine, which is crazy. Um, okay, yes, so, but, but it didn't happen here, but it didn't happen here.

Okay, so that's a first strike.

Okay, so they tried it in Iran, they tried to the decapitation strategy.

Yes.

But it didn't break out in civil war.

That's right. That's right. So now what Iran does is it strikes back by closing off the Strait of Hormuz, right?

And, but that, but that's because they made a new ayatollah who took over.

Who was that?

The son.

The son, right?

So they, so Khamenei's son.

That's right. They replaced the ayatollah Khamenei with the ayatollah Khamenei.

Okay.

Yeah. And then what Iran did, um, close up— the first thing they did was close up sort of moves, but they start to attack America's allies in the Middle East, including Qatar, uh, Dubai, Bahrain, Kuwait.

America did?

No, Iran did.

Okay, so take me back a step.

Okay, all right, so the United States does a decapitation strike.

Got it.

And then Iran punches back.

How?

By putting pressure on America's allies. Right? They attacked Israel, they attacked Dubai, they attacked Qatar. The reason why they did that was the theory that these places give a lot of money to the United States. They invest a lot in the US economy. So therefore they have a lot of leverage over the United States. If they're being attacked, they would pressure Trump to end the war.

Mm.

Okay? And so once Iran did that, then that forces the United States to basically have a ceasefire. Because if the war continues, then what would happen is the entire world would lose at least 20% of the global oil supply. And this could possibly create economic collapse.

So, so you're saying America had to take a break then and rethink about what's going on?

Yeah, because the first strategy didn't work. Got it. And the United States didn't have a second strategy.

And the Strait of Hormuz is closed at this point. They closed it.

The Strait of Hormuz is—

I know, at this point in the, in the letter.

Okay. So throughout this entire process, there's been a lot on, on, on and off. So sometimes it's open, sometimes it's closed. Okay. So now what, what the American response is now to put more pressure on Iran by trying to strangle the economy. Okay, so how the United States does that is Iran ships 90% of its oil to China, right? So what America did was impose a naval blockade, um, in the Arabian Sea to prevent Chinese tankers from reaching Iran and prevent Iranian tankers from, uh, reaching China.

So they wanted to stop the flow of oil from Iran to China.

That's right.

And that's how China gets most of its oil.

Uh, well, well, no, that's China gets its oil from a diverse, from many different countries, but Iran will export 90% of its oil to China. And the theory is that if you stop that trade, then Iran cannot pay its soldiers, then its soldiers would rebel, the government would collapse. Okay. So that's the second step. Okay. I tried the capitulation strike, didn't work. So now I'll try to strangle your economy.

Got it.

And that doesn't work either. Right? And so what happens now is that—

why didn't that work?

Because, um, the Iranians have been under sanctions for the past, uh, 30 years, so they are used to being poor. Ah, right, right. So in Los Angeles, if, um, you know, we made gas $10 a day, well, there'll be riots. But in Iran, you know, if you take away half their calories. Well, they're used to being poor, so they're used to the sanctions.

They're used to living with a, with a government that's like manipulating them and taking advantage of them.

That's right, that's right. So therefore, the Iranians are much more able to bear pain than the American, right? And so the American, American government now under Trump is under a lot more pressure in this war than the Iranians.

Understood.

Okay, so that's a second step, and that doesn't work either. So now you move to a third step, which is you destroy the state's capacity to deliver basic services, which means water, food, and electricity. So when Trump says, "I will destroy their civilization," what he's really saying is, "I will destroy their power plants," right? Because energy is a source of civilization, right? So the next step that we can expect, which has not happened yet, but there are signs that it will happen, is the United States will target its missiles at Iranian power plants and deny electricity to the local population. And the theory is that if you do that, the people will not be able to bear the pain and they will revolt. Revolt. Exactly. Wow. Yeah.

So that's—

man, phew, that's a lot going on. And you believe that that's where we could be headed there?

We are very much heading in that direction. Okay. So now what the Iranians do in response is they activate their proxies. Okay.

Why?

Because the proxies are now able to exert a lot more pain on the global economy. Right. So the Iranians are able to close off the Strait of Hormuz.

And their proxies, who are they? Say who their proxies are.

Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen. And then you have the militias, the Shia militias in Iraq.

Okay.

Right. So the logic of this is By closing off the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is denying the world, the world 20% of the global supply of oil. But now if the Houthis are able to close off the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, then that's another 7%. So that's putting more pressure on the global economy. And now if Lebanon is able to close off the Suez Canal or put pressure on trade over here, that's even more pressure, right?

Hmm.

That's a lot.

Yeah. But, but, but as we can see, this escalation ladder is coming up really fast.

Right.

Right. And the real fear is that the Americans will be under so much pressure that they use tactical nuclear weapons against Iran. And then we could be looking at nuclear war, and civilizational collapse.

And that's World War III for sure.

Uh, no, it's end of civilization for sure.

Oh yeah, Professor Zhang, what are we gonna do?

Um, do you believe in God? Yeah, we're good then. Yes.

Okay, that's a good point.

Yeah, yeah.

All right. Yeah, yeah.

All right, I'll see you on the other side. See you in the Big H. That's right, dude. I heard that if you go to heaven— this is something I heard that's kind of cool, just to take a break from the war stuff for a second— if you go to heaven and thank you for explaining this and thank you for discussing the escalation ladder with us.

Yes.

If you go to heaven, that when you get there, your friends are there.

Yeah.

Right? All your friends that you knew from here and your family, but they all like work in different places. So you might go to like a Jersey Mike's in heaven and your brother or your ex-girlfriend could be working there. And once you lock eyes with each other, you have memories of like things that you knew from this period here.

Yeah.

But it's brand new there. So it's like you get to go everywhere and find your old friends and stuff. So it'd be pretty cool. Like you could be somewhere and like Frederick Douglass or whatever could be a park ranger or Xi Jinping or something could be, he could be working at an ice cream stand, you know? So it could be kind of cool anyway.

Yeah, it sounds pretty cool.

Yeah. So just letting you in on a little bit of BTS heaven lore.

Great.

It would be impractical for America to end up in a nuclear war though.

Yeah, I don't think it will happen.

Okay.

Yeah.

So you don't think that will happen?

I don't think it will happen. No.

What stops that escalation ladder from going forward?

Yeah. Okay. So again, we want to use game theory and step back and ask ourselves why this war is happening.

Okay.

Okay. Because once you figure out what the motivations of the players are, then you can figure out how far this goes, right? Because the players are trying to win and they're going to try to win in a way that, um, it's the least harmful or the easiest way to win, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does, because it's kind of like poker. So say if I got an okay hand, yeah, I might bluff a little in the beginning or go in on a few blinds or something, but I'm not gonna probably raise it to the end of the line because I know what I have, right? I'm gonna wait for another hand, right?

So, so let's look at game theory and ask yourself, who are the major players in this game and what do they want? Okay, so you have the United States, of course. You have Iran. You have Israel, and I would say the fourth major country is Saudi Arabia.

Okay, and why are we even in this conflict?

That's right.

And so, so we're trying to figure this out because that's been a big question in America, especially amongst a lot of my peers. Um, why are we there? Why are we putting our troops there? It doesn't seem like we have a real interest. I know there's the rumors of weapons of mass destruction again. Yeah, there's rumors of nuclear weapons held by Iran, but But I think people, a lot of people, feel like we've fallen for that trap before.

Yes.

In Iraq.

Yes.

And in Kuwait.

Yes.

And that it could just be the same sort of fool's errand again.

Yeah, exactly. So it's a great question. Like, why did America attack Iran after the failures of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Well, and also Trump, our president, said that we would not go to war with Iran.

That's right, that's right.

So yeah, what do you think's happening?

Yeah, so I want to refer you to something called the Clean Break Memo.

Okay, Clean Break Memo.

Yes, it's really important we understand this if we understand what's going on. The Clean Break Memo, uh, maybe your producer can bring it up. The Clean Break Memo, uh, written in 1996. Okay, okay. And, and so let me give you some background. So Um, Bill Clinton is in office and Bill Clinton is obsessed with peace in the Middle East.

And this rhymes, probably.

Probably.

Yeah. Yeah.

And the Israelis have decided that now is a good time for a two-state solution. And the reason why is that throughout its history, um, Israel was always in conflict with the other Arab nations around it because of the Palestinian issue.

Right.

And the idea is that if Israel is to have security, it needs to resolve the Palestinian issue. It needs to give the Palestinians its own state. And then, and then once that happens, then the Arab nations can resume diplomatic relations with Israel. They can trade peacefully and the Middle East will be prosperous and peaceful. Right. But you first have to resolve the Palestinian issue.

Because a lot of the Palestinians are Muslim, right?

That's right.

And a lot of the surrounding areas are also Muslim. Around Israel are also Muslim.

That's right. So they're sympathetic towards the Muslims, right? So for example, Saudi Arabia, the royal family said that as long as the Palestinian issue is not resolved, we will never ever have peace with Israel. Okay. So this is what we call the Oslo peace process.

Yeah. The Oslo Accords, right?

That's right. That's right. And, and The majority of the Israeli population was in favor of this. And the major leader who was spearheading this movement in Israel is Isaac Rabin.

What's the name?

Isaac Rabin. I'll spell it for you.

Okay.

Isaac. Isaac.

Isaac Rabin.

Rabin. Isaac Rabin. Isaac Rabin.

Yes. Okay.

Isaac Rabin.

And he was determined to to have eternal peace with the Palestinians. So resolve this issue once and for all by giving them a state.

Okay. So he and Clinton were aligned with figuring this out.

That's right. That's right. And they also had Arafat to help them out as well. And the Arab nations, especially Saudi Arabia, were very supportive of this process. But there was one person who was opposed to the peace process. His name is Benjamin Netanyahu, and he assembled a team of people, mainly Americans, who developed a new policy for him called the Clean Break Memo.

Okay.

And what the Clean Break Memo says, it's a very short document, only about 1 page. What it says is, screw peace because our neighbors are Arabs and they only understand Power. So you want peace, you don't negotiate, you don't compromise, you hit them hard, you keep on hitting them hard until they respect you. Okay? So there are 3 major pillars to this strategy called the Clean Break. The first is go after the Palestinians hard. Don't give them land, don't compromise them, teach them to respect you. Okay? Show power. Make them afraid of you.

Okay.

That's number one. Number two is you have to rejuvenate the Israeli economy by adopting neoliberalism. Forget socialism, let's go with capitalism. Because at this time, socialism was very popular in Israel. And the third thing is to establish balance of power. —balance of power in the Middle East. And the way you do that is you destroy regimes that could potentially threaten you. This includes Syria and this includes Iraq. And so the strategy calls for working with Turkey and Jordan to destabilize Syria, and it calls for, for regime change in Iraq. Okay, it's called the Clean Break memo.

Okay, a Clean Break, a new strategy for securing the realm, commonly known as a Clean Break report, is a policy document that was prepared in 1996 by a study group led by Richard Perle for Benjamin Netanyahu, then Prime Minister of Israel. The report explained a new approach to solving Israel's security problems in the Middle East with an emphasis on Western values, which that means, I guess, more of like a capitalistic— that's right, that's right. It has since been criticized for advocating a policy of removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. That's right. And the containment of Syria by engaging in proxy warfare and highlighting its possession of weapons of mass destruction. Certain parts of the policies set forth in the paper were rejected by Netanyahu. However, the report was ultimately adopted and serves as a foundation for modern-day Israeli global affairs. Is that true?

Well, well, well, yeah. The— so, so something really important for us to appreciate is the study group. There were two major, uh, participants in the study group: Richard Perle and also Douglas Faith, okay, okay, got it, right? And this is important because these two are Americans, and a few years later they will work for the Pentagon. And, uh, Douglas, uh, Faith and Richard Perle work with Paul Wolfowitz, and these three will become the architects of the Iraq War. Paul Wolfowitz?

Yes. Okay, so you're saying two of the people that came up with the Clean Break memo—

yes— then went on to work for the Pentagon?

Yes, and they're the architects of the Iraq War.

Okay, so they were architects of the Iraq War. Here we go. Douglas J. Faith, an American lawyer who served as Secretary of Defense for Policy. Faith has been described as an architect of the Iraq War. In the lead-up to the war, he played a key role in promoting the false claim that the Saddam Hussein regime had an operational relationship with Al-Qaeda. Um, a Pentagon Inspector General report found that Faith's office had developed, produced, and then disseminated alternative intelligence assessments on the Iraq and Al-Qaeda relationship, which included some conclusions that were inconsistent with the consensus of the intelligence community, to senior decision makers. Huh.

The other thing about Douglas Feith is he has been suspected for a long time of being an Israeli asset. Okay. but despite that, he was still able to climb the hierarchy, which is very weird because the FBI and the CIA, uh, determined in the 1970s that he could possibly be an Israeli asset.

Wow, so that's interesting that he would be— that they thought that and then he was still able to climb the ranks. Very interesting.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. But not only him, but Richard Perle was also suspected of being an Israeli asset.

Richard Norman Perle is an American political advisor who served as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Global Strategic Affairs under Ronald Reagan. Pearl was an architect of the Iraq War. Yeah. Um, he claimed that Saddam Hussein regime possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Okay, so, so we need to understand what the Clean Break Memo really is, okay? And what it really is is a blueprint for the Greater Israel Project. And the Greater Israel Project is a belief among, um, certain Zionists that The entire Middle East belongs to Israel.

And just to be clear, this isn't Jewish people. This is— we're talking about, um, the Israeli government and extremist views, right?

That's right. It's not necessarily a Jewish person. A Zionist is someone who believes in supremacy of Israel.

Okay, so a Zionist is someone who believes in supremacy of Israel. Look it up, Nick, because I hear the term. We might have talked about it before. I We've probably talked about it before some, but I don't know if you've ever looked it up. Zionism is an ethnocultural nationalist movement that emerged in late 19th century Europe to establish and support a Jewish homeland. What does ethnocultural nationalist mean, Nick? Can you click on that? Um, it, it— ethnocultural— ethnic nationalism is a form of nationalism in which the nation and nationality are defined in terms of ethnicity Yeah, what does that mean? Ethnocultural nationalism.

What it really means is there are certain people, Zionists, who believe that God promised this land to the Jews and only the Jews. And therefore only the Jews should be in this land. And therefore the Palestinians have no right to be there. Therefore, a two-state solution goes against the will of God. Got it. That's what it really means.

Okay. Wow. But what about people who just believe that Jew— that Jewish people deserve to have their own place as well? Is that Zionism?

So there are different forms of Zionism. Okay. And what I'm referring to, an extreme form of Zionism that has taken hold over Israel. Okay. Because remember, in the 1990s, everyone, the majority of people were supportive of a two-state solution.

They wanted peace with the Arabs. In the 1990s?

Is that true? Let's bring that up. Let me see. In the 1990s, the Israeli public was deeply divided rather than in full agreement regarding a two-state solution. While the signing of the Oslo Accords in '93 generated strong initial hope and fluctuating majority support for the peace process at various points, substantial portions of the population, including right-wing political factions and the settler movement, uh, opposed partitioning the land.

Um, so there was some support for it Um, okay, okay. So you have this extreme— so you have an extreme group.

Yeah, the settlers, basically.

Okay, so, so the group you're talking about is an extreme group that wanted— that, that's supporting this clean break. That's right, right. That was— that wanted a Greater Israel. That's right. That's an extreme group.

That's right. And they were led by Netanyahu. Okay. Who became prime minister in '96 to implement the Greater Israel project. He's been in power for the past 20 years. And if you look at what's been happening in the Middle East, right? Um, the Iraq War, and then after that, the invasion, uh, and regime change in Libya, in Syria, and now this attack against Iran. It is consistent with the Clean Break memo. Got it. And what is amazing is that this transcends politics. Both the Democrats and Republicans are participating in the implementation of the Clean Break memo.

You mean American Democrats and American Republicans, right?

That's right. So it was George W. Bush which launched the war against Iraq, but it was Obama who supported regime change in Syria and in Libya, which is also part of the Clean Break memo. What I want to do now is show you a video. This is important. We watch this video together. Okay. And so The video is General Wesley Clark, and he's talking to Amy Goodman. This is after 9/11. And so 9/11 was a traumatic event for Americans, and the assumption was that the US military would seek vengeance against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda by attacking Afghanistan. But what Wesley Clark says is, "No, no, no, we're not only going, we're not just going after," Afghanistan. We're going after 7 countries.

And let's listen to what he says. So, and so this is, uh, but this— how do we know this isn't a cons— is this a theory or is this facts? That's what I'm wondering. Oh, it's all facts.

The Clean Break memo is, is a fact. Um, and Wesley Clark saying this, I mean, Goodman, I mean, it, it's on YouTube.

Okay, and this is U.S. Army General, uh, Wesley Clark, right? That's right.

Okay, so he's retired now. He's talking to Amy Goodman about what happens after 9/11. Okay.

About 10 days after 9/11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolfowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the Joint Staff who used to work for me, and one of the generals called me in. He said, sir, you gotta come in, you gotta come in and talk to me a second. I said, well, you're too busy. He said, no, no, he says, we've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq. This was on or about the 20th of September. I said, "We're going to war with Iraq? Why?" He said, "I don't know." He said, "I guess they don't know what else to do." So I said, "Well, did they find some information connecting Saddam to al-Qaeda?" He said, "No, no." He says, "There's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq." He said, "I guess I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments. And he said, "I guess if the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem has to look like a nail." So I came back to see him a few weeks later, and by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan.

I said, "Are we still going to war with Iraq?" And he said, "Oh, it's worse than that." He said— he reached over on his desk, he picked up a piece of paper, and he said, I said, "I just—" He said, "I just got this down from upstairs," meaning the Secretary of Defense's office, "today." And he said, "This is a memo that describes how we're going to take out 7 countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off Iran." I said, "Is it classified?" He said, "Yes, sir." I said, "Well, don't show it to me." So you're saying that this is part of the Clean Break memo?

That's right, that's right. Because how else can you explain what's going on? And again, this is, um, General Wesley Clark has access to confidential Pentagon information. He's saying that right after 9/11, they've already decided to go to war against the entire Middle East, finishing with Iran.

And did we end up doing those things right there?

Yes, we did. Well, not, not me.

Yeah, not us. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, not us.

Yeah, yeah, I wasn't involved, right? I'm chill. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I definitely—

yeah, I mean, I have issues with with my neighbor sometimes because of their dog or whatever.

But yeah, wasn't me, man. Yeah.

Yeah. So, but we've gone—

but have we done those things that they said in that video? And that— have we attacked? Have we gone to war with those places? Yeah.

What was the places he listed?

So Syria, right? That's done. Libya, Iraq. Um, was it Somalia, one of them? Yeah.

Iraq, Syria, Libya, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran.

So Iran's the last on the list. It says it's final boss. Final boss. That's right. Wow. Yeah, the final boss.

Oh, that's the Mike Tyson right there. Yeah. Um, so, and, but why, why do you feel like—

so you, you feel like America is working at the behest of the Israeli government, of Netanyahu's choices? Well, like, what do you think that relationship is there? Well, it seems— yeah, because, because if this is true, then it would, then it would say that, that America is working at the behest of, of Netanyahu and some of these other people who this is the what they want, right? Or is this what we want?

Yeah, so again, there's a pattern here, right? So I, I'm not trying to make a judgment. All I'm trying to do is point out a pattern that's emerging where '96 They, they write the Clean Break memo encouraging Netanyahu to choose a path of war and dominance in the Middle East and to clean break away from the Oslo peace process. And that's exactly what he's been doing for the past 20 years. Okay. Then these people, specifically Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, they go work for the Pentagon And they help implement a lot of the Clean Big Memo policies by starting a war against Iraq for no particular reason. And then for no particular reason, what happens? The Americans attack Libya, Syria, destabilize the regime, cause millions of refugees to flow into Europe. And now we have this war in Iran and we don't even know why Trump attacked Iran. And you point this out, like he's been saying for a long time that he would not do so. So what's going on here, right? Like, if the United States was not doing this at the behest of Israel, then how do we explain what's going on?

Right. Right? Now, what I'll do now is use game theory to explain why Israel would want this. Okay. Right? Because, so, this will be hard for Americans to understand.

All right? For Americans to understand? Okay.

But like, Wesley Clark says we need to remove 7 nations. in 5 years. And they're doing that, right? Iran is the final boss. And, um, the idea is there are Zionists who want to achieve the Greater Israel Project. And the idea of the Greater Israel Project is that Israel will dominate the Middle East. And only if Israel does that will Jews, um, have security in the Middle East. Okay. Okay.

Now, weren't they secure before?

Like, I don't understand why they weren't secure. Right. So they weren't secure because the Palestinians were in revolt against them. The Palestinians felt that they were being oppressed, that their land was stolen from them. And so they were engaging in terrorist activities against the Israelis, including bus bombings, including airplane hijackings.

But why wouldn't Israel just figure that out instead of go this other big route? It seems like, you know what I'm saying? It seems like if it's me figuring out something with a neighbor as opposed to battling the whole town, it would seem like more at my behest, like a wiser choice to just figure out something with my neighbor. Right.

Because you have a brother who's kind of crazy and your brother believes that this house is not their house, it's our house. Okay. Which was stolen by, by this other family. And so we have a right to go take it back from them. Okay. And there's nothing you can do about your crazy brother.

And you're saying Netanyahu is the crazy brother?

Basically, yes. Okay, got it. Right. And these are people we call the settlers, right? Okay. These are people who go against Israeli national law and go and forcefully evict Palestinians from their homes, even if it's against Israeli national law.

Yeah, I know there's a lot of cases of that.

You can see them on YouTube too, of people getting evicted from their homes for no reason, people taking people's land. A lot of heartbreaking stuff out there. Okay, so now you're showing me, what is this you're looking at here?

So let's just take what we know and draw things to the logical conclusion.

So this is game theory.

This is game theory, okay? If you believe that this land was given to you by God and says so, it says so in the Bible, okay? And you believe that it is Israel's destiny to dominate the Middle East, your real enemy is not Iran, right? Who's your real enemy?

The United States of America. Oh, the United States, right?

Because United States provides security guarantees to many Arab nations. Saudi Arabia is protected by the United States, um, and Saudi Arabia is part of the Greater Israel Project. Egypt is protected by the United States. Israel— Egypt is also part of the Greater Israel Project, right? So what you need to do is remove both Iran the United States from the equation. And the best way to do that is to have them go to war against each other. Right? And then Israel is the last nation standing. And then they achieve the Greater Israel Project. But this is game theory, by the way.

This is game theory. Yeah. But how would you, like, how would America, I mean, our country's way over here. And I know that's like, I know that doesn't mean everything that we have this geographical space, but how would we, like, how would we be defeated in it? Well, we would be—

like, the United States would be defeated if this war becomes so unpopular at home that the people revolt, and that forces the American military to retreat back to American, uh, borders.

Okay, so then we would lose that war, but we wouldn't lose our country though.

Uh, no, wait, yeah, I mean, the United States wouldn't lose their country, but they would lose the empire. Yeah.

Oh, so we would, we would completely remove ourselves from the Middle East. You're saying remove ourselves from all of our allies and then Israel would have the ability to control them.

That's right.

But why doesn't Israel just go control them and not even involve us?

Because Saudi Arabia and the other nations of Middle East, they have a lot of money and they invest tons of dollars in the US economy in exchange for US protection. Got it. Yeah. Wow.

Hmm. You know, one thing that has scared me, and I've heard people, a lot of people talk about it, was like a lot of like the technology and stuff that they, that, that was used in Palestine, like during a lot of the genocide over there. It's like drones being used to kill people, being used to kill children. We had a doctor on who, who was talking about children getting shot just right down through their bodies, you know, like in a way that was like It seemed very logical that drones were the ones that were doing it. All the reporters being killed there so that nobody could transfer any real information out of the, out of the, uh, world over there. Um, one of those things, especially with the technology, and then you start to see the surveillance stuff happening in America, it starts to make you think, well, what— why wouldn't that— why wouldn't it come here? Like, if, you know, like, that's certainly a fear that I hear a lot, is that um, that we're going to become in this surveillance state, and then the same thing could happen to us over here if we're out of line with who— with, um, if Israel were to gain control of America and then we're out of line with something that they see or some behavior or something, um, or they want to move people here off of their land, you know.

It's, it's that— that's something that's very scary.

Yeah. So if you look at Gaza, I think Gaza, um, is the pilot for a surveillance state.

You think it's pilot for what? For a surveillance state. Yeah, as a testing ground.

That's a testing ground for a surveillance state. Because like the theory is that once Israel achieves the Greater Israel Project, it now needs to control this entire area. And there aren't that many Jews. So it needs surveillance technology in order to control the local population. What I think will happen, and this is going to shock a lot of people, is Right now, Israel is very close with India, and India, the population is booming and there's a lot of young people. And if you let, if you just let them stay in India, they're going to revolt against you because the economy's not doing so well. But so what if Israel and India were to get together and says, hey, let's bring in millions of Indians to work now in the Middle East because war has destroyed the population of the Middle East. And now you can use surveillance technology to control these Indians. And these, the Indian people are used to a caste system anyway. So the idea that the Jews at the very top, right? And the Indians are a working class, like, like doing the labor and it's all being controlled by surveillance technology.

Well, you would achieve the Greater Israel Project. Wow.

And do you think that's what's going on?

I think that's the direction we're moving towards. Whether or not they will succeed, I can't really say, but I think that's the plan.

But the people, surely the people of Israel don't want to see all that, like, like they don't want to see so many people get killed and that sort of stuff happen. You think they want to?

I think Israel may be heading towards a civil war between two places. You have Tel Aviv, which is the gayest city in the world. Very liberal, very cosmopolitan.

You mean gays like people being gay?

Like, I mean like real gays.

Like men that hug each other?

Yeah, and women can hug each other too. Oh yeah, okay.

I don't know what you're talking— if you're using it like hyperbolic. Like homosexuals. Okay, yeah, homosexuals. Yeah, gays. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, just regular gays. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I didn't know if we were talking about different, you know, a different branch of gays or I didn't know what was going on.

Yeah, like, yeah, like, yeah, just gays. Yeah, yeah. And they have Jerusalem. Yeah. Which is very conservative, very religious. So these are two competing visions of Israel. And unfortunately, the people in Jerusalem are the ones with the power and they are extreme in their religious vision. Okay. Yeah, I just—

well, I know they have an election coming up over there.

That's right.

Right. And so that's— I, I just feel like, is that going to determine a lot? Because, like, I mean, I feel bad for a lot of my Jewish friends here who do not want to be associated. Like, you know, it's heartbreaking to them. You know, my friend Michael's always talking to me. It's like, you know, to make sure to, like, to let— like, just because Israel doesn't mean Jewish people. It doesn't mean— like, it's like, it's the government.

That's right. It's So I want to use religion to show you how extreme these people are. Okay. Right. So the Holocaust was a traumatic event and 6 million Jews died. Let me ask you this question. Okay. Why did the Holocaust happen?

The Holocaust happened, I guess, because of an ideology that was created by Hitler and his regime. Yeah, it was Hitler's fault. Right.

Okay. So The extremist Jews are called Kabbalists, okay, the Kabbalah. And they have an extreme vision of how the universe works. And the deep dark secret that they have about the Holocaust is the Jews deserved it, okay? So let me explain why. If you read the Bible, the Bible, the Old Testament basically, is fundamentally about the relationship between between God and the hishoshim people, the Jews. And problems arise when the Jews turn away from God. So for example, when Moses was leading the people from exile in Egypt to the Promised Land, the people chose to worship an idol. And the first commandment is do not worship false idols. So God had to punish them by making them wander the desert for 40 years. Okay. And this is a consistent theme throughout the Old Testament where Jews suffer because they turn away from God. So the most traumatic event in the Bible is the destruction of the First Temple, where the Babylonians come in and they destroy the First Temple. Now, if you read the Bible, The book is Jeremiah. What Jeremiah the prophet says is the Babylonians are not the enemy of God. They are the tool of God to punish the Israelites for turning away from God.

Okay. Right. So if you just extend the logic, then the logic is this: why did the Holocaust happen? Not because of Hitler, but because the Jews turned away from God.

And so there's groups that believe that? That's right.

So At this point in history, the year 1900, when Zionism comes into being, most Jews think Zionism is retarded. I'm a Jewish person living in Germany, living in the United States, living in England. I've assimilated into society. I'm a professor, I'm a doctor, I'm doing well for myself. I'm secular. I have lots of friends who are Christians.

And what does secular mean?

Secular means non-religious. Okay. Israel, right? So it's like, why would I go to a desert called Palestine? It's not even called Israel, it's called Palestine, where there are already people living there. And it's like, it's like literally a desert, right? So only about 3% of the global Jewish population at this point in history, like the years 1900, actually support the idea of Zionism. Okay. Right? So the Holocaust had to happen in order to force the Jews to hold the covenant with God because the Jews were created as God's chosen people. They're the light of nations. They are meant to show true faith in God and therefore be virtuous and be the moral guidance for the world.

Okay, so they were chosen to be an example of God.

They're chosen to be the light of nations. They're chosen to be the best representatives of humanity. Okay.

Yes. Um, so some— so you're saying that some, like, devout Jewish people, or religious, or extreme— this is an extreme group— believe that the Holocaust was supposed to happen because, um, the people in the Bible had turned away from, uh, had turned away from God, right? Is that what you're saying?

So, um, yes or no, you're saying? Um, okay, so let me clarify what they believe the mission of the Jewish people is. Okay, the mission of the Jewish people is to return to Israel, create the Greater Israel Project, which is the Promised Land, and then build the Third Temple, which will be the house of God. Okay. So the purpose of history is to force a reunion between the Jewish people Israel and God. And once that happens, then the world will end and we will be in paradise forever. So there must be three, there must, three things must happen for this world to end. Okay. The first thing that must happen is the Greater Israel Project has to be achieved. And therefore we have these wars in the Middle East.

But why would that have to be achieved if that was something that was just developed 30 years ago?

Because according to these people, The original covenant between the Jewish people and God is that God promised them the land stretching from the Nile in Egypt to the Euphrates in Iraq. Okay. As the covenant. Okay. And the Jewish people, once they receive this land, they must be loyal to God. So for God to return, first of all, his promise must be kept. Okay. So the first thing is the Greater Israel Project must be achieved. Second thing that must happen is all Jewish people must return to Israel and repent. Meaning if you don't believe in God, you have to believe in God if you're Jewish. Meaning if you're homosexual, if you're Jewish, better tighten it up. You better, you better like learn how to like, you know, you gotta figure it out. Yeah. You know, dang.

Yeah. That's going to be a long day.

Yeah.

Yeah. Start liking this, man. So that's the third, second thing. And the third thing is the Third Temple must be built because that's where God will live. Okay, got it. But the problem is the site of the Third Temple is now where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is. Now, Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in the Muslim world. So if they destroyed the Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to build a Third Temple, this would trigger a religious war between Jews and the Muslims. Oh wow. Yeah. So these are 3 things that must happen according to the eschatology.

Okay. So, but you're not saying that's going to happen. You're just saying that, that if you look at that, that's according to what? Is that according to?

That's according to their eschatology, which is what they believe, how the world ends and how we achieve heaven on earth.

But who believes that? Like my Jewish friends, I don't think believe that.

That's right. That's right. Wait, wait, what's right?

They do believe it or they don't believe it?

They don't believe this. Okay. This theory, okay, what I just told you, the vast majority of Jewish people who are religious think this is heresy. Okay. This is madness. It's insane. Okay. The problem is that this ideology is promoted by secret societies around the world. Okay. And secret societies control the world. And that's why we're seeing a lot of things happen, because how else can you explain why the United States is attacking Iran for no particular reason?

I mean, it's definitely— look, I think a lot of people believe that it's at the behest of Israel. There's some involvement there. But I think, uh, yeah, I— but after that, it's like, yeah, you kind of don't know why. A lot of it's just like questions, and you don't get a lot of information sometimes. Like, you know, you'll ask political figures and stuff, why are we so embedded here? And a lot of them don't have an answer. Um, and so I think that's the part that seems kind of alarming. And I think that's also the part when you don't get a lot of clear information, that's when a lot of like conspiracy theories, different ideas, um, uncertainties, ideas like this even start to take even more shape because you don't know. Yeah, you're not— and you're not getting information from people who should know. So I think it's like, I do understand how people can start to Uh, I, I, yeah, it makes perfect sense how people can start to believe things and how people can start to look into things because there's no place to get real news anymore. There's no place to get the information.

Yeah, and you know, a lot of things that are happening right now just defy human logic. So, um, everyone's looking at Donald Trump, he's like, the war is lost already, just make peace with Iran, just get out of there. And what Trump is doing is doing, he's doing taco. Like one day he's like, we're gonna end your civilization, and the other day he's like, let's make peace guys, let's just be friends. And the next day he's like, no, I'm gonna nuke you now. And the next day he's like, oh, you know what, I didn't really mean that. It's just weird.

Yeah, it feels bizarre, it feels pointless, but it matches with everything feels bizarre right now.

And like, the way that Trump is behaving right now goes against his character. Because in the '80s and '90s he was a real estate developer, he was a business person, right? He understood, like, if you do business, you need to have credibility. You can't flip-flop because, like, everyone will be scared of you.

I agree, that's actually a really good point. I mean, even when he was running for office, it seemed like every other thing, it seems like he knows exactly what he's talking about. It seems like he knows exactly where he stands.

So it's just really weird situation where, um, how the United States is behaving in the Middle East, it goes against American interests. And the way that Donald Trump is behaving, it goes against his character.

He's never behaved like this before. Um, you, you, you spoke of— you mentioned a little bit ago about secret societies. Yes, right. Yes. Um, can you take me into some of that and how— and you said that you believe that that's some of what is controlling some of this.

Secret societies rule the world.

Okay, so let me— you believe secret societies rule the world?

Yes. Okay, so let me explain why that's the case. Okay. All right, so the power in the world is what we call transnational capital, right? And transnational capital, all it means is money that is able to move freely around the world and invest where it wants and extract profit from these places. And so transnational capital would include pension funds, it would include sovereign wealth funds, it would include private capital such as like State Street, Vanguard, Wall Street, City of London.

China has a huge sovereign wealth fund.

That's right, that's right. So, so, so, Treasury Capital is a huge entity and, you know, they say money makes the world go round, okay? So Treasury controls the, um, uh, world.

And so money controls the world, basically.

Okay, so, um, but, but the problem is that, um, Tresor Capital is a game. And it's a gain. It's a game, right? Because you're trying to maximize your profit. You're trying to beat others in the stock market. And in any game, there's a certain way to win, right? And the answer— and so like, how do you win every single game? Like, no matter what game you play, what's the secret to winning every game?

Get to the end.

Uh, the answer is you cheat. Okay. You play by the rules. You work hard and you play fair. You're a sucker. Okay. To win the game, you have to cheat. And the best way to cheat is to secretly conspire with others to rig the game in your favor. Okay. And that's why we have secret societies, right? Because to win the game of capital, you need 3 things. First of all, you need access to secret information. You need to know more things than other people know. Second thing you need is infiltration. You need your people to go in the government in order to create policies that favor you. The third thing is you need coordination, conspiracy between these different groups in order to, uh, create an outcome that you want. All right, so, um, an example, um, is the Rothschild family. And the Rothschild family became one of the most powerful banking families in the world because they had a secret network of agents scattered throughout Europe. So in 1815, Napoleon fights the Battle of Waterloo, and obviously he loses. And the Rothschild has an agent who witnessed the battle. Then he sends this information back to England on a corvette, which is a fast ship.

Then what happens is rumors spread that that the English lost the war, and now there's tremendous fear. And that wasn't true. It was not true, that they won. But, but the first rumor—

the agent got there and spread a rumor.

Well, we don't know, okay? But, but, but, but there are rumors that they lost the war, which created a panic, and the Rothschilds were able to make a lot of money doing that, okay? And that's— and like, this is very common. And, and so this shows you an example of how information is crucial if you want to win the game of trying to capture capital. Got it, right?

And so, but, but so the corvette got there, but the fast ship got there and, and knew in advance that Rothschilds knew in advance the Rothschilds knew that the war, that the battle had been won.

And 3 days later, official news came to the British public, tell them, tell them that the battle had been won. But during these 3 days, there's mass panic because rumors are spreading that the battle has been lost.

I see. So the Rothschilds was able to capitalize on that panic financially. That's right. And so that's when people started realizing, oh, We can do this. Right, right.

And so think about the world that we live in today, right? Where if you have like 1 minute of confidential information, you're able to make millions, billions, right? So the question then is like, how do you access this information? Well, you do so through transnational networks. And throughout history, there've been 3 major transnational networks in Europe. The first is the Freemasons. The second are the Jesuits. And the third are the Jewish diaspora. And at some point they figured out, why don't we just work together?

Oh, and what they call themselves? The Illuminati.

Damn. Yeah, I heard about it.

My Black friends are always talking about them, man.

Yeah, the Illuminati. Dang, they got us.

The Illuminati is a name given to several groups, both real and fictitious. Historically, the name usually refers to the Bavarian Illuminati, an Enlightenment-era secret society founded on May 1st, 1776, in the Electorate of Bavaria. Um, the Illuminati, along with Freemasonry and other secret societies, were outlawed through edict by Charles Theodore. Uh, in the subsequent use, Illuminati has been used when referring to various organizations alleged to be a continuation of the original Illuminati. These organizations have often been accused of conspiring to control world affairs by master minding events and planting agents in governments and corporations in order to gain political power, influence, and establish a new world order.

I mean, at the end of the day, if you— if, if Treason controls the world, you need societies to win the game.

Got it. So there's— so, so in addition to there being countries, there's these different countries. They're above countries, but they're above countries. Wow. And so they'll have members of different countries that are partner that are part of it.

So think of Jeffrey Epstein, right? So everyone thought that Jeffrey Epstein was a Mossad agent. He was above Mossad. Wow. Dang. Yeah.

Do you believe that Jeffrey Epstein is still alive?

Um, I don't think he's alive.

Yeah, because do you think he died in the jail cell?

Uh, I— yes, yes, yes, because he, he's expendable. Yeah.

What is the basic code, do you think, of the Illuminati? Do you think they have a code? That's a great question.

Okay. So when you have these secret societies, you have to remember secret societies are just a natural outcome of the game of transnational capital. So you have many different secret societies in place. And so which societies have the greatest advantage? And the answer is those who practice eschatology have the greatest advantage. Eschatology? Right. Eschatology is the belief in that God will end the world at some point. Okay. And so why are you, so why is it that eschatological secret societies are superior to other secret societies? And the reason why is they're able to channel the religious energy of millions of people. So look at, so why we're having this war in the Middle East, it's not just secret societies. It's also the fact that you have tens of millions of Christian Zionists, Christian evangelicals who support Israel, right? So if you're an investor, there are 3 ways to make the most money. The first is war. Second is revolution. And the third is religion. So these secret societies, through the eschatology, always supporting war, revolution, and religion. Because if you're a millionaire, well, you invest your money in stock market. But if you're a trillionaire, you invest your money in war, revolution, and religion.

Wow. But don't you— do you think that sometimes it's kind of a— like, is it like, if you think of it all like that, right? Doesn't it feel pretty dark?

It is dark, but once you actually study the eschatology, once you study the religion, it actually gives you hope. Because what motivates these people is not greed, it's not power, it's faith. It's— they're accelerationists. They believe that God has a divine plan. And all I'm doing is is helping God accelerate this plan. Wow.

Oh my gosh, dude. What the heck? So this is— so that's part of some people's faith. They believe they have a strong enough faith that they believe that what they're doing is helping to accelerate it. That's right. Oh my gosh. I don't even know what to think anymore.

And that's why things are happening so fast.

Dude, it does. It does. Yeah. Yeah, it feels like things are happening so fast. Yeah, that's it. It's just like, what is happening? It's happening so fast. Yeah. So how does this end? I mean, that's kind of dark, but, um, maybe we just leave it to be continued. Yeah, but well, I mean, pray that that doesn't happen because we don't know that that's— we don't know that's going to happen, right?

They put their faith in God. We should put our faith in God.

Amen. Yeah, that's where my faith is. Yep. In Jesus' name, man. Amen, brother. We just have to keep our faith where we can, and we can— we control what we can control. And it's always— if that's the case, and it's always been part of something. Yes. You know, and it's like all we can do is do or just do what we can and try our best by our own compass, right? That's right. Amen. That's right. Amen.

Yeah. Jesus. Believe in Jesus.

Yeah. Amen. Um, you are— you're Chinese.

Yeah, I am. Yes, thank you. I guess.

Okay, sorry, I just making sure. I didn't know. Yeah, yeah, I don't know for sure if you are or not. Um, what, what's— some people— has anybody ever said they thought you were a plant? That you— they thought—

oh yeah, yeah, yeah. What do you get? Okay, so now and then, because you'd be a good Chinese asset.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, there are people who believe I'm the Antichrist. There are people who believe that I'm in my Chinese classroom with my whiteboard, and my, my whiteboard is magical, so I can actually like direct the course of human events with my whiteboard. I'm just there and I'm just like, I want war, and I want, you know, and I'm like, I'm not the Antichrist. Okay. All right, I swear to you, I'm not the Antichrist. Okay. I might be a Chinese spy, but I'm not the Antichrist.

Yeah. Okay. Speaking of that, speaking of China, what is China's relationship right now? Where do they play a role? Because you didn't factor them into this at all.

Yeah, China looks at what's happening and they're like, what the fuck is going on? What the hell are you guys doing? That's, that's China.

Do you think that they're hyper worried? Do they have a lot of like, um, do they have a lot of intelligence assets that are over here working and that are working in the Middle East? What do you think's going on? I'm sure because they obviously, they're a world power, they're gonna have, they're gonna be concerned and involved.

Yeah, so the problem with China is that Chinese are non-religious So it's almost impossible for Chinese to appreciate what's happening in the Middle East. But they're capitalists though. Uh, they're, they're capitalists and they want this war to end as soon as possible because they want people to trade with each other. Uh, Chinese don't go to war, they, they trade. Um, and so everyone in China is just completely confused.

But historically, China, they've been in— they've— there's been war in China.

Well, there's war within China, but China doesn't really go out and invade other countries the way that, you know, the United States does.

So what is America's current relationship with China? Do you feel like— I've had friends recently say that they think the safest place to move in the world right now is China. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I think that what's happening is a domino effect where the war in the Middle East spirals out of control. It engulfs everyone. So, um, like a World War III? Yeah, and it's like total war. And what would the sides be? Um, it would be complete chaos. Um, so the idea is that the war— the world will break out into regional wars. So imagine in, uh, Europe, NATO is fighting Russia in Ukraine. Right? And there's a possibility that Russia may take over the Baltic countries, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and maybe even attack Poland, okay? So imagine all of Europe is now in flames. You move over to the Middle East and everyone's at each other's throat, right? You move over to, East Asia, what the most likely scenario is that China is in conflict with Japan and North Korea is in conflict with South Korea. The real danger in East Asia is not China, it's actually North Korea, because North Koreans have absolutely nothing to lose. They're kind of crazy and they're brave. So North Koreans have been sending soldiers to fight in Ukraine, and they fight to the death. Is that true? Yeah, 10,000 North Korean troops.

10,000 North Korean troops in Ukraine, right?

Uh, yeah, in Ukraine, that's right. And they fight to the death. And the reason why is if they're captured, their family members back in North Korea get killed. Yeah. No way. Welcome to a dictatorship.

North Korea continues to expand its military support for Russia in the war against Ukraine. In addition to sending troops and weaponry, Pyongyang is now said to have deployed a missile unit to western Russia. Wow. By the end of 2024, Ukraine, the United States, and South Korea estimated that around 10,000 to 12,000 North Korean soldiers have been sent to Russia. And that's just 2024. That's right.

So they're trying to raise them to 30,000.

Wow. Yeah, unbelievable. Um, I've heard you talk about the grand bargain. Yes, with China. And that's between America and China?

That's right.

Tell me a little more about that. Right, so there are two nations that currently benefit the most from the current global economic order. They are the United States and China. The United States, obviously, because it controls the US dollar, but China as well, because China was able to lift millions out of poverty because of global trade. Mm-hmm. Right? So both are heavily invested in maintaining the current global order. And so the idea of a grand bargain is that they resolve the Taiwan issue. 2, uh, where basically China, um, and Taiwan sign an agreement where they reconcile politically and the United States withdraws from, uh, East Asia and allows China to maybe dominate, um, East Asia. Okay, understood. So that—

so that's something that China would want, probably just a little bit more assurance that there's— that they don't have to deal with America over there.

That's right. But also like for China, Taiwan is a huge political issue because, you know, there's something called the Century of Humiliation where China was carved up in the 19th century by the Western powers. And having Taiwan back in the fold of the motherland would be a tremendous political achievement because it would mean the reunification of the motherland, the completion of the motherland. And that's something that China would pay a huge price for. And right now, the United States needs China to buy more US Treasuries. So that's the idea of the grand bargain. Got it.

What do you think's going on with America right now? Do you feel like we're still the world's economic superpower?

Um, it's an empire in decline. It's like I'm just walking the streets of Los Angeles and it really seems that America is on the brink of a civil war. And really, you think that? Yeah.

How would that happen though?

Yeah, I, I think that, um, the midterms will be a major test of the cohesion of this country. Um, and what I think, um, may happen is Trump may, may go for a third term.

No way! How could he do it? Can't you only go for two terms?

So according to the Constitution there's something called the 22nd Amendment, which says that a US president may not sit for more than 2 terms. But there's a loophole. The loophole is, imagine 2028, Don Jr. is at the top of the ticket and Donald Trump is the vice president. They win, and then Don Jr., he resigns, and then Donald Trump is now the president again.

No way. You think that— you think that's gonna happen?

I think there's a strong possibility this could happen. But also there's the War Powers Act where America is at war, and so they suspend the Constitution, which is what happened in Ukraine.

That's why Ukraine could not have an election, right?

Because they're at war.

And if they could have an election, would they still elect Zelensky, do you think?

Probably not. Got it.

Yeah, there's a lot of— there's a lot of darkness out there. Yeah. Um, what are some positives that you see? What are things— what's a positive way that you see out of some of this? And please have an answer for me, Professor. Yeah, family, love, God.

I mean, that's why we're here. We're here to experience things that we couldn't experience anywhere else because we're eternal souls. Like, once you appreciate that, um, this is only what the thing that we're experiencing here is only a journey in an eternity of experiences and that we're here to experience things that are unique to this world. And one thing that's unique to this world is family, like having children. So— And love.

And love, exactly. Hugging somebody. Exactly. Yeah, doing your best. Yeah. Being supportive, sharing.

So if you just focus on what's happening geopolitically, you'll go insane. You'll literally go insane. Are you insane yet? Um, I have a family, right? So, and I have a wife who, um, who loves me. So I, I, I want to tell you, um, the story of how my wife and I met, and then you can appreciate how much we love each other. Okay. Okay. So we met each other about 10 years ago, and I'm about 40, and this is like the darkest moment in my life. What was going on? Well, I was unemployed, um, I had no place to stay. And I was depressed and I felt that life was hopeless. And I literally believed that my wife was an angel sent by God to redeem me, to save me, to show me that love is possible so that one day I could be sitting across from you telling the world that love is possible. And if we just move towards love, then we will redeem the world. But, but so So I meet this, my wife randomly, and we go on a first date. And where'd you meet her at? I met her randomly at an event.

And it was like love at first sight. And I, you know, I asked for her number. I called her out. And if you ask for it, God will give it to you. And I was asking for someone who could be my wife. I wanted to start a family. And so we go on this date and I took her someplace really nice in Beijing. We go to a Japanese restaurant, I order sake, and it's a lovely date. Now, the custom in China is that on the first date, if you really like someone, the woman will get serious suddenly. Okay? I mean, you could be laughing throughout, but suddenly the woman will get really serious, look at you dead in the eye, and ask you, How much money do you make? Like, what's the size of your bank account? Really?

That's a serious— that's a real thing that happens there?

Yeah, because in the United States, you like, like, you know, they'll ask you what your dick size is, right? Yeah. So we're a more advanced civilization. So we ask like how much money you have. Got it. Yeah. So, okay. And like, I'm really afraid we reached this point, right? So this date is going fantastic. You worked with 2 hours and we're just laughing. We're connecting. We're simpatico. And then my date, my future wife, gets serious, looks at me dead in the eye, and I'm freaking out. I'm trembling. I'm nervous because like—

because you don't have a job.

I don't have a fucking job, man. And so she looks at me in the eye and she asked me, so are you gay? Oh, and I felt felt such relief. I knew she's the one, man. She gets me, right?

Yeah, yeah, she doesn't care if I'm poor, she just cares if I'm gay.

Yes, I can work with that, you know. Yeah, dude, of course. Yeah, yeah, but, but it's like these moments that make this world so wonderful and so blessed. So we should just focus on, on moments like, like this.

Yeah, yeah, moments where people are asking if you're gay or not.

Yeah, well, it's better than asking for, you know, your dick size or, you know, your bank account. Oh yeah.

For sure. I think, yeah, it is better than asking how much money you make. Yeah. I'm so happy that you've— that you found— that you got somebody.

Yeah. Because you were 40 and you didn't think you were gonna have someone. That's right. I thought that I was— my life— I was adrift. I thought that life was pointless.

What were you doing? Were you living at home?

No, I was like literally living, uh, from, uh, place to place with my suitcase. I had no place to live. Uh, I was unemployed.

Don't they give you a job in China? Like, tell me a little bit more. What is it like in China? Like, yeah.

Yeah. So I went to China to work as an education reformer. So I believe like the best way to build a good future is—

But you grew up there.

No, no. So my background is I was born in China, but when I was 6, I moved over to Canada and that's where I grew up. Then I went to Yale University. Dang, cool. Yeah, yeah. And then I went back to China to help reform the school system.

I love Canada, man. Where did you live in Winnipeg? No, I lived in Toronto. Oh, dang. Yeah. I'm hoping my friend Diego Pavia goes up there and plays for Canada.

Yeah. Like, you know, Canada's really cool, but, you know, we're a bit slow. We have 5 years of high school rather than 4. Yeah. So, so, you know, our IQ is a bit lower than the Americans. But you guys have great posture up there.

Canada has some of the best posture in the whole world. I've noticed. That's something that I've noticed. Okay, so you end up back over there in China. Um, but yeah, is it like— do you hear a lot of stories that like people can only have one child? Like, what are some of the policies that are true over there that we hear about?

Well, you know, the one-child policy was, uh, true for a long time, but then, um, Chinese were aging and there were not enough children to support the elderly. So they, um— and then the birth rate was declining, and so they promoted policies, um, to encourage more fertility. And now you can have as many children as you want. Nice. But, but, but I mean, the reality is like most young people do not want to have children. It's a situation. I mean, it's a similar situation throughout the world. Like in the United States, young Americans don't have children. Europeans are the same, same way. Right now, the fertility rate in East Asia, in North— in South Korea, I think it's 0.6. In China, it's 1.0. In Japan, it's like 1.2, 1.3, but it's really low.

World Population Prospects, the United Nations publisher. What chart is this, Nick?

Can you tell me? Yeah, it's, uh, I think this is world fertility rate. In 1963, it was 5.3 births per woman, and now it's 2.2 births per woman.

Huh, that's wild. And China has 1.0, 1 birth per woman.

Yeah. And wait, who has that big— go to the top and hit the top.

Chad, uh, Congo, they have 6 births per woman.

Niger, uh, Mozambique, 5 births for women.

So my wife has 7 college roommates. There's 8 in her dorm, and, uh, we have 3 kids.

Oh, you guys have 3 kids? We have 3 kids. And I met your one son Christopher. He's here today.

That's right, that's right. Yes. And, um, so she, uh, they're in their 30s, which is a prime age to have, um, children. And collectively they have 3 kids. Hmm. Yeah, so it's not happening. No, it's not happening.

Yeah. Um, we've looked at some stuff today that's— that seems kind of dour, but it's also interesting, you know. Um, do you think that peace is an option, and how would we get there? Do you feel like— like, what has to adjust?

I think that for the longest time we've trusted our leaders to, uh— I agree with you.

And we thought they had our best interest.

That's right, that's right. And in fact, it's controlled by secret societies, and they're crazy people who want to achieve their eschatology. And it's time for us to wake up. And if we collectively wake up, then we will achieve peace in this world. But waking up is a hard process. Yes, as you know, right? It's a very hard process. It means going against social conventions. It means defying all that you've been taught. It means losing a lot of friends and family in the process.

Have you suffered from even speaking out about certain things? And like, have you like had any issues like come your way? Have you ever feared for your safety? Have you had people that have spoken up against you? Or like, what's that been like for you?

Yeah, so one thing that I think a lot about is what are the consequences for telling the truth, for speaking up, for drawing attention to Sikh societies. And here's my logic. I think that these people get to where they are because they are, they really do believe in God, but the God they believe in may not be the God that we believe in, right? But they really do believe in God. And they really believe that what they're doing is doing God's will and they're accelerating events that were predestined by God since the beginning of time. And so I present a paradox to them because I seem to know their plans, right? Mm-hmm. And so if I don't get their plans correct, then I'm an idiot and they can just ignore me. But if I get their plans correct, If I'm able to articulate their plans, then how am I able to know all this? Because I'm not part of the secret societies. I don't know any of these people, but at the same time, I know how they think and I know what their plan is. So they can't resolve this paradox. So the only thing they can do is ignore me.

I'm cognitive dissonance. Does that make sense? Right.

If they were to come for you, then it would prove that there's something true about their plan. Is that what you're saying?

No. If they, so in their mindset, if the only way I can know their plan is if God told me their plan, but they think that they're doing God's work. So how do they explain the fact that God's telling them what to do, but also God's telling me to tell the world that their plan's bad, what the plans are. So they're like, well, we don't know how to resolve this, so let's just ignore this guy. Yeah. Hmm. Do you, uh— sorry, sorry, sorry, one more point is the idea of, um, um, so there's a theory out there that, um, a lot of societies, they reveal to you what their plan is, and the reason why is Let's just say they screw up and they blow up the world and we all go to heaven. And then God asked, hey, so what happened? How did you blow up the earth? Well, most of us would be like, we didn't know what was going on. Right. Right. So they get all the blame. But let's just say they tell us their entire plan.

Oh, right. Then it's all of our faults.

Then it's our fault. We're complicit in our own destruction. Yeah. 'Right, so maybe I'm a useful tool. Maybe I'm a useful idiot who mysteriously is able to decipher their plans. I'm telling the world what's happening.' But the secret society is like, 'That's cool of us because now if everyone knows what's happening and they do nothing, everyone's complicit.' Ah, and so yeah, we've all come—

become very complicit with things being okay. Yeah. Is it the same in China? Yes, yes, exactly. It's kind of heartbreaking sometimes. It's like, I don't know what happened. I don't know if there's been like this slow sedation. Yeah. I can't tell what has occurred. I can't tell if, you know, I don't know. It all just feels like we've lost some of our—

The great truth is that we're all spiritual beings. That's true. We are first and foremost spiritual beings. That's true. But materialism has corrupted us. We should be focused on our spiritual well-being, on our consciousness, on elevating ourselves, on being generous, on being open, on being spiritual. And now we live in a world where money is everything. So we just pursue materialism. Right.

We're so— yeah, you're so focused your whole life and it's all built towards this. You got to go to school to get a grade, to get a college, to get a job, to get a thing, and then get it from a—

That's right.

And to get a house, there's everything is like the next carrot. It's always something.

We are in the Matrix. Yeah. And we have to wake up. Wow. Dang.

We are in the Matrix. Hello. We're in here. We want out.

Whoever's seeing us, we want out. Help. We're in an interesting spot, it feels like, with Um, oh, was that CERN accelerator? Did that have anything to do with how time has been adjusted, do you think, or no? Do you see anything with that?

I don't know much.

I don't know much about it either. Okay. Um, one thing I wanted to ask you before you leave, uh, financially, you've talked about, um, about the transnational capital. Capital, yeah. What would you do with money or assets right now? Like, what do you feel like the future of that could look like? Have you thought about that much?

Yeah, so So I think that the world is heading towards financial collapse and it's pretty clear with the AI bubble, right? Where they're building these data centers and it's really uncertain how they will make money out of these data centers. And it really seems the AI bubble is going to burst. And it really seems that the United States is heading towards financial collapse. And so I think that, you know, trying to figure out where to put your money, it's a dead end. You have to think about how do I lift my consciousness so that I'm ready to help myself as well as others in a time of crisis.

Ah, okay. Right. So what could I create right now? What could I start to have around me? Or what knowledge could I start to have? Yes.

Because if the grid goes down, suddenly you're just back to your own knowledge. That's right.

And dude, a lot of us, if we had to go back to our own knowledge, bro, yeah, shit would be bunk.

Yeah, we're dead.

Yeah. So, yeah, but it will be exciting. Yeah. But I do think you're right. It's like, what skills would you have? What can you apply? How could you help someone? What could you offer? Yeah. And in a weird way, man, I feel like it's almost what we could use the most. Is that scary to say that?

Look, I think that what you do, telling jokes is exactly what we will need in a time of crisis. We need in a time of darkness to see the light. And laughing is the best way to see the light. Yeah. Yeah, man.

Telling stories, being a part of joy, sitting around with people laughing. That's my favorite thing.

That's right.

Yeah. Sometimes I got lost, I think, on this, like, what was important, you know, the past few years. It's been fun. I've been having a good time, but some of it's just been like, Yeah, I don't know. You get focused and you kind of, you don't lose yourself, but you feel a little disconnected from yourself, you know? Yeah.

So, you know, I work in school reform and what my theory is that a school should be centered around laughter because if kids come into class laughing, they learn the best. They're engaged, they're excited. So there was a science experiment many years ago called—

A scientific experiment?

Yeah, yeah, called Laugh Club, okay? And so this Indian doctor, all he did was bringing people together at a park and just laugh together. And laughter and laughing is infectious, right? So if someone's laughing, other people are laughing. And he just asked people to pretend to laugh, like, "Hahaha." But what's magical is like, once you start to pretend to laugh and other people are start creating laugh as well, people start to laugh naturally. And what he discovered is people who participate in Laugh Club every morning, the kids would go to school and pay more attention in class. Wow. The adults would go to work and have less stress. And the elderly would be much more resilient against disease. They recover from disease faster. Really? Yes. It's called Laugh Club.

The Laughing Club of India usually refers to Mira Nair's short documentary about Mumbai's early laughter club movement, not a single exclusive organization. The film follows groups who meet often in parks to do stretching, clapping, breathing exercises, and deliberate group laughter as a social and stress relief practice. The movement was begun in Mumbai in 1995 by physician Dr. Madan Kataria. Its earliest meetings used jokes, but participants quickly shifted to laughter exercises organizes when the jokes ran out. Huh.

This is a movement you should start in the United States.

Amen, bro. Yeah, we need some things. We need to feel inspired. And, and I don't mean— I don't even mean you, whoever's listening. I mean me. I mean, yeah, there's just— I don't know. I'm glad we're talking about it today. I do feel like there is an awakening in some ways, and I do feel like, yeah, we have been stuck in this matrix. Um, uh, I've heard you talk before. You leave, and thank you so much for your time today. No, it was great.

Fantastic. Really cool, man. Thank You know, I came with purpose, which, which is tell the joke about my wife and like the gay joke, and I've done that, so I'm, I'm, I'm good. Okay, good.

Yeah. Uh, I've heard a lot of what we consume nowadays is very, um, there's huge filters on it. It's like the information that we get, what's allowed to come through. Um, you know, I think we saw that after like the— a lot of information came out about Gaza. It's like now I don't see many videos about it anymore. Yeah, I think a lot of that just, you know, there's a lot of strongholds on who has— who is letting information through to us. That's right. How do you— I've heard you talk about a propaganda test before. What's a propaganda test that you use to know if something is propaganda or not? Yeah.

So I think what's really important is for people to make predictions. Um, because whenever we say something, we're making certain assumptions about the world. And so the way for us to know if the way we understand the world is correct or not is by extending the logic and making predictions about how the world should turn out. And if it doesn't turn out the way that we predicted, then we should just reflect on, on how we think and make changes to ourselves. And I think the greatest problem in the world that we have today is gatekeeping. There's too much gatekeeping in media. There's too much gatekeeping in academics. So for example, I'm not really a professor, right? I'm not, I'm not a professor. I'm a high school teacher. I don't have a PhD. Right. So, so just for, um, yeah, just to be for honesty. Okay. But that's just gatekeeping, like where, where, you know, if you're not a college professor, You don't have a PhD, you're not a specialist, you don't get to be called a professor, okay? So there's just too much gatekeeping going on. I think that one way to improve our society is if experts are forced to make predictions because now we know how good their knowledge set is, right?

And now it's democratic. Now it's not just like you're a Harvard PhD and therefore you know what you're doing. No, no, it's like you are—

Show your work. Yeah, exactly. Show your work, bro. I like that. Yeah, let's be democratic. Yeah, a basketball player, it's like you don't just believe he's good if he tells you.

That's right.

Or you believe he's good because he went to a lot of basketball camps. He's got to go do it. Look, look at COVID, right?

I mean, during COVID they were rolling out these vaccines.

Oh dude, Anthony Fauci's a fuck it dude.

Look, look, look, and he was like, how dare you question the science? We know better than you. We have your best interest at heart. Just obey us. Trust the science, bro. Yeah. And that was it. And it's like, okay, fine. Show me the science because, you know, show me.

I know. It's the Matrix, man. Yeah. I'm glad we got to meet at least here in the Matrix.

Yeah, yeah. Well, everything happens for a purpose. Yeah. You know, and like, you know, I really respect what you do. Bringing truth to the world through laughter. And that's really the most powerful way of communicating.

Well, thank you, Professor Xiong. I appreciate it. Yeah, I just appreciate that. Like, it's just interesting. I think one thing that is great about social media and stuff and technology is just the different people that you can bear witness to, you know, and different people that can get their voice out there. And I think it's great that you've developed a voice for yourself. Um, what do you— what do your students think about it? What do they— what do they think about it in China?

Um, so are you more popular here than in China? I'm way more popular here than in China. People think I'm absolutely insane in, in China.

Uh, why is it? Because you're brave, you put yourself out there? Is that a thing that doesn't happen very much in China where people kind of put like—

yeah. Um, so I, I think that like a lot of things I say are dark. Oh yeah. And so they, uh, would rather be ignorant.

Oh, I said ignorance is bliss. Yeah, it is, man. I used to be so ignorant, dude, and I was fucking doing great.

Yeah, absolutely.

Top is doing great, dude.

Yeah, but you know, once you achieve full knowledge, you'll do even better. Oh, I don't—

I'll never get there, but Yeah, a little bit at a time, man.

It's always about the journey. Yeah, it's always about the journey.

Yeah, yeah. And yeah, connecting with the people that you love, that's what God put us here for. That's why we're here.

That's right, family.

We're here to have experiences that mean something. Yes. Yeah. Um, Professor Zhang, thank you so much for your time today. Uh, travel safe. How do you say goodbye in Chinese?

Zaijian. Zaijian. Yes. Okay. The breeze, and I feel I'm falling like these leaves. I must be cornerstone. Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this peace of mind I found. I can feel it in my bones, but it's gonna take a little