WTW147: No, the Woke Aren't Protecting Shooters By Calling Them "Trigger Pullers"

Transcript

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors — the audio is the record.

0:00:03 Clip: What's so scary about the woke mob, how often you just don't see them coming.

0:00:11 Clip: Anywhere you see diversity, equity, and inclusion, you see Marxism and you see woke principles being pushed.

0:00:19 Clip: Wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic hands down. The woke monster is here and it's coming for everything, everything, and everything. Instead of go-go boots, the seductress green M &M will now wear sneakers.

0:00:42 Thomas: And welcome to Where There's Woke. I'm Thomas, and over there's Lydia. How you doing? I

0:00:45 Lydia: Hi, doing pretty well, living in my little woke news, I churn? What would I, tornado? Tornado. I'm doing pretty well, though. How are you?

0:00:54 Thomas: I'm doing okay I'm excited for what you have in store for us

0:00:58 Lydia: Yeah, I think it's been a while since we've done kind of like a little, little drive -by of some woke goings -on across the country.

0:01:03 Thomas: Drive -by shooting yeah it's been too long since we've done that you

0:01:06 Lydia: Yeah so I have a few stories for us today that we'll spend some time on and that kind of hit like, I I don't know, a bunch of like different spots that, the woke is going crazy and this way and that way and this other way. And I think we'll have fun kind of tearing it apart a little bit and got some clips for us. Got some lips of TikTok tweets.

0:01:25 Thomas: Don't have an episode do you this is just the most general I got you're just describing like the average episode oh man I got things there's gonna be clips and news hey if you're into general things woke woke anti got you no

0:01:34 Lydia: Very ambiguous. Well, I guess preview of the stories we're gonna be talking about today. There's a story out Seattle from a press conference that their interim police chief gave and the language that he chose to use during that press conference lit off conservative media. So we're gonna be talking about that specifically. Second story is involving Nike. I don't know if you've heard Nike fell off.

0:01:58 Thomas: Never heard of them wait

0:01:59 Lydia: Yeah, they're no longer on the S &P 100 after 18 years. Yeah. So there's a lot lot of misinformation that's going around about why that would be. So I'm here to debunk some of that, including a brand new study just came out a few weeks ago, actually, out of a group of from UC Berkeley we'll get into that. We got some business woke stuff. And going to close it out with good old Florida. We haven't been to Florida in, in, I don't know, a few weeks. So we're gonna swing by there. Yeah, we're going to swing by there and talk about college football and a chant that has reemerged as part of the lexicon at University of Florida. Why that's a win for the anti -woke, I guess. So yeah.

0:02:03 Thomas: What oh never been wow that is things all

0:02:47 Lydia: Yeah. A potpourri.

0:02:48 Thomas: Right well I'm excited uh didn't I yeah I'm surprised about nike I I guess I jordan hasn't done much lately. I don't know. The extent of my Nike knowledge is Michael Jordan from the 90s. I don't Know. He's not still doing stuff. Is he? Is Okay. They get like the next like Like was LeBron Nike? I don' t know. Were such a brand. They're such a part of my childhood. Like every boy my age was like, Oh my God, this is the greatest.

0:02:58 Lydia: I think so. Yeah. Yeah, we'll get into it. We'll get into it, they but still do a lot of collabs, and t know. There are a lot of thoughts about what's going on with Nike.

0:03:15 Thomas: Collabs. Take our first break and then we'll dig into this generalized news. Can't wait.

0:03:26 Lydia: So first up, we're Seattle's been experiencing a lot of why I don'T want to say a lot OF because I DON'T know, know, in like the grand scheme of history and stuff, what a lot of violence is for Seattle in particular, but there have been a number of shootings that have happened there within a short period of time. And there was, a press you conference that the mayor was part of to talk about, you Know, what's been going on in the city. And then the police chief came out. And his name is Andre sales. As he's giving this briefing on what's happening with gun violence in the city at one point instead of saying shooters he says that the department is looking at ways to identify trigger pullers in our community and here's media they hear that and they're like oh my god and now the woke say we can't say shooters anymore

0:04:10 Thomas: They're taking away our are shooters oh

0:04:14 Lydia: Walsh ran a piece on this separately and then daily wire ran another piece on this titled Liberal City Puts Politically Correct Spin on Shooter. Bunch of different conservative media outlets all ran with it. Basically the same framing, right? That this is a new woke euphemism because we're not allowed to say shooter anymore. And we're trying to soften what these people actually are, that we're empathetic towards people who are committing gun violence in cities. And so instead of naming them shooters, we're going to call them trigger trigger pullers because that's less offensive to them like twitter

0:04:43 Thomas: Sure I'm sure and famously the cops are so woke that you the ones who would do that for

0:04:49 Lydia: Blew up obviously as well where we get some amazing takes certainly said that it was a socialist accommodation to criminals libs of tiktok chimed in as they were going to yeah the

0:05:01 Thomas: Sorry who was it again the chief shit of police something what was it oh well interims are usually woke I don't know what the The police aren't woke, guys. They're not. They never are.

0:05:06 Lydia: Interim police Police chief. Yeah. Libs of TikTok said the the same people who melt it down for a week about Trump renaming Lake Ontario to Lake America are now calling shooters trigger pullers. Democrats are the masters at asinine renaming. Matt Walsh had a problem with that, by the way, not

0:05:24 Thomas: Hold on. Hold on, you guys. You're melting down about something you decided was renamed. That'd the equivalent would be like if Trump's like, ha, a lake, Oh, lake, I've for it is lake oh right now I'm not officially changing anything I'm just using literally a different phrase that refers to the exact same thing and if everyone was like my god he's changed that would be the equivalent if we're like he changed it to lake oh because he's a fashion like it's a stupid example but like that's what's happening someone just used a different phrase as

0:05:55 Lydia: Libs of TikTok mentions some ways in which, I guess, Democrats, she as says, the masters of asinine renaming, mutilation is affirming care. Baby murder is health care. Mother is birthing person. Father is non -gestational parent. We talked about that before, I think, with adoption, right, like the legislation in New York about adoption and what that actually means. And it's not erasing the word father, et cetera, et cetera, right?

0:06:19 Thomas: Always I'm the wokest of woke I don't know any of these don't care they they don't matter. Important.

0:06:26 Lydia: Cho, who we visited for the Antifa Roundtable coverage that we did over on Opening Arguments, in on this, too. Now Seattle leaders are trying to control the narrative by creating woke language. Incredible. It wasn't just Twitter. It wasn't просто conservative media. Guess this is technically Twitter, but this is a company. Polymarket is chiming in on this too. They said, just in, Seattle police are now referring to shooters as trigger pullers to avoid stigmatizing language as the city responds.

0:06:45 Thomas: Sorry, what?

0:06:53 Lydia: Yeah, I could not believe it. Polymarket. The prediction, yes, yes. Their actual Twitter handle, they are chiming in on this. That is crazy. They are framing it as that Seattle police are trying to avoid stigmatizing language, that they've just decided that's what it is. Um everybody is um but why don't we hear from uh police chief andre sales himself so we can hear exactly what it is and supposedly the stigmatizing language that they are trying to

0:06:54 Thomas: Pauly Market? Like the actual thing? Realize Pauley Market was like a poster or whatever. I guess everybody is now. Okay,

0:07:29 Lydia: Avoid

0:07:29 Thomas: For those who can't see, he's clearly asexual, no gender, has purple hair. I said he, I shouldn't have they um of lots of piercings and tattoos that's just to get the visual of who the police chief is yeah

0:07:37 Lydia: Yep lots of piercings yeah that's

0:07:43 Clip: Being done in these areas as far as maybe increasing patrols or working with business owners? Working Working with business owner, increasing patrol, bike patrols, working with our community response group and our gun violence reduction unit as well. Looking at ways to where we can identify individuals that are known, we call them trigger pullers in our community, identifying them, making sure that we're putting cases on those individuals, working with King County Prosecutor's Office to bring these individuals to justice because the families that lost loved ones throughout this year and years past deserve justice in this matter. You

0:08:17 Lydia: It that's the one thing that everyone's losing their shit over. Here's the thing. Trigger puller, Andre Sales didn't make this up. Woke didn't make this up, this is a well established federal law enforcement and prosecutorial term, right? It's related to, you a group of people that are participating in a crime together, it helps differentiate the person who pulled the trigger from the person who drove the getaway car, from the person who was the lookout for, you know, like if there's organized crime, like this is not a new thing. Just that. Is something that the Trump administration, their DOJ, used in Trump 1 .0 when they were talking about a criminal that they were going after. This is Montana Baronet.

0:09:03 Lydia: Yeah. Federal jury found Baranet personally participated in six murders. And this is a press release from the ATF, the Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau. And reading through this press release, it Baranat led one of the most violent gangs operating in Baltimore City and personally participated in at least six murders, he and his fellow gang members terrorized the Sandtown neighborhood in order to profit from the drug trade as a result of today's sentence justice has been served for his victims and their families etc etc etc from 2010 to 2017 montana baronet was known as the number one trigger puller in baltimore and the leader of the vicious train to go gang that terrorized the streets of west baltember yada yada like they themselves are using this word and

0:09:02 Thomas: What a name yeah

0:09:48 Lydia: No one lost their mind then yeah

0:09:49 Thomas: The does it differentiate between because if it's like gang activity it's not like it's a murderer it's the whole gang might be kind of guilty of planning a murder or doing whatever and this is merely the trigger puller as in the the person who actually fired the gun but it's like is that why they would use that term maybe yeah

0:10:08 Lydia: I mean there could be something to it where it's like Like if you're talking about something that's like complicated, like a little more, I sort of thing or like gang violence kind of thing.

0:10:18 Thomas: Like you wouldn't want to say like the killer because maybe there's more people maybe they want to preserve here I know law enforcement they're not woke and they want to punish and capture as many people as possible especially around stuff like this that's like gang stuff and so it's probably a way to preserve the criminality of more people oh

0:10:38 Lydia: Exactly. Exactly. I think it's more specific. In some ways, it's almost more of an intense thing to be accused of rather than like a shooter. I don'T know. It just feels like it's It's more connected to the act itself. Baronet, he was charged with a variety of things, but including murder. So just being called a trigger puller versus a shooter, like you were still responsible for the crime of murder. It's just like it's a language differentiation. Also had internal research that they did, Bureau the of Alcohol, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. And this was reported back in 2018 by CNN, they use trigger puller as a category of repeat offenders that federal agents prioritize going after. Sessions, when he led the Justice Department, used the term the exact same way. Like this is something that is, it a category. Now, for Sales, for Police Chief Andre Sales to use trigger pulling here, I think it's reasonable because it might be tied to who knows it might be tied to gang violence it might be tied to something that's more complex that might be an appropriate way to to describe who they're looking for what exactly kind of case they're pursuing for all of these things I don't know I don' t know all the specifics of every single thing that's been happening in Seattle

0:11:52 Lydia: Like latch onto that and say that, well, this guy's woke. The woke have infiltrated the Seattle Police Department, and they are making us say this term now. They're saying it's the same thing as Latinx.

0:11:50 Thomas: I do so

0:12:04 Lydia: It's so dumb. It goes back

0:12:03 Thomas: Stupid stupid they have nothing else in their lives trigger

0:12:11 Lydia: Even further. I was doing some research related to trigger puller. I was like, there's no way. There's no way that the Trump administration created this word. Like I said, you know, it's long standing.

0:12:15 Thomas: Puller alert yeah they're not woke enough

0:12:24 Lydia: But yeah. How long? How long is long standing? And I found a New York Times article from May 19th, 1940.

0:12:32 Lydia: And I'm going to read it because this Yeah, this is I mean, it'S not fun because it'S describing terrible murder, but I'll skip over that part. But it's just, you know, interesting, historical, you know, New York Times article. I like the little picture of it. Is titled Kid Twist Talks. So they have like a, you know, fun gang name, I guess.

0:12:31 Thomas: To wow those wokests huh fun

0:12:56 Lydia: Pretty good. I don't know. Kid Twist. Like, that's pretty fun.

0:12:58 Thomas: Gang name yeah so wholesome

0:13:08 Lydia: On May 25th, 1937, the body of one George Rudnick strangled with a rope. Terrible things. Skipping skipping skipping

0:13:15 Thomas: That's why he has that fun name squat

0:13:16 Lydia: It's gonna skip over this stuff because it's terrible and disgusting um by new york police in an abandoned stolen car the murder was attributed to internal gangland war like many a similar crime it went for a long time unsolved last week before a quote quote blue ribbon jury in kings county court an inside story of the slang was told by a man who confessed to taking part in it he was abe relis a squat flashily dressed blustery gang leader

0:13:39 Thomas: Flashly dressed nice this is fun I also feel like you went into old timey voice for a second there like wow it hasn't been solved yeah

0:13:46 Lydia: My little transatlantic uh voice elizabeth gang leader who prefers to be known by the underworld name of quote kid twist the redneck murderer said relis was carried out in a brooklyn garage by a group consisting of harry and then in parentheses happy malone frank in parentheses the dasher abandado harry in in parentheses, Pittsburgh Phil Strauss and himself. Man, so we got kid twist, happy, the Dasher, Pittsburgh Phil.

0:14:00 Thomas: Man such good I mean this is fantastic yeah

0:14:12 Lydia: Exactly. It's so good. If it weren't describing a disgusting murder.

0:14:12 Thomas: Why isn't crime like this anymore back in my day crime was old -timey and fun I don't know why I said my day back in mine dad's dad's day oh

0:14:26 Lydia: Rudnick's elimination, the person who was murdered, said the witness had been decided upon.

0:14:29 Thomas: Elimination they're so woke they can't say today's murder.

0:14:32 Lydia: Decided on. Had been been decided. Decided upon when the gang learned he was a, quote, stool pigeon for the police.

0:14:38 Thomas: This is delightful.

0:14:39 Lydia: The code of the underworld exactly

0:14:40 Thomas: Massey. A lot of those was just Massey, I think, before. Yeah, a stool pigeon. What was it? A stool pigeon? Man, I don't even know what that means.

0:14:43 Lydia: The code a stool pigeon for the police the code the underworld relis added required that quote the squealer must go as for his own role as a state's witness testifying against his former confederates he said quote well it's not not exactly the same thing yeah

0:15:01 Thomas: Massey? You have to put that in. Said, quote, Massey

0:15:03 Lydia: Man see well it's not exactly the same things the swaggering kid twist for at least 15 years notorious as a member of brooklyn gangs engaged in extortion bootlegging robbery and assault was arrested last february 2nd as the alleged co -leader of a brookline gang that committed murder by contract it was his 41st arrest the latest arrest was part of an anti -crime drive by district attorney william o'dwyer former patrolman who blah blah blah last week's trial in which malone and abandondo were specifically accused of rudnick slang was to be only the first of a series and then a headline trigger puller material for more trials to come was abundant in the testimony of relis who had turned state's witness in the hope of saving his own skin asked if he had killed a man

0:15:47 Thomas: Classic stool pigeon activity right there. A stool Pigeon. I would have, I would would have offed him too wow

0:15:52 Lydia: If he had killed a man named Ruoco he said quote yeah yes I pulled the trigger two of us pulled triggers regarding the liquidation of the three Shapiro brothers who once contested his leadership of Brooklyn Rackets he said quote I killed one of them and he goes on and on and on before his day in court was over Rellis had confessed to a hand in six murders the horrified judge saying he quote needed arrest called an early adjournment at court sessions on following following days, prosecution witnesses tended to echo some of the testimony of Kid Twist.

0:16:18 Lydia: So Twist, the trigger puller, turnstates witness. And they are so woke. Crazy. Yeah.

0:16:14 Thomas: He's like wow yeah

0:16:27 Lydia: Yeah, yeah. Super fun.

0:16:27 Thomas: Fun nothing better than old -timey newspaper

0:16:29 Lydia: Super funny.

0:16:29 Thomas: Even though it's like a bunch of murders and stuff still so delightful if

0:16:34 Lydia: Yeah, but I just wanted to, you know, pull in. It's not a new thing. It is a prosecutorial term that's been used for a long, long time, including by the the Trump administration themselves, when it makes sense for them to apply it here. It might also make sense for Seattle to apply it here based on what they're looking at. And even if it weren't, who cares? It's still specific and it doesn't absolve anybody of crime. It's not being done for anybody's feelings, et cetera, et cetera, etc. Right.

0:17:04 Thomas: It's good enough for kid twist it's enough for me kid twisted mother I hope heath was alive to hear that okay

0:17:17 Lydia: Move away from murder and let's talk about woke businesses so

0:17:22 Thomas: I guess I'm I'm still I'm gonna be off in kid twist land still just letting you know but okay we can move on that was fun

0:17:26 Lydia: Know we had some really great names in the former segment Montana Baronet Kid Twist Pittsburgh

0:17:30 Thomas: Is there any amount of messy in this one damn yeah it's like well that's like punxsutawney phil you know

0:17:34 Lydia: Phil no Pittsburgh Phil I love it yeah yeah and I'm not a groundhog though So yeah, yeah, he's a part of a murdering gang. So less cute. Right. So Nike, this was big, big news for the business world. I did not know about this either until I started looking into it. They hit a 12 their stock on September 1st.

0:17:41 Thomas: Boo right I'm remembering now I did hear someone mention that they have just totally fucked themselves for some reason like they had had yeah they had like a good brand for so long and it's just like dog shit like I don't know what exactly happened but it's depressing to me because like I loved nike from

0:18:07 Lydia: Bad. Yeah, yeah. It peaked actually November 2021. So the stock as it sits today is down 78 % from that peak from November 2021. So it's down to $39 .09 a share. Agrees that Nike is not in good shape, but where the disagreement is, is why. The claim that's going around, if you're part of these conservative media circles or or subject yourself to it like I do, is that because of the WNBA and Sophie Cunningham and women in sports, right? And also there was a viral ad last year from XXXY Athletics. Do you remember them? We talked about them before. Jennifer say, anytime there's anything to do with trans athletes, you can expect XXXXY part of that conversation. That's Jennifer Say's company. She's a former Olympian. Together an ad video, campaign, I guess, last year called Dear Nike. You hear anything involving in sports, quote unquote, right? XXXY Athletics, that's a transphobic group. Obviously, the name kind of indicates that. And Jennifer Say is the leader of that. So you can kind of to start piecing together these um flyers I guess but claim is because of the wnba and sophie cunningham's position and you know nike not distancing themselves from supporting trans athletes that that's what's tanking the stock that that they are saying it's because of their DEI positioning.

0:18:27 Thomas: From what now yeah you mean nike like the blackest brand like their their entire existence is because of of an incredible black athlete like that's that dei company nike

0:20:06 Lydia: And Steven Crowder actually put together an entire video. We're not going to watch the whole thing. We'll just watch a little snippet of it because he's terrible and horrible, called The Top Five Wokest Moments That Tanked Nike's Stock. Going to start first with him explaining how he has mispronounced Nike because he is Canadian, I guess.

0:20:26 Clip: Nike or Nike. I know in Europe they say Nike. In Canada, some people say Nike, some People say Nike so I may misspeak quite a few times today. It makes no sense with like and bike, tyke, Mike, Jewish pejorative.

0:20:30 Thomas: Nike some words are different funny wow

0:20:36 Lydia: Nike, yeah. Yeah. God.

0:20:46 Clip: But Nike. By the way, I would ask all of you, stop being so Jew -y. So, it

0:20:46 Thomas: What what

0:20:56 Lydia: Yeah, I know. I had to play that. It's horrible. That's his introduction to this video, you guys. This is literally at 30 seconds that he goes off on this. It is despicable. Despicable.

0:21:07 Thomas: An idiot why just have to be so dumb for this to be funny like mean yeah it's offensive but it's also it's just not anything like okay cool man man, you're laughing because you think you're a naughty little boy. You're being so bad. It's like, yeah, that's okay. That's funny when you're 13 and you do it the first time, but you're an old man. That guy looks old now. Jesus. He looks older than me. Like he's, I think 10 years ago he was way younger than me and now he's way older than Me. I don't know how that happened, but it's true. Look it up. Anyway, I have to listen to more of this fucking asshole. Oh

0:21:44 Lydia: I can listen to maybe maybe a couple of his, woke moments. This is just too long. I don't want to subject everybody to this. But let's go ahead and skip to 340.

0:21:55 Thomas: What an asshole uh

0:21:57 Clip: Nike moments. And you know where this is going, of course. People say go broke, go broke. But the truth is, it just comes down to insulting your audience. Sucker punching your audience, namely young male athletes who are the primary market for Nike for a long time. And it turns out, if you keep trying to force -feed them something that they don't want, your company doesn't do all that well. Number one, remember this? Colin Kaepernick, who I'm still not entirely sure, I think he's like half -Egyptian, I don't know. But this is after he refused to stand for the national anthem like he was kneeling, and then we saw as a result the black national anthem. A good portion of the country, including many black Americans, thought that it was disrespectful. Instead, Nike doubled down and ran this ad. Don't settle for homecoming queen. Believe in something even if it means sacrificing everything I know some

0:22:51 Thomas: His whole career what do you mean what he sacrifices he get to be a quarterback anymore worse

0:23:08 Lydia: Yeah. Two, if you you skip ahead to 522.

0:23:13 Thomas: Than that pretty good ad okay

0:23:15 Clip: Of you thought that we actually when we originally ran this you thought it was a joke like you thought we created it no this is real in 2018 nike They made a Nike hijab! Apparently for walking through the desert. Gotta get that divine out of it. Or Brunching.

0:23:45 Clip: And there was a crossover when she was walking through that desert that was Gatorade Nana. I thought this was like an ad.

0:23:53 Thomas: Not anything jesus

0:23:54 Lydia: Yeah." They go off to say some, terrible things. Basically, like, I thought this was an active wear kind of thing. But the most active thing that you see her doing is stretching and arms while maybe running uh hurtling rapists to dodge those rocks they said um you can dodge a wrench you can Dodge a rapist rock yeah

0:24:09 Thomas: Christ this is this is what things are now what what a two I don't know if it's two americas or how many americas but But, like, if you don't watch the most popular fucking bullshit on YouTube, I guess you don'T have any idea just how much of an asshole everyone is. Like, why is that fun to be an asshole? I don'T get it.

0:24:26 Lydia: It's so bad and and part of the video too they complain like if you want to be able to watch this you uncensored and you access to all of of like the hate speech that we want to do go to rumble because youtube's gonna like you with the algo so it won't show up for you yeah because this is despicable stuff um their third one is a trans man athlete that it's a triathlete and they obviously have a lot of thoughts about that um say this is terrible um look look, if you want to chop your beep off and go for a jog, nobody cares. That's not what we're talking about. We're talking about advertising being thrust upon us.

0:24:40 Thomas: Man. All advertising is is being thrust upon you, you idiot. That's what it is. There's no other version of it. Fucking morons.

0:25:11 Lydia: So it's just, honestly, ridiculous that the entire video is is obviously, surprised you to know that all the analysis of what's been going on for Nike, internal reports that they've been sharing with their investors, all their shareholders, which they are legally required to do because they're a publicly traded company, all the analysis from third parties, it's all focused in on four specific things, and none of them have to do with DEI or marketing. Even marketing, no, no. the first thing is China is a big thorn in Nike's side. They demonstrate that there's eight straight quarters of declining sales in china of nike products sales in China yeah and and a lot of that well it's because there are a lot of local competitors that especially younger Chinese folks are wanting to buy the Chinese companies that specifically onto and leaning and that that tends to be what What you see a lot of younger consumers going towards in China is their homegrown brands. Second reason, so that's the first reason. The second reason is tariffs. Name specifically in their own annual report, they named the U .S. tariff policy directly as a drag on their margins, especially when it's like the back and forth sort of situation. It makes things really unpredictable. Gross margin was down three percentage points last quarter. Tariffs were noted as being biggest the single single piece of driving that reduction in gross margins the third reason is that they pivoted to direct consumer and a lot of analysts have felt that this has been a big big issue for nike their revenue for direct to customer in that like that strategy it's down eight percent eight full percent um

0:25:38 Thomas: Way. Mark. Yeah, yeah. Interesting. China. Sorry oh in china okay so not like competition from china oh go both what does that mean interesting

0:27:03 Lydia: Instead of selling their products through um other stores right you have like I don't know, department stores or like famous footwear or like um or whatever like instead of funneling your product through those other stores and have consumers buy that you have your standalone kind to consumer. So that means that you have to either have your own brick and mortar or that you're relying on people to buy online from you, that no middleman to get your product to people otherwise. And that's not working out for Nike very well.

0:27:36 Lydia: Their digital sales were down 14%. So that is a strategy that they leaned on that is not panning out for them.

0:27:44 Thomas: It kind of makes sense because it feels like retail is just like dead you know but yeah I don't know so

0:27:50 Lydia: And number four is that there's competition in America even too, right? We have some other brands, um, wear them on clouds, right. That's a brand that's super, super popular.

0:27:59 Thomas: You you tell tell me they

0:28:00 Lydia: Is another really popular brand. Um especially when you're looking at, um you know, for like the sneaker market and things like that, running shoes. I was looking around Reddit on like the Nike subreddit because they're talking about this a lot and most people that are chiming in are like yeah no duh like obviously Nike's not doing well because the shoes don't fit well a lot of people have been complaining about like the toe boxes and but that the quality has gone down um when you're looking for a good running shoe you're not going to be looking at Nike because these other brands actually create shoes that are meant for training appropriately um that they are better for your feet if you go get like fitted for running shoes and stuff I who like actually actually know this stuff I Don't think nike brands are often um part of the conversation when you're getting fitted for Running shoes for for marathoners and folks can chime in I'm not a marathoner I just have been around some shoe fittings before I've never been fitted myself. Run a 5k. Let me just I'll put that out there. So folks know. Does seem to do well for Nike is this collabs that they've done, right? The Jordans are always going to sell well. Done collabs with other other I think Megan Thee Stallion, they they're doing a a collab collab with her. Doing an anime called One Piece, switches everywhere um that's about to launch so if you're looking at like collectibles like youre looking at things that sneakerheads are going to be interested in things that like sneaker sneaker

0:28:24 Thomas: Got too woke sneaker heads huh wow

0:29:31 Lydia: Heads I

0:29:32 Thomas: Shout out to our sneakerheads wow

0:29:33 Lydia: Have some friends that are sneaker heads and re and if you really looking at people who desire exclusivity who desire like limited releases collections

0:29:41 Thomas: That was my impression of the the of the business these these days is it's just all that like they've put out a million versions of the old jordans or the whatever and they're like that's that's cool I assume that works to some degree yeah

0:29:50 Lydia: It is going to be a portion of a consumer base and that portion has changed so you're not getting the people who are like getting new sneakers for going to train at the gym or people who Are going to go start running as a hobby that that is what you are building then Nike was already too big for for what they're are doing, especially when nothing is affordable anyway, and people don't have dispensable income, income. Just different than it used to be, which makes sense. So third party analysis has also looked at this and Nike's numbers and all their various annual reports and their read, this is the JP JP Morgan Morgan firm, they said that Nike, expect Nike will get to stabilization, not recovery, just stabilization of their downfall by fiscal year 2028. on these four things, their projection, their model is based off of those four things. It is not based off their DEI policies at corporate is not based off of their marketing strategy yeah yes

0:30:47 Thomas: Well and here's the thing if it were that would be way better for them if they were able to be like look guys it turns out we just did a hijab or something like it'd be like the easiest fixable decision they'd be like oh I guess people don't like black people anymore or never did I it's unclear I guess um so we'll just do ads that are just steven crowder like just that literal asshole yeah some white piece of shit dude racist and yeah we'll make a billion zillion dollars that my point is like if this idiot crowd is going to say that they're lying or they're whatever like they they would love it if it were just that if it was just a matter of like doing different ads oh

0:31:13 Lydia: Fixed yeah pin in that because I I teased we have some research that looks into that specifically DEI strategies for companies go woke go broke what that actually means but I we get into that Matt, I want to also mention Nike's been getting a lot of the news about falling out of the S &P 100, but they're not the only company that lost a spot in the S & P 100 on the same date, literally the same day. Honeywell Aerospace also fell out, Simon Property Group, and Colgate Palmolive.

0:32:01 Lydia: Yeah. Well, you're not a sneakerhead. So so those companies fell out. And because it's called the S &P 100, four companies are being replaced.

0:32:00 Thomas: Of their shoes I I'm a palm olive head though they can only let like 200 of them on or something I don't something

0:32:16 Lydia: So the four companies that stepped in are Dell Technologies, which was surprising to me, because I feel like I haven't heard about Dell in many a decade.

0:32:24 Thomas: Yeah they've been kind of just keeping on making mediocre bullshit forever sandisk

0:32:29 Lydia: Keep Alto Networks, Arista Networks and SanDisk. So involving servers, data infrastructure, right? These are kind of like more tech -heavy companies. And I looked into each one of those companies, and wouldn't you know it, of those companies entering the S &P 100 now have explicit DEI efforts, almost like DEI has nothing to do with any of this at all, at all.

0:32:55 Thomas: So stupid like people don't shop based on those things like not really how it works I

0:33:00 Lydia: That's why Target still exists. This I mean they they did see some movement down right now I guess that would be on the opposite side right because they did dismantle some of those efforts um some people have sworn off of shopping at target but like the yeah needle does not move enough for something like that yeah

0:33:15 Thomas: It's just mega online people like most people are like I go to target because target's the place I go like I couldn't tell you what a target ad is and we still go to yeah

0:33:25 Lydia: Here's more evidence of DEI having nothing to do with any of this study that came out last month tested this entire go woke go broke idea and they tested it directly across the entire market not just looking at nike specifically they is a of researchers one out of stanford one outof uc berkeley and used a model that gets used in economics a lot that basically looks at how do markets react to things like coups major political shocks that kind of thing right and they looked at the change in a market based off of the executive order signed by trump directing federal agencies to pressure companies into eliminating DEI programs um companies explicitly said and publicly said that they were going to keep their DEI programs apple cisco costco delta microsoft um they refused to like participate in this strategy. So the researchers were wondering, okay, so did those companies get punished for it financially? You know, does them keeping their DEI that the Trump executive order said that this is bad for business, we're going to pressure companies change to their policies. The answer was, across every single way they measured it, and they looked looked at it a bunch of different ways. They

0:34:40 Lydia: Third-party watchdogs ratings, language in SEC filings, how shareholders voted on anti -DEI proposals, every single measure that they looked at to see, is there an to keeping your DEI program? The effect was consistently near zero, never statistically significant. They even looked at when Trump specifically called out Apple by name on Truth Social for not dropping DEI. He like literally posted a Truth Social piece about that. Apple stock take a hit at all? The answer is no, it didn't. Nothing happened. Nothing at all. Even cited Nike as part of it. It was in in their appendix as part of their data set, they were listed as one of 54 companies that were coded DEI committed. So it's not like Nike is the only member of the S &P 100 at that point in time that had a DEI program and would have been considered DEI -committed. Apple is there, right? Would Nike be singled out and punished for their DEI policy when I imagine a number of companies in and the S &P 100 are also part of it makes no sense. So the real problems that have been happening for Nike are the boring business ones that tend to be the problems that happen for businesses. Talking competition, both here

0:36:01 Lydia: And abroad, we're talking direct to consumer strategy that's not working out. It's right, a thing that's been imposed by by a that they have no control over but does harm their business so yep um polymarket I didn't see them posting about that interestingly I wish that they would have posted about that but they're too busy posting about the seattle police chief's language choices all

0:36:01 Thomas: Don' know who could have predicted that besides so mad that Polymarket isn't something for poly people like a place like a dating some something you know it should be every time I hear I'm like oh polymarket no like

0:36:34 Lydia: We weren't weren't quick enough to grab that name so now to end us we're gonna go over to florida and this one's a little different I'll be curious to see what you think about this um just the other day florida had their season opener football game yeah yeah a chant called Gator Bait, and it's the first time they've done it since it was banned back in 2020. new president, Stuart Bell, said that he would be bringing it back back in June. So people expected this, and a of people were looking forward to it. They view it as a tradition. Bell said that traditions matter. It's meaningful to the Gator family. Stadium is full. This is a big, big football school, had a huge reception. Then the way that conservative media, like you can't, you can'T just take that as like, oh, Gator Bates back, you know, you CAN'T

0:36:54 Thomas: The the or yeah why

0:37:31 Lydia: Just TAKE it.

0:37:32 Thomas: Was it banned is it a racist thing what's going on yeah jesus

0:37:34 Lydia: So the reason it was banned in 2020 is because um president at that time kent fuchs I think is how you pronounce it f -u -c -h -s um that he didn't have any evidence that fans meant anything racist by the chant when it was used at games but there is a historical association with the term gator bait. And it is because there are newspaper articles and imagery going back to the late 1800s, early 1900s of black children literally being used as alligator bait, postcards of saying like, like, some alligator bait. Terrible. The Jim Crow Museum at Ferris State University in Michigan has a lot of this material. Even a Time magazine piece back from 1923 that is describing the practice happening in chipley florida so like in a place in florida this was occurring um now 2020 is major reckoning that I think a lot of americans were having in the face of black lives matter and all of that stuff so the president at the time was like hey there's a lot of historical associations with this chant that we do I don't think fans mean anything by

0:38:10 Thomas: Christ yeah we're gonna take a pause on the racism just until trump gets back into office well

0:38:47 Lydia: It um I don t I don think that they are being racist by chanting it but because of those historical associations I think it's best that we don't do this chant anymore we can come up with something else but this is a very hurtful thing for a community of people um we're not going to do it anymore when it came back people just couldn't like let it at its back you know whatever we're going to say it there's a sports blog that decided to run it coming back as controversial and the way that they said it's controversial is they cited two people that said they were uncomfortable with it and they sad that woke fans are mad the tradition's back it's very very minimal is the thing in of like, true like controversy. It's what we talk about on the show a lot, right?

0:39:21 Thomas: Probably would be controversial though it's kind of like we're just overloaded I think like it's just too much it's probably like well we tried to find some people to get mad at it because we that's all we do is we want people to be mad about things we're doing that's the only thing we have in life and so we told them about it and they were like yeah that probably fucking sucks that sounds racist and so can you believe it he

0:39:49 Lydia: Yeah, I other piece that that it a little tough is that it was actually popularized back in 1995 by a football player at University of florida named lawrence right black defensive black and he was against the ban when it was announced um and actually I have a clip that we can play of when he introduced it yeah he he it right he came up with this chant essentially and it caught on and

0:40:09 Thomas: Introduced it yeah

0:40:18 Clip: Say a little chant, but I need y 'all help. I just need y´all help. Now, if I say the team, y´ll say Gator Bait. Y´all got that? You gotta say it loud now. The only way it gonna work is y´All say Gater Bait, but let me say these three singles first, and when I drop my hand, y´ALL say it. If you ain't a Gator, you must be Gator Bait! If you ain't Gator you must Gator Gator bait! You ain't a gator! You must be gator bait, can't you see? LSU is gay!

0:41:13 Lydia: Then this is what it sounds like now you other black former football players from University of Florida that split the other way. Black supported taking it out. His logic was once you know the history behind a phrase like that, people the history. You're going to hear the chant and someone might take it the wrong way even if you don't intend it to be that way. Why bother? Why do this when you know that like phrase has meant harm to people in past so don't know exactly where I land I mean I think it's obviously for that school to decide and stuff but it's the framing of this right that we come to on the show a lot which is there are some people that have reacted to this and saying, I'm uncomfortable with this. And then it gets spun out of control, though discomfort is a perfectly position to have with language that that kind of historical weight. And there's a popular YouTuber who is an alumni of this school who is super, super excited that this chant came back. So I thought we'd hear from him a little bit too about the backlash quote from the couple of people yeah

0:41:39 Thomas: Whatever satan

0:43:09 Clip: Racism, Slavery, and Jim Crow. Okay. Florida, this Missing American History Month comes for you. I learned of the horrible practice of gator bait years ago and teach about it in my Racism and Children's Music class. They used to take little kids and sell them out so the gator could come eat them and then white man shoot them and scan them and sell. Did people really use black children as alligator bait or is that a myth? The answer is uncomfortable. Because even if it wasn't real, the story itself absolutely was. If you have ever been to a University of Florida football game, you've probably heard the chant, and for years, it was just seen as school spirit, a way of saying the other team was about to get eaten alive. But the phrase Gator Bait did not start there. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, alligator bait was already being used as a slur for black people, but especially black children.

0:44:18 Clip: Yeah, so hopefully you were able to digest the crux of their argument, if you even want to call it that, but I love that admission. Even if it's not real, the story is. Wait, so what you're saying is that it's a myth? What you're saying is it's not a real thing that actually happened and you're lying about it? You're making, like, actually very common, by the way, this is what BLM does as a whole, but you're constructing fake history in order to justify changing systems?

0:44:49 Thomas: No I mean that part is like yeah yeah you can see there's like even if it wasn't real like at first I'm like okay that might be a bad argument but then she shows a whole bunch of like uh what are they just little things like like postcards and stuff like illustrations of people using that trope um trying to think of another example but like yeah even if it didn't literally actually happen which I hope it didn't but who knows um it's a racist like laugh line like it's something they use for humor then

0:44:50 Lydia: I was also showing evidence like yeah illustrations yeah yeah yep yep yeah

0:45:21 Thomas: It would still be bad um said I don't't know I mean with this one like my problem did you fucking get rid of it to begin with like that's what is driving me insane about this whole fucking thing we've been talking about with the with the retconning of woke one and all that if you didn't believe in it why did you get rid of it then you're the one who's full of shit so like that's what's frustrating is somehow like the woke people get you press so the president made the decision or is there there's one person involved in the decision the

0:45:35 Lydia: Well it's different presidents yeah well I mean I guess I don't know if the president has to talk to like like, their, you that's affiliated with the school. Don't know how much of that is, like, crossover with Ron DeSantis. You know, this is a public in Florida. I don't how much that is connected with Ron Desantis and his position. I'm not sure.

0:46:03 Thomas: Point is as an institution somehow wok get the knock both ways so it's like it was bad that like we were mad about it but then they're like well if it didn't matter why why are they bringing it back you know it's like well what happened was institutional power did stuff for once because they were worried about racism in their own probably flawed way and then trump got elected again and they're like oh I guess we're cool with racism again none of that is like a woke's fault you know like what part of that like all these arguments were true or were good arguments if all these arguments Were good arguments which which, you know, it is, if it's a black player who like originated it, like, yeah, okay. You know, that's a good argument. Like, sure. If that was a good agreement, then, then why'd you get rid of it? Just keep it and be like, oh, you don't understand. It's not racist. Or if it wasn't a good argument, then stick to it. Like. Like. Yeah, we got rid of it because it had racist connotations. It is the flip -flopping and the fact that like, even though the world get blamed for the fact, that the people with power are just doing whatever the fuck they think is gonna get them out of trouble like that's all it is

0:47:11 Thomas: You know what I mean it don't think many people like change their minds I think it just is a a reflection of like the cowardice of institutions and how they signaled these slight little signals to maybe try to like put a patch on racism rather than do anything serious about it and somehow that's alwoke's fault

0:47:29 Lydia: Yeah, not necessarily, like tied to actual values that They hold, which is unfortunate. It's unfortunate. But ultimately, the story is that the was banned in 2020 because of some major concerns of the historical association of that phrase, but also by a president explicitly saying, like, I don't think that anyone in the stands, I think fans were being fans. It's been a tradition for the school. I'm not saying that anyone is racist out there because of the chant. I mean, they could be racist for other reasons, but not because of The Chant that they are doing as part of this football game. That was, I think, a reasonable decision to make then. And bringing it back now, you know, I think it's just for me, it's the wild extrapolation of a single person or potentially a single person being the for what the board has decided for this public college. That into the woke are going crazy because this thing actually never you know was a big deal etc etc and then like kind of whitewashing that history too almost um like that and trying to say like well that's not actually real none of that actually mattered yada yada so anyway um for folks who care about college football it's back um you're into that I guess I donno I went to college in florida

0:48:51 Lydia: But not not University of Florida so it

0:48:51 Thomas: That's the most like yeah if you're you're into this thing that by the way is fucking huge for a lot of our country I don't care but a lot of people are really into it but yeah good for you yeah

0:49:01 Lydia: I'm happy for you I'm happy for him sad for you either way yeah

0:49:05 Thomas: Yeah sorry that happened uh good times oh right well that was a lot of fun I mean you could have made it I I'm sure there was a nike tie -in to the florida thing like I'm sorry there's a lot lot of like interaction historically there I bet but who knows I I think uh in the end I you know it was just a grab bag it's

0:49:21 Lydia: A little grab bag I wonder what kid twist would have thought of all this

0:49:32 Thomas: That guy's gay debate that's

0:49:54 Lydia: So they have like a, you know, fun gang name, I guess.

0:49:59 Thomas: Heath was alive to hear that okay stool pigeon no the other guy was a stool pigeon right that is the guy was the stool pigeon that's why kids kid twist

0:50:02 Lydia: Stool pigeon yeah yeah the other guy was a stool but that's why he was murdered kid twist and pittsburgh phil and happy and who was the other one I

0:50:12 Thomas: I know but that's Why kid twist had to do what kid twist had to do you know that's like that's why kid twist does what kid twist us okay don't be a stool pigeon okay what

0:50:23 Lydia: Dasher was the other guy in the gang happy the dasger Pittsburgh phill and kid twist yeah

0:50:29 Thomas: Like a kid's show it's like so delightful it's fun

0:50:34 Lydia: But it's freaking disgusting what they did

0:50:37 Thomas: It's good enough for kid twist it's enough for me kid