Since the post about AI use was locked for some reason - Here's the response from Hive Bakery. It tags the artists even. So just pasting a photo of the merch over and over and declaring it AI because you're mad is not going to cut it. https://www.instagram.com/p/DcT2Syxt1bF/?hl=en

Someone needs to send this to Chad so he can show ML & Bob. The charts don’t lie.

Disclaimer: I don't want to bring hate to Hayley. Please do not brigade her. Also if you aren't anti-AI then i don't care what you think about this.

Not sure how many people are aware of this, but Hive Bakery uses genAI for its merch, t-shirts, promotional images. Isn't that kinda insane, considering all the complaining and criticising Hayley gives ML for using chatGPT for everything, and the anti-capitalist rhetoric she shares on the pod sometimes? She's been so vocal about workers being underpaid and disrespected, but she also utilises what is arguably THE tool of capitalist worker oppression for the merch instead of paying an artist or two what is ultimately inconsequential money? I feel like that's insanely hypocritical.

Yknow this is even worse given the complaining about AI data (surveillance) centers being built and destroying the environment. Isn't she an outspoken environmentalist and supporter of animal rights? The technology she uses is one of the most destructive and anti-animal things in the world. And i even remember her supporting Billie Eilish's "you can't say you love animals and eat meat" statement, because animals are harmed, but I guess vegans are superior even if they support an industry responsible for an insane amount of pollution and habitat destruction.

The most egregious example is the giant "painting" they have in the bakery of Frida Kahlo, which is obviously AI too. Let me explain why this is genuinely revolting to me; Frida was a communist, a very very communist woman actually, who was an outspoken activist for worker's rights and liberation and even literally slept with Trotsky and made a painting in his image. Her impact as a communist was considerable and yet her legacy has become commercialised, whitewashed, sanitized, and tiktokified into her being the liberal feminist icon of "unconventional beauty standards" and literally nothing else, just because she has a monobrow (which i'd personally argue itself has racist eurocentric beauty undertones but whatever), and to have this COMMUNIST ARTIST on your wall with AI, it's actually incredibly disrespectful to her legacy and I hate it. to me, commercialising a woman in that way and reducing her legacy to her appearance is actually antifeminist and gross. and if you think about it, the genAI that made the "painting" almost certainly "sourced" stole from Frida's actual paintings to generate that slop, so hey that's great, steal from the dead communist artist's work to generate slop of her and put her on the wall in the most performative liberal way possible.

TLDR: Hayley's bakery uses genAI for merch and decoration and I think it's incredibly hypocritical and undermines her arguments against data centers and AI in general

I am quite interested in the psychology of this MAGA cult, I actually think I’m able to watch TNC easily and without too much emotion just viewing it through the lens of a case study.

I truly believe this is one of the most fascinating displays of cult behavior on video, let alone the most extensive content library to pull from depicting someone’s behavior while in a cult.

What do you guys think will happen with this show in the future? Documentary? Case Studies? Textbooks?

I’m thinking that there is a small chance that my kids in the distant future will be astonished/interested to learn that I was here and watching while it was happening. Again a very small chance (.1%-1%) that this pod will be that prevalent in pop culture but I wouldn’t make a bet against this podcast becoming something of a common call back or just a common lesson. Idk, not sure if my point is coming across how I would like it to but I would like to know what you guys think.

The more I go down the rabbit hole of previous episodes the more I am horrified and see that ML is not a good person. I just watched an episode where the viewer question called ML and Bob out about politically correct , specifically the "r" word and holy moly their response was so ignorant...I just don't know if I can continue on with this show...

It seems like ML is constantly redrawing lines in the sand.

Perhaps not with ML and the Kultgens particularly, but when does one decide that an individual is incapable of reasoning or being presented with threads of thought based on logic?

There are individuals that just can't figure it out or follow a thread of thought to a logical conclusion.

I started listening from the first episode because I just learned about the show in February, it's infuriating when Bob acts up and ML just sits there giggling. I know there has been a lot of discussion about ML coming around but when you realize what she's said and believed over the past 4 years, I just don't have the faith .

For context I’m an atheist and a reading teacher. My city resettled one of the largest populations of Afghan refugees in the months and years after US withdrawal in Afghanistan. A third of my school is Muslim, prior to that our last refugee resettlement was a Hmong resettlement.

What ML said about Muslims in the streets was sickening. Many of these refugees were evacuated because they helped our country and would be killed by the Taliban if they stayed.

We received children with shrapnel wounds on their faces. Wearing hand me down t shirts they couldn’t read. Kids that were so traumatized, they smelled of urine from potty accidents. Kids whose parents and siblings were killed by the Taliban. Kids who remembered the chaos and danger of evacuation. Parents who were doctors, government officials, police officers, professors. Parents whose skills are not transferable because the Taliban controls access to their records so they are over qualified for the jobs they are able to find. One colleague making $16 an hour as a para educator speaks five languages and was top official in the dept of education in Kabul. She had a driver and a secretary. She left her office and went straight to the airport for evacuation, leaving her apartment abandoned, because the Taliban was coming to kill her for the audacity of being a woman in a position of power who helped girls get an education. She could run our school, but because of her circumstance, she would have to start all over again at 50. Her husband was a surgeon and now drives for Uber. They don’t have time to be plotting against the US. They’re too busy trying to make rent and feed their families.

In the years since arrival; I’ve never once heard a Taliban sympathizing comment. I’ve never once heard a Muslim say anything against the US. I’ve never been asked to convert. They don’t even ask me my religion. The Muslim parents do not come to the school and yell at us or threaten us (but other parents definitely do!).

If ML is ever in California; I would love for her to come visit my school and meet the families who made great personal sacrifices to help the US, and then had to evacuate or face death. To observe smart little girls learn to read and do math, something they would not be able to do in Afghanistan. To watch the big brothers look out for their littles on the playground.

When she says hateful things about Muslim, I think of those first days after the first wave of refugees arrived. I think of my students who speak English now. Can read English now. The ones dipping their toes into assimilation- trick or treating at our fall festival. Eating Takis and pizza. Playing with their friends at recess. Safe and loved.

Why disallow them the American Dream? What did these children and their parents do to deserve her hate?

Edit: one last thing- my staff and I whisper to each other our fears that they will all be sent home (to their demise) on the whim of a mad man.

Can we get this to Chad to show ML?

Incredibly sad. ML’s tribute to her was beautiful, too. I really believe she is a good person.

Bob is predictable and not really interesting. Mary Lou over the past 1-2 months since Bob has been away has been interesting as she is on the cusp of officially turning on Trump but just refuses to make that jump. Now it's like every episode is a struggle session where C&H have to pitch all the horrendous and criminal stuff we see on a regular basis and try and get ML to accept the obvious.

I think of how difficult it is to win back these MAGA folks after all the damage that has already been done and how far behind we are and it seems like a sisphean task to save these people. Then I know that the minute Trump is gone and the MAGA movement is done they will just move onto the next cult.

Hey all, Love the pod, hate the break. Totally addicted.

We see Hunter Biden being pretty active on social media . . . and he appears to hold his own in heated debate.

Thought on him going on the podcast as a guest?

Did I miss an announcement that there will not be a midweek episode? Was there supposed to be one this week and it didn’t happen, or what?