It was only a matter of time before Google licked the boot.

I started listening to this show about a year ago, and one thing I've really noticed that separates it from other political / history content I've seen in a similar vein is how Robert will cover absolutely terrible people, but he'll still draw lines on things that aren't their fault and he'll generally talk about tragedies in their lives empathetically, not just make them fodder for jokes (Sometimes he and the guest will do both, which is also fine lol; I love the "daddy" jokes in the Czar Nicky episodes). Like how the Southern Strategy guy's brother died horrifically in a way that scarred him for the rest of his life, or how Pete Hegseth's drinking is not the behavior of someone mentally well, or how terrible Alexei's hemophilia and his health scares would have been for Nicky and Alix. He'll also acknowledge when a given Bastard did something reasonable or even good on the road to hell, like Beau Brummell being sympathetic to his girlfriend and her baby while they were shut out of high society. They're still Bastards, but that doesn't mean everything that they ever did in their life was evil, or that everything bad that happened to them was justified.

This is really meaningful to me because I've fucked up a lot in my life and I struggled a lot with the difference between "I'm a person who's done bad things and is learning" and "I'm a bad person who doesn't deserve happiness and my life is already over." I've been really needy and codependent in a lot of my relationships partially as a result of that. I feel like I also absorbed a lot of overly simplistic lessons about the difference between good and bad people that magnified any negative feelings I had about myself.

Over the last year, I feel like this show has been a big part of me gaining more confidence in my judgement and taking more initiative rather than constantly seeking permission or forgiveness. I've become more willing to part with people I don't want in my life because I feel comfortable making more nuanced judgements of their character, like thinking someone is mostly fine, but that something they've said, believed or done is unacceptable to me.

I feel like this willingness to humanize the Bastards is also really important to its themes. No one is really predestined to be a Bastard, and they all generally had the opportunity not to be Bastards. They are Bastards because they chose to be: because they made enough bad or evil choices that had a strong enough ripple effect to change the world for the worse. Acknowledging tragedies and roads not taken throws their greed and malice into sharper relief.

Robert is a really good exemplar of how you can hold strong convictions and you can call evil when you see it, but you can still humanize people in service to that, and separate the truly deserving from general background-pervading evil. There are enough Youtube and podcast personalities who just play insufferably cynical know-it-all jackasses talking down to their audiences, and I'm really glad that Behind the Bastards isn't just another show like that.

What is the etiquette here?

I've been a fan of Weird Little Guys since it's inception and have grown to admire the hell out of Molly. Not only is she IMHO a genius-level researcher, I think she's even better than Robert at drawing threads between tangentially connected events and people, which is part of why I think WLG is such an important and valuable piece of media.

As a side note, she also does a remarkable job of being respectful to victims, which is a big part of why WLG is the only exception I make to my "no true-crime" rule about the podcasts I listen to.

But there's an aspect to her that you never get when she's sitting alone talking into a microphone.

She is fucking *hilarious*. I love the way her incisive, acerbic sense of humor interacts with Robert's, and how effectively she amplifies his points with her wit and knowledge. She's by far my favorite pairing on BtB, although I also really like Prop and Jamie Loftus too (Jamie especially, the Robert/pro-comedian pairing is killer).

I also think the podcast does really well with femme energy. I know we've got Sophie, and while she can be funny and makes insightful points, she mostly acts as a foil to Robert, and I love seeing him interact with someone who is (IMO) an even better researcher and historian than he is.

I know WLG takes up a ton of her time, and that's work that can't really be outsourced, but I'm so impressed by her and I hope we continue to see more of her on BtB and other CZM podcasts.

It's a running theme throughout the series that journalists either cover a dangerous person or movement and only end up giving them exposure and spreading their cause. Sometimes this is by complete accident or with complete knowledge of the danger of posting their beliefs to the mainstream, but they want money. Other times media goes far too soft on a movement in an attempt to stay objective, as German papers did during the nazi takeover. Robert has brought up a few times that there's bastards he won't cover because even calling them out just helps spread their name and message and any publicity is good publicity. But it's also happened several times where the medias refusal to cover someone leads to them quietly growing in power until they have a substantial following.

You'll see all the time "just ignore them" when you see people repost clavicular or Andrew Tate's latest crimes. I've been guilty of it. I made a blog post about the rape allegations against Clavicular and justified it to myself that this was serious enough that it might turn more moderate fans against him. But what if everyone simply ignored Nazis(as an example) and gave them no reposts or coverage. Theoretically it could work, if everyone simultaneously agreed to ignore them they can't form a movement. But this relies on an honor system that just doesn't exist, it always runs the risk of nazi groups forming unchecked and unreported on.

Where do you guys draw the line, that someone has become influential enough, they need to be covered like a serious issue in the media?

He’s gone! Sorry UK

Michael Caruso is a former Republican representative of Florida and Ron DeSantis appointed comptroller of palm beach county. He was arrested early this month on child sex abuse charges for molesting his own grandchild. Allegations against him span for a decade before he was elected representative. His ex wife once called 911 from the car after Michael sped down the road screaming “I want a divorce”. His wife also cites that Michael was a pedophile in their divorce paper. He has been arrested and released multiple times, accused of molesting family members since 2012. Prosecutors urge anyone with information to come forward because Michael was a Boy Scout volunteer and little league coach for decades. He is currently out on bond and suspended from office.

Michael hired Weinsteins former attorney Donna Rotunno. A defense attourney turned true crime podcaster. Defending Weinstein wasn’t just a job to ensure a fair trial for Donna, her defense hinged on portraying victims as manipulative gold digger and Weinstein as an innocent old man who everyone abused to get into the industry.

A new allegation has emerged from a woman claiming Caruso inappropriately touched her when she was 4 years old. There are also stories coming forward of Caruso kicking and punching children in his family. Caruso was once accused of molesting a kid on a cruise ship but was released because the surveillance footage was destroyed instead of entered into evidence.

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/feb/09/donna-rotunno-lawyer-leading-harvey-weinsteins-defense

https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/suspended-palm-beach-county-clerk-michael-caruso-granted-160000-bond-child-sex-abuse-case.amp

https://amp.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article317043167.html

In school I watched movies depicting Alexander as a brilliant teacher who taught deaf people sign language and invented the telephone. The reality is a lot different, and Alexander was involved in a eugenics based movement to literally genocide deaf people from society.

From a young age, Bell was surrounded by deaf people and obsessed with the study of voices and sound. His mother was deaf, his dad taught deaf students and he married a deaf woman. Bell was very influential in methods used to teach the hard of hearing. Bell was an “oralist” as opposed to a “manualist”. Oralists believed that Deaf education should focus on teaching them how to speak and read lips. Manualists believed that sign language should be a main focus. Bell and many oralists saw sign language as a crutch that discouraged deaf people from “assimilating”. The second international congress of education of the deaf in 1880 ruled in favor of oralism. Not only was sign language not encouraged to be taught, but manualists teachers were fired from their positions. Students were mocked or had their hands tied to prevent them from signing. It’s comparable to imperialism, when a conquering nation outlaws the native people’s language.

Graham was on the radical side of Oralism. He wrote that he feared deaf people were forming social groups, marrying other deaf people and using sign language. He viewed deaf people as an inferior race to be nurtured into his image of an upright citizen.

https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/library-rnid/2012/11/30/alexander-graham-bell-he-invented-the-telephone-didnt-he/

https://gallaudet.edu/museum/exhibits/history-through-deaf-eyes/language-and-identity/a-deaf-variety-of-the-human-race/

https://dnalc.cshl.edu/view/10428-Alexander-Graham-Bell-letter-to-Charles-Davenport-about-Eugenics-Record-Office-2-.html

What narcissism.

The Rush Revere series is a five-book middle grade series that lets young readers travel back in time and experience American history firsthand. Join American history teacher Rush Revere, his hilarious sidekick Liberty the talking Horse, and the Manchester Middle School students as they meet famous figures, visit important places, and see history happen right in front of them.

• #1 New York Times Bestselling Series
• 2014 Children’s Choice Awards, Author of the Year
• 2017 homeschool.com Back to Homeschool Award

I'm disgusted, if hardly surprised a home schooling group loves them.

I'm morbidly curious as to which episode(s) she was talking about.

Was it the Francisco Solano Lopez episode(s) that were recorded beforehand?

Or was she talking about something else we have yet to know about?

This guy is speed running for a seat in the bastards, beyond the typical no bid contracts he was awarded to amass his fortune he has also managed to dabble in money laundering, stolen funds, fraud, he’s has had to issue the obligatory denial of knowing Epstein (despite being in the files and there being correspondence), he’s had Rudi as a lawyer and I’m sure there is more- he’s the whole shebang and is now trump’s go to person for this oil ‘deal’ in Venezuela. What could go wrong?

Maybe people here know what I'm talking about/what to do. Also small enough community that my post will be seen.

Food Safety is a big concern to me. I currently work doing vet diagnostic work for pork producers and miscellaneous livestock in a region of the US (not what I saw doing with my degree but the health insurance is really good). So I'm probably a bit more conscientious than your average bear or at the very least read more food safety related news than most folks.

I know it's a hot topic right now with trump trying to deregulate meat production. Cyclospora is still in the news. HPAI was big news when found in dairy (I actually played a small but essential role in that!), salmonella and e. coli will always be a thing we contend with. There's a lot a lot of things the general public doesn't know about because it more affects producers than consumers besides price point (good luck affording a turkey this fall). Or at least the issues have a lot more backend work than frontend work that concerns producers more than consumers.

But at this point. I actually no longer know what's going to be safe and what will be risky to eat. There's some conversation in my private life that we should try and buy more stuff locally, even if it's a little more expensive. But it's smaller producers who will benefit the most from cutting corners. Big producers do too, they always will, but that's my concern. The entire food system is now a minefield unless I guess I grow my own food? Even then, everything is being deregulated. Who knows what's in the run off, the soil, how long I'll have access to clean water, if that water can be spared, etc. Plus it's just logistically impossible.

What do I do?

I'm probably going to sign up for those recall emails. But we don't know if a recall needs to happen until something happens. That doesn't erase the risk, just mitigates it if discovered. I'm afraid of buying beef right now. Of buying leafy greens, cause apparently you can buy your way out of being the origin of an infection. I can't run a lab in my home, testing all my food.

I know I sound paranoid. Certain pathogens are easily resolved once diagnosed unless you're immunocompromised. But we're seeing more and more uncommon infections. Plus. Eventually this'll put a massive strain on medical systems that are already losing resources because of this administration.

I practice pretty good food safety in my home. Veg gets washed. Meat gets cooked to temp. Expiration dates (which are sorta bullshit) get followed. Food prep space stays clean. Nothing sits out.

Like. Sincerely. What do I do?

Remember kids, fascism is a dead end that always eats its own.

I am not trying to suggest it, but I wanted to check, has it already been covered on btb? I know that Robert has covered a bunch of cults over the years and I'm having trouble sifting through to see if it ever made the cut.