Cenk Uygur

But especially 10 years ago, and remember, we started 22 years ago, so I've been losing my mind over how obvious corporate media corruption has been for decades now, right? But no one acknowledged it until online media got stronger. But one of the myths that corporate media creates is the myth of meritocracy. Not that meritocracy can't exist or shouldn't exist, but they pretend it exists today.

So the problem with that myth, Lex, is that it gets people thinking, well, if they're already rich, they must have merited it by definition. So all the rich have merit. And the reverse of that. If you're poor or middle class, well, you must not have merited wealth. So you're no good. We don't have to listen to you. And that's a really dangerous, awful idea.

And so if we get to a meritocracy one day, I'll be the happiest person in America. But right now, look, here I'll give you an example that I put in the book. and it's not us, other folks at this YouTube video, I can't even quite find who they were, but it was a brilliant video. And they said, okay, we're gonna do a 100-yard race.

But hold on, before we start, anyone who has two parents, take two steps forward. Anyone who has went to college, take another two steps forward. Anyone who doesn't have bills to pay for education anymore, take two steps forward. They do all these things, right? And then at the end, before they start, somebody's 20 yards from the finish line, And a lot of people are still at the starting line.

And then they go, okay, now we're going to run a race. The guy who's right next to the finish line wins. And they go, meritocracy. Okay.

That's right. There are some parts that are easy to solve, Lex. So, you know... If you donated to a politician and he gave you a billion dollar subsidy, that's not meritocracy.

Exactly. And so, and again, nothing's ever perfect at any snapshot of history, right? Or of the moment you're going to be at some point in the pendulum swing. But if you let, if you trust the people and you let the pendulum swing, but not wildly, uh, then you're going to get to the right answers in the long run.

no so the right wing drives me crazy so look guys your instincts of populism is correct your instincts of anti-corruption is correct right and i love you for it and so and in a lot of ways the right wing voters figured out the whole system screwed before left-wing voters did i shouldn't say left-wing voters because progressives and left-wing have been saying it for

Not only decades, but maybe centuries, right? But Democratic voters. A lot of Democratic voters, some of them actually like this current system. A lot of them have been tricked into liking this current system. And the left should be fighting against corruption harder than the right. But right now, unfortunately, that's not the case. So there's a lot that I like about right-wing voters, okay?

But you guys get tricked on social issues so easily, right? So how many people are involved in – of trans high school sports and a girl who should have finished first in that track race in the middle of Indiana finished second. First of all, this is the big crime. And how many people are involved? About seven, 13 out of a country of 330 million people.

And you can't see that that's a distraction, right? So, and... Every, everything that is like bait that the right wing media puts out there, they run after. I mean, Tucker Carlson doing insane segments about Eminem should be sexier. Mr. Potato Head has gender issues. Guys, get out of there. Get out of there. It's a trap, okay?

Money is the biggest problem. So first of all, on AOC, as an example, and I don't mean to pick on her, but she won through the great work of her and shortcut Chakrabarti and Corbyn Trent and others who are leaders of the just Democrats that went and helped her campaign. They were critical help. And we all told her the same thing. So it's not about me, me, me.

And so we all said, you've got to challenge the establishment and you've got to work on money and politics first. Because if you don't work on money and politics and you don't fix that, you're going to lose on almost all other issues. But she didn't believe us because it's uncomfortable. And all the progressives that went into Congress, they drive me crazy.

They think, oh, no, no, you're exaggerating. No, these are, and the minute they get in, all of a sudden, my colleagues, right? Your colleagues hate you, and they're going to drive you out. You're a sucker. And Jamal Bowman, Cori Bush, what did they do? They drove them out. Marie Newman drove them out, right? And because they're not on your side. They're not your colleagues.

And what happened to $15 minimum wage? And I remember talking to one of those Congress people, I won't leave out the name, and saying, hey, you know they're not going to do $15 minimum wage. And he's like, oh, Cenk, you're out of the loop, right? Nancy Pelosi assured us that they are going to do $50 minimum wage. I'm like, I love you, but you're totally wrong.

Moneyed interests are not going to do $15 minimum wage. You have to start fighting now, right? And they didn't get it. So they lost on almost all those issues because it's all about incentives and disincentives and rules. If you don't fix the rules, you're going to constantly run into the same brick wall.

Now, the second issue that we were talking about is in the culture wars, the rest of us are stuck between the two extremes. two percenters right on both sides so the two percenter on the left goes you know if you're a white woman you need to shut up and listen now okay That's ridiculous. No, you don't. If you're a white woman, you have every right to speak out.

You have every right that every other human being has. And so would I love for all of us to listen to one another, to have empathy for one another and go, hey, I wonder how a right winger thinks about this. I wonder how a left winger thinks about this. I wonder why they think that way, right? I love that and I want that. So I want you to listen, but I don't want you to shut up.

So that 2% gets extreme and I don't like it. But on the right wing, you got your 2% who think that that's all that's happening on the left. And that's all that's happening in American politics. And they think the entire left believes that tiny 2%, right? And so they hate the left. And they're like, oh, I'm not gonna shut up. I'm not gonna wear a mask. I'm not gonna do any of these things.

And I'm not going to do any, that's a freedom. And then a Republican comes along and goes, oh yeah, that thing you call freedom, that's deregulation for corporations because you shouldn't really have freedom. Companies should have freedom, right? And then the guy goes, yeah, freedom for ExxonMobil. Oh, brother, they tricked you.