Give A Big F**k You to Privacy with Meta Glasses
Thoughts Off The Stem | Cannabis Infused Comedy

Give A Big F**k You to Privacy with Meta Glasses
Thoughts Off The Stem | Cannabis Infused Comedy0:01
New tech is pretty awesome, right?
The gadgets.
That come from it are pretty cool, but I have a question.
Do the developers and the consumers really think about the problems once it’s released into the wild?
Because I don’t think that they do dude.
I think that consumers are just more concerned about having the latest flashy gadget and developers are more concerned with how that gadget or technology functions.
0:23
Once it’s released, not the real world application.
And the problems that come with it.
Welcome to Thoughts off the Stem.
Thanks for.
Joining the sesh with me, Justin.
Peroni, I hope that life is being good to you.
And if you’re looking to elevate your sesh, visit tots420.com/sesh for my hand picked sesh essentials.
0:41
That’s right, I’m helping you make your sesh.
Better baby.
And this week we’re talking about the technology like meta glasses, Tesla.
Two, you know that that gets released.
That we don’t necessarily think about what the problems.
Are going to be once it’s out there.
0:59
Let’s take meta glasses for.
And for example.
Right.
Once you have them on and they’re on, they’re on.
They see.
Everything dude, and as cool as it would be to like.
Walk through life like you’re in Minority Report or Free Guy and you just, you know, you can like swipe as you’re walking down the street.
1:16
Check your social media, do an e-mail.
Whatever it is, that shit’s pretty cool.
I got it.
I want it too.
But they’re always on, man.
So like.
If you go to shave your balls and you forget.
That you’ve got them on.
Guess what?
That’s going in the meta database, baby your.
1:34
Balls and your technique are there forever.
I remember when I was a kid, because I have a heart condition, I had to use it.
Like I had to wear a halter monitor on checkup sometimes and I was.
Worried and like from the ages of 14 to 18 that the doctors could tell when I, you know, tried to rub.
1:53
One out like because.
Whose heart rate spikes at 10:30 at night when you’re supposed to be sleeping as a 1415 year old?
Yeah, that’s right.
That’s me.
I wasn’t.
Boning anybody but I was worried about it so.
Think about it.
In terms of this, now that technology is wearable, right, Meta glasses are the latest wearable tech, and they’re supposed to like really, you know, move technology forward.
2:20
But if you forget to take one off and you sneak off to go play with your.
Pecker for an hour and those you’ve shot your own POV porn basically right?
How do we not think that this?
Is like it this?
Where are you not worried about this?
2:37
People, when they buy stuff like that don’t.
Think about it.
They don’t think about it at all.
It’s like it’s.
Like back when Tesla first came out and people started the the first generation owners.
Would go in for.
A service.
And they find out that the battery’s dying like it’s a.
2:53
It’s an electronic.
Device and now all of a sudden you have.
A25K Bill because you have to replace your engine.
Like what are we talking about here?
Do people?
Need to think man.
Like if I go buy a car, I’m asking some questions.
I’m asking what the service?
3:08
What the services?
Are what the?
Cost of repairs are.
And whether I should worry about engine, how long it’s going to?
Last, the same thing with electronics, don’t you?
Generally ask like.
Hey, what, how?
What is the like?
What’s the?
The recharge period What?
3:24
Do I need to know for urging this what?
How?
Long is the.
Battery life like.
If you buy a Tesla.
Which is basically a large piece of electronic.
Equipment aren’t isn’t that like one of the first things that you’re going to ask?
You think they’re?
Just going to give you a.
Free engine, like you can’t go to Ford with the OR I mean Ford with a Mustang.
3:41
OK, and and.
Go Oh my engine blew.
Can you give me a new one?
No, you’ve got to buy a new engine.
Like nobody asked this, nobody thought about it, nobody.
Nobody took.
Into account.
That this was happening right and now.
People aren’t.
Taking into account when you.
Buy things like.
3:57
Meta glasses, they’re always.
Recording man, they record.
Everything you do, that’s fucking terrifying.
It’s terrifying as as a person that like if I see somebody walking down the street, they’re recording to me, maybe I’m doing something I shouldn’t do.
You can.
I don’t like the idea that we are in.
4:14
Minority Report, dude, we’re going to start.
Getting ping for crimes as people walk down the street.
It’s crazy.
It’s crazy.
It’s crazy dude.
You forget about the fact that you you know that these things are all all have components that die and suffer or.
4:38
Components that record.
Constantly and then.
We, we don’t think about the problem that happens later on once it’s being used on a regular basis.
Like for example, you know, you go into Tesla, you can’t figure out why the why the battery died.
4:53
And they thought, well, that’s just the end of the life of the battery.
Well, what about?
This OK?
You wear meta glasses.
All of a sudden one day you walk into work and everybody’s staring at you.
They’re snickering and they’re.
Laughing because you.
And your.
Partner, we’re having a little bit of amateur bedroom fun time and you forgot to take the glasses off.
5:12
Well, now all of a sudden you have a.
You have an.
Amateur POV porn video on Pornhub.
Great.
You got to think about these things and that’s why I say like developers are really good at developing the products.
5:29
They’re good at developing the technology.
But they kind of suck at people.
Like they don’t really think about all the things that people are going to do and.
And how people.
Are going to use it and the fact that people forget.
That they’re wearing.
These things because glasses, if you’re, if you wear glasses or a hat even, like anything, sometimes you don’t.
5:47
You don’t think?
About having it on.
You forget it becomes natural, becomes.
Regular.
That you forget that these things are on and recording every.
Movement, you know.
Dude and consumers don’t think about the the end result long run situation like consumers.
6:05
Get pissed off because like, well this is doing this and I didn’t know it.
Would do that if you.
Buy a camera.
That is.
Connected to the Internet, whether it’s on a laptop.
Whether it’s whatever, OK, Bluetooth, whatever it is.
You can pretty much.
Guarantee that.
6:21
In some way, somehow, somebody can get in that and start recording.
Whatever that camera sees.
So if you buy met a glass of wood, is there just supposed to be like a magical switch within it that goes Oh my God nudity off?
I mean, maybe.
That’s actually a good idea.
But consumers don’t think about that because they want the flashiest thing they want to show off to their friends.
6:38
They want to be.
The cool.
Dude in the group, you know, it’s kind of fucked up, dude.
It’s fucked up that we think about that.
We don’t think about those things, even though we should.
Because.
Even though it’s technology and it’s relatively new.
The the the.
Standard like questions and practices and purchasing things.
6:56
Purchasing products.
Of any kind should still apply, and as a consumer you should still be aware and thinking about it.
You shouldn’t just run out.
And go, oh, everything’s just going to work peachy there’s.
Always like Tesla batteries.
Are dying, people didn’t know when.
They bought the Tesla that they had to get a new.
A new engine, essentially, right?
7:13
And they come in and now they’re all pissed off.
Well, like the.
The the.
Developers and.
The and the companies that make these.
Things should probably.
Put in very large print like we have.
Warning labels on.
You know, like what?
Like ingredients and and whether.
7:30
Things are toxic for you, Maybe we need to start doing that at the top of every.
Product like sheet when you’re when you’re buying it, it should be in bold like hey.
These are the things that you can do with it, but also remember.
Turn it off.
7:47
You know, I just think it’s funny, man.
I think it’s funny because consumers, people don’t think about that and then.
They get all riled up when it happens and they can’t, they can’t figure out or they don’t understand that, you know, they have kind of, they have responsibility.
8:04
To know these things I also.
Think that the companies that produce them also have a responsibility to explain to the to the buyer that hey like this could happen.
Right.
And I know that not everybody.
Is going to read the fine print or read a a contract or anything like that but.
8:19
At the same time there should.
Be some level of hey.
Just pay attention to this although.
You know, if you’re recording something.
With your face, you’d think that that would be.
A thought that you have in your head that like I shouldn’t keep this on all the time and if my wife is in the bathroom butt ass naked, maybe I take the glasses off and point them out of wall.
8:42
So this week’s weed facts.
That’s right, this week we have some weed facts.
Are about technology.
That helps with hang on here.
Let me just see because I forgot what it was.
Weed facts.
That help with.
8:58
That.
It’s the newest tech available to help determine cannabis impairment.
That’s right, cannabis consumer attention cannabis consumer.
So this week’s Weed Facts.
Are from.
A site called.
Tobywithtwoeyes.com and it’s called the articles called.
9:17
Guarding sober roads and workplaces, basically.
What this?
Is is new technology in VR?
Headset that allows.
Police to do better roadside inebriation tests or under the influence.
9:37
Tests basically this.
Company Toby makes.
A software that.
Detects eye movement and and eye function to determine whether or not you’re under the influence.
9:54
At the moment of cannabis.
And other substances.
So this is what the article said, the effects of THC.
Are not easily quantifiable through to, through to.
Traditional chemical tests since the amount of THC in the body is not correlated with impairment.
10:13
So basically what that means is you could take you could smoke weed on a Friday and still test positive.
On a Sunday.
But it doesn’t necessarily.
Mean that you’re under the influence at the time.
So THC and its.
Metabolites can remain.
In the body for an extended period, making it impossible to determine if impairment is current, currently being experienced, or if someone has just simply used cannabis previously.
10:37
Officers have tested for impairment using a battery of physical and eye movement tests, while the tests they use have been shown to accurately detect impairment.
Human error and.
Subject and subjectivity are common arguments.
Against their use.
The accuracy.
10:53
Of the assessment by drug recognition.
Officers is typically around 60 to 80. 5% so you get a lot of, you know, human factor, human error in that.
Because like, I mean, realistically you could also.
Have people that have a bias and then they just decide because you’re a sketchy individual or you have, you know, ADHD or some shit and you’re not paying attention, that you’re under the influence when you’re not actually under the influence.
11:16
So Gaze is a software company dedicated to accurately assessing impairment for the purpose of SAFE.
Driving and working and working enforcement.
So not only are they going to use this for like police.
Officers and stuff, but it’s also a way.
For people that work in industrial, in the industrial industry to, to make sure that the people that drive their heavy equipment and all that fun stuff are not under the influence at work, right or while they’re operating these machines.
11:45
So at the heart of its innovation.
Is their impairment testing platform a?
Rapid and portable.
Automated.
Detection Detection system specifically designed to recognize the effects of cannabis, alcohol, opiates, and.
Other drug impairment.
The gaze solution.
12:00
Runs the same.
Eye test that police officers.
Do in an automated fashion using AVR headset.
With the help of.
Toby Eye tracking and Toby Ocumen.
These tests include a high precision ocular motion and pupillary reflex analysis measuring subtle changes in eye.
12:18
Movement that indicate.
Impairment.
See, so you’re going to it’s.
Like you’re playing, you know, like.
If you’re impaired and you get pulled over and you got to put one of these.
VR things on.
And it’s scanning your eyes.
Dude, I don’t know, it’s going to take some time for the public to like, I feel like even if you’re not high, your eyes may.
12:35
React that way, but maybe not.
If you want, you can read the article, it’s on top. 4. 20.com in the weed fact section.
So this software, the gaze.
Solution stuff it.
Boasts a 98% accuracy.
12:51
In detecting that ended in.
Detecting the same signs of impairment that law enforcement.
Officers look for.
So basically it’s obviously.
It takes it takes the error away from it.
Now obviously we all know that programs can have problems.
But people can also have.
13:06
Problems programs tend to have less problems.
I think your bigger problem is deleting that thing by accident or having to redo it, but it makes it.
I guess it makes.
It’s supposed to make the.
Officer’s job easier and then?
Help with, you know, the actual like court proceedings and stuff like that because it will become admissible as as evidence to prove versus, you know, the officer himself, the individual trying to prove it.
13:34
So, yeah, so that’s the way the technology’s going.
And that is one of the ways that at least law enforcement is trying to crack down on impairment.
Attaching terrorist consumer.
13:52
If you’re going to get meta glasses, I would say that you should probably read the user.
Manual it may.
Be the one thing on the planet that you should absolutely read the user manual.
Because here’s the thing.
OK, not only is it.
14:10
Recording whatever you’re.
Doing it’s it’s saving, downloading.
And and keeping a.
Record on meta services.
Of what it sees.
So if you and your wife were trying to have or you and your partner, we’re trying to have some happy time, fun time and you.
14:30
Thought you.
Were in the privacy of your own home.
But you had on your meta glasses.
Guess what?
Meta.
Sees how you do it.
There are.
Literally people out there looking for.
Going through all of the data that comes from these glasses.
14:48
Now this has.
Also caused Meta to catch a lawsuit from at least two people in the US and a bunch of countries are now investigating it because.
How as a company?
That, you know, is supposed to follow privacy laws.
15:06
How are you?
Going to now defy.
All of those privacy laws.
And have have people’s most.
Personal Personal moments saved on a.
Server like.
I don’t want to, you know, make any assumptions about Mark Zuckerberg and Meta AI, but like sounds to me like there may be a little bit of a perv situation going on because why would you want to keep that data?
15:32
Shouldn’t it have?
Shouldn’t it have a like set parameter for the type of data that it stores?
Not just everything like, oh, my Dick fell out.
Look at that like if you’re.
At a ball game and you’re wearing meta glasses, right?
And you go to the urinal and you go to take a leak.
You now have 50 Dicks.
15:48
A video of 50 Dicks on your on your meta.
Glasses and Zuckerberg is just like yeah filed out under D for big Dick or BD for big Dicks.
Like.
You got to be kidding me.
So this week’s dude for.
Real segment is.
All.
16:05
About the revolt, I guess from from employees of Meta and a couple.
Of the.
Consumers against Meta.
Glasses dude.
For real.
For real, dude.
So this week’s dude.
16:20
For Real segment comes from boardpanda.com and.
The article’s called Meta Workers reveal some of the disturbing things they’ve.
Seen through user smart.
Glasses.
That’s right, like I told you.
They’re recording you always, as if.
16:36
CCTV wasn’t.
Enough and being able to look through.
Laptops wasn’t enough or whatever, you know.
Like now they’re actually giving you a product that essentially spies on you because you forget about it.
And you don’t turn it off.
And you you don’t do what you should do as a.
16:51
As a as a, you know, educated consumer, that’s right.
SO2US citizens have filed a lawsuit.
In San Francisco against Meta.
Over consumer privacy violations.
The lawsuit accuses.
Mark Zuckerberg’s company of false.
17:06
Advertising and disregarding privacy laws?
No shit.
It still gets me bad.
Like you’re sitting there watching like I get, OK, So even if let’s say.
You didn’t do this accidentally.
Let’s say that, you know, some people like to film their own home videos.
17:23
You know what I’m saying?
Let’s say you did this on purpose.
That video is still on.
Like you.
There’s no more days of like, Oh my God, I sold the sex tape at a garage sale.
There’s Oh my God, Mark Zuckerberg has my sex tape immediately.
Like you may as well just be a straight line to that shit, you know?
17:41
So Kenyan subcontractor that that basically reviews.
All of the.
Data the employees of that company.
Blew.
The whistle on Meta’s alleged privacy breach.
So in some videos, this is what, this is what 1 employee said.
17:56
They’re all anonymous because obviously they’re worried about their jobs.
But in some videos you can see someone going to the toilet.
Or getting undressed.
I don’t think they know because if they knew they wouldn’t be recording, another said.
I saw a video where a man puts the glasses on the bedside table and then leaves the room shortly afterwards his wife.
18:15
Comes in and changes her clothes now.
Like dude.
Come on, there’s got to be like a safety switch, you know, like.
I don’t know.
There’s got to be a way for it.
Like if if there’s got to be like a motion like you can shake your phone.
And send a problem.
Report to Instagram, right?
18:31
Can you not?
Remove your glasses.
And send an off report.
Like what?
Are we talking about here?
One data monitor warned.
We see.
Everything bro.
From living rooms to naked bodies.
Meta has that type of.
18:46
Content in its.
Databases people can record themselves in the wrong way.
And not even know what they’re recording.
It’ll imagine you’re texting OK and.
You text something.
That, you know, might be worrisome to like public safety or.
19:03
Committing a crime?
It sees that too.
Like dude, this is exactly minority Minority report, man.
I would be worried.
I’m not buying that shit.
It’s right up there with.
Like Neuralink?
Oh my God, you want to have a thing in your head that’s going to record everything you do and see?
19:19
You got to be fucking kidding me.
Why?
Why?
Why?
Are we doing this?
I get love and tech but it just seems like this.
Is all kinds of problems.
And terrifying at the same time.
Another.
Another.
Person said you.
Understand that it’s someone’s private.
19:34
Life that you’re looking at.
But at the same time.
You’re just expected to carry out the work.
You’re not support.
You’re not supposed to.
Question it because.
You might lose your job, that’s what That’s what these.
Like the?
Bosses and the supervisor there.
You can’t even be like, hey, this is wrong.
19:51
And the Super I like fuck you, then I’ll find someone else that’ll do.
It it’s almost.
Like, you know, in the military, like you.
Maybe you don’t.
Want to drop the bomb?
Maybe you don’t.
Want to be.
The remote pilot of a drone that’s going to kill 100,000 people or whatever it is, but there’s another dude that’s just going to take that seat because they need the money.
20:07
It’s the same as this.
And even though there’s like this, you know, pretty solid.
Data breach privacy issue or not data breach privacy issue right you you’d think that they would you know, kind of flip the script on it a bit and be like let’s.
20:22
Be very careful.
Nope, not matter.
Matter is like, you get that shit in there and you record it.
I don’t care what you see, just watch it like.
Jesus Christ, so.
Matter is being investigated by the governments of multiple.
Countries.
And now they’re being dubbed the Pervert Glasses.
Yeah, that’s right, dude.
20:39
For real.
For real, dude.
So the moral of the story for this week?
Is pretty simple.
Actually be.
Educated on the.
Technology that you buy.
Understand what it does, what its capabilities are, and know what you’re getting into before the before your your freshly shorn nut sack or your adult activities end up on a Meta server that Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies and.
21:10
His buddies.
Can look for can like pull up at the drop of a hat, you know, just.
Oh, I want to see.
Hairy nuts.
You know, and then there it is.
And he could show all his buddies.
So just think about that.
Think about when you’re buying a Tesla or any electric car, you’re going to have to replace the battery at some point.
21:30
So you may as well understand what the maintenance costs are.
Just think about it the with.
The rise of technology and the evolution of of AI and and.
All the the cool gadgets that were that are supposed to help us evolve as a as a human.
Race, you know.
21:46
We should still be.
Concerned and.
Worried and think about and, and, and know what we’re getting into because we need to, we need to, we need to keep our privacy private.
I know that in this day and age, that’s very hard to do, But I don’t think that, you know, I don’t think that it’s a, it’s a good idea to start implanting or putting on things that record your every move and every action because like, I don’t know, that just seems, that just seems common sense to me.
22:17
That’s what I think and those are my thoughts off the stem for this week.
I hope you enjoyed the sesh.
I hope you come back next week with me, Justin Peroni on thoughts off the stem.
Oh I’ve also I also started a new merch store so check out.
Tots 4/20.
Dot com.
Shop go to TOTS 4. 20.com in the menu you’ll see a shop button.
22:41
Hit the shop button and you can get some official TOTS merch.
That’s right.
And yeah, until next time as I use my.
Electronic device to.
Get my weed going.
Keep your lids low, baby.

Everything is Fake: Your Reality is for Sale
Thoughts Off The Stem | Cannabis Infused Comedy

0:01
What do a Manhattan Madam and a UCLA graduate have in common?
Is it a conspiracy to use a little black book to blackmail prominent public figures?
Or, you know, is it a flashy night out in Hollywood where the champagne flows and somebody rides their nose through a gauntlet of desk moguls, only to wake up the next morning shocked that they’re next to an unresponsive lady of the night?
0:27
Not exactly, but it is as ick inducing as what I just mentioned.
Welcome to thoughts off the STEM.
I’m Justin Peroni.
I hope that life’s being good to you because today we’re talking about more craziness.
That’s right, more craziness.
So she is the CEO of APR firm for companies and people that want to rebrand themselves.
0:48
He is the CEO of APR firm that hires actors to join protests for wealthy clients.
The company is Crowds on Demand where you can buy a crowd of like minded activists at the economical price of 3999 per activist.
1:09
What are we talking about here man?
Even the happiest place on Earth loses a little bit of its luster when you have to insert yourself in the crowds.
Crowds on demand.
Really, there’s a few things that we should have on demand.
What we should have on demand is things like movies, TV, food, maybe emergency services, healthcare.
1:33
You see what I’m saying here?
And maybe just maybe, you know, on demand, a stiff drink or a joint at the end of the day to get you through or calm down all the craziness that you have to go through throughout the week, right?
And there’s a couple things that we don’t need on demand.
1:51
We don’t need crowds.
We don’t need lines and we don’t need, you know, fake warriors for social causes.
That’s right.
The person that I’m talking about that reached out to me is Kristin Davis.
She’s the CEO of think right PR Kristin Davis.
2:07
Let me just tell you a little bit about her.
OK?
Kristin Davis.
Kristin Davis, previously known as the Manhattan Madam, is a former Madam who is known for running a high end prostitution ring in New York City which claimed to have offered its services to several Hope high profile clients in including Eliot Spitzer, Alex Rodriguez, and David Beckham.
2:28
After her conviction for prostitution related activities, Davis ran a protest campaign for the Governor of New York in 2010 and was poised to run for the New York City Comptroller in 2013 before being arrested and later convicted for distributing drugs.
2:45
Now obviously all the facts aren’t black and white, but here’s the thing.
You’re reaching out to me to talk to your client or partner or whatever, right?
But like, your dealings are nefarious and by his own admission his business is is not what it seems like.
3:04
It is.
Exactly the problem in my opinion with how society is right.
Like everything is fake, dude.
Everything that we see, we hear is manufactured.
And this guy is basically like, yeah, that’s what I do.
3:19
I manufacture everything.
I manufacture.
Protests or protest the thing that we should be manufacturing.
I don’t think so.
I think the protest should be organic, should be filled with people that actually have a, you know, a stake in, in, in what’s going on, what they’re protesting.
3:41
I don’t think we should sign people up based on some billionaire saying, hey, pay some people, write some scripts, send them out there so I look better or so that company looks bad because that’s what he focuses on.
Now, in July 2018, Davis was contacted by the special counsel, Robert Mueller in connection with his investigation of Russian interference.
3:59
So not only was this lady, like, the head of hookers, OK, she was also nailed for distributing drugs.
Now, I don’t totally know what that means.
She says that she was just, you know, helping her friend find some drugs.
But do you really need to go to the street for that?
I’m just saying it’s a little bit nefarious, man.
4:17
OK.
And then in 2016, she, oh, so that was, sorry, I misspoke there.
That was just the end of the sentence after she she was investigated for the Russian interference in 2016 during the US president presidential election campaign.
Now, Davis did end up serving four months in Rikers Island for her involvement in the Spitzer scandal.
4:39
I don’t if you don’t know who Eliot Spitzer is, he had a really big prostitution scandal back in 2010.
It really kind of screwed things up for him.
Now, I do have to mention this because like as much as I’m kind of shitting on her and and you know, get like, I don’t know how you expect me to trust somebody like that.
4:54
I don’t know how you expect me to engage with somebody.
And again, and I’m all for second chances, but it just seems odd that your background is deception.
Your background is criminal and you want me to give a platform to somebody that is trying to influence social commentary or influence the optics of politicians, businesses, industries, product launches, whatever there?
5:31
It’s a very deceitful situation.
So you would think that as somebody like the guy that ran this company, you’d think you’d reach out to somebody that’s not in that kind of position where they kind of have to, you know, work around the fact that, yeah, I did some illegal shit first.
5:49
Like that’s going to come back to haunt you.
That follows you.
But I guess at the same time, it also makes sense because if you’re if you’re capable of running a high end business like that and do it illegally for a long time.
I mean, you’re you’re good.
6:06
You’re good at spinning things, aren’t you?
More than one, if you know what I’m trying, OK.
But yeah, no, I don’t know how they expected me to take them seriously.
I do have to mention, though, that she has done some good.
She actually, Kristin Davis actually is the founder of Hope House.
6:24
Hope House, OK, which helps women in need or women that have suffered, you know, domestic violence, anything, anything really, if they’ve been a part of human trafficking, which again, is another thing, like she didn’t get convicted of human trafficking.
6:39
But if you’re the head of the hookers, are you not essentially human trafficking?
Like, what are we talking about here?
Everything here is just all kinds of red flags, you know what I’m saying?
So she reached out to me to have this guy, Adam Swart, who is the head of crowds on demand.
6:59
Again, a thing that we don’t really need on demand.
Do we need a crowd on demand?
I get it, you want to watch a movie right now, but you want a large crowd right now.
That already seems shady.
Like anyway, she she wanted me to talk about the mechanics or with him, wanted me to talk with him about the mechanics of how crowds are mobilized, funded and and coordinated.
7:24
Is that really a thing that we should be talking about?
Shouldn’t we talk about the grass roots movement or the, the, the actual subject of the protest?
Shouldn’t that be the defining moment or the defining thing that is the reason for it and how to get those people together?
7:44
Because realistically, it’s a short conversation.
You’re going to tell me, hey, I pay people and I write scripts for people to go to protest and, and I make my client look good and I make the other guy look bad.
That’s really what you do, right?
And then you want to talk about why targeting specific, specific decision makers and, and, and concrete demands is often more effective than national protest spectacles.
8:11
You’re creating spectacles, you’re paying people to become a spectacle.
If you look up the stuff that’s the like the job applications, the, the, the jobs, the current available jobs on their website, the, it reads like a casting call.
8:27
It’s not like, Hey, are you good at, you know, petitioning or are you good at, at organizing?
No, no, it’s hey, are you 7 feet tall, £300?
Because we need an intimidating person to be at this, at this crowd.
If you’re not that we don’t need you, don’t apply.
8:42
Like, what are we talking about here, dude?
What is going on?
The other thing she wanted to sort of have him discuss was after organizing advocacy campaigns across the political spectrum, he focused on separating effective civic engagement from performative outrage.
9:02
This sounds like a lot of hokey, pokey dude.
It sounds like it’s the same thing.
Like, so basically the way that he operated OK was that whoever his client would be would pay him a certain amount of money and he would manufacture a crowd or a business to support what the high paying customer wanted.
9:25
Now, if you’re trying to be transparent in all of this, you would think that you would have a list of of your clients available or you would be OK with discussing what their needs were, what how you met them and what you did.
But no, no, he’s essentially keeping a madam’s little black book of people that have paid to protest and he’s lining his pockets for this.
9:48
This is a, this is, is, is a big part of what I’ve been talking about a lot recently.
It’s all about how the media, how people use the media, and how people use information to trick and deceive the public, sometimes political people into getting what they want out of them, right?
10:12
It sounds really bad like to me, I don’t know.
So I deep dove this and I looked into it.
I read some articles, I watched some news clips because apparently he’s been on all the news, right?
And he only gives you PR answers like, well, I can’t give you my, you know, when he gets asked about his customers, I can’t give you my customers.
10:30
But you are saying that you’re trying to turn a new leaf.
You’re not trying to do it the way that you did it because this company has been around since 2012, I believe.
And they started off petitioning people to say, Hey, I can make you look good.
I can make, I can get you attention.
I could do this.
You just pay me and I’ll send some people there to make sure that you look like you’re, you know, your popularity is through the roof and we’ll get you some attention.
10:54
Like it’s paid for.
It’s like, it’s like social media and buying subscribers and views and all that fun stuff.
Like it’s, it’s just, it’s just live action.
It’s a live action version of that.
This guy’s basically set up his own Hollywood studio for protesting it.
11:09
It it sits in, I think a very like it’s very close to that, you know, ethical and moral.
It’s not they say they work in the Gray area.
I say they’re just about falling off the Cliff.
That was the Gray area.
11:25
You know what I’m saying?
It’s this is not the way that we should be operating in society.
This is not how we should be doing the things that that we want these, this is not how we should accomplish progress.
I don’t think so.
Adam Swart, who is the CEO of Crowds on Demand.
11:41
This is basically what Crowds on Demand is.
Crowds on Demand was founded by Adam Swart, a former journalist for AOL’s Patch Network.
The company initially gained attention for offering celebrity the celebrity experience.
I’m doing air quotes services such as fake paparazzi and hired fans primarily in Los Angeles.
12:01
And over time, its offerings expanded to include organized protests, political demonstrations and publicity stunts involving paid actors posing as members of the public.
Now that’s a problem if you’re, I like if you have a product launch or something like that, I feel like this is a beneficial service because you want to get, you know, attention.
12:21
And I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with marketing a product and using actors to promote that product in real time or as live action, you know what I’m saying?
But I do think that if you’re protesting or you’re trying to get political bills passed or political things changed and you know, you’re trying to organize these things, I don’t think that you should have to pay people to go and do it.
12:51
You know what?
I’m, does that not seem shady to you?
Because that seems like the most shady to me.
That seems like a really big problem.
And I know that everybody that that in history, it’s always been done.
But now that it’s like it’s kind of out there and people are approaching others to sort of say like, Hey, we could do this for you.
13:10
And, and we’re starting to lose sight of what real progress is because nothing is real, dude.
I’ve like, everything’s a lie.
Everything is fake.
I basically assume at this point that anything that I watch or read is bullshit and I deep dive everything because I have to make sure that whatever I’m reading is and what I’m taking in is like, I’ve I got to find that middle ground because the middle ground is where the answers lie.
13:36
The middle ground doesn’t, doesn’t lie on the left or right side of these things.
It’s somewhere in the middle because everybody’s skewing everything for their favor, which is, in my opinion, horrible.
OK, if you’re trying to sell a product, product, if you’re trying to get attention to like social media, it doesn’t matter what you’re doing.
13:54
Everything is a facade now.
It used to be the movies, TV, you know, and, and entertainment was a facade, but we knew that we bought into it.
But now everything is from from politics to, to, to, you know, a new business startup.
It’s insane, man.
14:13
It’s absolutely, I don’t know, it seems to me that it’s very we have to watch out for this as a society, we have to watch out and determine whether or not what is being fed to us is the right thing.
Especially now where everybody is on the phone.
14:30
Nobody goes outside and talks to people anymore.
You watch it all on your phone or you’re out there recording it on your phone and you don’t know.
You just assume, Oh my God, look at all.
That’s another thing a lot of people like.
It’s all built on negativity.
It’s all built on shock and awe and, and, and, and riling up emotion, right?
14:48
So like, what are we talking about here?
I’ve said this a few times, but why are we trying to rile up negative emotion?
Why can’t we just be positive?
Why can’t loving somebody and having a good time, being happy, joking around, smiling, laughing, hanging out with friends?
15:03
Why can’t that be the thing that that that shifts public perception or shifts the mindset?
Why?
Because you need controversy?
Because we’re so ingrained and fed with it that we have to fall that we have no choice but to fall head first into that rabbit hole.
15:19
And then it’s, it’s also specifically designed to, to, to suck you in and pull you down like a succubus.
You know what I’m saying?
It’s I don’t know, it’s bad news.
Now some of the I watched, like I said, I’ve watched a few clips on this and I’ve watched a few clips of this guy talk and he doesn’t really say much of anything.
15:39
And if I were to have him on the podcast, I I have to have a few questions answered.
Not in APR fashion.
I need you to tell me things.
So I watched this one clip with Fox News where he was being asked like who his clients were.
15:55
Now I get you don’t no business wants to give up client information, but if you’re trying to transition from the shady, weird, creepy, you know, pay for play kind of kind of dealing dude, right?
You you want to sort of set the record straight and you’re trying to turn that you’re trying to turn that perception into a whistleblower perception.
16:17
Well, a whistleblower, it isn’t like it doesn’t go out there saying, hey, there’s a bunch of companies out there doing this without receipts, dude, OK, this guy had no receipts.
He’s, he’s basically saying, look, I’m just telling you, I did this for a long time.
My company does this and there’s there’s others that are out there.
16:36
So I’m trying to let you know that this is happening.
Well, tell me who’s doing it.
Nope.
He wouldn’t say he had he would not tell anybody who he has dealt with.
The only thing he would say is that he that he turned down, I think it was like $20 million to go against, to set up a protest or something against the Trump campaign.
16:57
Like, give me a break, man.
But the service now by, you know, news Network since about 2016 has basically been characterized like this as astroturfing.
Dan Schneider, writing for The Atlantic, said there might be some Gray area between offering a small token of appreciation to otherwise voluntary supporters and full blown thousands of dollars to prop up a struggling cause.
17:20
Seems to fit more squarely in the later category.
Schneider also noted that Swart admitted a a revelation that a campaign is paying for supporters is deeply embarrassing and he takes great pains to keep his clients identities a secret.
17:36
So this guy recognizes that what he does, and it’s not like his company stopped doing this.
Like if you’re trying to turn yourself into a whistleblower, like maybe maybe actually pivot to whistleblowing.
Like if you look at Julian Assange, he had to leave or she, I’m not sure anymore.
17:52
But the they, that person, Julian Assange had to leave the country and get out because he was in such danger.
Because he turned around and said, hey, here is the receipts, here is everything that is going wrong.
And on top of that, when you’re whistleblowing, you’re supposed to whistleblow for the better of society, not for the better of your bank account, OK.
18:16
And that’s what this guy is doing.
He’s realized that because of the sketchy nature of his business, he’s had to turn it around because I’m sure that people have like said, you know what, this isn’t cool.
And they’ve stopped sort of doing business.
They had stopped doing business with them in about, I don’t know, 20/15/2016.
18:33
His company was still there.
They were still making money, but there was probably a drop off, right?
And then he decides, hey, what I have to do is I have to turn it around so that people understand that.
No, like, I know what I’m talking about.
So he’s trying to position himself as the regulator of an industry that is nefarious, but he’s still doing the nefarious shit.
18:50
Dude, it’s really bad.
We don’t need we don’t need a crowd on demand.
That’s such a stupid concept to me.
Like anyway, a Washington Post columnist mentioned an e-mail he received advertising the company’s celebrity arrival service offer it, which they offered to politicians back in the day.
19:10
He says.
I received an e-mail the other day from Crowds on Demand and LA based company that for for a fee will send a bunch of team members to your event, stuffing the crowd with Confederates to make you look more important.
So this lady who was a Madam, reached out so that she could so that I could have her client, this supposedly UCLA graduate who his his background is in surprise, surprise, his background’s in politics.
19:41
OK, political science media, obviously.
So he understands how to get attention.
He understands how to frame things so that they, they get their point across right.
He’s, he’s got the basis for that.
19:57
And as we all know, it does it like picking a politician is, is picking the, the lesser of two evils.
Like they’re all, they’re all shady in some kind of way, right?
So now he’s supposedly trying to make this pivot to being.
This like white knight for the industry or or this whistleblower for the industry, but he’s not naming names.
20:21
If you’re blowing whistles, you’re naming names.
All he’s doing is repositioning himself.
And essentially, he says, he says that he wants to do this to expose the staged, staged protest industry.
OK.
20:37
The problem with staged protests is, is really in this, it’s in the general public.
I think most people can’t be bothered to protest.
Even if we align with the values of the protests or not.
We just can’t.
We’ve got the prices are too high, life is too expensive.
We don’t have time.
20:53
You know what I’m saying?
And I’m sure that a lot of people would love to make time, but they can’t and they don’t.
And then when they sit back, I think like people like me, I’m included in this too.
We sit back, we look at it, we go, that’s friggin horrible.
We should do something about that, but then we don’t.
That’s on us.
But does that mean that we should move into crowdfunding?
21:14
Is that really what we should be doing?
We should be on demanding crowds now to get it to get like, there’s no, once that protest is done, there’s no actual carry over, right?
They just do that.
They get their change and then that’s it.
21:30
Whether the change is right or wrong too.
Because you could just have a business approach this guy and say, hey, my competitor stock is too high.
I want you to go and affect it by picketing his building and then all of a sudden tank that competitor stock.
Nefarious, the great nefarious.
That’s all I’m saying.
21:45
Dude.
It’s fucked up.
Our society should not be at this point.
We are the most progressive sex portion.
We’re at the most progressive point of our evolution.
And this is still, it’s been going on since the dark ages.
OK with this.
22:01
This needs to be changed.
We need to change this.
We need to stop giving platforms to people like this because ultimately, when you say you want to be a whistleblower, miss, say it again.
You need to drop names, dude.
You can’t just say, oh, well, I know a lot of people do it and I’m not telling you who does it, but I know who do.
22:18
Who dos it?
You can’t do that, man.
This guy, when he was saying he was a, he was creating advocacy groups and staffing them.
The bio says this.
We create advocacy groups and staff them with suitable leadership.
What that really means, OK, is this is the, it’s the, it’s the literal definition of a front group.
22:40
He isn’t finding passionate citizens.
He’s inventing organizations out of thin air, giving them a professional sounding lame name like citizens for X or and hiring actors to pretend to be the staff or the leaders of that of that, that that business.
23:00
Like he’s still doing this dude.
It’s not he hasn’t changed his game plan.
He’s just changed.
He’s just trying to affect public perception again and his own.
It’s, it’s his public perception, like the public perception of him.
23:15
It’s it’s literally a criminals playbook, man.
You, you do your criminal shit and then you in inject yourself into society as a donator or whatever and and all of a sudden you’re kind of protected, right?
Like have we has no, have you, have you, have you, have you seen the mayor of Kingstown?
23:33
It’s basically this.
There’s a whole web, I’m sure around it.
And and there is, if you look all this stuff up, you will find a trail of deceit that goes well into the political spectrum.
You know, so he’s his bio also says he’s shaping mergers and acquisitions.
23:51
Now, normally that would mean like, oh, you’re, you’re being a liaison for companies to grow and build and partner, right.
So he says we shape large public Company Mergers and acquisitions.
Again, what this really means is if a company, if company A wants to buy Company B, Swart might hire people to protest outside company BS headquarters to take their stock price or make them look controversial air quotes again forcing them to accept a deal.
24:17
And it’s essentially A protest for hire used as a weapon in corporate warfare.
It’s all deceit and deception.
It’s the same tactics that the dudes in the manosphere use.
It’s the same tactics that you can use in social media to get attention very quickly and move ahead without like you need to have a positive message.
24:35
That’s what I think.
So the other point that he makes it, this is all in his bio.
You can, you can look it up at crowds on demand.com.
I think it is.
Again, I’ll put these in the show notes and I’ll put them on tots420.com in the in the blog that I write for the episode after.
24:53
But when other strategies have failed, this is what his bio says, amplify their message.
Often when other strategies have failed.
The reality is this means when the truth isn’t working, if a project or person is genuinely unpopular, traditional PR which relies on facts fails.
25:13
That’s when you call Swart to manufacture a fake consensus to trick the public or politicians into thinking there’s support where none exists and and effectively refocusing laws, refocusing bills, refocusing industry.
25:30
Both of these people that approached me to have this guy on utilize A deceitful tactic to engage the public.
She relies on her criminal past to create trust as an expert on corruption because she was a Madam.
25:48
It was a whole she was, she was involved in very high, high profile people and Eliot Spitzer being one of them.
He relies on creating truth through a facade of protest using fake crowds consisting of paid actors.
26:06
He’s trying to promote himself as a whistleblower, like I said, but this is not whistleblowing.
This is stepping to the left.
This is a dude, OK, that has recognized that there’s a major issue with the way that he’s being perceived and he needs a hooker or an ex hooker, an ex Madam.
26:28
I don’t know if she was a hooker.
I shouldn’t say that.
Again, this is all my opinion, OK?
And this is what I’ve found on the deep dive, all right, because I have to check into people that request to be on the podcast, but this is the bigger picture, OK?
He’s using a Madam to step to the left because she’s really good at facilitating perspectives, OK?
26:51
And he is also equally as good at interjecting a crowd to facilitate perspective.
We as a society should be worried about the fact that media, social media and all this technology are being primarily used as a negative push to get our opinions to shift.
27:22
We as people, creators, as part of the bigger group, the world and the human race, should be trying harder to put out good information.
Nothing.
27:38
Things that aren’t deceitful, things that if you’re doing entertainment, I get it, be fun, be funny, have a good time, do what you do for entertainment.
But this should not bleed over to the political landscape.
And the more that social media plays a part in this, the more that you know, AI plays a part in this, and the more that there is an advancement of those technologies, it’s just going to get worse and worse to the point where we can’t figure out what the fuck is happening.
28:05
And then people’s brain get mushed out, turn to mush, and the next thing you know, you can’t.
You don’t know what is is real anymore because everything you see is fake, dude.
Now I want to know if you think I should have this person on.
28:22
I don’t think I’ll get a good discussion with them because I think that if I ask who your people are and how you’re and if you’re a whistleblower, why you’re not telling these things then or at least the businesses that you’ve dealt with, right?
I don’t think that I’ll get, I think I’ll get an answer that is very much a scripted PR answer.
28:39
So I don’t see the point of doing this.
But I do think that there are some good things that could come of this.
I just think it should stay away from protest and political.
I don’t think that there should be a hand or a or or a price tag on skewing opinion.
28:57
I know that there is.
I’m not oblivious and I’m not stupid.
I’m just saying that it as a pothead, somebody that likes to smoke weed, dude, I saw through this right away.
I’m not giving you a platform to tell me how how you should be, how, how you can manipulate media.
29:13
You’re going to try and do that on here.
Now.
You can’t really do it on me because I’m good at what I do and I understand people and I don’t really take shit, but there’s you can’t give that that option.
You know what I’m saying?
Those are my thoughts off the stem for this week.
Hope you enjoyed the sesh.
Hope you come back next week with me.
29:28
Justin Baroni.
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