What’s Happening to America? The Manifesto with Michael Levin

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

You know, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you know that I don't speak much about politics. And it's this podcast is its main point is to help veterans by helping them to improve their lives. And so we bring on a lot of fitness experts. We bring on a lot of health experts. We bring in a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of veterans who share their stories here.

But in recent times, it's really been difficult to be a proud American, to be an American who believes in American exceptionalism, who loves this country, and who believes that the success of the president is good for this country. It's been difficult to express those views. And so as somebody who is on the other side of the popular media, who is not walking the line that they walk, I find that it's becoming more and more important for people like me to talk about our ideas and to talk to talk about our ideals. I come from the state of Connecticut, which is classically known for its liberal politics. And for a long time living there, I that's all I was exposed to.

A lot of what many people would consider liberal ideals. But at my heart, at my core, I always had love for America. And when I look back on those days, I also realize something. There's big difference out there between what I would consider leftists who hate America and liberals who just differ in ideals. And I don't hate liberals.

I disagree with liberals. But recent times, looking at the media, it's become nearly impossible to say anything positive about our president, president Donald Trump, without being labeled as a right wing extremist. And the fact is that if you look at things empirically, you know, as far as the economy is going and as far as our national security is going, two of my major concerns, things are going pretty good. And he's made a lot of effort to put people into positions that are that that are gonna do the best job. And I take, you know, secretary Mattis, general James Mattis as as a big example of that.

Now that being said, do I agree with everything the man says or the man does with his personal life? Absolutely not. But I detest the media seemingly unending efforts to undermine him and to make his presidency a flop. I think it's horrible what's been happening in the American political sphere. My guest today is a gentleman named Michael Levin, and Michael comes from Massachusetts.

He is the CEO of a company called Business Ghost, and he has a new podcast out called the Manifesto Podcast. And his reason for bringing this manifesto podcast out is because he is a big believer in American exceptionalism. Like me, he doesn't necessarily agree with everything the president says or the the aspects of the president's personal life that, you know, everybody seems to be talking about. But he also believes in what's good for America, what's good for this country. And his podcast is pretty outstanding in this aspect.

And so in deciding to do this show, my thoughts are with those veterans and those active duty military members who are either going through school or who will be going through college in the coming years and the environments that they're gonna be facing on their college campuses where not it doesn't even matter if you're a a conservative or a liberal. You're gonna be ostracized for your love of this country, for your desire to serve this country, and for your desire to see the best outcomes for The United States. And if you express your views in these environments, many times you are labeled as a right wing extremist or as a an alt right guy, and it's it's severely ostracizing for those of us who've ever had to step onto those campuses with desire to improve our lives. So my reasoning for putting the show out there is to let you guys know that you're not alone in believing in American exceptionalism and that you're not alone in loving this country. And so with that, I'm gonna stop talking. I just wanna give you a quick note from our sponsors. F Bomb Nutrition, run by two great Americans, Ross and Kara, who absolutely support America and who also have really supported veterans. Now what do they do?

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So if you use the code Warrior Soul at www.dropanfbomb.com, you'll get 20% off your first order. And then with that, I'm gonna stop talking now, and we'll get into my conversation with Michael Levin from the Manifesto podcast.

This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

And we need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul Podcast.

Alright everybody, welcome to the Warrior Soul podcast. And we have a repeat guest today, Michael Levin. Michael is the CEO of Business Ghost. He's a New York Times bestselling author, and he's got a new awesome show on a new platform called Manifesto. And I wanna go into this a little bit because largely, I've avoided keeping this show from becoming political, and I haven't talked much about my political views, though a lot of people could probably have inferred what my political views were.

We're gonna get into some of these things, but we're here mostly to talk about the state of this country, to talk about where we're at right now, which in some cases is pretty disturbing. Prior to, or just after getting out of the Marine Corps, I went and I hid out in school for a while, and I studied politics, and went all the way up through PhD at the University of California at Santa Barbara. And it was an interesting place to be because in my life, coming from a place like New England, I always thought that I was a centrist. I always thought that I was a center of the line, you know, politics kind of guy. And when I got to Santa Barbara, when I got to academia, I realized that I was actually a right wing, neoconservative, right of the Attila the Hun, right of Attila the Hun kind of what do they call us now, the alt right?

So I realized that when I got to Santa Barbara and it was an astonishing thing to me and I think that in many cases around the country and you're hearing this on many different platforms these days, somewhere we've gone awry. Somewhere the extremes have started to take over, and somehow the liberal side of The United States became the extreme left, and we're not hearing from centrists anymore. And Michael, who's been on this show before, is a great guest, he created this platform which is a platform I think of common sense. We're actually bringing the common sense back to politics and we're actually trying to get some more productive debate going on. Michael comes from the great state of Massachusetts and he is a right of center, I guess I'll let him speak to himself on what he is, but, you know, if you're anything but leftist in some places, it almost seems like you're you're right wing, alt right, whatever they wanna call you these days.

But, Michael, welcome to the show. How are you doing?

Michael Levin 00:10:08 (link to this point)

Well, great. Thank you for having me back. It's a privilege.

Chris Albert 00:10:12 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Tell me about this new show that you have, Manifesto. What what are you covering there?

Michael Levin 00:10:18 (link to this point)

Yeah. It's exactly what you're talking about. And that is that America is getting more and more polarized, and the media and social media kinda create echo chambers. One on the left, whether it's MSNBC or CNN or CBSNBC, and one on the right including Fox News, which I do a lot of writing for, Breitbart, some of the other stuff on the right. And nobody is talking to the center.

And the thing is that America is not a country of extremes despite what the media would propose to you or suggest. I really believe that America is a center to slightly right of center society culture in the sense that people basically wanna do the right thing. They follow the laws. They drive pretty close to the speed limit. They wanna raise their families.

They wanna go to work. They wanna do the right thing in their homes, in their communities, in their private lives, in their faith lives and they're not the extremes that you see on the left and the right portrayed in the media. The problem is that no one is speaking to the center to center right, which is where most America lives, and no one's speaking for them. So I thought, you know, I care a lot about I love this country. I think the idea of American exceptionalism is getting trashed.

The idea that we are something special in the world and that we stand for something special. And I just thought, you know, people have the the the the notion that America's a great place but they don't always have the language to back up those feelings. So I thought, what if I were to create something which is now a three to five minute daily podcast, video podcast called The Manifesto, where you had a chance to just have some clarity that's not spin about the major issues of the day, whether it's political or social or even sometimes motivational, why not have something like that? Because I think there's a huge gap and I'm trying to fill that gap with my with my show.

Chris Albert 00:12:25 (link to this point)

You know, we're talking about echo chambers right now and and with with echo chambers in academia and and in the media, you know, ever since president Trump got elected, I can't stand watching CNN or looking at cnn.com. I can't stand looking at what what I used to consider unbiased media, the New York Times, it's just absolutely no longer center of the road, it's no longer unbiased, and they're not even, they don't even seem to be playing the game anymore. They don't even seem to be trying to mask it anymore. It's become more and more Donald Trump is the most horrible president in the world. I think you mentioned on one of your shows that there was an outlet that called President Trump a buffoon, and if you're gonna pose yourself as this center of the road, you know, journalist type platform, I don't see how any of these organizations can come back from this. I don't see how we can trust the American media anymore.

Michael Levin 00:13:28 (link to this point)

Yeah. What you're saying is really true. It was Politico, that called Trump a buffoon, and Politico is one of the top outlets for, you know, honest, accurate reporting about what's going on in Washington around the country, around the world. I've written several times for POLITICO. I'm proud to have written for POLITICO, but don't call the president a buffoon and expect to remain credible.

Now what you're saying is true about CNN and the the New York Times. It used to be that the allegiance on the part of the media was toward reporting what's going on and providing clarity. And it slipped further and further left and today, I really believe that the reporters and the editors and the owners of the mainstream media, certainly on the left side, feel that the country is under siege. They feel that the country is being destroyed by Donald Trump. And their role is no longer simply to report the facts, but to sound the alarm and encourage people to resist and to spin everything so that Trump appears in the worst possible light.

And that way, apparently, that it's driving ratings. It's succeeding. So so, you know, The New York Times secretly loves Donald Trump because without it, where would their, sales be? CNN, MSNBC love Donald Trump because where would their ratings be without him? So it's partly out of a sincere belief that Trump is destroying the country and that's not a belief I share at all.

And then it's partly just craven money making and that's what's driving the bus with the media today.

Chris Albert 00:15:10 (link to this point)

Yeah. And that's the thing. If you look at the facts, I mean, far as the economy goes, as far as as ISIS goes, you know, the the one thing that that president Trump was doing that that I disagreed with was putting a tariff on steel because, you know, we tried that back in the eighties. It had a had a pretty bad effect on the economy. But for everything else, I I don't see the doomsday predictions.

I don't see any of these things coming true. And my question is, where do you when do you think the American public is gonna say, well, we had enough, or is it to a point right now where the hatred for the president is just so much that that regardless of what he does, people are going to have have you know, just put him in a negative light.

Michael Levin 00:15:58 (link to this point)

Well, at the end of the day, people are free to despise Donald Trump.

Chris Albert 00:16:02 (link to this point)

Right.

Michael Levin 00:16:03 (link to this point)

But they're gonna be doing it in a country that is safer because ISIS has been dismantled to a very dig a great degree. They're gonna do it in a country that is richer because the economy is so much stronger because Donald Trump is removing so much regulation. You look at the markets since he came in. It's a very pro business environment. It's that's the rising tide.

If business isn't doing well, then nobody gets employed and and so on. And the country is gonna be safer because we're returning to the rule of all the borders. And every country has borders, culture, and language. Why can't we? If we have all the resources in the world, then let everybody come on in and and and take a seat at the table and and and we're glad you're here.

But the reality is that millions of people are patiently standing in line for their chance to come into The United States and we just don't have the resources to provide the kind of services that the left really seems to like to provide, illegal immigrants. And I I'm using that I'm not saying undocumented. Undocumented means I left my wallet at home. Illegal means I'm breaking the law. So if you have a society that, that where where basically, individuals and towns and cities get to choose which laws they're gonna obey and which laws they're going to ignore, you don't have a society anymore.

So if Trump is trying to restore the rule of law to American society, he's going to make the country a stronger and better place. So economically, it's gonna be better. Culturally, it's gonna be better. And that doesn't mean you're a racist because you're you're saying that these people shouldn't come in. What you're saying is everybody has to wait their turn in line and do the right thing and and and not break in.

You know, Ronald Reagan in the eighties used to say, I don't see anybody trying to sneak into the Soviet Union. Come on. You know, we are the greatest country in the world. There is something exceptional about this society and what's exceptional about it is that we are welcoming and that you can come here from any country in the world and start with nothing and become a millionaire. That's the American dream as Reagan put it.

But the thing is that we have to have rules and we have to have laws and you can't have a sanctuary city. So Trump is doing all the things that the left abhors, but the thing is that the left will be in a safer, better, richer country because of what Donald Trump has done for it. Does this mean I like the way Trump operates and and and and all the yelling and screaming and ranting? No. I don't care for that.

I wish he could behave better. But I'm not here to say, well, I want a president who's well behaved. We've had a few of those and it took the country into the tank. America was ready for a huge change and they voted for him and they got that change and I say amen.

Chris Albert 00:18:53 (link to this point)

Well, absolutely. And and at the end of the day, what I think we're really seeing here is intellectual dishonesty on on everybody's part. And and, you know, that whole narrative that the Democrats are better for minorities and the Democrats are better for for for the poor. I to be honest, you know, through the Clinton years, through the the the Obama years, I don't see how they their lot had been improved at all. I really don't.

You know, and and to be honest with you, as far as American exceptionalism goes, I don't think I really appreciated it until I became an entrepreneur. Right? Starting my own business changed my world for me. And and I, you know, I love this country from the beginning. I served in the United States Marine Corps, but I truly did not realize how much of an amazing country we live in until I started my own business.

You know, the idea that you can create something out of nothing. The idea that you can build that thing up and and the idea that, you know, you can, you don't have any barriers to do that, that's that's an amazing thing. Now, what I also learned was that the idea that there are no barriers is is also a bit of a lie because there's taxes, right? And I live in the People's Republic Of California right now and my first year of business was a hard one. I didn't do very well but California still wanted their massive amounts of taxes and you know, that was a very big lesson for me.

But what are your thoughts on, like, as far as the intellectual dishonesty goes and this idea, this narrative that one side is good for the poor, one side's only good for the rich. If you're a conservative, that means that you're a mean spirited person who who just wants to see the poor become hurt. What do you think about that? Where where does that come from?

Michael Levin 00:20:50 (link to this point)

Well, it's propaganda. It's a big lie. The more you repeat a big lie, the more people believe it. The Democrats have not bettered the lot of minorities in this country. It would be a lie to say they did.

And and anybody who has the courage to say that the Democrats have a plantation mentality when it comes to expecting the support of African Americans or Latinos. It is it's going to be branded as a racist and and an evil person. And I'm here to say, you can call me whatever you you want, but the Democratic party is a plant has a plantation mentality. And, you know, right now, unemployment is for is is unemployment's lower under Trump than it was under Obama. Ask any honest African American about who's politically involved about what Obama did for the African American community.

And let's just sort of shake their heads sadly and tell you he let us down. He got to the White House and he forgot who put him there and he forgot he forgot who he was and he forgot who he came from, where he came from. I'm not thrilled with the fact and Trump was a huge huge huge star in on television in African American and Latino and low income homes. And one of the things I really don't like about him is the fact that he turned on that base in the campaign and ran all the dog whistle stuff and, which really was unfortunate, because you know, he's he's done more for the economy than Obama certainly did. You look at how the economy's taken off over the last couple of years and that helps everybody.

So, you know, in terms of when when you talk about the big lie or you talk about intellectual dishonesty, it pains me and I read the news constantly. I'm obsessed. It pains me to see people who are really selling their intellectual honesty for for, you know, for for a few shekels or a few, a sack of beans or something. When you when you see the stuff that that that Eugene Robinson is writing in the Washington Post or some of the columnists in the New York Times and you say, you know this isn't true. You know it's not true.

How can you say these things? It it it it's just hurtful. It's just it's it's shameful. But the thing is that that's what people want today and that's what people do and it's unfortunate. But you're absolutely right.

It the level of intellectual honesty is has has all but collapsed in our society on the left.

Chris Albert 00:23:21 (link to this point)

Absolutely. And and, you know, coming from a space like academia where I was working to become a social scientist, one of the things that I really focused on in my work was in trying to use the scientific method as much as possible, in trying to collect evidence and when my opinion and when my hypotheses were proven false, to admit to it and then to move on and create new ones to try deliver new discoveries. But I think something funny happened in academia, probably starting around twenty, thirty years ago, particularly in social scientific circles, is this movement called post modernism movement. And it was literally the idea that at the time Marxism had been proven to be a complete sham, a complete lie, and they were trying to come up with ways of still getting their academic ideas put forth, right? So they said, we're gonna throw the scientific method out the window, we're not gonna use that anymore.

What we're gonna do is we're gonna tear this whole thing down. And so what we see today in academia, in most American universities, has been this postmodernist movement where positive science has been tossed out the window in favor of narratives, in favor of a preferred narrative on the part of certain parties to, you know, categorize The United States as being the worst thing that's ever happened in the world, to categorize anybody who does not believe in extreme leftist beliefs as being somewhat alt right as they call them now. And we see guys like Doctor Jordan Peterson, who in my mind isn't even really a political conservative, but they're labeling him all right. Bret Weinstein from Evergreen State, you know, being labeled a conservative when he's been a progressive for most of his life.

And it seems like the idea of true academic inquiry has been tossed out of the university in favor of creating their own manifesto, so to speak. You know, it's it's absolutely insane.

Michael Levin 00:25:46 (link to this point)

Yeah. There is a McCarthyism of the left on the American college campus, and it's really discouraging. The nineteen sixties are only alive and well on college campuses, And faculties of the the top universities are all about one thing and one thing only, and that is, preaching a an anti American, anti Israel, anti democratic, anti capitalist message to students who are, young and naive and idealistic and they wanna believe what their professors say. And we're churning out generations of kids who have absolutely no idea about reality, about about what's what's good about America. You know, there was a thing, yesterday at USC, somebody tweeted as part of a mural in a woman's studies thing, eliminate whiteness.

Chris Albert 00:26:41 (link to this point)

It was it was it was challenge your whiteness. Challenge your whiteness. Yeah.

Michael Levin 00:26:45 (link to this point)

What if it's a challenge your blackness?

Chris Albert 00:26:47 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Michael Levin 00:26:47 (link to this point)

How would that have gone over?

Challenge your channel challenge your Spanish arch. You know, it's it's insane. It's absolutely insane. It's it's it's a it's a reverse form of racism to stigmatize people because they have white skin. It's just it's just nutty, and it doesn't end there.

The college campus today is preparing students who are paying 50 to 70,000 or more a year at private colleges to enter a world that doesn't exist. You go to a college campus today and there are quote unquote safe spaces where you're not allowed to use certain trigger words like Donald Trump or conservative. And and and the real world does not stop to pay attention to the delicate sensibilities of people. The real world is the real world. You get out there, there are no safe spaces.

People use every word, trigger words, non trigger words. Why on earth are we making our kids into such delicate flowers that if they hear one word that's that's contrary to what they believe, it's gonna it's gonna destroy them. So we're not doing our kids a favor. We're setting them up to fail by creating for them an expectation that when they go into the real world, their bosses are going to be nice, sweet people who never use bad words and and and then, you know, the whole also the whole question of of sexual harassment on campus where until Trump came in and Betsy DeVos in the education department, the Obama the Obama administration had sent what is called guidance to universities essentially saying that if a woman accuses a man, the woman is to be believed and there is no due process for the man. And students' lives are getting destroyed because of this.

And half the time, what's going on? She's drunk, he's drunk, they get together and do what comes naturally when you're drunk and then the next morning, one of them feels like, oh my goodness, I shouldn't have done that. I was assaulted. And then the other person's life is destroyed whether it's a man or a woman. But the thing is that most of the time the accused, these were women and most of the time the the defendants were men but they never had the slightest bit of due process.

They were just thrown out of school based on on on on an accusation and nothing more. Is that the American way? But that's the American campus today. And parents are spending 70, 80,000 dollars a year and it's all insanity. So Trump came in and through his education secretary, Betsy DeVos, he said, that's it.

We're no longer going to have a system where there is no due process and do we believe the accuser? We listen to her but we don't automatically believe every accusation. Instead, there has to be fundamental fairness. There has to be a process by which a person accused of a heinous crime gets his day in court, as it were. So that's one more thing that Trump has done to better society.

But the thing is that that's so anti feminist to disbelieve someone who claims to be accused. If she if she says she was accused, she's obviously telling the truth and the boy is obviously lying. Come on. Let's get real. Let's get real.

Chris Albert 00:30:03 (link to this point)

Yeah. Absolutely. And you know, one of the my thoughts on this are with those young Americans who have spent the last few years of their lives defending this country, who are getting out of the service and and deciding that they want to go for their college education to try to better their careers. And, you know, one of the things I often think about when I'm producing this podcast is that these guys often don't don't know the world they're stepping into when when they're getting onto that college campus. There there's veteran groups on a lot of college campuses.

There's some good ones out there, but they're not gonna have their own safe spaces. Right? They're not gonna have if they're they've got a teacher who wants to teach their their perverted narrative of United States history to this guy who's been been out there actually at the forefront of US policy, you know, that in my mind is a scary thing, and I feel for a lot of these guys out there, and there's such pressure on these campuses to conform to that. There's such pressure on these campuses to conform to these. I have a friend who's a PhD, and, you know, he he was a a US army officer, became a PhD, and is is in the social sciences, and he's he's fearful right now.

And hold on one second. Hey, guys. We got people bump jumping in. Roger, I'm gonna talk to you later, bud. He's he's fearful right now that, you know, as far as tenure goes, as far as as far as getting his tenure because he doesn't wanna be he he feels like he can't express his true views. He feels like he can't be an honest academic. And and there's so many academics, there's so many students out there who are afraid of expressing their true views, and I I'm so, so terrified by that notion.

Michael Levin 00:32:14 (link to this point)

Yeah. There's as I said earlier, there is there is a McCarthyism on of of the left. There is a silencing. You know, you're John, you're the tip of the spear. You are out there protecting the rest of us who take for granted what you do.

Freedom isn't free. I salute you for your service and for what you do for for for for our country and what your fellow veterans, have done. I can tell you that in my lifetime, it's better than it was. I I remember how the Vietnam veterans were treated in the seventies. I'm old enough to remember that.

To remember the first Vietnam veterans parade in New York, I think around 1982 or '83. I can tell you also that this whole thing about the the the left dominating campus discussion is not new. I remember when I was at Columbia Law School in the early eighties seeing Jerry Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority, all but booed off the stage at Columbia University. And that's I was embarrassed. I was embarrassed for him.

I was embarrassed for my fellow students who didn't have the ability just simply to show respect to a person who was a religious leader. Maybe his views were different from theirs but he you still have to respect his right to a platform. Today that's history. There's a guy named Charles Murray. He's an eminent social scientist.

He's one of the smartest people we've got and he's got a book called Coming Apart that really lays out what's happening in American society. He went to speak at Middlebury College and he was knocked to the ground by protesters. He's not a young guy. He's in his sixties. And it's shameful.

It's just shameful. And then other conservatives are silenced. They're not allowed to come on campuses. They're not allowed to speak. Their talks are disrupted.

And I sit down and I say, is this The United States or is this the red guard and the the of Mao in in in in the the nineteen sixties when young people were essentially brainwashed into, disrupting anybody whose view the cultural revolution in China. That's what it that's what it feels like. And that's why I'm trying to speak up and say something and I I I call the manifesto that I'm my video podcast, I call it the the counter to the counter culture. Because if you don't stand up and say something, then the liars and the bad guys are gonna win and I'm not gonna stand for that.

Chris Albert 00:34:33 (link to this point)

Absolutely. You know, you had some points laid out about the manifesto. One of them was the the belief in American American exceptional a belief in American exceptionalism. Sorry. I can't talk today.

What what were some of the other points you laid out for the manifesto?

Michael Levin 00:34:52 (link to this point)

The the the short of it is that the truth isn't getting out about what a great society and country this is. And the left and the the liberal media is so focused on what's negative and tearing everything down. And the reality is that, as you pointed out about entrepreneurism, this is one of the few places in the world where you can go and start with nothing and the society and the culture is the system here wants you to succeed. There is free advice. You can go to SCORE and find free business consulting and bankers will talk to you and if your idea is good enough, you'll find the capital.

And you can you can find anything you need to get started and succeed as an entrepreneur whether you went to college. It doesn't matter if when you went to jail or jail. I mean, Mark Zuckerberg didn't finish Harvard. Bill Gates didn't finish Harvard. I have clients.

I run a ghostwriting company as as you mentioned I think at the outset and there there are people who came to this country literally with nothing and then they were able to get a free college education and then from there they were able to get go to business school if they wanted or they just went off and started something and and today some of these guys are billionaires. And the government isn't here as in Russia to keep an eye on you and then once you get successful enough, they're gonna co op you and take your business and put you in prison or kill you unless you go in exile. If if you make money, the government's delighted because they're gonna make they're gonna get taxes and you're creating jobs. Most jobs are created, John, by people like you and me, people who are, small business owners. And it's the the the fortune thousand companies create a tiny, a miniscule number of jobs compared with folks like us times millions.

And that's and that's what's great about America is that you can you can come here with nothing and you can build up and you can become anything you want to do. You know, I I run the Boston Marathon. I'm gonna run on Monday. I ran in 2013 and the brothers who were the Boston Marathon bombers came to this country from a one of the former Soviet Republics. They, they came here with nothing.

Their family got free housing, here in the Boston area. They got free, elementary through high school education. They went to UMass and got free college education. The neighbors in their building realized that these people were poor and had nothing, brought them food.

Chris Albert 00:37:22 (link to this point)

Mhmm.

Michael Levin 00:37:22 (link to this point)

And yet somehow they got so twisted in their thinking that they realized that they had to destroy what they had been given freely, which is the benefits of American society. Now that's an extreme example. Most people going to college today are not gonna go out and blow up buildings. But the thing is that they're being so badly misled. This is another point I'm making in the manifesto.

You know what's so funny? Whenever they have a protest against the World Trade Organization or or or any of the the international organizations that here in The United States, what happens? There are major protests. What are the people protesting against? The corporations.

What are they wearing? They're wearing Levi's jeans. Who made Levi's did they stitch them themselves in their kitchen? They have an iPhone. Who made the iPhone?

A corporation. Yeah. It's like everything that they own that they take for granted that makes life so easy. I mean, homeless people all have phones. You know, think about that.

Chris Albert 00:38:24 (link to this point)

Right.

Michael Levin 00:38:25 (link to this point)

There was there was a story in I forget the country. There was a guy in a yurt who had been and and there was an earthquake and his yurt collapsed. I don't know what a yurt is but it doesn't sound like it's gonna pass the California building code. And he was saved because he was able to make a phone call with his cell phone from the the bottom of the collapsed yurt. Guys in yurts have cell phones.

Why? Because a corporation built that cell phone. He didn't build it at his kitchen table. So, you know, why are people so up in arms about corporations when they don't stop and think about the fact that, you know, we didn't make refrigerators. I didn't make the McDonald's down the street but if I wanna go there and get a quarter pounder, it's waiting for me.

So, you know, let's I mean, I'm not suggesting that that's the height of gourmet living but the thing is that it's all out there for you. Why are we trashing the great why are we trashing the greatest in the history of the world instead of respecting it and growing it? That's what I try to talk about.

Chris Albert 00:39:28 (link to this point)

Well, there's an interesting kind of jealousy out there that says that if you have money, if you've been successful, it's somehow somehow you stole it or somehow you you took it from somebody else, and I think that's a lie.

Michael Levin 00:39:43 (link to this point)

You're all choked up.

Chris Albert 00:39:44 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. I'm getting all choked up over here. I gotta get a drink of water.

Michael Levin 00:39:49 (link to this point)

Yeah. You know, what you're saying is absolutely true, that that there's a huge amount of class envy, which is fomented by the liberal media. Yeah. I mean, it's there's a natural tendency for human beings to build people up and then tear them down and there's psychological reasons for that and okay. But the thing is that, you know, class envy doesn't really get you very far when you're trying to if you're trying to get into that better class.

Right. The real question is what do you have to do to succeed? I work with I I have a ghostwriting company. Our clients typically are either business owners or wealthy people. I haven't had a single client who stole his way to the top.

They all worked their butts off to get where they are. When I started my business, was told by my mentor the secret of success is bust your butt. Three little words. He didn't use the word butt. And and and and that's these are the people who are successful by and large.

Are there people who rise up and and and and do things that are that are wrong? Yeah. And typically their karma is worked out but not for our viewing pleasure. But the thing is that you cannot judge affluent people by a few bad ones any more than you can judge any group by the bad ones in their all cops are not bad. All cops don't wake up and decide you know, deciding, I hope I get to shoot somebody who doesn't deserve it today.

You know, most cops are are are like everybody else. They're just phenomenal people who are completely dedicated to protecting society and and some of them get in bad situations and it's and it and it's unfortunate. And then the rest of the time, the the facts are suppressed in order to support a narrative about how bad cops are, how bad whites are. And all I can say is please, somebody's gotta say something to protect our society instead of allowing it to be torn down by people who are trying to remake us in in in in a way that I just don't understand.

Chris Albert 00:41:48 (link to this point)

Well, and one thing that's been really scary as of late is social media and you know, we're looking at what's going on with Facebook, we're looking at what what went on last week at YouTube where they had a shooter come in because they had been been, you know, she she she was disgruntled because she thought they were blocking people from seeing her videos. But we do notice that certain types of videos get demonetized and certain types of accounts don't don't get publicized on Facebook. And, you know, there was two ladies who are Trump supporters. They're they're they're African American ladies who who were Trump supporters. Their their account over the past few months has gotten no likes because Facebook has apparently been diverting people away from it and and Mark Zuckerberg had to answer questions about that.

I think it's silk and Yeah, saw it. Yeah, And you know, they've been actively, you know, throwing walls up in front of conservative commentators on social media. How do you plan on on getting around this with the manifesto? What what about your platform is gonna be special where you're gonna be able to get get get people to listen to?

Michael Levin 00:43:13 (link to this point)

I I appreciate the question, John. There's I have friends named Renee and Scott Ralph. They live down in Florida. They're they're pretty remarkable people. They started and sold a business to Google.

They sold it for, I don't know, 60, 70, $80,000,000, real money. And so they're smart effective people. And, five years ago they started doing two things. One is that they created a new social media app. It's called Pik Mobile, p I k mobile, p I k mobile, and you can you can download the app for free.

There are two sides to the Pik Mobile app. One is they call it Instagram for adults because you're able to put up photos and organize them better. They kinda come in randomly on on Instagram, but on Pik Mobile, you can tell stories with video and photos and audio better than on any other social media app. Then the other thing is that they sell content behind a paywall and anybody can put up a store. And basically, you get half the money and Pik Mobile and Apple because the the app comes from the pick from the app store.

Split split the other half and then the ratio changes over time in your favor. Pik Mobile's model is the opposite of Facebook. Facebook is the service is free but not only we're gonna harvest your data and sell it but we're gonna be, even though your data is supposedly anonymized, meaning that no one can really figure out exactly that it's you, who's googling or who's, you know, on Facebook looking for groups on depression or teen pregnancy. They're able to figure out exactly who you are, who I am, who each of us is through all kinds of clever algorithms and then they're able to sell your specific profile to advertisers. In other words, this whole Cambridge Analytica thing, that's just the tip of the iceberg of what of what of how intrusive the Facebook model is where you're on the service for free but we're collecting information and we're gonna sell.

Pik Mobile's attitude is we don't want your information. We're not asking you for it. We're not looking for it. You can come on the site and you can put stuff up for free. You can come on the site and you can open your own store or you can go to the site and you can download and you can pay and you can you can, buy the content that's they have the NFL Players Association.

They have all kinds of cool stuff. They just launched in the last couple of months. Pik Mobile did something else, the Ralphs. Five years ago, they applied for a patent to sell video content behind a paywall. Now in internet time, it's hard to imagine that there was ever a time where something didn't exist but five years ago, it was not a thing to to subscribe for $2 or a dollar, $5 a month and get access to video.

So they applied for this patent. It took five years but the patent was approved a few months ago And this means that everybody from the Kardashians on down who has a paywall up and is selling video is an infringer which is incredible. What this means is that one of the big companies, whether it's Amazon or Facebook itself or Amazon doesn't have a social media app. Well, they can. Google could buy this.

Anybody could they're gonna have to pay 500,000,000 to a billion dollars to the Ralph's in order to get the social media app, Pik Mobile, which has this incredibly timely model of here's the free stuff, here's the stuff you pay for but we don't want your information, we're not gonna sell it. And combine that with the patent on selling content behind the paywall. So they're gonna sell that for 500,000,000, $1,000,000,000 and, you know, and and that's where you can that's where you can find the manifesto. You go to the Pik Mobile app, on the apps where you download the app or from their website, pikmobile.com and that way you get access. And people say to me, why aren't you on YouTube?

Everybody goes on YouTube. And the short answer is that YouTube has made it all but impossible to monetize unless you're one of the top top top tier people already. And I've got a channel on YouTube. It's got a couple 100,000 views. I make 11¢ from it.

They don't they they've squeezed the money out of it for all but a handful of people. And the thing is that I'm a conservative. I'm a I'm a bleeding heart conservative. I believe in a in a in a a safety net for those who cannot take care of themselves. Absolutely.

But at the same time, I'm conservative on foreign policy. I'm conservative on a lot of social issues. I don't fit in the YouTube model. So that's why I'm on Pik Mobile where I'm free to express, the views that I have which happen to be consonant with the broad swath of America. So that's that's where you can find me and that's why I'm there.

Chris Albert 00:47:56 (link to this point)

That's pretty awesome. And how often are you uploading episodes now?

Michael Levin 00:48:00 (link to this point)

Yeah. I've done a 100 since mid January. So I'm putting up about 10 a week. And, you know, there's just so much to say. Mean, there's just so much to say about what's going on.

You know, I'll scan the news and I'll make a list of 10 or twelve ten or 12 concepts and then I'll just record them, one after the next after the next, and then and then they go up in sort of an order of timeliness. But there's just it's such an incredibly fascinating time and at the same time, there's so much to counter in the counter culture. And again, somebody's gotta say something and I think I'm that guy.

Chris Albert 00:48:40 (link to this point)

Awesome. Awesome. And, you know, getting back into, you know, a little bit of your history, like you said, you're you're New York New York Times bestselling author. You're running Business Ghost right now and you know, you've worked across these different realms of publication. You know, is getting into this kind of new podcasting tech tech world, is this is this is this something you'd planned on doing, or it's it's just something you that came up and and the technology was there and and and you decided you wanted to do it?

Michael Levin 00:49:17 (link to this point)

Yeah. It's it basic I do a newsletter through my business where I talk about what's going on in politics or society or my own life or my family and motivational stuff or whatever's going on. And then on it, I write a lot for Fox News. I've written a ton for HuffPost, for New York Daily News, Forbes, and so on, all these outlets. So I'll also run the pieces in my newsletter that I that I did, you know, say as seen on Fox News.

It goes out to about 13,000 people and I've wanted to expand the reach of it by a lot, for a long time. So in November, put out a thing to my list and I said, hey, I wanna expand the reach of this newsletter. Any ideas? Different people had all kinds of good ideas but the Ralphs wrote and said, hey, and they're former clients of mine as I said. They said, hey, we've got this new thing called Pik Mobile and we think you ought to talk to us about it.

So that's where it started. And then in terms of the technology, I do have 15 year old sons and, they're smart and they're just, you know, that whole generation, they're the digital natives, immigrants. And so they went out and they bought the lights, that that's shining in my face right now. They showed me how to they bought the camera, they showed me how to work the camera, they basically tutored me and they schooled me so that the technology is manageable for me. I mean, you know, my kids were just laughing at me.

They weren't laughing, were sorta like slapping their foreheads because I didn't know what's app was or how to use it and so now I know how. You know, if you don't know how, you don't know how. I mean, I didn't grow up with this stuff and, but, you know, the technology is manageable and then I've got a I've got a really great guy who he's he's he's a very committed member of the left and he's my guy who edits the videos and he'll challenge me. He'll say, how can you say x y z? And I have to be able to justify it to him.

And on one occasion I took the video down because his points were so good that I said, you know something, you're right. I have to rethink this issue. So, you know, so that's basically the team and then he gets the videos and gets the transcripts and then they go to Pik Mobile and and Renee puts them up.

Chris Albert 00:51:31 (link to this point)

Awesome. And let me let me ask you this. So I mentioned before we got this whole population of of of guys and girls who are are getting out of the military service, heading out into college, heading out into the civilian world. What's your biggest piece of advice for survival in this political environment for for people who are heading out? I know that's a big question, but

Michael Levin 00:51:57 (link to this point)

It's a great question. I think I think I would say this. Don't take it personally.

Chris Albert 00:52:03 (link to this point)

Mhmm.

Michael Levin 00:52:03 (link to this point)

When when you were 18, you left home. You went through basic training. You lost, in many ways, the identity that you started with, and you became part of a group. And then you were off in other nations. And, if you were in combat, you saw things that the rest of us will never, want to see.

And and and you lost friends or you were physically harmed or you were emotionally harmed by this. Now you come to a college campus and the level of naivete is just shocking. And it's gotta be mind blowing to you because the kids who are your age or younger have no idea. They haven't seen what you've seen. They haven't been through the character building experiences that you have been through in in in in basic training and boot camp in in in the service of United States or going around the world.

Their views are much narrower in scope and they don't know what they don't know. And because they haven't seen cultures where there is equality. They have no idea of how fortunate they are to be here. They hang gays from cranes in the public square in Iran. ISIS was throwing gays off of buildings in in in the lands they controlled in in in Syria and Iraq, wherever.

And here Americans are, perturbed because, this person this man cannot use a ladies room. You know, don't you realize what you have? No. You don't. And the reason you don't is because all knowledge is by comparison.

And the folks who are veterans who watch your podcast have a basis of comparison. They know what's out there. And Americans, it's it's a great big country. You never have to leave it to to get all your needs met. It's I mean, this is the only place in the world where you can drive 3,000 miles and never be stopped by a cop.

Never have to