Obstacle Course

* 0:00 Street Fight* 0:55 Criminal Jurisdiction* 2:57 Evidence Standards* 3:49 Loomer’s Premise* 5:01 Literalist Games* 6:52 Justice Entitlement* 7:51 Premise Accepted* 9:10 Unfalsifiable Thinking* 10:31 Borrowed Beliefs* 11:54 Algorithmic Mind* 13:29 Media Reflexes* 14:59 Inner Monologue* 16:59 Interpretive Labor* 19:27 Earned Opinions* 20:52 Meaningful Conflict* 22:15 Learning to Lose* 23:11 Working Hypothesis* 24:32 Say Nothing* 24:51 PenelopeA Laura Loomer post calling for action against Hasan Piker opens into a broader argument about political discourse, free speech, groupthink, and the collapse of basic evidentiary standards online. The issue is bigger than either Loomer or Piker. Accusations become conclusions, conclusions become demands for punishment, and political communities increasingly communicate through recycled phrases, ideological shorthand, and responses learned somewhere else.“New World Order,” the World Economic Forum, the DOJ, Epstein, the media, Republicans, Democrats — the vocabulary changes, but the process often looks the same. The larger question is whether people are still forming opinions or simply buying them. Social media rewards certainty, outrage, mimicry and instant reaction. Serious thinking tends to work in the opposite direction: examining premises, following evidence, tolerating uncertainty, admitting when an argument has been lost, and occasionally discovering that six months of research leaves behind a working hypothesis rather than a grand conclusion.A discussion of Hasan Piker, Laura Loomer, political violence, civil liberties, free speech, conspiracy culture, media criticism, intellectual humility, online tribalism, political polarization and the increasingly strange marketplace of public opinion. #hasanpiker #HasanPiker #LauraLoomer #FreeSpeech#PoliticalCommentary #SocialMedia #Groupthink #MediaLiteracy #CriticalThinking #Politics Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

What separates a suicidal pilot from a mass murderer when the decision to end his own life necessarily takes dozens or hundreds of others with him?A recent Learjet crash in Florida, and an investigation by John Cullen into the circumstances surrounding it, prompt a larger examination of one of aviation’s most disturbing psychological questions: Why would someone entrusted with protecting the lives of passengers knowingly choose a method of suicide that guarantees their deaths?The piece examines the peculiar intersection of suicidal ideation, professional responsibility, moral awareness, and homicidal consequence. Is it possible for someone to recognize the humanity of his passengers, genuinely care whether they survive, and still deliberately bring them down?If so, what does that tell us about the distance between knowing something is wrong and being psychologically capable of stopping ourselves from doing it?Featuring excerpts from John Cullen’s Hypothetically Speaking. Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

What happens when an investigation never quite identifies what it’s investigating?In the online commentary space surrounding Charlie Kirk’s assassination, a peculiar phenomenon has emerged: an apparently endless procession of suspicious circumstances, strange behavior, unanswered questions, and supposed revelations about Erika Kirk and TPUSA - all without anyone clearly establishing what these observations are intended to prove.Podcasters like Ian Carroll, Baron Coleman, and to a lesser extent Candace Owens, all have a massive expanse of information about peripheral characters in the Charlie Kirk assassination. Everything they discuss seems to point the arrow at Erika Kirk’s culpability for SOMETHING...but what? Why is it that they rarely, if ever, meaningfully describe and name an offense, instead relying on innuendo that builds to nothing?What if the appearance of knowledge becomes a substitute for knowledge itself? What if commentators mistake one another’s confidence for evidence, while audiences mistake the existence of a discussion for proof that something meaningful is being discussed?Perhaps the most effective form of innuendo is the accusation nobody ever has to make. Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

Dr. Bret Weinstein and Dr. Heather Heying argue that getting our genes into the future is “the game,” but what does that mean to the person who will not be around to experience the payoff? This video examines genetic incentive, lineage, evolutionary biology, and the problem of purpose before and after death. It also responds to Weinstein and Heather Heying by asking whether biological continuity can explain conscious motivation, moral obligation, or personal meaning. Featuring clips from the Sophia Lectures at Ralston College, this is a philosophical critique of genes, legacy, consciousness, and the strange accounting system we call life. Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

How many times are we required to prove something we've already proven? Obstacle Course follows the recurring demand to reestablish our worth - in work, relationships, art, memory and ordinary life - even after the evidence should already exist. From baseball stat sheets and Janet Jackson to a remark remembered from 1997 and unexpected transmissions from old associates, this is about consideration for what happens when the past suddenly testifies on our behalf. Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

A declining franchise icon, a brittle playoff race, and a local sports culture that seemed increasingly certain about which questions were respectable—and which people were allowed to ask them. What starts with Félix Hernández’s waning skills and James Paxton’s fragility opens into a story about status, gatekeeping, toughness, fandom and the peculiar social order of Seattle sports media.AUDIO CLIPS: 710 ESPN SEATTLE* 2/13/2019 | Bob Stelton, Dave Grosby, Tom Wassell | 0:00* 8/17/2018 | Brock Huard, Mike Salk, Lydia Cruz | 3:22* 8/15/2018 | Brock Huard, Tom Wassell | 5:06* 8/15/2018 | Brock Huard, Tom Wassell | 9:39* 8/17/2018 | Brock Huard, Mike Salk, Lydia Cruz, Tom Wassell, Ryan Divish | 13:06* 8/17/2018 | Brock Huard, Mike Salk, Lydia Cruz, Tom Wassell | 24:46* 2/13/2019 | Bob Stelton, Dave Grosby, Tom Wassell | 26:48* 8/15/2018 | Brock Huard, Tom Wassell | 28:00* 7/10/2018 | Bob Stelton, Tom Wassell, Ashley Cox | 30:35* 8/17/2018 | Brock Huard, Mike Salk, Tom Wassell, Lydia Cruz | 37:58 Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

A meditation on music, beauty, recognition, and the strange intimacy of watching someone discover something you already love. Beginning with first-time reactions to Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb,” the episode wanders through David Gilmour, Ann Wilson, aging, musical inheritance, technology, and the moments when people who may have almost nothing else in common suddenly recognize the same thing at once.Sometimes a song is just a song. Sometimes it feels like evidence of something much larger. Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

Mike Macdonald, Sean Payton, Graham Bensinger, the Seahawks, and a pre-interview conversation that was never established as on- or off-limits.A look at what off the record actually means, whether unspoken expectations create ethical obligations, why advance editorial courtesy is not the same thing as editorial control, and how institutions react when independent agents refuse to intuit the rules they were never explicitly given.* Seattle Seahawks Head Coach, Mike Macdonald with Graham Bensinger Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

Famous groups of three tend to sort their membership into the following criteria:-The ‘A’-The ‘B’-The ‘other guy’ The 3 Tenors, Nirvana, The Supremes, Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young), Genesis, Green Day, professional wrestlers, Hollywood drinking buddies, political candidates, and even the Microsoft guys reveal how fame, authorship, visibility and memory produce competing hierarchies. Music, film and television clips turn the taxonomy into a freewheeling tour of leaders, sidekicks, forgotten thirds and the occasional fourth member. Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe

A wild on-air argument about the legitimacy of University professors using class participation and attendance as criteria that ultimately factors into one’s grade for the semester. Is one’s stance for- or against such practices driven by generational orientation toward them or is there something obligatory about simply doing what you’re told? Most importantly, what is the ‘real’ source of learning and what is the most reliable behavior through which to ensure it takes place?Date: July 16 + 18, 2019 Show: Bob, Groz & Tom Hosts: Bob Stelton, Dave Grosby, Tom Wassell, Michael Bradley, Ashley Cox & Boy Howdy Station: 710 ESPN Seattle Get full access to T. Joseph at smileofexile.substack.com/subscribe