On this, our 320th Evolutionary Lens livestream, we discuss whether it can happen here, or again. It is genocide. Growing up in a secular Jewish household in the 1970s and ‘80s, Bret remembers many discussions of whether it could happen again, and where, but it seems to be assumed that the repeated targets of atrocities cannot themselves ever engage in atrocity. Is this true? We discuss lineage selection, the nature of history and memory, diaspora, Israel. Also, the belligerence of the U.S. again Iran. Then: Washington state is allowing non-citizens to become peace and corrections officers, but if any in those positions make mean gestures or social media posts, they can be fired. Toxicity of both stripes—masculine and feminine—are in command in our political landscape, and we seem to have no good options.
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Mentioned in this episode:
Sinclair Lewis, It Can’t Happen Here: https://www.alibris.com/It-Cant-Happen-Here-Sinclair-Lewis/book/3376310?qsort=p&matches=117
Let that sink in: https://x.com/LibyaLiberty/status/2039695385464017281
Trump on Iran: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LJMfd0gYc8&t=992s
WA state bill 5068: https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2025-26/Pdf/Bills/Session%20Laws/Senate/5068.SL.pdf?q=20260404090142
Timestamps:
00:00:00 Holding Screen
00:05:00 Are We Back in the Stone Age?
00:16:58 Sponsor: ARMRA
00:19:12 Sponsor: CrowdHealth
00:24:20 Sponsor: Helix
00:28:22 Can It Happen Here?
00:31:10 Can It Happen to Us?
00:34:49 Gaza, Intent, and Genocide
00:43:56 The Logic of Genocide
00:52:23 The Fragile Peace of the West
01:09:17 Lebanon and Ethnic Cleansing
01:19:00 “Back to the Stone Age”
01:29:36 Blue State of Washington Rewrites the Rules
We have "cartesian blinders being put on us so that we are trying to make sense out of scraps of information and hints." - @bretweinstein
WEINSTEIN: I mean, even if you have your villains who are engaged in the behavior that motivated this war in Iran, even if that's the story, presumably most of the people in the path of these ferocious bombings that he is describing are not deserving of going back to the Stone Age.
In fact, I distinctly remember him telling us that part of what we were up to was liberating the people of Iran from their tyrannical regime.
So if it's the tyrannical regime that justifies the ferocious bombing, then it's a tragedy that other people are going to be sent back to the Stone Ages with them. Right?
HEYING: It's it's not a narrative. It's an incoherent set of talking points.
WEINSTEIN: Yeah, it's a kind of cheerleading that is completely inappropriate from the perspective of the president.
Bret Weinstein discusses the Trump administrations "back to the stone age" recent remarks in the latest episode of The Evolutionary Lens, Episode 320 "Are we back in the stone age?" on DarkHorse.
Bret Weinstein explains, "If you stop businesses from starting here, and if you drive people so that they move elsewhere—even though it's difficult to do—then the point is the tax base dries up, which then forces you to become even more predatory for the people who stayed.
And that's really the thing, right? They're setting themselves up so that they have to go after more and more people, because the people who are starting new businesses are not going to do it here."
