Making Sense Of 2021's Madness - Carl Benjamin - #280

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, beautiful people of Podcastland. Welcome back. My guest today is Carl Benjamin, the YouTuber formerly known as Sargon of Akkad, a political commentator and a host of The Lotus Eaters Podcast. It feels like literally a decade of history has happened already in 2021 So I invited Carl on to try and make sense of the madness. Today, expect to learn Carl's opinion on Steven Crowder suing Facebook, what a future with Wall Street Bets in will look like, whether there is a common thread between JK Rowling and Jordan Peterson, whether American National Pride is dwindling and much more. Also, he recorded it locally on the most beautiful, lovely brand new Lotus Eaters podcast studio set up ever. So this is just like, it's like butter. It's like I'm pouring very, very lovely, warm British butter into your ears. So enjoy, enjoy the butter. In other news, this episode of the podcast is brought to you by Manscaped. Valentine's Day is upon us. So make sure that you are ready for wherever the night may take you. Our friends at Manscaped, the global leaders in men's below the waist grooming, are here to tell you that you need to use the best tools for the job so that you can be ready for anything. Two million men are already trusting Manscaped with the most sensitive part of their body. If you haven't already upgraded what you're trimming your gentleman's area with, then you need to do it. You can no longer use a shaver from a few years ago that has now been relegated to doing in other regions. Manscaped has designed the Lawnmower 3 to be the greatest ball and body hair trimmer ever created, featuring a cutting edge ceramic blade to reduce grooming accidents, a 90 minute battery so you can take a longer shave, waterproof technology which allows you to groom in the shower and an LED light which illuminates grooming areas for a closer and more precise trim. Plus, you can get 20% off and free shipping with the code Modern Wisdom. That is worldwide, 20% off and free shipping with the code Modern Wisdom at manscaped.com. Also, if you are the partner of a gentleman and you are approaching Valentine's Day, perhaps this would be a great gift to get them, which in one fell swoop both looked like a very nice present and also hints that they may be a little bit hairy and perhaps require some more pride in the... I've run out of words, I've run out in their balls. I've run out of the words for that. Please send suggestions, manscaped.com and the code Modern Wisdom for 20% off. But now it's time for the wise and wonderful Carl Benjamin.
Man, I've just been on Twitter. Is it possible to browse any trends on there without it being hijacked by K-pop and Bollywood posts?

**Carl Benjamin** (3:03)
I don't know why you'd ask me. I'm not on Twitter.

**Chris Williamson** (3:05)
Yeah, I know, but you use it, right? You look at the trending side.

**Carl Benjamin** (3:08)
I have to, yeah. To be honest with you, I'm always glad when I log into Twitter and it's some K-pop nonsense that's trending instead of Jews, Nazis or Holocaust, because these terms trend on Twitter all the time. And it just makes me think, God, this is an absolute hell site. I use Twitter alternatives and never do these terms ever trend. And so it's like, right, okay, that's very interesting and very revealing about the mindset of the people who use various platforms, isn't it?

**Chris Williamson** (3:38)
Another year, another studio, another YouTube channel. How's everything going with the Lotus Eaters stuff?

**Carl Benjamin** (3:43)
It's going really, really well, really well. Everything's up and running. Everything is self-sufficient. We have lots of subscribers, which essentially needs patrons, but pay for everything. And we work very hard providing them with premium content, articles from academics, book club reviews that we do.
And the sort of podcast that we can't put on YouTube because we're talking about subjects that are essentially verboten in some ways. And so it's been a sort of real lease of life as well, to be able to have some freedom to talk about things in a way that the editors at Silicon Valley don't approve.

**Chris Williamson** (4:18)
Man, that's so good. What's the name from?

**Carl Benjamin** (4:21)
The name is from the Odyssey. The Island of the Lotus Eaters is the first island that Odysseus and his crew arrive at. And the reason I like it, and I've always found it, it's always been sat in my mind, because in every other island and in every other event that the crew and Odysseus goes through, there's danger, there's some kind of deep danger that underlies it. Either it's a very obvious, brutal one, like the men getting eaten by the Cyclopses, or they get changed into animals by Cersei or whoever. And so there's an ill will, an evil will, that underpins all of the other islands. But on the Island of the Lotus Eaters, there doesn't appear to be. We only get like a few paragraphs in the Odyssey. And so a lot has been extrapolated from that, that doesn't really exist in the text.