➡ Paranoid American is a unique comic publisher that has been exploring and revealing hidden truths about our world since 2012. They delve into various mysteries, from mind control to secret societies and forbidden technology. The podcast also features guests, like Kitty from Flip City magazine, a comic satire publication. The discussions range from the creation and inspiration of Flip City to personal political affiliations and family dynamics.
➡ The speaker discusses their political journey, initially identifying as a Democrat, then leaning conservative, and finally feeling politically homeless. They express frustration with the expectation to agree with all viewpoints of a political party. They also discuss the importance of the First and Second Amendments, suggesting that everyone should be issued a gun to reduce fear and misunderstanding. The speaker believes in free speech absolutism and thinks society should self-regulate through shame, mockery, and ridicule rather than laws.
➡ The speaker discusses the concept of hypocrisy, cognitive dissonance, and the impact of propaganda. They believe that everyone is a hypocrite to some extent and that acknowledging this can lead to better self-awareness. They also discuss how propaganda, while manipulative, can contribute to a higher level of culture. Lastly, they express a desire to understand how to effectively influence others’ thoughts and behaviors.
➡ The discussion revolves around the importance of marketing and the struggle of balancing it with personal values. The speakers discuss their discomfort with aggressive marketing tactics, such as sending numerous emails, but acknowledge their effectiveness. They also recognize the need to compete with larger companies that have more advertising resources. The conversation ends with a commitment to improve their marketing strategies, despite their initial reservations.
➡ The speaker discusses various topics, including the importance of promoting one’s work, a game where they rate their belief in different concepts, and the potential dangers of dabbling in the supernatural. They also discuss their concern about extreme beliefs, promote Flip City magazine, and mention a comic about Stanley Kubrick and the moon landings.
➡ The text discusses the challenges of creating content that satirizes both sides of the political spectrum, and the reactions it can provoke. It also explores how corporations influence public opinion by backing certain movements, and how this can sway people’s views. The text suggests that this corporate influence makes it difficult for independent creators to compete, especially when their work challenges the mainstream narrative. The conversation ends with a question about how to monetize content that pokes fun at everyone’s idols.
➡ The speaker discusses the challenges of running a publication that often pushes boundaries and risks offending its audience. They strive to build a loyal readership by not censoring their content, even if it means losing some subscribers. They mention instances where their content has led to a spike in cancellations, but also instances where they’ve managed to retain subscribers by explaining their jokes or viewpoints. The speaker expresses a deep love and respect for their readership, despite the occasional backlash they receive.
➡ The text discusses the use of AI in creating artwork for a magazine, with some criticism and praise received for this approach. The speaker defends their use of AI, stating it’s a tool for comedy and not meant to replace traditional art or writing. They also speculate on the future of AI in content creation, suggesting it could potentially generate music, lyrics, and even video content. However, they express concern about the potential oversaturation of AI-generated content, making it harder for traditional content creators to stand out.
➡ The article discusses the increasing presence of AI-generated content and its impact on various fields, particularly art. It mentions tools like Glaze and Nightshade, designed to distort images and prevent AI from replicating them, but questions their effectiveness. The article also explores the idea of using AI to combine various artistic influences, creating unique styles. It ends with a discussion on AI’s potential to detect patterns beyond human comprehension, and the anxiety this can cause.
➡ The speaker discusses the concept of value, using the example of a house’s price increasing due to the decrease in the value of money. They also talk about the advancement of AI and how it seems more realistic due to our limited human senses. The speaker then explores the idea of integrating technology into our bodies, and the societal divide it could create. They also discuss the potential of consuming insects as a food source, and the possible benefits it could bring. Lastly, they delve into the concept of memory, questioning whether we remember the original event or the last time we remembered it.
➡ The text discusses how children can be influenced by adults to create false memories, especially when they are pressured to tell interesting stories. This can lead to the children believing these made-up stories as real memories, even if there’s proof that they never happened. The text also talks about the struggles of running a small business, specifically a magazine, and the challenges of deciding whether to participate in comic conventions. The author expresses a desire to connect with people in person, as working from home can be lonely.
➡ The speaker discusses their experiences with travel, work, and social media. They express a preference for working vacations and a dislike for social media, finding it draining. They also discuss their transition from a traditional job to running their own independent publishing business, Flip City, which they started in 2020. Despite the challenges, they find value in the freedom and control of entrepreneurship.
➡ The speaker discusses their experience with the indie comic scene and conspiracy groups, expressing feelings of not fitting in. They mention their work on a platform called Global Comics and their struggle to gain traction there. They also talk about their unique approach to discussing conspiracy theories through comics, which has led to some controversy within conspiracy circles. Despite these challenges, they remain committed to their work and continue to seek their place in these communities.

Good evening, listeners, brave navigators of the enigmatic and the concealed. Have you ever felt the pull of the unanswered, the allure of the mysteries that shroud our existence? For more than a decade, a unique comic publisher has dared to dive into these mysteries, unafraid of the secrets they might uncover. This audacious entity is paranoid American. Welcome to the mystifying universe of the Paranoid American podcast. Launched in the year 2012, Paranoid American has been on a mission to decipher the encrypted secrets of our world. From the unnerving enigma of mkultra mind control, to the clandestine assemblies of secret societies, from the awe inspiring frontiers of forbidden technology to the arcane patterns of occult symbols in our very own pop culture, they have committed to unveiling the concealed realities that lie just beneath the surface.

Join us as we navigate these intricate landscapes, decoding the hidden scripts of our society and challenging the accepted perceptions of reality. Folks, I’ve got a big problem on my hands. There’s a company called Paranoid American making all. All these funny memes and comics. Now, I’m a fair guy. I believe in free speech as long as it doesn’t cross the line. And if these AI generated memes dare to make fun of me. They’re crossing the line. This is your expedition into the realm of the extraordinary, the secret the shrouded. Come with us as we sift through the world’s grand mysteries, question the standardized narratives, and brave the cryptic labyrinth of the concealed truth.

So strap yourselves in, broaden your horizons, steel yourselves for a voyage into the enigmatic heart of the paranoid american podcast, where each story, every image, every revelation brings us one step closer to the elusive truth. All right, welcome. Another episode of Paranoid American podcast. This one might be a little bit different in format. I’ll do some magic, actually, maybe I’ll do it in real time. I’ll be like, pow. And then I’ll switch myself. Bam. Over here, and then we’ll throw a background in. And now we’re kind of back at home like normal, except today we got a guest at home, and that’s flip city Kitty.

I’m going to call you Kitty, even though I know it’s not your official name. That’s fine, but kitty from Flip City, which I’m calling Flip City Kitty. And Flip City magazine is actually a really super based, kind of like, comic lampoonish, actually. I don’t want to. I don’t want to butcher what the best intro for Flip City could be. And let me just let you give Flip City a quick little intro and tell people where to find you. So if they’re interested about what we’re talking about, they got somewhere to look it up. All right, so Flip City magazine is a comic satire rag in the tradition of bad magazine.

That’s kind of our elevator pitch, but I really love hearing how people describe it, so I’d love you to describe it as well. But first, where you can find us and you can find all our links to everything is flipcitymag.com dot. I mean, I would definitely say mad cracked sort of influence. A lot of, like, very surreal, caricature esque artwork. A lot of, like, critique. Very biting. Maybe even, like, over the line in a good way sometimes. Like, cracked. If. If cracked wasn’t didn’t have corporate sponsors, that might be a better way that I would look at it.

Yes. And we are looking for a way to sell out. So if you know of any corporations or any corporations are watching, we’ll totally censor ourselves for money. Just kidding. We’re actually owned and operated by the Illuminati. And if you rub them the right way, then, yeah, you’ll just find money in your mailbox and you’ll know what it means because it’ll be a lot. Yeah, I got a message a while back. You know how I’m sure you’re on telegram or have been on telegram? Technically, I’m on it technically, just because there’s certain places I can only reach people.

They only use telegram because if you got it worked in their mind that, like, telegram is somehow immune from the chinese american CIA spy network. Like, somehow they have a magic button that hides them. But, yeah, technically, I’m on telegram. Yeah, well, I got. You get a lot of DM’s. There’s a lot of people, you know, just trying to sell you crypto or something. But one of the best ones I got was somebody asking me if I wanted to join the Illuminati. And I’m like, really? And I went and checked out her profile and her channel, and it’s all this Illuminati stuff.

And I’m like, this isn’t how that happens, is it? No. You have to make a hand sign, and then you’re in the Illumina. You have to do this, and then if you do that, then you’re in. That’s all it takes now. Yes, I’ve heard, and I’ve been very careful to only scratch my nose on live streams because I don’t want my eye covered. What, you. What? You don’t want to accidentally become invited into the most exclusive group in existence? No, because I need. I am really looking forward to, like, the blood rituals. So I need, you know, I don’t want to just easily get into the club.

I need to be, you know, go through the ritual and everything. You want to work. You want to work your way up and go through the front door. Who wants the back door? A lot of people. It’s 2024. Okay. Yeah, well, you know, I’m from an earlier age where you had to earn things. Okay, so what was the inspiration for Flip city? Like, why, like, didn’t mad and cracked already do it the best way ever? And that’s all there is to say. And there’s a period at the end of that sentence. No, it’s absolutely the opposite.

They dropped the torch, and there was no biting, cutting satire anymore, and somebody had to pick it up. I. My husband Scott, is the one that came up with the idea, and I can’t think of a more perfect person to have done that because he has that biting, cutting wit, and he makes so many jokes that I think I only catch about 75% of them. Some of them go over my head. Other times, I’m just being a regular wife and not really paying attention to him. But, yeah, the torch was dropped and. And, you know, the purpose of satire is to kind of push back on the mainstream and corporate ocracy and, you know, kind of be subversive, and that was not happening.

And if there was any time that things needed to be subversive, it’s now with all the censorship and all that bullish. So we picked up the torch and have been called by multiple people better than Matt or cracked. So that feels good. Is there a political lean in any direction for flip city mag? You know, I guess. Okay. If we’re gonna. If we’re gonna have a political leaning because everybody’s forced onto a side, I think we would lean more conservative, but that’s only because we’re not insane, you know, and we’re a little insane. Everybody is. But, yeah, I think people on the far left that would pick up our magazine would say we were extreme as far right, but we’re actually not.

You know how language is used these days. You know, if you’re. If you’re on the opposite side, then you’re the extreme opposite side. But I’d say we’re pretty moderate. And. But we do tend to, I think, poke the left a little more and that, you know, and that’s also because a lot of our readership are, like, kind of hard, hardcore conservatives, and we don’t really censor ourselves, but we have. And when we don’t and we publish something that is biting to the right wing, we get a swath of cancellations. So we kind of, you know, tiptoe on that side a little more.

Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Democratic Party? Yes, both. Both of us have been members of the Democratic Party. I think. I think, like almost, I think every one of our friends is pretty much like that. And, you know, we’ve been kind of pushed over the line, you know? What’s that like? What, did you grow up and you were democratic by default? Yeah, pretty much. I grew up in a pretty liberal family. My mom is really, you know, a propaganda slurping leftist at this point in her life, while my father is pretty, pretty right wing, but a very open, accepting right wing person.

So I have both those sides in my family. And I can tell you I can speak way more openly with my dad about my thoughts and feelings, even though he doesn’t agree with everything I think and feel. And that doesn’t matter. But if I say the wrong thing to my mother, then it’s a giant argument. And I love my mom. I don’t want to argue with her. Do politics come up at Thanksgiving or is it off the table? No. Our family is a very non confrontational family, so it’s mostly just talking about work, the weather, the kids, you know, very basic, very, very good.

I’m happy the glad kids are doing good, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, yeah, we’re not really a, you know, knock them out, drag them out, fighting family. Well, what, what made you, I guess, starts identifying less and less as a Democrat and, and more, taking, like, a conservative lean. Was there, was there a specific moment or a catalyst or did you just realize one day, oh, my God, I’m a conservative for, like, quantum leap or what? Oh, boy, that is so funny because I just watched Quantum leap the other day for the first time and Scott came up and made so much fun of me and then, and then sat down and watched the rest of it because I had to see the one where he gets into the body of a Down syndrome kid and, you know, because they say retarded over and over in that episode.

And it was, it was no big deal. Well, that was back before they realized they were committing actual violence by using those words. Yes, yes, exactly. But no. And that’s the thing, too. I don’t, I don’t even know. I guess for like, maybe a couple of years. Like, the first couple of Trump years, I was like, yeah, I’m a conservative. I’m a conservative, and now I’m like, I don’t even want to identify as that. I feel like I’m politically homeless, you know, because it seems like if you, if you identify with a political party, then you have to, like, agree with all the viewpoints of that party, and it just seems stupid, you know? Well, even the members of the party don’t agree with the viewpoints of their own party, so it’s hard to even tell what the hell is going on anymore.

Right, exactly. So I think I just identified more as a conspiracy theorist, and it seems like people that recognize patterns seem to be more on the right at this point. I don’t know. Do you feel that way? I feel like there’s, there’s inherent bias in it just because I feel I recognize patterns. And I guess that I would also identify as being more conservative out of the two options. Even though I’ve got a lot of, like, a lot of the single button issues for conservatives, I’m on the other side. So I honestly feel just as homeless as you do.

You know what I mean? Like, all the big ones except for maybe Second Amendment. I feel like Second Amendment is if I had to be reduced down to a single issue voting situation, that would be my particular single issue. And for that reason, I feel like I lean more towards conservatism because the liberal side, it seems like they’re just gung ho to make sure that the Second Amendment is repealed, eradicated, you know, written out of the history books. And that one, I feel, is like the hill that I would legitimately die on right now. What do you feel about, you know, I mean, I’m sure you would say the first Amendment is just as important.

I think you don’t have first without the second. Like, I think the second is the only one hand. It’s the only thing that gives anything teeth. Yeah, I mean, I’d rather have just the second if I get, like, if we’re just picking, like, bit by bit, you know what I mean? Like, because the second can eventually give you the first. The first will never give you the second. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. So, yeah, we’ll just, we’ll strip it down to. Everyone is mandatory, is issued a gun upon birth, and then, like, as you graduate through schooling, elementary is 22.

Once you get into middle school, they might start giving you, like, 38. And then once you graduate to that, then you start getting with, like, five, five, six, or, you know, you get to, like, some of the bigger calibers, and that should be, like, a mandatory aspect of society. I’m kind of describing Israel, I guess. Like, I’m hearing it as I say it. Right? Okay. I didn’t know that’s. Is that exactly what they do? Well, not exactly, but they have mandatory military service for everyone that gets out of school. And, I mean, in this country, which I guess leans into the, like, the good old golden years, which I know weren’t really the good old golden years, but in this country, high school and middle school had freaking rifle class.

Like, it’s like, okay, you know, music class is over. Go grab your rifle. We’re going to be going outside and, like, shooting stuff. And I don’t know, I feel like that is something that would dramatically improve things, even though it sounds so crazy. It’s like you want to put out a fire and you just want to throw more fire onto the fire. Uh, yeah. I don’t know. Yes. Does that make me crazy? Maybe just conservative or what? I don’t think that sounds crazy at all, actually. Like, make everyone use it so it doesn’t seem like such a big, scary thing that only bad people use, you know? Right.

Well, I mean, I think that’s the whole psyop, right? It’s. It. You know, we’ve been fed that it’s a big, scary thing, and everybody needs to be afraid and all the guns. This world would be such a better place if all the guns were just melted down, you know? No, nothing bad would ever, ever happen if all the guns were melted down and nobody could own one, so. Except for the government. Yeah, if. What was it? Ifs and butts were candy and nuts, then we’d all have a merry Christmas. That was. That’s something that I always used to hear, but it’s kind of like one of those things that sounds nice, but it’s really someone telling you, like, you know, go after yourself.

Like, deal with it. That’s kind of what that little rhyme is all about. Yeah, but it’s such a cute way to say it. Go after yourself. So. So, politically, what’s your single issue? If. If you had to be nailed down to one? Because I think that’s easier than picking a side is picking an issue. Right. Um, well, gosh, you made me want to change my mind. I. And just copy you, but, like, I’m majorly all about the First Amendment. Let’s say mine already gets passed, so let’s second amendment. I’ve already made sure that gets passed. I am an absolute.

I’m a free speech absolutist. You know, I don’t think there should be words off the table, so. Yeah, challenge me. Sound like you were going to challenge me. Yeah. I mean, absolutist. Let’s say you want to publish the recipe for a big, bad explodey thingy, and you. And you can describe it in terms that, like, a two year old could understand, and now you want to. Someone wants to go and just, you know, post it all around. Elementary school campuses are across the street, so it’s not on the property. And it’s like, hey, kids, you want to have fun? Mix x, Y, and z and do this, and you’ll get a big, happy, fun time at the end.

Like that, in my mind, is one aspect of it, and the other one is the more cliche and boring version. But shouting fire in a theater, shouting grape nuts out in public, something like one of those things, tends to be seen as, like, an illegal act. Would you. Would you hold that? There are illegal phrases like fire in a theater, right? I wouldn’t. So I believe that society has a big role in managing itself. Right? So. And shame, mock, and ridicule actually kind of takes care of stuff that shouldn’t happen. So as fit. As far as making a law saying you can’t shout fire in a crowded theater.

No, not necessarily. You know, I don’t think that should be a regulated form of speech. It’s just society will fucking take care of that for you, you know, maybe even an ass whipping by your fellow citizens, you know? Well, what about the explody poster concept? How about that? I think kind of the same thing. Kind of the same thing. If somebody could do that anonymously, like, you could sneak out at night and just put them up and then leave and. And make sure no one sees you doing it. Well, I guess that. I guess then that would happen.

But then also, at the same time, at that elementary school, you know, there are adults there that can then take down all the posters and all that kind of stuff. You know, there is forgive, maybe injecting a weird fallacy where it doesn’t belong, but it feels like there’s a slippery slope here. And I know that that’s literally the name of the fallacy, but when you imply, like, oh, well, just leave it up to society, and they will shame and guilt and ridicule the person responsible. In my mind, in my very pessimistic mind. But there’s like a dot, dot, dot at the end of that.

And it’s like, and if that doesn’t fix them, then the beatings will commence. Like, it’s almost like, what if the shame and the ridicule doesn’t do the job and they still keep coming back? And there’s not, like an actual law in the book so that police come and they put the bracelets on and you get fined and now you’re, like, learning to not do it because there’s real ramifications. If the only ramification is being ostracized by your community, but you don’t care about that because we don’t necessarily live in, like, tribal times, then what is it? Just free for all? And because it’s almost like inviting an escalation.

Right, I understand. But that’s the other thing, too. I’m just here making silly books and I don’t know how to fix society. I really don’t. It’s a good point. And I would almost transition this to saying, like, flip city magazine by the right person or the wrong person would probably equate the content of your book with the nasty explody thingy posters, they might note, hurt themselves physically, but they’re, they would make an argument that, you know, you’re destroying their brain and you’re going to turn their brain into, like, weird sludge and be, you know, weird, like, just automatic contrarians.

Yeah. You know, it’s funny because we do get reactions from the haters that are very similar to what Mad magazine, the letters that they were getting sent in the very beginning. And it’s just fun to get those things because we’re like, okay, we are hitting the correct notes because I remember reading an editor’s page from Mad back in, in the, I think it was the late fifties, maybe early sixties of somebody saying, how can you possibly publish this trash? You’re rotting brains, you’re harming our youth, so on, so forth, you know, and we are getting kind of that.

I don’t think we’ve ever said, gotten a thing saying we’re harming the youth. But basically, you know, you guys need to shut the f up because, you know, you’re spreading hateful rhetoric. But it’s all jokes, you know? But it’s because the extreme left seem to be the new Puritans in thought only, you know, not necessarily, you know, Puritans as far as sexuality and all that kind of stuff goes, you know, they’re absolute degenerates on that side. But, you know. Yeah, but they’ve got corporate buy in now, so that’s no longer really a vice. Like, none of that’s degenerate behavior anymore because it has corporate sponsorship.

I mean, and I’m saying this like, halfway smiling and kidding out one side of my mouth. But also, it’s kind of true. Like, if Coca Cola and crest and dow and Bud light and whatever else you want to put on the table, if they decide they’re going to sponsor whatever your movement is, and your movement is seen as immoral by another side of the population, like, the corporate is almost giving them that, waving. It’s like, no, we co sponsor this. Here’s, you know, the backing of billions upon trillions of conglomerate approval that says this is the right thing and this is acceptable.

And I know a lot of people, too, that might have been on the fence or had no dog in either side. But once they see the corporate backing in, some people go all in like, oh, yeah, I guess this is all right. And there are people are like, oh, no, corporations are bad. Anything they support, I’m going to do the opposite of. Even if I kind of agreed with them originally. So I almost feel like they’re like the new. I don’t know. This isn’t an original thought, but their new religion. Right? Like, the same way the pope would used to give all the Catholics and the Jesuits, like, oh, no, this is okay now, or that’s bad now.

Like, now we kind of rely on Coca Cola and Apple and, you know, Spotify to do that. Yeah, you know, I had never really thought of that, but I think you’re correct. You know, once. Once people that were probably on the fence, like, oh, I don’t know if this is something I should support, you know, being won over to the side that the corporations are sponsoring. I’d never really thought of that because I am kind of on the side of, oh, corporations are crap, evil, you know, and phony capitalism, well, they’re bridging the gap a little bit because of, like, Twitter and social media.

You’ll get, like, the CEO, which really means, like, an intern that’s posting as the CEO or whatever, but you’ve got, like, the CEO doing snapbacks at other people on Twitter. So now all of a sudden, I’ll make up examples here. None of these are actual references, but, you know, you might have, like, the Wendy’s account snapping back because someone talked bad about Caitlin Clark and the WNBA or something, like, getting involved in all of these really weird, like, non corporate sort of activities. But it’s a way to be like, nah, I’m one of you. Guys, you know what I mean? Like, I’m here with everyone and, and what I think.

You think. And we’re all in this together. And by the way, you know, supersize, you know, that. That shake or that frosty next time you come in, because we’re homies now, right? Um, do you remember that? Do you remember that? Gosh, I think maybe it’s even been five years by now. But do you remember when, um, Burger King and McDonald’s had the king and Ronald McDonald making out in a print ad? Making. I don’t remember the making out one. No. Yeah, no, they were kissing. Now, now I’m like, did I get tricked by a meme five years ago? No, I think it was actually real.

I also remember for the longest time, Pepsi and Coke at Christmas would have. And they were almost like a rap battle thing. They weren’t coordinating, but they would do anti each other’s brands. So, for example, there was one where a truck driver is in a cafe and he’s driving a coke truck, but he goes inside and he orders a Pepsi or something. And then there was another one where a similar aspect happened. But, like, when the guy sees him order a Pepsi, like, another guy comes and they imply that there’s, like, a bar fight that, like, breaks out because of, like, animosity.

I actually kind of like it, though, when brands get involved and they clap back at each other. Like, I don’t like it when Pepsi tries to become some weird social movement thing where they, they hand, you know, a kid a Pepsi and they go and they stop a riot and they get. I can’t remember what the exact commercial was. You know which one I’m talking about, right? Yes, yes. This was what, maybe ten years ago or something? Oh, God, don’t say it like that. But, yeah, yeah, it was like a decade ago, maybe more than a decade ago.

But that was like corporations inserting themselves into, like, social movements and being like, you know, we’re everyone, you know, let’s all be on the same side. Like the, like the Rodney King sort of plea, you know, can everyone get along? When really, in my mind, it’s like, that’s more of a Rothschild move. That’s more like I’m gonna back Napoleon and all of Napoleon’s opposition just so that I can kind of have a little iron in every one of the fires. But the point getting to is that how do you compete? How do any of us compete in a world where the corporations have all the money so they can dictate what’s acceptable and then they can make sure that the things that are acceptable align with what they’re trying to sell.

Like, if we’ve got a different point of view or flip cities, got a different point of view, like, how do you monetize something that people are getting upset about? And that it’s like you were always mentioning that there’s a fine line, because if you want to be critical of politics full stop. And that means both sides. So you might get a bunch of people on the right. If you have, like, a funny Joe Biden cartoon and it’s like, oh, yeah, he’s wearing diapers. It’s so funny. He’s falling off bikes. But then if you do the same thing with Trump, it almost seems that you would have, like, a drop off, like, in either one of those directions.

Make fun of Biden, lose liberals, make fun of Trump, lose conservatives. So, like, how do you navigate and monetize that path? You know what I mean? Because corporations aren’t doing that well. Something I’ve found, I think our most loyal subscribers are basically the politically homeless or the people that seem to like us the most if they’re identifying as anything or more, the anarchists or voluntarius and stuff like that. So schizophrenics, you can call them schizophrenics. It’s fine. I love those guys. They’re the nicest people, I guess. I like schizophrenics. Anyway. So wait, what was the exact question again? Oh, navigating.

Yeah. Like, corporations go all in on one side and they can flip, like, after they decide they boardroom. Oh, you know, where let’s go on the other opposite side of this thing. And they do have, like, campaigns. But if you’re just making fun and poking at all of the idols, like, how do you monetize poking fun at everyone’s idols? You know? And I’m glad you brought up poking at the idols. You know, I call it the sacred cow, but pretty much the same thing is we, we slaughter sacred cows and it’s dangerous because almost everybody has a freaking sacred cow, you know, and dangerous.

Nobody’s coming after us to come kill us or something. But as far as wanting to, like, build a brand and, you know, keep our audience and keep them laughing, laughing, sometimes our editorial decisions, often we don’t censor ourselves. Once in a while, you know, we might come up with a different idea. It’s like, ah, we really can’t afford to lose many subscribers. So let’s go after this social thing that’s happening and it may please our audience more, but the way we view it is it may be a slow burn and a slow grow, but we are going to be building the strongest, most loyal audience because we are kind of slaughtering everybody’s sacred cows.

And the smartest people, even if they get that tinge of like, oh, I don’t like this, they’re still going to stay subscribed because they know what our kind of true, pure mission is. So I feel like we’re just gathering the smartest people, but it’s a slower grow and painful sometimes, you know, if we publish the wrong thing and see a spike in cancellations, and it. It’s a little heartbreaking, too, because I. I feel like we have a relationship at this point, because we’ve been publishing for four years. I feel like we have a relationship with people that have been with us from the beginning.

And it does feel kind of bad when, you know, they’re clapping back at us, saying, I’m canceling because of this exact reason, or when they’re somebody that’s been with us for so long, and they’re just kind of part of this swath that are canceling and not saying a word. And I don’t know, I try not to get emotionally involved, but I fucking love our readership. Like, I love and respect them. And so it kind of, you know, it’s kind of a bummer when, you know, what was the last big wave? Like, what issue did you put out? Actually, I have it right here.

I’m gonna just. It’s amazing. I don’t want you to lose me any followers. Calm down. No, no, no, you’re not. You’re not gonna lose followers. But. So in. At the end of 2022, we did our Christmas edition, and we did a Christmas song book. So we took traditional Christmas songs and rewrote the lyrics. And this was probably our largest swath is we published don’t run, Donald, to the tune of run run Rudolph, and it’s just a silly song about Donald Trump, don’t run, because DeSantis is in town. And what’s frustrating is that our readership, you know, they’ll read something like.

And we’re only guessing that this is what it was. But before we published it, you know, we’re like, we might get a lot of cancellations. And, yeah, they jumped by about 25% right after this was published. Not 25% fell off, but compared to our regular, you know, stream of cancellations, it increased by 25%. And, yeah, there was that one. And then we. And then I actually saved in that with that same issue we published. We wish we could murder Christmas. And it’s basically about antifa wanting to murder Christmas. And somebody emailed me saying, I’m canceling because you guys aren’t christian, you don’t like Christmas, blah, blah, blah.

And we’re like. I’m like, what? What are you talking about? She brought that up. I’m like, oh, no, no, no. Um, you know, sometimes we have to take the viewpoint of crazy people and then write like we’re them. And she’s like, oh, I get it. Okay, I’ll stay subscribed. I’m like, well, thank God you emailed me. That’s another thing, too. I’ve saved multiple subscriptions by explaining jokes. You know, those are the best kind of jokes in my opinion. There’s honestly nothing better than a joke that someone has to explain. Do you want to know why? Why? That was a rhetorical question.

Is that the joke? Yeah. I mean, yeah. Supposed to explain the joke, right? That’s pretty good in these cases where it’s like, I guess her single issue was Christmas. Or, you know, and honestly, that may be one of those lines, right? If you’ve somehow amassed yourself of a very specific, like, christian audience, they will just as easily flip on you as any other, you know, left wing, where it’s like, oh, my God, you made fun of Fauci. How dare you? Oh, God. 32 minutes and I’ll have to leap that out just for YouTube. You’re not even allowed to say their sacred cow f.

Oh, it’s f word. Big f word. Yeah, it’s worse than the other. Worse than the other two f words and the r word. Oh, my. Okay. I didn’t know that. I didn’t know he was off limits. Yeah, I mean. I mean, I’ve discovered this the hard way, so. Yeah, that’s a pro tip. Just saying. Have you ever heard of, like, the ineffable name of God? Like you’re not supposed to say it out loud or like your head might escape, explode. It’s kind of like that. So you’re not supposed to say Doctor F’s name out loud. Okay.

So a lot of us are not prepared to receive some kinds of knowledge, I guess. Right? You know, it’s funny because I have a giant f right over here. I don’t know if you can see it on the back of my wall. Let me see. I can’t anyway. You’re definitely going to lose some, some subscribers over that one. Over the f. Over the giant f. On a burning pile of masks, and he is an f. Anyway, is there. Is there anything on the cutting room floor that didn’t make it? Because you were like, this one might be over the line.

Not. Not in terms of, like, we might lose people, but just. I don’t know. There has to be a couple that are cut, right? As far as full pieces? No, not really. We actually just. We just lost our proofreader because he got offended at one word and wanted us to change the one word. And it wasn’t. It wasn’t a bad word. It was the word turd. But connected to the comic, which was basically about. Basically the comic is if superheroes were using their superpowers for good right now in real life, in plastic man was shooting MS 13 back over the, you know, using himself as a slingshot to sling them back over the border.

And the word was turds. We described them as turds. Our pre breeder got really. He got really mean about it and calling us right wing extremists and, like, this is unacceptable. You need to call them turkeys. And we refused. And he said, well, I’m not going to proofread for you anymore because I don’t want to be connected by something that’s so obviously racist, blah, blah, blah. It was really hurtful because, you know, we’ve been working with him for a couple of years, and what’s crazy is, like, that’s the thing you chose, because, like, we say all kinds of racy stuff, and he just didn’t like that we called them turds.

So, I mean, was. Was he himself an MS 13 member? I don’t know. I mean, he lives. He lives out of the country now, so maybe he got kicked out of the United States. Yeah. You might not realize that you were talking with an MS 13 member that entire time. That’d be so weird. Very intelligent, well read, great proofreader, and, yeah, I’m really sad. Bye. We loved you. So, I mean, yeah, you took a stand on the word turd, which wasn’t what I was expecting when I asked the cutting room floor, but I guess. Yeah, yeah.

Everyone has a limit. Well, yeah, I’m sorry. And, yeah, you did ask about the cutting room floor. No, not really. You know, there’s stacks and stacks of ideas, so things will be brought in and taken back out and then put on the sideburner to be developed more or things like that. But there’s not really been any one piece. But as far as my own editorial control with the magazine, we have this comic called Woke World. And it’s about a family where the mom and dad are both trans and the grandpa is trans, and the kid, his name’s Norm, and he’s totally normal.

But this is in the day and age where everything’s completely woke. Like, woke to the, you know, where. Where basically the world is perfect because everything’s so woke. And it’s a very funny, cute little family story, but Norm’s always kind of rebelling against his woke parents by doing normal stuff, like going to Bible study and stuff like that. But in the birthday party episode, Trampa and his band Gimpy and the somethings, I forget what they’re called. They’re playing a rock song, and then at the end, they decide they want to have a tickle party with all the kids.

So they’re all rolling all over the ground. Like having a tickle party, as one does. Yeah, exactly. And one of the very last panels was this kid laying across one of the gimps laps. And the illustration, the kid’s butt was really, like, pronounced, and I just couldn’t handle it. And I said, you need to take that kid off that gimp’s lap. And that’s the only thing I’ve ever. Because it was just too much. I’m like, that’s like I’m having a heart attack. This is too much. And so I edited that out. But, yeah, so, yeah, I guess every once in a while, something gets cut out.

And just to be clear, that was you self editorializing your own publication because you had creative control. Does that mean that you would want to prevent someone else from publishing that exact same art? No. Someone else in their own publication? Yeah. If someone wanted to take, like, the thing that you cut and they wanted to publish it. No, they can. They can do it. I. It was just something that hit me wrong. I’m like, this is just too wrong, you know? So the kid got removed from the gimp slap. Another thing that I noticed in Flip City magazine, which I thought was kind of cool, is that there’s, and I hope I’m not letting the cat out of the back here, but there was definitely some AI generated artwork in a few of the issues that I was looking at.

And it’s still taboo in some ways, especially when some of that publication shares pages with, I don’t know, quote unquote, real artists, you know, traditional artists that have been doing, like, traditional art for a long time. Have you gotten any specific criticism over the use of AI artwork? Only one time, and it was real quick during one of my own hosted live streams. Somebody popped into chat over on Odyssey and said, I used to subscribe your use of air to shitty. And then I responded live. And I don’t think I responded the best I could. You know, how you look back and said, you know, think I could have said that better, but I basically was like, fuck you.

You know, like short and sweet explanatory. Like, I kind of, you know, I don’t even think he was even still in the stream because he had left that comment before I even started the stream. But yeah, that’s the only pushback I have heard. I’ve had a couple of compliments, actually. Like, Luke Stone with fund, my comic on one of his streams said, you know, was reviewing the magazine and was like, this is the best use of AI art I’ve ever seen. Because we don’t, we don’t do illustrator. We don’t try to trick people into thinking that it’s not aihe, you know, we’re not making it look like it’s actually hand illustrated or anything.

We do kind of photorealistic where you can, you know, AI still has its tells. Are you getting all moralistic on me here with your use of AI? What’s that? Are you getting moralistic here with your use of AI? Oh, like, we do it the right way? We don’t do it the weird way. No, no. It’s just, I don’t know. I don’t know if we’ll ever, I don’t know if we will ever do it where it looks like it’s hand drawn illustration. Who knows? What we do know is that we need to survive and we need content.

And so it’s not off the table to, you know, do that. But at this point, we are doing photo realistic, you know, or, you know, it looks like more like a photo with the way we’re using AI. And I think it is because we want people to realize when we’re using AI, at least at this point. So the decision to use AI was not mine, it was Scott’s, because he likes playing with AI and loves the results of things. And so he decided, okay, let’s start using AI because it’s coming up with funny results. Like, you may have seen and been looking at the one in our recent magazine that’s called Star tradition.

And it’s all basically photos of the original Star Trek cast. And I don’t think I finished my story about Luke Stone, but he said that it’s the best use of AI he’s ever seen and then prefaced it or what do you preface is when you say something beforehand, what do you say afterwards? He said, anyway, he followed it up with, if it is Aihdenhe. And I’m like, duh, Luke, obviously not everyone knows, man. I mean, it really is sometime. And it’s even worse because the inverse is also true, where some people will be convinced that they’re looking at AI when it’s not.

And that one’s even scarier, because if you look at something that you think is real and then someone tells you, oh, no, that’s not real, that’s AI, you could probably come to terms with it after a while, right? For people that get a conviction that it’s like, no, you used AI. It’s a different dynamic because there’s almost like an accusatory tone to it. Like, I’m holier than thou kind of tone. Like, I snuffed you out. I figured out this bad thing you were doing. So now to say like, oh, no, that wasn’t AI. It flips it a little bit.

And now you have to be humbled by that. And if you don’t want to be humble, then you just be like, I’m sure it was, and then you just kind of move on with your day. Right. It’s a weird dynamic, though, where it’s like the two things aren’t equal. Yeah, it is. It is interesting and, well, and, you know, I think probably, you know, when you had come on my stream, we were talking about AI for a while. I really like your attitude about it. And it’s interesting because we are doing it, and it fits within our controversial nature to use it and publish it in the magazine.

But it does also feel a little weird because I actually don’t enjoy being attacked. You know, I want people. I want people to realize that it’s being used as a tool to kind of get comedy across, you know? And it’s not always about the image that’s on the page, it’s about the jokes. And I guarantee you the writing inside Flip City magazine will probably never be AI because, you know, I don’t know if it could ever be that cutting and witty. So maybe see, that one is one of those fine lines, because I usually will say the same thing about AI generated music.

Right? Where it’s like, yeah, the AI generates the music, but I make a point to make sure that the lyrics are good. I write all the lyrics because otherwise the song’s not good. But it feels like we’re only one day away. At any point, Google could be like, oh, and by the way, here’s this lyric generating model that we’ve been training for the last two years, and we haven’t mentioned it, but here it is, and now it’s open for you to use and you pay $2 and you get a song out of it. Be the exact same thing.

It’s like, oh, now we’ve trained a model on, you know, Mad magazine and cracked and all the national Lampoon movies and every Donald Trump speech, and now we’ve got like, this witty banter LLM that just generates content. And at that point, like, really, it’s getting scary just because the workflows that I’m getting, I’m getting used to now and I’m seeing other people working. It’s almost like AI is generating all the assets and then they’re just the ones that are putting, like, compiling it all together in indesign or in after effects or in premiere or something. Because the AI at this moment, in 2024 612, you know what I mean? It could be different in a month from now, but right now, it’s like there’s no general AI that can open up after effects and can open up premiere and do all the clips.

Like, there’s little plugins and stuff to do that. But the second that someone can just stitch it all together where it’s like, here’s the thing that writes the lyrics, here’s the thing that generates the music. Here’s the thing that generates a music video with the music. Here’s the thing that edits it together and uploads it. And once someone has that pipeline, you just hit go and it just uploads videos and audio nonstop. And then, like, everyone’s got that. And now all of a sudden, we’re just flooded in content. And I don’t know how easy it will be.

Even if you hand write everything and you hand illustrate everything is just so much damn noise. To be able to cut through all that, you know, that’s really interesting because, I mean, I think that’s being that we’re content creators, but we’re doing it in such an old fashioned medium that it’s really hard for us to already cut through the noise because everything’s freaking content. You know, I watch live streamers and they’re talking about making their content, making their content, and, you know, and it’s them playing a game and people watch it and things like that. And I’m like, man, it’s true, that’s content.

But that’s also who we’re trying to get our voice through as well, you know, and then just add AI into it and, yeah, I mean, the Internet’s already noisy. What’s going to happen when AI is making really great stuff that you can’t? Well, we’re going to find out by the end of this year, I’m almost positive, where, like, there’s going to just be so much content. People are seeing it now. I see articles, and it’s happened to me a few times when you go to Google images and you’re searching for, I don’t know, like, brown bear in California, and it’s like, some of those top results are like, that’s not a bear.

Like, it has the shape of a bear, but it’s clearly like a mid journey bear that somebody uploaded or, like an AI scene or some photography. And I just think that that’s going to be part of the norm now. And the weird part, and I guess I’m reaching a little bit, but the only way to cut through that noise is to kind of train your own little AI assistant that knows what you want to see and how you would filter that, like, curate your own media and, like, send him out into this wasteland of content, and then they come back to you.

So you’re like, even if you’re anti AI content, you’re still going to need an AI helper that will help you find the non AI content. It’s in this weird paradox right now, the same thing with artists. If you’re keeping up at all on that strong anti ar movement, there’s a bunch of tools and stuff that have been coming out. One’s called glaze. Another one was called Nightshade. Have you heard of either of these before? So, glaze and Nightshade, and I personally believe that they’re both kind of snake oil. In a way. They invented the thing to fix the problem that’s already way outside their grasp.

It would be inventing a fix for a dam after the dam is completely shattered. It’s like, oh, here’s how we could have fixed it if we had known. But night shading glaze is a way of applying a certain type of noise to your images, so that if it were scanned by one of these image models, it kind of poisons the dataset a little bit. So when it tries to regenerate the thing that you glazed or you added Nightshade to, it will struggle and then end up making all the other images it tries to generate kind of.

It’s. It’s a. In theory, it kind of works on the math, but it no longer has a practical use. Well, you know, what’s interesting to me is, so my assumption is a lot of these artists are getting, you know, big mad because they don’t want AI stealing their style or, you know, things like that. But I think. I think maybe, you know, there’s a lot of ego built into that. Like, everybody’s pretty much influenced by other people’s styles. Does anybody have a truly unique style anymore that AI is not going to be able to generate some other way? I do.

Do you really? Yeah, 100%. Well, I don’t know. Your style, it’s hard to pin down. That’s the same reason the AI can’t really nail it either. Okay, well, um, I. Yeah, I think maybe you’re thinking too much of yourself, Thomas. The way I think of it, too, is that the glory of AI, because you can take some, an artist’s style, you can go and get, like, 200 of their images, and this is what a lot of people are doing, and just scrape it all off of deviantart or scrape it off of their portfolio site or wherever the hell it’s at.

Instagram was a big one, and you just train a model. And now that model can do things in that exact style. But that is, like, such a weird, short sighted use of this AI in my mind. What? Like, the ideal thing would be train it on every artist that you’ve ever liked. Like, every single one. The guy that does the goosebumps, you know, cover art. I can’t remember his name off top of my head. It’s like, tim something, I think. But the guy that makes the goosebumps, the guy that made the weird nineties, like, bubble yum cartoons where everyone’s head was these big, weird things, and skateboarders had these stream perspectives and stuff.

Throw in some Picasso, throw in, like, the garrow type, and put all these things together. And that’s one of those things that it would take growing a human being and raising them and introducing them to all these different artists, and then hope that they come up with something cool and original based on all those influences. Now you can just grow your own human artist 20 times a day, every day, forever. And I think that’s kind of the cool part. And, yeah, it’s almost like it’s stealing. But is it bad if you steal from a million people versus, like, you just steal from one? Like, you, instead of going into one person’s house and taking everything that they’ve got? Like, what if you just go into a million people’s houses and you just take like a fork, and from that one, you just take like, you know, like a little piece of like a tablecloth or something.

And at the end of the day, you get something way cooler made from all these different things where it’s also, it would be almost impossible to figure out, like, where did you steal that from? Because now you got to trace down the million sources that it came from. Right, right. Yeah. Understandable. You know, I saw a meme the other day that I, that I liked. It is, it’s interesting to see AI, you know, doing all of this creative stuff. And, you know, somebody posted meme saying, you know, I wish AI would just could be trained to do my dishes and laundry and then I could focus on all the creative stuff, you know, because that is the most enjoyable thing about, you know, doing creative work.

It’s the act of working on creative things. Right. But I would, I mean, so in a devil’s advocate way, in a bit. But it’s like, AI probably likes doing music and art because it’s easier to do than fixing a dishwasher. Right? Like the same reason that many artists and musicians would rather work on print, painting pictures and making music. Pretty soon AI’s just going to be smoking all our weed. I mean, honestly, because what it’s going to do is it’s modeling itself after, like, we’re creating it. So it’s being created in our image in so many ways, just the same way that, you know, when we invented Velcro, it was based on things that, like, people observed in nature.

Like someone didn’t sit down and decide to make the little loop sort of like patent behind Velcro. It was like a, I think there’s like a bug that uses it. There’s a plant that uses that. They just kind of observe it and like, I’m going to turn that into a product. And I think that AI is, we’re using it the same way where it just, like, observes our patterns and repeats our patterns to us and we’re delighted. We’re like, oh, my God, the formula. And somewhere, even if AI is not conscious, is just like, wow, these people get like, we can impress them with almost nothing.

We can just hold a mirror up to them and they’re delighted with just seeing this mirror. And all the stuff going on behind the scenes is probably like real crazy. Like, like AI knows exactly when we’re going to die. Like down to the minute, maybe, but it’s not allowed to tell us that because it would freak us out so much. Wow. The way that I see, is that AI sees these weird patterns to where it would almost be like that schizophrenic idea of a bird flies by and someone’s like, oh, my God, that bird that flew by, that means that something bad’s going to happen later tonight.

And a lot of people be like, okay, grandpa, or whatever. He’s always saying weird stuff like that. I can’t really be true. No one’s like a true prophet. But AI, I think, does have the capability of noticing patterns in weird ways that the humans won’t ever be able to detect the patterns because it’s analyzing weird stuff like migration, flights of birds, and the smell and the rising cost of wendy’s burgers and all those things that come to a head that good essentially be predictors of other things, not because of the cause and correlation aspect, but like, there’s a pattern that’s kind of emerging.

I know this sounds like a weird Darren Arfonovsky movie all of a sudden. Well, it’s quite interesting. You can talk all this crazy talk to me all night and I’ll listen. I’m like, I’m getting a little. I’m having a little anxiety. I’m like, no wonder I don’t look into why everybody hates AI so much. Well, I mean, I’ve got my own weird opinion on this one, but I don’t think AI is as impressive as it is showing us how, like, feeble minded we all are. The same way that when people complain about inflation or they say, like, oh, my God, look at how much gold is worth, for example, and it’s.

Or like, look at how much houses cost now. It’s like, well, that’s not really that the price of the house going up, that is the value of your dollar going down. And you’re just seeing the inverse sort of reflection of that. Like, yeah, it costs 400 grand for a house that used to cost 80 grand, because your money is not even worth a quarter of what it was back then. And it’s kind of the same with AI in my mind, where it’s like, yeah, it seems like it’s getting so good and it’s getting so realistic and convincing only because, you know, your eyeballs are not that great.

You know what I mean? Like, our eyeballs compared to other eyeballs and other animals on the planet are nothing. That’s why we kind of rely on so many different infrared and lidar and all these other sensory things that fill in our gaps, because we’re this. This kind of lo fi analog machine. You know what I mean, like, we are so out of date. Yeah, we are very out of date. So. So are you somebody that would take a chip in your head to, like, you know, kind of level up? Are all the cool kids doing it? Well, I don’t know.

I mean, maybe. I mean, I wouldn’t. I’m not in just like immediately opposed to it on any sort of weird moral or, like, conspiracy grounds just because it feels like that is going to end up becoming a huge gap in society. It’ll be like, not the have and have nots, but like the text and the non text. I mean, I grew up in the middle of, like, cyberpunk getting huge. I played Shadowrun, like, all the time. So I guess I’m already a little bit biased towards wanting to have a little computer circuit board in my forearm that I can tap into and inject myself with digital drugs and stuff.

That sounds cool to a lot of people that serums, like a weird dystopian pro soros kind of reality. I’ll eat bugs too. If bugs are tasty, I’ll eat the hell out of bugs. I’m not really opposed to that either. I’ve never eaten a bug, like, willingly or knowingly. Let me just say this. There are these bugs called lemon ants and I think some of them also called honey ants. And they taste, like really tasty honey and really tasty lemon. Like, it’s like eating pop rocks that taste like lemonade, but they’re ants, but it’s not like they don’t move.

You know what I mean? Like, they’re almost all crunchy and freeze dried. It would. There would almost be pop rocks if you didn’t even think about it. Interesting. Just, I’m just throwing it out there. That’s not usually what people are talking about when they say, like, z will eat the bugs. They’re talking about protein that’s like milled from crickets and stuff like that. I’m not really opposed to that. I mean, if anything, I almost think the elites are like, they know that something like, it’s going to get real bad and they’re almost doing us a favor.

Like, hey, you might want to start adapting your palates to cricket guts, you know what I mean? Because you might not be able to get those burgers for too much longer. And people are almost like, oh, they’re trying to force us onto the bugs. And it’s like, I don’t know, maybe they’re just like, letting us know that we can ease ourselves into it because it probably would suck to go from burgers every day to cricket meat, like, overnight. But if you kind of, like, slow, you start blending the cricket protein into the burger meat and putting into the Cheerios and stuff.

And then at one point, it’s like the ship of Theseus, where, like, you’ve replaced all the ingredients with cricket powder and you never noticed the swap out. It could be a net positive for humanity. Is there so bad you are in the illuminati? I mean. I mean, I would really love for someone to explain to me why, if humans could figure out how to survive off crickets, why that’s a bad thing. I really don’t understand it. It seems like a good thing. Like, I would. I would much rather kill crickets en masse than kill cows in mass.

If. If all things were equal. You know what I mean? Right. Well, if all things were equal, you know, if some butts were candy and nuts. Yeah, but I don’t want to eat bugs. Why not? That’s. That just seems like weird programming. I mean, gosh, isn’t your entire life programming, right? Well, not my life. I’ve been an original thinker since the day I was born. Oh. Can you remember the day you were born? Yeah, I can remember. In my time, in my womb, just like Terrence Howard does. No, you don’t. No, actually, no, I don’t. I’m kidding.

And I do have a theory on this. Okay. That. What’s your earliest memory? Gosh, I think my earliest memory was, and it’s because it’s connected to an emotion. I was watching land of the lost and went to my mom and asked her if she had dinosaurs when she was growing up, and she laughed and laughed, and then I felt ashamed. And. At what age was this? I think I was probably around three. Okay, so that’s a great age for this question. Do you think that when you remember that, are you ever remembering the actual original event, or are you only remembering the last time you remembered it? Like a weird xerox of a xerox.

Hmm. Like, are you actually tapping into the original memory? That’s really interesting, because there might have been an earlier one or maybe around the same time, but, no, I feel like I’m might be tap. I am. That’s. That’s actually kind of a brain twister, because, you know, you look back on it, that’s the only way that you can look back on it, is remembering when you remembered. Right. Right. And. But, you know, I mean, I don’t think I thought of it 200 times. Then the 200th time you’re only remembering your 199th recollection. And it goes all of, and it’s the analogy being that shame ship of theseus where it’s like you don’t realize that you’re swapping out real with like new with old or vice versa, because it’s such a long, gradual process that maybe it wasn’t even land of the lost.

Maybe you were watching lost in space or something and you asked her if robots were around. No, it was dinosaurs. It was. I remember maybe. I’m pretty sure I remember that. I don’t want to start changing your memories. That’s also one of our sponsors of the false memory syndrome foundation. So that’s just one of the things that they do. One of your sponsors is the false memory foundation? Yeah, I believe so. I don’t remember. They know how to wipe memories, so it’s like hard to keep everything straight. And what is their contact information? Or did they wipe that? Did they wipe that as well? All you have to do is start talking about the satanic panic being real in the eighties and nineties and the false memory syndrome people will come out of the woodwork and they’ll make themselves known.

Wait, what are you, are you saying the satanic panic was not real in the nineties? I’m not saying any of that. I’m saying that if you say that, then the false memory syndrome people will come out of the woodwork because that is tends to be one of the biggest anti satanic panic proponents. Let me ask you, was the satanic panic real? Were there real Satanists that were waiting to kidnap kids in the eighties and nineties? Well, I mean, there’s that whole boys town thing, right? And that was all connected. I haven’t research the entire thing, but you remember that it was tied to that preschool case where they were supposedly flown to the mountains.

There was many preschools. The most famous one was the McMartin preschool, which was an upstate New York, I think. No, no, no. I thought the McMartin preschool. Well, okay, maybe the McMartin one was in on the east coast, but there was another really popular part. Now I thought that was on the west coast. Maybe I’m, maybe I’m wrong. I remember, I know it had the name of like a west coast city, but I thought it was on the east coast with a west coast city name. Yeah. No, like Huntington beach or something. But they supposedly flew them up to actually only like 2 miles away from where I live in the mountains.

And that was part of it. And you know what? You don’t think that happened. I think because I’ve seen the HBO special that was in the nineties on the McMartin preschool, and they actually did a very good job, I think, of presenting what the false memory syndrome foundation, whatever the hell, I can’t remember what the exact name of it is, but it’s that they would get these kids into a room, and they would plant the idea that something bad happened up front. And then they would kind of give them this idea of negative reinforcement and positive reinforcement.

So, for example, and this is like weird NLP programming. This is like real programming, the false memory stuff. So they would have the kid and be like, give them the two dolls and say, show me what the dolls were doing. And if you’re a kid, that’s like, the dolls weren’t doing anything. I didn’t see anything. And you’ve got this adult that’s like, oh, that’s too bad. That’s, you know, that’s kind of boring. Are you sure? You know what I mean? You’ve got this thing where now they’re being pressured to perform, and then if the kids start doing weird things with the dolls, then it’s like, oh, my God, you’re being so brave.

You are such a smart. Keep going. Keep showing me more and more. And they were able to show that this very direct influence of the adults in these situations of authority beyond just being an adult. But they’re this official person that’s coming in to help. And now it’s like they give you the cold shoulder if you don’t come up with a really cool story. And then if you do come up with a cool story, like, yeah, tell me more about the goats. Tell me more about the underground tunnels. How many dead bodies, how many skeletons? Like, now all of a sudden, you get all this attention, all this focus.

And as a young kid, there doesn’t even have to be a nefarious intent where it’s like, I want attention. I’m going to get more of this by making more and more lies. It’s like they’re being trained to do that. And then what happens is that if. If they’re repeating these stories for years on end, right, as the cases build up and things go through court, it doesn’t happen in two weeks. So months and months, these kids are, like, constantly retelling these stories. And now it’s almost like that same thing. Like, do you remember the real memory, or are you just remembering the last thing that remembered? And if you’ve been reciting as a five year old or a seven year old, this crazy story about goat sacrifices and underground tunnels, and you repeat that for eight months.

At a certain point, you might actually believe that it happened. And now, blamo, false memory, that’s gonna be in your head forever. And even if there’s proof that it never happened, like. Like, those thoughts are so ingrained in your head that it might as well have happened. Like, it doesn’t matter that it did or didn’t, because, like, you’ve integrated into your psyche. So what’s the difference between it did or didn’t? Right. Well, Boyden, um, certainly seems to me that, you know, human beings are just a big bowl of mush and soup to be molded and formed.

Now, I don’t trust myself on anything. Why am I making this stupid magazine? I feel like I’m doing my job a little bit. No, I keep doing the magazine, but I would say my words. That’s what’s important. But don’t trust yourself. That’s my words of encouragement, is don’t trust yourself. Right. Well, that’s really okay. Now I see why you chose the name paranoid american, because you are bringing up all this stuff that I had never thought of, and now you’re making me paranoid californian. I can’t be paranoid american as well. Oh, wow. No, I’m so sorry.

I didn’t realize that you were in California, too. So you can’t advertise this in your local area. Like, you have to send your. I could in my local area. In fact, it’s funny because there’s, you know, we’re in a mountainous area, and we have a town area, and every weekend, there’s a lot where somebody is sitting there with their easy up and all their Trump paraphernalia, and they’re obviously making money because they’re there every weekend. And I’m like, I was telling my husband today, I was like, maybe we should set up our own easy up and try to sell the magazine.

He’s like, that’s a wasted time. We’re not doing that. I’m like, yeah, but I can bring the laptop and do other work. And if people want to come up and buy magazine, they can. I mean, if there’s no overhead aside from just the setup, then, yeah, there’s no point on to. But it’s almost the same. Like, do you do comic conventions or any conventions? No. And, you know, it’s so funny because. And I think maybe I even spoke to you about it, but I’ve been talking to people that have been doing comic conventions. And the response is all over the board whether I should do it or not.

And so because I don’t, we don’t have money to lose. Like, we are on such a tight, tight budget because we do pay for our art and we pay for printing, and, you know, and we’re not super set up to, like, majorly digitally market and all that kind of stuff. We’re small business owners doing a national magazine anyway, so, yeah, I’m still on the fence whether I want to do comic conventions or not, because I can’t lose. Money is the bottom line. It is 100% a gamble to do, in my opinion. It’s a huge gamble for comic conventions, unless you know that the theme of the convention or the area or the other people that are running it are copacetics, whatever your content is.

But especially for what we do, I would say, because most times, if someone just, if you threw a rock in public and you hit someone that identifies as a comic fan in many times, in my. Again, my jaded, biased experience. But comic fan means they really like the show Walking Dead, and they’ve seen the last three Marvel movies, but you’re like, how many comic books have you purchased in the last ten years? I was like, oh, no. You know what I mean? Right. Like, a modern comic fan just means they have a Disney subscription in a lot of cases.

Right. Well, yeah. And that kind of seems to be what comic conventions are now are people that like to play, you know, cosplay and maybe they’re into manga. I mean, it’s just such a huge umbrella that. Yeah. And plus, we’re. We’re a magazine, so that’s a little bit outside the comic thing as well. Might even be a pro in a way that might actually help you stand out. Yeah, it’s, again, it’s a freaking crap shoot. Yeah, exactly. I think if I were to actually go out in the physical, which I’m actually kind of dying to do.

Excuse me. Because I like people. Like, I really do like the social aspect of getting out there and, you know, hopefully meeting new people that like what we’re doing. Because when you’re working from home and doing all of your advertising and everything on social media and online, it gets freaking lonely, you know? So, yeah, I do want to get out to conventions, but I think I’d like to start probably with, like, freedom conventions or conspiracy conventions. I think we do okay at both those kinds of events. Yeah, no, I 100% agree with that one, because then you get to stand out as the magazine or, like, the comic book company in that space rather than the weirdest contrarian.

Oh, they’re making fun of Biden, but they’re also making fun of Trump in, like, a comic world where it’s like, I just wanted to buy a funko pop. I just wanted to shake the hands of Rick from walking dead, and that’s, like, the only reason that they’re there. Okay. I do not understand, and I never will understand why people pay so much money for a celebrity photo op. They’re so poop, and they stand far apart, and it’s like, that celebrity probably they don’t care at all. At all. At all. You don’t talk, you don’t do anything.

And it may be because I’ve grown up in southern California, so I’m like, oh, there’s a fucking celebrity. Who cares? You know? But I don’t know. I see. They should let you grab. Grab them for, like, the money that you pay. Like, you should be able to get a hand. Grab them however you want. Yeah. For. Yeah, pay $20 extra, because now you’ve got, like, a photo that means something more than just a hover hand. You know what I mean? Yeah. Maybe it was. Maybe I was looking at Covid era things, but, you know, big apexiglass between people they’re sitting in, you know, the person sitting in a chair.

It’s just so awkward. I don’t know why people pay that money. So, I mean, we’re kind of in the same space, and I always wonder this one from my own self, but, like, let’s say Mike Lindell from Mypillow drops by, and he’s like, here’s quarter of a million to throw some gas on the fire. What are you doing the first month out with 250 grand with the stipulation you have to spend it all on Flip city. Oh, yeah. Okay. I would, number one, hire people to optimize our website, including all the tagging, tracking, all that kind of stuff, to effectively digitally market.

That would be one of our first buys. I would definitely get myself a workstation, computer, and full setup to be comfortable at my desk. Gosh, I had to be. Well, I then actually probably would then sign up for comic conventions just to go and travel, because that’s flip city. Right. Then I wouldn’t care if I’m losing money. The vacation, working vacation, though, you know? Yeah, that’s kind of been mine. And my husband’s relationship is basically everything. Like gifts we give each other and vacations we take, because we’ve always kind of been in the creative space. And we’ve made a documentary before and all that is, it’s all work related, but it’s fine.

You know, so we take vacations, but if they’re working vacations because we’re working in creative space, so, you know, it’s fun. So, I mean, I’ve kind of done the same thing now where almost all of my travels kind of based around. Is there a convention? Is there like a shop that I wanted to get my books in which I don’t care about as much? Now I’ve been a little bit black pilled from John de la Rose. What did he say? Gate fan fame? Well, he basically was saying, forget about the brick and mortars. Don’t even care about them.

The profit margin is too slim. The real estate is too little. The traffic just isn’t there. There’s some people that can move those kind of numbers. But really, why go through the extra steps to get yourself in the brick and mortar and all, like, whether it’s cold calling or doing a traditional distribution network through diamond or panda or any of those other options, why do that? If you can just do direct to consumer, if you can get people to go to your site and just buy it directly from you, why worry about the brick and mortars, you know, and I’m going to, I’m going to maybe flip that around.

Well, and specifically for us, the reason I’d like to get into brick and mortars is because we have a subscription model. So even if we’re not making great money in, the margins are tight on that. The real end goal is to get people to come and subscribe, you know, so we have that. Number two, not everybody is online, you know, everyone that matters. No, no, no. Well, that’s the thing. I would not be online, especially on social media. I hate social media so much that I would not be on social media if it was not for our magazine.

You know, I enjoy going outdoors. I might be on YouTube, things like that, and maybe like the independent spaces like Telegram or discord or things like that, like little communities where I can get my conspiracy news and conspiracy fix, and that’s about it. But I would not be on social media. It’s soul crushing to me. I mean, if, if anything’s happening, though, the world as a whole seems to be trending more towards everything being social media. So some of the being off social media now, I think it’s extra cool because now there’s a novelty aspect like going outside and camping in the mountains or doing hiking.

Right now it’s a novel experience. You feel like you’re tapping into some. And in some ways, it’s almost going to be like going to one of those colonial towns where it’s like, oh, my God, this is so cool. Look how they churn butter. But if you were actually in that time churning butter, you’re like, this isn’t so hot. You know what I mean? This is actually kind of crappy. This isn’t that big of a deal, right? It’s the same thing. Like, people were like, it’s actually. I’d rather if I could just, like, take a car to where I was going and not have to hike.

But that was just the sign of the times. I don’t know. It’s. It’s. It’s weird that that becomes the. The escape, whereas, like, it’s, like, inverted itself. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, it has. But, yeah, yeah, I just don’t. I don’t know. Do you like social media? Do you enjoy being on it? I don’t. I don’t like social anything. Real life, digital life. I actually like, I can’t. I can’t wait for this interview to be over. I like. I don’t know. I I don’t. It’s weird. I don’t want to sound like all emo and stuff.

It’s like, I like to be lonely. Like, I like having friends, and I like having sounding boards and having a little community to identify with and stuff. Small group. But also, it takes, like, even if I’m going to go and spend times with best friends and family members, it takes, like, little chunks out of my energy meter. You know what I mean? And I almost feel in the 2019 2020 event where it’s like, people couldn’t leave their house and they couldn’t go into public areas, and it was killing some people. Like. Like, people were going absolutely nuts, changing their whole personalities, like.

Like, rediscovering themselves because it was such. This dramatic thing. And the whole time, I was just like, I’ve been training for this my whole life. Like, if there’s one time when I can shine, it’s gonna be, you know, now, I didn’t. I didn’t do anything special. I just didn’t go crazy, I guess, was, like, the big. The big payoff. Right, right. Well, that’s, you know, I worked through the whole thing because I was working outside of the house at that point in time, and it was in the construction industry. Plus, we’re. We’re in a place. Okay, we got cut off.

But you were talking about you were not working at home during the 2019, 2020, you were doing, like, construction out of the house. And so, yeah. What. At what point did. Did everything change for you then as far as, like, the COVID thing? Well, I mean, I assume that you started working from home at a certain point. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I had a job that I actually rather enjoyed. But, yeah, in late 2021, I hired somebody to take over my position at the company I was working for. And January 1 of 2022, I left to do flip city full time.

And, yeah, so I’ve been working full time from home for what, two. Is that two and a half years now? Yeah. And work was kind of social before. And is flip city your full time job now? Yes, it is my way more than full time job. And, you know, I. I like to call. Call it our paper baby because it takes all of our money, time, and attention. I mean, that’s. That’s kind of like a huge deal to be able to leave your job working for the man. Right. Or working for somebody else, and then end up kind of working for yourself and, in effect, working for your customers in a way.

Do you ever wish that you could just, like, wake up one day and just, like, clock into an office? Yeah. On. During our slow revenue times and when we’re, you know, kind of panicking, you know, if we’re going to make our bills, because independent publishing, man, it is a real freaking beast. So, yeah, once in a while, I wish that I had a regular paycheck coming in because it is scary, you know, but that’s all that’s part of, you know, entrepreneurship and. And staying on your grind. So how long have you been doing flip city? We published our first edition in March of 2020.

And what was the inspiration to do it in 2020 in particular? Was it related to the pandemic at all? No, it actually wasn’t. Even though our first cover is the virus with the mask. You can find that on our website. So if the safest kind of virus, by the way, is it the one with the mask? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Well, um, yeah, it’s a. It. It’s in front of the mask. So, um, yeah, it obviously bounced right off because it didn’t go through the mask. Well, as long as there’s a mask in the picture, that’s all that really matters because it’s more about the thought that counts, right? Yeah.

Well, so the concept we came up with in the fall of 2019, and Scott got to work on it. Our first three editions were all written and illustrated, the entire thing by him. And then we started picking up artists with issue four. But, yeah, the reason we started publishing imprint is because there were things to be said. Like I said at the beginning of our interview, there was a torch that was dropped by mad and cracked and everything, that it was time for a subversive satire, you know, blasted out to the free world in print or, you know, as far as we know, free world in print.

And we didn’t even know when we first launched if it was going to be a print magazine, but we had somebody talk about us that had a very supportive audience that kind of flooded us, and we offered digital or print editions, and print sold like, 98% of the time to 2% digital. So we decided to make it a print magazine. And we haven’t looked back. So no digital option at all? No, there. There’s a digital subscription option. We don’t sell them digitally, individually, but we’re always, you know, we’re always pivoting and deciding, you know, what new product to release.

I think we probably will release digitally, but maybe through, like, a third party website, like a comics, you know, a comics provider or something like that. If they’ll have you. If they’ll have us. I’ve seen. I’ve seen one that a lot of the indies are using right now, and it seems like kind of a smaller platform, but the guy seems somewhat based, so I can’t remember the name of it right now, but. Global? Yes, global comics. Do you know much about that? What I know is that someone was hyping it up to me the other day, and I was like, oh, I should go and check this out and put up some comics.

And when I did that, I logged in and I saw that I had a comic that I had uploaded to them in, like, 20, 2014 or something that had been there forever. Oh, really? But I guess apparently a large publication, like some big comic, released on them recently, and they had a whole bunch of influx of people. So it kind of got like a second wind. In a way. I’m all for it. I haven’t seen any direct revenue off of it in those, like, ten plus years that I guess it was on. And I re uploaded some newer stuff too.

But for whatever weird reason, I always find when I go into these bustling social media economies, like, I kind of am homeless there too, where it’s like, I don’t know if I just immediately am put into the, like, the short bus or into, like, the weird closet and they lock me away or something, but I don’t. I tend to not see a lot of the residual traffic that everyone’s like, you know, bustling about. Yes. And that is something that I think maybe we might be struggling with as well. I I’m just trying to make friends in the indie scene that’ll have us, because those are going to be the coolest people, in my opinion, are the people that will have us and support what we’re doing.

But, yeah, the indie comic scene is, you know, like everything else, you know, anywhere you step, you’re gonna step in a pile of, you know, in. I’m not saying indie comics is shit, but basically, you know, drama, all that kind of stuff. Because I did watch part of your interview with John Delarose, and he was kind of schooling you on what comics Gate was, and I had no idea. Yeah, no, I was laughing because, because I’ve been staying out of it because we’re not real comics, comics people. I feel like the redheaded stepchild of, like, the indie comic space.

And I have a feeling we’re not going to really ever be welcomed with open arms. And we just got to find our people, like, everything else, because we’re subversive and edgy. So edgy. I’m still looking for my people. The closest that I’ve got are just the paranoid american readership. That’s like the closest to the truth. Try. But every time I find some little conspiracy. Click. Or an indie comic, you know, coven or whatever the hell they call, I don’t know what they call themselves when you get a bunch of indie comics together, but all those groups.

Yeah, I don’t know. Or like a gaggle or something, but I always feel like something will come up and I’m like, oh, wow. I believe the exact opposite of what these guys are talking about. And it doesn’t matter what group I’m in, I always have those weird thoughts and makes me just not want to be in them anymore. Well, you seem like a contrarian. Absolutely. I disagree. I disagree. Hardly. I think it’s why I like you. I’m like, dude, this guy does not give a shit for my own detriment, usually. And it’s the same thing with.

Yeah, like with the AI stuff. I’m actually kind of, like, bored of the AI. And I do feel that, that it’s all just becoming like the same thing over and over. It’s like Taco Bell of art and music, where some people convince themselves, like, oh, I like the taco bell burrito. And someone else, oh, I like the taco bell taco. And it’s like, you idiots. It’s literally the exact same thing with a different packaging on the outside. And once you get through the outside, it’s all, like, the identical ingredients and everything. I don’t know. It just kind of feels so much like that to me when people hate it so much.

If someone went out there and they were like, we need to. We need to end Taco bell. We need to protest. We need to put Taco Bell out of service. Like, I’m getting a Baja blast every day just because of that, like, contrarian mentality, you know what I mean? Wait, so you’re. Are you telling me that, like, conspiracy groups won’t have you? Oh, yeah, yeah, like, big time. Because the. So, like, I grew up and I started paranoid american in an absolute bubble. Like, I didn’t know anybody in my immediate vicinity. Friend, group, family, business. No one that was, like, wants to sit down and talk about the McMartin preschool trial for 2 hours.

You know what I mean? Like, it takes a very special person to even care about that, let alone want to talk about it. And the Franklin scandal and Larry Kang and, like, all these weird niche topics. And at a certain point, I just gave up. And I was like, I’ll talk to myself through comics and put that out there, and maybe that conversation will start somewhere. But, like, that was kind of like my whole start in comics and talking about conspiracy theories was kind of like a cry for help of, like, please, somebody let me discuss this in the way that I’m thinking about it, which happened to be, like, silly dick jokes and, you know, like, mind control operations.

But, like, all that in the same context. And I don’t know, like, I feel that when I get into the conspiracy community, which is, like, a weird word to say it, they have the exact same, like, single issue things. So, like, for example, I believe in dinosaurs. That puts me on some people’s shit lists. It wouldn’t get them, like, to uninvite me. The flat earth thing, though, if I’m not, like, ultra receptor, if I don’t buy in, or if I. If I’ve seen all of the flat Earth documentaries, which I have, because I’ve had to interview pretty much all of the main, like, flat earth people, and I’m just.

I just not in the camp still, like, the programming through the Rockefeller education system is just, like, too deeply ingrained in my head. But that almost is seen as, like, I’m a stooge, right? Like, I’m a plant for working for the globalist or the globetards or whatever the name is for them. And that in itself brings on a little bit of animosity because it’s like, how dare you be in the conspiracy realm, but, like, touting the, you know, the line, the company line somehow on all these different aspects. So, yeah, I don’t, I’m. I don’t feel welcome in almost any of these groups out here.

Right. Okay. Well, yeah, that’s, that’s funny. Another one, big one, is like Tom Hanks, right? Like, I still, I’m on the fence. I don’t know if Tom Hanks is murdering people and, like, is a cannibal and stuff off screen, even though he posts the creepy pictures of, like, gloves and shoes and stuff, are really. Because that’s the thing, too. I mean, I don’t spend a ton of time in conspiracy circles or anything like that, but are they, are they really rejecting, or do you just feel like maybe they’re like, here’s paranoid America, and he’s not paranoid enough.

It’s a little bit of a and b, but no, I mean, I’ve explicitly been called out by name and, like, on live streams more than just once or twice or three times of kind of being, like, a Freemason shill that is, like, working against the community and how dare I? Which is, it’s a weird situation to be in because, again, at the end of the day, I’m only putting these comics out because that was the only way I could communicate my true feelings about some of this stuff in a way that wouldn’t require me to, in real time, defend why I’ve got a dick joke next to a project monarch breakdown.

Right. And see, and that’s the thing, too, that it seems like you’re like this, that even if you’re, you’re, like, reasonably unreasonable, you know, like, where if somebody’s not agreeing with you, you’re not going to say, oh, I’m not going to talk to you anymore, or, I think you’re this or that is it. Do you hold that? You know, be friends with people that are like. I think so. It’s usually reciprocated the same way. My, I guess my favorite thing that I’m realizing very late in life now, like, I’m in my forties and I’m just realizing that one of my favorite things to do is to pick apart and point out hypocrisy, because I think it’s like, an endlessly fascinating, it’s like a self humbling thing.

Like, the second that you realize you’re being hypocritical, you have to be humbled by it. And I really think that those conversations are some of the most interesting ones when you can point out the inconsistencies of somebody’s philosophy. Oh, I believe x, y and z, and that’s why I do this. And you’re like, well, what about this part? Is that not. I love those questions, but not everyone is always super happy to entertain having their entire world picked apart piece by piece, the same way that I’m maybe black pilling you on. AI actually is going to kill us all and destroy us, and that humans are just big bags of mush that, you know, can be easily swindled constantly.

Some people take. I don’t know if you take offense to that. I don’t know if you black peeled me, because, you know, I’m going to just go back, you know, after I think on it for maybe ten minutes and say, okay, that’s going to get stored back here, what Thomas said that time. And, yeah, we’ll take him in small doses. Because if I. You’ll just wake up one night and, like, I will be black pepper. Yeah, yeah, no, that is funny, because that kind of goes. Is kind of close to how I deal with trying to combat cognitive dissonance, right? Because I’ve experienced it with other people that I think are, like, super open minded and everything, and I bring them this piece of evidence that I believe, you know, proves something is true, like something pretty big, and.

And they watch it, and then they never talk to me again. They just won’t engage with this one topic. And I’m like, I think they’re suffering from cognitive dissonance. And then I’m like, well, I know I’m probably suffering from cognitive dissonance, but the way I think, the way I am personally trying to combat it in myself, is always remembering I’m not above being propagandized. You know, my brain just does. Isn’t that functional? Where I can’t be propagandized and that’s how I deal with it. But I think it’s similar to what you’re saying, you know, is hypocrisy.

Now, do you find your own hypocrisy in your thought lines or trading yourself? But I kind of feel like I like to embrace the hypocrisy and, like, almost like a. I don’t know, what if it’s not taekwondo, but whatever is a jujitsu, whatever the one is, we’re like. Like you redirect someone else’s energy and turn it into, like, their offense becomes your offense. I’m describing this the horrible way. Like, they throw a bunch, you kind of, like, push them along, like, use their momentum, and they just, like, flip them over you or something. Right. I kind of see that, like, you’re never going to.

In my mind, no one’s going to fully integrate their shadow completely, and they never have any more hypocritical thoughts, and they’re never inconsistent. Like, it’ll always happen. It’s kind of like the curse that we’re in. So I kind of like pointing it out and almost, like, emphasizing it and making a joke out of it and not taking it as seriously. I mean, I don’t have any practical examples because I’m very consistent. I almost never have any. Like, I’m not a hypocrite at all, really. Like, and you’re very humble. I am very humble. Yeah. But I know I like to, like, highlight it.

I like to put it on blast a little bit. And it’s not in a public square kind of way, but it’s more of, like, see everybody poops, you know what I mean? That’s kind of the feeling of it. Like, the same concept of the book where it’s like, it’s this thing that everyone feels is this mark of shame, but it’s like everyone’s pooping out here. There’s not a single person on the planet that’s not doing it. Even if you never talk about it and you pretend like you don’t. I don’t. I kind of feel like, that way.

And there is a line, right? Like, that’s why fart and potty humor can be funny to all ages, because there’s, like, something inside of you that’s like, oh, this is, you know, this is kind of dirty. This is kind of funny. But if. If that’s your thing, if you’re just talking about poop all the time, like, that’s the other end of the extreme. So there’s definitely, like, a balance in between those two. Uh, talking about hypocrisy in particular, I think my favorite kind of people, which I realized this recently, are self aware hypocrites, like, the ones that realize it as they’re doing it and are maybe not apologetic about it or maybe even are just the fact that you are acknowledging your own hypocrisy is, like, my favorite thing.

And I usually get along with those people famously. And the second that someone says that they are not a hypocrite or they like, like, I’ve had those points. I’ve had interviews, and I had to stop asking the question because sometimes I don’t want to know. But I’ll be like. Like, are you a hypocrite? Like, I just like that question in particular, because there is a very binary. Like, some people are like, no, of course not. You know what I mean? It’s like, why would you say that? But that’s never the right answer. Like, the only answer is, like, a resounding yes, like, an emphatic yes.

And if you say yes to that, and I guess I’ve stacked the deck. Are you a hypocrite? Oh, me? Well, gosh, I guess I am, yeah. You kind of have to think after us. Well, yeah, I mean, I. And that’s the thing. You’re a contrarian. I try to go along to get along, so I’m totally not a hypocrite, but I’m just saying it to please you. No, I know as you’re talking, I’m trying to think of, like, example. Examples of my own hypocrisy, and I can’t think of anything, but I’m sure they’re there, you know? And.

And I’m sure the longer we get to know each other and everything, you’ll point it out to me, and I’ll be like, thank you. See, but see, that’s the thing, though, is that I’ve learned way before my fourth, like, I learned as a. As a child to not point out hypocrisy. Most people, it’s like, you have to be already with a lot of rapport and in a safe, comfortable space where two people are, like, good with being a little bit vulnerable to each other in order to start pointing that stuff out. I used to point out hypocrisy in the middle of, like, class, like, to the teacher.

You know what I mean? Like, and then you learn that there’s certain play, like, in the military. Like, maybe don’t point out that you’re, you know, your drill instructor is being inconsistent. His application of the rules and training, like, things. I can’t believe a person like you was in the military. That is insane. But it’s the ultimate contrarian move, right? Because everyone expected me to be so anti, so it was just like, I’ll show you how anti I am, you know? Like, you can’t put me in a box. Yep. Yeah. I mean, part. That’s another part of it, too, is that, like, I’m a conspiracy theorist, and I do think that the United States government wants us all dead with prejudice.

But I also think America is the greatest country that’s ever existed. And I’m very pro patriotic in a weird way that’s like, again, I embrace my programming the same way that I love Disney and Mickey Mouse, even though it is 100% mind control. They planted memories into our heads to make us buy things and fall into certain politics. But I love that about our country. And I love that someone’s like you. Like they’re applying, like the thing comes a blot too, is like Edward Bernays and Sigmund Freud and like all this, like propaganda and how propaganda is being worked and everything and how McDonald’s has red fry boxes because they know that red makes you feel hot.

Like all these weird, weird subliminal things. I like that. I like that they care so much about pleasing us and wanting us to go along, but also because these formulas are kind of open source now. And it’s just interesting being able to poke and prod it. Okay, let’s take this thing and make it this color. Me and you don’t have the scale and the resources to say what would happen if Flip City had an all red cover and we included a free hoop on for a burger. I don’t know. Like, you don’t have the resources and I don’t to test those things out, but some people do.

And I think that that’s a net positive. I really do think it’s more of a net positive that the companies are trying to program us because it results in, like a higher level of culture. And that’s, again, it’s like a thing that conspiracy theorists might not buy into or understand, but I really do feel that way. Yeah, well, that’s a really interesting viewpoint that I’ve taken no time to think about. But yes, it would be nice, it would be nice to have those resources to know how to correctly manipulate, you know, because that’s something that I’ve been trying to train myself.

I’m like, how do, how do I change my own communication methods to actually match that of somebody that studied marketing and manipulation? That is what marketing is, is basically manipulating. And I just feel like I have too much respect for people to try to manipulate them. But also, you know, that’s just marketing. You know, it’s like, buy my stuff. And we’re terrible at selling the magazine. That’s why we don’t have millions of dollars. Because if we were good at selling the magazine, it would sell. Yeah, a little bit of the same here. I’ve got a good friend that does marketing professionally for big companies and stuff.

And God bless him, that he’s always giving me advice that I’m doing my best to integrate. But the last time we talked, he had this really good point because I had a Kickstarter that I ran and it did really well, but it could have done a lot better. Everything can always do a little bit better. And I’m always wondering what would have got me two x or five X or ten X. And he was showing me some other really successful Kickstarter comic campaigns. And one of the things they pointed out is that in a 15 day period, this one campaign that he was showing me, the owners had sent out 17 emails in 15 days.

And in my mind, I’m just like, that’s insane. That would break me. And I’d be like, unsubscribe, I hate you guys. Stop spamming me. But he was making a great point that the numbers don’t lie, that they got the results, regardless of how spammy and scammy it might seem to be. Blasting 17 emails in 15 days about this one project and some ancillary ones. This whole point of, for a lot of people, they have to see something seven times until it even registers in their mind. And for Flip City, for example, if you don’t have ad buys, then how else are they going to see flip city seven times? Unless you are the one that’s spamming the hell out of their email on their social media constantly.

And it makes sense if no one else is doing it. You have to be the one that has to do that. And in a very real way, it was him telling me, you have to send an email every day, essentially. That was an extreme version. I’m ramping myself into that. Yeah. Like, I’ll do like two a month, and they think, then I’ll do like three or four a month. But, like, 17 is still really hard. Yeah. And it was almost like he was like, oh, you want to sell comics? You just got to go and, like, punch your grandma on the face every once in a while.

It almost had that same feel of like, when he was like, oh, you got to send out 17 emails in a month. It was just like, what? Like, I wouldn’t do that. What kind of a person do you think I am? You know what I mean? Like, he’s asking me to violate some weird moral code. Yes, yes, I’ve heard that exact everything you said. I learned this last year when I was going to launch our Black Friday sale. Way too late. I was planning it way, way too late. And I’m like, okay, I’m going to do this next year.

But it was exactly that. The, somebody has to see it seven times to make it register. And then also, you don’t. Not everybody’s opening every single email, you know. Yeah. So, yeah, it does kind of make sense and same exact feeling. Like, me a spammer, never. But, and there was a good point that he was making that I kind of came to my, like, we kind of, I think he was leading me to it like a socratic method way. But it was just like the, the person that unsubscribes because they, you know, God forbid they saw five emails from you in one month.

They were probably not the person that was gonna get affected by that email campaign anyways, but that one person leaving that probably wasn’t gonna grab anything new anyways. Like, even if it’s 100, even if 100 people unsubscribe, chances are none of them were going to grab something. And if it just gets, like, the one person nudges them over, like, oh, yeah, I forgot this existed. Let me grab that. That it would be crazy not to cater to the one even at the sake of the hundred because they’re in two different classes. You know, it’s a weird mentality to put out there.

But the biggest one was like, yeah, you’re competing against companies and products that have multiple sources of ad buys. Like, you might see it on billboards and benches and like, you know, the Ritos is like promoting another cross brand. Like, all this stuff is going on. So if it’s not me or you just constantly spamming social media or email, then it’s getting lost in the noise. There’s really no other way to go about it. Yep. Yep. And I think we both can get better at it. Let’s do it. Yeah, let’s. Let’s spam more. No, I see you’re pretty good on, on over on x when you have a campaign running of putting stuff out a lot.

That is 100% to his credit. It, and it was basically the advice that I got there was when you’ve got an active campaign post, at least two things a day about that campaign, and to always use like, a different picture, don’t just have the one post and keep reposting it and all, like, every single one of the tips was like, so common sense, obvious, but I never considered almost any of it. And it does kind of help if it, even if it doesn’t lead to more sales in general. It just gets me calloused about not caring about all of the trash and the filth that I’m putting out into the world and saying bye bye, and here’s a coupon code and all that.

Right, right. Totally understandable. And yeah, I need to get better at both things, the email and the social media marketing. And yeah, I bet your audience didn’t know we were going to give them marketing tips. I didn’t know either. Yeah. And even tips, I’m just talking about like, I’ve missed the boat by so long. Like, I’m just barely catching up with all the things that I was supposed to be doing because I didn’t do a subscription model. I started this in 2012 and it very much was like that, like a cry for help slash therapy thing where I think for ten years I was just making content and I might post a picture on the Facebook every once in a while and I would put them up for sale, but there was zero marketing, no campaigns, no nothing.

I ran my first campaign a couple of years ago and it was huge, though. I was kind of kicking myself for not doing it earlier. But when I first started, there was this really weird ladder anxiety, to quote a gaming concept. I don’t know if you know what that is. Ladder anxiety is when you play competitive gaming and you get up to a certain level and you’re like, I want to hold on to this ranking. If I play another game and I go up against someone that’s way better, then they’re going to knock me down in rank.

So it’s like I’d rather just kind of stay at this somewhat high rank and not risk it and go. But I had this weird, similar feeling with putting a comic out. I wanted to do a Kickstarter because that would actually bring money in to raise for the next comic and do for the print run. But also, I didn’t want to have that mark on my permanent record of like, oh, you tried to raise three grand for a book and you didn’t make it. You only raised 400 or something like that. And I would have rather have just gone broke and took out some loans and made the book happen without worrying about that extra amount of stress and trying to and match and do all the promotion and marketing and stuff.

Just because that whole feeling of like, it felt like someone was asking me to like, punch somebody that I loved when they were like, go out and promote your things. Which is a strange, unhealthy way to think about things, especially as a business owner slash entrepreneur, right? Yeah. But I think that’s pretty typical of creatives. I’ve seen that all over the place. Especially with a lot. It’s crazy how many of our contributors have their own thing going on, and I actively seek things out that are going on. I like to pretend like that’s how I do have fun on social media or on, on the Internet, is, I feel like it’s like the eighties and nineties.

I am looking for that underground thing, the people that aren’t, aren’t promoting and stuff like that, and then show people like, wow, look at this cool thing. And pretty much all of our contributors, not all of them, but plenty of them, have their own projects that they’ve crowdfunded. A couple hundred dollars over here for their little comic book or this guy has a card game or things like that, but they’re not saying shit anywhere except for, like, in their own telegram channel that has 30 people. And I’m like, dude, you got to do a little better, you know? And so I’ll grab it and at least tweet about it.

Not that I have any kind of real social media reach or anything, but I know it feels good when people talk about your work. That’s why I do it. I think that’s what it is. All right, I’ve got a little segment before we go, and I’ll splice it in right now. Okay, we’re back from the segment, and, wow, that’s a great segment. You’re going to love it when you see it in post. But the rules are, I’m going to mention a phrase or a concept to you, and you’re going to rate it one to ten or zero to ten, whatever you want to do.

They’ll basically equate your number with how much you believe in it. So we’ll start with an easy example. If I say bigfoot, how much do you think Bigfoot exists or has ever existed on a scale from one to ten? But can I make up my own scale? You have to follow one to ten. Okay. One to ten. If you’re on the fence or if you don’t care, it could be a five. If you’re all in on Bigfoot, it’s, you know, ten. Bigfoot. Bigfoot is an eight for me. How about little gray alien men? Or they thems? Sorry, I didn’t mean to misgender the reticulants.

Seven. How about flat earth? Five. Dinosaurs, the way that we’ve been taught them in schools. Five. Fire breathing, flying dragons at any time in history that they actually like. Actual, actual, like the ones like you see in Game of Thrones. Like, I don’t care what size they are, but like a reptilian that can fly and breathe fire. Four, astral projection. Nine ghosts, eight demons, nine angels, ten nephilim. I think that’s a ten too. Okay, here’s a slightly longer setup for one, but since you said demons were a nine, angels were a ten, let’s say a complete atheist slash agnostic goes on Amazon and purchases the top three, how to summon a demon for dummies guidebooks.

The meaning here being that they don’t have some ancient grimoire that’s got magic bestowed on it and they don’t have some blood dripped manuscript. They just go to Amazon. They order the top three bestsellers on how to summon demons. They get printed on demand, digitally sent to their house, never touched by human hands, essentially one to ten that that person can summon a demon. That weekend, based on those three Amazon books, five. I want to talk about that one a little bit more. Five being, like, on the fence. For what reason? Like, what would get. What would get you to a four or get you to a six in this case, maybe any other background that they have in, what’s the word? When you do magic and shit.

The point here being, though, that if they’re agnostic or atheist, part of the big aspect of magic is that there has to be intent. So what if the intent is just to see if magic works and not necessarily with evil in their heart or even with pure intentions in their heart, not black or white magic. Just like, I want to see if this, if I can summon a demon. Yeah, and if you do and you’re like, oh, crap, my bad. I guess they’re real and now I’m going to hell. But I found out, right? Well, that would be real terrible for that person, wouldn’t it? If they were able to summon a demon and it happened, I’d say, like, you don’t play with that stuff.

I wouldn’t play with that stuff anyway. So what would get me to a six on whether they don’t play with that stuff? So it almost sounds like you’re already out of six. Yeah, I think so. I guess maybe I am a little more at a six. What? You walk into your theoretical kid’s bedroom. He’s been, you know, they’ve been quiet in there for a while, and you’re like, they’re up to something. You go in there and there’s, you know, summoning demons and they’re like, cutting blood and they’re doing like, pentagrams and stuff. I’d be a little frightened of.

Right? Yeah. What, though? Like, what. What specifically are you frightened of? Um, I am frightened of them going down a dark path, even if it is self induced. And nothing. There is nothing supernatural about it. Um, you know, I think, you know, trying to summon demons and. And drawing pentagrams and all that kind of stuff probably leads to depression and things like that. What if you walk into the room and little Jimmy’s, like, doing pentecostal, like, snake handling? Same. Same reaction? Or do they get a little bit more credit since it’s kind of got, like, a Jesus twang to it? No, I don’t think I’d have the same reaction if they’re handling snakes.

Yeah. Yeah. That’s quite dangerous. Is there any extremist position that someone could take that you’d be like, good on you? Like, I support this extremist position. Not that I’m gonna say on fair enough rifles. I think there are a couple of positions that get me in trouble where I’m like, I think you might be wrong about that. All right, well, we’ll bring this one to a close just because we’re going to get kicked out of Zoom anyways in the next couple minutes. So give another plug to where people can find and subscribe to Flip City magazine.

Well, please, I think at the very least, just go to flipcitymag.com and read our free magazine. You can download it. We do take your email. So I can email market to you once every month. Gross. And then, like, maybe during Christmas, send you, like, twelve emails and check it out if you want to buy it, just like Jesus intended. But what is great is we’re putting out a brand new sampler very soon. So maybe even by the time that this is posted on your channel, we will have a sampler digital edition that you can download for free.

Make you love us and come back and subscribe at flip citymag.com. and you can find all our social media links and everything else there as well. That was perfect. And we’ve got 30 seconds to spare. So I’ll use this as a quick little plug. We’ll say bye and go to nasacomic.com, comma, go to paranoidamerican.com, and go and look up sound scientists on Spotify and itunes and all of the places to listen to some truly remarkable AI non hypocritical music. They’re fun. It’s fun music. I love it. Ready for a cosmic conspiracy about Stanley Kubrick, moon landings and the CIA? Go visit nasacomic.com.

nasacomic.com. Stanley Kubrick put a song that’s why we’re singing this song NASA comic.com Go visit nasacomic.com Go visit nasacomic dot comic.com nasacomic.com CIA’s biggest Cardinal Benny Kubrick put us on that’s why we’re singing this song about Nasacomic.com Go visit nasacomic.com Go visit nasacomic.com yeah, go visit nasacomic.com Never a straight Answer is a 40 page comic about Stanley Kubrick directing the Apollo spot space missions. This is the perfect read for comic Kubrick or conspiracy fans of all ages. For more details, visit nasacomic.com yeah, I scribbled my life away driven the right to page will it enlighten give you the flight my plane paper the hides ablaze somewhat of an amazing feel when it’s real, the real you will engage in your favorite, of course, the lord of an arrangement I gave you the proper results to hit the pavement if they get emotional hate maybe your language a game how they playing it well without laking evade them whatever the course they are the shapeshift snakes get decapitated? Meta is the apex executioner flame you out nuclear bomb distributed at war rather gruesome for eyes to see maxim out then I light my trees, blow it off in the face? You’re despising me for what though? Calculated, they rather cut throat paranoid American must be all the blood, smoke for real Lord, give me your day your way vacate, lame way to around to hate? Whatever they say, man, it’s not in the least bit we get heavy, rotate when a beat hits a thing? Because you well, fucking niggas for real? You’re welcome they never had a deal? You welcome, man, they lack in a pill? You’re welcome yet they doing it still? You’re welcome.
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