Daniel Cartier (00:01)
Let's start the show!
Hey everybody, welcome to There is No God and We're All Gonna Die. I am your host, Daniel Cartier. I'm a gay liberal atheist living in the Bible Belt and This is kind of a weird show for me, I have to say. I've been going through a lot of stuff and I... I don't... I probably shouldn't tell you this but my heart really wasn't in filming this episode tonight and I kept putting it off and putting it off and putting it off.
and putting it off and I couldn't really figure out why because there's so much to talk about and then it dawned on me I think the reason that there's so much to talk about is why I didn't feel like talking about it and it's why I said at the very beginning of this episode that Donald Trump is a fucking asshole he is and I do think that when I hear people say cruelty is the point and it is true
It is a very needlessly cruel administration. Like when they're just doing all this douchebaggy stuff that they don't need to be doing. They could just be helping to make, you know, groceries affordable and give people health care and help people. But instead, all of the policies are basically around cruelty, really. I mean, that's what it seems like. And we'll get into that. Trust me, there's a lot to talk about.
But I also think hopelessness is the point. one of my very dear friends, I've known her forever, she posted this thing. She was really mad. She was like, this is when we can't stay silent. We need to speak up. We need to not back down. What he's doing is completely ridiculous. And what did I say to her? said, right on. I agree.
This is one we should not be silent. They want us to be, what did I say? I said, they want us to be hopeless.
Fuck, now it's gonna bug me. Like something like they want us to be hopeless, powerless, and silent. ⁓ that's what I said. they want us to be hopeless, powerless, and silent. Now is the time for us to be hopeful, powerful, and loud. And that's the truth. All this stuff that's happening right now, this is unprecedented. This is not normal for America.
Donald Trump is basically doing so many unconstitutional things right now. And I will get to that in a second, but
First I just wanted to talk about the whole concept of waking up sometimes and feeling that hopelessness, feeling like, you know, the whole thing is so fucking corrupt, what's the fucking point? You know, like, is me doing this stupid little podcast really gonna solve anything? Or like, say if you're somebody who just has a Facebook page or an Instagram page or you just have people you talk to in your life and then you think, well, you know, I could speak up and speak my mind, but does it really make any...
fucking difference. mean, it's all just so corrupt. Well, it does make a difference because the world doesn't change by one huge person doing some monumental thing. Real change happens when millions and millions and millions of people take action. And it doesn't always have to be large action. We do what we can, you know, whether it's
showing up for a protest or just talking to our neighbors and telling them how Donald Trump's policies are making us feel or actually affecting our lives. you know the funny thing is living here in Tennessee, it's amazing how many times I've talked to Trump voters because I know a lot of them. I live in the middle of the Bible belt. The whole premise of this friggin' podcast is that I'm a gay liberal atheist living in the middle of people who don't vote like me.
who they certainly don't worship like me because I don't worship anything and they're, they're not gay. Well, some of them are, but usually the ones that are gay, they also vote like me and you know, so that's kind of nice. but yeah, I, know a lot of Trump voters, they are members of my community. I see them all the time and so I don't live in one of those places where I can just cut
all Trump supporters out of my life. can't, you know, it would be
be unsustainable because I leave the house, I'm interacting with people. And, you know, I discussed in the first episode why I still live here. It has a lot to do with the fact that this is all we can afford with all our dogs and everything. But I also think that it's important for
somebody like me if I have to be here to really be here as myself and to let people get to know me because I may be the one liberal person they know and so I've Getting back to my point like it's amazing to me how many times I talked to Trump supporters and they're not even aware of a lot of the things he's doing that are adversely affecting people like
I talked to people about Project 2025 and so did my partner and they were unaware of it. actually we know Trump supporters who have gay children and they love their gay children to their credit. But they had no idea about Project 2025. And so they voted for Donald Trump. And it's like, dude, this is going to affect members of your immediate family. And that doesn't concern you.
So yes, I do think that communication that is the most powerful thing and sometimes communication is loud. And so we're to get into that too. You know, Donald Trump really wants people to shut up. He really does. I mean, he signed this executive decision today executive order, whatever you want to call it that now
it's illegal to burn the American flag. Not that I want to go out and burn the American flag right now. I'm not saying that I do, but if I wanted to, that's my constitutional right. That is freedom of speech. That is one of the most obvious examples they always bring up. You know, like if you truly believe in freedom of speech, then you should support somebody's right to burn the American flag.
And if you don't support that right, then you don't support the freedom of speech and you don't support the values that are actually American. Because for me, I may not want to go burn the American flag right now, but am I pissed off at America or at least the people running it a lot of times? Absolutely. And that doesn't make me unpatriotic. As a matter of fact, I think it makes me more patriotic because if you are just going to blindly accept what a country is doing and you're just like, you know, it's just
what my country's doing right now and I don't really care about the ramifications for other people's lives or whatever because my life's great. That's not patriotic, that's just being a selfish douchebag. But also, it's being a nationalist. And a nationalist, like blind doesn't even exist in the same universe as patriotism. To be a true patriot, I think that
you need to constantly be challenging your country and you need to constantly be asking why there's people who are hungry and why there's people who are disenfranchised
okay, if you're a MAGA person and you're watching this and you're disagreeing with me, I'm gonna pretend I'm you for a second and this is how I think you should be. I'm not saying you're going to be this way, but this is how you should be. When you see somebody burning the American flag, you may not like it, but the patriotic thing to do would be to question why are they so angry that they would actually burn it in the first place? What happened?
That's the patriotic way to be. Because maybe the reason why they're burning the American flag is because has done something so heinous and horrible in their eyes that it warranted them protesting and visually showing their displeasure in the country. And it doesn't even mean that they hate America when they do that. It means that they hate what America's doing.
I don't know what it would be in that circumstance, but you know, every time I've seen people burn the American flag, it's usually because they're really pissed off about some policy, you know, whether it be genocide or going to a needless war, putting our troops in danger, for no reason other than corporate profits, you know, going over and fighting in the Middle East or in Vietnam or something for wars that a lot of times
People are like, why the fuck are we even over here? Even the people fighting the wars aren't they're at war. And so yeah, when that happens and then you find out how, you know, stock prices are soaring and there's people making billions of dollars off that. Yeah, I think that would warrant a flag being burned. But you know, that's just me, you know, because I'm patriotic and I actually want to know when my country is falling short of its
perfect ideals, then yeah, let's question it. And questioning the country,
Man, I did not even mean to talk about any of this, but now I guess this is what I'm talking because all the stuff that Donald Trump is doing is bringing that up for me. But it's almost like if you were a parent and the nationalist parent would just think everything their kid did was great.
and never question that kid because that kid is just the best kid. And then it's like, well, you know, he did bully a bunch of kids in school, but we're not going to talk about that because my kid's great. Well, you know, he did, steal, from the corner store. Well, we're not going to talk about that because my kid's great. I mean, that would be like a nationalist you just, your kid, just think the kid is so amazing that you can't even question the kid
the kids just star spangled awesome all the time, no matter what he does, no matter who he bullies, no matter how he lies, no matter how he cheats on things. He's just an amazing kid. And even questioning that would make you a bad parent. A patriotic parent, I'm just using the kid like if the kid was America, I know it's kind of confusing. Patriotic parent would be like constantly, questioning like, hey, you know,
I love you, you're my kid, but you can't steal. You can't cheat. You can't take things from the corner store. You can't bully other kids. Now, if you ask me, that's being a better parent, right? Well, it's the same with us. We're, in a sense, the parents of America. Like, we live here and America is this thing that we all need to take care of.
And if we're just not even going to question anything that America does, then we're not being good Americans. We're being really shitty Americans. We're being lazy Americans. And I'll get to that an asshole of the week. So anyways, enough about that. Yeah, I was feeling really hopeless when I woke up today. I was just feeling overwhelmed by all of it. And I was just feeling really downtrodden. And then I realized, you know what?
When I feel that way, the only thing that will get me out of to just keep showing up. Showing up and not shutting up. And not fucking shutting up. So I'm not gonna fucking shut up. I'm a gay liberal atheist living in the Bible Belt. My government is being run by a fucking psychopath. And yeah, I'm not gonna shut up about that. And that makes me a patriot. So if you don't think that's the case, fuck you. And ⁓
And I say that with love, because I love everybody. Even if you hate everything I just said, it's really none of my business what you think. Honestly, we should be able to say what's on our mind and not worry about what people think of it.
So anyways, let's take a gander at what's in the news.
Daniel Cartier (11:24)
Okay, I'm not gonna spend too much time on the news actually because I think it's all being reported and this really isn't a news show. This is kind of more like, hey you guys, I'm a fucking wacky guy living down south who has a bunch of weird beliefs. And so let me give you a commentary on them. But I will let you know what's going on right now. So basically in case you haven't heard, well here's the first thing, Oklahoma to require an ideology test for teachers from New York and California.
Just from New York and California, isn't that something? So basically, Oklahoma will require applicants for teacher jobs coming from California and New York to pass an exam that the Republican-dominated state's top education official says is designed to safeguard against radical leftist ideology.
Ryan Walters, Oklahoma's public school superintendent said Monday that any teacher coming from the two blue states will be required to pass an assessment exam. Okay. Here's the thing that really pisses me off. Administered by PragerU, an Oklahoma based conservative nonprofit. Okay. PragerU is not a real fucking university. All it is,
is a fucking propaganda machine. have a friend I know who's a Trumper here in Tennessee, and he's posting PragerU videos all the time on his Facebook page. PragerU is just a bunch of fucking bullshit. read up on PragerU. They'll be asshole of the week soon enough, I'm sure. They are like the biggest propaganda pile of bullshit.
So anyways, apparently they're the ones coming up with this loyalty test, which I didn't realize that until I just read this article. yeah, that's a bunch of hot bullshit, but let's see what else it says.
So as long as I am superintendent, Oklahoma classrooms will be safeguarded from the radical leftist ideology fostered in places like California and New York, Walters said in a statement.
PragerU, short for Prager University, puts out short videos with a conservative perspective on politics and economics. It promotes itself as focused on changing minds through the creative use of digital media.
this is really scary because what it's basically doing is it's basically saying Prager U is a kind of gatekeeper for future teachers. again, Prager U is not even a reliable media source. It's just a propaganda outlet. That's all it is. So they're basically taking a propaganda outlet and a state is making this propaganda outlet part of
the thing that makes up the state's teaching body. this is gonna be the thing helps Oklahoma choose their teachers. It's really fucked up.
Daniel Cartier (14:03)
So that's happening right now. Obviously the other thing ⁓ that Trump's signing the executive order on flag burning. you can get up to a year in jail for burning the American flag.
So the other thing that's obviously happening right now is that Donald Trump is threatening to bring the military into other cities as well. He just gave permission for the troops in Washington, D.C. to start carrying firearms and also he's threatening to
bring troops into Chicago and New York and these cities right now crime is actually down so crime was down in Washington DC crime was down in Chicago crime is down in New York City he's also talking about Baltimore I'm not really sure Baltimore has always had a pretty bad crime problem but the point is we've never had to send troops into these cities and so obviously
I mean, it's just so blatant that this is just somebody trying to have absolute power over America. he doesn't really feel like he needs to send troops into places where people vote for him. Like he's not going to send troops to Montana or South Dakota. No, just to the blue places, just to the blue places. And also, you know, just like with Oklahoma, like we're only going to question the teachers from those blue places. So this is clearly
You know, across the board, it's clearly just an attack on anything that they view as not being their Trump clearly is not a president for all of America. I mean, let's just be honest, he's not. he's serving himself and then he's just serving the people who
agree with him. the fact that there is a loyalty test now and the fact that we are sending troops in and basically treating cities where crime has been going down. Suddenly, it's an thing that he always does. He declares these states of emergency where there is no emergency, like when there was no emergency down at the border a bunch of times, but we have to make it into this emergency so that
you know, we can vilify entire sections of the world, and view all the people from those parts of the world as illegals, you know, and not as human beings because viewing them as human beings would require us to have some empathy and compassion and kindness and caring. And clearly a lot of Americans don't have that, which is really sad. And me saying that is patriotic, by the way, getting back to my theme before.
because as a patriot...
I actually take it as a compliment when people want to come here and live amongst us and view this as a place where they can find safety and I don't know. It's just so fucking crazy. So that's happening. I really hate doing this news right now because it's just so much fucking bullshit.
Daniel Cartier (16:47)
So the other thing that happened, I'm sorry, I got completely distracted when I started talking about him sending the troops into other
Daniel Cartier (16:56)
Donald Trump said,
Daniel Cartier (16:57)
you know, think a lot of people want a dictator.
Okay.
Can you imagine if Obama said that? Like if Obama said, you know, a lot of people might want a dictator because that's what Trump just said today. And of course people are freaking out and people are like, why the fuck would a president say that? That is fucking crazy. You know, I posted a meme and I said, no, Donald, we don't want a fucking dictator. the only people who would want that are the people who are just so delusional.
And here's the scary thing. I've been saying this for a long time now because I know that all through last year leading up to the were telling all of our MAGA friends and family members, know, he wants to be a dictator. He wants to use the White House as his own.
personal piggy bank and he wants to weaponize our government to get back at his enemies and he basically wants to be a fucking dictator.
And the whole time we were doing that and warning people, I had this thought in my head and I stand by it now as I look I see that this thought is probably right. And it's a really scary thought.
And the thought is...
That was never the thing we should have been warning them about because honestly, when you're in a cult, the threat of your leader becoming a dictator isn't a threat. It's what you want. And I think a lot of these people, they do want him to be a dictator. it's actually a selling point, and that is fucking scary because, know, how many
memes and flags and stuff. Have you seen where Donald Trump is this godlike figure, which is really hilarious and sad and ridiculous. But I mean, I was just driving down the street here in Tennessee and I'll pass these gift shops. they have these stands on the side of the road that just sell Trump flags and they're everywhere in Tennessee.
You can leave your house and if you drive long enough, even now that the election's over, can find like a little stand somewhere selling Trump flags. And they'll have Trump flags where he's like Rambo and he's has muscles. And it's totally desecrating the American flag, by the way, meanwhile, he's against burning the American flag, but he's not against putting his fat fucking stupid face on an American flag.
holding a machine gun I mean, it's so delusional.
because you know then you see him in real life and it's like dude you do not look like that
so again, can you imagine if Obama had flags where he was like holding a machine gun or looking like Rambo or something They would probably want to lynch him. But, know, Donald Trump does they hang it on their friggin porch and everything. So,
Yeah I don't think the fascist dictator thing is really a threat to them, I think that's what they that scares the flying fuck out of me, it really does. That is fucking scary. So if you're a MAGA person watching this right now, I just want you to know that like,
Everything he's doing right now is destroying what makes America Like it is destroying American freedom. is destroying American values. It is destroying the very thing that you claim to love because a lot of times you're the people waving the American flag around and acting all star spangled awesome and everything he's doing right now is un-American. So I don't know like explain that to me like I'm a six year old because it makes no fucking sense.
But anyways, let's not talk about Donald Trump anymore. Fuck Donald Trump. He's a fucking douchebag. And let's get on to some bigger and better and brighter things. you know what? I want to listen to some voicemails. I'm going to mix this up a little. I want to listen to some voicemails now because talking about all that just really fucking bummed me out. And I normally would do asshole of the week right now, but I think I want to, ⁓
Do that a little later because I think I want to listen to some voicemails. Yeah, that would cheer me up. So I'm going to listen to some voicemails and it's my show so I can do whatever the fuck I want. So that's what I'm going to do. Let's listen to some voicemails.
Alright, let's see. Let's listen to some voicemails. Voicemails.
⁓
Ha ha. My favorite movie or TV show when I was a kid growing up. Good Lord, I have to think about that for a second. Well, I know that I did go through a big dukes of hazard phase, believe it or not. that was a pretty big show for me. And this was back when there was no VCRs or TiVo or anything like that. if you missed the show, you missed the show. And my dad, we had one TV.
and when my dad wanted to watch TV, he was the guy who was earning all the money and it was his house. he would oftentimes want to watch hockey games. And so I remember one time there was this really great episode of Dukes of Hazzard that was coming on and I was so excited to watch it. And then he's like,
There's a hockey game. And so he turned on the hockey game and I was just so mad. I was like, I hate living here and whatever. But, what other shows did I like? I really loved, well, I loved Laverne and Shirley growing up, gay and, for movies when I was little.
When I was little one of the movies I remember seeing when I was little and Laughing so hard I laughed through the whole thing was what's up doc with Barbara Streisand Ryan O'Neil I saw that when I was like eight years old and it's a real kind of slapstick comedy They have this crazy
car chase scene through the streets of San Francisco and they're on this bike and they go through this parade and this Chinese dragon gets caught on their bike and then this Chinese dragon is like going through the streets of San Francisco and all these bad guys and Madeline Kahn's in it. It was like her first big movie role and I think it, yeah, introducing Madeline Kahn. And so.
Yeah, I just remember I loved that movie as a kid. I remember watching it with my family and laughing so hard my face hurt. And we just watched it again. I just showed it to Corey. And I was like, this is one of my favorite movies from when I was a little kid. And it's still a really good movie. So.
Anyways, thanks for the question. I'm sure there's other movies I mean, I love The Wizard of Oz and
I got to see Halloween. I don't know why I got to see it. when Halloween came out I was like 10? And for some reason I got to see it and it totally traumatized me but I wanted to see it again and again and again. So I love horror movies, I'm a big horror movie person so...
Yeah, I remember seeing Halloween and then being kind of fascinated by that. And then I went through this whole big, Friday the 13th Halloween, like I had to see all those type of movies when I was a teenager. I was kind of obsessed with them, which was a little weird. But I also read a lot when I was a little kid. And I read like books that were kind of adult books. Like I remember being like 10 and 11 and reading
Stephen King books like The Stand and The Shining and Carrie when I was a really young kid. But yeah, I would just get lost in those books I would always fantasize like with The Stand with the world ending and everybody suddenly being gone I would picture how I would navigate through that
type of world, if all of a sudden everybody was gone, what would I do? You know, so anyways, yeah. good question. Thank you, Ruben. What else?
Hey, Jane.
Mmm.
That is a good question. Yes, I did believe in God growing up, but it was kind of a very weird, very loosey goosey belief in God. Like I was raised in the Catholic Church. I had my first communion and I was baptized and I was the youngest of six kids. So all the kids got baptized in the first communion. And, you know, I just kind of didn't
question anything growing up you know like I thought that's what you did so we would have to go to church every Sunday and stuff and after the church we'd have refreshments downstairs and I like that as a little kid you know I like going down and having like the the crackers and stuff and the church would sometimes put on these like talent shows or like they would have things happening and
I had to go to, it's called Catechism class or they would call it CCD, but it was this class that I had to go to after school and one of the nuns would run it and teach us about, I don't know, being a Catholic or something. And I think that was kind of preparing us for being confirmed. And then I had to go to
confirmation school to get confirmed when I was a teenager. And that's when the cracks started showing because I ended up being the only kid in my family that did not get that's when I really started questioning everything. by the time I was a teenager, I had a big Mohawk and I was listening to punk music and whatever.
I was one of those kids, I just started questioning everything. even back then I was like starting to see hypocrisy everywhere. wasn't one of the Reagan there's a lot of kids in my school because this was the 80s and they
thought Ronald Reagan was awesome and thought, you know, everything's great. And, they were all going to church and whatever. And, me and some of my friends were the ones that thought Ronald Reagan was evil and that there was all this corruption and they were kicking homeless people out on the street to balance the budget. And that's when the whole trickle down economics thing started.
in all that's when I started to realize I was gay. And then here was the church saying that gay people were perverts and evil. And so I just started questioning all of it didn't make any sense to me. It didn't add I went for a long time where my beliefs were kind of all over the place, like
Sometimes I'd be like, well, I'm not religious, I'm spiritual. And then sometimes I'd be like, well, I believe that there's something, but I don't know what it is. And that was me for a long time. It was like this real loosey goosey well, I think that there's something out there. I don't know what it is. And you know what? A lot of people still think that and that's great. I don't want to take that away from anybody. And I also don't want to take away if people believe in Jesus or Buddha or Allah or whatever.
That's fine. As I've said many times, I don't have problem with people believing in things. I'm more concerned about their values and if they think it's appropriate to take their religious beliefs and persecute people with them. Like that's my big problem with religion is that, you have all these people now who want to use their to basically take away people's civil rights or demonize people or
make people feel like they're perverts or sinners or like this one guy up in Indianapolis that, you know, like a gay like me, I should kill myself apparently. Yeah, that's where I have a problem with religion. What do I miss about religion?
community. one thing I will say about the church you get these big churches and, you know, I've started going to a bunch of atheist meetups and I even spoke this week at one and it was great to see a group of people who were either atheists or free thinkers.
The word atheist doesn't actually describe everybody who does not believe in God. Some people don't like that term and they consider themselves to be humanists or literalists or free thinkers and you know, whatever. I mean, it doesn't really matter to me. I just call myself atheist because people know what that means and I don't have to explain myself. I'm an atheist, bada bada boom, done. But, ⁓
I will say that,
When you're an atheist, kind of feel like a douchebag when I say I'm an atheist,
people take it a lot of times is that
what you believe is wrong. And honestly, I'm just saying what I believe. I believe there is no God. And to me, that's a very spiritual thing because
I believe there is no God. That means the responsibility to be the change I want to see in the world or be the love I want to see in the world or the empathy or the kindness or the community. It has to start with me. I can't wait for some God to do it for me. I need to bring all those qualities to the table. And so for me, being an atheist is actually very spiritual because I think spiritual can mean a lot of things. think spiritual can just talk about
our spirit, like does he have a compassionate spirit, an empathetic spirit, a kind spirit, or does he have a mean spirit, a harsh spirit, a selfish spirit? You know, so I think how we are with the rest of the world and how we view the rest of the world and how we interact with them and whether or not we are, part of the solution and part of the problem, I think that's all spiritual.
and I don't have to believe in some third party person to do any of that. I can make my spirituality be how I'm interacting with everybody. And that includes people who believe in things I don't believe know I talk a lot of shit about MAGA voters, but I still love them. It breaks my heart that they think what they think. but as people, if they needed help, if they were
Thirsty, would give them water. If they were hungry, I would give them food. if they were struggling and I could help them in some way, I would because that's just the right way to be. I don't need some God telling me that. And they don't need to be this perfect person that agrees with everything I agree with in order for me to help them. I can still help them even if I hate everything they believe in, I mean, I'm not going to go
put out ad. Do any Nazis need saying that, but mean, like, within reason. mean, like, yeah, if I see somebody on the side of the road and I feel like it's safe for me to pull over and see if they need help with their car or something, I'm not gonna be like, how did you vote? Or do you believe in a God I don't believe in? No, I'm not gonna be that way.
But I do miss community. mean, there's a lot of people who don't believe in God. ⁓ But because we don't believe in God, that means we don't really get together to worship a God. so, atheists kind of have to force like.
More and more atheists are starting to get together and have these meetups and everything, but it's still especially down here in the South. It's rare. I mean, I got to drive like an hour to go meet up with a bunch of atheists, in, Nashville. I'm thinking of starting an atheist meetup here where I live, because I really do want to just every once in a while, meet up with people and I don't have to explain myself
It would be nice. anyways, that's what I miss is the community.
Daniel Cartier (32:37)
Okay, let's see. I'm gonna do one more phone call and then we're gonna do Asshole of the Week and then I'll do a couple more phone calls. I like breaking it up a little bit sometimes and changing the order around.
Oh thanks, Brad. Thanks for calling in. I feel you. It's very frustrating. I've actually had some gay friends who support Donald Trump. mean, you know, they have the log cabin Republicans, which have never made any fucking sense to me. I really don't get it. But here in Tennessee, I do know gay people who voted for Trump. As a matter of fact, two of my favorite people in the whole world who I even had a little bit of a.
Frisky time with them at one point. I won't get into that, but we kind of had a little thing going for a while. Long story. Anyways, huge Trump flag outside their house. And I didn't realize
I got to know them and they just seemed so cool and they seemed so awesome and they seemed so nice. And then I remember the first time one of them posted something about Donald Trump and how much they love Donald Trump. I was really confused. I thought like, are they making fun of MAGA people? But then I realized they were serious and
I still don't understand it haven't talked to them since the election. I don't really know what to say to I feel bad about that but it's
I feel it's their right. I don't want to take away anybody's right to support who they want to support.
But I don't get it. I really don't. I mean, I don't know how you could be gay and support him. I just don't. There was this fashion designer I knew. going to name any names, but he was a pretty big fashion designer. And he was from a different country. I think he was from the Philippines, but now he lives here. And he's very America, America, America. And he just was posting all this stuff about Donald Trump. And I was really surprised. And he actually had designed, I think, a dress for Melania or for somebody.
All this footage of him with Don Jr. at some fashion show and at these big events at the White House with Donald Trump and all of his friends from New York who knew him through the years, all his gay friends and queer friends and trans friends were like,
you do realize you're like a sad lapdog and he was like, no, they're a beautiful family and America. And I don't know. It was just, it was so crazy to me.
and he seemed like such a cool guy and very talented fashion designer. But yeah, like totally into Donald Trump. you know, it's like I've said many times, when I get really upset over somebody's decision, it's usually because I care about them. If I didn't care about them, I wouldn't give a shit.
It wouldn't bother me as much, when you care about somebody and then you find out they've just drank all this Kool-Aid. and being reminded of it every day, because it's not even just the gay friends. mean, I struggle even with my friends who are straight who voted for him. Like
I don't know what it's going to take. then I will see them and they'll be so... Man, I don't even want to get into it. But I mean, it's just like, I'll know the sides of them are kind and are compassionate nice people, but yet they're still voting for him. And it's like, I have such a hard time.
aligning their vote with the person I was friends with and it really, I don't know, it sucks. It sucks I have to take it one person at a time. I have to take it one relationship at a time. I do stand by my thing that
whenever possible, I like to keep the lines of communication open because I do believe that, I don't know, maybe I'll say something that will resonate with them. And if we just shut everybody out, that's not an answer either because then it's like communication stops. And then all they're hearing is the echo chamber of propaganda and bullshit things like PragerU and
Fox News and Breitbart and all these fucking bullshit media sources that they get. It's not even news. mean, Fox News had to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to settle bogus phony propaganda news reporting, So it's not news. It's just propaganda.
You know, but the thing is, know that they, on their side, look at the liberal media and they look at somebody like me and they think that we've drank Kool-Aid and they call us sheeple and they call us libtards and they, think that we're just these woke idiots, who are just triggered by everything and blah, blah, blah.
all I know is that what I see is that being a human being, we're just here for a short amount of time. And I believe when we die, it's lights out. I really do. I don't think we go anywhere else. I think when we die, it's lights out. And so a big part of me being an atheist is that my heaven is right now.
If I want to be in heaven, if I want to go to heaven, I better start acting like I'm in heaven right now because this is the only time I'll ever get to be in heaven. And so what does that mean for me? It means that I want everybody around me to have a wonderful life. means that I want people to have nice things. It means I don't want to demonize entire swaths of people because they happen to come here in
a that I didn't agree with, like, they came here illegally. Well, maybe they were fleeing horrible situations. And I'm just glad they made it here safely. ironically enough, even though I don't believe in God, for me to feel like my life right now is heavenly, I'm going to be adopting a lot of the things that Christ talked about,
feeding the poor, treating people with compassion, treating people with love, turning the other cheek, loving thy neighbor, This is all stuff that I agree with. I don't agree in the whole God thing, but I do agree with all those concepts. I agree with all the concepts in the St. Francis prayer where there's hatred.
May I bring love with this wrong may bring the spirit of forgiveness with this discord may bring harmony with this error made I bring truth with this doubt may bring faith with this despair may bring hope with the shadows may bring light with his sadness may bring joy grant that I may seek to comfort rather than be comforted to understand rather than be understood to love them to be loved for it's by self forgetting that one finds it's by forgiving that one is forgiven it's by dying that one awakens to eternal life well in my case that's the one thing I don't believe in it's like
I think when you die, you die. up till that point, like I'm all down with that entire prayer. And then I, you know, I see people who claim to be Christian and they embody nothing of that. It's like almost like Jesus isn't on brand for them anymore. Like, like, you know, yeah, we like Jesus, but we don't like anything he talked about. we like to like.
wheel his face out act like we're all into it, but we don't actually agree with anything he was advocating for anymore. That's the old Christianity. The new Christianity is, show us your papers. no, you need help with your groceries? Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. That's the new Christianity, or at least the new Christian nationalism. As I said
A episodes ago I did go to that atheist convention and I met a bunch of progressive Christians who do still value all those Christ-like tenets. And I think they're great people and I love that. they share all the same values that I do. I just don't happen to believe in the God thing, but I agree with everything. I saw these progressive Christians at that convention who believe in...
LGBTQIA equality and they believe in a woman's right to choose and they believe that people who come here should not be called illegals. You know, they're they're human beings. They believe in compassion and kindness and empathy. And I'm all in when it comes to that. You know, I just don't happen to believe in the God thing. Anyways, I got off the topic. Who's whose call was I answering? was it? ⁓
I think it was, oh, it was Brad's. Brad, I just adore you. I'm so sorry that I like went off the rails and I started talking about all this other stuff. But yes, the MAGA thing and seeing gay MAGAs, it is really upsetting. I don't know, just take it one day at a time, one person at a time and...
If there's any way we can continue to communicate with these people, I think we should. we also, I also think self care is important. And sometimes we need to put up those walls just to kind of like heal from being upset that people are still buying into this bullshit. Sometimes I need to just not think about it, sometimes it just gets to be too much.
especially living down here in Tennessee, but I imagine everywhere.
Daniel Cartier (42:24)
I'll do a couple more voicemails in a second, but first let's just do a little bit of self promotion and I want to talk about who Asshole of the Week is. first let's do some self promotion.
Okay, so very quickly, I just have a couple things to promote. First of all, speakpipe.com slash there is no God and we're all gonna die. That's where you go to leave me a voice message and I will answer your voice message on this podcast. You can also just go to my website, danielcartier.com and write on the homepage. There's a button to leave me a voice message or you can find
me on Facebook, facebook.com slash there is no God and we're all gonna die and you send me a private message that way and there's a little microphone icon and you can leave me a voice message that way. Second thing, my acoustic album will be out on all the streaming services at the beginning of September. I'm very excited about it. It sounds amazing. And the first video is up online now. I do a cover of
Are You Lonesome Tonight by Elvis Presley and I have to say it sounds really beautiful. It's a very kind of bossa nova-y, sexy cover of a very beautiful song by Elvis. Well, it's actually not by Elvis, it's a public domain song, which I didn't realize, So he had actually covered it as well, but it's a beautiful song, one of my favorite songs of all time, so I was happy to do my own little version of it. You can check out the video on YouTube.
And I will be doing a bunch of art fairs. If you're in and around the Dixon, Tennessee area in September, I'll be doing a ton of art fairs. So you can go to my website and I will be posting all those dates there as well. And a lot of my art animal rescue and the care of our handicapped dog pack that we take care of. anyways,
Let's go on to I'm kind of a douchebag when I'm dealing with assholes.
Alright, so the asshole of the week...
is everybody, all of us, we are all the asshole of the week, some of us more than others. You guys, you just heard everything I fucking talked about. You just heard that Donald Trump is sending troops into cities for no fucking reason, claiming there's this big emergency when crime rates are down and giving them permission to carry weapons and
take away people's rights to burn the American flag, even though I don't want to burn it right now, but I mean, that is a fundamental right of living in America. And now he is making all these executive orders that are basically taking away our rights as Americans. so if you're sitting around and you're thinking, well, that sucks, but I'm busy.
I got shit to do.
I'm sorry but you're being a fucking asshole. No offense. I say this with love. If you want to have America continue to be America, we all have to start fucking speaking up. This is fucking bullshit. This is bullshit. And I understand that life is life and people are busy and people have things to do and Becky's going off to college and Timmy's going to school and so and so has a dentist appointment and the dog needs to go to the vet. I get all that.
So yeah, tend to your life, but we all need to make time to make our voices heard. If you aren't concerned if you aren't concerned about somebody behaving like a fascist dictator and they happen to be in the White House, if that doesn't concern you,
Can you please do me a favor and just ask yourself why it doesn't concern you? Because the fact that it doesn't concern you concerns me. This is kind of like period in the movie.
You know in any disaster movie where they have these people on the fringes like maybe it's a scientist or something that realizes things are really gonna go haywire any second and they're trying to warn everybody but they just come across as crazy people and then later on when the shit really hits the fan people are like we should have listened to that scientist all along and you know but now it's too late because the shit really hit the fan we're actually kind of past that point
because I felt all last year like I was that crazy scientist. I was like telling people, he's gonna be a dictator, he's gonna be a dictator. they're gonna be taking away our rights. they're it more difficult for people to vote. he's gonna try to stay in power, And, you know, kind of felt the crazy scientist kind of feel like we're actually past that point.
the disaster is actually starting to happen. we're seeing it right in front of our eyes and are we like frogs? You know, they say that you can put a frog in water and then like heat the water up and a frog won't do anything. It'll just allow itself to be boiled to death. Is that what we are? So I hate to call us all assholes of the week, but I think we all win if we are complacent in this.
Like we just we can't afford to be complacent right now. So you have a protest that you have time to go to, you should go to it. If you have somebody you can talk to that you might be able to sway them on their vote, you should talk to them. If you have someplace you can volunteer to maybe make a difference in the 2026 elections, you should definitely volunteer. If you have.
Just something you need to say to the world. You should fucking say it.
I'm doing this podcast. I'm not making any money on it. I mean, this is actually eating into my time. And I know it's not going to change the big picture, but at least it's one more person kind of yelling out into this fucking void and saying yeah, we all need to fucking get it together here because what's going to happen next? mean, I feel like the line that keeps getting pushed.
further and further and further. So it's scary stuff. So we all win asshole of the week. So congratulations to us all. I hope it's not a title that we're proud of. hope it inspires us to maybe
show up a little more and take this a little bit more seriously. anyways, there is no runner up asshole of the week this week. So that's nice. I can get into the last two voicemails and you guys then I'll be done with this episode and I can go and enjoy my evening. But you know, I love being here with you guys and thank you for watching. It is a joy to talk to you guys. I am going to start bringing guests on so that'll be fun too. But
Anyways, let's see who else called.
Yeah.
Alex, thank you so much for calling. And it was so nice meeting you this weekend. Alex was actually at the presentation I gave in Nashville about starting this podcast. I gave a whole speech on it in Nashville I can't believe I haven't even discussed that, but it was an amazing experience. Maybe I'll talk about it in the next episode. a bunch of us went out to get something to eat afterwards. And so it was a bunch of people I had never met before.
and they were all people who were either atheists or humanists or free thinkers. I mean, I'm not really sure what they were, but they were all very cool people and Alex
Daniel Cartier (51:31)
was talking about the concept that there's some people who have their friends, but it's really hard for them to break out of the little bubble of friends they have. And then there's other people who just naturally are kind of like, I don't know, social butterflies. And they go from group to group and they bridge people together.
Yeah, I think it's really important. think that's one of the things that makes the world go round I call them instigators. The world needs instigators they need people who don't have a problem with connecting one person to the other person. I've always loved being that type of person. had the pleasure in my life of
starting different groups and I love to plan events and I love to plan parties even if it's something dorky like a bowling party or something and everybody goes bowling, and then you just get this really random mix of people and some of the people have never met each other and so then they start bowling together or everybody goes out to dinner
I mean, even like we started a support group
for LGBTQIA people out here in our very conservative part of Tennessee,
and one of my best friends I won't get into what the support group was, But there was no group serving the gay community out here.
⁓ when it came to addiction and stuff like that so we started this weekly meeting and for the longest time it was just the two of us and it was just one night a week and we almost quit doing it because nobody was showing up and now it's three nights a week and there's usually thirty or forty people who show up all different types of people even a lot of straight people who are quote unquote allies show up which is great and
so I've always been one of those people who I just love bringing people together and I don't think it's something that comes naturally to everybody and that's OK. You know, some people are more comfortable being, just part of the gang, gang needs those instigators to make stuff happen. one of my best friends, Steve.
He's kind of like a good old boy. he's like really super chill guy, just like straight guy, like just super chill. like, can get up on stage and entertain people and you know, do this podcast and get up and talk in front of a bunch of people to him. That is like,
his worst nightmare like he would never ever do anything like this or get up and like give a speech or get on stage and do a big show it's just not who he is. And it's not who he wants to be. And I love that about him. but yet he's still one of my dearest friends and I love him. He's like a brother to me. so yeah,
It's kind of like, I know that there's this fiber that it's like this fungi, not to compare myself to a fungi, but like there's this, this, this like fungi that all the trees, in the dirt and like, the trees communicate with each other and it's actually very vital to the ecosystem of a forest. it's like,
email for trees it's this white fungi it's one of the things that keeps trees healthy if one tree has a disease it'll it'll it'll send that message to the other tree and the other tree will take preemptive precautions or like if young saplings aren't getting enough nutrients a larger more adult tree will give
some of its nutrients to them. And so they're relaying all this information to each other through like this veiny fungi that goes from tree to tree. And that's kind of like what these instigators are like. They're these people who like weave through the human race and they kind of bring people together. so anyways, this guy that I met, he had actually started this thing in his community where they meet
I think once a month and people will say if there's anything they need, like somebody might need a ride somewhere or somebody might just want somebody to hang out because normally you move into these communities and you don't even talk to your neighbors, you know, that's very common now. Like people won't even know that like they'll live next door to somebody, but they won't even know their neighbor's name or what the neighbor does.
I could never be like that. it where I live, I know all my neighbors I bake them cookies. if somebody grows tomatoes, they bring it over. And like, I, that's, I want to be in a community, like I want to know my neighbors that's why I like a lot of times like I'll bake cookies and I'll just bring them all over town. I'll bring them to the police station, the fire station, both banks, the friggin,
the post office, the, all my neighbors, of course, the Mennonites. I think I'm forgetting somebody. the town hall. bring them to the town hall employees and, you know, it's like, nobody told me to do that, but I mean, to me, it's like, I think it just makes people feel better about their community when other community members do nice things.
Be the community you want to see in the world. Like I'm always saying be the love you want to see in the world. But definitely if you want community, be the community. the community can start with all of us, just reaching out. that was big word salad. know. And I don't know if that answered your question, but I was so nice meeting you. And I hope we get to hang out again. I had so much fun going out to dinner with.
It was just a little group of us, like four of us, went out to dinner. It was really fun and it was really nice and it was a group of lovely people. anyways, thank you so much.
Daniel Cartier (56:37)
Alright you guys, think we just have one more voicemail and that's it. and I think, it's actually Cory called again.
Aww.
Good question. What does work ethic mean to me? Well, I know right now you're seeing it because I know you want to go walk the dogs and I want to go walk the dogs, but I had to film this podcast first because this was the only time I could film it. Work ethic, you know, I was talking to my dear friend James Gavin called me today and he's a brilliant writer. he's written a bunch of biographies for some pretty cool people. He wrote ⁓ a book on Peggy Lee, on Lena Horne.
He wrote a book on George Michael, ⁓ on Chet Atkins, on the history of Cabaret. he wrote this beautiful, one of my favorite articles anybody ever wrote about me. He wrote this piece in Time Out New York. This was way back, like almost 20 years ago. He wrote this piece on me. it was a beautiful piece, the only reason why I bring him up is because,
When he writes a book on somebody, he goes all in. He wants to know everything about that person. And it takes him a long time to write these books. They're really well thought are very thorough. Very thorough. And what I said to him today, I said, you know, that is your language of love. You telling people stories.
Like this is your love these are performers you love and he's that way with his friends our conversation, I felt so cared for in that conversation because he kept wanting to know well, how are you doing? like asking me all these questions about like, am I being creative? what am I working on creatively? he wanted to know all about my art and how I'm doing and how I'm doing emotionally and everything like that. And it was very, very sincere.
And so I think for him, and I'm just using him as an example, that is his love language for his friends almost like being a reporter or like being like just really thorough with his friends. And the same with like the subjects that he writes books about.
I bring that up because it's like for me, my work ethic is kind of like a love language for my art. My art's not going to happen by itself. My music's not going to happen by itself. as you know, and now I'm talking to my partner, Corey, I ran away from music for a long time because I was plagued with self-doubt and I was drinking myself to death and I was in all these...
really toxic relationships with people who were, you know, had their own issues. And I was chasing after a bunch of stuff that I thought was going to make me happy, like approval from people and, you know, like making everybody like me when it was really nobody's job to like me. And it wasn't my job to make people like me. But yet I was chasing after that, acceptance from people.
And, and yeah, and I didn't do music for seven years. Like, I mean, I never stopped writing, but I didn't, you know, release it and I didn't promote it I didn't do anything. And I, you know, I didn't record any of it. And then when I decided I got sober, a little over six years ago and you know, first I had to get my bearings about me and I had to heal a little bit. couldn't just like dive into,
taking on the world, but After I'd been sober for about three years
I realized my music was an integral part of who I was and so was my art. And even doing things like this podcast, communicating with the world was a very important thing for me. And so I feel like my work ethic is kind of like my love language for this is how I show my art that I care about it is I show up for it. And
When I show up for it, don't always feel like showing up for as I shared at the beginning of this podcast, I didn't really want to film this podcast tonight, but this was the only time I could film it. And now that I have filmed it, I'm really glad I did because my spirit feels a lot lighter and brighter now because I feel like I've, I've shared a lot of stuff that I
I obviously needed to talk about and so I got a lot of stuff out of my head and off my chest and that's the whole point of these things. that's why I started this podcast in the first place because I was walking around with all these thoughts that were just jumbled up and I needed a place to put them and a place that was more organized than me just ranting on Facebook or something. And so this podcast has been the perfect vehicle for that. And so yeah I think that the work ethic
It's just my way of telling my art and my music and the creative things that I do. It's my way of telling those things that I love them and I believe in them and I'm willing to show up and do the work for them because they mean something to me. And if they didn't mean anything to me, I wouldn't show up for them, you know? So yeah, it's love language. It's love language. Woo. So anyways, you guys.
We're done like that. I've talked about everything. I answered the voicemails. We talked about how much of an asshole Donald Trump is. We all won asshole of the week for potentially being complacent while our country devolves into fascism. And so, yeah, I think we've said a lot tonight and I think we can go forth into the rest of the week and just try to be a neighbor among neighbor, a friend among friend, a worker among worker and try to just be like a
a good person in other people's lives, if we can, if we want to. I mean, you can be a douchebag if you want to be, but you that's up to you. It's your life.
So remember, speakpipe.com slash, there is no God and we're all gonna die, is where you go to leave me a voicemail, or you can just go to Daniel Cartier, like the jewelers, C-A-R-T-I-E-R, dot com, right on the home page. You can click a button there. You can also check out all my art and music while you're there. And ⁓ yeah, you can like me on Facebook.
Facebook.com slash there is no God and we're all gonna die. Check out the video for Are You Lonesome Tonight? It's on YouTube. You get to see me gyrating around so check that out. And I'm wishing you a wonderful week and I will see you all soon.