Wounded Bird vs. Ukrainian Bot Farms
Added 2025-01-22 07:04:28 +0000 UTCIn this special episode, we look at a recently released segment by Lex Fridman, where he reflects on his interview with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
We examine Lex’s self-presentation as a Christ-like figure—someone who is willing to suffer, feign naivety and ignorance, and even risk his life in the name of world peace—all while maintaining an eight-hour daily study regimen and enduring relentless, unfair attacks from Ukrainian bot farms and war-loving critics.
Like true sensemakers, we also entertain an outlandish alternative hypothesis: what if Lex is, in fact, an arrogant and biased podcaster—dismissive of criticism, oblivious to his own political leanings, and adopting a “wounded bird” persona to elicit sympathy from his audience?
Join us as we sift through the Zelensky's (supposed) failures, the bot farms, and the wounded bird theatrics to determine whether Lex is a hero for peace—or just another podcaster lost in his own narrative.
Sources
00:00 Introduction and Today's Topic
00:57 Lex Fridman's Controversial Interview with Zelensky
03:14 Public and Personal Reactions to the Interview
32:18 The Martyr Lex Fridman: A Tribe of One
42:23 More Missed Opportunities for Peace
44:21 Risking his Life for Peace
48:57 Lex's Thoughts on Zelensky and His Failures
59:46 Naivety or Bias?
01:06:04 Musk and Rogan References as a Strategy
01:07:47 Putin's Love for Russia
01:10:54 Critics of Lex Love War
01:17:15 Signing Off
Comments
Is it too much to hope for that some of Lex's audience aren't all the way down the rabbit hole, and are capable of listening to the interview and thinking "hang on, Zelenskyy is actually very impressive and correct?"
Philip Grant
2025-02-05 16:56:46 +0000 UTCYeah, this is absolutely the kind of discourse that the appeasers within Western elites used before and during WWII - "he's misunderstood, he's just a patriot who really loves the German people" etc. Not to mention "peace" ("for our time").
Philip Grant
2025-02-05 16:44:23 +0000 UTCFelt cathartic
Reinert
2025-02-02 11:14:54 +0000 UTC“I know that Trump and Putin will listen to this conversation “ Sure they will, Lex.. sure they will…
Bobby Wayward
2025-01-29 01:35:57 +0000 UTCcovert narcissism?
Joanna Mulvaney
2025-01-28 03:40:34 +0000 UTComg he makes me so angry. it sets off my stress ulcer. it’s just unbelievable how full of himself he is. the lack of self awareness is shocking.
Joanna Mulvaney
2025-01-28 03:39:47 +0000 UTCNina I think I dated that same guy 😆
Kerena
2025-01-28 02:17:39 +0000 UTC"If no one was listening, I'd be yelling this into the void" That was so good hahah
Yago Abella
2025-01-27 22:21:57 +0000 UTCDriving while listening to DTG can be dangerous. For me it was Dr. K.
Linda Sears
2025-01-27 21:35:16 +0000 UTCShouldn't have listened to this whilst driving................ What an insufferable little shit Lex is. How does such a vacuous person, who may have looked at a book for eight hours but just at the pictures, have such a big podcast? He obviously is not prepared, certainly doesn't understand what "research" actually is.
Scott MacKenzie
2025-01-27 17:53:09 +0000 UTCMatt’s intros always rock!!🪨
Julie
2025-01-27 10:34:38 +0000 UTC@1:11:05 I've always wondered how you organized and named your audio snippets 😂
Empty_Cognizance
2025-01-27 07:44:59 +0000 UTCI missed this last year jfc Peace, love, and Hitler: How Lex Fridman's podcast became a safe space for the anti-woke tech elite https://web.archive.org/web/20230403122811/https://www.businessinsider.com/lex-fridman-podcast-anti-woke-elon-musk-ai
jss
2025-01-26 23:30:37 +0000 UTCNo idea. This was so enraging I couldnt listen to it all at once, and every time I listened I felt the need to comment about how much Lex disgusts me.
Ema Corro
2025-01-26 22:55:32 +0000 UTCDid i respond to you or you to me? Not sure why I got a notice about whateverthehell...? There is so much here to make you spit your coffee across the room!
Frances goulart
2025-01-26 21:53:08 +0000 UTCThank you guys for this, Lex really hid this in a very sneaky manner. Not sneaky enough for Chris, though! Sidenote, I'm reading Dostoyevsky's The Idiot right now, and I agree with Matt's take. Lex really thinks he's the wounded protagonist in all this.
Min
2025-01-26 20:39:22 +0000 UTCAudiobooks too So so hard
jss
2025-01-26 19:28:29 +0000 UTCThank you. Fuck that guy.
jss
2025-01-26 11:23:44 +0000 UTCYou had me at " Fuck you Lex" Hilarious....
Steve Edge
2025-01-26 07:48:28 +0000 UTCSo good when Chris lets it rip !!
Jill
2025-01-26 00:53:13 +0000 UTCFeels like some sort of personality disorder to me. No idea which. But Ive personally known someone who had a similar combination of wounded bird and cultivated naivete. They were very unwell and extrely destructive in personal relationships. Eventually found put they did something pretty despicable to a child then painted themselves as the victim. So he really makes my skin crawl.
Ema Corro
2025-01-25 23:26:08 +0000 UTCI’m not a psychologist, but the way Lex talks about this so casually makes me wonder if there’s some degree of psychopathy involved. The way he discusses millions of deaths feels so disingenuous, especially when he follows it up with overly simplistic questions like, “Should Russia be invited to NATO?”—and he’s asking this to someone like Zelensky, who has to bear the immense responsibility of minimizing suffering for Ukrainians. It’s hard to even imagine the level of stress Zelensky must be under, knowing that how he answers a question like that could directly impact how many more Ukrainians might die. It really sounds like Lex couldn't give less of a shit about innocent people dying.
Eric Signal
2025-01-25 20:50:52 +0000 UTCIm now convinced Lex is THE most narcissistic guru.
Ema Corro
2025-01-25 00:47:34 +0000 UTCI totally get why you needed to vent on this. Disgusting indeed.
Roland Weber
2025-01-24 23:43:01 +0000 UTCDear god. So fucking annoying. "Allow me to say this...". Even the start is passive aggressive. The combination of wounded bird posturing, moral grandstanding, slimy paralipsis (saying without actually saying) and pure cowardice of tearing strips off someone who isn't there and that you would never dare make such insinuations to their face. Ugh! I wouldn't call him a sleveen, it would be an insult to sleveens
Paul Bowman
2025-01-24 20:47:57 +0000 UTCFuck you Lex, fuck you. This level of victim blaming, while playing naïve child makes my blood boiling. I don't think for a second that Lex will believe his own bullshit. His either shill for a monetary reasons or in deep he's a Russian nationalist. Nothing else can explain the lenghts that he dwells in the both sideism when in comes to the most one sided and unfair war of this century.
commutercomputer
2025-01-24 20:09:09 +0000 UTCMuch love for this one, gentlemen🙏
Jacob_3BP
2025-01-24 17:25:31 +0000 UTCThe Lex Fridman Podcast is just The Chris Farley Show for right wingers.
Brett Stroud
2025-01-24 15:34:43 +0000 UTCGreat episodes as always. Friedman commenting when Zelensky Isn’t Around reminds me of Alan Partridge’s interview with the farmer. Here’s the BBC YouTube of it. https://youtu.be/RxSbTlH0K4w?si=vAuBPEhCbWLqWT7s. (I wonder how many of these folk are Alan Partridge?)
Sean Power
2025-01-24 14:52:38 +0000 UTCChrist on a bike! I can't remember when I've ever heard such pompous, deluded, self-pitying, self-important codswollop. There's nothing left to parody there...he's done it all himself. What a fucking asshole.
pete
2025-01-24 10:28:24 +0000 UTCRight? I can’t understand how anyone takes him seriously and yet …
Tom Kerwin
2025-01-24 06:51:58 +0000 UTCShilling for Russia is a profitable endeavour. I don’t know if it’s really that deep.
Amy
2025-01-24 02:56:35 +0000 UTCSeveral ways to respond when encountering someone so dense and despicable as Lex. Calm dismantling. Disgust. Mockery . You guys do all three. Bravo and thank you.
Nancy Hale
2025-01-24 02:18:51 +0000 UTCI honestly can't believe this person makes money speaking on any topic.
Requires-Coffee-247
2025-01-23 22:10:15 +0000 UTCSsssh! You don't get your Soros check if you talk about it.
Sam Wells
2025-01-23 21:47:55 +0000 UTCOk, that's 127 comments on here, and counting, every single one in 100% agreement with Chris and Matt's analysis. So who else here works at a Ukrainian bot farm? Or is that just me?!
Dries T.
2025-01-23 21:33:24 +0000 UTC‘8 hours a day’ cracked me up. Us every-day goobers work 8 hours a day. But Lex, if you’re out there working for peace then that’s a passion project and it requires at LEAST 12 hours a day. Thanks for fucking up our greatest chance at peace Lex you lazy goober!
Jeff Faulkner
2025-01-23 16:20:33 +0000 UTCThat "Fuck you Lex" is a frontrunner for most cathartic podcasting moment of 2025
332
2025-01-23 15:38:31 +0000 UTCI went out with somebody like this- they were always the victim, I was young and always felt guilty. They NEVER apologized for a single thing. One day I woke up and said - why am I the one who's always apologizing? Manipulation to cover up what sorry pieces of shit they actually are.
Sam D.
2025-01-23 15:23:14 +0000 UTCGood pick up on Dr. K- and i think DTG is at their most useful when they are drilling in with their eagle eyes into the influencers who sound good or reasonable "a lot" of the time, only to grease their way into their weirdest shit. And our minds are now trained to perk up - as you say- at certain red flags which is so, so helpful- especially since we now know that the platforms actually tend to shape reasonable enough people into wackier and more insidious versions.
Sam D.
2025-01-23 15:17:22 +0000 UTCI would punch them both in the voice with equal delight
Spartacus Mills
2025-01-23 13:33:59 +0000 UTCThis was fantastic and I think you met the moment perfectly. His video is truly disturbing.
Andrew Metcalf
2025-01-23 13:24:23 +0000 UTCYes. For hours. lol
Kgar
2025-01-23 13:01:21 +0000 UTCYou guys are so mean. Are you in Ukraine? Are you a friend of Lex? If not, step to the back of the line! Your opinion will Not be read by the great Lex. Joe said ‘just say no’! The incredible discipline and scholarly excellence of Lexi-poo is evident to all of us (all of us Ukraine insiders!) He’s a true martyr. So many hours of study and then…you two and your unfocused, unstudied opinions? They are meaningless to Lexi-poo! And here’s a Lexi-poo episode to prove that he cares Not about you and your Type and would not deign to even read such drivel! 😂😂 I’m endlessly amused by your wonderful conversation and analysis of the naked would-be podcast emperors 😜😝
Kgar
2025-01-23 12:25:54 +0000 UTCMatt's 'what a fool' was from the heart. Agree with everyone else. Brilliant work chaps. That final spiele where Lex calls the critics naive was almost unlistenable. Was about to frisbee my phone into the sea
George
2025-01-23 12:17:48 +0000 UTC"social media algorithms" like Elon's?
Stephen McGlinchey
2025-01-23 11:33:01 +0000 UTCWhich of them has the most punchable voice? Truly hard to say
Dave Lavelle
2025-01-23 09:48:11 +0000 UTCGuys, this is genuinely up there with the best of your decoding work. I had my blood pressure increasing every minute I listened to Fridman’s self important twaddle. Freaking hell! I don’t know how you guys do it. The guy’s such a disingenuous hack hiding his true partisan hard-right lean under mind numbing inanity & cringe. As Chris said, “fuck him” very much. Total prick!
SHOUNAK SARKAR
2025-01-23 09:03:50 +0000 UTCYeah I'll agree with you there, those guys really did become way worse, and while it was technically possible to see their issues early on I don't blame myself extremely hard for falling for the spiel when listening to one ear - which is why I'm trying to change my media diet here.., I will say though, the online guru pattern with people like the Weinsteins, Peterson and Lex is really something that you absolutely can't unsee once it's been made plain to you which is why I think these extreme examples are so helpful. Dr K in his recent interview with Destiny is the perfect example, a huge part of his conversation is pretty good, but even though he's hiding his power level pretty diligently when he starts his "the religion of science" routine it's pretty easy to perk up and go "hold on, this is bullshit and it totally contradicts all your previous performative disclaimers".
PaulBFB
2025-01-23 08:38:26 +0000 UTCThanks I'll check him out, the name does ring a bell.
PaulBFB
2025-01-23 08:33:46 +0000 UTCLex, angling for the Nobel Peace Prize…. Seriously he is shameless!!! Then he uses the Dr K - “hate farm” ploy as a way of diminishing the negative commentary. Arrrggggghhhhh!!!!
Sue Fricke
2025-01-23 08:32:21 +0000 UTCLex would have been pushing for peace with the nazis throughout WW2! Oh but Hitler loves his people! Fuck Lex - I want to use firmer words but they might be actionable threats...
Rob W
2025-01-23 06:27:12 +0000 UTCI like how all the gurus you follow just spiral more and more. They are all getting more greedy and awful.
Tobias nilsson
2025-01-23 06:12:06 +0000 UTC“I walk alone” good lord. Fuck you Lex indeed.
pr
2025-01-23 05:47:13 +0000 UTCWhat I find most disturbing is that Lex remains one the most popular, visible figures on the internet and in the media generally. He is largely taken seriously despite his obvious foolishness. It says an awful lot about the contemporary media ecosystem.
Liam
2025-01-23 05:45:27 +0000 UTCI wonder if Lex will prepare for his Putin interview by immersing himself in books about Rurik and by Ivan Ilyin.
kurdelis
2025-01-23 05:34:36 +0000 UTCI was imagining it as one of those "Mid-2000s movie ending" memes with that song kicking in and the credits coming up right after he says the line.
FolkSong
2025-01-23 05:23:02 +0000 UTCRussian bot farm good, Ukrainian bot farm not good
Mark Francis
2025-01-23 04:57:38 +0000 UTCHis research prep was probably watching Rogan and reading RT
Mark Francis
2025-01-23 04:49:30 +0000 UTCCome on Chris, don't hold back on Lex, tell us what you really think.
Ion
2025-01-23 04:44:56 +0000 UTCI got to ask is Lex a Russian plant? Is he on the Putin payroll? Because every word out of Lex’s mouth could have easily be heard on Russian TV. What vile a human.
Daniel
2025-01-23 03:52:15 +0000 UTCDammit. As soon as he said "I walk alone" that Green Day song popped into my head and now Im picturing Lex singing it.
Ema Corro
2025-01-23 01:40:53 +0000 UTCis “with love” lex’s version of “just kidding” — you can say anything offensive if you follow it with this?
Jonathan Cano
2025-01-23 01:26:45 +0000 UTCIt's so good. Just go with it. It's the Russian revolution and the rise of Stalin.
Randy
2025-01-23 01:14:57 +0000 UTCI like the assumption that we've all read Animal Farm. I hope I'm not the only one who hasn't 😬 I read some of it but i couldn't get over the talking animals, kept on taking me out of it like when you have fictional german Nazis or ancient Romans speaking English and in a variety of accents in movies.
Spartacus Mills
2025-01-23 00:55:02 +0000 UTCFor we know not what we do.
Tim Tripp
2025-01-23 00:47:20 +0000 UTCIn my view Lex may have replaced Dr. K as the most evil guru.
Tim Tripp
2025-01-23 00:44:32 +0000 UTCI'm not sensing a lot of love here
Sammy Martin
2025-01-23 00:36:44 +0000 UTCFabulous breakdown. Lex has also made me mighty upset. He is revolting. A whited sepulchre. An utterly vile whiney lost boy who pretends to his insignificence whilst demonstrating an epic arrogance and self importance that spat in the face of Zelensky, a truly significant server of his own people and the ideals of democracy.
Violet
2025-01-23 00:18:20 +0000 UTCThe absolute venom in Lex's voice at certain points in this was unnerving. I hope he doesn't end up going American Psycho...
Jenson
2025-01-23 00:14:23 +0000 UTCScrew you Lex, you delusional dweeb.
Tim Tripp
2025-01-23 00:03:44 +0000 UTCSomething tells me Lex may have watched a tad too much anime. No, Lex, sometimes friendship and love cannot solve all problems and turn evil men good.
Password1234!
2025-01-23 00:02:07 +0000 UTCSo many contradictions! If going to Russia to interview Putin is dangerous, doesn’t that tell Lex something about why this man is not interested in peace with Ukraine?
Linda Sears
2025-01-22 23:54:07 +0000 UTCLex Fridman future tombstone. A child with an agenda. A shill for no one. A simp for Joe Rogan.
Kyle
2025-01-22 23:35:55 +0000 UTCLex is such a useful idiot that he forgot to invoice for the $100 fee
Mark Francis
2025-01-22 23:10:08 +0000 UTCLex can still not wrap his well read mind around the fact that any peace agreement will require security guarantees from a third party. Even after zelentsky spoon fed him this clutch issue preventing a ceasefire
Mark Francis
2025-01-22 23:07:52 +0000 UTCYes them too!
Jennifer Nelson
2025-01-22 22:42:42 +0000 UTCI'm pretty sure Lex thinks the jewish holocaust could have been avoided if those stubborn jewish leaders in their ghettos had simply compromised with Hitler. FML, I hate Lex's routine so much. Far more than I hate Rogan's routine and I hate Rogan's a lot.
Jonathan Cano
2025-01-22 22:40:30 +0000 UTCI used be a huge fan of both Bret and Eric Weinstein. Now THAT is embarrassing. Not ashamed to admit it because I think with many of these characters there is a point early on in their 'oeuvre' when they were having conversations and saying things that I think a lot of relatively sane and intelligent people found very interesting. Audience capture and algorithmic incentives have clearly made these people progressively worse over the years, so although I think it's partly us becoming more savvy, with thanks to people like Chris and Matt, I reckon it's probably more down to them going from quite interesting to plain awful. I don't want to know how long to took me to realise this after they became the latter.
Spartacus Mills
2025-01-22 22:38:49 +0000 UTCi feel the same but for all of the DtG all stars (rogan, weinsteins)
Jonathan Cano
2025-01-22 22:36:03 +0000 UTCZelenskyy didn’t do enough in 2019 lets just not mention Russia grabbed Crimea 5 fucking years earlier
oh shizzzzz
2025-01-22 22:09:26 +0000 UTCNothing to be embarrassed about. After all of the books I have read since Trump 1.0, it can happen to anyone. We see and hear them and they are feeling it and it can pull us in. Can I recommend some RM Brown on YouTube? It’s good medicine. He thinks for himself, talks about why and makes jokes about idiotic influencers along the way. Chris and Matt are so good at this too. They just tell less toilet jokes.
Jen
2025-01-22 22:00:37 +0000 UTCLex is “Mr Skimpole” in Bleak House https://www.litcharts.com/lit/bleak-house/characters/mr-skimpole
Jonathan Cano
2025-01-22 21:56:49 +0000 UTCI like birds. I don’t like Lex. Can he be a wounded crocodile instead?
Linda Sears
2025-01-22 21:51:02 +0000 UTCSo Lex is definitely worse than Konstantin Kisin. But Kisin still has a more punchable face.
Spartacus Mills
2025-01-22 21:29:24 +0000 UTCJesus fucking Christ! Two quotes from this episode that perfectly captured what I was thinking: "it should be illegal, what Lex does" (Matt), and "Fuck you, Lex! Fuck you!!" (Chris).
Dries T.
2025-01-22 21:15:23 +0000 UTCThank you so much for this. Cathartic.
Zeno Kujawa
2025-01-22 21:11:17 +0000 UTCKind of shocking he wasn't involved in the whole tenet media thing. Probably because he's either a genuine sleeper agent or actually dumb enough to believe what he's saying
PaulBFB
2025-01-22 20:57:36 +0000 UTCThank you for this. In that moment when lex said "i must walk... Alone" I groaned out loud. It was so gratifying to hear Chris just come out and say "fuck you lex", i felt seen ^^ . On a more serious note, i actually used to believe lex was a good guy and that he's just an awkward smart good guy. I'm pretty embarrassed to admit it. For what it's worth, it actually changed my media consumption pretty significantly, I'm convinced that listening to podcasts sort of in the background is a risky proposition, because it makes it much harder to mentally perk up and sort of go "hold on what did he really just say". And that's how you get taken along for the ride by someone who sort of plays to your biases. I talked about this with my partner who doesn't listen to any podcasts, good on her, and she point blank asked me "what's your problem with someone like you described [talking about Huberman at the time] when as you say a large amount of his content is pretty unobjectionable" - and she sort of pushed me to the realization that I'm wary because especially if someone is 80% alright and you just of let them trickle into your brain you take on board all their weird crap. TL:DR listening to podcasts with one ear for a lot of time is risky. So long rant, thank you, i enjoyed that.
PaulBFB
2025-01-22 20:56:07 +0000 UTCGlanced over the title and just read "bird" and "farm", which lead to the association "worm".
Kit Zullasson
2025-01-22 20:54:42 +0000 UTCI agree, that just made me chuckle. Seriously, FUCK YOU lex
PaulBFB
2025-01-22 20:47:45 +0000 UTCI would bet $100 that he is being paid by Putin.
Jen
2025-01-22 20:21:19 +0000 UTCLex never admits to being wrong. It is just his tone that makes it seem like he does. He uses every breath to impose his sappy bullshit innocence on the listener.
Jen
2025-01-22 20:14:19 +0000 UTCJust reacting to the convo about how, if Putin loves his country, why embark on a War of Conquest. Matt mentions how this DOESN'T help the average Russian, most of whom dont have flush toilets and the ones in the hinterlands are the ones being thrown in "meat wave" tactics, to say nothing of what the war economy prioritizes vs their needs, which are more than most people realize I think. Been battling about Greenland, Panama and Canada and Trump's Imperialist Revival he's been engaging in since the transition til now. Getting confronted by MAGA followers and Americans on substack and X and Bluesky about how "it's only the national interest that matters" - thinking that seizing lands by force from Panama, Greenland and coercing Canada to join the US is helpful "to the national interest". Daniel Larison coined Trump's foreign policy as the Plunder Doctrine, since most of the time Trump's complaint with recent wars is that America didn't plunder more from the victims of its "defensive wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan - like the countries being invaded OWED America for the favour of soaking up American munitions. What's really galling to me is how quickly all the authoritarian followers of Trump in media and social media just assume this Plunderous Imperialism IS beneficial to the national interest: America First, before Trump, argued that spending blood and treasure to take on new burdens around the world was NOT America First, it drained American life and money and there wasn't much to show for it and that money could be better spent at home. They kind of had a point. Running empires in other countries IS expensive. It invites reactions and sends other countries into the arms of enemy powers as a bulwark against maybe being the next target. It makes trade harder. Heck, In America's case their last wars turned Iraq over to Iranian influence and Afghanistan BACK to the Taliban. In Russia's War of Choice against Ukraine NATO membership is increased by two new members, they've lost close to a million casualties and BILLIONS AND BILLIONS with not even the entire Donbas under their control let alone the fall of Kiev occuring. So why do Americans and Trumpers think that occupying Panama and maybe having 100k soldiers there in emergencies, alienating an entire hemisphere they do business with (and more besides) - How is that accruing to the national interest and how America First is it really to have Plunder Doctrine driving a new round of 19th century Imperialism in 2025??
Jonathan Swayze
2025-01-22 19:26:44 +0000 UTCThe wounded bird catches the little worm
Jennifer Nelson
2025-01-22 18:44:46 +0000 UTCHe died for our sins. If we had only embraced peace. Forgive us, Lex
Andreas Singer
2025-01-22 18:30:01 +0000 UTCLooking forward to his Putin interview when Putin rolls his eyes and all but laughs him out of the room with Lex’s talks of love and peace. And the follow up monologue where Lex explains that in traditional Russian culture men act like this and it’s totally normal and is actually symbolic of their true peaceful nature.
Evan Strippelhoff
2025-01-22 18:15:00 +0000 UTCGreat episode… depressing… but good, satisfying critiques of the twat they call Lex. Thank you sirs
Kyle H
2025-01-22 17:57:32 +0000 UTCAbsolutely brutal that someone like this has a serious influence on political opinion
Zach Shantz
2025-01-22 17:35:41 +0000 UTCI feel the absolute disdain that Matt describes too
Protagonist Science
2025-01-22 17:34:39 +0000 UTCNow I have to scream into the void. For free. Lex is just the worst. His voice makes me feel nauseous and want a shower. Thank you for methodically taking him to pieces.
Nell Van Vorst
2025-01-22 17:32:00 +0000 UTCI wonder if he actually has a saviour complex, or if that’s just a tool to manipulate his audience.
Boyo
2025-01-22 16:33:54 +0000 UTC😂 I love that my reaction to the schmaltzy “I must walk this road alone” was to literally lol and then.. Chris: Fuck yoouu, Lex. Fuck you! 😂and that just put me over the edge.
Richard Upton Sinclair Lewis Pickman
2025-01-22 16:32:40 +0000 UTCWho does this work on, you ask? I think it works like this...Lex fucks up so bad that even his most fawning boosters have to acknowledge it publicly. Lex then gives his "explanation" of why it was actually super smart and not bad at all. Then the booster bros can say, "oh yeah, that makes sense. Lex knew what he was doing all along." Then the sheep have permission to bleat "Four legs bad, two legs better!" And everyone can pretend to forget what everyone knew was obvious a couple of days ago, and everyone can fall right back into the safety of their comfortable routines. (Btw, I highly recommend rereading Animal Farm if it's been a while)
Randy
2025-01-22 16:16:56 +0000 UTCI used to have a shred of sympathy for Lex, but his interview with Zelensky just wiped it all away. And now his defence here—deceitful, pretentious, and egotistical.
Boyo
2025-01-22 15:58:20 +0000 UTCFor Fuck's Sake. I had a boyfriend like Lex in my last two years of school. Luckily nobody gave him a microphone. He is now an obscure professor of macro economics. If only poor Lex had grown up in the non-internet age
Nina Davies
2025-01-22 15:54:05 +0000 UTCUp until the Zelenskyy interview I thought Lex was just naive. He is maybe even more dishonest than the Weinstein bros or Peterson. At least they seem to have fooled themselves into believing their own shit. Lex is just full grifter.
Paul Hemmerling
2025-01-22 15:49:51 +0000 UTCCRINGE
Boyo
2025-01-22 15:45:06 +0000 UTCI WALK A LONELY ROAD THE ONLY ROAD THAT I HAVE EVER KNOW BECAUSE I LOVE PUTIN THE ONLY MAN WHO NEVER DID NO WRONG...
Ymirsdreams
2025-01-22 15:23:06 +0000 UTCI also walk alone in life, but mostly because I'm a c***.
Gearóid
2025-01-22 15:17:11 +0000 UTCFFFFUCK you, Lex. That's everything that needed to be said. Unironically, actually, just fffffuck you.
Chomagerider
2025-01-22 15:16:01 +0000 UTCI'm surprised Lex didn't accuse the Deep State/CIA of creating the bot farm.
S Garvey
2025-01-22 15:15:15 +0000 UTCThis is why women (basing on your profile pic and name, apologies if I'm being presumptuous) are better human beings than men. You want to die listening to those clips. I want to kill someone (mostly Lex) listening to these clips...
Chomagerider
2025-01-22 15:13:26 +0000 UTC10 minutes before we got Lex mentioning Joe Rogan. Surprising.
Gearóid
2025-01-22 14:51:15 +0000 UTCClassic case of "the vulnerable narcissist". Insufferable. Appreciate your fine edged evisceration.
Sam D.
2025-01-22 14:50:33 +0000 UTC"The whole point of friendship is arguing." Erm.
Gearóid
2025-01-22 14:46:23 +0000 UTCI've determined that the only way I can ever listen to LF is in small excerpts mediated through your commentary. It's simultaneously so cringeworthy and enraging that I couldn't take it otherwise, but I feel a responsibility to be informed about what goes on in the heterodox discoursosphere. So thank both you for your sacrifice.
Jennifer Nelson
2025-01-22 14:44:16 +0000 UTCA Little worm.🐛 my fav description.
Kimberly Beer
2025-01-22 14:35:51 +0000 UTCThis has to be considered a specific kind of psychological torture. I’m embarrassed to admit that I fell for these kinds of discussions as valid and informing. I’m so grateful I’ve quickly abandoned all these morons. (With the help of my very smart skilled scientist friend). Zelensky is so savvy. Runs circles around Lex; I really don’t know how he didn’t totally lose it. I also think it was a sacrifice for you both to have to do this episode. Thank you!
Kimberly Beer
2025-01-22 14:33:06 +0000 UTCPerhaps the backlash might prompt other content creators to pause before publicly committing lexicide with their influencer careers
Paul Ditta
2025-01-22 13:39:08 +0000 UTCThe first two words of Chris's response to this part echoed my thoughts perfectly. The self regard is just unreal
Simon Rea
2025-01-22 13:21:59 +0000 UTCHow can anyone listen to this guy? I want to die listening to the clips!
Melissa Eldridge
2025-01-22 13:10:40 +0000 UTCEight hours a day with his head in books? Without a bathroom break. Poor valiant under-appreciated Lex.
Frances goulart
2025-01-22 12:29:05 +0000 UTCHah, true. They vote for the local fringe left party, they're very good people but naive and inexperienced. I was watching some frontline reporting when one came through the door and declared I was watching "snuff porn". I tried to explain how the Vietnam war ended and what not, nope. Sigh.
Jack
2025-01-22 12:22:21 +0000 UTCThere is a one word summary, but it’s very rude and would get me banned.
Paul Ditta
2025-01-22 12:17:56 +0000 UTCWhat does Lex actually think he is achieving? In some ways I think he's worse than Rogan. Rogan is clearly a fucking moron, literally nothing going on in there, he's a just a football that the ideologues kick around. Lex seems to embody the very essence of tone-policing. He's not approaching everything with love, he's not pushing for peace, he's not having real conversations. He's refusing to engage with any discourse he finds uncomfortable, he won't accept any discussion of anything he disagrees with. He is conflict-avoidant to a fucking fault. He even goes as far as to insert himself into conflicts, and declare that they don't exist, and can be completely side-lined in order to have a stilted, censored, impotent conversation. It reminds of the conversations I'm forced to have with highly conservative, red-pilled family members. He won't even disagree agreeably. He just ignores the contrary position, assumes it is unreasonable by it's manner of opposition. He says it himself, he refuses to look. He actively denies reality. He has created nothing for himself, other than a highly curated echo chamber.
Matt
2025-01-22 12:16:18 +0000 UTCPutin may have the chance to do the funniest thing.
Cate Kneale
2025-01-22 12:15:39 +0000 UTCIn this situation I can only file your lefty friends with Lex's Ukrainian supporters, though.
Cate Kneale
2025-01-22 12:13:46 +0000 UTCI keep thinking that he must have got away with this level of bullshit at university where it should really have been knocked out of him. Total indictment of our educational system!
Cate Kneale
2025-01-22 12:12:44 +0000 UTC#beyondsatire
Paul Ditta
2025-01-22 12:10:23 +0000 UTCWe can only gaze with awe and wonder. We can only stand in his mighty shadow. We shall not see his kind again…at least I f***ing hope not…
Paul Ditta
2025-01-22 12:09:45 +0000 UTCIt must be so hard to live as the only truely objective centrist pacifist in the history of the world
S Alexandra
2025-01-22 12:08:39 +0000 UTCGo, go get your skin back. And would you grab mine while you’re there, please? It’s the ageing saggy one that’s sobbing gently and reciting nursery rhymes…
Paul Ditta
2025-01-22 12:08:33 +0000 UTCMy skin crawled off my body during this episode. It's hiding in a corner now. It really sounds like he's saying that peace at any cost and appeasing Putin is the only solution and I can't even eee that appealing to his rightwing friends because it's a total position of weakness and they would never accept that for themselves. You have to be so aligned to Putin as an ultimate strongman to even suggest this and be prepared to roll over and show your tummy. And how would that learn the chances of global conflict either? What a worm. As Bluesky keeps telling me, he should read more books.
Cate Kneale
2025-01-22 12:05:47 +0000 UTC“I walk the path alone…like jesus. Except, unlike Jesus I really suffer…but I can take it. Because I’m all about love. Love and peace. And love. I’m not a hero, I mean, I am heroic, but I’m too modest to call myself a hero. I leave that to others to decide. That I’m a hero. And Jesus.”
Paul Ditta
2025-01-22 11:55:07 +0000 UTCThis guy sounds like he is having a permanent psychotic episode, its unbelievable how detached from reality he is. He needs to be hospitalised.
Natasha Bride
2025-01-22 11:50:56 +0000 UTCYeah, like none of the stupid, cringey shit I’ve said over the course of my life comes even close
S Alexandra
2025-01-22 11:38:47 +0000 UTCThe more I listen to him, the more I am reminded of the trope of the fragile but manipulative parent, who lapses into victimhood if anyone challenges their wishes. How dare you doubt his motives? Don’t you want to protect him? How could you attack him, he only wants what’s best for you….
barbara wright
2025-01-22 11:31:57 +0000 UTCMaybe Lex would be in danger… as a failed Russian asset.
Ryan Booker
2025-01-22 11:30:16 +0000 UTCIf I read a novel where Lex was a fictional character, I would consider him to be overwritten; the author being a little heavy handed on the satire. And yet, here we are…
S Alexandra
2025-01-22 11:28:37 +0000 UTCThank you gents for doing this. Fuck you Lex indeed.
Anton Zadorožnyj
2025-01-22 11:22:25 +0000 UTCI stand by my casting recommendation for Lex in the chat the other day. He has an Alan Partridge level of self awareness and aggrandisement.
CrystalJade
2025-01-22 11:16:36 +0000 UTCIf I came out with even one percent of the things Lex says id die of cringe. He's immune to shame
David
2025-01-22 11:12:32 +0000 UTCI remember the episode where you commented on his "Day in the life of..." video, and I was struck by the mix of faux humility and grandiosity he embodied when describing his reading of some WWII book and almost hoping that conditions would necessitate him becoming a "hero" in the 21st century. He sees to be chasing this goal, but merely by getting people on camera to face inane questions and to make him money! (Most often from the safety of Austin!)
Leon
2025-01-22 11:12:31 +0000 UTCLex is one someone who when I first heard him I thought I couldn't care less about his bullshit but very quickly has become a blood pressure concern for me. I hope I live to see him drummed out of the internet.
Rufus Evans
2025-01-22 10:52:25 +0000 UTCAlmost as if he were searching for validation, rather than knowledge.
barbara wright
2025-01-22 10:50:11 +0000 UTCFor a man who’s all about peace and love, Lex seems entirely uninterested in fairness or equitable solutions. An inequitable peace is unlikely to be sustainable: WW1 ended in peace, but a peace that was so unfair that it led to WW2. He’s very good at the narcissist triangulation technique of giving weight to his position by quoting ‘other people’ who back him up. I would rather sew up my own ears than contribute to his listenership figures, but does he ever describe who it is in Ukraine that he’s talking to, so his listeners have some context for views he ascribes to ‘Ukrainians’? I assume that there must be some small part of the Ukrainian population that might want to be part of Russia, and he appears to be mining that seam. (Sorry: I have no idea why, but Lex is just one of those people that knock me into “Yes, but…” mode. I have an irrational urge to rebut everything he says. Possibly , I’m allergic to saccharin)
barbara wright
2025-01-22 10:43:00 +0000 UTCJust look at the most famous "peace deal" that Zelensky rejected because he's a "warmonger" https://x.com/jurgen_nauditt/status/1882005122240114717?t=quC8mn4BhqZ5bKBZm8RZOA&s=19
Stephen McGlinchey
2025-01-22 10:03:11 +0000 UTCImagine if he actually did all that research and then ended up with the views he has.
Wouter Vermeyen
2025-01-22 09:33:19 +0000 UTCGod I love listening to you guys dunk on Lex. So cathartic.
Dave Lavelle
2025-01-22 09:24:43 +0000 UTCHe's the Lord Haw-Haw of our time. The level of lack of self-awareness that would be required to actually believe his own positions seems inconceivable to me, but who knows?
Andrew Condon
2025-01-22 09:24:07 +0000 UTCThe most disturbing thing about Lex is that he probably actually believes the absolute garbage coming out of his mouth. "The fact that it's even possible is stunning."
Carina S.
2025-01-22 09:12:08 +0000 UTCLex is just the worst. Never owning up to anything, always hiding behind the shield of infinite love and naivety.
Shifter
2025-01-22 08:54:08 +0000 UTCSeems likely to me, especially if Putin lets him keep his dignity somehow
Ando
2025-01-22 08:42:01 +0000 UTC"Who does this work on?", all my lefty friends. They think my support of Ukraine is macho bullshit and Ukraine must be part of the problem. It's infuriating. Fuck you Lex. Thank you Chris and Matt.
Jack
2025-01-22 08:29:21 +0000 UTCLex is a dumb ass. I’m increasingly worried that Trump might do Ukraine like he did Afghanistan. Just negotiate some bullshit deal that he can market as a peace deal, where he in reality just throws his allies under the bus.
Marfolini
2025-01-22 08:29:10 +0000 UTCJesus, Lex. Would you badger a rape victim to try and meet their rapist halfway “In the name of peace”? He’s so far up his own fundament I’m surprised he hasn’t become a singularity with a self regard event horizon…
Paul Ditta
2025-01-22 08:20:12 +0000 UTCIt’s just another example of empty-headed centrism. There are two opposing sides, so the answer must be roughly the middle
Ben Godek
2025-01-22 08:14:50 +0000 UTCI agree. He claims he has so much knowledge, but can’t even acknowledge the fact that this war has one clear aggressor.
Saksaas
2025-01-22 08:05:13 +0000 UTC"Social media algorithms and the various dogmatic groups and tribes out there want to pull you in to their warm embrace of belonging. And humans want to belong. But the cost of the path I have chosen is that I will never belong to any one group. In the end, like many of us must, I walk alone." Lex Fridman, 2025 "Fuck you Lex" Chris Kavanagh, 2025 👏🏻😂
Nick Gilpin
2025-01-22 07:58:12 +0000 UTCThe one thing I wish Zelenskyy had said explicitly was that Putin could end the war tomorrow, unilaterally. He could just order his troops to go home. Zelenskyy couldn’t even do that by trying to surrender unconditionally, I think parts of the Ukrainian military would try to keep fighting.
Ben Godek
2025-01-22 07:57:56 +0000 UTCThe “constant nudges and questions about peace” he was talking about. Maybe they were directed at the wrong person. They would probably be better questions for the aggressor in the war?
Saksaas
2025-01-22 07:31:29 +0000 UTC
