Over the past few weeks, multiple teams in the WNBA have been hit with thrown dildos being thrown onto the court by people in the crowd. And as terrible as that is, regardless of the motivation and we can speculate, [00:00:15] there's actually a way that it can be much worse because it involves an even worse group of people than just misogynists or professional trolls. Before we jump into that, I just want to say I was actually at that game when that happened. And, when it became clear that security had not found the person, I was overcome [00:00:34] with a desire to go find them myself. I was so overcome with rage. It makes me so angry. And I understand that not everyone is responding in that way. Now, some players and some coaches are speaking out very forcefully against this. [00:00:49] In that particular case, although it's difficult to target a particular player when you're throwing it from the crowd, it seemed as if the thrower was targeting, Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever. Now she had just the day before tweeted asking people to stop doing that. [00:01:06] And so if she was targeted for that reason, then that's not very cool. Now some players are sort of making light of it. She kind of joked around after it. But there is concern that if this were to hit someone or they were to trip or whatever, that this could actually injure someone. And obviously it's not a good look when it's a group of [00:01:23] professional female athletes and people are throwing sex toys at them. But that said, it can get worse. And we're going to describe how it's pretty widespread at this point. As of August 7th, there have been at least six games where this had happened. It happened last night in a game two. [00:01:38] I don't know if that actually includes that. And a cryptocurrency group has now entered the story to claim responsibility for some of these pranks because, betting sites and cryptocurrency sites are starting to try to monetize this. [00:01:54] And of course, along the way encouraging more people to do it. And so a group of crypto enthusiasts have launched Green Dildo coin, a meme coin, the first stupid meme coin, actually. And so it's sad to see it go in that direction. They said that they were protesting a toxic environment in the crypto world. [00:02:13] I don't know what that is supposed to mean. But in any event, there there are bets going on as to when this will happen, what color the dildo will be. And of course, all of this is very much against the rules. People have been caught that have done this. They've been arrested. Others are being banned from arenas or from WNBA events. [00:02:32] And so for some, including some of the people doing the throwing, they're saying that it's not misogyny, they're just trying to generate attention, which I'm not sure if that's better or worse. I personally think that our world could use less of people, thinking that reality is just for them to do things in, to generate attention, [00:02:51] stop doing street interviews. Stop doing pranks on unsuspecting people just leave. People alone when they're out in the world would be my advice. But anyway, we have more on this and actually maybe even a grosser turn where Don Don Trump Jr gets into the story. But Jake, what do you make of this? Yeah. [00:03:06] So this is, One of the ailments of the attention economy. So now everybody is doing anything and everything to get attention. And people have actually now realize and talk about the their need to capture attention. [00:03:26] And when they, the people who organized this were interviewed, they openly talk about that. They said what? Since a lot of people were talking about the WNBA, what we want to do was, quote, intercept their attention. Okay, so now that's going to have a huge [00:03:45] number of giant problems in the country. That in a minute that I'm going to get to in a minute. Okay. But there's also one other factor here, which is young males. I know a thing or two about this because I was once a young male. Okay. And by the way, I too was guilty. [00:04:03] And so I there was a lot of things that I thought were funny back then that now, as I look at it, after I've matured, after many, many decades, I look back and go, oh my God, I can't believe I did that. Oh that's crazy. Right. And yes, I get it as a 15 year old boy or sometimes 25. Right. [00:04:22] They're like, oh, ha ha, it's so funny. You throw a dildo at the girls playing basketball. Ha ha ha. And but for the rest of us, like not being in that mindset, it's a little bit horrifying. But they don't get it. They think it's like, the funniest thing in the world, right? But you're demeaning those people by doing that. [00:04:41] Like, and it's you're it's not an accident that you threw it at a WNBA game and not at an NBA game, right? And so it's that It's you get stuck in this awful position of being a grown up, telling younger people, [00:04:57] can you please grow up a little bit? Like, it's not that like, I don't want to take the joy out of life. I don't want you to stop joking around. I'm the last guy to say that, right? But there's a line, guys. And demeaning women like this when they're actually at their jobs is way past that line. [00:05:13] It's a million miles past that line, even if they can't see it. But back to the overall phenomenon. That's what I'm more worried about. So here, you know, I was going to get to it, but I'll read it right now. I want to read you this thing that gives you the whole essence of it. I'm skipping forward a little bit. Graphic nine according to a value tracker on Forbes, the price of the coin. [00:05:33] Now I'm skipping ahead to this coin that they are trying to promote. Right. Says which represents a bold movement. They claim a bold movement in internet culture, giving holders a voice and a fun, fearless and fast growing community. That's their quote has spiked by approximately 300% in the past week, [00:05:52] according to Google Trends. There's been a 3,700% increase in US search interest on green dildo since July 29th. And so those numbers are stark and important because you don't understand [00:06:07] the story unless you know why they're doing it, and that's why they're doing it. Because it works. They did get a huge spike in internet interest and searches. And when they go to search it, unfortunately, they see this coin that again, we're going to tell you more about that in a sec. And then and then the price of the coin goes up. [00:06:24] So they were rewarded. And as long as they're going to keep getting rewarded, they're going to keep on doing it. So we're all in a lot of trouble here because this attention economy is rewarding. The worst kind of behavior. Terrific breakdown. Very little to add. [00:06:41] Really that attention economy that there's an economic component to and that, of course, there's a humiliation of women in the workplace. And, I would say, if you want to see a humiliation of women in the workplace, just go into any other workplace because women are you know, I don't mean to be politically correct, but it really is the case that women are, [00:06:59] facing serious issues at work still and have been for decades. So this is just another chapter. But I love that you mentioned the attention economy and that there's a financial component as well. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. They're saying again, as Jake had said, you know, Lieutenant Aldo Raine, I'm [00:07:16] sure that's his real name is saying that. Yeah, they want to intercept the attention and they wanted to really make memes funny again, which is like, do you don't you? You don't need to be anywhere near comedy if that's a sentence that you're saying. And so I would briefly say, so this sort of thing has happened before. [00:07:34] This is not the first time that people have thrown things like dildos. So I think it was the bills years ago or whatever, like it does happen. And so some people will say, well, then that's just what it is. And again, the individual motivations of a person doing this, I can't say for sure that it's like, screw these women or whatever, want to throw this? A lot of them are just, as Jeong said, just trolls or don't understand it. [00:07:52] But like, even if you're literally doing the same thing, throwing a dildo at athletes, it isn't the same thing because of the context. You know, the bills or whatever might have a bad season, but NFL players, it's not that like 90% of what people say about them in the media has been [00:08:08] negative or mocking for literally years. Okay, that's that's a context, okay? Let alone the larger issues of how America generally treats women. And in particular, recently, as the WNBA has been riding over the last year and a half, a wave of renewed interest, and they're getting much higher ratings [00:08:25] and much more tickets being sold. And there's a lot of attention. There has been this counter-reaction from right wing media that does not like to see this. And so when recently during the WNBA all star game, the players were wearing shirts that said, pay you what? Pay us what you owe us, right. [00:08:41] Like Matt Walsh and all of them were making videos about, then in that case, you should be paying the league because you're worth nothing. And so you need to understand that context that, there are some people that aren't interested in whatever sports, let alone women's sports. And then there are people who have a vested interest in making sure [00:08:58] that it doesn't get popular. They don't want it to be respected. They like that it's a target of mockery. And of course, ironically, many of these people are the same people that have been using their supposed concern for women athletes and women's sports as a thinly veiled excuse for rabid transphobia. [00:09:16] And so that is context that, unfortunately, is going to be lost on the sort of people that smuggle a dildo into Crypto.com Arena and then chuck it at a player or whatever, but you should understand it, and it's not front of mind for some people trying to have fun with memes on this. Like Don Jr, who posted this on Instagram of Donald Trump [00:09:37] on the roof of the white House, throwing a dildo down at players playing. He did that about his dad. And of course, the context for that is his dad has been accused of sexual harassment and sexual assault by literally dozens of women. [00:09:52] He's, of course, tied to Jeffrey Epstein as all this is going on. But yeah, he should be throwing dildos down at those women just trying to do their job. Strange family. Yeah, I have a lot of thoughts on context, too. First, on the white House. This is what we've devolved to, where the president's son does a meme [00:10:12] of the president throwing a dildo at women playing basketball. And that's not a big story. Like, yeah, it's covered. But, my God, if this had happened pre-trump, it would have been. We'd still be talking about it. I mean, Jimmy Carter's brother had too much to drink one night or something, [00:10:32] and that's still like a story people talk about. Right. Like, imagine if Jimmy Carter's brother was throwing dildos at women, right? Or doing memes like that and stuff. So like the debasement of the white House. I mean, remember when they used to talk about, oh, Bill Clinton has debased the white House? All right. [00:10:50] I hope we're not still having that conversation. Okay, that conversation has now come to a conclusion. But also, yes, when your dad's been accused of sexual harassment by dozens of women and can and and a jury of his peers said that he was guilty of sexually abusing a woman, [00:11:07] and he's on tape bragging about how he just grabs their genitalia without permission. Having him throw dildos at them is not the great is not a great look. But unfortunately, there's a portion of their base that finds that kind of demeaning behavior to be awesome. [00:11:23] And that's why I don't ever vote with them. Like, they don't understand how disqualifying that is. Like you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm for America. Are you? Because you're not for equality. You're not for treating all of us the same, right? [00:11:38] So again, if you're a 12 year old kid, I understand you think it's funny, but I would hope the rest of us have matured a little bit past that now. One other, component about the financial end of it. Then some, betting websites started putting up. [00:11:54] Oh, what color will the next dildo be? Which is so stupid, but I don't. I guess they wanted to attract attention. They thought the marketing was worth it because people then looked at those betting websites, they planned it, and then they did it. They put a lot of money and they now brag about it. They put money on which color would be. [00:12:12] Then they picked the color, and then they themselves threw it on to make money. So you see how the attention economy grows and grows and grows and how people are making money from all sorts of things that as a society we don't really want them doing but are now being financially rewarded. [00:12:28] Right. And finally, on the context of throwing things, look, if my daughter is playing some sort of sport or anything else, and you throw something like that at her. We're going to have a we're going to have a problem. Okay. So they're they're also creating a situation where people are going to want [00:12:47] to take things into their own hands. I mean, what was John's initial reaction? He wanted to go find the guy. Yeah. Right. - I wanted to throw him onto the court. - In the stands. And so this is not healthy for society when we start looking for each other to get even. Right. And, and I would know a thing or two about getting thrown [00:13:03] things thrown at us in context. So when I played football in, at East Brunswick High School in New Jersey, they threw bagels at us, for in the opposing, stands. Why? Because East Brunswick was heavily Jewish town. [00:13:20] Oh my God. So now if you say, hey, you know what? What's the big deal? Maybe they were done with their bagels and they throw them. And you don't know that it's a Jewish town. You think it's not a big deal, but when you find out it's, you know, known as a Jewish town and they're throwing bagels at you, That context matters. [00:13:36] Okay. And so that's the context here matters as well. Mark last words. Was anybody Genk in Brunswick actually saying well maybe they were just done with their bagels and they decided. You know, nobody thought that. Okay. I just want clarification on that. [00:13:52] No, I sign on to everything you've just said. It's a it's another brand of lunacy. And as you suggested, the degradation of the white House and of of public service and of politics in Washington, that's the spillover effect and how this all comes together with social media [00:14:08] and the meme coin and, as I say, an economically incentivized process. It's it's crazy that meets a sort of a juvenile kind of, prankster. And you've really got this, it all crashes together. It's a sign of the times. [00:14:24] Hate to say it, but it's a really appropriate phrase in this case. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. Totally not true. But it does keep you updated on our live shows.