Zombie Book Club

V for Vendetta Feels Like Current Events (Casual Dead) | Zombie Book Club Ep. 146

• Zombie Book Club • Season 4 • Episode 146

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A Kimberly-Clark warehouse worker lit a 1.2-million-square-foot facility on fire and filmed himself saying "all you had to do was pay us enough to fucking live." Media coverage mourned the inventory. Dan and Leah come in burned out but reach for a comfort watch (V for Vendetta) and find it hitting like current events. The movie may be twenty years old, but the machinery it describes; propaganda, scapegoating, fear-based unity, and a public conditioned to accept cruelty as normal — is running at full speed right now.

From the Kimberly-Clark fire to stock buybacks that consumed 106% of company profits, to union-busting and Amazon workplace horror stories, the episode traces the pressure that builds when a system refuses to reform. Then we talk about V for Vendetta itself: the Guy Fawkes mask, the long game of symbolism, queer liberation themes, and what it looks like when people stop believing the polite path leads anywhere.



Elevator Pitch

Neal Noakes on Instagram: @Neal.Noakes.Books

We Will Not Survive on Amazon: Pre Order Here


TOPICS DISCUSSED:

The Kimberly-Clark Fire / Chamel Abdulkarim

V for Vendetta

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Welcome And V For Vendetta

SPEAKER_05

Welcome to Zombie Book Club, the only book club where the book is a cocktail of sorts. What kind of cocktail could I possibly be talking about? I'm Dan and when I'm not enjoying certain types of cocktails. I'm writing a book about a world where the dead roam the earth, the wealthy elite tighten their chokehold on humanity to extract every last drop of value from the working class, and the only hope for humanity is to realize that sometimes violence solves everything.

SPEAKER_06

And I'm Leah, In View, a humble vaudevillian veteran cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the Vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venil and virulent vermin, vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. Today, we're talking about V for Vendetta. Oh, it's V for Vendetta. I I gotta say, I think I did a way better job than Hugo weaving on that. Yeah, they should have given that role to the new. Kidding, folks. I can barely say the words, and I still don't know how to say is it venal or venyl? And what does it mean? Uh maybe it's venyl. Let's look it up. Well, there's no venil definition. Uh a person or system open to bribery, corrupt, and motivated by money rather than ethics or honor. Yeah, okay, that's on point. Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah. That sounds some that sounds familiar. Yeah, they're venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice. I'm vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition. Yeah, they are.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

It's not a zombie movie.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's not, but it's a movie I like. Um and it feels appropriate, it feels appropriate for the time. Um, and also it's just like it's weird. It's a 20-year-old movie, and so many of the things that they talk about is directly appropriate for right now.

SPEAKER_06

Disturbingly so. Yeah. Yeah, it's a 20-year anniversary, came out in 2006. And we decided to talk about it because this is a casual dead, and um we're both a little burned out, burned out on everything. Everything. Yeah. So we're like, let's just do something completely different.

Monty Python As A Palate Cleanser

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Now for something completely different. Insert.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

That's a thing from a show or a movie of a Monty Python. Oh, right. It's from the Monty Python.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Which actually is uh has some relevance here because there's that whole little skit about um the Irish Catholics, I think, who have like a lot of babies. Maybe it's British Catholics. I'm so sorry to everybody who's from the UK. Let's see. The Monty Pythons? Yeah, let me look. Monty. I have to I have to confirm this. And the Holy Grail, yeah. Catholic. They have like a huge family. Yeah, it's the meaning of life. Colon, Catholics. Oh. But I don't actually know what the accent is, so I apologize in advance for that. Oh, yeah, they have a song called Every Sperm is Sacred. That's great.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. It's on listen to that now, but we got a sort of thing.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. We should definitely watch Monty Python. I have not seen it since I was a kid. Yeah. Which one? And the Holy Grail. I feel like that's the holy grail of Monty Python's.

SPEAKER_05

It is. It's it's definitely the best. Have you ever seen any of like the like the show? I didn't know there was a show. Oh, it it's originally a show. It's a skit show, kind of like um I I don't want to compare it to SNL because it's like way better than SNL. But it's like a skit show. Um and like that whole like now for something completely different. Would be like in between some of the skits.

Elevator Pitch For Zombie Road Trip

SPEAKER_06

I love it because it's kind of short forming my head for my ADHD. If I'm about to be like go real sideways on someone, I'll just say a now for something completely different. It lets them know. Me and them know we're not talking about Monty Python or V for Vendetta anymore. We're talking about an author pitch, Dan. Oh, that's from Neil Nokes. Yeah, it's been a little while. Are we gonna get in the elevator? We're getting in the elevator.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, the the elevator pitch. Yep. Yeah. We have to press buttons and stuff.

SPEAKER_06

We do. Okay. Are you ready to listen to Neil Noakes' pitch for the book We Will Not Survive?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, let's go to um floor 67.

SPEAKER_06

All right.

SPEAKER_01

Do you like horror? Do you like zombies? Do you like road trips? Do you like stories about loved ones separated by a large distance who have to fight to reunite? The answer to any of these questions or all of these questions is yes. Check out my book, We Will Not Survive, when it drops on the 13th of November, 2026, on Amazon Kindle and in Paperback. It will also be being released in uh Google Books and in Kobo shortly thereafter. Details to be confirmed. Have a nice day and don't get bit by zombies.

SPEAKER_06

Thanks, Neil. Thanks, Neil. We're having an okay day. It's rainy, but hearing your pitch was made it a little bit better.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it warmed up the cockles of my heart. Um, I love a good road trip zombie story. Uh I feel I feel like it's a it's a cornerstone of the genre. Like so many great zombie stories are road trips. Um, and there's so much excitement to be had. Also, like that is like the question that you have, like when you're thinking about the zombie apocalypse, especially if you live far away from your family. It's like, do I go on a road trip to save my family? Can they protect themselves? Can I sit this one out? Because I got my own shit to deal with. Do I have to travel across the country to save my family? You're asking the tough questions, Dan. Yeah. Um, so you know, I I love I love hearing that question in uh in the form of a story.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, I want to read it. It's available now for pre-order on uh Kindle, and it's got a great description. It says Harrison is deployed as a reporter for the American military. He promises his wife and young daughter it'll be the last time. Santos, the leader of a military squad, gets orders to return to base from a shady private company CEO. Those shady company CEOs. Yeah, they're always and he swears he'll get answers. Dwight and Sam, a social worker in his charge, are en route to his case review, and Dwight promises to get Sam there safely. That's an interesting twist. I haven't seen before. Then the unthinkable happens. A viral outbreak turns people into feral monsters. How far will you go to get home? How hard will you fight? What promises are you prepared to break when the world as we know it ends? Also coming out November 13th.

SPEAKER_05

Great title.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Um, it says a lot. It says a lot about it.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, it does. It's got a the image is nice too. Like the book cover is uh a fire.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Do they survive? I don't think so. I mean, the title says that we will not survive this. Yeah. But is it a lie? Like, do are do we get duped? We'll have to read it to find out. We will.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. But it's coming out November 13th. They better not survive. In the meantime, you should pre-order it. It's available right now on Z Kindle. Yeah. Which is unfortunately owned by a shady private company CEO, Jeff Bezos. But we understand and support indie authors. Yeah. We gotta get their shit out there somehow.

SPEAKER_05

Indie authors need to do what they gotta do. Yeah. Um, until there's a better option. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Thanks for reaching out, Neil. We appreciate you. Yeah. Glad to have you be a part of the community.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. I can't remember when the last time we did a an elevator pitch was, but it's been a while. Yeah, you we we you you just need to jump back in the saddle. Feels natural. Yeah, we did great. We did great pitching that elevator.

SPEAKER_06

Well, I mean, he did great pitching his own elevator at the end.

SPEAKER_05

I'm taking credit for it.

Subscribe And Rethink Body Shaming

SPEAKER_06

That's not very nice, Dan. It's even a little video which folks can't see, but we can share it when we post this uh episode on the Instagram. Well, I guess this is the point where we should say, because we haven't yet welcome anybody who's new. We used to do elevator pictures all the time, haven't in a little while. If you are an author, specifically a zombie author, there's gotta be somebody undead in there.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

And we're not talking vampires, although I do love vampires, but that's a that's not what we're talking about. But maybe if they're zombie vampires, yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_05

That's that's a different story. Like a certain Ollie Eats brains. Yeah. And you know, maybe if your vampire is a bit ghoulish, maybe we can make an exception, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Or they're just undead in some interesting way. I'm open.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. I mean, we'll definitely hear you out. Um but yeah, welcome. Uh, if you haven't yet, please sub vendetta. That's not a real world word, but I just used it because we never used to say the word subscribe. I feel like it should be. Oh, yeah, you subscribe. Give us all the stars. We appreciate it. We're a small micro little podcast. A micropine cast, as some say. Oh. Are we the micropine cast? You know what? I don't think there's anything wrong with the micropine. Yeah. I think we sometimes use really mean things about people's bodies that are judgmental about people we don't like. Yeah. And we really shouldn't do that because penis size, I mean, like basically I have a clitoris, which is a micropine. And it's great. You do? Yeah, just letting everybody know. I don't want to talk about it any further, but I do happen to have it.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. I don't. Sorry, I think I probably just made like 90% of our listeners uncomfortable. But my point is, is that why do we have to body shame to like insult people? And also, why do we have to wheel pigs? Pigs are cool. Let's be more creative. That's my comment.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I I I get that. It's not nice to body shame people. Um, but it is nice when somebody is being just a horrible shit to like say something that is so upsetting to them that they cannot ignore it. And I I'm not defending body shaming because I agree. But I like there's just some things, there's some things that just really drive home for a person. And when we're talking about Stephen Miller, and uh we call him the king micropine, for example. Um, you know, I bet I bet that hits hard.

SPEAKER_06

But then what about all other people who are watching that who actually do indeed have micropenes, like me, who then feel like my micropine is insufficient?

SPEAKER_05

And they they start thinking that they're like comparable to Stephen Miller, and that's upsetting.

Warehouse Fires And Late Stage Rage

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, exactly. Like that's what I'm saying. And also, if I was a pig and I could listen to things, I'd be like, stop comparing me to all these other things, pig. I'm cool, I'm very neat and tidy, I'm as smart as like a five-year-old kid. I'm snuggly, I make fun sounds, and I can be a friend to you. Why are you why are you comparing me to jerks? Oh, you're talking about pigs. Yeah. I was very confused. Yeah, I was I was awesome. I'm sure they're snuggly too. Yeah. Well, um, this is a great beginning to this podcast. We're gonna also talk now. Do you want to talk about V for Vendetta first? Or what's happening currently?

SPEAKER_05

Let's talk about what's happening currently because uh V for Vendetta was kind of like the the the the stress release, the pressure valve at the end of uh of crazy, crazy week. Um, you know, I mean when this comes out, like who knows what's been going on. But as of right now, we can stamp this. This is April 19th. April nineteenth. As of right now, as far as I know, there have been 25 warehouse fires uh from people who are fed up with this bullshit that's happening. Um if you don't know what I'm talking about, I don't know what to tell you. Uh must be nice. I mean, is it though? Because I love hearing about these warehouse fires. Oh, I mean like if you don't know what's going on and you don't know why people would want to start fires in a warehouse, that sounds like a wonderful world to be living in. Uh but I'm sure some people do. And you know, and also there's some people that are like, you know, they're they're so they've got they've got boots so far into their mouth that they're like, we live to serve the wealthy. Why would anyone set fire to a warehouse? Um and you know, this is the part where I'm supposed to be like, I I don't condone uh violence or arson or uh doing anything bad to the wealthy. Um me neither. I'm supposed to say that. Anyway. It all started with uh with our good friend Paper Mario. Um do you have his name? I've I always forget his name.

SPEAKER_06

I actually wanted to play the video. Give me one second. Okay. Okay. So yeah, his name, um, who does actually directly compare themselves to Luigi Mangioni, apparently, his name is Chamel Abdul Karim. If I'm saying that wrong, I apologize. They are charged with felony and state arson counts after allegedly destroying property worth nearly 600 million. And they recorded themselves, I believe, on a Facebook Live. Yeah, they live streamed it. Uh lighting a warehouse full of toilet paper on fire, which I just want to give a callback. I feel like that's a cameo from 2020.

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yeah, because we were out of toilet paper.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Right. Yeah. And I'd like for live and we die by toilet paper. Unless you got a bidet, baby. Yeah. Uh, which is a a privilege and a blessing. We've removed ourselves from the system by getting a bidet. Yeah. So just one second, I want to actually play exactly what he says. Now I gotta find it, which is gonna be a nightmare. Here it is. I'm gonna get it to exact point.

SPEAKER_02

This fire that started yesterday in Ontario. It's a story today in LA has been on top of since it started. And now, new video has surfaced, apparently posted by the man accused of arson. NBC4's Lauren Cornado has been on this since the fire started. So, Lauren, the video is disturbing with what we see, but also what we hear.

SPEAKER_03

Lynette, absolutely. The video gets really shocking. You'll see it in just a little bit, but you talk about this massive warehouse fire, right? That happened Tuesday overnight. Well, right now, there are still items inside of the building on fire. You can see those active flames. If you live in the area, you'll see a lot of smoke still hovering right over the warehouse. Now let's get to that video. Ontario police say they're using as part of the investigation.

SPEAKER_00

You know, if you're not gonna pay us enough to fucking live or afford to live, at least pay us enough not to do this.

SPEAKER_03

There goes your inventory.

SPEAKER_06

Shocking video posted to I love that they needed to uh I love that they needed to bleep out the fucking end of the shit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I mean, it's you know, they're on TV. I love how they're like, there's still items inside that warehouse that are burning. Won't somebody think about the items? Truly.

SPEAKER_06

Well, actually, okay, so when I first looked it up, they're already propaganding this shit. Yeah. Okay, so he was the first. Now there's been 25, plus a Molotov cocktail thrown at Sam Altman, the CEO of ChatGPT. Also, somebody shot up his front door. Shot up his front door. And this is what this shit organization called the Independent Institute has to say about this. The warehouse arsonist is no working class hero. Arson that destroys vital goods harms workers and worsens the cost of living. Then it goes on about how much damage it was. Then it goes into talking about like how cost of living has gone up, but that then it goes on to be like, well, this isn't actually the problem. It says critics of capitalism often argue that wages have stagnated while shareholders reap disproportionate gains. Among other things, this claim overlooks a critical shift. Access to financial markets has never been more democratized. What the fuck are you talking about? Yeah. What the fuck are you talking about? What is this person's name? What the fuck are you talking about, Christian fours?

SPEAKER_05

Leah, the system is informing us that this guy is not a working class folk hero.

SPEAKER_06

Oh, I love the Facebook comments, which I gotta give credit because usually they suck. Uh that little Sassy says looks like he's a working class hero, and the author of this article is a bootlicker. And this other person says, Dork, this is how you got workers' rights. Yeah. Amazing. This is wild. I just love people trying to spin this shit.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. The people are working double time to try to spin this shit to make it sound uh like this wasn't the most obvious thing to happen in late stage capitalism. I don't have the numbers exactly, um, but I know that based on what this guy made working at this warehouse, um, he made less than the median rent for an apartment in his area. A month. A month. So in other words, he couldn't even afford a house. Right. With the payment he was getting. Um, and even if he managed to get something cheap, it's likely that he could only afford to pay rent, but not like have a car, pay for insurance, wait, eat food, buy a house.

SPEAKER_06

But you're saying that the the investment is actually not democratized?

SPEAKER_05

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Because someone like him would definitely not have money to put into fucking stocks or save for a down payment in a house, which is what most people, the generation before us, used to gain wealth.

SPEAKER_05

I have to ask, though, had he considered maybe canceling his Netflix subscription and not eating avocado toast?

SPEAKER_06

I mean, that's certainly why we have a house. Nothing to do with the fact that my grandparents died and my mom had a little bit of extra money to help me. Yeah. Absolutely nothing.

SPEAKER_05

You know, I've I've eaten avocado toast maybe 15 times in my life, but I don't do it anymore because we're homeowners.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. And now we can blame this guy if we run out of toilet paper.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

He's making our life harder. It's definitely him. And all other 24 people who did this.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Um a lot of people are quick to be like, well, now hundreds of people are without jobs. They are without jobs that don't pay them enough to live. They're without jobs that keep them bel so far below the poverty line that they are considering setting everything on fire, or throwing a mall-tough cocktail at Sam Altman's house, or shooting up his front door.

SPEAKER_06

In other words, they feel like they have nothing to lose because they have nothing. I mean, there's a reason why I am sitting here in our little comfy boat bunker, having had some snacks in a house that is partly bought for by generational wealth, and I'm still talking working class wealth here. Okay, folks, don't have any illusions. But that's every actually, this is a fact. Every single person I know that is a millennial that has a house has a house because somebody helped them. I don't know a single person. And they're probably out there, but I don't know who the fuck you are. Maybe you can you can prove me wrong, but I know a lot of people with houses, and the ones who have them, somebody gave them some money somewhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

If I was if I was out here doing life on my own, there is no chance I would ever own a house. There is zero. I I'm I I would question whether or not I would even have an apartment right now.

Labor Violence And Worker Rights History

SPEAKER_06

And this is a long tradition of labor, labor-related violence and pushing back and saying, wait a second. Like I'm I love these people. They are heroes to me. I need to put this, I need to like, I'm sure somebody's already doing it. We need to look it up, giving some like hero art for this guy and all the others. Oh, yeah. But I just want to give a couple of other examples. I mean, first of all, in 1874, mine operators in Pennsylvania decide to reduce wages, and 10,000 miners go out on strike. They're called the Molly McGuire's. They're a group of mostly Irish miners. They plan attacks and use violence against the operators in foreman. Uh 20 of them were sentenced to death by hanging. Then there's the railroad strike of 1877, and there's several bloody clashes. At least 10 workers die in Cumberland, Maryland. Then in May 4th, uh, there's in 1886, there's a union action in support of an eight-hour workday because they didn't have them back then. Yeah. Because people had to literally fight for it physically.

SPEAKER_05

12 to 14 hours was the norm.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. The the action results in severe casualties. Labor leaders and strikers gather in Chicago, Illinois. Shout out Chicago, we love y'all, to protest police brutality at these actions. And a bomb is thrown at the policeman trying to break up the rally. Um creates death of seven policemen and four workers. That's called the Haymarket affair. I could go like this is a whole this is a website that goes on and on and on.

SPEAKER_05

Um the term uh the term redneck uh was came about in the at the turn of the century because uh they were um workers who were uh striking against a company that they work for. I don't have the the details right in front of me, so I don't I don't know what ki uh types of workers they were. Um but they they were being um severely underpaid, very mistreated, the conditions were very dangerous, and they're like they're like we we we were going on strike. Uh so they created the term redneck as a disparaging um word for people from the south who are uh you know lower class. Um so that they could so that they could spin it so that like they could they could drum up some hatred for people who they consider to be rednecks.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, which is exactly what that article I just read from is trying to spin. Like these guys are the problem. This warehouse worker is the problem. He's the reason why you can't get toilet paper for what it cost pre 2020. Here's another one October 6, 1919. The US Army takes control of Gary, Indiana, and martial law is declared after steelworkers clash with police. The steelworkers are on strike to secure the right to hold union meetings, something that is still hard to this day. Yeah. In uh companies like Walmart. And that although wow, that's actually depressing. The Great Steel streak strike was defeated. There were 365,000 steel workers trying to do that. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But I will say that was nonviolent. Yeah. That did not involve uh breaking anything down.

SPEAKER_05

And that's that's uh uh an argument that I see a lot right now about stuff like this. And you know, we've we've had some conversations with people about uh nonviolent protest versus violent protest, and I'm all for nonviolent protest. I think it's great. We were just talking about the um uh the No Kings uh No Kings protests.

SPEAKER_06

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

I think it's a great way to get started and a great way to get activated. And nonviolent is a great way to start off, but when they are not listening, they are not caring, and it in many cases going the exact opposite direction of what you're demanding, which by the way, is there's not a whole lot of options.

SPEAKER_06

Not very much. We're not asking for very much. This this warehouse worker is asking to be able to afford to fucking live.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. And before you feel too bad about the toilet paper factory or the warehouse, um that uh they profited, I want to say it was like two billion dollars that year. Profit. Two billion. They didn't just they didn't just sell two billion dollars. They profited two billion dollars. If they if they raised their their the wages of their workers, all of their workers, all Kimberly Clark workers, gave them a raise so that they could afford to live in their respective communities based on the cost of living, they would have profited$500 million still. Profit.

SPEAKER_06

Eyes rolling into back of head with rage. Yeah. I mean, this is the story of our times. Yeah. The other thing I want to point out though, this is uh, I'm reading these time frames, this like history from PBS, just in case folks are like, what is this about? Even though things don't always immediately create change, a hundred years later, after like, I think more than a hundred years after the first example I shared, in March 23 of 1932, President Herbert Hebert. Hubert Hoover? Herbert. Herbert Hoover. They might be in typo because there's no ER. Anyways, signs the Norris LaGuardia Act into law, and the act outlaws something that was happening a lot at the time, which were called yellow dog contracts, discriminatory to yellow dogs, which forced workers to agree not to join a union as a condition of their employment. Wow. It also establishes that workers are allowed to form labor unions without employer interference. Um, and then later on, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the National Industrial Recovery Act, granting industrial workers the right to join a union. These things don't happen, you know, maybe all the time immediately, but constant, consistent pressure and amplifying the pressure, we do eventually see change and we have to keep fighting for it.

Union Busting Under Surveillance

SPEAKER_05

Something that I don't understand, and maybe it's because I've never been a part of a union. I've I don't know a lot about the laws surrounding them. I don't understand how the government can dictate whether or not you form a union. Um, to me, it kind of seems like if you want to form a union, you do it. Well, they can't ask for permission.

SPEAKER_06

But they they can't stop it. But they there was there were companies were creating these rules. The problem is that even today with unions, what we have now with union busting with Walmart, is they will just like target that one department that unionized. So unless you have like a mass unionization across all of the Walmarts, which is really difficult to coordinate without getting caught and fired, they'll claim some other reason to fire you.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Um, they can just target that specific area. They can even shut down a whole, they're like literally willing willing to shut down entire Walmarts just to stop unionization from moving forward. And they can give some other reason for doing it.

SPEAKER_05

Well, um, you know, I I feel like that's something that's kind of related to uh to to fires and warehouses. Like, you know, things get bad enough, people are going to be willing to do crazy things. Um, I think one of the least crazy things could be willingness to get fired en masse because they won't allow you to unionize. Um I mean, this require I mean this this requires a lot of a lot of coordination. Um I just I just don't see how they could stop it. You know, the only thing that could stop it is the will of the people involved.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, and uh that episode that just came out about technology for the apocalypse might have some ways that could help us organize.

Amazon Workplace Safety Nightmares

SPEAKER_05

It's true. A lot of a lot of the union busting these days is uh surveillance. You know, they're they're they're getting themselves into your group chats and your emails, um, and they're overhearing you uh uh on your lunch breaks through like microphones on the walls and spies around you, and like they're checking what you're what you're searching and what what you're looking at on social media, and it's like you know, maybe uh maybe we start using some methods that they can't track, you know. Maybe maybe we start using mesh task to organize unions. Um which is definitely one of the use cases that people talk about. Uh something else that uh some people have said about the warehouse fires is like, you know, why did this guy risk going to prison for the rest of his life? Because that's what he's looking at right now, is life in prison. Um why did he do that instead of just quitting and getting another job? Right. Which is hilarious because have have you have you been in the job market recently? Yes. Yes, I have. Um, you know, when you're when you're a a warehouse worker, it's even worse. Uh because there's there's a dozen people just like you that could do your job um in a in a heartbeat. And that's kind of what they're they're banking on. They they don't care what they pay you, they want to extract as much as they can pay because they know that they can replace you tomorrow. Yep. And even if they can't replace you, they'll just make everybody else work harder. Um and they don't care how you feel, they don't care if you're sick, they don't even care if you're dead. Um, something else that happened this week was there was a worker at an Amazon uh warehouse who died. Um collapsed on the floor, nobody knew why. Some some of his co-workers tried to give him CPR, and their managers told them to get back to work. That's fucked. Uh and when people were complaining that there was a dead body in the way um that was making it difficult for them to get back to work, they were told to just ignore it. Cool. Uh that person, it's possible that that person could have survived if somebody had given them CPR for long enough until until an ambulance showed up. But they prioritized company profit over the well-being of a worker. They they chose to ignore the death of a worker and the well-being of the other workers around them that are like, now corporate office wants me to step over a body just so I can get these boxes from one end to the other. And they wonder why warehouses are catching on fire. Like, this is inexcusable. It's inexcusable. Not long ago, there was a um there was something that happened at another Amazon uh uh warehouse where I really hate buying anything from them. There was, I think, I think a fire alarm went off and everybody had to evacuate. Um, I don't really remember the reason why they had to evacuate, but they had to evacuate and they had to stand outside and wait for uh first responders to show up and deal with the situation. And all all the that we know about the situation is from video that was taking taken while they were talking to somebody from management. And the people from management wanted to dock them for the hours that they spent standing outside because they weren't working.

unknown

So fucked.

SPEAKER_05

During a time when they had to evacuate, they weren't allowed to work. You have to lose your soul to be in these kinds of jobs after a while. Uh also within the last couple weeks, um, this is in Missouri. There uh another Amazon warehouse. I sense a pattern. The Amazon drivers were outside of an Amazon warehouse while there was a tornado warning. There was a tornado coming through the area that they heard about this under imminent threat of tornado, and the doors were open, and the security guards came over and forced the drivers back outside. Wow. And then closed the doors on them. And we're talking to like 12 people in a whole fucking warehouse that is, I don't even how know how many acres. And they're just like, no, you can't come in um because you're not technically employees of Amazon. You're contract workers, because that's what Amazon drivers are, is a contract workers. Yeah, but these these Amazon drivers, they they're they work on contract, so their feelings on the subject were you can't come in during a tornado, fuck off and go die in the parking lot. Cool. Cool, cool, cool. We love that.

SPEAKER_06

And they wonder why warehouses are catching on fire. I mean, no reason. Why would anybody do that? They're they're the reason why we're all suffering is these people who are just mad at their boss. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

And get a different job. And meanwhile, the wealthy and the powerful are just they're they're just they're just exploiting endlessly. They're they have doubled that the wealthy have doubled their net worth since COVID. Disgusting.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, they used they really used COVID as an opportunity to just price gouge.

SPEAKER_05

They did. And on top of that, like not all of them, but man, just enough of them are fucking pedophiles and are eating children, making recipes for children.

SPEAKER_06

Don't even get me started on this. Like the last week, I've learned so many more disturbing things about rape culture, grape culture.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, they call it grape now.

Rape Culture And Power Under Capitalism

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, because can't say rape. Can't say can't say things on the internet. Can't swear also on television, but you can watch somebody light something on fire, and you can also watch children die and be obliterated by bombs, but cool. Um it's all connected though. I sound like one of those people that's like putting all the dots together and like red lines, but it is like I learned this week. Can I go on a quick sidebar, Dan? Yeah. That there's this rape website. It like teaches men how to sexually assault their wives or partners while and drug them.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, they're calling it the rape academy.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. And there's a 62 million visit per month.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

And there's uploaded video of men doing this.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. I want to I want to say that it was something like 20,000 videos. Is it is like how do how did it take this long for us to find out about this?

SPEAKER_06

Because this shit is normalized as hell. I remember saying to you, Dan, just the other day that like the fact that when we first met, you did not like put try to push me further than I was comfortable, went against everything that I'd been told about what men do if they like you. Because if men like you, uh, they're going to be aggressive with you sexually. Like that was literally the paradigm that I grew up with.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. And here, and here we are. And yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Actually, like literally reading that, I looked, I turned and looked at Dan and I thought to myself, is it possible? That's that's how fucked up it is. Yeah. And how common this shit is, and how frequently I see things. And it is absolutely connected to like patriarchy capitalism, fucking twins, besties, all connected. Men feeling incredibly disempowered in their lives, the working class. Just like my brother took it out on me when my dad was bad, like really abusive to him. Men take it out on anybody else that they, you know, it's like that shit not trickles, like it gets you get punched down. It rolls down. Yeah. So it's uh it's been a rough week. I almost didn't want to do this episode because I was just like, I'm I'm tired. That is an interesting connection.

SPEAKER_05

I don't know if I've I've made that connection. Is that like, yeah, these are disempowered people who are who are being systematically abused by the same sis same system that all of us are.

SPEAKER_06

Yep.

SPEAKER_05

And they they they're they're taking control in their own way, uh, which is by abusing the their loved ones sexually.

SPEAKER_06

Who they've been taught are there for their pleasure, right? It's like the it's the acceptable outlet. Yeah. It's a space where they can have control and pleasure and see people as objects to do something too, because they're be you know, like, and by say they, like you, until you recently now are not working. Like I would I I think we talked about before in the podcast, I think, all the time about how not only were you exploited by the US military, but every job you've had since has exploited you. Yeah. Every single one and physically harmed you.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_06

And if you were not a more enlightened creature that you are, you can see how that stuff. I mean, like we've talked about the number of your coworkers who have died from cancer or gotten sick. It's a disproportionate number of folks who have done like really violent things for themselves and their loved ones. Yeah. Like I don't come home from work with these kinds of stories, but you did.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Uh it at some point it was like pretty much every year there was a coworker that died somehow during the off season. Um the the more the the the easier to swallow ones is the is is the people who would develop cancer or heart problems during the year. Easier to swallow. That's sad, eh? Well, uh, one guy that I that I worked with overdosed. Um he was a heroin addict. He it was really sad because he was clean during that year that I worked with him, but I knew that he struggled with it. Um he was really desperate to like change himself. He didn't want to be addicted to heroin. That's sad. Um we had we had conversations about psychedelic mushrooms because he was like, Yeah, I heard that like they can rewire your brain and like things like addiction, you can like rewire it so that it's like you know, you can you can fix that. And uh and I talked to him a little bit about stuff like that. I'm like, yeah, I don't you know, the the science is out. You know, but uh I've I've heard that um and he he overdosed over that winter. Um and then the second year that I was there, uh a guy that I thought was was an interesting person to talk to, like one of the few people that I enjoyed talking to at work, um he uh apparently was hearing voices that he thought were demons and he uh smashed a glass cabinet and stabbed his stepdad in the neck with a piece of glass and then slit his own throat. Um his step or no, he stabbed his stepdad in the heart.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, these are not stories I'm coming home from work uh to tell you at my workplace. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

And uh his his stepdad lived, he did not. Um and that's a really sad one because he'd uh he'd also like his brother had uh had um uh killed himself uh the year before, and he was struggling really hard with that. And it's it like his father, I think, killed himself um when he was a kid. That's so sad. Like there's a there's a very clear like outline of uh of um uh you know mental illness in that family. And maybe if we had fucking health care and it was normalized to seek help, when you're hearing the voices of demons in your head um and you didn't have to jump through hoops to go talk to a therapist and it didn't cost you everything you had to do it, uh maybe that guy would have found a way to cope instead of stabbing his dad and then slitting his throat. I have to let the demons out. So sad. Um and it's yeah, it's it was surprising because I I didn't know that he was having problems. I knew that he was struggling with depression. I didn't know he was struggling with uh demon voices.

Trauma Mental Health And Poverty

SPEAKER_06

Well, have you heard of intergenerational trauma? I feel like we've talked about it. Yeah. Uh we I think we've talked about epigenetics and like how these things happen. But if you think about like people who are in your line of work are typically not folks who come they're like lower middle class, quote unquote.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Or lower class, like very like hand-to-mouth survival.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Um, they're not people who are told when they're kids when you go to college because it's like there's no money for college.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, there's no money, and also you weren't very good at school anyway. It'd be a waste.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. And uh there was there was no money to go to the dentist. No. You avoided going to the doctor at all costs. Um your parents were probably overwork or single and working.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, their parents probably, you know, worked 14 to 16 hours hours a day just like they did.

SPEAKER_06

And then their parents' parents were like that, and their parents' parents, parents, parents, parents are probably, you know, you you go back down the line. It's not like um these families with intergenerational trauma and poverty have were like came were really rich one day and then lost it all. Yeah. That is a very rare story in America. Once you've got it, you can keep it pretty easily. Um, except for the phenomenon where people win millions of dollars and then spend it all because they've never known how to do that, which is again related to intergenerational trauma and poverty. Um, but my point is, is like exactly like you said, all the systemic things, if those had not been issues, hopefully this person would have gotten care, they would have had medicine. Um but also that like you you add any kind of mental health challenge and then you add financial stress on top of that, yeah, which only creates relational stress. You know, like when you and I are broke is not when we are our best. Yeah. Thankfully, you and I are are pretty good together. And so like we don't fight about it, but it's harder. It's harder to stay positive and be kind to people when you're worrying about how you're gonna eat.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. And when uh when your diet is comprised of only the most processed food because it's all you can afford. I mean, I lived I lived for decades like that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Um, most of my life I was I was even poorer than than my than my coworkers that exited this world. Um, it wasn't until I joined their ranks that I started to feel like I could make it in this world.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Uh which is a weird, weird thing to consider. That the the thing the thing that that drove a lot of my coworkers to no longer be on this planet, um, that that is the highest I've achieved.

SPEAKER_06

Well, it is. I mean, like as far as jobs go, having a truck driver's license is one of the better jobs that's accessible to people. I actually but it's hours are wild. Your hours were wild. Yeah, your health conditions are terrible. Um, the culture of the workplace is brutal.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Um, yeah. I I mean, I actually don't mind the job. I feel like I'd still be okay with doing it if I had eight-hour days. I I didn't like the when people are like, oh, they fought for your eight-hour day, I'm like, I don't have those. What happened? What happened to the eight-hour day? I'm working 14 to 16 hour days. Weird loopholes because you're a seasonal worker. Yeah. Hey. And and well, just real quick, I'm like, if if I had healthcare, well, I do because of the VA, but if if uh if I had the eight-hour work work day, or even just four-day work weeks, I I think I could make it work, but because they pushed me so far, it was unbearable. Yeah, I had no time to live my life. Or feel things. Yeah. I had to turn myself off during the season. I was just a fucking robot. I'm really sorry, Dan. And every single day I thought about setting my truck on fire. Every single day. Yeah. I'd I'd leave the parking lot. I'd spray gravel everywhere. I'd do donuts in my in my truck on the way home from work and just spray gravel at all my co-workers. Uh, playing a song where the the uh the chorus is like, um, I don't give a fuck, burn it to the ground. Uh and it's talking about drenching everything in gasoline and letting everything burn.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, which for Dan as a healthy outlet, I feel the need to say that you come home in actually a pretty placid state because you have you have let it out on the drive home. Yeah. I think. Uh, and I really always appreciated that you never like took that rage and directed it at me, which I shouldn't have to appreciate. But like again, that is a thing that can happen when you're under that level of stress all the time.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

V For Vendetta Plot And Fascism

SPEAKER_06

Um, we should talk about V for Vendetta.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. I feel like that's uh a great way to wrap things up because like I've I've seen this movie many times. Um, it's not a zombie movie, but it makes me feel good. Uh I always think of VF V for Vendetta as if it is 1984, but the main character is somebody who kicks the shit out of everybody. So like you get all that horror and despair from the uh the the the dystopian reality of That world, which is very similar to the one we're living in. Um, and uh and then you get to see V go and stab people a lot.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, let's do a quick summary of what this is about. Okay. For people who haven't watched it. First of all, my bestie Natalie Portman's in it. Shout out, Natalie. We're not besties. That's just me saying that. And Hugo Weaving plays V, although you never see his face.

SPEAKER_05

You never see his face.

SPEAKER_06

And basically, it's a movie that's set in a future where it's a total, or sorry, it's a fascist totalitarian regime that has subjugated the entirety of the UK. They did that partially by basically releasing a virus that made a lot of people sick and then doing fucked up experiments on people, um, including V, who ends up burning shit down. I think he's responsible for the burning down, if I remember correctly. I think so. He burns down the facility and gets really bad burns in the process, which is why he's always in a mask.

SPEAKER_05

They don't really say how he does it, but they they suggest that like it was him.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. Um, and basically Britain is ruled by Norsefire, the political party, which I think is a great name. And again, very apt for this time. Norse fire, it implies white supremacy. Wow. And then the the motto of the time of the of this party is um Strength through faith. Uh Strength through unity, unity through faith. Unity through faith. So it's a very highly like worst version of Christianity, white supremacist. Yeah, like what we have now. Yeah. Hence why we watched it. Um, but basically, V has a very long-term game, vendetta, to get back to these people and to and to give the opportunity for British people to fight back and regain their country. That's the short version of what happens. Yeah. Part of it. We're not giving all of it away.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's very it's it's very much like a a fight for symbolism. Like he's he's creating and destroying symbols as a way to wage war against fascism.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

Um I think it's like really well thought out in that sense. Like watching this 20 years after it came out, uh, it's amazing how how spot on they were about how these systems work, the types of people that perpetuate these systems. Um it's almost like it's almost like books like have been written about this for you know uh a hundred years. Ever s ever since Mussolini who invented fascism.

SPEAKER_06

What a great guy.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Um fascism is uh uh is different uh from authoritarianism only because it came about uh as a combination of author authoritarian rule and corporate rule. The the corporations and the government ruled together uh to create a fascist government.

SPEAKER_06

And he wears a Guy Fox mask.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06

Which I think is really interesting because it indicates that this is not a struggle that is just one and done, right? Because Guy Fox, when did Guy Fox live? Like in the 1600s?

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, I think it was the 1600s.

SPEAKER_06

And what did Guy Fox do?

SPEAKER_05

Uh he tried to blow up parliament um with a whole bunch of gunpowder. He had barrels and barrels of gunpowder that he was putting underneath the parliament building. He got caught uh and hung. Yeah. So V finishes the job in Viver Vendetta. Yeah. But much like Guy Fox, he he uh he's a martyr for his for the cause. Yeah. Spoil spoiler alert.

SPEAKER_06

He guy fox does this because of uh the in this point in time, we have the Protestant church is now in power and Catholic folks are feeling persecuted. And so that's what it was really about was uh fighting back for that religious freedom. Yeah. So you see the through line of that fa unity through faith commentary there of being oppressive, because in this world, uh aga sounds familiar. Gay people, trans, I mean, let alone trans people, gay people, trans people, Muslims, um, women, who else is explicitly targeted, Jews.

SPEAKER_05

Anyone who is not Catholic or Christian Christian and white and straight.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah. And a dude pretty much uh is uh is inferior. And I really enjoyed the subplot uh of the movie about just how brutally oppressed queer folks were in this reality. Not gonna say more because you should watch the movie if you haven't. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

I uh I recommend recommend that. I you know, I've I find it fascinating because like when when this movie came out, I found I found out from a friend of mine. Um, because I was I was overseas. I didn't know anything about what movies were coming out, what was happening in the news, like I didn't know anything uh because I was in Afghanistan. Uh so I found out from this friend of mine, and that friend of mine, like if if you talk to them now, they are like so indoctrinated with right-wing talking points. That's unfortunate. It really is. I couldn't be their friend anymore. I had to stop talking to them like back in 2019, 2020, when they were just like spewing just bullshit about what was going on with COVID and and in politics. Like I just I couldn't believe it because I thought that this person was very smart. And like that's the person who introduced me to V for Vendetta. And I'm like, did you did you have a brain injury? Like, did how do you watch V for Vendetta and not understand what's happening right now?

SPEAKER_06

I mean, I'm really grateful they're they're re-airing it in theaters this year, so hopefully it'll remind some people. Yeah. And when I was reading about it, I didn't realize that it's seen as an anti-Christian movie. Makes sense if your Christianity is hateful. Yeah. I mean, yeah, it is anti-hateful Christian.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, it's like it's like when you're like, um, when when you wear a shirt that's like the only good Nazi is a dead Nazi, and somebody's like, hey, what's that supposed to mean? I'm offended by that. And it's like, well, what are you a Nazi? Is is that uh is that what's going on here?

SPEAKER_06

Well, I think the I think I'd like to end this episode not getting too much into the movie because it's not zombies, but is relevant for our times. And shout out to all of you fire starters out there. We love you. Thank you for doing what I'm too afraid to do. Yeah. And I could see myself doing, just kidding, if I lost everything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

What do you have to what do you what is there to lose? You know what? That's a good thing for the government to keep in mind. Make sure that the majority of us don't lose everything. And they won't have to worry. It's kind of like what colleagues say that are like, if you're not guilty, you got nothing to worry about. Well, if you don't mistreat us and you make sure that we have enough to live and you don't interfere in our personal lives, then you got nothing to worry about.

SPEAKER_06

Well, you know, I saw a reel today that really made me think too, is that uh a good good shout out to the corporate CEOs that are not listening to this podcast, but worth repeating for those listening, which is that if they are charging this man with 20 years to life for burning down a warehouse, Luigi makes a lot of sense, people. And again, I'm not saying I'm not telling anybody listening to do this. What I am saying is I understand why we're here. I understand. I don't see the throwing the Molotov cocktail or shooting up Sam Altman's house any different than the warehouse.

Molotov Cocktails And Legal Reality

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. Um, real quick before we end, I just wanted to give a little bit of advice uh for people. Um if if you're like, you know, I should make some Molotov cocktails. Uh I do want to advise against making a Molotov cocktail, because when you combine gasoline or a flammable liquid with a glass bottle and a rag, that makes it an NFA item, which is regulated by the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, and explosives, they added that, so it's like the ATF E now, uh, but they don't they don't put the E on there because branding. Uh if you were to fill out a form number 1140-0011, you could register a glass bottle with flammable liquid and a rag stuffed in it as an NFA weapon. However, uh it's probably better if you just use a lighter. Yeah. Just don't make a Molotov cocktail. It's regulated. You could you could legally own one, but you'd have to fill out paperwork, which involves fingerprints and a background check, or you could just have a lighter. So that's my advice is don't make a Molotov cocktail. That's that's a good way to increase your prison time for o for for owning and using an NFA restricted weapon. Um unless, of course, you fill out that form and you register your Molotov cocktail. Uh then it's okay.

Malcolm X Quotes And Closing

SPEAKER_06

Also an option. Yeah. Let's close with some words from Malcolm X.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah. At the end of the movie, there was this song that had uh some Malcolm X quotes in it, which was uh very relevant to our times.

SPEAKER_06

Which I should have left up so I could re um cite it. Hold on. So this song is by Ethan Stroller. It's called B Cab, and it has some clips from Malcolm X and Gloria Steinem. And I'm just gonna read a couple of them. So Malcolm X says, Concerning nonviolence, it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks. Then the next quote is from Gloria Steinem, and they say sex and race, because they are easy, visible differences, have been the primary ways of organizing human beings into superior and inferior groups and into the cheap labor on which the system still depends. We are talking about a society in which there will be no roles other than those chosen or those earned. We are really talking about humanism. And then last but not least, Malcolm X says, one of my reasons for going out on a limb, as I have, is to try and make white people be shocked, awake to some of their senses. Because if they don't awake, they're gonna find out that this little Negro, can I say that? Uh when you're quoting Malcolm X. Okay. Uh it was appropriate in context, yeah.

SPEAKER_05

In the era.

SPEAKER_06

Well, yes, in that term. Uh but they thought was passive has become a roaring, uncontrollable lion right in their doorstep, not at their doorstep, sorry, inside their house, in their bed, in their kitchen, in their attic, in their basement. And if you know that in time, you can do something about it. So we'll just leave it there.

SPEAKER_05

Yeah, let's just leave it there. What a what a weird episode that we Yeah, it's I've I find it hard to to to talk about zombies sometimes because so much is happening around us that's just insane, and the times are insane, and our reactions to it need to be equally insane.

SPEAKER_06

Yeah, it's um I mean it just gets we're in season four, it just gets harder and harder to just talk about zombies. Yeah. Um, so thanks for sticking around. I hope you're doing okay out there, wherever you are, thinking about you. I'm hoping that you're not feeling desperate enough to do any of the things we've discussed. And please don't die. Uh bye bye. Yeah. Don't die. Sorry, everybody. I don't know how to end this on an up and out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05

You know what? The revolution is here, and uh and they don't stand a chance.

SPEAKER_06

Even if we can't see it in our lifetime, they don't stand a chance.

Contributor

Dan

Host
Contributor

Leah

Host