TikTok Shadowbanning and Cancel Culture: A Case Study with Braeden Sorbo

[00:00:00]I told jokes about every race, class, class, ethnicity that you could imagine because if I'm only telling jokes about a specific group, then yeah, people can go, "Well, that's problematic." But I left nobody out of bounds for the sake of proving that anything can be a joke.

[00:00:15]>> Like a like a Jewish joke.

[00:00:16]>> Yes. Like like a Jewish joke, like a white joke, like a Christian joke, like a Hindu joke.

[00:00:20]>> Nothing off limits.

[00:00:21]>> Everybody can be joked about. And if you can take jokes, it proves that you are comfortable in your own skin.

[00:00:27][Music] This is going to be a super fun show.

[00:00:32]You're going to like this show. I intentionally didn't debrief you so much because, you know, love this topic. We have uh Braden Sorbo. He is a victim of Chinese cancellation.

[00:00:43]>> Whoa.

[00:00:45]>> Wow.

[00:00:45]>> Tik Tok superstar influencer with a huge following and growing like crazy.

[00:00:51]>> Great content, super funny. Made the wrong joke. really small, got the attention of the authorities at bite dance and I'm sure the Chinese government and went from that to like close to nothing.

[00:01:05]>> Shadowbanned him like crazy. Great to have you on our show, Braden.

[00:01:08]>> Well, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

[00:01:10]>> Welcome.

[00:01:11]>> Yeah. So, let's um let's >> I see why you were hiding. You were hiding him.

[00:01:14]>> Yeah, this is a really really interesting show. You're we haven't had a guest like you before and it's really really cool. So, um let's uh let's let's give it a little background. You're from an acting family and it's even more interesting than what I just said because he's second generation cancel victim.

[00:01:30]>> Oh wow.

[00:01:31]>> Yeah. And um so tell us a little about your family and your family background.

[00:01:34]>> Yeah. So I'm I think third generation Nor uh Norwegian and second generation cancel. So I'm not sure what exactly balance that makes me, but uh I come from a family of actors. My dad is Kevin Sorb. We played Hercules on TV and a bunch of other things. And so when I I was born in 2001 and growing up the first seven or eight years of my life, I lived on Hollywood sets going to these big extravagant productions and seeing both sides of the camera and I fell in love with acting. And I remember around the time I turned 8ish, my dad got cancelled from Hollywood. And so because of his conservative and Christian stance and viewpoints on being pro-life, and wanting America first, free speech, and the values that inherently define this country, Hollywood decided that they didn't want to work with him anymore.

[00:02:18]And so I went from going on these crazy sets and falling in love with the movie industry to realizing at such a young age how dangerous and volatile it can be.

[00:02:29]>> Wow.

[00:02:29]>> How bad did it get for the family? I mean, he was out of out of work. Like, was it like a light switch?

[00:02:34]>> No. So he suffered three strokes during filming Hercules which not a lot of people know about and he wrote two books on it and so he was always doing public speaking and basically the second Hollywood said we're done with you the independent film industry said please come work with us and so he immediat it was it was like a switch it things didn't get bad per se they just changed and so I went from seeing like I said the extravagant lights and action of the red carpet to these little independent movies that they're filming with a couple million dollars and a lot of people watching this will hear that and go a couple million dollars is a lot of money but not to Hollywood. I mean, >> that's the whole budget anyway.

[00:03:06]>> That's the whole budget. To Hollywood, $5 million is catering.

[00:03:09]>> Yeah.

[00:03:09]>> Right. Pirates of the Caribbean is a $300 million movie that they spend another hundred million in PNA. And so for an independent film to raise two to 5 million is so hard and it's barely enough to squeak something by. And I remember watching that, but still being in love with the Hollywood world. And so I decided when I was 11 that I wanted to be an actor myself. And my parents tried to talk me out of it just because clearly they didn't like the world themselves. But uh I eventually whittleled them down and they signed me up for acting classes and I got my first movie at 14 years old, a movie called Let There Be Light, which was an independent film. It was a a drama. It's a fantastic movie. And I remember that was sort of where everything sunk in that.

[00:03:46]>> Was it religious based?

[00:03:47]>> It was. Yes. It it was like familyfriendly Christian and and drama everything.

[00:03:52]>> Feature film.

[00:03:52]>> Feature film. Yes. So it was in theaters. We opened second uh to Thor Ragnarok. Wow.

[00:03:57]>> Dollar for dollar per screen average.

[00:03:58]And so we did exceedingly well with it.

[00:04:00]But when you have so little money to promote a film, yeah, the word of mouth is all that you can hope to to achieve its success with.

[00:04:08]>> And so the independent film movies really took off with, do you guys remember God's Not Dead?

[00:04:14]>> It's like a $2 million budget. It made 140 million worldwide.

[00:04:17]>> Wow.

[00:04:18]>> So it it is top five of all time movies in Hollywood grossing dollar for dollar.

[00:04:24]>> And so >> Okay. That was what kind of catapulted the independent film scene into yes because of its success. It proved that you don't have to have a $500 million Hollywood movie with a star speckled cast that is, you know, riddled for success that's going to guarantee that you're going to be profitable. It proves that you can make something even with a small budget and still have success to a degree. And so that gave me hope that the Hollywood world, my dream essentially wasn't inherently gone because when I >> your dad, >> I know your dad and your mom.

[00:04:55]>> Yes.

[00:04:57]>> Oh my god. I've met them a few times at Mara Lago. Yeah, you know them.

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[00:05:36]Click it. Your future self will thank you.

[00:05:40]>> Remind me what your mom does.

[00:05:41]>> She does public school speaking. She So she she uh is a homeschool advocate. So she writes books travels the nation talking about alternative schooling methods because we have a school public school. Exactly.

[00:05:50]>> Remind me your mom's name.

[00:05:51]>> Sam.

[00:05:52]>> Yes. Sam.

[00:05:54]So funny.

[00:05:55]>> I just dropped her off at the airport before I came down here.

[00:05:57]>> Did you tell her you were coming to see me? Did she tell you she knows me?

[00:06:01]>> Mm- I didn't I I didn't tell her who I was going to see.

[00:06:04]>> Oh my goodness.

[00:06:05]>> So once I do once I do.

[00:06:07]>> That's so awesome. They're so cool, >> right? I like to think so. You have really cool parents.

[00:06:12]>> Thank you. Yeah. So, I um I grew up on that side of witnessing how cancel culture can affect somebody >> firsthand. And so, I took it upon myself to realize that and to learn how to best navigate the the kind of waves because whether it be politics, religion, or entertainment, there are always going to be stigmas and there are always going to be aggressors. There's going to be prey and predators and people will be saying things that are wrong, saying things that are right and being attacked the same.

[00:06:43]>> And so I learned from a very young age that the best way to deal with the cancel culture in the world is to not back down, is to refuse to withdraw.

[00:06:55]>> Yeah.

[00:06:56]>> And so when I started my social media, I was a senior in high school. I was 18 years old and I decided, you know, I want to do TikTok, but I don't want to dance shirtless or lip-sync videos. Like I'm straight. I'm just not into all that stuff. And so I started telling jokes, politically incorrect, dark comedy, things like that, because the biggest >> attack in our culture overall has been an attack on comedy and masculinity, which is what I wrote a book about. Um, I'll shout it out right now. It's called Embrace Masculinity.

[00:07:22]>> Embrace Masculinity. It's a new book.

[00:07:24]>> Yes. It just came out last month. So it's called Embrace Masculinity: Lifting Men Up in a World That Pushes Them Down.

[00:07:28]It's essentially >> the website where it's on.

[00:07:30]>> Sorbo Studios. Sorbbostudios.com.

[00:07:33]>> Yes. And so that book uh was sort of the catalyst for >> How old are you?

[00:07:38]>> 23. So this is my second book.

[00:07:39]>> You're so young and I love it. Your parents must be so proud of you.

[00:07:42]>> Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah. So I've I've been blessed to do 11 movies to date and two books at 23 years old.

[00:07:48]So I'm I'm very lucky.

[00:07:50]>> This is your second book.

[00:07:50]>> This is my second book. The first book >> uh called The BS Braden Sorbbo Guide to Politics. It's a sarcastic political dictionary once again in that joke vein.

[00:07:57]And so trying to bring humor to the political sphere as dark as it may be.

[00:08:02]>> Uhhuh. But the the Embrace Masculinity book was my most serious project to date and it really stands as a testament to my foundation of truth, right? Because inherently in every individual, man or woman, there is truth. We know right or wrong, whether or not the people watching this are religious. Paul writes in Romans 1 that the law is written on the hearts of man.

[00:08:25]So we have an inherent idea that murder is wrong, that we shouldn't just go around stabbing people for fun. That's not a good thing, right? So we know the differences fundamentally of good and bad. And so the book aims to explore that and lift people up so that they feel confident defending that >> because what we see in this world today is morality has become flexible and morality has become subjective.

[00:08:48]>> What I might think is wrong you will say is right and then it becomes a battle of well this is my opinion and this is my opinion and no one can tell anyone differently. Mhm.

[00:08:57]>> And so in dealing with that and in starting my social media telling jokes, I realized that inherently truth and the freedom of expression that we have had in this country has been taken for granted and because of it, it has slowly been eroded away over decades and decades. I mean we were talking before the show how in the 70s they started pushing this narrative of well men get in touch with your feelings and then the men did and they were ridiculed for it.

[00:09:20]They said we want a sensitive man and so the man opened up and they said you're a loser. you're a fragile, weak victim.

[00:09:26]You're like, you're useless. And then they told the women, women act like men.

[00:09:29]And then the women looked to the worst possible examples of men and said, I'm going to be the aggressive, overbearing bad guy. And so we've destroyed fundamentally the values that have defined >> what it means to be American. Yeah.

[00:09:43]>> What it means to live in this country.

[00:09:44]And so >> growing up watching all of this, I realized that something had to be done.

[00:09:50]And we have a lot of great voices >> in this country. We have plenty of amazing people who are taking a stand, who are making a fight, who've been cancelled. You look at Riley Gaines, the swimmer. You look at Charlie Kirk with Tony, like >> Charlie will be here on Friday.

[00:10:01]>> Yes. That's why there's perfect perfect window. I because you mentioned So, you look at these people, but you don't have someone in Gen Z. You don't have someone under the age of 25. And that is why I decided I've already been cancelled a few times, which we'll talk about more.

[00:10:15]I've already grown up in this world.

[00:10:17]>> Why not me? If I can survive one or two cancellations, I can survive them all.

[00:10:21]We've survived three.

[00:10:22]>> Exactly. So, I'm on track to surpass you hopefully.

[00:10:25]>> Oh, it's on so far.

[00:10:26]>> It's on.

[00:10:28]>> We got a competition competition here.

[00:10:30]>> Well, we got you. So, I he didn't have a chance.

[00:10:33]>> I overheard him telling you while he didn't think I was listening that I'm the big mouth guy >> only in the best way.

[00:10:41]>> Fine.

[00:10:42]>> Yeah, >> I accept it.

[00:10:43]>> Okay. So, >> so you started this Tik Tok. Tik Tok was your primary. Did you do the others as well or you just focus on Tik Tok? Tik Tok. So I started Tik Tok primarily. I wanted to grow the others but being uh as you know I don't do the shirtless content and I don't do all that stuff.

[00:10:57]The thirst trapping I do shirtless people see for our followers.

[00:11:01]>> This is what I need.

[00:11:03]>> David Sentner for all my all my shirtless content.

[00:11:07]>> Well see I do the gym stuff now.

[00:11:09]>> True.

[00:11:09]>> Yeah I do the gym stuff now.

[00:11:10]>> You plug your Instagram. I'll plug my if you want to follow me on my Instagram.

[00:11:16]I don't do shirtless co. It's good. But you might want to bring a pillow cuz you're probably going to get a little sleepy. So >> it's true.

[00:11:24]>> Yeah. So I simple >> I do the fitness content now, but I started with just comedy and I started mainly on Tik Tok. Now growing up in the Hollywood family, I decided I wanted to prove to myself because you hear claims of nepotism in all of this your entire life. And so I decided I'm going to start my TikTok without anything other than my first name.

[00:11:40]>> And so it was Braden maybe Braden S for until I hit about 500,000 followers. And once I reached that milestone, I went, "Okay, time to develop my brand. I've proven I can do it myself. And so at this point, people could say whatever they want to me, but I've established my own name separate from my parents with the hopes of growing even bigger than they ever did. And that is where I stand now. I've expanded to other platforms. I have a show called BS with Braden Sorbo where I do YouTube commentary content, stuff like that. Very short form podcastesque uh videos. I have Instagram where I do fitness content. That's where my shirtless stuff is.

[00:12:12]>> That's where the shirt >> exactly. We The son of Hercules. I'm a quarter demigod, I think, is how that works. if you do the math to >> and your mom's pretty amazing, too.

[00:12:20]>> Yes, she is. Um, but that that expansion really helped me kind of narrow down and hone in on exactly what my message was. And so now I have this message of lifting people up with traditional virtues and values.

[00:12:35]>> Let's go to the >> Yeah, that's what I want. I want to go to the first explain grow. You're figuring it out even say >> you're figuring out your voice. you're hearing your voice and it's and it's growing and you're probably refining and tinkering as you go along and everything's working and and and it got really big. How how big did it get? So, I want to say that I was almost to a million followers. So, I was at about 900,000 followers at the time of my first cancellation. And this was maybe 2020 during the uh Hong Kong riots when China was sort of oppressing Hong Kong and they the people fighting the the rooftop Koreans and the roof people in Hong Kong fighting against the CCP. And I remember doing a joke cuz all my jokes were were less than 60 seconds. I would sit down, I'd set my phone up and I would talk to the camera. I would tell a joke and then I would end the video.

[00:13:24]That was it. But people loved it. My third ever video blew up. I just because I love the public.

[00:13:29]>> Do you remember that joke on the third video?

[00:13:30]>> Oh my gosh. I I wish >> Find it so we can play.

[00:13:34]>> I wish I did. It's so far back. Yeah.

[00:13:35]Get it in B-roll.

[00:13:36]>> You find it send it to us and we'll put it up.

[00:13:38]>> Okay.

[00:13:39]>> Sounds good. Yeah. So, I remember I would tell all these jokes and my third ever video blew up cuz my first video had 10 views. My second video had 100. I was going 100 views. Pretty good. Second video 30,000 views in an hour. I went, "Oh, >> that's awesome."

[00:13:51]>> And then from that point on, I would average roughly 100,000 to 500,000 views on every video. Wow. one video a day for the next six months to a year. And by the time that and gaining 500,000 followers a month, so by the time I was almost to a million followers, the Hong Kong riots were going on and I told jokes about everything. I told jokes about every race, class, class, ethnicity that you could imagine because if I'm only telling jokes about a specific group, then yeah, people can go, "Well, that's problematic." But I left nobody out of bounds for the sake of proving that anything can be a joke.

[00:14:23]>> Like a like a Jewish joke.

[00:14:24]>> Yes. Like like a Jewish joke. Like a white joke, like a Christian joke, like a Hindu joke.

[00:14:28]>> Nothing off limits.

[00:14:29]>> Everybody can be joked about. And if you can take jokes, it proves that you are comfortable in your own skin.

[00:14:35]>> Yeah.

[00:14:35]>> That's that's my whole premise is jokes are good because they define us. They refine us and they strengthen us.

[00:14:41]>> And so I can look at someone make a joke about me being tall. You don't know how many times I've heard, "How's the weather up there?"

[00:14:47]>> You would think that eventually it would get annoying or you can come up with a funny response back. Right? That is what you get to decide is your reaction to what someone else says to you.

[00:14:57]>> Right? And so I told jokes about everything. And then I finally told the joke about Hong Kong and I said, "I have a buddy in Hong Kong and I asked him what he thinks about what China is doing with the the protests and the the government overreach and all that." He goes, "He can't complain."

[00:15:12]>> That was kind of funny.

[00:15:13]>> That was it. It took it so short the shortest joke ever.

[00:15:18]>> Yeah. It's not even like a stellar joke.

[00:15:19]It's not even something that you know you put on Joe Rogan or whatever comedian. It's a dad joke. 2 minutes.

[00:15:26]That video was up before it got taken down. 2 minutes.

[00:15:28]>> It got 30,000 views. I remember cuz I stay on for the first couple minutes just refreshing to make sure everything's working properly. It got up to 30,000 views in 2 minutes and bow down.

[00:15:37]>> Every video I posted after that pulled off like deleted community guidelines violation for hate speech. I told jokes about everything else. anything else.

[00:15:46]Not one hate speech violation because I wasn't hateful with my jokes. People could tell that I wasn't being serious.

[00:15:51]They just understood that what I was saying >> was funny. That was it. There was no deeper meaning other than haha, move on to the next video.

[00:16:01]>> Do you think it was a do you think it was a computer that saw that heard the joke and like, right?

[00:16:06]>> Or well, I mean, they have millions of people that that sit in rooms listening to content. It depends because when you get to a point where you have hundreds of thousands of followers, you're watched and held under a microscope because there's more eyes on you. So, if you're an account with 10 followers, they might get to what you post, but it's going to take them a while because your account doesn't really matter. But if you have a million followers, >> and just for our audience, Tik Tok, Tik Tok is owned by a company called Bike Dance, which is which is a China based company. Yes. And uh and in China, all the tech companies have a a seat at the table at the very least by the Chinese government. Yes. If not actually owning a majority of the company. Yeah.

[00:16:43]>> So very very Chinese. Very very Chinese.

[00:16:46]>> Very very heavy Chinese government pro uh you know >> precedence set. And so my account was under uh scrutiny just because it was a larger account. So everything I said was held under a microscope. I just had a great fan base that loved what I was posting so that I wouldn't have to worry about, >> you know, being taken down immediately, at least right away without I'd had a couple violations. I'd been on live streams where I made some jokes or said an algorithmic trigger word and so they would pause my live stream, ban me for a week, stuff like that. But nothing to the point where what followed, which I think your audience will find interesting, is >> I went from averaging 100 to 500,000 views per video within 24 hours of posting. So, I'd post a day later, go back, half a million views. I gained 10,000 followers.

[00:17:27]>> Huge.

[00:17:27]>> Were you making money at this point?

[00:17:29]>> I was making a little bit of money. Not much because they hadn't fully established their ads system. They were still relatively new. We have to remember summer 2019 was arguably the best year for Tik Tok growth in terms of freedom.

[00:17:40]>> Yeah.

[00:17:41]>> And it was that summer of 2019 where Tik Tok and Bike Dance and the CCP realized, oh, hold on. This app's going to be the biggest app in the world. We need to lock it down. And that's when everything started to switch. So, you can ask a lot of the creators who've been around for a long time. They will all tell you that summer 2019 was the best years of Tik Tok because you had the most freedom of expression because there were no restrictions because advertisers hadn't come on the platform yet. The government hadn't started overreaching yet. And so, you had all of this lovely freedom >> that we took for granted. And so after I posted that video, taken down within a few minutes, community guidelines violation for hate speech, every video I posted after that for the next six months, six to eight months wouldn't pass like 15,000 views.

[00:18:26]>> Wow.

[00:18:26]>> It was a full block. I I maybe had one or two videos squeak by because I was super careful about how I worded something and would comment under it.

[00:18:33]Everyone, please help me share this video to get it back up. Like that kind of thing. But I could not surpass 50,000 views even. Wow. And so I was so done with Tik Tok. I'd grown this amazing account. I was ecstatic about it. This was my next big thing. I was like, I finally found what I want to do with my life. I can use this to bolster a speaking career or Hollywood because they'll hire people with large social media presences. And then it stopped.

[00:19:02]>> And I was sitting there going, "What the hell am I doing?"

[00:19:05]>> What kind of emotions were going through you at the time?

[00:19:08]>> Oh, despair. I was just done. I was I was defeated.

[00:19:11]>> Sadness.

[00:19:12]>> Sadness. Yeah, I was defeated. I was done. I was I had nothing else. I mean, I'd been putting, ironically, not a lot of time into it. One video a day is really not that hard, especially when you sit, record, post, and then close your phone and do something else.

[00:19:24]>> But I'd gotten accustomed to it. And growing up, I'm the oldest of three. So, I am the stereotypical oldest child where I am the um, you know, the extrovert, the the guy who loves hosting people. I mean, when I was 9 years old, I would have playdates set up that I would organize myself, and the parents would come to the house and drop their kid off, see my mom and go, "Oh my gosh, I never talked to you. Is this okay? Did you know we were doing this?" And she would go, "Yeah, Braden told me." But I was that kid. I was the extrovert.

[00:19:51]Didn't matter where we went, I would make friends. I'd be four years old sitting on the front porch eating grapes, waving, and talking to passerbys. Right.

[00:19:58]>> So to to lose such a significant outreach and to lose the attention, >> Yeah.

[00:20:05]really impact took your voice. It was exactly >> and it was it was almost like your show.

[00:20:10]It was your show.

[00:20:11]>> It was it was an extension of me. Yeah.

[00:20:13]>> Yeah. And so losing that >> impacted my ego because I hadn't fully fully gotten comfortable with who I was as a person yet. And so this being an extension of me >> that was almost like your p persona.

[00:20:24]>> It was well it wasn't even a persona because it was me. And so being told that I was inherently wrong and that everything that I did was bad from that point forward >> had an impact on me because I took it seriously.

[00:20:35]>> Put you in Tik Tok jail.

[00:20:36]>> Mhm. Yeah. Well, I I took it personally >> because I wasn't putting up filters. I wasn't putting up these walls. My audience got me.

[00:20:43]>> Yeah.

[00:20:44]>> They got to see Braden Sorbbo unfiltered.

[00:20:47]>> Yeah.

[00:20:47]>> And when Braden Sorbo unfiltered was rejected, Braden was rejected.

[00:20:52]>> And I'm sitting there at 19 years old going, "What did I do wrong?" Wow.

[00:20:57]>> All I was trying to do was make people laugh.

[00:21:00]>> And so I remember there came a point, this is maybe this is maybe a year after that initial shadow band that >> I I don't cry much. I'll I'll try right here. I don't cry much. I don't know what it is.

[00:21:11]>> Would it be helpful if we one of us started crying?

[00:21:13]>> Yeah, we could all start we could all start crying together. Ironically, I can cry better in movies than I can in real life.

[00:21:17]>> Onion over here.

[00:21:19]>> It's perfect.

[00:21:20]>> Cue the uh onion fumes, please.

[00:21:22]>> Someone get some sad music going. Please get the rain.

[00:21:26]Um, >> no. I remember I was just I was just pissed off. I was sad. I was upset.

[00:21:31]Yeah. Just a little bit of everything.

[00:21:32]All the emotions.

[00:21:33]>> And I remember sitting >> embarrassment >> in my room almost, but at the same time knowing I did nothing wrong.

[00:21:39]>> But did you know I mean you you were banned by communists >> got at least make you feel better.

[00:21:44]There's some sore lining.

[00:21:45]>> Yeah. You make the connection that a bunch of communists banned >> eventually. But once again, I was I was still a kid. I'm still thinking about being rejected personally rather than oh, you know what I It's like going up and talking to a girl at a bar and she rejects you and later you find out she's a serial killer. It's like oh well that rejection was a good thing. You know what I mean? But in the moment >> you're go what did I do wrong? Why'd I get rejected?

[00:22:05]>> And then you know she find you find out she stole someone's kidney later and you're like oh thank god it wasn't me >> or the Rolex.

[00:22:11]>> Exactly. And so I remember I was sitting in my room and I was contemplating quitting just because there was no point, right? No views. I wasn't making any money. They still hadn't implemented the full ad revenue system, but there was no way I was going to make anything with the little views that I had. Yeah.

[00:22:28]So, I was going, I'm just gonna do something else. I don't need to be doing this anymore.

[00:22:31]>> And I remember I don't go on Instagram very much and look at my DM requests, but I decided I would just go check it out. So, I go on to Instagram, I open up my message request, and at the very top is a message from this kid, maybe 14 years old, 15. He goes, "Hey Braden, I just want to let you know I'm a freshman in high school and I get bullied a lot >> and coming home to your videos every day makes me happy. I was heavily contemplating suicide."

[00:22:57]>> Wow.

[00:22:58]>> And your videos >> make me laugh and it tells me that there isn't just bad in the world. So, thank you for what you do.

[00:23:04]>> Wow.

[00:23:05]>> And just that one person was enough for me to go, okay, this is important.

[00:23:09]>> That's awesome.

[00:23:10]>> This is why I do it.

[00:23:11]>> And it gave me an entirely new purpose.

[00:23:12]It was >> That was from God, by the way.

[00:23:14]>> Yes. It was no longer about what I can do to get approval from other people.

[00:23:19]>> It was about how I can make other people laugh and how I can make other people think. Because when we stop thinking for ourselves and when we stop laughing >> Yeah.

[00:23:30]>> we lose everything.

[00:23:33]I mean, everybody in the show has been through a cancellation journey and they everybody sort of arrives at the same place that there's a reason it all went terribly sideways, you know, and the depths that we have to go through in order to uh to find our mission and purpose. So, so you got really low >> and yeah, go for it.

[00:23:55]>> So, okay. So, at that time, how many followers did you have on Instagram?

[00:24:00]>> Couple thousand. Instagram wasn't transferring from Tik Tok. Okay. So, did you have to then did you decide to start back over or or did you decide to focus on Instagram? Where did you go from there?

[00:24:10]>> So, I kept going on Tik Tok. I didn't stop posting.

[00:24:12]>> Even though you were getting a lot less views, you're like, I don't care if 15,000 if I can impact one, I'm doing I'm doing God's work.

[00:24:19]>> Yes. And because of that, because of the consistency and slow iterations with new content and testing out different things, trying trying, you know, hold new avenues and all that stuff, my content eventually started to pick back up. I had a couple joke videos still blow up years later, but now, you know, the content is is significantly better than it used to be. It's still not back to what it was, but then again, Tik Tok itself is oversaturated with the amount of content creators.

[00:24:46]>> Yeah.

[00:24:46]>> And the videos that I used to post wouldn't perform well today just because of how quickly the market changes.

[00:24:53]>> You know, we all we always ask our guests the same question if they could do it all over again. Would you post that Hong Kong joke again on TikTok?

[00:25:02]knowing what I know.

[00:25:05]I think the lesson itself was incredibly valuable. And I I would also say that there might have been other ways that I could have learned it. Maybe I would Oh, I don't know because I wouldn't back down from speaking truth. That's the thing is I wouldn't change the truth to fit someone else's narrative. The truth is unchangeable. I'm sorry. It's objective. Take it up with God. It's not my problem.

[00:25:23]>> But the joke is just a I would say it's just a joke, but um I think I would not I would not post it again. like why for what purpose?

[00:25:33]>> Yeah, going back I think I would I would be cautious about how I handled it but I would still try to bring jokes about the situation because I try to make jokes about whatever's trending.

[00:25:41]>> Would you make jokes about chi China?

[00:25:43]>> I don't see why not. Right. Like >> I'm not suggesting that you >> Yeah. No. No. Of course. Of course. But I don't I don't see why we should be giving certain >> countries like special permission to avoid a joke. We're not we're not going out and saying like I hate you and I hope your whole country blows up. Like we're not doing that. It's a joke.

[00:26:01]>> But everybody knows China is communism is they're not they don't even hide it.

[00:26:05]>> There's no fre. Exactly. Calling them like a name. That's what they're communist.

[00:26:09]>> Yeah. Would I make a joke about Americans being overweight? Inherently we are overweight without a doubt. Would I make a joke about >> the Brits having bad teeth? Sure. Why not? Right. It's just a joke. There are plenty of British people that I know who don't have bad teeth and they would laugh because they realize that it's not a direct attack on them.

[00:26:29]>> Yeah, exactly. It's all the teeth.

[00:26:31]>> Exactly.

[00:26:32]>> So, what what was your second one? You said that there's another one. Yeah.

[00:26:35]He's he's already been You've already been cancelceled twice, right? That was >> a little bit. Yes. The first >> What was the second one?

[00:26:39]>> So, the second one's been significantly less drastic just because I've learned how to handle it better.

[00:26:45]>> And so, the second one was when I switched up my content again. it at the beginning of 2024 January I launched a show called BS with Braden Sorba which was my political commentary stuff and that's when I switched more from the world of Yes. more from the world of comedy into the world of politics and commentary >> and bringing humor to that as opposed to bringing everything out of it >> and >> like a JP Sears kind of thing.

[00:27:08]>> Sure. That'd be one way to put it. Yeah.

[00:27:10]Yeah. Yeah. Just just sort of the Gen Z perspective if you will.

[00:27:14]>> And so but not skits. Well, he does he does commentary as well.

[00:27:18]>> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. But not the skits part because I'm pretty sure it is good.

[00:27:21]I just I don't do the skits as well as him. Um so I wouldn't try. He's funnier than I am.

[00:27:26]>> Um but I I remember I launched the show and I changed up my content on Tik Tok and Instagram so drastically that the algorithm did not like it. And so this was almost a self-imposed shadow jail ban where my my views significantly just nosedived.

[00:27:42]But learning from the previous mistakes and not wanting to deal with, okay, I'm not going to look at the mental of it.

[00:27:48]I'm not going to get caught up in the, you know, whatever. I kept posting the political stuff. The cancellation came from the reaction. Turns out a lot of my followers disagree on a moral level with me. And so I receive >> Wait, elaborate on that a little. What does that mean?

[00:28:03]>> A lot of followers uh of mine were following for comedy and also still very liberal in their ideologies. And so I would make a post about abortion >> and I would receive death threats for it.

[00:28:16]>> And so my cancellation didn't come from being put in shadow jail Tik Tok bans.

[00:28:20]My cancellation came from people saying that they wanted me to die to be the next Lake and Riley to be the next X Y and Z. Like like fullon death threats saying how dare you say this that the other thing like you're going to get what's coming to you. That kind of thing.

[00:28:32]>> So you so you were first shadowbanned by the government. The second shadow ban was by people who were following you.

[00:28:38]>> Yes. a rejection of my initial audience and I've since founded >> we had we had some of that. So when we went through our cancellation journey um where she was outspoken at the school uh our phone blew up with people who had the most horrible things that they to say and we had to keep swapping out the >> the lady who answered the phone because it was just too emotional.

[00:28:57]>> She couldn't handle it anymore.

[00:28:59]>> Yeah.

[00:28:59]>> I'm like toughen up a bunch of >> sending things in the mail that were uh graphic and horrible.

[00:29:04]>> Very graphic.

[00:29:05]>> Yeah. Yeah. No, it's it's crazy. I've lost friendships over this.

[00:29:09]>> How tell us about that.

[00:29:10]>> People have it, to put nicely, people have just unfollowed me. They've removed me. And then in other ways, they've messaged me and said, I can't believe that this is what you hold to I like I don't how did I ever like you as a person to begin with. And I go, it's not that deep. But if it is to you, it shows where your problems lie.

[00:29:26]>> I just wish we could have be more tolerant of a society. You know, if somebody wants to hold a different perspective >> that doesn't impact me or my family, you know, >> that's fine. I'm okay with that. That's just it.

[00:29:38]>> We had family members that >> we've lost family members, >> you know, cut us off because of our stance on vaccines and so forth or whatever. And it's like, listen, why do you think we have to agree?

[00:29:50]>> There is the reason that they think that is because it is essentially decades and decades of slow planning and implementation by the government. And so people are purposefully being divided for the sake of uh disharmony because when you're unified, when people get together and are are combined collectively, countries, communities, cities, everything is built, right?

[00:30:11]>> If you don't have unity, you can't build anything yourself. And so people become heavily reliant and dependent on a system that tells them what to do, where to do it, and how to do it. And so when you have people who are willing to think for themselves and say things that are countercultural, >> they end up suffering the repercussions for it. I in my book I touch on the fact that >> we create a society of weakness >> because weakness breeds compliance.

[00:30:36]>> Yes.

[00:30:36]>> The weaker you are physically, the less likely you are to think rationally or for yourself because you want to avoid confrontation.

[00:30:44]>> Yes. 150%. scientific direct like people can argue with it day and night but it doesn't change the hardened science the truth behind it is the fact that we have created a society of people who are compliant because they are not strong enough to stand on their own >> and so when I tell people that it makes me unpopular and yet that's what I've decided to do >> I bet if you look back at the earliest days of America there's probably a whole bunch of super outspoken opinionated people you And uh which was served us well.

[00:31:17]>> Yes.

[00:31:18]>> Uh but bring us to present day. Yeah. We become sheeple. You know, we're much much easier to control if everybody is is kind of scared to speak up. That's sort of like well where this show came from. This show gives people a voice.

[00:31:31]Yeah. You know, uh we felt we didn't have a voice. Uh you went TikTok to you didn't have any other social media pretty much. Um so that's the purpose of the show to give people an opportunity to come and tell their story. You know, >> it's really important. Did your how many people started to unfollow you?

[00:31:48]>> I would say >> like a massive unfollowing or >> Yeah, it's been it was it was a mass exodus. I wouldn't be able to give you a specific number. 100,000 200,000. It was a large number of people. Yes. A majority of my followers though were pretty already, you know, on that right side because the jokes that I were saying were not necessarily appropriate or politically correct. So, they already had that kind of instilled in them. And so when I switched on my content, it was just because of the mass reporting from former followers or people just on the page that Tik Tok refused to push the video anywhere so my actual followers wouldn't see it. That kind of thing.

[00:32:24]>> And it came down to >> I won't be surprised if they purposely pushed it to the people that they know are not aligned with you.

[00:32:32]>> Oh yeah. I've talked to a couple >> very smart.

[00:32:34]>> They are. I've talked to a couple other people in the same spheres as me online.

[00:32:39]not necessarily the same content, but everyone recently has even seen a dip in their viewership. There's something going around for whatever reason on social media, specifically Instagram, where a lot of commentary accounts, political accounts, meme accounts even that just make jokes are getting hit.

[00:32:54]And there was a mass ban that just happened to a lot of people, uh, some of them are my friends.

[00:32:59]>> Yeah.

[00:32:59]>> Simply for making jokes, making memes, making comments.

[00:33:02]>> And Zuckerberg said he wasn't going to do that.

[00:33:04]>> Yes. And now everyone is sort of seeing that, okay, well, >> he is doing it. He's a liar. Well, maybe he maybe he didn't do it. That's his get out of jail. I didn't press the button, but someone else went over here or I just closed my eyes and did this.

[00:33:15]>> But yeah, so we've we've witnessed in real time, you know, wave after wave of attack and attack and attack. I mean, >> so did did this one hit you as hard as the first one? Like did you feel that one in your heart? Because it's one thing to be, you know, like I took it as a lot of pride when the government tried to ban me. Yeah.

[00:33:33]>> You know, I'm like, yeah, you know, the government is that interested in me?

[00:33:36]Great.

[00:33:36]>> She's wired. you know, like let's go.

[00:33:38]Let's do this.

[00:33:39]>> You know, >> Chucky, redheaded Chucky was talking to me on the press secretary. You know who that is, right?

[00:33:45]>> Sucky.

[00:33:46]>> I call her redheaded Chucky.

[00:33:47]>> Redheaded Chucky's hilarious.

[00:33:48]>> And uh you know, I was like I was like, that's kind of cool. So, it's kind of cool. You got banned by China.

[00:33:54]>> Yes.

[00:33:54]>> But when you get >> not a lot of people can say that, >> right? When you get in America, >> but when you get banned by your peers, like, did that one hurt you more?

[00:34:02]>> Your friends >> or at that point were you like >> ironically? No. because Hollywood relationships are very transactional and so people aren't necessarily friends with each other. They're just acquaintances because they can get something from you. And so when a lot of those Hollywood or social media friendships ended, >> I I was almost expecting it to a degree because I was going, you are in this world, there's a very strong chance that I'm different than you in my viewpoint and when you find that out, you're going to hate me. And I've witnessed that already with my dad losing his friends.

[00:34:31]And so it prepared me. So, it didn't hit me nearly as hard because originally ego. I loved the attention. I wanted it.

[00:34:36]I lost it. I went, "What the heck?"

[00:34:38]>> Yeah.

[00:34:38]>> This time, >> I still like the attention. I still like being able to be that voice, be that person, be that speaker.

[00:34:45]>> But losing it wasn't necessarily a shock. It was, "All right, this is to be expected. We know how this works now."

[00:34:50]Losing those quote unquote friendships meant that they weren't really friends to begin with, in which case, all right, see you later. You know, I wish you nothing but the best. I know you wouldn't say the same to me, right? but I'm going to take the high road and walk away. And so there wasn't necessarily nearly as much of an impact, >> which I'm grateful for. But I now I just need to be cancelceled by America because that is how you become more prominent and get a show and everything like this is by America, we'll bring you back.

[00:35:16]>> All right. Fantastic.

[00:35:17]>> But we're still going to be one up.

[00:35:18]We'll find something else to be cancelled for. So we're ahead of you.

[00:35:21]Dang it. We need to be one ahead of you at all times. You know, it's interesting uh world we live in all these social media platforms >> that we feel like an inherent right to free speech on them because we're Americans, but we don't we don't really and they do control the message and and we've seen in the last administration actually the government started to interfere as well with what these platforms, you know, who who they would have a say in the matter as well, which is super uncool, you know, with the what are those files? The uh the the X files or whatever was that >> Twitter files. Yeah, the Twitter files.

[00:35:54]>> Yeah. So, um >> but we don't really at the end of the day have a right. They they can be like, "Hey, it's our platform. We will dictate the content that's on there. We will change the rules at any time we want."

[00:36:04]You know, we want Erase to be super successful on YouTube, but we know there's certain things, certain topics that we can't talk about >> and we abide by that for the most part, you know, and if we do have something that we talk about, we know we have to edit it out. We've actually had we already got a strike on us already. Wow.

[00:36:22]>> Yeah. Already relatively new podcast. We got a strike on us and um we had to do massive biopsies of large chunks of content and it took like an hour and something video down to like 40 minutes.

[00:36:34]We lost like like half an hour of that of that particular episode just so we can abide by the term.

[00:36:39]>> It is communism >> and it was the robots that were watching and the show itself.

[00:36:43]>> We don't live in a communist country but we do.

[00:36:44]>> Yeah. The rob in in a way we don't really have free speech.

[00:36:48]>> No we don't. Well, we had the first chapter of the book, Embrace Masculinity on sorbbo studios.com, is called The America Your Parents Knew is dead.

[00:36:55]>> Is what is it?

[00:36:56]>> Is dead. The America Your Parents Knew is dead. And so there are I mean, I just saw a stat that the average age for a home buyer in 1980 was 31 years old. You know, the average age for a home buyer in America today?

[00:37:08]>> No.

[00:37:09]>> 60.

[00:37:10]>> Wow.

[00:37:11]>> 60. Yeah, >> the American dream, this idea of this capitalist paradise where you go and you have, >> you know, you work hard, you get a job, you go to school, you find a wife, you settle down, you have kids, and you support your family on a milkman salary doesn't exist anymore.

[00:37:26]>> We have we don't live in a capitalist society anymore. We live in a corporate society. And what corporatism does what what this oligarchal system does is it monopolizes in industries where it becomes incredibly difficult for people to break out on their own.

[00:37:42]>> It becomes exceedingly harder and harder for people especially in my age and my age range is realizing that that is why you have this mass shift in political ideologies from specifically Gen Z. I mean Gen Z is the farthest right that any generation has ever experienced like like ever. Farthest from the right.

[00:38:00]>> Farthest to the right.

[00:38:01]>> Oh, really?

[00:38:02]>> Yes. Yes. Specifically, the young men and the young women are following suit.

[00:38:05]>> Thanks to Turning Point in in no small way.

[00:38:08]>> It's big big like like these big >> peopleledd not corporationled movements, these grassroots movements that are kind of paving the way and allowing people to think for themselves. So, Turning Point had the millennials and what I feel like after millennials is Gen Z. So Turning Point had all the millennials and they started getting the Gen Z and then the Gen Zers came along and we're like so we could do this even at a bigger scale. So let's let's go let's I mean you look at the Turning Point events they have 12,000 attendants right that's insane or attendees that's insane and so it's showing this cultural shift and day by day by day people are coming to truth because they're being told not to.

[00:38:48]They're being told what to think.

[00:38:49]>> It's backfired. The messaging has backfired.

[00:38:51]>> Exactly. And so we were talking we were talking earlier about the $20 million project they're trying to launch called SAM speaking to the American man. And they've hired an obese queer Mexican woman to speak to Gen Z men. And I'm going that is probably the worst person you could have picked.

[00:39:07]>> Just say like I don't think if anyone knows men she would >> I would assume you would want to pick a guy, but who do they have? David Hog, Harry Siss. Like they have these guys who aren't really masculine.

[00:39:16]>> David Hog the Democratic Party. Uh >> he just got removed.

[00:39:20]>> Did he? He just got removed from the DNC co-chair.

[00:39:23]>> Wow.

[00:39:24]>> Yeah.

[00:39:24]>> So, but they're trying to do this and if you look through what they currently have proposed now, nothing's passed yet, nothing's in action. They haven't done it yet, but what they're currently proposing is essentially just astrourfing Reddit, which is just kind of bombarding it with messaging politically saying, "Come to the left.

[00:39:40]We're friendly. We love you." And all this, but they've spent the past three decades telling men that they suck, that they're replaceable, that they're expendable, that they're idiots, and that they hate them for being manly. And now they're going, "Well, we actually like you now."

[00:39:53]>> Yeah. Wink wink.

[00:39:54]>> As if that works. It's like the Steve Bushi clip of him walking through a high school. He goes, "How do you do, fellow kids?" And it's like, "All right, you're clearly an undercover cop." You know what I mean? It's like there's no one's falling for this.

[00:40:04]>> And so you have this kind of, ironically, a cancellation of the left by Gen Z because we've seen what happened to the generations before us.

[00:40:12]We saw what happened to you, to my parents, to Charlie Kirk, to Turning Point as a whole, to Riley Gates, to all of these other people, all of these Jordan Peterson, his first start was cancellation, right?

[00:40:24]>> Have David Hog on the show >> there. Hey, you know what? It's He just got cancelled from the DNC. It would work, >> right?

[00:40:29]>> Would you?

[00:40:30]>> Be a good episode. Be a good episode.

[00:40:33]>> Man, don't give that guy air time.

[00:40:36]>> Fair. But yeah, so you have effectively a cancellation from Jenzers towards the left.

[00:40:42]>> So cancellation is still going on as you as you see it because some people think with this new administration, we're going to see less of it. cancellation is over. We don't think so. No. No. We think people are just waiting there with like ravenous.

[00:40:54]>> Well, like you just said, Instagram Instagram is literally >> doing a block right now.

[00:41:00]>> Yeah.

[00:41:00]>> Right now.

[00:41:00]>> And we had and we we have a ding already on our show. It's still happening.

[00:41:05]>> I don't Yeah. And I think that with AI because it sounds like the way you just up you said you uploaded it and it takes a second and then boom, it spits out to you. So it's AI is basically >> a lot of AI going on. AI is the robots are here. You know, we talk about this this uh future where the robots are controlling everything. It's here now.

[00:41:25]It's terrifying. Robot has read >> has has watched the show, the episode.

[00:41:30]>> Yes.

[00:41:30]>> Uh summarized it, deduced it, figured out that the parts that it didn't like.

[00:41:35]>> Yeah.

[00:41:36]>> Wrote back with the strike, told us exactly where the the content that it didn't like.

[00:41:41]>> Right.

[00:41:41]>> Yeah. No, it's crazy. No human intervention. Terrifying.

[00:41:44]>> It's kind of like the Terminator.

[00:41:45]>> It's really weird.

[00:41:45]>> It is. Well, it's the Terminator in the sense that have you seen the new AI videos of people?

[00:41:49]>> They're making AI videos that are people talking and they're looking more and more realistic. Two years ago >> on Instagram, there's some super hot, you know, not that I follow them, but I've heard I've read I've read articles.

[00:42:04]>> Do you want Do you want this shovel? You just keep digging. I'll just Can I follow a hot AI? Is that That's acceptable. No, >> I don't know. You don't know. You don't not sure.

[00:42:13]>> I'm conflicted. Well, well, this it does add a moral dilemma, though. You have people on both sides, right and left, saying, "Well, AI porn is okay cuz no one's being hurt, and they're using it to justify child pornography as long as it's AI generated." There was clearly >> Matt Frad is another podcast host called Pints with Aquinus, and he was interviewing Dennis Prager, and Dennis Prager went on a rant about how, well, it's AI porn, so no one's being hurt, so it doesn't matter the age of the people in it. And so, you have people on the left and the right.

[00:42:40]>> Dennis Prager advocated.

[00:42:41]>> Dennis Prager. Yes. It's a whole clip online. That's insane. I know.

[00:42:44]Disappointing. Very disappointing. But I'm seeing it from both sides where people are all for AI. Cancel them and then have them on. There you go.

[00:42:52]>> There you go. That's our business model.

[00:42:54]Frankly, he figured it out.

[00:42:56]>> If we can create cancellations and just have them, you know, come into our loving arms. We feel so bad for you.

[00:43:03]>> That's good.

[00:43:03]>> And they're explaining the whole story and you're sitting there knowing, well, yeah, we orchestrated it. But yeah, this this AI thing is effectively going to cancel any sort of video proof in courtrooms now because everything's fabricatable. You can make anything with AI. So, it's only going to be eyewitness testimony again. So, we are essentially >> screwing ourselves over as a society.

[00:43:23]You said Terminator. This this is how Terminator started. I'm like, we have enough movies about this to know it's bad. Why do we keep doing it?

[00:43:29]>> I keep thinking about that um AI robot.

[00:43:32]You know, we joke and be like, you know, it would be cool to have an AI robot.

[00:43:36]And then I'm like, >> a humanoid. She wants a humanoid.

[00:43:38]>> But then I'm like, you know, I'm not sure that's gonna be a good idea because >> I'm sure I'll piss off this robot. And next thing you know, it's hands are around my neck.

[00:43:46]>> Exc.

[00:43:47]>> You know what I mean? And that's it.

[00:43:48]It's over. You won't be stronger than a robot.

[00:43:50]>> No.

[00:43:51]>> Cuz they develop this personality with your with two fingers. They could squeeze your little neck.

[00:43:55]>> Yeah. Maybe not a good idea.

[00:43:56]>> Yeah. There there's movies about it, too. So, we know what happens with AI robots and they're making a normal. And ironically, when we make AI robots, we're going to effectively ruin the dating market. We're going to we're going to, you know, you know, it's >> Wait, ruined the dating market. Why? You think that they're >> Well, the dating market's already ruined with with mass pornography. The dating market's already been >> People are going to marry robots.

[00:44:19]>> Yes. We have effectively canled masculinity nationwide. Young men don't approach women. 45% of 18 to 25 year olds have never approached a woman in real life. 45%.

[00:44:29]>> What do they do? They go home and watch porn because the girl on the screen is not going to reject them. They can pay a girl on Only Fans $100 a minute or $200 or whatever for an hour to get that girl to say and do the things they want, but in person >> they risk rejection.

[00:44:44]>> Wow.

[00:44:44]>> They're taught online through through all of this messaging that if they're in the gym and they look up while they're in the middle of a, you know, after they finish a set and they happen to glimpse in the direction of a girl with a tripod cancellation, 500,000 people immediately attacking him in the comments. Where's he lives? someone get this pervert out of this gym. Ban him. So guys don't talk to girls at gyms. They go, "This is just not worth it." Girls will tell their horror stories about dating a guy who approached them at a bar and it's like it's the worst thing ever and this is why you never approach a guy at a bar.

[00:45:09]And so guys are watching that and subjectively they're are they're they're subconsciously learning to not approach at bars. They're learning not to approach.

[00:45:16]>> Is this all in your book?

[00:45:17]>> Yes. So I talk about all of these things.

[00:45:20]>> Embrace masculinity.

[00:45:21]Sorbstudios.comudios.com.

[00:45:25]There's this subconscious cancealization of everything that we once thought we knew. And so young men are not approaching people anymore.

[00:45:33]Young women are pissed off about it cuz they would love to. There there's plenty of young girls I know who want to get married. But unfortunately, the market has been so saturated with pornography that it's made people unable to form bonds with each other. They can't connect.

[00:45:47]>> And then even if they want to connect, they're too afraid to try.

[00:45:52]>> I never thought about that.

[00:45:53]>> Sad. And I just realized while while we're sitting here, you know, we think about this future where the robots are controlling everything, but this actually may be the step to make that happen where the AI decides who they want to cancel, creates the content, >> puts it out there, and knows exactly what's going to happen, how the how the masses are are going to react and take people down like that. That could happen today.

[00:46:14]>> You can make an AI video of someone online saying the N-word, and that person's career is ruined. Done. And how does that person prove that it wasn't them? clearly them in the video. When AI gets to the point where it's indistinguishable, we are in trouble.

[00:46:28]>> Even when it's proven that it wasn't, the damage is so bad that there's no coverage of of the aftermath that actually was fake. That happened to Alan Dersuit.

[00:46:39]>> It did. Yeah.

[00:46:39]>> Yeah. It happens. It happens all the time with with uh sexual assault allegations. The the lacrosse players from Duke, remember the prostitute accused five lacrosse players from Duke.

[00:46:47]They immediately lost their scholarship.

[00:46:48]They went through like a year of trials.

[00:46:50]The lacrosse player eventually said or the the prostitute came out and said, "All right, I made it up." It's too late. Their lives were ruined. They can't do anything anymore. So, what you said is perfect because they're going to make a video. Someone will make a video of someone saying something or doing something.

[00:47:02]>> I want to take somebody down.

[00:47:04]>> They'll post it.

[00:47:05]>> And then by the time the damage control has been spread out and we've, you know, kind of netted the fire, >> everything's burned already.

[00:47:13]>> And the other part of it is the person who is being damaged doesn't get a voice.

[00:47:18]>> Yes. They can't even say that wasn't me.

[00:47:21]I never did that because the, you know, the media doesn't let you speak.

[00:47:26]>> Yes. No, they don't. Because if you are deemed as, you know, I don't know what trigger was a yachtsi, right? If the media calls you a yachts, you're not going to get a platform. They're not going to bring on. It's replace Y with an N. I don't know if you could say that on on YouTube. Like Germany 1940s.

[00:47:40]>> Got it.

[00:47:41]>> Like like if you're called a yatsi or you know, hh youth or whatever like like >> who's going to have you on? They're not going to risk platforming someone who's a, you know, a murdering supporter, whatever. Look, >> they wouldn't do that. So, the second you are >> designated as something that is below subhuman.

[00:48:00]>> Yeah.

[00:48:00]>> You can't do anything. It sort of happened to us cuz we were before our controversy, we were Miami's most philanthropic power couple.

[00:48:08]>> Really?

[00:48:09]>> Yeah. Only only good things. Only good things. doing good things for humanity and the world, but took a different position on the on the you know whatsuring during COVID and and and that's next you know the narrative changed completely and we were like vilified online.

[00:48:28]>> Well, we've seen we've seen people who were good at heart >> nasty. People are nasty.

[00:48:32]>> Yeah. And you see people who are good at heart like you said philanthropic. You have people who have charities, who do good things, who are beloved by their community, and they come out with one stance that the left or the media decides no, that person's life ruined.

[00:48:46]>> Yeah.

[00:48:46]>> Right. That or or attacked at the very least.

[00:48:48]>> But I could totally see a future where it's way worse because now you got a whole AI engine behind it.

[00:48:55]>> Oh my gosh.

[00:48:56]>> Basically drumming up the drama, creating fake news. You showed me a video that uh one of our friends made for her mom and it was so realistic. It even sounded like her and it looked certainly looked like her >> but it wasn't her.

[00:49:11]>> It wasn't her voice. She just AI a voice over her.

[00:49:14]>> Her image I guess and then it threedimensionaliz and then she took >> but it looked like it was her >> first generation. I'm sure it's just only going to get better. But that's the thing is it will only improve. I mean, it's been 2 years since we started getting AI videos, and they're indisting indistinguishable from real people now to certain people like like you take someone >> who's a little bit older, like a grandparents generation, the the the you know, whatever was buff boomers and alpha, >> baby boomers, >> baby boomers, maybe the greatest generation, the silent generation, something like that. They're not going to be able to tell. Someone sends them a video of someone that looks like their granddaughter going, "Grandpa, I need help. I'm stuck here. Can you please send me money?"

[00:49:51]>> Wow. her mother to this day thinks that that video was actually real and she was there at even at the moment when it was made.

[00:49:58]>> Yeah, there's but that's the thing with with it only getting better, >> you have people I mean I've seen videos where someone will go which one's real or AI and they'll be holding two things.

[00:50:07]They'll have like a mug and another mug in their hand and then this mug will fade out and it's just this mug and you couldn't tell which one was real or AI.

[00:50:13]>> So it's only getting better and that's scary. Cancelization is going to be >> the point is AI is going to going to be the future cancellation has not gone away and AI is only going to make it worse. You you heard here that's right >> what can we do about it? How do we stop it? How do you stop this train? Or is it >> Well, the people who are creating the AI don't want to stop because it's innovation.

[00:50:35]>> Yeah.

[00:50:35]>> Right. If you if you throttle freedom of expression, if you throttle the innovation behind it, >> then people are less likely to want to innovate because the last time someone did, he got in trouble for it and then you're cancelelling someone for doing it anyway. Like preemptively. It's like it's like the morality question is a preemptive strike in war morally justified, >> right?

[00:50:52]>> And so you have to look at a case by case designation because yes, sometimes it is and no, sometimes it isn't. You know, say you have a bad guy who's going to put a bunch of beagle puppies in a cage and let flies eat them. you might want to stop him before he does that.

[00:51:07]You know, he has a track record of doing that. You might want to >> maybe prevent that from happening. But you have someone who hasn't done anything yet.

[00:51:14]>> Are you really morally justified to to put a stop to it, even if you know what they're going to do? And it brings in >> Stop the Terminator.

[00:51:22]>> How did they do it in the movie? They threw him in a lava pit, right? That's what it was. Like a machine pressed lava pit or something. Hydraulic.

[00:51:28]>> Building a lava pit.

[00:51:30]>> Every house >> Oh, no. Another project.

[00:51:32]>> Every house has to have a lava pool now.

[00:51:34]Yeah.

[00:51:35]And then we have to monetize it also because we don't actually need it from for who knows maybe decades.

[00:51:40]>> Yeah.

[00:51:40]>> Another See, see now now you now we have to do another project.

[00:51:43]>> We get a tax write off.

[00:51:46]>> We can investors. We could crowdsource.

[00:51:48]Anybody wants to get involved in this one? We're crowdsource investment into our lava pit.

[00:51:53]>> Not a bad idea.

[00:51:55]>> Okay. Well, >> so where so where thing where do things stand now? Things are on the on the up and up. Um are you acting?

[00:52:03]>> Yes. So, I'm I'm doing a little bit of acting. My latest movie is called I Feel Fine. It's streaming on Amazon and Paramount. It's a it's a heavy drama.

[00:52:08]Deals with suicide, mental awareness, health, things like that.

[00:52:12]>> Who do you play?

[00:52:12]>> I play the uh supporting lead. I play one of the characters best friends. And I'm not necessarily a nice guy. I will preface it. I had so much fun playing that role. It was so great. We filmed it in Buchanan, West Virginia, a town of like 5,000 people, maybe 3,000 of which are at the local college there. So, there's there's nobody there. And uh the only restaurant in town was like a Buffalo Wild Wings. It's hilarious.

[00:52:33]Miserable eating that every single day, we'll say. Can't go back. But >> it was a great movie. It's it's >> it's been up for numerous awards. It uh it's streaming now, like I said. So, uh next up in the pipeline, not sure. Still auditioning, still going around, but doing a lot of public speaking. I'm flying out actually right after this right after this recording. Going to uh Virginia speaking at Liberty University.

[00:52:54]>> You know, I believe I believe your initial vision of growing this social media platform, which will then be the vehicle for getting roles. well-paying roles. I think that is still intact.

[00:53:05]Even though they canceled the crap out of you. I really believe in that. I'm so I'm proud of you. You know that you you you were very clear on your intentions.

[00:53:13]You you took a stand. You never ever back down and you doubled down on your on your vision at the end of the day and I really think it's going to turn out great. I see a very bright future for you.

[00:53:25]>> Thank you. I appreciate it. Yeah.

[00:53:26]>> And to any viewers who might be seeing, you know, themselves struggling with even minor cancellation, let that be a lesson, right? Don't back down to what you know is inherently true.

[00:53:35]>> Every single guest has said the same message. Fight, fight, fight. Every single one of them has said the same thing, you know, and some some people were hardwired that way and anything to the contrary was never even an option.

[00:53:47]Some people had to go through a process, a journey to get to get to that point.

[00:53:51]But it's work that you have to do. You have to do it not just for yourself, but you have to set an example for others because if you don't, then it's just going to embolden the other side and they're just going to keep going at it more and more and more. And we cannot allow that to happen.

[00:54:02]>> No, we can't. And let it Right. That's proof.

[00:54:04]>> And you and you utilize, you know, talk to God, pray, meditate, do whatever you need to do to help you get through that because once you get through it and you get to the other side, >> the other side you feel so much stronger, >> you're better for it >> from it and you're better for it.

[00:54:19]>> That's the truth. And at the end of the day, like I feel like we're here in this world. Why not make a difference and do something special with it >> instead of, you know, playing Switzerland and being totally neutral all the time?

[00:54:31]>> Yeah. Exactly.

[00:54:32]>> So, as you know, this show is about being a race and we are here to allow people to uh use their voice to share their side of the story because people don't get to share their side of the story. So, how did you enjoy being >> What did you think of this show?

[00:54:47]>> I thought it was great. It was nice to be able to just sort of let loose, speak my mind. I mean, it's not that I don't already speak my mind, but it was nice to be able to go in depth on the the cancellation and sort of how it affected me and obviously my family around me and then how I overcame it. And I hope that it stands as a testimony to other people that they can go through similar things and come out stronger and better because of it.

[00:55:09]>> Do you feel a little teareyed at all in any way? me when I was talking about the kid who um who was struggling with depression. That's when I get the most emotional.

[00:55:18]>> Made me emotional that too. I got a little teey too. Good.

[00:55:20]>> I do. You said the word suicide and my eyes just watered up. And how how are your parents proud of you?

[00:55:26]>> I would like to think so. You know, I can only hope. Uh but yes, I I'm blessed to have been given those parents and they're very supportive and uh they encourage me every step of the way.

[00:55:36]>> Amazing.

[00:55:38]>> Well, thank you so much for coming on our show. We enjoyed our time today.

[00:55:42]>> Embrace masculinity.

[00:55:44]>> Yes.

[00:55:44]>> Yeah. So, it sounds like a great book. I I know you you had one, but somebody like >> I had one copy left took it from you >> and it got shipped this morning without my knowledge.

[00:55:52]>> Is it on Kindle by any chance?

[00:55:53]>> Not yet. I'm working on getting the Kindle published. Yeah.

[00:55:56]>> But I'll be sure to get you guys.

[00:55:57]>> Yeah. I can't wait to read it. Um maybe I can get a little more masculine masculine as a result.

[00:56:03]>> Masculine already.

[00:56:05]>> Maybe I can contribute a a review.

[00:56:08]>> That would love it.

[00:56:08]>> Yeah. Thank you, Braden. Thanks for your time.

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