Social Justice - A Conversation

Unknown Speaker 0:00
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Unknown Speaker 0:17
Hi, I'm Charles Stanton. I'm on the faculty of the Honors College of UNLV. And the Boyd School of Law.

Unknown Speaker 0:24
Hi, I'm Gabriela Tam, I'm a fourth year accounting student.

Unknown Speaker 0:27
And welcome to social justice, social justice, our conversation, a conversation. Well, good evening, everybody. Welcome back to social justice to conversation. I'm Charles Stanton, along here with my partner, Gabriella Tam, hello. And we're going to start our show tonight with a couple of positive developments. Yay. Because many times in the show, we are sort of the bearers of bad news. And that is not done intentionally. But it is to accurately I guess, to pick a lot of the things that are going on in our society. But the couple of good things we wanted to talk about first was the fact that Sweden has finally been brought into NATO, after a long process, where Turkey had been opposing the the inclusion of Sweden. And now along with the earlier acceptance of Finland. Now we know that NATO has 32 countries. Yeah. And I think that I think that it poses a a very powerful deterrent to, hopefully any further invasions of any other European country. Though, though, I would add to qualify, you never know what the man who's running Russia as to what actually, he will do. But I say I think it is a deterrent. I think the interesting thing, now is, of course, whether our Congress is going to aid the Ukraine. Yeah. And this has gone on for a number of weeks. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 2:13
I was just thinking like, it's nice that Sweden has joined because now it makes up for the lack of our support, like coming from America, and now how like wishy washy, we seem, it's really, it's not good luck for us as people who are in like the UN who are included in NATO?

Unknown Speaker 2:37
Well, I think I think that I think the vast majority of Americans, and the vast majority of the Congress are for giving this money to the Ukraine. Yeah, the problem is that you have a faction in the Congress who were listening to the ex president, and will obey his every command. And, you know, we are we are a democracy. And as a democracy, a democracy is basically we do democratic things. And one of the Democratic things we do is vote. And we have a Congress that's supposed to represent all of us. And they're supposed to, hopefully enact the wishes of the people. And if this if this bill to aid, Ukraine was voted down, if there were more people in the Congress in the House of Representatives who did not want the aid to the Ukraine, then that would be that would be an example of our democracy at work. There was a vote and we had a vote. And we, the people who oppose it had more votes than people who wanted it. Yeah. But the problem is, the problem is that we don't have that situation, in the case of, in the case of the aid to the Ukraine, in the case of the immigration bill. And, and also now, overriding everything is whether or not the government is going to shut down, or whether we'll be able to in some way. Put that off, again, not allowing a vote to be had. Now, this is to me completely undemocratic. And I don't understand why the Democratic Party particularly isn't hitting this much harder. Yeah, that's

Unknown Speaker 4:30
what I'm confused about to like, why are they like, just like, like, kind of like cowering in fear or something?

Unknown Speaker 4:41
I don't know. I. We've talked about we've talked about the president before. Yeah. And the President, and, you know, he, he's, he's very, I use the word intermittent. He like he'll go on and he'll go on the show. Oh, he'll go on a talk show go on what have you an interview or something like that. And he's very good. He gets the point out, he does all the rest and stuff. But then it's like he disappears. Yeah. And then you don't see him for a week, two weeks, whatever it is. The only way to fight to fight. Anything that's anti democratic, is to be just as strong and as vigilant and as consistent. Ly pro democratic. Yeah. And if you're if you don't do that, then obviously you're playing into the hands of these people, because these people are added basically every day. And they're using the weapons of of social media. And and one of those things to basically spread disinformation. I don't think there's any doubt, I think there's very little doubt that, that our foreign adversaries are also participating in this attempt to create disinformation. Yeah, and to confuse our voters and all the rest of those things. And it's going to be a it's going to be an enormously challenging upcoming election, yeah. To hopefully try to deliver to people what the true facts are, you know, because this stuff is out there every day. And it's amazing when you see when you see the interviews that MSNBC did with some of the people who were at these caucuses and conventions and everything. How many of these people actually believe that that Russia was a benign presence? Is really like mind boggling, though. It's like mind boggling like the, they have no conception of what's been going on there. How Novotny was killed, and all of us

Unknown Speaker 6:59
know, it's crazy. Because like, Well, is it? I saw this, I saw this video on on Twitter. It was like in someone was interviewing this Trump supporter. And she was like, Yeah, I don't see what's the problem with like Putin and Russia, like, I knew, like, we should support them. And I was like, You're you're a serious right now. You're here soon. Like, I thought we were all about, like, we literally broke off from like, we've talked about it before we broke off from a monarchy, we don't. Typically we don't like the idea of dictatorship in the United States. This idea that idea has been, that's like a very long standing idea, right? But suddenly, the news comes out that like, Trump and Putin are like, best friends forever, or whatever. Now it's okay. It is okay. For Trump to be or want to be a dictator. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 7:58
yeah. Yeah. Well, it's big. You know, it's almost like fashionable. Yeah, that you'd have thought you'd have one person basically ruled the whole thing. What's interesting about it, though, is there's been a progression in his in his rhetoric, which you didn't see before. You didn't see it in 2016. We're even in 2020, where he basically just comes out and says a lot of things. That, that just tell you what he intends to do. It's not like, you know, a mystery or something. That's what shall we say? Shocking, or anything that oh, you know, he's telling you exactly what the game plan is. And and the people who are the people who are supporting him? I don't know. Maybe they're alright with it.

Unknown Speaker 8:52
I know that something like that people I know, who are Trump supporters. I know, that's something that they like about him that they like that he is upfront and honest with like, his thoughts or whatever. But like, yeah, I don't know. I

Unknown Speaker 9:08
think people don't appreciate our democracy. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 9:15
they take it for granted. For sure.

Unknown Speaker 9:16
I think that's a lot of the problem that people, you know, all of the rights that we have rights that in many parts of the world are completely unheard of. Because these governments are run by by a dictatorship. You could say Russia, you can say China, you could say a ran in Korea, like Yeah, and we are so lucky. Yeah, we have it of course.

Unknown Speaker 9:46
But yeah, speaking of rights, apparently in Alabama, embryos have more rights than I do.

Unknown Speaker 9:52
Yeah, yeah. Well, here we go again. Here we go again, and again. It's it's it's the old story, you know, hiding behind religion and all the rest of this stuff. And I've said it, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, has nothing to do with protecting the child. It has nothing to do with Child Protection. Because if if the if our country was as dedicated to child protection, as it's supposed to be, we wouldn't have the mess of child abuse that we have

Unknown Speaker 10:24
the guns and

Unknown Speaker 10:28
the guns, of course, but But you know, I think I think in this case, though, I think that even a lot of the Republicans realize that God so far, though, yeah, there's been a big negative reaction to it. Yeah. You know, but it was interesting. It was interesting to, to see how fast they backed away from it. Because it affects so many people. It's really it's very, very cynical when you think about it, because these are people who were trying to have a child. So how would you? How would you impute to them, any malevolent any malevolent feelings? It doesn't make any sense. They couldn't have the child that they were trying to this process. Okay, the process in some cases doesn't work out. But there's, there's a big step from from saying it didn't work out for whatever reason, and then basically, saying that they were committing murder or something. I mean, that's like insane, though.

Unknown Speaker 11:29
Yeah. I think the only reason why they're stepping back now is because there are, I know, I think there's information that came out that there are some people like involved in like, the government who are Republican who also had like, IVF, like cancers and stuff. Yeah. But then there's like, also people saying, like, oh, like, they don't care, because it's theirs was successful. So it's like, oh, I got what I want. I don't really care what happens to you. Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 11:53
Well, it's, I mean, it's a procedure. It's a procedure for people who, you know, haven't been able to have a child. Yeah. And it's not a it's not a certainty at all. Yeah, but but don't, but don't, don't to mean, the people who are going through the process. I mean, there's some, there's some, like really disturbed. I don't know, ideology or something that's behind that. It's just like, you know, it's just like, you know, in a different sense. The, the young girl that was killed on Oklahoma, you know, like a lack of like, I don't know, decency, or morality or whatever you want to say that almost like in some way she, she deserved to be killed because she was, she was transgender, or something's, that's what they're saying. I mean, I'm just trying to understand the mentality there.

Unknown Speaker 12:54
Yeah, I, I can never understand like, the mentality because like, you want to slap like, Oh, this is what the Bible says, whatever. But there are like, the two like main rules are like, like, love your neighbor as yourself. And I forget the second one, but like, the big one is like, love your neighbor as yourself. Like, okay, like, what if they're trans? Yeah. Why does it matter? Like, why does it matter to you this not affecting you in any way?

Unknown Speaker 13:20
Yeah. Like, yeah, well, that's a, it's it's a, they want to impose their what they think is their morality on everybody else. But especially in the case of, especially in the case of children. It's very inhumane. Yeah. Because all these programs that have been developed, to try to help people find their way find what their identity is, is it should be looked at as an act of compassion, that they have these issues. And they're trying to find that identity and we as as we say, we but people in the medical community, in the legal community should be behind that. Should be behind that. But it's not to be it's not to be condemning a person because, because that because they're in that situation, I mean, it's, it's just, like, disturbed. It's like a warped way of looking at things. And there's so much I call it fake morality. Yeah. Because a lot of these people, you know, they're taking everybody's rights away from them. But they're saying well, we're above all this and we're doing the work of God wants to stuff you know, like, it's crazy. I mean, like, like, we're gonna end we're going to end Obamacare because you know, you know, it's not the will of God. We're gonna end with a You don't end you don't end the person who's transgendered. Yeah, that's the identity that they have no more than you and, you know, gay rights or people who are lesbian or whatever it is. Because because, as I always say to me, religion, you know, whatever religion you are, you know, I believe that, you know, it's the same as same higher power that is above all of us.

Unknown Speaker 15:29
This is, to me, it's like the same foundation of being just being a good person. Exactly.

Unknown Speaker 15:34
Exactly. Exactly. And doing good deeds. Yeah, helping other people helping other people. And that that's, and that's, you know, not to not to go off on a religious attack. But but it is, if you read the scriptures, when, when the Christ was on earth, and he was talking to the man and he's, he says, The man, you you have given me food, you've done all these things to me, and the man was confused. And he says, But Lord, he said, I never saw you. And he says, Well, did you feed the poor? Did you do all these other things? That's what it's about. Basically, that's

Unknown Speaker 16:11
what it's about, oh, it's so frustrating for me. I

Unknown Speaker 16:15
know it is. But and in that vein, of course, talking about doing things for people who, you know, are doing good work. This is God has men who gave a billion dollar gift to Albert Einstein Medical Center, I love this story. And she basically, her husband passed away. And she, she's now a widower, but she gave all this money to the hospital to enable free tuition in perpetuity for all the medical students.

Unknown Speaker 16:49
That's so that's so and she didn't even ask the like, for the schools like name to be changed. Right, exactly. So that's how you know, it's like, it's from like, the good of her heart, honestly. And I love that story so much. Well,

Unknown Speaker 17:01
that's true philanthropy. Yeah, they see a lot of these people. And, you know, you know, they give money and they want this name on it. And that name, one of the truest philanthropy is, is what she did that, that shows philanthropy is just doing it out of the goodness of your heart and soul to do it, and helping other people. And, and, you know, it's not about, you know, blowing your own horn or something like that. As such, this thing was an interesting story about Warren Buffett this week, which was again, just just really interests me anyway, his company, they had like a profit of like, I think was $96 billion. Oh, my goodness, enormous, enormous amount of money. Okay. You know, that he's a businessman. I got that. Yeah. And he has all these companies. And two of the companies, I guess, that he has, are in the railway, or in the railway business. It was transporting, I guess, goods and stuff like that. And they all they made, they made a profit. I mean, the Volcom is made for one make one company made a profit of $2 billion. The other the other company made a profit of like $5 billion. But anyway, but anyway, but for them, I guess, yeah, the issue about it, because he was complaining, he was complaining about the increase in the wages of the workers who were in these companies, and I'm saying him myself, well, there's nothing more there's nothing more that you could have. I mean, maybe there's something I don't know about. I mean, maybe this there's something else out there. And maybe we should be watching, but we only had a few other people know it, but you have all this stuff. What what is the problem with these people who are you know, getting a wage increase at a time when the cost of a lot of things have gone up, particularly food? And you know, there was a song from the Beatles let it be like, just just just leave it alone. Now you

Unknown Speaker 19:16
make to you make billions of dollars and you can't give an increase?

Unknown Speaker 19:23
Yeah, it's it's, it's there's something there's some dynamic there. That's crazy. But that's and you know, speaking of the food industry, of course, now, we see that the Federal Trade Commission is going to oppose the Kroger Albertsons merger, which is a really big thing in this city. Because we have a lot of Albertsons and we have a lot of Smith's that's run by Kroger. And I have not in my in my lifetime, and my experience in the law and etc. I have never seen a beneficial marcher. In my life, and it's always the same tired story that's trying to well, it's going to be more efficient, we're going to serve the public better all the rest of these things. It never happens. All it happens basically is fewer stores, fewer items, more expensive prices, fewer workers. That's really what it comes down to. They cut down the workers, they cut down the amount of stores, and the price goes up. I mean, the prices of food are astronomical, astronomical,

Unknown Speaker 20:33
it's crazy. Like, there's news that just came out that Wendy's wants to try like surge pricing. And so like, they want to increase the price of their food during like busier hours. Not like I'm so certain like, that's crazy. Like, why is the price of a burger at noon, like more expensive than a price of a burger at 2pm? Like, how? I don't know, well, the

Unknown Speaker 20:58
read the reason? The reason? You know, we talk, we sit down together every week. And you know, there are people who have written books about this. And, you know, they're a columnist and the people in the Fed are, obviously because it's just greed, though. Yeah. But at the end of the day, it's like, you know, the more they have, the more they want, and they never have enough. That's basically never content that never content. Well, that's, that's the problem. That's the problem. That's the problem you're seeing in the society. You see it, you see it in in so many, so many different fields, a data course, that, of course, is one of the problems. And then of course, you know, I don't know what went back on, you know, before I was born, but the lack of corporate responsibility. Yeah, it's very troubling. Now, we talk about, you know, Kroger and Albertsons Well, that's just, you know, it's what it is. It's greed, it's monopoly. It's always gotten one. But it was a very interesting article they had in the Times about the FAA, the FAA, had put together a panel to figure out why they were having so many safety problems with Boeing as the manufacturer of the planes. But as part of that, as part of that now, they're also looking into adding some protections for people who work there, who are reporting to the government, about things that should not be happening, visa vie, the Boeing Company, basically whistleblowers, and I'm saying on my cell phone, if you're working in one of these places, that's evaluating the safety of the plane, I hope to God that you would you would be blessed to go to somebody and tell them if you saw something that was a mechanical or some kind of defect in the plane, because people are going to be flying around exactly

Unknown Speaker 23:05
like it's, those people's lives are in your hands.

Unknown Speaker 23:09
Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And the thing about it is the thing about it, and a lot of and a lot of these situations is I'm always talking about, you know, somebody, it's one of my favorite phrases, and somebody always said that the object, the object of the opposite of love is hate. No, the opposite of love isn't hate. The opposite of love is indifference. That people don't care. And you have people, you have people at the top. Who don't care. Yeah, you know, it's all about the bottom line. And then the person who's the worker, they're the person who's tasked with, you know, seeing that these planes are safe. They're supposed to go along with the fact that you're, you're cutting corners or doing stuff like that. No, that's not what they're there for. They're there to see that everything is what it should be. Because you're going to be carrying people, you're going to be your passengers. This is a big responsibility. You know, but I think I think that I think that the whistleblowers now are becoming more and more prevalent. And I think the reason for that is, I'm sorry to say, is the failure of our government, you know, that our government visa vie. You know, it's supposed that investigative bodies, whether it's the FAA, the FTC, the FDA, you know, the ones that investigate, you know, our buildings safety, what have you. That's just not doing the job. I mean, I think that I think you see, almost a complete lack of volume with social media. Yeah. Where, you know, okay, they bring these people to a hearing, and they hit They go through this, it's like a play. Everybody has, like a play. Everybody has their script and everybody says knows what they're gonna say, you know, but but the issues are very, very, very serious. Yeah, you know, and they have this thing now we'll, which we're not going to get into it this week, but hopefully next week about the whole situation with influencers and some really, really disturbing, truly disturbing stuff that's come out. I guess it was, I'm trying to think when it was actually, last weekend in the New York Times. And, and we're gonna we're gonna talk about it next week, because it really deserves it really deserves attention. But it's, it's like the Wild West, I got a message I got a message today about, you know, regarding this program, regarding doing stuff in AI, yeah. And, you know, I mean, come on here, that doesn't see, it just seems like nobody has is in charge. You know, and the thing about it is, though, ultimately, is all these sites and platforms, they have the power to, to rule over what content is put out there. It's not like, you know, anybody can just go on, wherever these sites are gonna live. It's tick tock, or YouTube, or whatever it is, and just put whatever it is that they want. That's not true. They can be screened out, they can screen it out, but they don't want to do it. They don't want to do it.

Unknown Speaker 26:43
I also worry that if they do start screening it out, they're gonna start screening out like, the, I would say, like important stuff, you know? Yeah. Like, you know, social media is how, like, at least like people my age, like, we get like, messages around and we get information about what's going on in the world. Yeah. So I think my only worry about like the screening processes, that they're going to be hiding. More like information from us.

Unknown Speaker 27:14
Yeah, no, absolutely. Well, that's, that's the legitimate. That's a legitimate concern. But the thing that we're going to talk about next week, and I hope, I really hope everybody listens to this, because this is this, it actually shocked me. And I was I was a little bit flabbergasted. What we're going to talk about, and I'm saying to myself, Wow, this is scary stuff. This is scary stuff. Because, you know, there's been a lot of stuff in social media, you know, there's been misogyny there's been two guys who cut the head off of his father. Yeah, it was on YouTube. But this goes beyond that. And I don't know where the government is. I truly don't know where to go

Unknown Speaker 28:00
about to be shut down.

Unknown Speaker 28:01
You don't really have to be shut down. That's a very good answer. But it really is really is troubling to me. Yeah. And I think it's an indication of where the society seems to be headed. Unless we, we all of us, raise our voices and decide to do something about it. The wise man who said that all that allows evil to triumph is that good people do nothing. And that and that's the problem that you have. But that's something for next week. Did you can Morrow, hopefully listen into. But it's been as always a great pleasure to talk about all these different things with my partner here. And we look forward to speaking to you again next week.

Unknown Speaker 28:47
Thanks for listening.

Unknown Speaker 28:49
Good night

Unknown Speaker 28:50
and night. Thank you for listening to our show. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at tangi one that is T A N G one at UNLV taught nevada.edu or to contact Professor Charles stanton@unlv.edu. See you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai