Capitalism in Decay

During the interview, Shields wore a hooded sweatshirt depicting Anne Frank in a keffiyeh with the caption “Free Palestine.” Shields likely purchased the shirt from an online store which offers Holocaust denial merchandise and which is owned by a Neo-Nazi named Cyan Cruz.

(Hopefully this goes without saying, but the intention in this context is to be provocative, not supportive.)

Shields began the interview by asking Stein if he’s Jewish. Stein responded that his paternal grandfather was but that he himself was raised Christian, and jokingly called himself a “Jew for Jesus.” Stein then lamented that they can’t make fun of Jews because of political correctness.

“It just sucks that we live in this politically correct world where we can’t even — we can make fun of Haitians, Venezuelans, you can make fun of any — but if you make fun of Jewish people you’re an antisemite, and you deserve to be debanked, deplatformed, de-everything,” Stein complained.

(Apparently Stein has never listened to a Lewis Black skit, or a Bad Hasbara episode, or has any familiarity with the phenomenon of Jewish self-deprecating humor.)

Stein also railed against vaccines, particularly the COVID-19 vaccine, which he insisted was ineffective. Stein, whose teeth were stained by methylene blue, said that “the most evil part of the [COVID-19] vaccine” was that it was approved for emergency usage on the grounds that no other remedies were available.

Proponents of using ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine have often claimed that alternative treatments to COVID-19 were suppressed because the vaccine received emergency use authorization. However this is false.

Stein accused the “medical community” of “hid[ing] medicine that could help us in order to give us a free vaccine,” which he called “just disgusting.” But he added that there “was some good stuff” about the pandemic, namely that it’s “more socially acceptable to be questioning the, you know, efficacy of vaccines.”

Shields replied that this applies to “all vaccines,” and that he personally knows people who are refusing to get their children vaccinated now. “I’m still doing research on it because I don’t wanna jump to conclusions but I’m very skeptical of all of them,” he added.

Stein also recounted the time a chihuahua bit him after he picked it up, which prompted Shields to joke about chihuahuas being “demons” and the “Jews of dogs.” Stein then compared racial groups to different dog breeds based on their behavior, and likened Black people to pit bulls.

“Chihuahuas are Mexican because ‘Yo quiero Taco Bell,'” Stein explained. “And then Golden Retrievers are white people because they’re the best behaved. And then pit bulls are Black people because pit bulls are 14% of the dog population but they commit 70% of the dog assaults.”