Conan Brothers Q&A

RetainingHope asks "How do you persuade a conservative friend to not vote for Trump?"

Dave: You can't. It's scientifically impossible.

Arnold: I mean, if they're a hardcore conservative wedded to their ideology, then they're going to find a reason to vote for Trump, regardless of how incompetent he seems to the rest of the world. They do this by applying emotional reasoning. Trump's corruption is no different, in their eyes, to the typical corruption they see in politics. Did Trump mishandle the pandemic or was it the fault of the experts, who initially told us that masks were useless? A reasonable person might point out that Covid-19 is a new virus that we don't know a whole lot about, which is why the authorities' recommendations changed. A conservative is going to look at this as a failure of expertise and a reason why we can't ever trust the experts. Trump may constantly contradict Dr. Fauci, but Fauci and his ilk are part of the mainstream establishment, who, in the eyes of conservatives, are basically responsible for everything that goes wrong in the world. The only people you can trust are other conservatives; therefore you might as well vote for Trump, because even if he's corrupt and horrible, he's part of your flock and outside of the mainstream. Any conventional viewpoint is wrong and needs to be replaced by a conservative interpretation.

Dave: They are literally incapable of seeing the world through any other perspective than their own.

Arnold: To be fair, this is not a problem restricted to conservatives. But conservatism in general is susceptible to narrow thinking because the free exchange of ideas is not a value respected by conservatives. Tradition, religion, and patriarchal familial rule are essential to the conservative philosophy, whereas democracy and liberalism are countervalues that challenge the status quo and upend the conservative way of thinking about things. Conservatives don't care if Trump is taking a big shit on the Constitution as long as he's throwing them bones on the issues they care about while acting like a total asshole. I had an argument with a friend about Trump, and he actually had the audacity to try and claim that the Republican Party might do something about Healthcare or Protectionism in the future because of Trump's lies, and that was why he felt comfortable voting for the bastard. Obviously the Republican Party only exists to make sure rich people keep their money, and protecting worker's rights and raising taxes to pay for government healthcare are incompatible with their raison d'etre. My friend knows this; he also knows that the real appeal of Trump is that he's a sociopathic asshole that's going to hurt everyone that conservatives dislike or feel responsible for the devolution of society (yes, because society was so good in the past). So in short it's a hopeless task to try and convince a conservative to not vote for Trump.

Dave: Next question!

...

HurtbutStillLifting asks "What do you do if you're injured and you can't train?"

Dave: Well, what's injured? Pulled quad? Do stuff other than squats. Hurt biceps tendon? Skip curls for a while.

Arnold: My left pec is currently inflamed, so I've dropped any pressing or upper body pulling for two weeks in an effort to figure out what's going on. In the meantime, I'm doing squats, lower body pulls, and curls every workout, so even though my bench is probably not going to be great when I start benching again, my squat and deadlift will have progressed.

Dave: There is no reason to stop lifting weights completely. Ever.

Arnold: Layoffs are for the weak.

... 

GamerBob asks "What are you guys playing?"

Dave: Doom from 1993.

Arnold: We've never played it all the way through. Still holds up. The level design is clever, full of traps, secrets, and monster closets. However, the find-the-key-card hunt is a little tiresome; the texture sets are recycled frequently, leading to confusion on where you are in the maze. Still, it's amazing how much they got right with Doom.

Dave: Also been playing Dishonored 2.

Arnold: Too impatient to go for a ghost run, but I'm doing no powers/no kills and it's great how flexible this game is in regards to your approach. Few avenues are ever cut off from you in Dishonored. Also, the game looks fantastic on my new PC.

Dave: Give it a shot if you love immersive simulators.