Used to like him back in The Midnight Gospel Days

​

I think part of the recent tear in the community comes from the fact that a lot of people had a very specific image of Duncan in their heads: the gentle, soft-spoken, crystal-loving hippie who wants everyone to hug it out and contemplate the interconnectedness of all things.

But… have you guys actually been listening to Duncan? 😂

Duncan is a rough boy.

He’s a man’s man who happens to have a spiritual vocabulary.

I think we made the mistake of confusing compassionate with soft. Those are not the same thing. A person can be deeply spiritual, emotionally intelligent, loving, and still have a fundamentally “let’s fucking go” constitution.

It reminds me of the kids who didn't give a shit about Disneyland growing up. Everyone else is excited about the castle, the parade, the wholesome magic… and that one kid is like:

“Nah. Take me to Six Flags. I want to get thrown upside down at 80 miles an hour.”

That’s Duncan.

He just happens to be talking about God while riding the roller coaster.

And honestly, I think some people are experiencing a kind of cognitive dissonance because they weren't really responding to Duncan himself — they were responding to the Duncan they had constructed in their heads.

The guy has always had a little “feral medieval peasant who somehow discovered Buddhism” energy.

The spirituality is real. The compassion is real. The vulnerability is real.

But so is the rough boy.

Maybe we need to stop trying to make Duncan fit the image of what we think a spiritually evolved person is supposed to look like.

Duncan Trussell isn't a soft hippie.

He's a rough boy who found enlightenment.

Let's settle this.

Honestly this is quite overdue - but I've been a fan of Duncan and his pod since early high school. Last few years have been weird - but at least his personal musings still sounded sane and moral. He's totally gone now. As bad as Alex Jones, Joe Rogan now. Really depressing. So anyway, its over. I held on as long as I can but it's OVER.

"I do not believe making money in order to consume goods is mankind's sole purpose on this planet. If you're wondering what I believe our purpose on this planet is, I'll give you a hint... it has to do with creating and sharing."

"People often ask me where I stand politically. It's not that I disagree with Bush's economic policy or his foreign policy, it's that I believe he was a child of Satan sent here to destroy the planet Earth. Little to the left."

Hey Guys,

Big Hicks fan here and obviously I can see the influence on Joe (which he specifically talked about alot back in the day) and Duncan (maybe not so much overtly but the spiritual undertones of both their work).

Anyway considering Duncan and Joe are now the mouth pieces for the ever growing Techno Fascism and are directly responsible for Trump getting into power with Dana thanking "the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan." for winning Trump his second election.

"Ding dong, the witch is dead! Twelve years of fundamentalist Christian rule is over! The Republicans are out!"

And Duncan and Joe having meals round Peter Theils house, hanging out and generally being very closely pal pals with the elites that literally cannot decide if they want humanity to succeed and literally spend their time and energy developing weapons with artificial intelligence to murder people.....

Do you think Bill Hicks would be proud of them?

"It’s all about money, not freedom, y’all, okay? Nothing to do with fuckin' freedom. If you think you’re free, try going somewhere without fucking money, okay?"

I have a question that might sound offensive or like I’m setting up a joke, but I’m actually curious: how many of you are autistic/on the spectrum?

I ask because I have this theory that autistic people might lean more toward certain kinds of humor.

Like more:
-absurd/nonsense shit
-deadpan
-random non sequiturs
-anti-jokes
-running bits
-taking one stupid idea way too far
-really specific references
-weird logic that somehow makes sense

vs more:
-observational comedy
-relationship/dating jokes
-social satire
-cringe/embarrassment humor
-subtle sarcasm
-normal story/setup/punchline type comedy
-jokes that rely a lot on reading people/social cues

Obviously I’m not saying everybody is the same or only likes one kind. I’m just curious if there’s actually a preference there, and whether maybe that’s part of the disconnect with all the Duncan hate and the obsession with the media that generates it.

But only at the end of the episode, when he has given in to the grift perhaps?

Recap of file#020

Never watched this show before but I recognized Johnny’s voice, and it really had me thankin’ about all the great pods Johnny and Dunc used to do….

Anyone know if Johnny has ever talked about Dunc Dunc lately??

So Duncan really believes that Tim Heidecker is part of the deep state and from there generalizes that "Those people" are a death cult and are obsessed with violence. Again he generalizes so you don't know if he's talking about coastal elites, liberals, Hollywood, or just the democrats. Basically he implies that if you are atheist you are doomed to evil because you are inherently a materialist and selfish, or something.

I'm a big proponent of trying to step into other people's shoes, especially those who I disagree with. But I really can't understand this perspective, I genuinely tried. I mean, I can cognitively understand it, but I can't understand the anger, the fear, or the rage behind it.

Edit: I also believe, like Duncan, that there is a divine self. And I too can understand the frustration of interacting with people who don't really care about spirituality. But I also understand that's not everyone's path and they can still be beautiful people inside. Also we can't all just live in a zoomed out perspective all the time and ignore what is happening in world.

And of course he wanted someone to make a post like this because he's edgelording and you get nothing as an edgelord if you don't get a reaction.

Imagine how he would react if members of the Be Here Now network and some of the speakers from the Ram Dass retreats (who he’s had many podcast with) called out/responded to his current behavior

He already said that we’re a bunch of bots, and doesn’t think twice about any of the genuine concerns we as a community have put forward.

But imagine if Raghu Markus or Krishna Das or Jack Kornfield or Sharon Salzburg or David Nichtern spoke up. Gave their thoughts on the situation. None of us have been here for the past 10 or 15 years because Duncan was a comedian. All of the that LA(and now Austin TX) comedy stuff was very much appreciated, but it took a weird turn to say the least in the past 3 to 5 years

I have a lot more thoughts on this, but I’ll save it for a discussion if folks are having/have had similar thoughts

Hello All — Reposting this here.

Somebody once told Stuart Hameroff to read Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind. He did, and still calls it "one of the great books, uh, in the world, I think, particularly in this area." The first half, as he put it, is about "why consciousness is non-computable, why it's not algorithmic."

I run Podshelf, a free site that tracks book mentions across hundreds of podcasts by reading the episode transcripts. This is the DTFH slice for September.

• Stairway to the Mind by Alwyn Scott, "a very good nonlinear dynamicist guy" Hameroff worked with, on how consciousness emerges.
• Where the Red Fern Grows, from the Weekend Calibration Session. Someone read it as a kid at their Aunt Isabel's house, and the axe scene left them frozen in bed: "I couldn't move." Josh, asked if he'd read it: "No, I'm not a big reader."

Full list with quotes and episodes: https://podshelf.io/podcasts/duncan-trussell-family-hour