It's over, everybody. It's the end. It's the end of democracy. At least that's what I'm hearing online. And I'm sorry for the title of the show. It's a little bit more clickbait than I would prefer or that I generally go with. But it is legitimately something that I have heard quite a few times since the 20th.

And we're not that many days past the 20th.

And I'll be honest with you, in that week since then, I have traveled pretty substantially.

I was in a major city on inauguration day.

I have had conversations for the podcast. I had conversations at dinner

in the airport with strangers, with friends. And at the coffee shop, again, in the major city,

in the smaller town where I live. And it hasn't been the end for anybody that I've encountered in the real world.

Not saying that there aren't people who potentially are struggling more than others.

But the only place where I get this existential dread, the guillotine mid-drop about to touch

the throat, is online.

And I think we have to talk about it.

There are some things we have to talk about with the change of the new administration.

So we're going to get into it.

Too long didn't read up front?

No, I don't think we're at the end of democracy.

Is it possible?

Yeah, but so is an asteroid hitting planet Earth tomorrow.

And then it really wouldn't matter, would it?

But I just don't think that we're there.

And I think people could really dedicate their time to doing something productive

as opposed to virtue signaling and just transmitting rage online.

So that's what we're going to get into.

...